Thursday Thirteen

Today, I give you 13 four-letter words.

1. Love. Of course this is the number one favorite four-letter word! What else were you thinking when I wrote "four-letter words," hm? "Love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave." - The Song of Solomon viii. 6

2. Blue. My favorite color. Blue is the sky, it is the water. It is symbolic of the air we breathe. It's the color of eyes and flowers. It describes my mood a lot these days. It's a great word.

3. Pink. Okay, it's another color but it is a nice color. It's the morning sky sometimes, it's baby skin, it's kissable lips, it's my eyes after a bad night's sleep.

4. List. As in a Thursday Thirteen! What would I do without my to-do list? My list of groceries? My list of days.

5. Tear. That's "tear" as in the stuff that falls from your eye, not the ripping of paper. A tear, O! A drop of salt water from the eyes of the one you love brings heartache and compassion. A tear is a cleansing, a symbol, a sign of the soul. How can someone watch another sob and not be moved?

6. Eyes. The soul appears when the eyes are open. Look deeply into my eyes and what do you see there? Maybe nothing at all, maybe the depths of the world. Maybe heartache and toil, maybe laughter and smiles. Maybe, if you look long enough, you will see everything you need to see and you will see me as I truly am.

7. What. Ah, a word that means a question. And questions are the way we learn, the way we grow, the way we know we are thinking. If you aren't questioning the world around you, asking "what?" at every opportunity, then you aren't truly using your noodle. My questions these days include "What if I just read a book, will it be the end of the world?" and "What is wrong with this Congress, why aren't they doing anything that makes any sense?" and "What happened to Tuesday?"

8. Talk. Communication is key, and if we don't talk, we don't learn. We don't understand, we don't get it. Talking is how I listen ... by keeping my mouth shut I learn what you need and desire, want, feel or thin. When I talk I am expressing how I feel, my wants, my needs. Sometimes I talk too much. I am pretty sure I don't talk too little.

9. Feel. The things that the world seems to run on these days, feelings. How I feel about something as opposed to how I think about it. I would rather people thought more and felt less about many things, to be honest; that is how we're in the mess we're in nationwide, too much emotion and not enough thinking. But feelings in personal relationships of course are quite necessary. I wouldn't want to go to bed every night with someone for whom I felt nothing, that is certain. They just don't belong in national debates.

10. Feet. Actually this is not a favorite word; I am not a foot fan. My feet have been ignored most of my life and I think most feet are, well, shall we say, not pretty. Having ignored said feet for 46 years, they now complain daily so they are on my mind more than I would like.

11. Will. Nope, not short for "William," but the will of mankind... of me. The power of my mind over what goes on around me. My intentions, my purpose. Dreams and destiny, maybe. What will be will be... but maybe not.

12. Word. Of course something to do with writing has to be on this list! And where we would be without words? Certainly not reading this blog entry, or talking, or doing anything much. Words make us human, whether those words are spoken or unspoken. Yay for words!

13. Poem. I love poetry though I don't read much of it anymore. There was a time when I thought I might become a poetess, but something instead turned me toward nonfiction. My poetry is good when I work at it, lackluster when I don't. My favorite modern poet is Sharon Olds. One of my favorite poems (which has lots of good four-letter words in it) is:

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love
By C. Marlowe

COME live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair linèd slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number 104!

Happy anniversary, an award and post no. 991

Three years ago today, I started started this blog. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it except use it as a different venue for writing other than newspaper articles. A creative outlet, as it were.

I knew this anniversary was coming up and I had hoped this would be post 1,000 but I am a few short. So I am celebrating with post number 991. I guess next week I will hit 1,000.

Stopping this blog is not an option. I enjoy writing it, even if sometimes I scratch my head over what to put on here. I have made many friends and have met in person some wonderful ladies I would not have met otherwise. Or maybe I would have - like does attract like. At any rate, I wish to thank you, dear reader, whoever you are. I know many of you don't leave comments and I hope that I don't disappoint you when you visit.

Amy Tate over at The Virginia Scribe earlier this week honored me and my blog with the Premios Dardos Award. This is "an award for bloggers who distinguish themselves for showing cultural values, ethics, great and fun writing skills, as well as individual values, through their creative writing."



I am very grateful to her for nominating my blog for this award. I met Amy in person at a Roanoke Pen Women meeting in June. She is a delightful soul and I wish her much success in her publishing endeavors.

Amy nominated several other blogs I read for the award, blogs that I would have elected to nominate as well. For example, I would have nominated my friend Becky over at Peevish Pen.

At least one blog I would nominate (The Blue Ridge Gal), doesn't accept awards. So I am going to suggest that you, dear reader, slip over to read her blog and also landuvmilknhoney, Loose Leaf Notes and the Blue Ridge Blue Collar Girl, which are three blogs I think worthy of this award. But most of the blogs listed on my blog are good reading.

If you read my blog and would like this award because you think your work meets the qualifications, please accept it and let me know that you have done so. I would like to read your work too, if I don't already!

And as for me, I will be busy thinking about tomorrow, and my next Thursday Thirteen.

Review: Momma Mia

Momma Mia, with Glen Close - I mean Meryl Streep - has been playing on HBO.

I watched the movie in its entirety the night it debuted and I've seen pieces of it several times since then.

Some of the singing is off key. However it is a fun movie with a fairy tale ending. Kind of a modern Cinderella story with a twist, if you will.

The musical features songs by ABBA, and since they were one of my favorite bands growing up, I know every song. That is part of what makes this show so fun. Who hasn't heard those songs?

This is one of two movies I've seen this year that I think were made for sleep overs for women ages 40 and up. Not that I know of women who have sleepovers like that, but if we all did then this is one of the movies I'd offer up. The other is the Sex in the City movie.

The story line for Momma Mia goes like this: young girl on eve of wedding wants to know who her daddy is. She reads Mom's diary and decides it can be one of three guys, so she invites all three to the wedding. They arrive, Mom freaks. Young girl's beau is perturbed. Friends arrive to help out. Wedding day arrives, things don't go quite as planned, lovely happy ending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlPMEdQKzJc

This is my favorite part of the movie. It won't let you embed it. Click it and watch it, though.

The Captain's Helmet

My husband turned 50 on June 2 and I threw him a party at the fire station.

But I did not give him his present because it had yet to arrive.

Yesterday, finally, his helmet (ordered in April) came in.



It is nice and shiny but once it has been in a fire it won't be that for long. It meets all the certifications and specifications for safety and security.



That long thing hanging down is to protect my husband's neck. He has a scar on his neck from a burn he received during an apartment fire about 20 years. A piece of burning wood fell down between his helmet and collar and singed him rather badly.



I hope this new helmet will keep my sweetie safe until he retires, which is still a few years away.

Getting to know you

I swiped this from Facebook. Amy H. tagged me but I decided to answer it on my blog instead.

I am not tagging anyone, but if you wish to answer these questions please do. Leave me a comment if you do that and I will visit to see your answers.


1. What time did you get up this morning: 6:00 a.m., which is the time I rise almost every morning

2. How do you like your steak? Medium-rare, except that I am not supposed to be eating steak these days.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

4. What is your favorite TV show? I don't really have one. I watch Deadliest Catch, Ghost Whisperer, and Real Time with Bill Maher with some regularity. But I wouldn't call any of them a favorite.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Switzerland, Scotland or Denmark.

