Rose In Bloom

Red rose twining over the mailbox.

Wild rose over the back fence.

Sweet smelling roses to scent the June air,

This might be Apothecary Rose, I don't have a label on it.

Tropical Sunrise Rose at sunset.

White rose like a puffy white cloud.

Three Little Pigs and Alternative Homebuilding

In the familiar story the three pigs each build a house. So far so good. I'm on board with designing and building your own house -- I have scads of graphed paper with floor plans I've doodled over the years.

One pig builds with straw. Now, tradition does not tell us if this was a strawbale, or a straw daub (straw with mud, sort of like cob) method. One can surmise that it was probably not post and beam with strawbale infill, since timber seems to be in the second pig's domain. Given the climate in my current location I believe it would be huffs and puffs of mold, not a wolf, that would destroy any home first piggy wanted to build round here. In a drier climate though, could a wolf really have blown through a rebar-enforced, clay plastered straw house? I don't know.

It seems the second pig went with a traditional "stick-built" home. The lemming of homes, but in some ways really quite clever when trying to hide from wolves. With so many other stick-built homes around how will the wolf know which of the many tasteless lemming houses contains a tasty piglet? As a lifestyle choice, I don't know that second pig really was on track though. Blending-in has never really been my style. True, I live in a stick-built now, but I didn't spend the time and money to design or build it.  If I built, and built with wood, timber frame with a thick cordwood infill is more in my line and strikes me as a more solid option even in the wolf-teeth of, say, a hurricane.

Of course masonry seems to me an even more solid choice. And piggy number three is to be commended for not only building with the more durable (and imo beautiful) material, but also for having the foresight to build it big enough to house assorted refugee family members. If he was anything like me, that third pig was using real Flemish-bond brick or two foot thick rough dressed fieldstone for double thick walls. No scrawny brick veneer will give you the same lovely deep windowsills for setting assorted not-winter-hardy potted citrus trees in. SAd that nobody builds like that anymore. It will be a shame if we as a society lose the skills to build such lovely wolf-safe sanctuaries.

There are a fourth and fifth little piggy too though -- often forgotten -- the ones that didn't buy the roast beef at market and ran wee wee wee all the way home. Folklore is unclear what sort of home they ran to, but extrapolating from the whistling sound made while running, I suggest they may have been "whistle pigs" (one of many local names for groundhogs). This also answers questions about why the fourth and fifth pigs do not appear in the story with the wolf. The wolf, though he may have given chase when they ran from the market (leaving the roast beef behind), lost them as they bolted for home. They could have been right under his nose but the wolf did not even see their house, nor could he have huffed and puffed it down if he had. Whistle pigs live in underground homes.

Firday Finds

 Bed Nooks

  Fun Doors

Grandin Road Club Chair

... And We're Back

Summer is drawing to a close and morning comes with veils of fog.

Sorry about the lack of posts this summer, turns out dropping my laptop was not the best thing for it; but let me just say I love being able to use a coupon on top of a discount to a reduced price (plus a store credit) to purchase my spiffy new computer for less than half price -- even though it meant waiting a couple months for the new laptop.

Friday Find

Giverney Impressions Blog

Random Photos

Have you ever noticed how sometimes photos accumulate? Like leaves caught in the eddy of a stream they swirl and gather, remaining stationary, not flowing on, unclassified, passed by. They're just waiting for a rush of water to carry them forward, down stream, out into the world. Planters I once liked the look of, long since sold out, but I like the look of the photo so much still it sits in my digital files waiting to be inspiration for something someday.
Magnolia blossoms from last spring, still in my cell phone images, wait to be joined by this year's saucer blooms.

And a butterfly from last summer when the Phlox was in bloom attracting every nectar loving insect and bird in the neighborhood.

Quietly Enigmatic

This, then, is British actor Michael Kitchen for those of you who don't know. Quite a few people have never heard of him, if recent conversations are any indication. But then, he does his best to stay out of the limelight. Does his job, does it very well, and goes home.

I discovered him first in the film Enchanted April where he brings his ineffable charm to the character of Mr. Briggs.

Then I discovered the stupendously brilliant series Foyle's War. Which I highly recommend.

I read an article once talking about filming Foyle's War... it seems the scripts would be sent round and Kitchen would cut out large sections of his own lines. He would say 'I can do all that [several paragraphs] with one look.' and, according to the guy being interviewed, he could. Kitchen has something of a reputation for being able to express his characters without using many words. He's known for playing (and being) "quietly enigmatic."

Once you know who he is Michael Kitchen pops up in a lot of things...
He was in Out of Africa, which I never saw, but there he is in a film still from the movie.
I did see Lorna Doone -- and was delighted to discover Kitchen in the role of Judge Jefferies. He's been in oodles of other films and series...
And did I mention he's in my favorite movie, Enchanted April?
Well, he is.

