Artful Aspirations

Lambie and Monk Monk

2012-02-16T18:13:00.003-08:00

I had this sweet little two-year-old living with me all last week, so of course we had to do a photo session. I've taken photos of his older three brothers legs around the same age, so it was his turn. There's nothing sweeter than chubby toddler legs. His 'monk monk' got in the photo, too. His favorite thing is to sniff the tag. Kids are so funny!

His mama had a favorite lamb. She liked to put it's left ear up to her nose and breathe through the fabric. I replaced the pink lining of that ear three times.

One time at her house I asked her where Lambie was, and she said, "In the attic, I think?" I told her in no uncertain terms to go rescue Lambie right that minute and put it in the nursery for her children to love.

Lambie and I have been through a lot together. He's been left in Tennessee at my parents' house, and we had to go back after traveling for an hour. He was with Laurel when she drank poison, and some got spilled on him. A kind friend's sister washed him until the chemical smell could only faintly be smelled. He helped in Laurel's recovery by staying by her side day and night.

I carefully took apart that left ear three separate times, shopped for the perfect matching fabric, and remade it so she wouldn't know the difference.

Yes, Lambie and I have been a bond. Relegated to the attic indeed!

Keeping On With Painting

2012-02-10T12:45:00.001-08:00

"Thoughts unspoken die unborn. The same goes for your paintings. If the desire lies within you, paint your heart out! But above all, keep developing, because that’s where real life begins.”

Tim Adams

I can't deny that I've had a lifelong desire to paint. I do best when I copy other works. This is what most if not all painters do to learn; they copy great paintings.

Anytime I've been in an art museum, I've seen plenty of students sitting there painting or drawing the works of art displayed on the walls.

I'm going to copy the one above. It's a loosely-executed watercolor called Le Journal by Jules Pascin. I love how it's outlined in black paint.

The watercolor at the top was painted plein air while I was visiting Fripp Island. It's of the marshes on the opposite side of the island from the Atlantic. I need to do a little more work on it. I'm not happy with the trees yet.

The framed landscape at the very top was my first watercolor attempt. It was painted from a photograph.

I need to do with painting what I do with everything else that I consider important enough to do. I make an appointment and then keep it. The trouble is finding a good time to make the appointment!

Love This Bag!

2012-02-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

Isn't this bag a hoot?

My Mission in Life

2012-02-03T19:53:00.001-08:00

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. this is my symphony." w.e. channing

All I Want

2012-01-30T17:51:00.000-08:00

Saw this on Facebook and had to copy it. It pretty much sums up what I want for our country.

Saw this on

A Fine Sunday For Sitting Outside

2012-01-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

"To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment." Fanny Price in Mansfield Park

I've had a few days of reflection while on my beach holiday, and one thing I've decided is that I need to get outside more.

This never used to be a problem. As a child, I practically lived outside. I remember the time when that changed and I started staying inside more. It was after the birth of my first baby. I remember feeling so much resentment because now I had to stay home while my husband continued much as before; playing ball several nights a week and going out into the world every day to work.

Not that I wanted to have a job outside our home. I didn't. But we were used to playing together, and all of a sudden that stopped. It was a very hard adjustment to make.

Thirty years later, home is my favorite place to be. I don't want to get out much at all anymore. But occasionally the walls start closing in and I need to get away from the constant work that a home requires. So I'll take a slow walk around the field, down the road, or through the woods, and all is right again.

I think I get overly introspective if I stay inside too much, and that's not good. I tend to think too much anyway....overanalyzing things to the point of depression and futility.

So I'm going to try and spend more time out-of-doors. My garden sure could use an overhaul.

Pat Conroy and His Cookbook

2012-01-27T09:55:00.000-08:00

This is the view from the back deck which overlooks a small lake. I'm on Fripp Island for a few days to plan, rest, read, etc.

I brought Pat Conroy's Cookbook with me. I don't usually read cookbooks, but this isn't an ordinary cookbook, and Mr. Conroy isn't an ordinary writer. Put the two together, and you have one part lyrical autobiography and one part food from around the world.

So I began reading about making stocks when he says to take a whole chicken, wash it inside and out with cold water, then pat it dry. Why on earth would you do that, when the next step is to put it into a pot of water for boiling?

I've wondered the same thing at Thanksgiving. Why wash the turkey only to pat it dry? I never do that, and mine is always moist and flavorful.

Any of you cooking experts out there have an explanation? Seems a silly thing to me, but there's probably a good explanation I don't know about.

Which Jane Austen Heroine Are You?

2012-01-26T08:22:00.000-08:00

Take this fun quiz and find out.http://www.strangegirl.com/emma/quiz.php

Counting Books

2012-01-21T16:18:00.000-08:00

I had a fun two days this week rearranging ALL our books, culling out some, and counting them.

I didn't intend to do this. I had walked to the big bookcase in the library looking for a particular book and noticed that the shelves were looking messy and that a lot of books weren't in their proper categories making finding them difficult.

When you have as many books as we have, you have to categorize them or you'll never find anything! I arranged them by the Dewey Decimal System several years ago.

"And how many books do you have?" you might ask. I'll tell you; 2,506! I figured that if I read one a week, in 48 years I'll have read them all. I'll be 104 by then. Fortunately, lots of them are children's books and ones I've already read. Whew! I'll only be 98 by the time I finish the rest.

Jumps, Ribbons, and Horse Shows

2012-01-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

Another year of shows is able to begin this Saturday. Here's Darcie on her horse Red at one of the local shows.

She won second place overall in the Walk Trot Division. I was pretty proud of her since it was her first year showing.

Red is half arabian and half thoroughbred. The circuit she rides in is hunter/jumper. He's not the best horse for this circuit since he doesn't jump anymore. He's sixteen and has a little bit of arthritis. He really should be showing in an Arab circuit...oh well.

So considering all that, she did pretty well last year.

I took some photos last night during a jumping class which she's suddenly loves. She used to be scared of jumping, and I don't blame her! The horse she's riding belongs to the stables. I only stuck around long enough to snap a few....makes me too nervous to watch for long.

How to Turn a Woman's Brain or Messing With Your Head

2012-01-11T19:16:00.001-08:00

There are several things that will turn a woman's brain; reading is one. Watch this video to see how we should behave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w

Bears in the Road

2012-01-11T18:51:00.000-08:00

I've had them run across the road in front of me while driving in the car.

I've had them mosey out in front of the car, stand there and look at me, then saunter off the road on the other side.

But I've never followed a group of black bears riding on a trailer!

Last time I was in Tennessee, I followed this truck and trailer out of town. They looked to be the kind of sculptures made with a chain saw from large blocks of wood. They were well done and were probably going to some craft fair or antique store.

I got a good chuckle out of them. Looks like there may be an owl there on the left. This is why I take my camera everywhere with me!

Questions and Quandries

2012-01-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

I need help from my blogger friends. I'm not sure how to word what I want to say, but here goes.

So much of the time I'm dissatisfied with my life. I have no reason to be. I have everything I could want, but I'm angry and frustrated much of the time. And in turn, I feel hopeless and depressed too often.

Reading the quote at left, I think the problem is that I don't love what I do a lot of the time. I spend way more time than I'd like in the car hauling around the thirteen-year-old. I hate leaving my house! Almost every afternoon from 3-6:30 I'm gone.

I keep asking myself if I'm being selfish? When I give and give, I get angry. Is that normal? My art life right now stinks. I need a few hours of uninterrupted time in order to create, and that just isn't happening. So is it wrong to feel frustrated? I think things are out of balance. Maybe I'm just going to have to say, "Something's gotta go, dear."

A simple answer would be to cut back on the things she does. But she's committed to riding horses, and that takes up at least three afternoons a week. She's in a chorale group that meets twice a week. Maybe she'll have to let that go for now.

And here's another question for you more mature ladies, "Do you get as much done now as you did in your thirties?" I can't handle interruptions anymore. I can't have anyone around if I need to concentrate on a project. I used to get so much more done, and I had four little ones around at the time. Am I getting dementia?

Books Read in 2011

2012-01-06T19:17:00.000-08:00

I've been keeping a list of the books I read each year for a long time. This year's total was 75. Not too bad, I guess.

Some of my favorites were:

The Pace of a Hen-Josephine Moffett Benton

The Year of the Great Grandmother-Madeleine L'Engle

Shakespeare by Another Name-Mark Anderson

And the Miss Julia books by Ann B. Ross. I read several of them. They are so Southern and so funny. I was always laughing out loud. I especially enjoyed listening to some on audio as the accents are hilarious.

I'll post soon about my reading goals for this year. I'm still trying to decide some things.

Twin Love at Christmas Time

2012-01-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

I kept the girls while the family went to the Christmas Eve service at our church.

Here's Piper gazing in rapture at the Christmas tree. She was clapping her hands in delight.

Scout, on the other hand, preferred to look at my beauteous face instead. Silly girl!

Reflections on Christmas Past

2012-01-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

I still haven't packed away any decorations. I'm aiming for Thursday when we'll be coming back into town. I'm headed to Tennessee for a few days to visit my parents.

These three ornaments are all that's left of the set that adorned the Christmas trees of my childhood. I don't hang them on my tree for fear of them falling and breaking. So they're safe on the dining room table. They make me happy.