6. What did you have for breakfast? Scrambled eggs and a banana

7. What is your favorite cuisine? I like spaghetti but it doesn't like me much.

8. What foods do you dislike? Spicy foods upset my tummy.

9. Favorite Place to Eat? Bellacino's.

10. Favorite dressing? Honey mustard

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Toyota Camry

12. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans, T-shirt and sneakers.

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Ireland.

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Broken and crushed into little bitty sand-like pieces.

15. Where would you want to retire? Savannah, GA or right where I am.

16. Favorite time of day? 10 a.m.

17. Where were you born? Roanoke, VA

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Women's tennis

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? Nobody, since I didn't tag anyone to start with

22. Bird watcher? Yes, but not that kind that looks up their names.

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Mid-morning person

24. Do you have any pets? 40 cows

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I'm afraid not.

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A writer, a geologist, an archaeologist and a teacher.

27. What is your best childhood memory? Selling lemonade on a roadside stand at my grandmother's house in Salem.

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Dog

29. Are you married? Yes.

30. Do you always wear your seat belt? Yes, even when I'm just going down the driveway.

31. Been in a car accident? Several times. One year I was rear-ended three times.

32. Any pet peeves? The grocery ladies who always want to hand me my candy bar, mints or soft drink at the checkout. I must look like I can't wait until I get to the car.

33. Favorite pizza topping? Mushrooms.

34. Favorite Flower? Iris.

35. Favorite ice cream? Hot fudge sundae. I haven't had one in about 30 years.

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Hardees, if I have to pick one.

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? None.

38. From whom did you get your last email? My closest friend.

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? I don't carry a balance on my cards at all, but if I were going to max one out, I would go to Staples.

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? I drove over to my rental property on the spur of the moment to check on it. Boring, eh.

41. Like your job? Yes.

42. Broccoli? Love it. It's very good for you.

43. Kids? None.

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? My husband.

45. What are you listening to right now? The hum of the computer.

46. What is your favorite color? It's a tie between blue and purple.

47. How many tattoos do you have? Nary a one.

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? Nobody.

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 1:52 p.m.

50. Coffee Drinker? Not at all.

Thursday Thirteen

Why The Lord of the Rings trilogy should be counted among the greatest movies of all time.

1. Terrific story. The Lord of the Rings, with its epic good vs. evil clash, brings together all of the necessary qualities of good story telling. The Dark Lord is returning; the good folks must save the day (does that sound familiar, Harry Potter fans?)

2. Characterization. The characters in this story are loveable and likeable. You want to be a hobbit or an elf or a wizard… or a man who may be king.

3. Scenery. The setting Director Peter Jackson chose for these films is superb. New Zealand offers up a great array of landscape, from pristine green fields to sweeping snow-covered mountain ranges.

4. Superb acting. I remember when I heard that Elijah Wood had been chosen to portray Frodo, my response was kind of “eh,” and I wasn’t sure he would do justice to the part. Now I can’t think of a hobbit without seeing his portrayal. The same is true of the other actors. I confess I fell in love with Orlando Bloom in this series.

5. These movies, all three of them, make me cry. Any movie that can do that gets a thumbs up. I started rewatching the trilogy this week during exercise. This morning I was on the treadmill with tears on my cheeks.

6. The death of Borimir. There are few death scenes that stand out for me – the only other one that I recall is in the Little Women movie with Wynona Ryder. Borimir’s death is redeeming and warranted and extremely well-played by the entire cast.

7. The march of the elves. When the elves come to help the men at the Keep in The Two Towers, my heart leaps into my throat every time.

8.  Realistic costumes. Elves look like elves and orcs like orcs and men like men. The behind the scenes work in this movie is obvious. This was not a thrown-together production by any stretch of the imagination.

 

9. The crowning of the king. Another scene that makes me sob, particularly when Aragon tells the hobbits to “bow to no men.” What majesty and glory.

10. The lessons. This is a movie about friendship, courage, love, hope, redemption. Good faces evil and wins. It is uplifting and encouraging.

11. The music. The score to these movies suits it perfectly, from the pipes for the hobbits to the sweeping orchestrations and the drum beats of war.

 

12. The death of the Witch King. When the Lady of Rohan kills this most evil and deadly of the nine, I rejoice and cry at the same time. What a death blow she strikes, and how fitting that it is a woman!

13. Watchability. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen these movies in recent years. I watch them while I do housework, when I exercise, when nothing else is on TV. I never tire of them.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number 103!

Dell called

After all the craziness last week with a computer, I have about settled in with this new Dell.

My only gripe was a big Dell Register window that kept popping up and wouldn’t go away. I had already registered the computer.

So on Monday I sought out a tech at Dell for an online chat, and we resolved the issue. I did all the work myself, choosing not to use the remote assistance thing because the remote assistance thing with Norton appeared to have been the cause of a cut/paste issue with IE8 when I was setting up the computer. Besides, I like doing it.

Last night, a fellow from Dell called to see that all was well with my product. He had an accent and I had to ask him to repeat himself once or twice but mostly I was shocked that I received follow up.

This is great customer service! This is what companies should be doing.

This made me really glad that I bought a Dell. Me and my new computer are going to be very happy together for a good number of years.

Bucks in velvet

Saturday evening my friend B. and I sat on my deck sipping tea and talking.

I heard a shuffle in the woods.

A herd of bucks slipped past my shed and down the fence line. We watched, awed,
as seven deer with velvet antlers moved through the woods.

My camera lay in my office. But Sunday evening my husband and I sat on the deck.

And at about the same time, several bucks moved from the woods into the pasture.





Right now they are running together, but soon they will be shedding their velvet skins and they will fight amongst themselves.

The rut will begin.

Review: Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince

SPOILERS BELOW

What a disappointment.

Of all of the Harry Potter movies, this one is the worst. If you are NOT a Potter aficionado, you will have trouble with this movie.

I consider myself to be a Potter fan of the minor sort, anyway, and I had trouble with it. It has been four years since I read the book upon which this movie is based and it’s been since the last movie was out that I watched any of the movies.

Suffice it to say, I’d forgotten a lot. So a little reminder as to who the characters were and why they mattered or why I should care would have been welcome. The movie instead felt like it simply dumped into the middle of something and good luck to you in trying to catch on.

It was also boring. I started looking at my watch about an hour into the movie.

The teen angst, while well done, I suppose, added nothing to the story. I certainly could have done without that in exchange for some reminders of who was whom.

Perhaps it was because I was anticipating the ending that I did not care for the rest of it. However, even Dumbledore’s death was anticlimactic in the movie.

I also recall that I did not care much for this book. It was not my favorite of the seven. That is not to say that I disliked it so much that I couldn’t read it, I just didn’t think that it held up in measure to the earlier volumes. And the upcoming Deathly Hollows seemed to me to be written with the screen in mind and it suffered for that.

A good movie should be a good movie unto itself, even if it is a series of movies, and this one fails that test. I am sure it will do well at the box office simply because of the name, but that alone does not make for a fine film.