Scrappy Squares

Random leftover strips of fabric leftover from other quilts have been accumulating in the sewing room. So many in fact, that there were enough 3.5 inch strips laying about that I could sort them into cool colours and warm colours before beginning to piece scrappy blocks.

This, obviously, is the group of warm colours with a few extra neutrals mixed in. I'm still playing with it, but once I have a balanced layout I'll finish piecing the blocks together using a sashing (imagine the bits of floor are actually fabric sashing and bordering the blocks) to make an infant sized quilt top.

Feathered Dreams

I am dreaming of fresh eggs, straw filled nesting boxes, and gentle clucking. Realistically, I am also thinking of all the fresh fertilizer and the danger from marauding neighborhood cats, and the question of neighbors themselves getting huffy about possible roosters. **

... but I'm perusing chicken catalogues anyway. And looking at hatchery websites.

I've been reading about rare breed chickens. I love rare breed chickens, those fluffy headed furry footed beauties. But when choosing chickens a good natured attitude matters as much or more than the plumage. Granted I'm still advocate for choosing rare breeds and odd birds.

Here are my top three:

1) The Silver Grey Dorking Hen.

She is a very rare English breed with short legs and should lay about 200 eggs a year. She's so quintessentially an old standard chicken. Isn't she pretty?

2) The Silver Pencil Wynadotte Hen. She gets good reviews on all the backyard chicken forums for being a reliable layer with a sweet personality. Actually all the Wynadottes get good reviews, but I think the Silver Pencil is one of the prettier feather variations.

3) The Ameraucana. The hen shown here is a "Blue" Ameraucana.We had Ameraucanas growing up. My pet chick from the straight run batch ended up being a roo instead of a hen but I still remember the green, blue, and pink eggs we got from the rest of them. The hatchery description says they'll lay about 180 eggs per year, but our free range hens always laid better than that.

** Despite what many people errantly believe, it is not necessary to have a rooster in a laying flock of chickens. The hens will produce just as many eggs, you just can't get baby chicks from those unfertilized eggs. Hatcheries offer "straight run" batches with both genders in it, or "sexed" batches of male only or female only chicks, so it is possible to order just laying hens with no crowing roosters tagging along.

A Genesis RAP: The Story of Lot

Yo, My name is LOT and I’m here to say
I gotta little story ‘bout getting my way
I see something good I just gotta have
Like land for my sheep and fields for my calves
I want the land with the fields and streams
That rich rich land is the land of my dreams
[b-boxing]

Uncle Abe, you know, is a kindly dude
So he puts up with my attitude
I take what I want an’ leave none for him
An’ he lets me do it ‘cause we’re blood kin
[bb]

I shouda known better but I didn’t care
I was bein’ greedy didn’ wanna share
So up in the hills and far away
Ol’ Abe and his peeps live from day to day
While me and my fam live a life of ease
Down in the valley doin’ as we please
[bb]

Now the land was good but the towns were bad
Every kind a’ sin was the latest fad
But I couldn’t see how they made God mad
I just saw all the riches they had
Sodom and Gomorrah were tempting to me
So I moved in my whole fam-i-ly
We lived in the city and thought it was grand
A big big house and lotsa good land
[bb]

Some angels came and said run away
The Lord is gonna bomb this city today
I didn’ wanna listen, I’m sorry to say
But it’s a good thing we didn’ get to stay
‘Cause fire and brimstone started to fall
God was so mad He destroyed ‘em all
[bb]

Even my wife is a pillar of salt
I gotta admit that’s mostly my fault
If I could go back an’ do it again
I give the good land to Abraham
BEin’ greedy just doesn’t pay
Kindness is the answer e-ver-y day
Everybody:
Kindness is the answer e-ver-y day
[bb]

And why did she write this you ask? I've been filling in for the Kindergarten (Sparkies) Storytime at our church's AWANA -- and let's face it it's hard to keep the attention of 17 or 18 five year olds. Coming up with new ways to tell the stories keeps them interested. Why rap? I don't know, I don't even like rap, but the kids loved it. :D

The First Annual Butternut Beauty Pagent

What is the use of an Aunt growing butternut squashes if they cannot be harvested, decorated with markers, and judged in a butternut beauty pagent? The winner, in a blind judging (Mommy closed her eyes and picked), was taken home to be baked and the loosers took a nap in Aunt's bed.

Recovery and Flannel

Did you have that horrible summer flu that's going round?

The one where everything aches -- throat, head, eyes, bones, skin -- and it's hard to breathe? The one where you set the thermostat to 80, crawl under two quilts and a wool blanket but still can't get warm?

