Thursday Thirteen #150

In absolutely random order, 13 people I know.

1. My nephew, Emory, and his new guitar. He and his ol' aunt (that's me) went out yesterday to make this purchase.  Emory is a student at University of South Carolina, where he is majoring in Biology. He plans to be a trauma surgeon.

2. My friend Amy, who now lives in North Carolina. She used to be my editor when I was writing for The New Castle Record. She moved away from the writing business and became a librarian, which was a very smart move on her part. She recently dropped by for a visit; I hadn't seen her in years and it was nice to catch up.

3. My nephew, Trey. He is a big wrestler at his high school. He also likes to hunt and is being groomed to take over his grandfather's business someday (currently his father, that is, my brother, is running the operation).


4. This is Rena, who works at the Fincastle Library. She is an avid genealogist and an interesting person to talk to.



5. This is Steve, the library director for the county. I serve on the Botetourt County Library Board of Trustees and so we have a working relationship. I have known him ever since he came to be the library director, which was back in 1985. He is a very nice guy.



6. Meet Ed. He is the editor of The Fincastle Herald, the newspaper I was writing a lot for up until the recession. I have known Ed since he came to the county in 1984 and have been writing off and on for The Fincastle Herald ever since then, too. Maybe right now I'm just in an "off" phase, eh? Ed worked with me to hone my writing talent and taught me how to put some of "me" into my stories so that they have a little personality.



7. My friend Leslie is a lovely lady who has listened to me complain and whine about things since 1983, when I went to work for a lawyer she worked for at the time. Though I left there in 1985 (and she's since moved on to a different job, too) we have remained friends. We have lunch together at least once a month and annually make a trek up to the Green Valley Book Fair in northern Virginia.



8. Gwen is running for the Board of Supervisors this year. She is the manager of the local family orchard and packing house. We have been friends since about 1993.


9. This is James. He is my husband. We met in October 1982, married in November 1983, built our home we live in in 1987. He is a Battalion Chief with the Roanoke City Fire-EMS Department. I am very proud of him.



10. This is my nephew, Chris. He likes to hunt, fish, farm, and drive pickup trucks. He's a crackerjack.




11. This is Amanda (left) and myself (don't look!). Amanda is a professor at Hollins University and a famous author. This picture was taken a few years ago. I had Amanda for several classes when I was working on my Masters of Liberal Arts Degree at Hollins.


12. This is Lanetta. She is my next door neighbor. She is retired and she runs a cattle farm. She also used to be an athletics professor at Hollins University.  She has been inducted into the UR Athletic Hall of Fame, the Virginia Lacrosse Hall of Fame, the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and the Hollins Athletic Hall of Fame.




13. This is my niece, Zoe. She participates in beauty pageants and just this weekend won the title of Ecusa National 2010-2011 Ultimate Grand Supreme. I confess I have no idea what that is, but there you go.


Thursday 13 is played by lots of people and you can see more folks' lists here. This is my 150th time to play.

Summer Roses

Elbow Macaroni

Over the course of the last several weeks, what with the painting and wallpapering and gardening and other things, I have managed to hurt my arm.

Specifically I have given myself lateral epicondylitis. It is more commonly called "tennis elbow," but I don't play tennis. I think I have also heard it called "housemaid's elbow" and that one I can relate to. Essentially, I've torn a tendon or two in my arm near my elbow.

One of the things that irritates this, unfortunately, is working at the computer. (Actually it hurts like the proverbial hole where the bad folks go when I try to type for very long.)

Rest and not doing things that hurt my arm is one of the prescriptions for cure.

Hence, my posting has been sporadic and probably will be for a few days.

This is one of the more painful things I have experienced in that stuff hurts that shouldn't. Taking pictures, for example, hurts. Brushing my teeth makes my arm hurt. Trying to tug the covers away from my husband makes my arm hurt. Driving, lifting a glass of water, loading the dryer with wet clothes - pretty much anything - has become a chore to be performed through gritted teeth rather than something one barely thinks about.

I saw the doctor about this today, as my own feeble efforts at cure (which consisted of occasionally trying to rest it and using Arnica gel on it) were not working. She prescribed a prescription-strength anti-inflammatory, suggested immobilization for a few days with a sling or a brace (which I could pick up at the drug store), and later the use of one of those elbow bands (see the Ace thing above) that fits just below the bend in your arm. She also told me to ice it and took me off of one of my blood pressure medications that can cause joint pain.