These little Gurley candle choristers are so sweet, aren't they?

In the month of December, I only read books about Christmas. I found quite a few new ones and revisited some familiar favorites. By far, my favorite was A Sister of the Angels by Elizabeth Goudge. Such a sweet English story told in her usual quite way. I feel so at home in her stories.

Another good one was Finding Noel
by Richard Paul Evans.

And I found another Christmas story by Miss Read called A Village Christmas. I had read her The Christmas Mouse some years ago. I always love her writings. I definitely have a thing for small English village life.

I'm making some decisions about my 2012 reading and will be sharing those soon. On this trip I'll be finishing up The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon. I need to have read by Friday Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport for my bookgroup. Anyway, more on reading later.

Recipe for Curing Grumpiness

2011-12-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

I'm reading several books about the Great Depression to arm myself with knowledge just in case we find ourselves in another one soon. The latest read is called Little Heathens, Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish.

There are recipes included and plenty of tips on how to make do with practically nothing. There's also good advice on how to rid yourself of grumpiness. I always did something similar with my own children which was when they were being grouchy, I had them go look in the mirror and smile until it became real. They always returned with a good attitude after that. Works every time. I've used it a few times on myself. Here's what the author says is her Grandma's recipe for grumpiness.

"Along with Grandpa, Grandma provided the solid, practical commonsense guidance in the lives of us children. She took the development of our character seriously and insisted that we improve ourselves. One of her more important observations was that it was impolite and unacceptable to visit your ill temper on those around you. If you wake up feeling at odds with the world, direct your attention outside of yourself, see what the world requires of you, and then get busy. The chances are that in a very short while, your grumpiness will soon be displaced by a feeling of goodwill. Her understanding of the psychology of moods was so keen that years later when I read the following passage from William James, I felt as though I'd encountered a soulmate of my grandmother's":

The voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, and act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. To feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end, and courage will very likely replace fear. If we act as if from some better feeling, the bad feeling soon folds its tent like an Arab and silently steals away.

Good advice from William James AND Grandma.

Around the House-Part 4, Final Installment, Maybe

2011-12-21T11:59:00.000-08:00

As I was shooting all these photos, I realized that I like hardware and furniture with swirly things. Every dark piece of furniture, either cherry or mahogany, has flourishes on it.

And yes, that label on the bookcase, 270 CHURCH HISTORY, is a Dewey Decimal System number. I admit it...I have my non-fiction books arranged in that system. I had the greatest fun organizing it, too. I'm a book nerd and order freak of a high order! I'm not ashamed.

Making Cookies with Nana

2011-12-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

We planned a special night last night for the grandchildren. It was their parents' eleventh wedding anniversary, so I said I'd keep the twins while their Pappy took the boys to see the lights about town.

This was the scene after the boys returned. Darcie stayed with me and helped with the girls. She's holding Piper here. There's no way I could have taken care of both of the twins at the same time. I don't know how moms of multiples do it without help.

Scout helped me make iced sugar cookies. From her casual repose in the Bumbo, she tells me what to add and when. I guess the stress was too much for her, because she fell asleep in the middle of the recipe. I had to finish by myself. Good thing I've made these cookies before, or I wouldn't have known what to do!

P.S. Wasn't it smart of Laurel and me to have children about the same time? That way, Darcie doesn't have to grow up as an only child (she has four grown older siblings) and her boys get to have a sort of big sister. Yes, we're brilliant that way.

Sweetness Doubled

2011-12-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

Seriously, can you believe how sweet these two babies are? I'm so in love with them. We're all still in awe that they're girls (after four boys in the same family) AND that we were blessed with TWO!

This beautiful photo was taken by our friend Molly Cook. Check out her Facebook page or here:http://www.mollycookphotography.com/. She's one talented lady! She also made the adorable hats for the girls. One has an S for Scout. The other has a P for Piper.

The little cocoons were made by my talented sister-in-law, Sharon.

So which is cuter, my dining room (referring back to my last post) or these two little sweeties? I'm just joshing. There's no contest.

Dining Room Love

2011-12-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

You can probably tell that I LOVE our house! For a few years after building it, I would pull into the driveway, stop, sigh, and say, "It's so cute!" Much eyerolling from four children would begin.

I know you don't get tired of looking at my house, so here's some photos of just the dining room.

I love how that wax cascades over the side of the candlestick. Lavender from my good friend Charlotte.

Pewter in the early morning sun.

A corner of a long mirror hanging above the double windows at the end of the room. Got it at a yard sale for $30.

Sunlight reflecting off my new Spode Italian dishes. They were a gift to my husband for 35 years of service to his company. Wasn't it sweet of him to let me pick the gift?

Curtain rod from Pottery Barn. I love the weight of the wooden finial. I also love the bullseye corner block and the fluted window trim.

Next time I'm showing you my new granddaughters. They may be as cute as my dining room! You judge.

Christmas Reading

2011-11-29T23:04:00.000-08:00

I've decided to make a Christmas reading list.

Here are the books on the list:

1. Christmas with Rosamunde Pilcher

2. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever-Barbara Johnson

3. An Irish Country Christmas-Patrick Taylor

4. I Saw Three Ships-Elizabeth Goudge

5. The Christmas Mouse-Miss Read

6. The Sister of the Angels-Elizabeth Goudge

Does anyone have another good Christmas book to recommend? I'm hoping to have lots of time for reading in front of the fire!

Book Challenges

2011-11-29T15:25:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking of taking this challenge beginning in January. The reason I'm hesitating is because I tend not to finish challenges of this sort. I'm a 'have-to-be-in-the-right-mood' type of reader, and just because a book is on a TBR list doesn't mean I'll read it. I'm a little rebellious that way. Makes no sense, I know, especially since I'm the one taking the challenge. No one has a gun to my head making me read.

Here's a challenge I began last January. I made a list of books to read for it and then deviated wildly from it. Oh well, at least I read more Irish books than I would have if I hadn't taken the challenge.

So I think I'll take the classics challenge. You only have to list seven books. I'll think about it and get back to you. The challenge may be in only picking seven!

What challenges are you taking right now; book or otherwise?

More Photos Around the House-Part 3

2011-11-28T14:22:00.000-08:00

This little bust was the first one I ever won when I was in a recital at age eight. It was also the last recital I was ever in!

This photo is looking from the parlor, through the foyer, and into the dining room.

This bowl of treasures are things my husband has found walking through the fields of Georgia. He spends a lot of time helping farmers with their crops. He also knows I'm a sucker for all things old whether they're broken or not. One of the sweetest gifts he's ever given to me was the bent spoon lying on top. He thought it might be valuable. Of course it isn't, but the thought is priceless to me!

I adore this little delft lamp. I have some matching antique tiles to put up over the parlor fireplace someday soon.

This old-school phone belonged to my maternal grandparents. It's the only one that works when the electricity goes out.

And here are my vinyl 33's left over from the day. I have a record player and play them occasionally on a Saturday night. Why a Saturday night? I really don't know. That's just when I'm in the mood.

A few photography books for inspiration.

The Bailey family crest.

Around the House-Part 2

2011-11-27T11:24:00.000-08:00

More loveliness around the house.

Vignettes Around the House

2011-11-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

I've spent some time on the couch during the Thanksgiving break reading, relaxing, and just looking around at the house. I'm a VERY visual person and like filling our home with beautiful objects both large and small.

I'll spread the photos over several days so as not to give you visual overload.

I've been on an England kick lately. I love English country decorating and have incorporated bits and pieces of it into our house.

Little Tom of England is a children's book about an American boy and an English boy and how they learn about each other's culture. It's mostly filled with English history which I absolutely adore! It was a cute book. My legs are underneath those books, and right across from me in the blue ticking chair is my favorite reading buddy Princess.

Around the Yard in November

2011-11-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos of the land around our house. There's cotton planted in the field behind us. It's a sad excuse for a cotton field, but this individual boll is pretty, I think.

This is a cherry laurel tree growing around the edge of the field. I had to look it up to know what it was. The berries aren't edible as they contain cyanide.

I'll never tire of seeing the rising sun casting long rays through the pecan limbs.

I made this split-rail fence from black locust rails brought from Tennessee. It separates the formal gardens from the wild ones. The sycamore tree is a volunteer that sprouted about fifteen years ago. It's grown quite a lot during that time. I love the white, peeling bark. It really shines when the sun hits it.

I've been cooking and cleaning most of the day; doing some decluttering, too. It's been a good piddling day. Have a warm, love-filled Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Going Home To The New Country

2011-11-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, I talked about going home to the 'old country'. Last Thursday I went home to visit my parents in Tennessee, the 'new country'. I have so much fun visiting with my parents when I'm by myself. We fall into a very comfortable mode of talking, eating, sleeping, walking, and anything else I feel like doing. I stayed four nights and had a grand time.

Daddy's been replacing their shingled roof with a metal one. Here are some photos of him up there. Keep in mind that he'll soon be 76 years old. Needless to say, I did a lot of praying while I was home. One night when it rained, he had to climb up there in the rainy dark to put the plastic back around the chimney to keep it from leaking.