I did too. I'm better now.

Not quite 100%... but my eyes are focusing, I can swallow without wincing, and standing up doesn't seem as difficult as it did. I'm even getting a little work done.

stack of flannel fabric waiting to be cut up

...

neatly cut flannel blocks waiting to be sewn

Friday Finds

Another organic cotton fabric source Cloud Nine Fabrics.

A great tutorial on Granny Squares from Lucy at Attic24.

And something funny.

But They Are Still LOST

I just finished watching (thanks to hulu) the final episode of LOST. Since my sister is tired of hearing me rant about the sociological and spiritual ramifications of the, to me, disappointing final season of this TV show, I thought I would share my opinions here.

Accordingly in no particular order I shall now list my chief irritations:

Christian Shepherd -- Yes, Kate, they were kidding you. Anyone who is a Christian Shepherd in more than just name would have had a few things to say about that stained glass window for one thing. How many faiths can you fit into one "church"? Although the show borrowed from Christian Scripture an understanding of Christian theology was conspicuous by it's absence.

How many tunnels of light can you cram into one afterlife?

The "man in black" -- I am still trying to decide whether he was meant to be Johnny Cash, Esau, or the archetypal stereotype bad guy. Since he was written in such an obvious way I'm going to go with: bad guy. After all why leave out the "evil twin" myth?

Did I miss the part where they explain why they spoke Latin? Or why The Others stole the children after the first crash. I'm still thinking of the Island of Lost Boys after all Alpert could have been a Peter Pan figure... my vote for Tinkerbell? Clap if you want Jin and Sun to live. Come on, clap harder.

Or maybe it was meant to be the Island of Misfit Toys... all those flawed people searching for someplace to belong and someone to belong to. Even Jacob -- the flawed man in white. The good guy with his pseudo-god role and his smug air of mystery.

I knew it was a bad sign when the statue of Anubis showed up and I was not wrong. Play mythological sudoku with world religions and from the jumble what emerges is still a false religion. It's still the same nine numbers -- out of order they create an interesting puzzle and that's it. While amusing to solve what emerges is a hodge-podge faith bereft of any numeric or intrinsic value.

Sitting in the church of multiple faiths these characters face the "next life" with no certainty of salvation and no clear picture of who the Lord really is. For all intents and purposes they are more Lost now than they ever were before.

Vanilla Colors

Even with all the snow on the ground I am not tired of white.
Not tired of wide lace and old linen whites.

Low hanging moons and new taper candlewicks whites.

Crisp painted bead board and Clorox clean ceramic whites.

Big puffy horizon clouds and still seeds for the moment but soon will flower whites.

It is a very ordinary color. And gloriously so.

There's a knot in the rope.

My family has always had a no-holds-barred, cut-to-the-chase, tell-it-as-it-is, and no lingering resentment approach to honesty. We're brutal. "Here's how it is. Accept it and move forward." Give or take -- it's how we communicate.

Talking with my sister today after church I realized the strangeness of this. There are a lot of people who handle the honesty -- even small truths -- with kid gloves. Who hide their opinions in a fog of politeness so thick you're not even sure they have an opinion.

When situations arise where there is disagreement or conflict some people even choose to walk away rather than say anything. (Mind you, there are times when that is the wiser course -- but not always).

I think there are maybe three basic approaches... There's a knot in the rope. A problem.

One person will say "What rope?" And walk away without doing anything.

Another person says "Hey, look a knot. Let's pick at this knot, and finesse it, and try to see if it will come untied." It may take days, and they might curse a bit, and sometimes they untie it but sometimes they just make a bigger knot.

Then a third sort of person says "We could just cut the rope."

And my family? We're the ones asking "Hey, isn't that a machete?" Whack. "What's next?"

January Sunset

Deep pewter the clouds hang heavy over the western sky. The setting sun transforms this solemness with a punctuated and gleaming shades of intensity, pink flames, orange rose petals, the opaque neon of stained glass where there is no glass.

Dimming light, the gloaming, settles on the day and evening approaches. A warmer evening that we have had in a while. The air is soft with it and it is pleasant to walk in the glow of the setting sun.