I picked up a sling but don't like it - I brought it home, wore it about 30 minutes, and then put it back in the box. I am thinking of returning it. However, as the day grows a little longer, and what with this weirdly damp weather, the ache is making me wonder if putting the sling back on might not be the wiser course. I can't decide. Obviously I can't use it while I am typing on the computer. But I suppose that is the point of the sling, to keep me from doing things I am not supposed to be doing while this injury heals.

I opted for the sling over a brace simply because I couldn't find a full elbow brace that fit, and I have yet to buy the little elbow band.

In any event, I miss blogging and I will try to keep it up, but I did want to let anyone checking know that I haven't stopped writing. I'm just trying not to stress this arm.

Books: Finger Lickin' Fifteen

Finger Lickin' Fifteen
By Janet Evanovich
Copyright 2009
308 pages

I last read a Stephanie Plum book in 2008. While this next title has been out a while, I waited to read it until I could get it at the library.

In this romp, Lulu gets front and center. She is always good for  a laugh and this time was no exception.

Stephanie also blew up a great number of cars. She was in between men and couldn't decide  if she wanted to go back to Morilli or not, so she spent most of her time with Ranger. Make sense? Of course.

There were a number of mysteries in this book, and Stephanie manages to solve them all.

Thursday Thirteen

Today I offer up a list of things I have thrown out in the last few months:

1. Socks and underwear. I dumped all of my white socks and all of my husband's white socks and replaced them with completely new socks. I did the same thing for my husband's underwear. It is the best way I know to ensure that he is not wearing threadbare clothes.

2. Teas. I had lying about the house a huge number of teas that I could not drink because they had caffeine in them. Many of these were gifts I had received last Christmas, and they were still quite good. I gave them to the postal service when it had a food drive in May. I was glad they would not be wasted.

3. The idea that I can't finish anything. I had it in my head that I could not finish long-term projects, or stick with something to completion. After coming up with a very long list to negate that idea, I decided it was an old notion that I needed to throw out. I have found, unfortunately, that such embedded ideas sometimes need to be thrown out again and again, as they return to the closet of the brain much like that ragged shirt of my husband's keeps finding its way back onto a coat hanger.

4. Computer and software manuals. I had every manual for every computer I had ever owned, apparently, because generally I can't resale the computers because I use them up. Finally I threw many of those manuals into the recycling bin.

5. Pillows. I have trouble with my pillows on the bed in that my neck gets crooked quite easily. I am like the princess and the pea - if things aren't just right I know it. So sometimes I go through pillows with alarming regularity. Somehow I had managed to collect 11 old bed pillows in one of the closets. I suppose I thought I might recycle them somehow. Failing that, I sent them all to the landfill. What a lot of space that freed up.

6. Plastic grocery bags. I use canvas totes when I shop but somehow still end up with plastic bags. I do not get as many as I once did but even so they still find their way home with me, wrapped around meats or used to separate frozen foods. I collect them and use them in trash cans in the bathrooms but they do pile up. I hauled a bunch to the grocery store, where they have a little collection bin specifically for these bags.

7. Old cards. I had a large assortment of cards that had yellowed and which I knew I would not send to anyone. I recycled them.

8. Tax records. I am a paper pack rat and up until recently I could have told you what we ate back in 1983, when we first married, by pulling out the grocery receipts. I threw some of that stuff away and some of it I moved to the attic.

9. Computer hardware. Two printers and a few other items found their way to Goodwill a while back. Computer stuff is really difficult to dispose of, isn't it?

10. 10,000 images from my hard drive. I went through and hit the delete key on a lot of pictures recently. I had about 27,000 on the computer and it was getting difficult to keep up with them. Who needs 14 pictures of the same flower anyway?

11. Wallpaper. I recently ripped all the wallpaper off the walls in the kitchen and repainted. It was a relief although I still find myself looking for the wallpaper and being alarmed by the plain painted walls. Hopefully I will get over that.

12. Old spices. I had a spice rack that my brother gave me sometime in the early 1990s. The spices that I had not used were still in their original bottles and still sitting in the spice rack. The other day I threw every single one into the trash. There was some satisfaction in hearing the clink of the jars as they landed next to one another. I also cleaned out my cabinet where I kept other spices and tossed everything that was out of date.