He said they had never hired a handyman or repairman to fix anything....ever! They do it all themselves. I find that amazing.

I'd love to be that self-sufficient.

Choosing a Miracle

2011-11-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

"There are only two ways to live your life; One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." Albert Einstein

And all the difference in the world is in the choosing.

Going Home

2011-11-13T17:36:00.001-08:00

“It is England we love, we Americans,” she had said to her father. “What could be more natural? We belong to it—it belongs to us. I could never be convinced that the old tie of blood does not count. All nationalities have come to us since we became a nation, but most of us in the beginning came from England. We are touching about it, too. We trifle with France and labour with Germany, we sentimentalise over Italy and ecstacise over Spain—but England we love. How it moves us when we go to it, how we gush if we are simple and effusive, how we are stirred

imaginatively if we are of the perceptive class. I have heard the commonest little half-educated woman say the prettiest, clumsy, emotional things about what she has seen there. A New England school ma’am, who has made a Cook’s tour, will almost have tears in her voice as she wanders on with her commonplaces about hawthorn hedges and thatched cottages and white or red farms. Why are we not unconsciously pathetic about German cottages and Italian villas? Because we have not, in centuries past, had the habit of being born in them. It is only an English cottage and an English lane, whether white with hawthorn blossoms or bare with winter, that wakes in us that little yearning, grovelling tenderness that is so sweet. It is only nature calling us home.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Shuttle

Have you ever gone to a place and immediately felt like you were home? I have felt that way in England and Scotland. You don't even have to go there, though, to feel that resonance. You can read a book set in a certain place and feel the same way. I found this quote by the author of The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and The Little Princess that describes this feeling. I think there's something in our genetic code that makes us feel at home in certain places. Too many people have described this happening for it not to be true.

Is it just a coincidence that most of my ancestors come from England, Ireland, and Scotland? I've never been to Ireland, but I bet I'll feel the same way there. I love the music; absolutely love it. Whenever I hear Celtic music, I feel it down to the core of my being. It draws me, it says, "Come home." I want to. Someday I hope to live somewhere in the British Isles for a month or two. I wonder if I'd miss the US if I did that? I'd love the chance to find out!

What Does Your Life Lack?

2011-11-13T07:30:00.001-08:00

On the list below, I need more creating, long walks, and love; always more love. Can't get too much love. What about you?

Enjoy a Cuppa Today!

2011-11-13T07:22:00.000-08:00

This morning I've enjoyed my favorite tea Yorkshire Gold. This afternoon I'll probably have Earl Grey decaf. What's your favorite kind of tea, and when do you have it?

Waiting for Mail

2011-11-12T03:52:00.001-08:00

"Ah but she liked mail. Always had. One never knew what might turn up in the mail. It was like the lottery in which one could hit the jackpot at any moment." (Jan Karon)

Great Book Title!

2011-11-11T12:05:00.000-08:00

Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublewide? ‘Cause I need More Room for My Plasma TV- Karen Spears Zacharias

I was reading Billy Coffey's blog and saw that he's coming out with a new book. You know on the back of the book where different people make recommendations? Well, this woman, Karen Spears Zacharias, wrote one. And you know how it always tells something about the reviewer, as in what she's written, if she's a speaker, if she's a doctor, etc.?

Well, Ms. Zacharias wrote the above book. What a hoot! I LOVE that title. Anyone read it? I may have to read it just because the title is so great!

Snow Day by Billy Coffey

2011-11-11T02:57:00.000-08:00

Snow had always been one of the wider gulfs between grown-ups and children. Adults wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible and so get on with their lives; children wanted to keep it around for as long as possible and so enjoy theirs more.

This quote is from Snow Day by Billy Coffey. I first heard of him when I was reading his blog http://www.billycoffey.com/ He's one insightful man, so I was glad to see his book in my local library.

I mostly enjoyed it but felt that at times he was too didactic; trying to cram in way too many lessons learned in a short amount of time. One day actually. I'd recommend it, though. It made me think.

Beau, the Wonder Dog

2011-11-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

Our Bishypoo, Beau, is the dog of the hour. This morning he led us to the deer my husband killed right before dark last night. It ran off into the woods after being hit and couldn't be tracked in the dark.

It always makes me nervous when a deer is shot, runs off, and has to be tracked. Sometimes you find it and sometimes you don't. I can't stand to think that all that meat is lying in a ditch or the woods somewhere close by but can't be found.

My husband got up early this morning to go look for blood drops, but with so many red leaves on the ground, he wasn't very hopeful of finding any. I told him I wanted to go with him; not because I wanted to see a dead deer. I didn't. I just love getting out into the woods for any reason. It brings back many memories of my childhood when I would go rabbit hunting with my grandpa or just walk through the woods as quietly as possible with my daddy. Darcie wanted to go, too.

So the three of us piled into his pickup truck. I asked if he wanted Beau to go help us, since he's always chasing squirrels and running around a lot with his nose to the ground. I figured he might be a good tracker. He said to bring him, so we loaded Beau up, too.

We drove across our field to where my husband thought he hit the deer, and started looking there. No blood was seen, so we walked into the woods a little ways. I had my eye on Beau whose downed nose was going back and forth. I saw the minute he was on to something and was surprised that he didn't bark. I guess I'm used to Grandpa's beagles baying as soon as they lock onto a scent. I walked away from the other two following Beau deeper into the woods. He stopped and began sniffing like crazy. I walked over and saw dried blood spots. I called to Gayle and showed him what Beau had found. He was pretty excited to know we were on the right track.

We split up again with me just watching and following Beau. He went a little deeper into the woods and I saw the deer's body. He never did bark. Strange. I called everyone over to see, and Gayle began examining the buck to see where the bullet entered and all the other things men look for such as number of points on the rack, estimated weight, size of rack, etc. I was too busy praising Beau and scratching his ears to pay much attention to the deer. I don't like seeing dead animals but am glad for the meat for the freezer.

Later I heard Gayle talking to our son-in-law on the phone. He was just bragging on Beau and saying that we never would have found the deer if not for him. Not a bad morning's work for a furry, white lap dog.

Halloween, Pagan or Christian?

2011-10-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to an article about the origins of Halloween. I pretty much agree with it. What do you think? http://americanvision.org/3671/concerning-halloween/

What Constitutes a Necessity?

2011-10-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

I saw this list on the web today and found it interesting. They were making the point that lots of things today that we think of as necessities aren't. How many of them do you have?

Some things our grandparents lived without, that are really not necessary:

microwave-*

dishwasher-*

SUV-*

Luxury car

food processor-*

smart phone

iPad or other tablet

flat-screen TV

refrigerators with ice makers (or perhaps refrigeration at all)-*

air conditioning-*

central heating-*

dryers-*

Roombas

hair dryers-*

workout machines

Kindle

toaster oven

All the items with * by them are the ones I have. The only things I consider to be absolute necessities are air conditioning and a refrigerator. I can't imagine south Georgia in the summer time without them. All the rest are, to me, just conveniences. One other item I consider a necessity which didn't even make the list is a washing machine.

What do you think? What do you consider to be a necessity?

Madeleine L'Engle

2011-10-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading The Summer of the Great-Grandmother by Madeleine L-Engle. It is a poignant true story of the last summer spent with her mother before her death.

She looks back on her childhood and growing up years as an only child of parents who were very cosmopolitan and well-travelled. She laments the fact that she can no longer communicate with her mother as she once did while having morning-long talks over coffee at the kitchen table.

She has to come to terms with the fact that after her mother's death, she's now the 'matriarch' of the family clan; a role she doesn't want but has to accept.

Here's a quote from the book about one thing that formed who she became as an adult. "School was mostly something to be endured; I don't think I learned nearly as much from my formal education as from the books I read instead of doing homework, the daydreams which took me on exciting adventures in which I was intrepid and fearless and graceful, the stories Mother told me, and the stories I wrote. It was in my solitudes that I had a hand in the making of the present Madeleine."

I agree with her, because that is also my experience. I've learned so much more out of school than in. Only in solitude can I work out solutions to problems, think in peace, and be creative.

If you've never read any of her books, I highly recommend them. She's probably best known for A Wrinkle in Time. I prefer her non-fiction. She was also a writer of spiritual books. In the above mentioned book, she was struggling with who God is and traditional religion, but later on she became much stronger in her faith.

*The lady in the photo isn't Madeleine L'Engle, she's an ancestor of mine, Lydia Walker.

Tennessee Neighbors

2011-10-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

This fair lady is the neighbor of my parents in Tennessee. Last time I visited, she gave me a huge cabbage from her garden. When I got home, I sliced, blanched, and froze it. I'll make cabbage stew this winter.

I've taken photos of her barn in all seasons. I want to do a watercolor of it soon.

When I was a small girl, I'd visit her parents with my grandma. Two smells I associate with their house and yard; tobacco (one of both of them dipped) and boxwoods. They had these huge ones on either side of their walkway you'd have to pass through to get to their front door. Today when I smell a boxwood, it makes me swoon. I guess that's one of the reasons I love Williamsburg so much. There are hundreds of boxwoods there. I'm going to order two English boxwoods for containers. They are the ones that have the wonderful smell. I'm not so sure they'll flourish down here with our humidity, but I won't know unless I try.