Twelve Ways I Save Money

A friend and I were talking about how hard it is to find money for things these days. Living the average consumer American lifestyle drains her pocketbook and she wondered how I manage. I wondered that too. Here's what I came up with:

1. I never got my ears pierced. I think I probably save a lot of money by not wearing and therefore not buying much jewelry.
2. I don't drink coffee. I've heard that Starbucks, even making your own at home, can cost $50 - $300 a month depending on the drinker. So if I want to acquire a taste for something I'm not naturally keen on I'll be trying something cheaper like cooked spinach, thanks.
3. I also don't drink. To me a "night out on the town" just sounds like an expensive headache the next day. Saving the money sound better than Scotch ... or is saving it the same thing as Scotch? ;-)
4. I tend not to go to the movies. It's $10 per person just to get in the door, add to that the cost of movie theater popcorn... for the same price I could pop enough popcorn at home to be swimming in the stuff as I watch a rented movie.
5. I don't have a big screen TV. When I find a movie worth renting I watch it on a "tiny" normal sized TV. But then I also...
6. don't have satellite or cable. I'm one of those people still devoted to broadcast and rabbit ears. It's free. I cannot imagine why anyone would pay money to view 20 minutes of commercials and 10 minutes of sitcom.
7. I have long hair which means I don't go to the beauty shop for a $30 hair cut every month. If I get tired of long hair I chop off 10-15 inches and save a little on shampoo for a while.
8. My cell phone is JUST a cell phone. I do not have the extra texting service, or the extra internet surfing and gaming services. Did you know this saves over $500 a year?
9. I do not have an MP3 player or an iPod ... I still have an old stereo and it still plays all my old cds and will even tune in radio stations. Okay it's not sleek and portable... but everywhere you go they pipe in music for you -- at the mall, in the grocery store, at the gym, in the mechanics waiting room -- so I don't understand. Did we need more music in our ears?
10. I don't eat out very often. I cook from scratch. It's easier than you think -- my simple recipe for mac and cheese begins with the instructions "Go out and milk the cow..." I'm kidding. A little effort really can save a lot of money here, though. Just last week I bought a roast the the grocery for $15, when I got it home I cut off three steaks which I put in the freezer before preparing the rest as a pot roast. At a restaurant ONE of those steaks would have been $15 and there would have been no pot roast.
11. I recycle less than you think -- because I RE-USE. For example, my storage containers are margarine tubs, cottage cheese containers, and empty jelly jars. Run through the dishwasher the empty containers get saved and reused to store leftovers. (It's important to note these containers are generally not microwave safe so the food needs to be put on the microwave safe plate and then reheated.) Stuff like this might seem fiddly but small savings are still savings.
12. I'm picky about parks. From history to hiking our National and State parks tend to be free. So I don't need over-priced water parks and $50-a-day-plus-rides game parks for a fun exciting day out. After all, my taxpayer dollar has already been spent, why not enjoy the benefit of it?

The ways I save money won't work for everyone. We all have our priorities. Some people feel they really need 500 songs (at $.99 each) shuffling through their state of the art earphones as they sit in the local Take- your-bucks sipping their third $5 coffee and surfing the net on their touch phone while waiting for their friends to join them so they can catch the latest $10 flick at the Money-gouging Plex before grabbing drinks with dinner at the All-of-your-money Garden.

Clearly, I don't. I'd rather knit an alpaca sweater while watching my favorite classic black-and-white movies as the warm smell of baking bread fills my home. "To each his own."

How do you save?

Friday Photo

Why Don't They Ever Listen?

I remember taking a handicapped friend to see Titanic for the 14th time. Colleen takes it hard that Jack dies, I was warned, but last time left her distraught over the fate of the poor iceberg.

Coming out of the theater after the movie I was completely unprepared for Colleen's assertions that Rose died. Nothing I said could convince her that Rose had lived in the movie. She was full of a story about how Rose had sacrificed herself to save Jack --she changed the movie. Jack was going to live, if the film makers wouldn't save him Colleen would.

I understand how Colleen felt. I often find myself imagining different endings, or middles, or whole movies after seeing something on-screen that did not live up to its trailers. And I'm vocal about it.

My family refuse to go out to the movies with me -- especially if I've read the book they made the film from -- because I will make comments. During the movie.
I try not to but I always end up talking to the screen. I offer advice to the characters, to the writers, to the director... I tell them how they should have done it. They never listen.

For me, nothing ever changes. Films go on deliberately altering the fictional realities of my favorite books in a manner that amounts to character assassination, violating the facts of history in a manner that makes the word anachronistic an understatement, and demonstrating truly original bad taste and poor decision making at a frighteningly increasing rate. (Really good movies are getting scarce, IMO.)

Last night as my sister and I watched a comedy on the television, I was once again speaking to the screen, bemoaning the lack of morality in our culture and pointing out that the obvious consequences could have been avoided if they would simply have listened to me four or five scenes ago....
And I had an idea: What if television and movies did listen? What if it the endings did change?

Remember "Choose Your Own Adventure" books? I love this concept. You read a page or two and then there is a choice to be made, you choose what you would do and turn to the corresponding page to see how your choice plays out... why couldn't this be done with film? An interactive webisode for all of us out here who shout advice to the television while patient family members quietly insist "They can't hear you."

Now if only someone was listening....