13. Old DVDs and VHS tapes. We had several VHS tapes and a few DVDS that I knew we would never watch again that went into the trash bin. We actually still have a VHS player that I use sometimes to tape a TV show, but so infrequently that I wouldn't miss it if were not available. I can't remember when we last watched a VHS tape. The DVDs that I threw away were some that were scratched and so I knew we would not watch those again, either.


Thursday Thirteen is played by many bloggers. You can see more lists here. This is my 149th time to play.

Customer Service?

Today I went to a local big-chain bookstore in search of a cookbook for a nephew who will be spending his sophomore year in college eating his own food and not the university's.

I had found the book I wanted by looking at the company's online store and had printed out the book and price. It was on sale online for about 1/3 of the retail price, even to non-club members.

However, when I asked a salesgirl if I could purchase the book in the store for the online price, I was told I could not. I was unhappy about this but I wanted the book and did not have time to have it shipped, so I decided to buy it at full price.

I told myself as I wandered the store that if I had been a store manager, I would have instructed my clerks to offer some kind of markdown in the event of a question like that, so that you did not have a disgruntled customer. And while I was not angry, I was little miffed.

Later, as I checked out, the young man behind the cash register asked me if I was a club member. You know, you pay them $20 to join and you receive a discount from the full purchase price of the book.

I told him I was not a club member and did not wish to be.

He then proceeded to tell me how much I would save and how if I bought books more than once a year I would save money.

I told him I was not interested and that the price for the club was too high.  I used to be a club member, back when it was not a small fortune, I explained, but I would not pay the price now, and particularly not when I could purchase the same books online at much cheaper prices.

He continued to pressure me about buying a card and went into a song and dance about "bricks and mortar" costing more than online sites and that was why the club was good. I finally had to interupt him to ask him to ring up my purchases.

You would think at this point someone would take the hint and let it go. However, he continued to try to get me to buy a card even as I slid my credit card through the little machine. I finally looked at him and said, "Keep it up and I simply won't be back here at all."

I picked up my stuff and walked out.

I used to shop this store a lot. I love browsing a book store but I fear that, thanks to visits like this and the ease with which one may purchase books online, that book-browsing as a past time will one day go the way of the rotary dial telephone.

I find myself in this store less and less, because each time I go in I am pressured about this club membership. It ruins the entire experience.

Customer service is an art, apparently a lost one. Today, the first clerk should have offered me the book with a 10 percent discount when I presented the online book price to her, and the second clerk should have stopped  pressuring me about the club membership the moment I said no. I don't expect to be greeted at the door with a Coke and a smile, but some acknowledgement that my presence in the store is valued might make a difference, you know?

Bambis

Baby deer.

Hatchlings

The mockingbird nest in the tomato plant now has baby birds!

The nest

A baby bird mouth waiting on mama

Here I am, mama! Feed me! Feed me!

Here's mama (or maybe daddy) but not feeding - getting ready to attack the photographer!

It is very hard to pick tomatoes when a bird is diving at your head.

My father-in-law passed away this morning.

Please pray for my husband, his mother, his sister and his nephews.

Books: Runner

Runner
A Jane Whitefield Novel
By Thomas Perry
Read by Joyce Bean
Unabridged
14 hours
Copyright 2009

Jane Whitefield has a special talent: she makes people disappear. She gives people on the run the tools they need to create a new identity and a new life.

People who are in big trouble come to her. She helps.

Whitefield is like a superhero, almost, in that she takes on all comers and takes no prisoners. She is an impressive character with a lot of knowledge.

This is a return character for Perry, who had written Jane Whitefield books previously. I was unfamiliar with both the character and the author.

In this story, Whitefield, who five years earlier had retired from helping people disappear, is approached by a young pregnant woman, Christina, who is in trouble. Whitefield agrees to help her and the two leave New York to try to outwit and outrun the goons who are after Christina.

The goons are guns hired by Richard, the father of Christina's baby. He is a psycho who wants the baby because his parents (also rather nuts) want to take away Richard's birthright and inheritance unless he produces an heir.

This was a very engaging and interesting book to listen to. There are few books that I will continue to listen to in the car in the garage when I've finished my driving around, but this was one of them.

Sickness

My father-in-law is in the hospital for a second time this month.

I have been unable to see him because I have a sore throat and a general malaise that indicates I have a virus. It is best that I not give it to him since he is already ill.

A few weeks ago we had my father-in-law and his two sisters all in the hospital at the same time. The sisters have moved on to rehabilitation clinics. My father-in-law came home for a while only to end up back in the hospital this weekend.

