I am all about buying myself a present now and then to keep my spirits up.
I love tulips from the grocery store or a vintage Vera scarf from eBay.
Used books are a good splurge.
But still, the best things in life are free, right?
What is your idea of good retail therapy?
It’s that time of year again. Leaf piles abound.
The neighbor’s Burning Bush is blazing again.
And last year’s hastily planted leftover chrysanthemums have come back and bloomed on the patio!
Best of all, various Christmas cacti in my home have budded and started to bloom.
Clearly a sight to cheer the soul.
Also to be noted–there are berries on the volunteer holly trees.
We are already well into November. Sigh. Can Christmas be far off? Gadzooks. Meanwhile the rhododendron keeps carrying on.
A lesson for us all.
On Sunday morning I was the second lector in church and read the second lesson which was from Hebrews and included the following:
But someone has testified somewhere,
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet.”
I love the vague attribution by the writer. The quote is, by the way, from Psalm 8. You may remember the less politically correct and gender-neutral version:
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet…
King James Version (KJV)
And while we’re on the subject of humans being crowned with glory and honor, let’s give a big shout out to Mike Matheny, the new skipper of the St. Louis Cardinals.
You’re doing a great job, Mike. And you’re cute. But I’ve always been partial to catchers.
On a side note, the rhododendron bush in our yard has thrown out a few flowers. It normally blooms in early April. What a crazy year!
Well, it’s that time of year again when the old Halloween pictures come out, much to the chagrin of some people. Here is a picture of daughter #1 (age 5) and the boy (not quite 3) in 1989. Daughter #1 is (yet again) a witch, wearing the costume my mother made for her a few years earlier. The boy is (of course) a super hero. He is happily wearing his sister’s leotard and tights and her old white snow boots, which he loved and wore frequently–and why not? They were the next best thing to cowboy boots. He is also wearing the Batman kerchief (as a cape) that he wore every day to school that year. Yes, the boy always displayed a unique personal style.
P.S. I also want to let you faithful readers know that the concert I went to on Friday night was possibly the best ever.
I have seen Dylan, Springsteen, Sting, Haggard, Knopfler, Lyle Lovett (several times), and Guster (to name a few), but Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives were awesome. It didn’t hurt that I was sitting in the fourth row of a smaller venue. But it was wonderful. Great musicians all, they were in fine voice and having fun. Priceless.
And earlier that evening the Cardinals beat the Braves!
Last night for the first time in a long time it was cool enough to take a walk after dinner. I walked past my favorite magnolia tree.
And I checked out the flora that had weathered our hot, dry summer.
I’m telling you, there were times this summer when we thought it would never cool off and that the rain would never come. But…It’s getting dark earlier. Sunrise comes later. Autumn approaches. Sweaters are necessary–not just a fashion accessory! Can pumpkins be far behind? This is my favorite time of year.
Best of all, I have a whole pile of new (and used) books to read.
A couple of these are replacements that I bought at The Strand because members of my family had borrowed them permanently (Dylan, Banks), but the rest are new reads! How good is that?
Tiger Lily:
Beat on a drum
And I will come
Peter Pan:
And I will come and save the brave noble red skin
Ugga wugga wigwam! I have always been a big fan of day lilies or, as we say in our flyover state, tiger-lilies. They are all over the place and they bloom for a long time during the hottest of weather. As a small child I was jealous because we did not have any in our yard. I really felt deprived. (Not that I ever verbalized this to my mother who no doubt would have gamely tried to add them to our garden.) Anyway, I have made sure that we always have them in any yard that we have lived in since I had any say in the matter.
Aren’t they great?
Someone brought this vase of thistles to work the other day. He picked them on the side of the highway! Aren’t they awesome?
Often considered a weed around here, the thistle has been, of course, the national emblem of Scotland since the reign of Alexander III (1249–1286). According to legend, an invading Norse army was attempting to sneak up at night upon a Scottish army’s encampment. During this operation one barefoot Norseman had the misfortune to step upon a thistle, causing him to cry out in pain, thus alerting the Scots to the presence of the Norse invaders.
It is the symbol of the Order of the Thistle, a high chivalric order of Scotland
Crests of the Knights of the Thistle in their chapel in St. Giles Cathedral (or the High Kirk) in Edinburgh
According to Wikipedia the thistle is found as well in many Scottish symbols and as the name of several Scottish football clubs. The thistle, crowned with the Scottish crown, is the symbol of seven of the eight Scottish Police Forces (the exception being the Northern Constabulary). The thistle is also the emblem of Encyclopædia Britannica, which originated in Edinburgh, Scotland. Carnegie Mellon University features the thistle in its crest in honor of the Scottish heritage of its founder, Andrew Carnegie.
I started collecting Govancroft “Made in Scotland” pottery for daughter #2 (because Cameron is her middle name) when she was little. I love the funky, stylized and somewhat garish purple and green thistles.
I also have given her some Stangl china in the “Thistle” pattern–very mid-century modern.
Neither, I’m afraid, really grabbed her, but I like them anyway. And, I for one, love the lowly thistle–prickly though they be! Like some people I guess.
Here in flyover country we have had one of the warmest Marches on record. The result is an extremely early spring. The bees are a-buzzin’! Dandelions are appearing! Zut alors!
Is that a rosebud I see?
Till Eulenspiegel, the family garden gnome, is perplexed. So am I.
I took these photos last Friday when daughter #2 and I took a quick walk around the ‘hood.
We are surrounded by beauty! It rained very hard on Saturday and, as a result, most of the magnolia blossoms are on the ground now. They never last too long. Sigh. But everything is greening up nicely, don’t you think?
Yup. Spring is just around the corner. At least in the corner of our yard!
Why does it always surprise us? And isn’t it wonderful? Have you seen signs of spring in your neck of the woods?
dual personalities 