This one was so bad that I likely won’t go see the remaining two at the theater. I may save my $10 and wait for them to come out on HBO.

Good day, Sunshine

It has taken me days to get my computer back to where I feel comfortable with it. Still, I find it so different from what I had used for four years that I am not quite certain all that I lost.

My calendar, for one. My contacts list, for another. Thankfully I had enough sense to print those out and to put them in .pdf format before I disconnected the old computer. The  e-files I emailed to myself. The information is not lost, just not as accessible.

The new and improved Windows offers a lot of stuff. A “Live Blog” feature allows me to write and post to my blog without ever connecting to blogger.com. It formats paragraphs funny and is taking some getting used to.

I imagine young people love it.

Also I have been beleaguered by requests from Windows to “join” various components that would follow how I use windows. They want to track me, as it were, following my every key punch and mouse track to see what I am doing and why.  “We won’t collect your information” the little notes all say, and I decline them all. But I bet they’re collecting information anyway.

I do not trust corporations. Not a single one. The makers of Tylenol may be glad their product kills my pain but they are happier still with the bucks my pain puts in their pocket.

I have a Brita pitcher filter. The filter leaves little black spots of charcoal all over the top of the pitcher. Every filter does this. On the packaging it says a little of this is normal at first. It happens all the time. It’s not harmful, the packaging says.

I don’t believe it but I drink the water anyway because it tastes a little better with the filter. It’s like Coast soap – the smallest soap in the house, not because it’s used to much but because the way it’s made makes it go away very quickly in water. And we swallow the commercial and the claims.

Hopefully I am now back in business and Monday will find me  ready to tackle some  writing projects, my and my little tracking computer.

Just another writer

Last night I ventured to Roanoke for a seminar on magazine writing. The event, sponsored by the Arts Council, was free to the public.

Cara Ellen Modisett, editor of Blue Ridge Country magazine, was the speaker.

She spoke about queries, content, where to find ideas, what type of magazine to write for (BRC is a travel magazine), voice, and lead paragraphs, among other things.

Approximately 20-25 people turned out to hear her talk, including Becky at Peevish Pen, who is a member of the Roanoke Valley Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, as am I.

The event energized me and reminded me why I wanted to be a writer, lo those many years ago, in the first place. It is not to make money (thank goodness) but to tell a story in the way that only I can tell it. My voice is my own and my perceptions belong to me, and no one can tell me that they are right or wrong, though Lord knows they will try.

Being a writer has been a goal ever since I knew the word. Teachers pointed me in that direction. “You can write,” they said, one after the other. Some pointed me in wrong directions but still down that general avenue.

"Be a writer,” voices whispered to me.

Over the years I trained myself to write first on a typewriter and then on computer, not an easy task. Today I can scarcely read my own hand writing, so writing at the computer has become a near necessity.

Writing is more than fingers to keyboard. It is thinking, dreaming, spending time walking the fields to gather thoughts that otherwise stray. It is listening, listening and listening again to the heart of the voice of the speaker, hearing emotions in voice, seeing desire and passion in body stance. It is asking questions and not thinking the answer in your head is the correct one. It is knowing that minds are not stagnant but changeable and malleable and that what a person thinks one day may be completely different from the next.

Writing is a kind of madness, an adventure of the psyche that stimulates, fascinates, depresses and confounds. It amuses, confuses, bemuses and makes obtuse the things you thought you knew but really did not. It is blue sky, fast cars, wicked women, evil men, blessed priests, laughing children, dancing dames, Christian zealots and atheists who make love in the park. Writing zips around like a firefly on a hot summer night and it lies smoldering on the sidewalk like the flame beneath winter’s fireplaces.

The dance of the keys beneath my fingers sometimes is a slow waltz that makes the box step look like a quick locomotive. It’s a hip hop that boogies, a jazz band that be-bops and a disco that moves quickly from one end of the floor to the next. It is static, erratic, jagged and smooth, and it changes from one moment to the next.

How could I even think of not writing, of not giving life to the words of my brain, the thoughts whizzing breezily between my ears and beneath my graying hairs? What made me contemplate tossing this desire into the trees, to leave it hanging there unnoticed and unwanted like a deflated balloon?

I am just a writer. But a writer is just what I am.

The Agony of it All

Last week, as I minded my own business and began intensive work on a personal writing project that I aimed to finish, my computer decided it had enough.

Enough of me plugging in devices and using it for my own purpose. It wanted no more. The Gateway 830 GM had served me faithfully for over four years and it was sure its time had come.

The USB ports died. I first realized there was a problem Monday evening but thought little about it.

Tuesday morning, the external hard drive would not come up. So I thought it was the external device.

Then the computer wouldn't read my cameras. Or the printer. Or anything else, except for a very old scanner plugged in the back.

About the time I decided to unhook everything and haul it to Best Buy for a check up, everything worked again. So I backed up the hard drive and continued to work.

The next morning when I booted up, she was dead in the water where the USB ports were concerned. So I unplugged and headed to Roanoke.

The Best Buy guy, a young fellow attempting in vain to grow facial hair, said the problem sounded like a mother board issue. Of course while I had it on the counter his wireless mouse device worked properly in all ports so he could not be sure.

I lugged the thing back home. Of course when I set it back up, nothing worked.

A friend offered up her brother-in-law, who is a business computer technician. He could not come by until Friday, so I bid my time, limping along without the USB ports. It worked properly when he first arrive, but after a reboot everything was dead. After an hour he decided it was indeed some kind of serious problem and not a software or driver issue.

I had planned to replace the computer after Windows 7 was issued, (which happens in late October) not before, but since I really need a good working and reliable computer for my work, I knew my wallet would have to be a lot lighter.

Saturday I zipped around looking at computers. I took a little notebook and diligently wrote down model numbers, prices, RAM size, hard drive size, number of USB ports, card reader, etc etc. I visited two Walmarts, Staples, Best Buy, Sam's Club and Office Max.

Then I came home and looked at dell.com and other places.

After much discussion my husband and I decided I would buy an ASUS computer, because the tech guy and the Best Buy salesmen all swore that ASUS was the best component parts maker in the world and thus their computers must be the best on the market. Apparently they have been making computers for just a little while but parts for a very long time.

I ordered the computer online with pick up at Best Buy in Roanoke. Sunday afternoon we picked it up and returned home.

I began setting it up.

I noticed Sunday evening that the graphics looked fuzzy but I thought I simply needed to adjust settings. At one point I was concerned enough that I called the ASUS 24/7 tech hotline. I figured it wouldn't be too busy that time of day.

I received a recording.

The next morning, I began the set up process in earnest. Windows downloaded updates for a very long time. I used up a Norton Antivirus license, my last on a purchase that would let me put the thing on three PCs, and an MS Office license. Things were humming along.

And then I decided to see if the DVD player worked okay.

I put in a Lord of the Rings DVD. It would not show the picture properly. I had lots of pixel boxes all over the video.

Completely unacceptable, of course.

I then checked the device driver on my graphic card, fiddled with its settings, updated the driver - pretty much did everything I could except stand on my head.

Meanwhile, I started receiving a black screen and then it would come back with a notice that my graphics device had recovered from a serious error.

