And Now for Something Peaceful

My Country, 'Tis of Thee

I love my country. Let me say that up front. But I am somewhat bemused by the penchant many have of displaying the flag anywhere and everywhere. Especially when it's decorating a trailer full of discarded televisions and computers.

Our rural county has made great progress in the almost forty years since we moved here. Back in '75, if you wanted to get rid of garbage, you drove it to the county dump -- or, far too often, threw it in the river or in the woods. It was pretty awful.

Now we have recycling centers in the various communities -- dumpsters and trailers  and bins for collecting plastics, paper, glass, metal, tires, appliances, old clothing, and used motor oil. It's quite a nice change and you hardly ever see sofas dumped in creeks anymore.

E-waste was a later addition to the recycling -- and it stuck me, the other day, that for a poor rural county, we sure consume and throw away a lot of expensive stuff.

And where does this e-waste go?  I don't know about in our county- note to self:find out-- but a lot ends up in China or Africa where people poison their environment and themselves attempting to extract the trace amounts of gold and other salable odds and ends from the discarded computers, televisions, e-phones, I-pads, etc.

There are better alternatives but they require a little detective work on the part of the discarder. Some companies -- I believe Dell and Sony are among them -- have 'green' recycling alternatives. The article linked to HERE is well worth the read.

And, 0f course. we could attempt to consume less -- hang on to the old TV or phone a bit longer if it's not actually broken.

But some would say that was an un-American suggestion.

Wordless

Old Friends

Wild Geranium

A friend from college days paid us a visit this past weekend. I'm embarrassed to admit how extremely low-key our weekend was -- we took a few walks but mostly we sat around and drank wine and talked.  

Wood Anemone?

 Not surprisingly, much of the talk was of the weirdness of finding ourselves in our seventies and the changes and challenges -- good and not so good -- that lie ahead.

Groundsel

 It's good to spend time with a female contemporary -- especially one with a shared past and similar world view. It's good to talk and it's good to feel comfortable just sitting and enjoying the view and not talking.

Windflower

I'll catch up with my blog visits in the next few days -- in between pulling weeds and writing.

 

Crested Dwarf Iris

The flowers are wildflowers.

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White violet

At the Pond

Lady-like Stuff

 

From out of the blue came a desire to do some embroidery -- on pre-stamped pillow cases. It's like a coloring book for an embroiderer -- the lines are there and I need to stay with them but -- I get to choose the colors!

I found them  on E-bay -- 100% cotton unlike what my local fabric store had to offer. They were probably in some departed granny's sewing stash because they are slightly yellowed. No matter.

Embroidered pillow cases aren't exactly my style -- but it's a matter of nostalgia.  My mother -- who was not much of a needlewoman -- worked diligently to embroider a pair for me when I was probably around ten.  There was a lady in a hoopskirt, holding a parasol, and lots of flowers -- mostly pinks and greens, as best I can recall.   

The work was carefully done -- as was my mother's way -- and I marvelled that she had spent so much time to make something so lovely just for me. (She always liked my younger brother best but that's another story.)

The hoopskirt lady pillow cases eventually wore out, but ten years later, as my mother and I were putting together a 'hope chest' for my approaching marriage, I embroidered another set  -- blue and yellow flowers this time.   

Fast forward through the Marine Corps, teaching and building a house in Florida, children, moving to the mountains --- during this time I embroidered on jeans and on shirts and on quilts but it wasn't till we added on a guestroom and my childhood bed was installed in it that I felt the need for more embroidered pillow cases . . . that was almost twenty years ago.

 I made a pair and they lasted well. (I noticed that guests often set them aside rather than actually sleep on them.)

But nothing lasts forever and it was time for replacement. Hence my lady-like occupation the past several nights.

We've been re-watching  Foyle's War and working at this retro embroidery while I watch is a fine accompaniment to WWII Britain.

One down -- one to go.  But lots of Foyle left. Maybe I could take up crocheting doilies.

Greening and Growing

The Tomato Biscuit Class

The ten-week writing classes (that's ten once-a-week meetings) that I teach through the Great Smokies Writing Program are always fun. (What, always? Well, almost always.) But occasionally a group comes together that just clicks with a special synergy -- synergy being the interaction of  elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements. And there they are, less two who had to miss the final class. 

This was a class for beginners -- and though most of them arrived with some ideas and some of them had already made a good start on a novel,  they were all eager to improve on what they had. And very quickly they caught on to the class structure -- read the pages presented and suggest what you think needs improvement.

In order to give and receive critique, it really helps to feel comfortable with the group and this group quickly took on the general demeanor of a bunch of rowdy old friends at the pub. Even though there was no drinking.

There was a fair amount of food -- mostly in the writing, alas. One of the works in progress is about a caterer and sumptuous party food was described (ceviche martini, anyone?) Another story dealt with a restaurant -- again, more great food. And there was a mystery about a woman trying to lose weight -- while eating in the LSU cafeteria which, the writer assured me, really does serve amazing Cajun food. I think I gained weight just reading about the gumbo and the etouffe and the pirogues (stuffed squash.)

And about those tomato biscuits -- they cropped up in yet another story and several of the class members had never heard of such a thing.  So the writer (at the suggestion of her husband who really deserves a lot of credit) brought tomato biscuits to our last class. That's what we're holding in these three class pictures -- a big fat biscuit with mayonnaise and a slice of an amazingly delicious tomato.

There was a lot of food but the writing was varied in subject matter -- women's lit, a coming of age story, a time travel story, a detective story, relationship stories, kinda chick lit, stories with woo woo (supernatural elements,) and without. And one very steamy scene on a golf course that had our two guys thinking there might be more to women's fiction than they'd thought.

The group wrote settings and dialogues and action scenes and character sketches and query letters and elevator speeches and, by the last class, almost everyone was pretty sure they had a novel underway. They hope to continue meeting as a group now and then -- and I really hope they do-- to take advantage of the synergy thing.

A really great bunch of folks -- and I'd have said it even if they hadn't brought me the pretty rose in the other pictures.

Happy May Day -- and remember to get wet when/if it rains!