Friday, February 14, 2025

Happy Valentine's Day!

                                                                       


Thursday, February 13, 2025

And I'm Back

                                                                            


A new charging cord and my laptop is back in business! Boy, what an improvement to use a full size keyboard Would that everything else I'm worried about could be so easily and quickly remedied!

I'm concerned that the GOP is facilitating a white supremacy movement by allowing the F(elon)OTUS to allow Musk to do pretty much whatever he wants--snap up lucrative government contracts, bring his kid to work in the Oval Office, enable importing other white supremacist South Africans, and generally run amok in the name of government efficiency.
                                     

Who's in charge here?

And my congress critters are probably in Musk's pocket. Making those calls is still important, but I have to say that reading the weasel-worded replies is nauseating.

But I endeavor to persevere.



Tuesday, February 11, 2025

This Is Just to Say


 I'm having computer problems and using my phone to post. Which is a drag.   If you don't hear from me for a few days, that's what's up.



Monday, February 10, 2025

Where Are We Going?

     on


Our country is heading into the unknown as a mad president raves about sporks and plastic straws while choosing the worst and wackiest for his government.

  Meanwhile the richest man on earth has free rein in that government, molding it to his advantage, getting rid of programs that hinder any of his multipleI interprises.

And the GOP aids and abets.


 

 

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Bricolage (See also Gallimaufry)

                                                                          




BRICOLAGE

1. (In art or literature) Construction or creation from a diverse range of available things.

2. Something constructed or created from a diverse range of available things.

This word popped up on Word Daily and I realized it was the perfect description of this blog.




Flowers, sunrises, food, dogs and cats and sometimes snakes, politics, watercolors, books . . .

                                                                                    

Of course, Josie. And whatever else my magpie mind seizes on.

Meanwhile on Word a Day, this word could describe same of my posts:

archaeolatry

PRONUNCIATION:
(ar-kee-AH-luh-tree) 


MEANING:
noun: Excessive reverence for the past: an earlier time, old customs, antiquity, etc.

                                                             


ETYM

Friday, February 7, 2025

Trying to Improve


As I've said before, drawing people is right out of my comfort zone. So I'm working on it, using old photos from family albums. All the folks pictured are no longer here to be offended by my clumsy attempts.


 I loved the pose of the mother in this picture. Those firm black shoes! I had thought at first that it was a photo of my grandmother and mother. . .



But the inscription on the back "To Virginia from Billie" and the date, which is later than my mother's birth date, suggest otherwise. I can't explain the 1924 stamp--the mother's dress looks earlier than that but what do I know.

This is a photo of my mother and her friends at the beach on a chilly day. I was stuck by the headless pose and how the whole thing suggested a coven of witches. I can't be sure who's who but my mother stayed close to at least four of her high school friends throughout her life.



Thursday, February 6, 2025

Do Something


I confess to having felt overwhelmed by the shock and awe, flood the zone tactics of FOTUS, Musk, and all their minions. But, shamed by the resolution of some of my friends, I'm committing to calling my congress persons daily to ask what they're doing about the latest outrages.

I made my calls today while waiting to pick up Josie. One voice mail, two full mailboxes. So I emailed my comments. Not as good as actually speaking with a staffer but better than nothing.

According to an article I read, quoting an ex-staffer, phone calls get the most attention (except for showing up in person which is optimum.) This ex-staffer said that online petitions aren't particularly effective. I get bombarded with these and they all want a donation.

The concerns I addressed in my Wednesday calls and emails were three: FOTUS's incendiary plan to ethnic-cleanse Gaza, using the US military, and then turn it into a resort; the seizure of sensitive information by Quasi-President Musk and his merry band of hackers; and the recently floated (and probably illegal) plan to send American prisoners to prisons in other countries. In each case, I asked for the congressperson's stance and what he intended to do about the matter. I don't have much hope for these guys, Republicans all, but I think it's important they know there is opposition in their district.

It will, alas, be easy to find new topics to address tomorrow.



 

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass


The neighbors are awakening! This slender young blacksnake brought Emily D.'s poem to mind, though he didn't slide away. Indeed, I believe s/he had just emerged from his winter burrow--when I touched him with my walking stick, he didn't react. 

                                                                                      

You can see the dirt on the tail coming out of the ground. It was still pretty chilly, and he looked like I feel most mornings--Do I really want to get up now? 

A few hours later, the sun had done its work and the snake was gone. I hope he's hunting--that place where his hole is, is also where I've seen a couple of copperheads in years past. 






Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Signs of Re-Birth and Renewal

 



Thrusting through Fall's leaves,
Green blades promise another
Spring--as the wheel turns.