I called ASUS again, only to receive another recording. I checked their tech website in hopes of an online chat. No one ever appeared to help me out. I finally found a form I could fill out and request assistance. I sent off the request.

When no assistance was forthcoming after a couple of hours, I unplugged the ASUS and boxed it back up.

My husband and I went back to Best Buy and returned it.

Then I went around to several stores looking at brands and numbers again. I decided I wanted either a Dell or another Gateway.

Best Buy had a Dell and Gateway with similar specifications. The Dell was a little cheaper because it had fewer bells and whistles. I decided on the Dell.

Best Buy Roanoke didn't have it.

So we drove to Christiansburg at 8 p.m. to pick it up. We returned home about 9:40 p.m., because Christiansburg is not close.

So this today for a second time I have been setting up a new desktop. Norton was kind enough to allow me to transfer the license to this computer so I didn't have to pay for that again. I still had one license left on my MS Office so I installed that.

So far, so good. The Dell has withstood me for 7 hours now.

I did receive an email from the ASUS people about mid-day. Their response?

Do a full system restore. Hope that helps.

I do not recommend that brand of computer to anyone. I know parts can fail on any of them but their customer service certainly left me cold.

To the moon

I cannot let the 40th anniversary of the first moonwalk go by without recalling where I was.

At Grandma's house in Salem.

I would have been six years old, and I remember sitting cross-legged in her living room, watching as the astronauts walked on the earth's satellite.

What I can't recall is how I came to be there. I have always been fascinated with space and the space program, so I like to think that little six-year-old me, who by that time was reading the newspaper front to back, just like today, knew that this was a momentous occasion and deemed it worthy of a time-out from playing with action figures and GI dolls with my brother and young uncle.

Most likely my grandmother called us in and told us to watch. Oddly, I don't recall any one else in the room with me at the time. My uncles would have been 5 and 9; surely the older one was there, too. My brother would have only been three, so he may not have been present.

In the past I have had people tell me they remember seeing this at school, which always confuses me. Unless there were a lot of folks in summer school, I think most likely they were at home. Maybe they remember seeing it for the first time during a replay of the event while they were at school?

This made me doubt my own memories of seeing the original actual broadcast at my grandmother's, but these days I am fairly sure my memory is accurate, if old.

We have not made a similar accomplishment since, and indeed we seem to be in a decline, moving from greatness to not-so-great. I am not sure from where this comes but that is my perception, anyway. Seems like all we care about as a people are our individual pocketbooks and not anything as a community or society. There is no collective love of the greater good running rampant around here, anyway.

I hope that someday during my lifetime I will see some other wondrous event that parallels this one, a positive step, a hope and triumph that does not lead to war and violence. Maybe a trip to Mars?

Finding Grace #8

Continuing the countdown toward 100 things for which I am grateful....

81. Tea. I love a good cup of tea first thing in the morning. I like mine with honey these days.

82. Paper. Sorry, computers and bits and bytes. I am still in love with notebooks and composition books. This time of year I grow nostalgic for education as the stores put out school supplies. I love the smell of a new notebook.

83. Public restrooms. Gotta have these when you're out at the mall, you know?

84. Taxes. Bet that got your attention! Why would anyone be grateful because they pay taxes? Well, taxes create roads. They pay for sewer and water. They go toward curing cancer. They pay for new technologies. They PUT A MAN ON THE MOON! Do you think I could do any of that by myself? No way. It takes more than one to create things things.

85. The inside of an Oreo cookie. I have never liked the outside stuff much but I really do like the creamy filling.

86. The letter "A". I don't know why, I just do.

87. Love. Isn't this the greatest feeling? To be in love with someone?

88. Passion. Here's another great feeling. It is so great that we can feel passion for people, pets, things, activities. It is what makes us unique, creative and inventive.

89. Shrimp. I love shrimp, they are one of my favorite seafoods.

90. Storytellers. Where would we be without the folks who can spin a yarn? How boring would it be if we didn't have Shakespeare as a common reference point?

91. Oak trees. I am really grateful for these trees, and particularly the ones outside my window. Their majesty and long life has many lessons for us all. They endure nature's stress, man made stress, hatchets, and insects and yet still stand tall. They also give great shade.

92. Cars. I know they are terrible pollutants but I really like my Toyota. I like getting where I am going, I like moving fast. I won't mind if we find a different fuel or type of engine but I sure don't want to be stuck at home all the time.

93. Email. Okay, a silly thing. But I like writing letters and hearing from friends.

94. Good shoes. Really necessary for walking and less-sore feet.

95. Ice. I like to crunch ice in my soft drinks. I also like to put it on sore, aching muscles. It also keeps the ice cream from melting.

96. Donuts. Fattening, yes! But by golly they are good.

97. Showers. I could stand under the shower for a very long time, but I time myself and keep it to four minutes (five if I have been very good).

98. My husband's heart. I am really humbled that this man loves me.

99. Ketchup. I do not like to eat my french fries unadorned.

100. Being able to come up with 100 things to be grateful and thankful for. It really makes life seem a little less intimidating. I have so much. I am truly blessed.

Finding Grace #7

Continuing my count to 100 things for which I am grateful...

66. Eyes. I am thankful for my own eyes, even if they do need corrective lenses, as well as the eyes of others. They truly are a window into the soul.

67. Lunch with a friend. What a great way to break up a day and feel a connection.

68. Potato chips. I know they are fattening and I shouldn't eat them, but I do love to have them on occasion.

69. Thunderstorms. Storms make you unplug, unconnect, and hunker down. I love to see the lightning flash, and then there is the little thrill that runs up my spine during a strong thunder boom...

70. Clouds. Clouds make you exercise your imagination if you're looking for pictures.

71. Poetry. What would the world be with rhyme and meter? If Frost had never written "The Road Not Taken"?

72. Waiters and waitresses. I know it's a pretty thankless job but I am grateful that on occasion, someone else does the cooking and brings me my plate.

73. Secret places in the mind. Everyone should have a sanctuary in their imagination, a place where they can go for solace and hope.

74. Dreams. I love my dreams, because they are often catalysts for interesting ideas. Not so fond of nightmares, though.

75. Kisses. Hey, husband, come on over here!

76. Swiffer dusters. I had never used them before until last week. These things are great. Highly recommended.

77. Birds. I enjoy the sound of birds twittering and tweeting (isn't that what folks do on twitter.com?) and I like watching them fly around.

78. Electricity. Isn't this great stuff, that makes the computer run and the lights come off and on? I hope the cost of it doesn't grow so high that most people can't afford it. That would be bad. But we need to find a cleaner way to make it.

79. Libraries. Don't you love being able to check out a book, use the Internet for free, converse with folks at the counter?

80. History. I enjoy looking back at the past and seeing what happened in the long ago. Hopefully you learn something from it.

Finding Grace #6

54. The "off" button on the telephone when telemarketers call. I notice that politicians did not exempt themselves from the donotcall.gov list.

55. Patience. I am not always patient, particularly when it comes to things like computer issues, problems with the car, that type of thing. I like for stuff to work. Properly. And NOW. So when I exhibit patience, I am extremely grateful.