Fall Cooking

2011-10-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

The only time I really, really enjoy cooking is in the fall. I love using cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.

I FINALLY made gingerbread biscotti. It's been on my project list for about two years. I think I was a little afraid of it, but it was easy. They were a little too cakey, though. Next time I'll add the dark brown sugar the recipe called for (I used light brown) and a little more brown sugar.

The ginger cookies are a tried and true staple at our house. They're like ginger snaps only chewy. Amazing with a cold glass of milk when they're warm from the oven.

Tomorrow morning I'm making prune bread. I know that sounds terrible but it's wonderfully moist and taste very 'fallish'. I'll be taking a loaf with me when I go help out another new mom of twins, no not my daughter. A family friend had a girl and boy about four months ago. Her husband is out of town for a few weeks so I'm staying with the babes while she does a Wal-Mart run.

Sunday night I stayed with our twins so Laurel could go to church. They pretty much cried and ate the whole time. Holding two at the same time is quite a feat. Let's just say I was glad when their mama got home!

Facebook Posters

2011-10-15T05:34:00.000-07:00

I really like all these posters I found on Facebook this morning, and the funny thing is....they were all posted by my relatives! Inspirational!

Darkness Be Gone

2011-10-12T13:43:00.001-07:00

I thank the blog Gladsome Lights at http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/ for the following George MacDonald poem. It's from A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul.

With every morn my life afresh must break

The crust of self, gathered about me fresh;

That thy wind-spirit may rush in and shake

The darkness out of me, and rend the mesh

The spider-devils spin out of the flesh—

Eager to net the soul before it wake,

That it may slumberous lie, and listen to the snake.

I've finally shaken off the melancholy of the last few weeks and stopped listening to the snake.

Autumn's Melancholy Explained

2011-10-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

It's back again, that slightly depressed feeling. It always hits in October. I want to go home. I want my mama and daddy. I need to be nurtured, petted, and babied.

Since no one in my house will indulge that particular fantasy, I'll just have to do it myself. And I will be going home to see my parents in two weeks. It always gets me over the hump.

My oldest daughter and I were talking about it the other day, and she said she read somewhere that there's an explanation for the feeling. So I googled, "Why do people feel melancholy in autumn?" Here's the answer I got, and I think it's a pretty good one. What do you think?

The sights, sounds and smells of fall stir the soul, but delight is mixed with melancholy, says Michael McCarthy

Saturday, 6 November 2010

I think it's all down to melancholy. If you try and work out what the special attraction of autumn is, I think that, ultimately, you come up with a mood.

Melancholy can mean outright depression or dejection, but the word does have a range of overtones and what I mean in the context of September, October and November, and how we feel about the period, is a sort of sadness which is not entirely unwelcome; a sort of sober, slowing-down of the spirit, leaving us much given to reflection.

Of course, for some people autumn won't mean a thing other than the boring fact that it's not summer any more, and they might see it as merely an intense work or school interlude between the beach and Christmas, with longer nights and worsening weather; or maybe the time when the football season starts to get serious.

But for anyone capable of looking up from their screen, for anyone in the slightest way alive to the rhythms of the natural world and its sights and sounds and smells, autumn has a peculiar personality of its own which is powerfully attractive.

Most obviously, the world rebeautifies itself: the autumn foliage becomes resplendent. I've never heard anyone remark on quite how curious this phenomenon is, in biological terms, given everything negative we know about ageing.

The leaves of trees are welcome and wonderful in their green iridescence when they burst out in April, but by June their bloom is gone, and by August they're plain dull. With most life forms, that would be it. We could expect no more. Instead, by a pure accident of organic chemistry, leaves are reborn, as they start to die, in an astonishing range of colours that puts their spring birth to shame.

It's as if they have another spring in another palette, the second one even more vibrant than the first: terracotta, russet, bronze, purple, gold. Even that subtlest of shades, old gold – gold with a burnished look, gold with a tiny hint of red, almost the quintessential autumn colour (look at Stourhead in Wiltshire, pictured opposite).

And this is decay. This is the winding-down of everything, towards death. Yet the great gift of autumn is that the beginning of the end doesn't feel like decay, at least on the surface, it doesn't feel like a crumbling and a rottening and a collapse from within; it feels like the arrival of a world of new sensations.

The first one is mist. To me, autumn mist is something you smell before you see it; it's the initial hint of a tang on the air as you leave the house in the morning, just creeping into the nostrils, and you know in your tissues at once that summer is over and the world is turning; then you notice that the sunshine is hazy. I've sensed it as early as the last week of August, but I would guess it's mainly a feature of September.

The next one's smoke. This is another tang that drifts to the nostrils after the summer, the smoke of wood fires (and coal fires in the past), the smoke of bonfires; you start to smell that in October, and see it hanging in the air on still days of high pressure. A third one is frost: different again. Not just a whitening, but a hardening and a sharpening of everything, yet welcome, when it first arrives, with the pleasant surprise of novelty.

Mist, smoke and frost; yet so much more. Tastes: the earthy taste of mushrooms; the rich soft crumble of roasted chestnuts; the dark pungency of game; the resinous bite of juniper berries. Sounds: the swishing of kicked leaves and their crunch underfoot; the roar of a gale; the metallic cough of a pheasant echoing through the woodlands. Sights: the foliage, of course, in all its glory, but less obvious things: the softening of the sunlight; the faded blue of harebells; the reddening of ripening apples; the understated dun shades of chrysanthemums.

All of this is gladdening, a source of the most enormous pleasure, but would you not agree that it doesn't quite lift the heart the way spring flowers or birdsong do?

For bluebells and birdsong have hope about them, a promise of what's to come, whereas the signs of autumn, for all their splendour, are the signs of a world that is dying; and there's no escaping that.

There's where the melancholy comes from: the subtext, the underlying, insistent theme beneath the year's last burst of beauty is that this is only occurring because the end is not far off, the end that comes to all living things, including us. If we look, in the autumn foliage we can see our own mortality: a beauty with a sadness never far away.

Learning to Live by Remembering Death

2011-10-06T02:00:00.001-07:00

‎"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

2011-10-06T01:03:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading this month's read for my bookgroup, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I really liked it. It reminded me of lots of old black and white movies I've seen about tenement living in New York City. I can't remember the names of any of them right now, but there's always the nice, Irish cop walking his beat, mean little boys creating mischief, and parents trying to make enough money to feed their children. If anyone can recommend a movie like that, please let me know the title.

All I can say is that I'm glad I have enough food to eat, because I'd find it extremely hard if not impossible to be

hopeful and cheery living in that kind of poverty.

Here's a paragraph that really stood out to me when I read it. It's a prayer by the teenage daughter. "Dear God," she prayed, "let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry . . . have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere-be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost."

She was afraid of a life of drudgery and endless striving to get ahead; of becoming emotionally deadened to life.

Being a drama queen myself, this passage shouts out to me. I struggle with being obedient to God's Word by "living a quiet life" and "being content in all things" as the Apostle Paul learned to do. I want to pitch and rail, shout from the rooftops, fall down sobbing...I told you I was a drama queen. I don't do those things, anymore, but I want to.

I think I have a fear of complacency; of becoming an invisible old woman. What I need to do is be obedient to follow Scripture and God will be faithful to bring me along as He wills. Maybe I don't trust Him enough?

Windows Around the World

2011-10-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

Doors Around the World

2011-10-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

Oops! The 'door' at Tinturn Abbey in Wales is actually a window. It's at the bottom of the page. Tomorrow I'll do windows.

Great Grandma and the Twins

2011-09-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

My mama came down for a few days to see her new great granddaughters. I wish we lived closer so we could visit more often. We're five and a half hours apart. I am thankful that it's drivable in half a day, but one hour would be so much better; so would ten minutes! That's how close I live to Laurel, the twins' mother and my oldest daughter.
I think Laurel and her whole family will be going to the mountains sometime this fall for a vacation. They'll be going by my parents' house so Daddy can see them, too. He would have come down with Mama this time, but his shoulders hurt too much if he sits for that long.

I hope to get away for a few days myself this fall and have my annual get-away. I love my family but need time alone to plan, regroup, give myself some pep talks, read Scripture, and pray. It does a body good!

A True Blue Flower

2011-09-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

Here's that little garden gnome again; this time sniffing all the nectar out of my cosmos.

This little blue flower comes up wild every year in my gardens. I don't know its name, but I love, love, love that color blue. It's very hard to find a true-blue flower, but this is one. Anyone know the name of it?

Two of My Favorite Women

2011-09-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

My mama is coming down today from Tennessee to see her new great-granddaughters. She'll be bringing fresh okra and tomatoes from her garden. She's also bringing the tomatoes she canned for Laurel and me.

Mama is a giver. I think that's her primary love language. She's not prone to giving hugs; just one when I first see her and one when I leave. But she gives in a big way of her time and energy.

When I was growing up, she made ALL of my clothes and cooked ALL of our meals from scratch plus held down a full-time job. She taught me to sew, to play piano, to clean house and cook, to garden, and many, many other life skills. She was the one who led me to Jesus in the field out behind Grandpa's barn.

