Monday, September 30, 2013

Heading into the first week of October


and to this :


So the suitcase is open to be packed.
Be back next week to tell you about it.

I usually go to the city with my sister during this time but this came up.
Here is Lanier's wonderful writing on her sister  and a trip to NYC
at The Rabbit Room.

Friday, September 27, 2013

It just was a beautiful Friday


I must say that everyone here where I live said " Isn't it gorgeous outside."
September wore her most lovely dress today!

Now I almost forgot to read BLOGS this week. Have to check in with 
some friends and family. Blogs  bring refreshment to my heart. Doesn't 
it yours? Thank you all for writing and posting thoughts and funny 
stories and very , very dear ones and teaching me.

 Hearts are opened . We look in  and somehow over this machine,
                                          a knot is tied. 

                                                

                                               Wasn't she adorable? 
                                       I am not sure where this was either!


Monday, September 23, 2013

It just was a beautiful Monday



IN looking for a September poem to post, I found this funny Billy Collin's poem
and so even if it is not your birthday today or even this month, he will make 
you chuckle. He did write it last year which makes him 72 this year. So 
that makes Cheerios the same age. Never would have guessed he was THAT old. He is in Russia right now as a sort of Poet Ambassador. If you happen to be in NYC in a month: Billy reads at the 92nd Street Y on October 21. Then he will be in DC and then Atlanta and so on , Prairie Home Companion 
in Minneapolis on Nov. 2... all this from his Facebook page. 


Cheerios

BY BILLY COLLINS
One bright morning in a restaurant in Chicago
as I waited for my eggs and toast,
I opened the Tribune only to discover
that I was the same age as Cheerios.

Indeed, I was a few months older than Cheerios
for today, the newspaper announced,
was the seventieth birthday of Cheerios
whereas mine had occurred earlier in the year.

Already I could hear them whispering
behind my stooped and threadbare back,
Why that dude’s older than Cheerios

the way they used to say

Why that’s as old as the hills,
only the hills are much older than Cheerios
or any American breakfast cereal,
and more noble and enduring are the hills,

I surmised as a bar of sunlight illuminated my orange juice.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

the sound of music



rain.
Rain.
RAIN.

Coming down after the quiet of weeks .
Coming down for hours on the dry ground.
Who would have imagined this summer with all the rain we had. 

Our cat got dirty in the dusty ground this past week. 
Dry. 
She had a slight reddish tint on one side. Clay dirt here in the Carolinas.
Here she is years ago : 



Friday, September 20, 2013

in the mail


This came in the mail and I thank Sarah:




Longen for a pilgrimage said Chaucer.

When We Two Walked ; a Pilgimage in Spring by Rita F. Snowden
A walking across England to Canterbury and not from London. 
I can't wait to start reading. 



Monday, September 16, 2013

Ordinary


 I love this sentence:


“My mom could make an ordinary afternoon an event.”

This quote was from Lisa Jo Baker on A Holy Experience in July.
She grew up in South Africa.  Here is her blog

My mom here in this photo with  the oldest of what turned out to be 8 ( by 1961 when my youngest brother Jimmy was born).   This is September,  1955 as he went off  to Mount Hermon Prep School in Mass.  from Long Island, NY.
I had been born in May. Actually, my mom had twins( I have a twin brother) as #5 and #6. 





  
            

          My sister in law who married the guy in the photo above when he was 35 , my mom, me in the big glasses, and my youngest brother Jimmy.

Friday, September 13, 2013

quiet weekend


So nice to be home and quiet. 

Saw a hawl screeching across the backyard. 
A hummingbird's flight over the back deck sounded like an engine humming.

I could hear because of the quiet. 

Just reading Sarah's blog  and she is back home. 
Looking forward  to what she writes next:
I am writing my talks on imagination. I’m developing a line of children’s books… quite the exciting announcement to come.

Just read Lanier also over at the Rabbit Room. Not back on her blog but hopefully soon. 
Just read my daughter-in-law's blog about last weekend and hearing John Piper at 
this blogger's church's 10th anniversary worship service. 
( Do listen to him : it was powerful) 

Just read my daughter's blog and what she started today.


Fall is coming: 

photo from Terrain which is a branch of Anthropologie.
I get their emails just to see the beauty. 

Gourd Garland

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Flying on 9/11


So very , very good to get the text:   landed.

My husband is home. My college son, still  in England, called( skype)
 to make sure I  knew the plane was on time and not the 3 hour delay
 the airlines sent out as a possibility.  I  remember my husband taking business
trips in the 1990's to many overseas places and how a phone call 
was always something he did. And he did it from wherever he was. 
And it wasn't free but the company was charged. 

Times have changed. It is good.



Monday, September 9, 2013

Monday


The weekend was wonderful.
Son and wife from Tenn. came home for the weekend,
for a wedding. 
So all but the two in the UK were here. 
Oh, they are having fun. Got into Parliament today after standing in the
rain with all the crowds. They were the last to be picked. 
David Cameron, Prime Minister, arrived late because he was meeting
with John Kerry about Syria. 

We also got to the Greek Festival near downtown yesterday. 
I love the Drive Thru ( a table on a side street ) ...and still eating
 on the salad, lamb, and gyro.
Plus we had watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding friday night to 
get ready  for this wedding. My oldest was one of the 
best men. There were two best men plus 7 brothers : 6 of the groom and 
1 of the bride. 




Thursday, September 5, 2013

using maps


I adore maps.
My husbands does even more.
A friend had chairs with "map" fabric.
Today , my students filled a map with the places in Macbeth.
Scotland. 
The guys are there. In Edinburgh. On the map. 
I  looked at the map and the imagination stirs. 


Macbeth's Scotland




Tuesday, September 3, 2013

A great poet passed away



Seamus Heaney  died suddenly on August 30th. I was quite sad when
I heard the news. Watched the funeral online yesterday from Dublin.
Watched as Bono and his wife came in . The actress who played Mr Bates'
crazy wife who someone killed was there. It was so full of beauty for Ireland's
poet who was like Scotland's Robert Burns. He kept memory alive for place,
home, marriage, ordinary things of life. Today, my students read his poems
out loud. They picked certain ones because the poems brought back their
own memories of blackberry picking, etc.....

Noone has read any of my favorites. We'll see on Thursday.

Beowulf's translator, Nobel Prize winner ,  and a voice not to be heard again. The writing is over.
His last words to his wife were : Noli Temeris .... do not be afraid.
The last song played by his request at the funeral was Brahms' Lullaby on the cello.



                                            Seamus and his wife





                                               my favorites




                                                Bono and his wife

Sunday, September 1, 2013

finished


The Little Way of Ruth Leming by Rod Dreher



Endearing and honest book about Rod Dreher's sister's death : cancer.
She lived well. It is a genuine and real story of love in a little town for
a little sister and how her big brother tells their story.

Here he is as the speaker for Socrates in the City  with Eric Metaxas.