Monday, February 3, 2025

Shock of Recognition

                                                                           


Usually I dash past Facebook ads but a picture stopped me cold--I know that place!  There at the corner of the building in the foreground, I once washed the mud and sheep poop off my boots, using a brush (hanging on the wall) provided for walkers such as ourselves so that we didn't track crud into the lovely establishments of the village. 

The place is the Old Mill in Lower Slaughter. In 2006 we were on a self-guided walking tour in the Cotswolds--one of the best trips ever.

The first picture is grabbed from a page on Cotswold touring. The second was taken by John, of me, cleaning those boots.

  

                             And a third, also from John's files.

                                                  

It's wonderful how that quick glance brought back those very special couple of weeks.

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Inching Toward Spring

                                                        


The rising sun is working its way from the far right of this photo to a bit beyond the left edge which will be the equinox. A ways to go but even slow progress out of winter is welcome.

Saturday, February 1, 2025

Rabbit, Rabbit, (Rabbit)

                                                                              


The west end of our living room. There are 3 rabbits.

Friday, January 31, 2025

Good Listening

                                                                           


I've been listening to this very excellent, Pulitzer Prize winning novel as I work my way through chores (Liquid Gold on wooden furniture, glass cleaner to remove Jenny's nose marks from the dining room windows, etc., etc.) and as I fall asleep at night.

It's the story of two cousins--one a refugee from Prague--who become noted comic book creators, affording the listener/reader a good look at the comic industry.

It's also a story of the last mid-century--Nazism, the avant-garde in NYC, the Kefauver committee and the wars against comic books (and "perverts",) the rise of suburbia, and so much more.

Chabon's beautiful prose is used to good effect in tracing the entangled destinies of the cousins and the woman they both, in their different ways, loved. These three characters absolutely grabbed me-- beautifully nuanced and painfully real. 

As I listened, I savored each sentence while, at the same time, feeling eager for what was coming next. The narrator was excellent, and I highly recommend this audio version.

Next up on audio, The Source by Michener. I've read it multiple times but decided to give it a listen--all 54+ hours of it should see me through spring cleaning.  



Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Judy's House

                                                                        


I was delighted to have this picture pop up on Facebook--an old photo of Judy Shelton's cabin. I'd never seen a picture but it was much as I'd imagined--a two story log cabin. (I suspect that the sagging bit on the right was a later addition.)

 That cabin was the setting for several important scenes in my historical novel And the Crows Took Their Eyes. 

Nothing but the chimney remains of the place where the thirteen victims of the Shelton Laurel Massacre were held the night before their execution. Nothing but memories and ghosts.




Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Remember to Breathe

                                                                                     

                                                                                


                                                                                  
We are being drowned in outrageous actions and proposals, as well as a relentless flood of misinformation. 

Don't let it get the better of you. 


Monday, January 27, 2025

Learning Curve


                                                                                     

Between the continuing cold weather and the ongoing bad news issuing from DC, I'm spending large amounts of time working on watercolors and trying to move beyond my comfort zone (which is painting pictures of flowers--not from life but from...pictures of flowers.

While I draw or paint, I've found that listening to audio books really helps me loosen up and not worry about getting things just so. Currently listening to an excellent reading of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

Here I'm working from pictures on my cell phone. The first is the early morning view from behind our house--taken when I was walking Jenny.  


Otter in her tie-dye hoodie. She makes me think of a chubby little girl in a party frock. I was delighted to feel that I'd come close to an actual likeness.

Unlike this 'portrait' of a late neighbor (based on a fuzzy old photo grabbed from the internet.) I'm still futzing with it but don't have a lot of hope. I wonder if my inability to produce a recognizable person is linked to the fact that I often have trouble recognizing people if they are in an unexpected place or, heaven help us, have changed their hairstyle, shaved a beard, or added glasses.

I've attempted Josie with terrible results and have a half-completed sketch of her dolls Margo and Dolly in which there are traces of Margo, but Dolly seems to have been inhabited by a demon.

Ah, well, back to the drawing board.

                                                                                    


 

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Celestial Image?




Space debris seen from the port hole of a spaceship?



                              Alas, only potato chip debris.
                                                                                     

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Meltdown

FOTUS, the toddler in the Oval Office is acting out beyond belief. Actually, it's a mix of toddler, wannabe dictator, and senile oldster. But it's going unchecked and will have lasting evil consequences for our country and the world.



Fire, defund, rename, withdraw, redraw . . .give that toddler a sharpie and watch him destroy even things that benefit those who voted for him. 

Meanwhile, the Republican in Congress support his every whim and attempt to sane-wash his every crazy pronouncement.


Oh, for some Republican congresspersons with only half the balls of  Murkowski and Collins! They could have done more on other occasions, but at least they voted against confirming the demonstrably unstable Hegseth.