The two photos of her below are in her kitchen cooking a full breakfast for us. She's an amazing woman. I love her so much that it hurts.

And here is a photo of my oldest baby with her two new baby daughters. She's also an amazing woman. Mother of six children under eight, good friend to her many girlfriends, a great listener, a contemplative, a striver of perfection, a domestic goddess, an excellent wife, and my best friend.

I'm very blessed by the women in my life and thank God that we have such close relationships. Of course Darcie, my youngest daughter, is included in this list. I just didn't write about her today because I'm always gushing about her here.

Garden Images

2011-09-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

I went out this morning to water the Cosmos, and low and behold, there was a garden gnome waving at me. Isn't he cute?

Actually, he's my two-year-old grandson that I've been keeping while his mommy adjusts to feeding and caring for his twin sisters.

We had a small rain before sunrise which shook loose the yellow tea

olive blossoms. Now they're making a carpet on the back steps. The smell is heavenly. Too bad their blooming is of such a short duration.

Georgia History Begins in Savannah

2011-09-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

Darcie and I spent Thursday night of last week at a B&B called The Azalea Inn in Savannah; wonderful place if you ever get the chance.

Originally booked as a 35th anniversary get-away for dear husband and myself, he said that if he's only going to be an hour away from home, he'd rather stay in his own bed. "Fine," says I. "I'll just take Darcie." And I did. I showed him.

We're learning Georgia History this year, so I thought this would be a great time and place to start.

Unfortunately, newly-turned-thirteen-year-old daughter doesn't like history. The travesty. I think she's adopted. I love history. Adore it even. Sigh....

So, my plan of attack was to walk through the historic district holding the shopping carrot over her; history first...shopping second. It pretty much worked.

This was the first time I've walked from one end of the historic district to the other. It's only about a mile one way. I do that all the time. But walking on uneven bricks and cobblestones, dodging traffic, taking endless photos, reading the map, etc. is pretty physically draining.

We just scratched the surface. Wait till she goes to Fort Jackson, Fort Pulaski, Fort Sumter, Fort Sunbury, etc. I may have to promise her unlimited use of my Visa!

Curtain Quandry

2011-09-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

I'm giving the kitchen a mini-redo and need your opinion. Do you like the lace or red gingham curtains best?

I had the red shelves repainted white to match the walls. The blue trim color behind me at the kitchen sink is the old color. I had all that blue trim painted a lighter blue with white walls. I'll be asking for more of your opinions this week on different things in the kitchen. It looks so clean and fresh now. I love new paint! I'm also thinking about painting the floor black and white checkerboard or blue like the trim. What do you think about that? There, that's two questions to answer. Don't let me down!

Salt Cures Everything

2011-09-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

"THE CURE FOR ANYTHING IS SALT WATER~ TEARS, SWEAT, OR THE SEA."

The Resurrection Life

2011-09-07T06:32:00.001-07:00

"Grant me more and more of the resurrection life: may it rule me, may I walk in its power, and be strengthened through its influence." -The Valley of Vision

More Twin Love

2011-09-07T03:03:00.000-07:00

We just can't stay away from these babies. They continue to gain weight and are doing very well.

And yes, I took the self-portrait, which wasn't easy.

Here's my baby with a grandbaby.

Goodbye to the Pears

2011-09-04T04:44:00.000-07:00

We had a fun morning picking the last of the pears. The deer have helped themselves to the ones on the lower branches, so in order to get the high ones, I drove my pickup truck under the tree, stood on the top, and picked pears.

I put Darcie up high with a broom and had her gently knock them down. Since Tyler is 6'3", I had him on top of the truck picking and dropping them down to me on the ground.

I've made a pear crisp for breakfast two different mornings. Last night for supper we had stewed pears. They're almost like eating candy they're so sweet.

I've frozen some and canned some. The pears are gone. So is my guilt about putting them up before they rot. Some did rot, but I put up a lot of them which is better than I usually do!

Samuel Johnson and Me

2011-09-01T08:11:00.001-07:00

Reading James Boswell's Life of Johnson is on my bucket list. I hope to start it this fall. Here's a photo taken at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Shop in London where Mr. Johnson and I hung out one afternoon. That's him in the painting. This pub was also a favorite hangout of Charles Dickens.

Wouldn't you have liked to have been a barmaid and listen in on the conversation around the table when these literary giants came in for a pint?

Learning by Travelling

2011-08-31T13:47:00.001-07:00

"A school should not be a preparation for life. A school should be life." Elbert Hubbard

We've learned much about the past from living history museums. There's a great one in Norris, Tennessee about pioneer life in the Appalachias. We also went to one in Virginia that shows how different ethnic groups lived in the 1600-1700's. One was Irish. Another was German. I can't remember the other one. Yorktown, VA has a pretty good one.

The one I'd really like to visit is in Massachusetts. It's called Plimouth Plantation. I've been wanting to see Cape Cod, so maybe next August we can go see both.

Seems like we usually take a vacation this time of year. Due to the twins coming two weeks ago, we'll not be travelling too far from home anytime soon. I do hope to take Darcie to the North Carolina mountains in October to see Biltmore House in Asheville and the Cherokee Indian Reservation in Cherokee.

In the fall the mountains call, and I must answer.

More Travel Photos from Britain

2011-08-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

A few more images from our last trip to the British Isles.

This path was on the hill overlooking Tintern Abbey in Wales. I love the moss and the exposed roots.

The next one is of a barn courtyard. What I love about this photo is the contract between the red bricks and the blue doors with the large black iron hinges.

The last one is of canal boats. We stayed on one for a week. It was close to Nottingham. I thought it was quite an adventure. Husband was less enthusiastic. It was cramped, for sure. But all we did was sleep there anyway. I wouldn't want to do it again, but I'm glad we did it once. We didn't go to Sherwood Forest, because friends who had gone said it is too commercial and to skip it. So instead, we went to Burleigh House. It was well worth the visit. You can read that post here: http://artfulaspirations.blogspot.com/2011/07/burleigh-house-my-ancestral-home.html

A Good Education

2011-08-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

Darcie driving a wagon in Colorado and scraping a deer hide in Jamestown, Virginia.

"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives."

Robert Maynard Hutchins

Grandsons watching a rifle-firing demo at Yorktown, VA. Good grief, those old guns were loud!

Bauer receiving a lecture on different punishments given to wrongdoers. The 'Insubordinate' label he's holding up certainly fits.

Caed petting a turkey in the colonial settlement at Yorktown, VA.

Bauer and Caed chasing a strange-looking duck.

I think one of the best ways to self-

educate is to travel. All these photos were taken on family field trips/vacations. Our family loves to learn the history of a place we visit and to do as many interesting things as we can while there. The children aren't always willing participants, but they'll thank me someday!

Can One Ever Have Too Many Books?

2011-08-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

I came across this quote in a small book called The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers. It was under the title of True Wisdom.

A brother said to Abba Serapion, "Give me a word." The old man said to him, "What shall I say to you? You have taken the living of the widows and orphans and put it on your shelves." For he saw them full of books.

I used to think that you couldn't have too many books. After reading this quote, now I'm not so sure.

The Purging Continues...

2011-08-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

This is my husband's office. I only took photos of MY side of the room. His is just as bad. So last Friday night he declares, "I'm going to Bass Pro tomorrow to buy a gun safe, and when I get back, I want all your stuff out of my office."

When I come up against anything unpleasant I don't want to do, I remember these words from Psalm 55: "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness."

I could really use some 'wilderness' time right now what with the babies being born, lessons that need planning, rooms getting painted, grandchildren being kept, etc.

So...that gave me about three hours (see paragragh 1). Fortunately, both daughter-in-laws could help, so we attacked it and did a fine job of tossing out, keeping, and Goodwilling. The rest of this stuff are things I no longer

want but are valuable; things I don't want to thrift.

I've already called two of my younger friends over and let them have a scrounge around. I need to call a few more. I said younger friends, because when you're my age you're usually looking to get rid of what you've accumulated over the last quarter century or more.

After the aforementioned gun cabinet was safely in place, I boxed up all the things I'm keeping to regift and quietly slid them back into the office.

He's not happy about it, but it's only for a short while.

Kitchen redo is in progess. Pics coming soon.

Hydrangea Love

2011-08-23T06:25:00.000-07:00

I love hydrangeas; blue, pink, purple, green, and all shades in-between. My bush has blue ones which turn green and pink on the bush if they aren't cut off. I brought these in and dried them and can enjoy them all year.

This old Mason jar is one my grandma used. I love the diamond pattern. It makes lovely refracted patterns when the sun shines through.

The books are all about motherhood. I haven't read many of them, because I'm always too busy BEING a mother to read about how to be one! I learned motherhood in the trenches. I always prayed (and still do), "Lord, help me to be the best mother I can be. Help the children to remember and good and forget the bad. And God, please fill in the cracks."

Happy Sabbath

2011-08-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

Church sign in Ducktown, Tennessee. I had to stop and take a photo and laugh. Best one I've seen in a long time. Click on it to be able to read the sign. Funny!

Baby Update

2011-08-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

More baby photos. The twins are doing exceptionally well. Piper even nursed. Laurel said she was ravenous and was screaming about it. She already has quite a reputation in the hospital nursery. Yikes! Just what we need, another drama queen in the family.