56. My sense of smell. I have a nose that can sniff out strange things. I can even smell blacksnakes, which actually smell like cucumber. Other snakes smell kind of earthy. This is a weird skill to have and one that thankfully is not often needed. Other things that I can smell include the early stages of mold and mildew

57. My brains. Okay, I'm not the smartest person ever, but I am not stupid, either. I graduated 5th in my class in high school. I was a straight A student at Hollins and obtained my B.A. in English with honor. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying. I'm not ignorant.

58. Curtains and window shades. Have you ever noticed how bright and hot the sun can be, and then you close a curtain and the room temperature lowers about 10 degrees?

59. Eyeglasses. I received my first pair of glasses in the 7th grade, after knowing I needed them for most of my life. I always sat in the front at school not because I was teacher's pet, like everyone thought, but so I could SEE. I will never forget the joy of being able to see a mountain and actually see that it had trees on it, not just know that the greenish bluish blob was supposed to have trees on it.

60. TV. Okay, so I don't watch much TV, but when I am bored and too tired to read, TV is a blessing. I am including movies in here, too, I suppose, because I immediately thought of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies. Those are my favorite.

61. Air conditioning. In the summer time, this is the greatest of all inventions.

62. Heat! In the winter time, this is the greatest of all inventions!

63. Nail clippers. I am grateful for nail clippers because they keep me from biting my nails so much.

64. Fireworks. I love watching fireworks, anytime. I especially like them on July 4 and December 31. Times in between are good too, though.

65. Democracy. I am grateful that the concept of democracy exists, even though I don't think the USA is currently practicing this form of government. It's a nice idea in theory.

Thursday Thirteen

Sunday I began looking for 100 things to be thankful for. I am going to continue my list here, with 13 things, starting at Item 41, as I continue counting up.

41. My clock. I am very happy with my alligator clock that hangs on the wall of my home office. My friend Brenda gave me the clock for Christmas one year. The tail wags.

42. The telephone. While sometimes the shrill of the phone can be an annoyance, when my husband or a friend is on the other end, I am always very glad. I spend a great deal of time alone and the phone, like the Internet, is a connection to others not easily dismissed.

43. Music. I love the sounds of pop music and guitar music. some of my favorite artists are Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge and Fleetwood Mac.

44. Drive-throughs. I confess, I prefer to eat my Big Mac in my car.

45. Green grass. Don't you love the feel of it on your toes?





46. Trees. They let you know there's a breeze and herald the change of the seasons. They also give shade, fruit, nuts, etc. Trees are great!




47. Lakes. Our pond is not really a lake but it has fish and algae and frogs. On a calm day they can bring bliss.

48. A sigh. Sighing makes you take in oxygen, and that has to be good for you, right?

49. Cameras. I love taking pictures and I am really thankful for digital technology. While it has gone a long way toward eliminating particular jobs, it has opened up the medium to the masses. And I take a lot more shots with a digital camera than I ever thought of taking with a film camera.

50. Dictionaries. I love new and unusual words!

51. My college diploma. I will spare you the angst and years it took me to aquire that thing. Suffice it to say I am very grateful and very thankful that I have it to hang on my wall, even if I don't seem to be actually using that B.A. in English for anything.

52. Flowers. Another gift from Mother Nature that makes the world a brighter place.




53. My wedding ring. The eternal symbol of love. I don't need it to know I am married but I sure feel naked when I don't have it on my finger.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number 102!

Finding Grace #4

Things for which I am thankful...counting up to 100

26. My computer. The thing is an aggravation when it doesn't work properly (which it didn't this morning) but it is a lifeline to the outer world for me.

27. My pillow. A silly little thing, to be thankful for something soft yet firm beneath my neck, but I can only imagine the headaches and stiff necks I avoid because of it.

28. My socks. I love the feel of new socks on my feet. Then they are all soft and cuddly and caressing. Old socks just fit great and are comfy. They keep things dry and safe.




29. My shoes. Since I have a lot of problem with my feet, my shoes are always very welcome. Without them I would be in a world of hurt.

30. The deer outside my window. These animals remind me to be calm and curious, and to run away when I am scared. I think that is generally good advice.

31. Tears. I know crying is not considered a good thing and generally is frowned upon, but I think tears can be very good things indeed. They are cleansing. They let the world around you know that your feelings are intense (or else you've hurt your eye!).

32. Water. This goes along with tears, I guess. But where would we be without this basic? In 3-4 days, we'd all take to our beds... in 6-7 days, we'd be no more. Just imagine, no drinking water... yikes. Or what if we have enough for drinking, but not bathing or washing? Very important, this one!

33. My watch. I cannot remember ever not wearing watch. I have an obsession with knowing what time it is. If my watch breaks, I can't go an hour without seeking out a new one.

34. Butterflies. The world would be less beautiful without these little creatures, wouldn't it? Their bright wings and free-flying attitude makes things seem better when you see them.




35. Blogging. How could I not be thankful for blogging, and the way it has brought me new friends and faces? Blogging has opened up a lot of different avenues for me, even if I still don't know exactly what it is I blog about.

36. Evergreens. Without these trees, there would be no greenery in winter, and no Christmas trees! Wouldn't that be a shame?

37. And that brings us to Christmas. Here it is July and I am thankful for Christmas. Christmas as a commercial endeavor gives us all something to look forward to - a day off, something else to think about, time with friends and family. As a religious holiday, it brings about deeper spirituality and affords us a moment to remember the reason we worship.

38. Presents! One thing leads to another doesn't it? I love getting presents and will be unabashed about it. A present means someone thought about me at a time not then - not because I called them or I am in their face or emailing them. But because they were out and about and they saw this something, and they thought, Oh, my friend/cousin/sister/wife/daughter-in-law/whatever would like that. That's what is so great about a present. Being remembered.

39. Books. I can't believe I put this so far down on the list! I love books. I love to be transported to a new world, off and away from my troubles. Books open up new characters, new settings, and new ideas. The world will be a very boring place when we no longer have books.

40. Video games. I confess I am a bit of a video game addict. I love to play and I especially love games that have a story to them. Some of my early favorites were the Kings Quest series - I wonder who remembers those? They were relatively non-violent and had a story line. Many if not all video games have a story line - this is something I think folks who don't play them don't realize. It may be as simple as "invade the castle and free the slaves" and then you spend 20 hours blasting away at various goblins to get to the end, but still, there is a story. I always thought I might one day be a video game story writer but I have not figured out how to do that.

Finding grace #3

Being thankful...

16. My taste buds. I sure do love the taste of food. Especially ...

17. Chocolate. I am a choco-holic. I could live off chocolate, I think.

18. My garden. Thankfully I have healthy food just outside the back door!

19. B.J. and Ed.

20. My mother-in-law, a quiet martyr who is there if I need her.

21. My Aunt Carolyn, who is always there to listen to me whine.

22. My brother, even if he is ... well, I won't go there.

23. My niece and my nephews (Zoe, Chris, Emory, Trey) who remind me that life goes on and the wheel keeps turning.

24. Lightning bugs, because they make a summer night twinkle.

25. Stars, because they twinkle and remind me of the Higher Power and the fact that I am not alone.

Eagle Rock Library

Botetourt County is building a library in Eagle Rock.

I serve as Vice Chair of the Library Board of Trustees.