Getting old is not for the feint of heart.

Messy Job

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to say goodbye to the wallpaper that had been decorating my kitchen for a good 15 years or more.

The border was of a farm and the wallpaper itself had pineapples and hearts. I put it up initially because I have no back splash on the stove and I was worried about the grease on the walls, which did not wipe off well without something on them.

As you can see, it did not look especially bad. But there was a big problem.

In 2004, I had an accident with a two-liter bottle of Dr. Pepper. As I carried it in with the groceries, it slid from my hands and landed on its top. It immediately exploded, and Dr. Pepper went every where. The bottle flew around like a rocket ship, skittering in a circle on the floor until I could get it stopped.    Sticky softdrink covered the walls, the refrigerator, the telephone - pretty much the whole kitche. Even though I cleaned it, every year the wallpaper wept Dr. Pepper when the humidity was high in the house.

When I removed the wallpaper from the wall that had been splashed the most with Dr. Pepper, I discovered that the soda had eaten through the gypsum in the wallboard. The walls were damaged.

It took a great deal of spackling and many woman-hours of elbow grease to get the holes filled up and sanded back down.

My reward is a sparkling kitchen with walls that no longer weep soda pop. To protect the wallboard behind the stove, I painted with a semi-gloss latex paint that wipes off easier than flat paint.

A Radiant Me

Last night I attended a seminar at Divinity Spa, which is located in Botetourt but near Roanoke.

The event was called Seven Keys to Radiant Well Being. It was conducted by Meenakshi Angel Honig, an Internationally Acclaimed Wellness Consultant and Yoga Instructor.

My registration was a spur-of-the-moment activity, made early on Tuesday morning before I was fully awake. I had seen an announcement about the seminar on Facebook and ignored it. But when a friend sent me the information, I decided when I saw it in my inbox that this meant I should go.

Afterward I second-guessed my decision. I feared I would not know anyone there and also that I would be the fattest and most unhealthiest person in the audience. I figured it would be full of stick women who do yoga four times a day and eat alfalfa sprouts.

While there were a few of those folks there, there were also a number of older women (even older than me, old lady that I am) and many had large bellies and butts so I did not feel quite so out of place. I also knew a few of the ladies in attendance and that definitely made me feel better.

The seven secrets were not new information for me, but apparently I need the message knocked into my head many times over in order to actually practice these things.

The first secret was breathing. A few weeks ago I met with another yoga instructor to focus on breathing and in particular breath exercises for my blood pressure. So I was already doing this first secret and I was pleased about that. I felt like I was one up on the game. In yoga, a breathing practice is called pranayama and it is the life force. Life begins and ends with a breath, Meenakshi told us last night. "Breath is the link between the finite and infinite," she said.

The second secret was to visualize your body being relaxed and to tell yourself that you're an okay person. I also do this to calm down, having learned it a long time ago. There are many ways to go about this but it is a great way to bring on sleep if you're having a tough night.

The third secret was range of motion movements. This was not yoga or even deep stretching - just moving your head about, lifting your arms, pulling out the muscles. I liked this part because pretty much anyone, even someone as stiff and unyielding as I, could do these.

The fourth secret involved attitude and then taking positive actions when faced with a negative situation. Meenakshi urged us to develop a positive attitude all the time and to see the good in stuff, whatever  it may be. That is not always easy to do. And then do whatever is necessary to correct the problem, but without complaining or whining. "There is no such thing as stress, only stressful thoughts," she said.  Also, "be the writer, producer, director and star of your own movie" and give it an upward spiral and a happy ending. I liked that idea.

The fifth secret involved lifestyle choices based on a "wellness" wheel. Even this was not new to me as I had come across a similar wheel during the Life Planning class I took at Hollins University this spring. So I already had a good idea of where I am deficit. I think her wheel had a few different categories. Her categories are spiritual, nutrition, yoga and exercise, positive thinking/communicating, relationships, stewardship, and creative self expression. Can you guess which of those I thought I was deficit in? After figuring out which area needed work, one must then create an affirmation about it, write down an action step, and give it a time frame. For example, I wrote: "I now have the tools to eat right and make healthy food choices," as my affirmation.

The sixth secret was nurturing activities. Taking care of yourself. Things like taking a break from a hard day to listen to the wind or the birds, using lotion on your scaly skin, that sort of thing. Smelling the roses.