The children in our family are very hard to raise. They're self-willed and stubborn. None are easy going. But they sure make interesting adults and friends. If you can get to that point! I about lost my everlovin' when I had four little ones at home. Note: I don't know if 'everloving' is a Southern thing or a modern word. Anyway, it means 'my mind' as in "I about went crazy" or "I lost my mind". Does anyone else say that?

Babies and mama are doing well. The pediatrician said last night that their lungs will be compromised until ages 2-3. We all have to get a flu shot. I was whining about needles when Laurel said you can get a squirt of the vaccine up your nose. Oh boy, flu germs in my airways. Actually, that may not work for me. I have viral issues anyway. I'll have to check. Anyone have any experience with this?

The girls are going to be called Piper and Scout. I think those are the cutest names ever!

Piper getting some Nana love.

Maxfield Parrish and Me

2011-08-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

Late summer is the time when giant thunderheads produce afternoon and evening storms. There have been some beautiful displays of fluffy clouds and dark blue skies. I believe that the painter Maxfield Parrish must have loved these dramatic clouds as much as I do, because so many of his paintings show them. Do you see a similarity between his paintings and my photographs? If only I could paint them like he could. I'll just have to be content with my photographs.

Our Twin Granddaughters Are Here!

2011-08-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

Last night our twin granddaughters were born at 33 weeks. Weighing 4.10 and 4.11, they are stable and doing well. They aren't identical. The son-in-law and I stood in front of them this morning comparing ears, noses, lips, and chins. Definitely not identical.

The one on top is Piper Jane to be called Piper. She is already a feisty little thing. Screamed her head off when they stuck her heel to draw blood. She wiggles all the time flailing her arms and legs around.

On the bottom is Della Scout to be called Scout. She's more laid back, likes to sleep, and doesn't make much noise. Piper and Scout; love the names! Good job, Mom and Dad. They're named after their great grandmothers Jane and Della.

With four older brothers protecting them, these little ladies will do just fine!

In Remembrance of Gabe's Daddy

2011-08-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

See the little boy in red? He was in my class this summer in Vacation Bible School. He was visiting a cousin who used to go to our church, so they both came to VBS. I talked with him on the last day about where he was from, where he went to church, etc. A very personable young man, he told me he lived in Virginia and that his daddy was in Afghanistan. I enjoyed our talk very much.

Two days ago, I learned that his daddy was one of the Navy Seals on the helicopter that was shot down in Afghanistan; the one in which 31 young men, in the prime of life, died.

My heart aches for Gabe and the loss of his daddy. His life will be forever changed. Please pray for him, his family, and the others who lost a son, husband, brother, or friend.

Charlotte Mason Wisdom

2011-08-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

"The habits of the child produce the character of the man, because certain mental habitudes once set up, their nature is to go on for ever unless they should be displaced by other habits. Here is an end to the easy philosophy of, 'It doesn't matter.' 'Oh, he'll grow out of it,' 'He'll know better by-and-by,' 'He's so young, what can we expect?' and so on. Every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend." (CM Original Homeschooling Series Vol.1, pp. 118)

"This is the law of habit, which holds good as much in doing kindnesses as in playing the piano. Both habits come by practice; and that is why it is so important not to miss a chance of doing the thing we mean to do well. We must not amuse ourselves with the notion that we have done something when we have only formed a good resolution. Power comes by doing and not by resolving, and it is habit that serves us, whether it be the habit of Latin verse or of carving. Also, and this is a delightful thing to remember, every time we do a thing helps to form the habit of doing it; and to do a thing a hundred times without missing a chance, makes the rest easy." (CM Original Homeschooling Series Vol.4, Book 1, pp. 208,209)

An Artist's Eye

2011-08-07T06:11:00.001-07:00

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place; from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web." - Pablo Picasso

Etsy Shop Open

2011-08-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.etsy.com/shop/debbie55bailey?ref=si_shop is the address of my Etsy Shop. Check it out!

Savannah Scenes

2011-08-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

Had a gallery meeting tonight in Savannah. The dolphin downspout is so cool. I parked next to the crumbling brick wall. I love the doors of the buildings in the background. And the last photo is the setting sun as I travelled home going west. It was an amazing sight even through my dirty windshield.

Quotes on Reading

2011-08-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read." Grouch Marx

"In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read....It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish." S.I. Hayakawa

"When I am dead, I hope it will be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read." Hilaire Belloc

More Pride & Prejudice and Other Assorted Interesting Stuff

2011-08-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of visiting Chatsworth House, the seat of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. We thoroughly enjoyed not only the house but the grounds as well. There were fields full of sheep and large trees, lovely gardens, and the cutest little hunting lodge. Of course one of my favorite rooms was the library. Chatsworth is famous for it. I had a jaw dropping moment when I saw a paperback copy of Georgiana by Amanda Foreman lying in front of ancient leatherbound books. The incongruity of it struck me as chuckle worthy.

Georgiana Cavendish was the 5th Duchess of Devonshire and quite a character. There's an excellent movie about her with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes called Duchess. I've seen it about four times and would like to again.

The top photo is a painting of Georgiana as the Goddess Diana by an unknown artist. I believe it's on the ceiling going down a staircase in Chatsworth House. The small portrait of her at bottom is by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

You may remember in the P&P movie the long gallery at Pemberley (Chatsworth) where Elizabeth Bennett saw the bust of Mr. Darcy. After they were finished filming, they left the bust there. It looks very much like Matthew McFayden as Mr. Darcy. I couldn't quit looking at the girl behind the veil. How can cold marble be sculpted to look so warm and lifelike? Michelangelo did it. You just want to embrace his figures and sink into them. Not the David. I'm referring more to his pietas. Anyway, I digress.....

The final scene where Mr. & Mrs. Darcy are sitting beside a pool was taken here at this fountain. I believe there's a scene in the movie looking out this same window at the fountain and pool.

And one final comment on the photo of the bells; I can't remember where this was taken. It could have been Chatsworth but may have been taken at Burleigh House. Have you seen these down in the servants' hall while watching a movie or touring a house? You know what would happen. The servants, including the housekeeper and butler, have just sat down to their dinner when one of the bells rings. Every head turns in dread to see which room is requiring something. The butler sees that it's the drawing room needing attention. He sighs and says, "It's for me. Carry on with your meal."

If you click on the photo, you may be able to see the labels underneath the bells telling which
bell goes to which room.

I love touring the grand houses of Europe. I just wonder....if my ancestors had stayed in the old countries, would I now be living in a house like Chatsworth or Burleigh, or would I be a poor relation, having to accept whatever charity my rich relatives dish out? Unfortunately, I'll never know since the ancestors DID come to America leaving behind either grandeur or squalor.

Burleigh House, My Ancestral Home

2011-07-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

This grand estate is Burleigh House in Stamford, England. It was built for William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Queen Elizabeth I's right hand man.

You may recognize it from the Keira Knightley version of Pride & Prejudice. In that movie it belonged to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Collins' patroness. It was called Rosings and the scene at the dinner table was filmed inside Burleigh House.

During a trip a few years ago, my husband and I serendipitously stumbled upon this great house. Inside was a display of the clothes that Lizzy Bennett and Mr. Darcy wore in the 2005 movie version. From the town of Stamford, the walk across the park to get to this house was probably close to a mile.

Lord Burleigh's daughter, Countess Anne, my 12th back maternal great grandmother, married Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, who is a very good contender named in the mystery that is William Shakespeare. Some think that Shakespeare was his pen name and that he actually wrote all the work attributed to the bard. Will we ever know? In 1596, Edmund Spenser wrote a dedicatory verse to Edward de Vere in Fairie Queen, his tribute to Queen Elizabeth. Anne is buried in Westminster Abbey.

And to think that I walked where my ancestors walked, saw their house and personal items...it's just too much to take in. I'll have to go back now that I know the history of our family.

Edward owned the ship Bonaventure which shipwrecked in Bermuda. That story later became Shakespeare's (or Edward's) The Temptest. The craziest thing about that wreck is that on board was a man named Jordan, who was my husband's ancestor! I guess the world has always been smaller than we thought.

My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Deaver. It was changed from de Vere when my ancestors came to America. It's of French origin and has been traced back to 1045. Another de Vere ancestor fought alongside William the Conqueror in the battle of Hastings in 1066.

Sorry to ramble, but I just love this stuff! It just makes history come alive. I'm trying to engage my soon-to-be teenager with our family stories hoping to fan into flame her smouldering interest in history. Wish me luck!

What I Did During My Summer Vacation

2011-07-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

At least one morning of it, I took photos at our public library of people with their dogs. They'll be hung in the library for the "Dog Days of August" exhibition. After it's over, they'll be given their photos to keep. It was a fun two hours getting to meet the different dogs and their people.

A Busy Week Ahead

2011-07-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

Miss Thing will be gone all week to a church camp in the North Carolina mountains. I'm going to work like a fiend to get her room painted, her school books ordered, and her school year planned.

So....looks like my week off will be all about her anyway. So what else is new?

And do I need to say that she did NOT want to have her picture taken?