Above is the front of the building.



This is the rear of the building as seen from the Eagle Rock Elementary School parking lot.

The building will be over 9,000 square feet and will be the largest library of the four in the Botetourt County system. It will have a computer room, meeting room, youth area and a small genealogy section.

By the time it is completed and furnished, books and all, it will cost taxpayers about $1.25 million.

This is the only major capital improvement project the county is doing this year.

Finding grace #2

Being thankful...

6. My hands. I am really grateful I have hands with which to touch, caress, type and write. Speaking of which...

7. Being able to write. I wonder what my life would have been like if I had never learned to write? I can't imagine it.

8. Being able to read. The wonderful world of books, blogs and everything else is accessible to me simply because I can string ABC together in my mind. How absolutely wonderful is that, eh?

9. Being 46. I am very happy I don't have to experience the angst of the teen years again!

10. Living on a farm. I love being in the country, seeing deer, hearing owls, watching the squirrels. This slower pace of life suits me.

11. My friend Brenda.

12. My friend Leslie.

13. My friend Jules.

14. My friend Lisa.

15. My friend Inga.

Finding grace

Last night I decided I have been dwelling on negative things too much.

So I decided to try to list 100 things I am grateful for. I expect this to take several days...if not weeks.

1. My husband. What would I do without this man? He has loved me through all sorts of toil and trouble. He is my steadfast rock.

2. My Higher Power. I am not the most religious of people and my ideas about the divine do not run lock-step with the rest of the world. But I do believe there is something greater, in part because I've experienced it a few times.

3. My friends. I will group them all here as a lot but list them separately, too. I am thankful I have friends, more than I realize, sometimes. It's easy to forget that people love and care about you.

4. My health. I have a few health issues but nothing that a lot of dieting couldn't help...

5. My house. I have a roof over my head. In this day and age, that says a lot. I am so glad my husband has been able to provide this for us.

The smell of death

Sometimes things in the country happen that are very sad.

Yesterday as I headed out, I noticed a small buck deer lying in the field. He seemed to be watching traffic.

I passed my husband in his truck a few thousand yards away and we stopped to chat before parting ways. He noted the deer in the field, too.

Later he called to tell me that he had driven his truck up in the field to check on the deer. When it didn't move, he investigated further.

The poor little deer had been hit by a car. His back legs or back was broken and he could not move.

In another decade, my husband might have come home and loaded his gun and put the poor creature out of his misery, but in the New America, the land of the police state and lack of common sense, where everyone is just waiting to pounce on you and put a picture of you on Youtube, you don't perform acts of compassion. You call Animal Control and let them do it because otherwise you could be charged with a misdemeanor and heavily fined if not jailed.

My husband called me to tell me the poor deer was not just watching traffic after all. He described the scene to me and I felt shivers up my spine.

When I drove home and I passed the spot where the deer had lain, I was sure I could smell death.

It definitely colored the day.

Thursday Thirteen

Here are 13 things you would see in my yard this morning:

1. Another partially eaten bar of Irish Spring bath soap, courtesy of some critter that is supposed to find it repulsive. Instead the creature now has lovely smelling breath. This is the third bar that has been gnawed upon.



This was the second bar, not the third, to have been eaten.


2. Six-inch high sunflowers. I planted these a few weeks ago because my zinnias and marigolds had short lives, courtesy of a rabbit. I put a fence around them. I am hoping for bright sunny flowers before frost.



These are zinnias that were coming up well before the rabbit decided it needed a salad.


3. A rabbit. There he goes, hopping through the front yard. The other day I bought a box of Trix, the first time I'd purchased that cereal in years, and found the rabbit sitting on the front porch by the door. Silly rabbit.




4. Four blue spruce trees. We planted these trees about 20 years ago. My mother took us and showed us some trees we could dig up. After we'd put three in the truck, she said, "Better hurry, this isn't part of the property we just bought." We thought it was, of course, and were surprised to find out otherwise. Our stolen trees have prospered.



Birds like the blue spruce.



5. A single blueberry. Last year we planted a small Concord grape vine and two blueberry bushes. One of the blueberry bushes died. The living one has produced a single blueberry.

6. Doves. I hear them cooing in the mornings. It is a comforting sound.

7. A ripening tomato. Like many local gardeners, I've been fighting blight/fungus on my tomato plants, but I do have some on the vine. One is starting to turn a little yellow. I can hardly wait for it to turn red.

8. Green beans. My beans, which are of varying variety, are doing very well. My husband planted the beans for me and didn't mark which ones were the pole beans; they should have been staked out better than they were. They nearly throttled a tomato plant with their fast-growing tendrils before I rescued it with some wire and retraining of the vines.

9. Queen Ann's Lace. This weed grows in the fields all around the yard. This is actually the tops of a wild carrot, which I did not know until I looked it up a while ago. Folk remedies use this for contraception. Learn something new every day.

10. Clover. Our yard is not exactly the greatest. We have a lot of weeds, clover and wire grass.

11. Bees. I have seen a few honey bees this year, for which I was grateful given that last year all the talk was about honey bees dying out.

12. Forsythia bushes. These are great in the spring, when they burst out in yellow. In summer they are a nice shade of green. Ours are overgrown along the driveway. My husband leaves them like that so that in winter they will serve as a snow break to keep blowing snow from the road. They do that job fairly well.



Forsythia in the spring is one of my favorite sites.

13. Me! You'd see me out there, waving at you as you pull up the drive! Then I'd bring you inside and we'd have a cup of tea.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number101!

26 States

Put an X by the states you have been to. The average is 8; how do you match up?

Should you choose to play, here's what you do:

Copy this. Delete my Xs and add your own. Change the number at the top, and add your title. Send it on to others if you want. I'm not going to do that but if anyone does this please feel free to let me know in the comments.

Just for fun, put an O beside the states where you have lived.

Airports don't count!

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona x
Arkansas
California x
Colorado x
Connecticut
Delaware x
District of Columbia x
Florida x
Georgia x
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas x
Kentucky x
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland x
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska x
Nevada x
New Hampshire
New Jersey x
New Mexico x
New York x
North Carolina x
North Dakota
Ohio x
Oklahoma x
Oregon
Pennsylvania x
Rhode Island
South Carolina x
South Dakota
Tennessee x
Texas x
Utah x
Vermont
Virginia O
Washington
West Virginia x
Wisconsin
Wyoming x

Most of my traveling was done when I was much younger; I haven't been out of Virginia in several years, and I haven't been beyond South Carolina since 1993.

I need to get out more.

I am like a deer

Saturday as I headed to my compost pile, I thought I heard a noise in the woods.

After dumping my items in, I ventured down into the woods.

Something slunk before me and vanished into weeds.

A black cat, I thought.

To my left I saw movement, and then the noise like the rusty sound of a door opening. A turkey's head bobbed and weaved. The black animal had disturbed a hen.

She moved back and forth a while as I stood still, watching. Then she too vanished.

I moved forward a few more steps, now to investigate the wine berry bushes.

To my right I heard a rustling noise. I paused. Suddenly there was a snort, followed by a flash of brown and white. A deer dashed away.

Moving on, I discovered a rounded spot in the leaves up against a fallen log. Obviously, a deer had lain there and I had disturbed it.