The seventh secret was to have "attitudes that release stress and enhance well being." This would be things like remembering that the check out clerk is having a hard day when she snaps at you, or forgiving people who hurt you, stuff like that.

"Feel good, feel god" Meenakshi said.

This seminar fit in well with what I have been working on the past few months. Reducing stress is almost a full time job, at least for me.

Adventures in Gardening

My garden so far this year has left me scratching my head.

First, there were the strange squash, one of which you can see on the left there alongside the zucchini in the photo above. I still don't know what they are. I ate one and it had little taste and was rather mealy. I probably won't eat another but I don't know what to do with them.

The next puzzle was the green beans. Last year I accidentally planted pole beans. Pole beans are fine (a) if you like pole beans, which I don't, and (b) you are prepared to grow pole beans. Pole beans have green bean vines that grow like kudzu in that they will take over and wrap themselves around anything near them if you don't have fence or a pole or something to train them along.

So when I purchased seeds I bought bush beans. I also switched brands, having had trouble with seeds last year that did not produce veggies.

My bush beans turned out to be pole beans. Many pole beans. Pole beans that wanted to reach the fence when they were planted in the middle of my little plot. Pole beans that crept into the tomatoes and into the zucchini and then tripped you up when you tried to to walk through the little garden. Pole beans that started bringing down the plastic netting that we used for fence. Pole beans from hell.

This morning, in a fit of pique, I ripped every green bean plant from the garden and tossed them away. What few bush beans were growing were so few in number as to be useless and the pole beans, if that is what they were, were doing nothing but growing vine. It took me an hour but I felt vindicated when they were all hauled to the compost pile.

See hole the pole beans were taking over the tomatoes?

What I am left with now are zucchini, strange squash, and tomatoes. The zucchini are doing well. The tomatoes are starting to ripen.

The zucchini are doing great!

However, one tomato plant has a visitor. Mockingbirds set up housekeeping in the farthest plant from the house.

The nest has at least five blue speckled eggs in it.

So this morning when I resolutely stomped out to rip out bean vines, I found myself being chirped at. And not only by mockingbirds. Not far from the garden a baby finch had either fallen from the nest or was failing its first flying lesson. Its parents were having a fit. When I looked later, though, I could not find the bird and the parents were gone. I hope it flew away.

Meanwhile, the mockingbird watched me from the nearby spruce tree, fluttering occasionally in consternation. I wasn't paying any attention and did not know until I had ripped out the pole beans that there was a nest in the tomato plant. This is because the pole beans were hiding that particular plant.

When I saw there was a nest I went inside and fetched my camera. When I came out I saw the mockingbird fly away.

As I moved toward the nest, momma bird grew a little noisy. When I tried to peer in to get a shot of the eggs, I heard a rustling of wings and the next thing I knew I was ducking, for she was headed straight for my head.

Needless to say, I quickly snapped a picture and moved away. I did not plan to hurt the little eggs; I only wanted to see. But of course momma bird did not know that.

Gardening this year is quite an adventure!

Thursday Thirteen

This is my 1,250th post in this blog! Wow.

I have been thinking a lot this week about creativity. I believe being creative is as much a part of being human as eating and breathing. However, it is a part that has been tamped down and stomped on by capitalism, which sees creativity only as a commodity to be bought and sold. Creativity comes about in many forms and people can be quite, um, creative, in their search for self-expression through various outlets.

So today I give you 13 ways one might be creative.

1. Writing. Computers have taken some of the fun out of writing and I highly recommend going back to pencil and paper occasionally. There is a connection between hand, pen and paper that one does not attain using the computer keyboard. It's like certain sections of the brain turn off and on.

2. Drawing. When people think of art, this is usually what they think about. Pictures on canvas. But doodling counts, scribbling counts, even making weird drawings on the computer counts, though there again I recommend paint and canvas or paper or whatever medium one prefers.

3. Decorating. Finding new ways to use old items, or splashing a coat of paint on a wall to make something look different or new, is a way to be creative. Even hunting through the pile of throw pillows in JC Pennys is an arm of this creativity, because you'll know when you see what you need.

4. Gardening. Growing something is a special sort of creativity, I think. It is almost like being The Creator in that you are taking what looks like nearly nothing and with a little love and sustenance watching something grow. And then there are gardening and landscape designs, ways of beautifying the lawn, etc., etc.