Travels in South Carolina

2011-07-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

Here are more pics from last weekend when we attended a horse show where our youngest daughter was showing.

On the way back, I found this little country store where I just had to stop. Isn't it the cutest thing? I bought some benne (sesame) seed wafers, fried peanuts in the shell, and a divinity log. I rarely buy anything home canned as I can do that myself. They had rows and rows of all kinds of preserves, jellies, and syrups. I can make divinity, too but don't usually go to the trouble; except around Christmas. And I do love me some divinity. It's aptly named, for sure.

I love the symmetry of the jars and rows. It reminded me of a little store I found in Stamfort, England. This store looked very British. I made use of their washroom as I had about a two-hour trip home. I really just wanted to go in there and look. It didn't disappoint.

Have ya'll tried she-crab soup? It's delicious. I make that, too, only I leave out the crab row, so I guess mine is he-crab soup?

Click on the first photo and you'll see that the address on the mailbox is 1330 King's Highway. I love that address, especially since it was a one-lane paved lane leading into the country. South Carolina is rich in history going back over 300 years. Not old by European standards, but certainly old by American ones.

Old Sheldon Church Ruins...Yet Again

2011-07-20T02:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm obsessed by this place. I know I've posted pics of this church many times, but you haven't seen these, because I only took them last Saturday. My daughter had a horse show about five miles away, so I couldn't resist running over the trying, once again, to get better shots. I'm pretty happy with these.

The mosquitos about ate me up! Goodness gracious, little bitty ones with a big buzz and a bigger bite. I was slappin' with one hand and tossing my hair back and forth to keep them off my face and neck and snapping photos with the other hand. It would have been quite comical if anyone had been watching, which they weren't. It's a pretty isolated place.

I heard that the church was covered in plaster at one time so that it was white. You can still see patches of it on the interior. I wonder why it wasn't rebuilt after the War of Northern Aggression or the Civil War to you Yankee readers. There wasn't anything 'civil' about it except that it was on native and not foreign soil.

I hope to get over here on the second Sunday after Easter some year and participate in the annual service. I think the St. Helena Episcopal Church in Beaufort, SC does it. I've seen pics of it on their website. How cool would that be?

The Business Lunch

2011-07-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

Here are two of my grandsons having lunch and discussing the problems of the world. We were in a pub in Yorktown, Virginia last fall during our Williamsburg pilgrimage. This is the first time we've been to Yorktown. We were waiting until the children were old enough to appreciate it.

I'm a sucker for silhouettes and couldn't resist taking a photo of this most serious moment in time.

Churches in the South

2011-07-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some vignettes of different church where we've travelled. I'll try and remember where they were taken.

1. Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg

2. Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia

3. Chapel in Jamestown, Virginia

4. Catholic Church in St. Marys, Georgia

5. Bruton Parish again

6. Hiwassee Union
Baptist Church in Reliance, Tennessee

7. Old Sheldon Church Ruins in Sheldon, South Carolina

8 & 9. AME church close to Millen, Georgia

10. ?????

Click on #'s 1, 3, and 5 and read the fine print. Click twice for a super closeup.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

2011-07-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

Most of the time, I find poetry too hard to read. I know it's laziness on my part. I WANT to like poetry. So I've determined to stretch myself and read some poems. I have several books collected through the years; some left over from college English classes and some bought for the beauty of their covers.

This book falls into the latter category. Found in an antique shop a long time ago, I recently opened it to find the original giver's artwork decorating almost all the pages.

The inscription says, "To My Dear Roderick, Christmas 1935, From Jane.

Since it was a Christmas gift, she decorated quite a few pages with holly leaves and berries and underlined special words in red. I particularly love the sweet face she drew of Mrs. Browning, the author. Reginald must have been a pretty special fellow to warrant so much time and detail. Now I'm going to read a few. I don't think they'll take too much mental taxation.

G.K. Chesterton Quote

2011-07-09T17:33:00.001-07:00

"How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about arithmetic and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute." G. K. Chesterton-- English writer and Christian apologist.

Glass Blowing at Jamestown, Virginia

2011-07-09T07:07:00.000-07:00

Here are more pics for you Pom Pom. We stayed in the glassblower's hut for a long time. We finally had to pull the kids out. You can see my two girls watching from the background in the first one. This is a beautiful cobalt blue jug.

It also felt good to be in here on a cool fall day. I wouldn't want their jobs in the summertime.

Jamestown Virginia Images

2011-07-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

Since Jamestown is so close to Williamsburg, we make it part of our annual fall foray into Colonial Virginia. These photos were taken of the chapel there. I particularly love the symmetry of the hanging bells. The baptismal font is from the 1600's, I think. Click on it to be able to read the verse hanging above.

It's a great place for children as well as adults to learn about colonial history. Next time I'll post photos from the glassblower's hut.

Dreaming and Living

2011-07-07T05:31:00.001-07:00

~If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.~ Henry David Thoreau

I believe in this philosophy of life with one addendum; in order to have the desires of our hearts, we have to delight ourselves in the Lord. Our dreams should be lined up with the will of the Father.

I can have all the dreams in the world, but if I'm not doing what God wants me to do, I'll just be frustrated all the time. Believe me, I know from experience.

I still dream big, but I pray about what I want to accomplish and make sure what I want is what God has revealed in his Word. Then I can go forward with confidence that it's the right thing for me.

My Way of Seeing the World

2011-07-06T08:17:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I mentioned reading the book Traveling Light by Deborah DeWit Marchant and that our photographs are very similar. Here's what she says about what motivates her photography, "I sought the familiar in confined spaces: the sky reflected in a window or the shadow of a tree on a sun-painted wall. I tried to connect with some sort of common

human experience. It wasn't the fantastic or the awesome that we shared, it was the simple daily things. The sights on my everyday paths were a deeper source of beauty than any extraordinary place. Soon, everywhere I looked some proof of humanity's moment in eternity captured me. A doorway, a cluttered shed, a rundown porch."

I've always been enamored with trying to capture small pieces of daily life. These are the cumulative pieces of our existence. I'm also reading The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. She says there are two different ways people look at life; one if seeing the big picture, and the other is noticing the small details. I'm definitely in the later group, so I guess that's why I take photos of bits and pieces. Above are a few examples of what I mean.

Art and Simplicity

2011-07-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

I took these photos this past weekend at my parents' house in East Tennessee. There are two spiders somewhere in the five photos. Can you find them?

"When the light fell, like a wash of truth, every corner that held obscurity also held the potential for beauty." Deborah DeWit Marchant in Traveling Light, A Photographer's Journey

I'm rereading this book for inspiration. Mrs. Marchant's photos are so much like my own. Our writing is very different, though. Her prose is very poetical and sometimes difficult to understand. I'm tempted to say, "Just say it in plain English!" I really don't like to try and wade through words. It frustrates me. I like forthrightness and simplicity in writing; except for Pat Conroy. He's absolutely hypnotic.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't like pretentious writing. It especially irritates me in an artist bio. You know when you go to an art exhibition and you read what the artist says about his/her art. Sometimes I think you need a doctorate just to understand what they're saying. I think they believe that the more obtuse they are the better. It's so annoying.

When I wrote my artist statement, I tried to keep it simple and understandable. I didn't start out this post with the intention of posting my artist bio, but I think I will. Do you think it's understandable? Is it too simple?

THE ART BIO

DEBBIE BAILEY

Having grown up in the mountains of East Tennessee, I have a heightened awareness of the beauty of the great outdoors. I’ve always been happiest listening to wind whispering through the pines or lying in a field watching clouds float by. As a photographer, I now capture those pieces of the everyday and hold them as images of things remembered and cherished. If you look at one of my photographs, smile, and say, “I know that place…” or “That reminds me of…” then I’ve done a good thing.

Since early childhood I’ve been interested in many different art forms; especially music and photography. I’m proficient in piano but mainly piddle around with the lap dulcimer, recorder, and guitar. The hammered dulcimer is next on my list of things to try.

I became passionate about photography after a trip to Italy in 2001 with one of my sons. Since then I’ve tried different photographic techniques such as handtinting with translucent oil paints on black and white photos, copying my photos onto watercolor paper and painting over them, bleaching them, using many different film speeds to see what will happen, taking Polaroids with a 1970’s camera and then manipulating the images using different instruments while the emulsion is still wet, and attaching a photo to the back of an antique mirror after some of the silvering has been removed.

I believe in THE CREATOR who made all from nothing. I also believe all people feel the need to express their uniqueness in some way. As image-bearers of God, we can only re-create what is His. I want my art to show the goodness and beauty of creation. I affirm with the Psalmist David who said, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.”

Never content to do the same thing day after day, my art is always changing into something hopefully better. And just like life, that requires patience and perseverance. So I keep pushing onward and hope that my art will bless you as we go along.

How to Age a Map

2011-07-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

I promised to tell you how I aged the giant map in our parlor. I bought it at Books-a-Million for about $7. When I got it home, I took a very wet washcloth and went over the map several times, letting the water stand. I then sprinkled it with coffee grounds.

I let it dry and liked the way the paper crinkled and the coffee has made dark little 'age' spots, but it wasn't dark enough. So I brewed some tea bags in water and soaked the map with that, letting it stay on for a few minutes. I kept doing that until it was the aged color I wanted.