This morning as I sat picking quarts of green beans, I listened to the songs of birds. They chattered, sang and serenaded me while I contemplated life's turmoils and thought about how best to spend the rest of my day, week and life. Heady thoughts for 8 a.m.

By 11 a.m. I had picked 6 quarts of beans, cleaned the oven, cleaned 8 sets of mini-blinds, washed and put away two loads of laundry, and spent time on the phone with important folks like a mentor, a lawyer and my accountant.

Here is it now, noon as I write this. The sun is burning hot and I'm already pleasantly tired. The day still beckons me toward other activities. My mind still churns and wanders.

I am curious about everything and scared of it all.

I feel great empathy for the deer.

A Writing Group?

I am seeking a few folks interested in writing in good ol' Botetourt County so we can start a little writing group.

Fellow bloggers might have some interest in the topic, so I'm tossing it out there.

The goal would be to work on our writing projects that aren't blogs, of course. Fiction. Nonfiction. Short stories, novels. Poetry. Whatever.

Critiquing would be on the project (not the person) and hopefully would be helpful on multiple levels.

To my knowledge there is no writing group in this county aside from the newly-formed Poet's Corner that is meeting at the Botetourt libraries quarterly. I attended their first meeting and it was fine, and I will go again, but I think quarterly is too far apart for the meetings. They should be monthly.

Personally, I would like to meet every other week or so.

There is a writing group that meets in Roanoke called Valley Writers. It is part of the Virginia Writers Club.

In the 1980s (or thereabouts) I tried to attend their meetings but found it so political and full of bickering that it was an insufferable experience. I understand this is different now. For one thing, I know Becky at Peevish Pen is the Vice President, and she is in the Roanoke Valley Pen Women with me, so it can't be all bad.

Sometimes I think about going. But, I find driving to Roanoke at night to be something I am not eager to do. I have trouble with my night vision sometimes and the older I get the less inclined I am to make the trip.

So I was thinking something a little closer to home might be a good idea.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Fincastle Fireworks

Every year, Willie Simmons, along with his wife Brenda and an assortment of helpers, give the Town of Fincastle a fireworks display for the Fourth of July.



The Town of Fincastle handles donations for the fireworks. At the event, they pass a hat and every year around May a call goes out for additional donations.



Donations pay the entire cost of the display.






This year's display was exceptional. For a small community, they do a bang-up job celebrating the founding of this great nation. This event definitely deserves applause.

HAPPY JULY 4!

Thursday Thirteen: No. 100

I can't believe this is my 100th Thursday Thirteen! That's a lot of weeks to come up with 13 things about many different topics. Whew!

To celebrate, I'm going to list 13 things about my favorite color.

1. The sky. Honestly, now, can there be anything more lovely than the atmosphere above our good Earth?



2. The Blue Ridge Mountains (they're not REALLY blue but they look like it, or used to, before pollution began distorting that wonderful tint of oxygen from the trees).




3. Jeans. It is really hard to beat denim.

4. My husband's eyes. Definitely one of my favorites.


(My husband at the beach beneath a blue umbrella, with his eyes hidden.)


5. The newest M&M, at least in the M&M dark chocolates that I eat occasionally. It tastes just like the other colors, by the way.

6. Cotton candy. I haven't had any good blue cotton candy in a very long time. I must get to the Buchanan Carnival and rectify that.

7. Blue iris. I love the blue iris, but unfortunately I don't have any in the yard blooming any more. I did but they either died out or were choked out by the yellow iris.



(This iris was at The Fincastle Library.)

8. My desktop. I keep a solid blue background on my desktop (old Windows default, I think it is), and that suits me fine. I find pictures and multiple colors to be a distraction.

9. Labels. Many of my favorite foods have blue labels (which says something about advertising, doesn't it). Miracle Whip and Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls and other Pillsbury products immediately come to mind, as does the Tony the Tiger Frosted Flakes cereal box.

10. Book covers are often blue. My Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus has a blue cover, as does my Oxford Essential Writer's Reference, my 2004 Writer's Market, my Freelance Writer's Guide, one of the Harry Potter books (The Half Blood Prince, I think it is, without getting up to look), and a book called Elvis in Oz, which is a bunch of short stories put together at least 15 years ago by writers at my alma mater, Hollins University.

11. Glassware. I don't have much blue glassware but my mother used to have some. I loved looking at it. I am not sure what happened to it.

12. The ocean. I almost forgot about this big chunk of blueness on the face of the world! The lull of the water, the feel of it, the smell of the salty sea. Ah, that's a vacation calling, isn't it?




13. Last, but not least, I will mention a blue violet. Not because it is a favorite flower but because it comes with a memory. When I was in the 6th grade, our class took a trip to Williamsburg. On the way home, we stopped at a K-mart and were told to buy presents for our family members. I purchased a small blue violet for my mother, which I carefully and proudly took home to her. She nurtured it well, and it sat in the window sill for years.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is my 100th one!

In Velvet

Adventures in Gardening June 2009

Here it is, the last day of June. My flowers and gardening is ongoing. Some plants are in full bloom.

Alas, last night something, I presume a deer, stripped all the leaves and blossoms from one of my roses. It is but a bare stem now.

Marigolds and zinnias, sprouting in May from seeds I planted, disappeared.

This puzzled me until last week when I saw a rabbit nibbling at my newly sprouting sunflowers (planted to make up for the lack of zinnias and marigolds). Apparently my small seedlings made a good salad. I had hoped for a lovely bounty of beautiful colored flowers. I wanted to watch them sway in the breeze and feel their life and color breathe some liveliness back into my soul.

Alas, they are gone. Hopefully netting will keep the critters from the sunflowers.

But my pumpkins I planted about 10 days ago in the flower beds are flourishing (they have fence around them).



And my rescued mums bloomed in the whisky barrel:



My 40 cent geraniums, saved from the clearance bin at Walmart, are thriving.



And the garden is looking pretty good despite its small size.



That's zucchini, watermelon, corn and cucumber visible, with tomato plants and pole beans in the rear. You can't see the bush beans or the kale. Maneuvering in that small space is getting difficult as stuff grows. The best part is there are so many vegetable plants growing in there, the weeds can't find a toe-hold!

Green Beans

When I was a little girl, my mother worked a full time job in Salem, about a block from where my grandmother lived on East Riverside Drive.

Each summer, we stayed with Grandma. Mom would drop us off on her way to work, come to see us and eat lunch, and then pick us back up on her way back to Botetourt.

My grandmother did not drive, ever, so we walked everywhere we went.

Each Friday, we walked several blocks to Front Street, meaning my grandmother, her youngest son, Jerry, who is a year younger than I (and born on my first birthday, no less), and my brother, who is three years younger than I. Sometimes Junior, my grandmother's second-to-youngest son, went along. He is four years older than I.

The purpose of the weekly visit was to do hair. Grandma would set and roll Great Aunt Neva's hair. Sometimes she'd put in a permanent. Sometimes we were joined there by Great Aunt Susie, and she would have her hair done, too. Grandma, in turn, would have hair done by one of her sisters.

Always, Aunt Neva had a pot of green beans cooking on the stove. To this day when I smell green beans I also smell hair permanent.