5. Tinkering. My husband looked at me in surprise recently when I said his father, who tinkers with every piece of machinery and metal on the farm, is suffering from stifled creativity. But what else would you say about someone who sits around and thinks up unique and different ways to accomplish a job? That's darned creative if you ask me.

6. In the office. I think an office that allows  for creative ways to solve problems is a much better place to work than one that does not. I once saw a chiropractor who went through receptionists about every three months, and the reason was she was a control freak who micromanaged everything the employee did, right down to the time it had to be done.

7. Time management. Creative time management means more than just multi-tasking. It is a method of living and juggling balls that takes a creative mind to make it happen. It is a form of organizing that is special in its own right, and since it frequently eludes me it is not one I can really explain. I just know it exists.

8. Exploring. Walking through the parks, woods or fields opens up a new world of wonders. There are insects, rocks and leaves to explore. Things to see. Air to breathe and smell. Clouds to view, horizons to gaze out upon.

9. Reuse. When I was about 9 years old, I took dishwashing detergent bottles and paper bags and made little lamps out of them. I then went about decorating an entire little house for myself out of such materials. But you don't have to be a child to find a creative use for an unwanted or no-longer necessary item. Even reusing a grocery bag as a trash bag in the small garbage bin in the bathroom has a spark of creativity about it.

10. Cooking. Cooking is a great outlet for frustrated creative people. Creating a great meal is like painting a masterpiece or writing a wonderful short story. It's out there for all to enjoy. You can do this every day simply by thinking about a recipe and making a few changes. I am pretty sure I have never made meatloaf the same way twice.

11. Brainstorming ideas. Talking things over is a great way to be creative. It involves many skills - listening, self-expression, communicating, etc. Have you ever watched an animated conversation of ideas? You can almost see the creativity jumping from one brain to the next. It is contagious and very exciting.

12. Self-exploration. Taking classes that teach you how to think differently, or reading books that open eyes and minds, journaling, even blogging, are all ways to explore the inner world and open it up so that stuff tumbles out. Sometimes that might be bad stuff but it can also be very good ideas, thoughts, desires, hopes and dreams.

13. Dreaming and day dreaming. Day dreaming is another passive activity that sparks creativity in movement sometimes. I highly recommend staring out the window and allowing thoughts to roam around. Sometimes I have an entire soap opera running around in my head; sometimes it is simply a visualization of something calming and soothing to ease a tired mind. But of all creative outlets, I value this one as much as anything, because while they can take away your oven or your little plot of land, so far they cannot yet invade your mind.


Thursday Thirteen is played by many bloggers. You can see who all participates here. This is the 148th week I have played!

Glebe Hill Gardens

Not far from me lies the Glebe Hill Gardens, a splendid exhibit of day lilies and hostas.

Even though it is only a few miles away, I had never been to the gardens. Last week I ventured there with a friend to see what was to be seen.

The gardens offer 1,500 varieties of day lilies, 800 varieties of hostas, 50 varieties of ornamental grasses, 100 different conifers and has two water gardens.

The place is only open for about a month in the summer.

We actually were not there at the height of bloom; that apparently had occurred a week earlier. Nevertheless, it was an impressive display of color and a fine example of very hard work.

I liked the hostas as they looked cool and refined beneath the shade trees. The day we were there it was about 99 degrees, so I also really liked the shade.



I loved this garden walkway. It reminded me of The Secret Garden.



There were an enormous number of day lilies. A riot of color, really.



This is not a day lily. This is the plant that I can't spell that is used in healing; it has antibiotic properties. It starts with an E.



The day lilies all have great names, like Fire King. I did not write down any of them, unfortunately, but I think flower growers must have a bit of poet in them.



This one had a flaming color that reached out and took command!


My friend Meg and garden owner Gary Osborne spent some time looking for just the right day lily for her to purchase. Mr. Osborne later told me he is friends of my husband's family, having coached school with James' uncle at some time and they remained friends.



This was my favorite spot; it looks like an enchanted place. I would never get anything done if I spent time in this garden - I would be mooning about, looking for fairies!

Fantasy Book Reviews

Wildwood Dancing
By Juliet Marillier
Copyright 2007
407 pages
Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher

Cybele's Secret
By Juliet Marillier
Copyright 2008
432 pages
Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher

These books are deemed "young adult" fantasies by the marketers, but to be sure I couldn't tell you why these books by Juliet Marillier and others that I have read by the same author are in different categories.