I took it to Hobby Lobby for framing telling them to just attach the map by the top. I didn't want the wrinkles to be pressed out. I thought it turned out quite old looking. Double click on it to see a closeup.

This could also be done with copies of photos or maps. Just experiment until you get the desired effect and have fun with it!

Black & White Photography-Getting That Grainy Look

2011-07-01T04:42:00.000-07:00

I've learned through trial and error, lots of error, how to get that grainy look I love in black and white images.

The three top ones were taken with my digital camera. They were all greatly underexposed (too dark). When I lightened them in IPhoto you could see all the colored pixels, which doesn't look good in a color photo. Unless you're trying to do something funky, which I very well may try at a later date!

But after changing them to black and white, the pixels now give a grainy look. I'm very happy to have stumbled on this, since I love, love, love a grainy b&w photo.

The bottom three were taken with true black and white film. And now that I'm comparing the two, the bottom ones are grainier. Is that a word? Should it be 'more grainy'? I still have one roll of b&w film left which I'll soon shoot. It's just too bad that the processing will be over $20.

And now that I've gotten used to instant feedback on a digital camera, it'll be hard as the dickens to take photos and not know if the exposure is correct. For me, that used to be the fascination of a film camera. You know, it's like being pregnant and not finding out the sex of the baby until after it's born. But now I want to know immediately! And I'm talking about photos, not babies.

*What is the dickens, and not Charles? That's just one of our 'southernisms'. But who knows what it means? We also say, "He's mean as the dickens." That doesn't make much sense either.

Longing for the Beach

2011-06-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

I've got beach fever. Yeah, I know I was there in May, but that was almost two months ago. During that last trip, I saw this written on the sand. Unfortunately, all I had with me was my phone camera. I says Just Married, 5-22-11; very romantic.

Double click on the bird-in-flight photo. It's a pelican but looks like some kind of prehistoric bird. We were staying in a condo on a headland where the wind kept pushing against the flying birds causing them to stop in midair. We were on the third floor and level with them making

photographing them a snap.

I definitely like staying in a beach house as opposed to a condo. I like to pretend we live there, and I would never live in a condo. I need a yard, trees, animals, and all the things that make up a cozy home.

Tea Crucial to a Balanced Life

2011-06-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

"The proper, wise balancing of one's whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour." Arnold Bennett in How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

I totally agree! More from this little gem of a book later.

Authors You Love

2011-06-25T13:32:00.001-07:00

I found the coolest thing! If you click on this link, http://www.literature-map.com/, you can list your favorite author and ones similar to him/her will come up on a list. It's a way to find new authors that write in a style you already love.

I typed in Diana Gabaldon and got back this list: Jude Deveraux, Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Amanda Quick, Janet Evanovich, Lori Foster, Maeve Binchy, Phillipa Gregory, Catherine Cookson, Elizabeth Peters, Jack Whyte, Mary Stewart, and more. Some of these authors I've read, some I haven't.

On Diana Gabaldon's website she lists her favorite authors. Jack Whyte is one of them. I've never read anything by him, but if Diana recommends him, that's good enough for me!

If you could pick one favorite author, who would it be?

*Photos taken at the Appalachian Museum in Norris, Tennessee, I think. I'm drawn to old books like a moth to a flame. I've seen so many of them that's it's hard to look at a photo and remember where I was at the time!

The Parlor Has a New Look

2011-06-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

This spring I started doing some updates in our parlor. The walls used to be green and now they're cream. I like the change, but the walls seem flat to me. I'm going to glaze them soon to give them more depth and some 'oldness'. Hope it works. I also recovered the chair and ottoman in the corner. It did have a large green and rust flowery print but now it's covered in navy pillow ticking. I LOVE it! I love the tabs on the corners. I saw that in a catalog and showed it to my upholsterer, and it's done.
Click on the bottom photo

and you can see the details of the pictures on the wall. The one on the left is a hand-tinted photo of the beach at Fripp Island that I did in oils.

The large one is an oil painting of a Scottish castle. I love it dearly not only because of its subject matter but because it was given to me by a dear friend who has gone on to glory. Her aunt painted it in art school in the early 1900's.

Notice the light fixture in this room is very similar to the one in the library (posted last time). I found them in antique stores while we were building our house. One came from South Carolina and the other from Georgia. They're Art Deco, a style I love for it's stylized motifs and gentle curves.

The map reflected in the mirror hangs over the piano. I'll post sometime about how I aged it before framing and hanging. It was a $7 find at Books-a-Million.

This little corner is a favorite of mine. I'm using more blue and tan in my decorating. I wonder if it's the influence of the beach?

I just noticed that I uploaded two of the same photo. Sorry about that! I tried to take it off but didn't know how.

The Good Company of Books

2011-06-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

There was a good piece written in the now defunct Victoria Magazine by Michele Slung called The Good Company of Books. I tore it out and saved it in my BOOK FOLDER.

She quotes from Clarence Cook's "The House Beautiful" (1878), an influential work on domestic interior decoration. He says, "For lovers of books...a house without books is no house at all; and in a family where books make a great part of the pleasure of living, they must be where they can be got at without trouble, and what is of more importance, where they can share in the life about them and receive some touches of the humanity they supply and feed." I couldn't agree more. Here are some photos of our library this morning. It's one of my favorite rooms in the house. I just wish it was bigger. It's only 9x15 feet.

The row of books running around the top of the room is my biography section. All the books in the Victorian cabinet are religious/spiritual in nature with some literature textbooks thrown in.

The trunk in front of the loveseat is full of books waiting to be read. Only problem there is that one of the grandsons snapped it shut, and there's no key. I'll have to wait until my daddy comes to visit and get him to pick it. He's good at that.

The books on the small mission style table are photography or art books. All of my fiction is in my art studio. I completely ran out of room in the house. I'll show them to you later this week.

And what's a library without a kitty cat and a cozy throw to snuggle with?

Gallery 11, City Market, Savannah, GA

2011-06-15T03:04:00.000-07:00

I'm in! I've been accepted into Gallery 11 in Savannah's City Market. I'm pretty excited! I haven't been in a gallery since ours closed in Statesboro two years ago.

Savannah is such a lovely city. This gallery caters to the tourist trade, so I need to take some 'Savannah scenes' photos. It'll be hard to find something new that already hasn't been done to death. But I'll have fun trying.

If you're ever in Savannah, stop by! FYI-The scotch eggs at Molly MacPherson's Pub are amazing!

The Best Kind of Learning

2011-06-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

I really think the 'delight-directed' method of learning is the one that comes naturally. Case in point: Darcie saw the movie Soul Surfer. That started an obsession with all things Hawaiian and Caribbean. She checked out all the books she could find at the library on the subject. Here she is watching a Youtube video on how to hula dance. The grass skirt was left over from a previous birthday party. She completely learned the motions and words to Little Brown Girl. She can now entertain at a moment's notice if things get dull around here.

That led to other Youtube videos of Hawaiian singers and ukulele players. For her end-of-the-year present, she asked for and received her own ukulele. She can already play a couple of songs.

Next came a trip to the grocery store to buy all the tropical fruit we could find. Mangos, papayas, pineapples, and coconuts. Again, she looked online to learn how to know when these fruits are ripe and how to eat them. I took a nail and hammered three holes into the top of a coconut and drained out the milk. A few blows from a machete broke it open to show the super white coconut meat inside. I'll have to say that I learned as much as she did. I had never prepared and eaten a raw mango or papaya before. I also learned that I prefer them dried.

I'll admit that I'm rather indulgent with this kind of learning; within reason, of course. If the interest is there, I try to provide, as much as is in my power, the means to learn about it. I want her to learn the subject into the ground until she's ready to move on to the next obsession.

One big advantage of homeschooling is that you get to lie on the couch with your kitty in your arms and do your required history reading.

Travels in a Donkey Trap

2011-06-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

I'm reading the sweetest little book called Travels in a Donkey Trap by Daisy Baker. At seventy-something years of age, she gets a donkey and cart to travel down to the sea and the nearby village. She lived in England at the early part of the twentieth century.

She would usually find herself daydreaming as 'Darkie' clopped along the path. Here's a small nugget where she talks about one of their outings: "When I am thinking over all this in the donkey cart along a quiet lane I may suddenly "wake up" and find that Darkie has stopped. Not to eat, not even to rest, for there is no reason to do so when we are not on a hill."

"Like me she seems to be just dreaming, her tall ears at slightly different angles, her large eyes looking at nothing, her body in repose between the shafts. A daydreaming donkey, and in the middle of a journey, too. But who am I to chide her? There are indeed a pair of us, drowsing in warm air, motionless, enclosed for the time being within ourselves, looking, no doubt, like last-century travellers carved on the road."

"I flick the reins with a gentle word for her, and as we move on again, I think what a pity it is that I cannot impart my thoughts to her, nor she to me. For I would love to know what she dreams about."

Isn't that sweet? I'd love to ride with her in the donkey cart down an English country lane with hedgerows on either side. I bet there'd be a hedgehog or two to see!

Note: I know this photo isn't a donkey, but it's the closest thing I could find. I don't know any donkeys!