For those who may not know, southern green beans simmer on the stove for HOURS. And I mean, all day.

There must be no crunch left in those suckers before they are considered edible. They are also cooked with fat back or ham, and are best if they are little greasy going down. They must have changed color from vibrant, bright, alive green to dull and dark green, too.

Today as I snapped green beans and prepared to cook them for HOURS (because that is the only way my husband will eat them), I thought of Aunt Neva and how the smell of green beans simmering in the kitchen always reminds me of her.

Aunt Neva never made it past the fourth grade, but she read every single word of The Roanoke Times, including the legals and want ads, every day. She did not miss a single advertisement or any word. I don't recall her ever reading books but she devoured the newspaper.

She was married to Sam Ellis and they had several kids. We called one Scootchie and I have never known his real name. The other was Lionel, who married Darlene, who was my mother's first cousin on her dad's side, so my mother's first cousins ended up marrying each other even though they were not related. Aunt Neva also had a daughter who teaches piano up in Radford, I think. I could be confused on that, though.

I really need to get this part of my family history.

Anyway, one of the children was Sidney. Sidney had epilepsy and he was thought to be mentally retarded. My mother said as a child he was fine but he either had a seizure that left him disabled or they gave him medication that messed him up badly. I never did not know the whole story.

Most of my Aunt Neva's life revolved around Sidney. He required a lot of attention and care and she did not hesitate to give it to him.

I don't know that I could be so selfless.

It's not Friday, but I am cooking green beans and thinking of my great aunt. My grandmother passed away two years ago, yesterday, so I am thinking of her, too.

Isn't it wonderful what food can do?

The Community Yardsale

When the alarm went off Saturday morning at 4:55 a.m., it was all I could do to struggle out of bed. I think I was finished with my shower and mostly dressed before I finally woke up.

The day was already hot when at 6:10 a.m. I pulled into the parking lot at Ikenberry Orchards. Several folks were already there ahead of me.

I hauled my treasures from the car and placed them attractively on the table. My offerings included clothing, a cotton candy machine, books, VHS tapes, small doo-dads, pocket books, a couple of book bags, a digital camera that I dropped and which worked provided you didn't use the zoom, and a combination TV/CD/Radio player.

The humidity must have been about 90 percent. It was unbelievably hot. Thankfully I knew the folks who had set up next to me, and they had been smart enough to bring a big canopy. They shared their shade. If they hadn't, I would have probably been out of there by 10 a.m. instead of 2 p.m. Bless you, Sue and Howard, for being so kind.

Right away I sold a couple of pieces of clothing and a pocket book. I thought that was a good sign for a good day, but as the hours wore on I realized that at best I would pay for lunch and dinner with the earnings from this endeavor.

My husband showed up with an old TV set we needed to get rid of. I sold it for a paltry sum, but as my husband said, "At least I don't have to haul it to Goodwill."

Once you've decided something will go to Goodwill, that means you're willing to give it away. With that in mind, anything for an item is better than nothing at all.

I saw a lot of people there, including the Blue Ridge Gal herself. She had her camera around her neck and showed me an old picture frame she'd purchased from next to nothing.

Jules also dropped by. She is not a blogger but she has lots of websites, including Indulge Tea and Mobility Advisor. Hey Jules, you need a blog, too! She had her dog and daughter in tow and said she was on her way to the SPCA to get another pooch. Awww.

Gwen Ikenberry, whose husband's family owns the place, also was there. She shared her shade with me, too. We have been friends since about 1993, which is a long time in dog years and not so bad in people years, either. I chatted with her mother-in-law, Loretta Ikenberry, for a good while.

Other folks I knew were Donna from Brambleberry Blog, who also is the leader of the Botetourt Farmer's Market. She was there hawking her produce. I also saw Hal Bailey from ECI, and Jay Etzler, the county Commissioner of Revenue, both of whom I have known since second grade. They were selling produce, too. I didn't realize they were such gardeners.

I also saw my (former) editor, Ed McCoy of The Fincastle Herald,* who was shopping around for items for "his" room at his house. Must be a man-cave den or something. We chatted a while and as he was standing there at least two people shouted out to me that they missed my work with the paper. I know that was difficult for him but he didn't say anything. It wasn't his decision to cut back on my work, after all.

Other folks who said howdy were Bobby and Donna Martin, Helen Gregory, Mary Jane from the Town of Troutville, Nancy Waddell and Dot Hillard. I'm sure there were others and I don't mean to leave you out if we chatted and I missed listing you!

My husband sat with me for a couple of hours. He went for lunch around 11:15 a.m., brought it back and ate it with me, and then headed home to cut hay for our neighbor, Lanetta Ware. I roasted in the heat some more, picking up a dollar here and there for various and sundry items.

Finally, the crowd began to thin and I decided it was time to pack the car up. Howard said he was going to Goodwill and would be glad to take whatever I wasn't taking back home with me. I was very grateful for this offer.

I left behind for Goodwill clothing, VHS tapes and books. I brought home with me the cotton candy machine and a couple of book bags.

Home was very inviting. I took a shower and collapsed.

At least the house is a little lighter and the spare room is now clear and I can get into it again.

I am very glad that is over.


*I'd add a link here for the paper but the website for it has been down since early May.

Death Comes Knocking

For many people about my age, that is, young baby boomers and older Generation Xers, Thursday's double whammy of the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson was like a kick in the gut.

Most definitely it was a reminder that childhood is over and the downhill slide toward old age and death is nigh.

I was 13 years old when Charlie's Angels hit the airwaves on ABC. I thought it was the greatest show ever.

Every Wednesday night, when the show came on, I was plastered in front of the TV. I was not there to watch bouncy hair and jiggling boobs but to see three women - three very strong women - kick ass and take names. These ladies really could bring home the bacon and fry up in the pan, and never apologize for any of it.

Fawcett played Jill Monroe, and she was only in the first season (with guest appearances in a later season). The show lost a bit of its power when she left, not that CHeryl Ladd did a bad job. Fawcett's character just made it a little different show, is all.

My first "adult" hair cut was a Farrah cut. I never could get my hair to twirl and flip like hers but it definitely was THE cut for young ladies to have.

Michael Jackson's death is a loss, but he had grown so odd in his later years that I had lost much interest in him. Yet I do recall growing up with him. In particular I remember a TV cartoon show of the Jackson 5 that I watched. I also remember hearing him as a young man on the radio, and wondering if I could ever obtain such fame.

Obviously not.

There is no denying that Thriller made a huge impact on pop music and on the public at large. The album came out a year after I graduated from high school, and I wasn't in college - that was a floundering year for me. I'd been working and had just met my future husband about the time the album was released.

We did dance to it in a few clubs while we were dating but we quickly became an old married couple who didn't do the dance club/bar scene and to be honest the lure of Jackson's greatest release passed me by.

I never owned the record.

Even so, I do realize the genius of the musician and the impact of his music. His legacy will continue as musicians pick up his glove and move forward in a similar vein.

For me, this dual day of deceased means my own mortality is near. It also points out the truth that regardless of money, illnesses cannot be outrun and death comes to us all.

Heavy thoughts on a hot and humid day. It weights me down.