No matter. A good story is a good story. Marillier excels at taking fairy tales and myths and changing them so that they are barely recognizable. However, their familiarity lends to the telling and to the reader's enjoyment of the story simply because it tickles at those fundamentals of life that create a good tale.

In Wildwood Dancing, the reader meets five sisters who have a portal into the Other Kingdom. On the nights of the full moon, they go dancing with outlandish and foreign creatures, few who are human. Jena is the second-oldest sister and she tells the story in first person. She is a thoughtful scholar who claims to be no great beauty. It is she who insists of keeping tabs on the sisters for fear they will get lost in this other world and never return. A series of adventures and missteps almost proves her a poignant prognosticator.

Cybele's Secret takes place a few years later, with sister Paula taking up the tale. Like Jena, she is also very scholarly. She travels with her father, a merchant, on a buying trip to Turkey. There she finds a way into the Other Kingdom, only to find that the other world is not quite the same across the ocean.

Both books have themes of love and sacrifice, family duty, and adventure. They are both quest books, which I greatly enjoy, and so I found the reading of these to go quite smoothly.

Fantasy readers, particularly those who like a tale that makes them think, should find Marillier's books to be quite a treat. I have read her works Sevenwaters books and always find her to be compelling.

Not a Yellow Squash

I do not know what this is, but it is not a yellow squash.

It is supposed to be a yellow squash. That is what I planted. But this is what has grown. It is some kind of squash... but what?

I do not have a single yellow squash growing, but I do have these things. Any ideas as to what this is?

Homeplace

I am something of an amateur historian and Botetourt County's history in particular has a great hold on me. My ancestry here goes way back, as does my husband's, and we intersect with a set of many-great grandparents back in the early 1800s. That makes us cousins but at a very great distance.

Recently I've had contact on Facebook from several folks who are Firebaughs who are interested in my husband's family history. Fortunately I have done a little research on that from time to time, which is a good thing since no one else in his immediate family seems to have an interest.

Last week one of these long-lost cousins came by for a few hours and we went off to see the ancestors.

This monument is in the Firebaugh family cemetery, which is on private property not far from where we live. It is not family-owned property anymore. I think this belongs to William Firebaugh, whose descendants populate this area.

More Firebaugh Cemetery shots. Many of these folks were buried before 1860. This is a great graveyard, complete with a big ol' tree that has uprooted some of the stones.




This is Jeanne Douglass, whose parents were Firebaughs. She is a cousin to my husband, going back to that William Firebaugh fellow who had a great many kids. The tombstone she is standing by is for her grandparents. She had not visited the grave since she was a child. This is at Haymaker Cemetery.




I had actually never been to Haymaker Cemetery myself, so I found it an interesting place to tour.



As you can see, the cemetery is next to a field.



This is the Firebaugh home place, called Stonelea. It is no longer in the family, either. Legend has it that Philip Firebaugh in 1818 rode into town with saddlebags full of gold and plopped down the money for this home and accompany acreage. The stones with which the house was built were mined on the property and the quarry is still visible if you know where to look.



This barn harkens back to the days of the ol' ancestors, too - this is pre-Civil War (1861-1865, for those who aren't history fans). I have been in this barn and it has hand-hewn logs in it; you can still see the axe marks. They built stuff to last in those days.

Thursday Thirteen

Today I offer up a list of things for which I am thankful.

1. My husband, who is a fine man and the love of my life!

2. My family, even the ones I don't talk to, because without them I would not be the person I am.


3. My friends, because they are the family I have created and people who love me for me.

4. Writing, or the ability to write, which seems to be something I can't stop doing.

5. My spirit, which keeps me moving and trying.

6. The rural, mountainous area we live in.

7. Books and the ability to read them!

8. My computer and the Internet, which links me to the world.

9. My community, which generally accepts me, quirks and all, and waves at me when they see me in the grocery store.

10. My parts, like fingers and limbs and eyes and ears, which may not work as well as they once did but are still functional. How easy it is to take them for granted!

11. Good food, which makes the belly sing and the heart dance (even as it clogs up the arteries!).


12. My house, which keeps me safe, warm, snug and secure. It's a wonderful place, full of love.

13. Water, which cools me down on a hot day, fills me up when I shouldn't be eating, and makes my blood flower better. Without it there is no life, so it's kind of a big one.


Thursday 13 is played by many people, and you can read what others write on Thursdays here. This is the 147th time I have played. I hope you enjoyed it.