Happy 2013

These are a few of my favorite things...my friends and family.  Most pictures are from 2012.
I have a private journal of some important pictures from the last year.  But this one is for sharing with you.  You might just be in here!

Hope next year is a good as this one.  Like everyone I have shared laughs as well as tears with friends and family in 2012.

From Christmas past

The Sepia Saturday meme is taking a break this Saturday.
I'm not.

Here's a picture of my older son when he was a teen, visiting out of town grandparents.
He was pretty unhappy that Christmas, as was his younger brother (not in picture here).  Back-story time, at least my best guess here about 30 years later.  My sister (below holding my baby) and her two children (much younger) lived with my parents...and my parents had plenty of time to know what those grandchildren wanted for Christmas.  My sons lived a long way away, and we drove to visit the grandparents.

So instead of my two older sons having a great Christmas, it was a bit of a let-down.  They were used to having lots of toys for themselves, and instead these cousins had all the junk!  Plus their father (my ex) had the income, and would provide lots of things for them, and I couldn't.

I didn't think that this would happen, or of course I'd have made sure to have more under the tree for them.  But I also had my mind focused on other things, like having my third son on my own.  Children don't have any concept of what their parents are going through, and I forgot that.  So my parent's reactions also were also not in my conscious knowledge.

My parents didn't approve of my son's long hair (which in 1979 was really cool).  I know my father would have liked to take hair clippers to those locks that looked a lot like the Beatles.  So this was a typical visit with family that had lots of strained emotions.

I also post these pictures in memory of my nephew, Zachery, who took his life this year (when he was much older).  He's the blond in the red shirt.  

Our time together is so precious.

That week in between holidays

Some take various presents back to exchange, for size, color, fit, taste, or just the fun of choosing another version of the gift.

Some take advantage of the sales the day after Christmas.

As always, I avoid the stores.  Especially on the days everyone else goes to them.

Remember I'm an introvert.  And maybe even anti-traffic, anti-social, and certainly anti-spending.  I chose these opportunities to read a book.

Fall 2012 Blue Ridge Parkway

Just because there are bargains on things I don't need, I still don't need them.

I'll probably be cleaning up stuff anyway.  Or going for a ride and walk and taking more pictures  if the weather is nice.

My family is still visiting, so I'm doing whatever they chose to do just to spend a few more precious minutes with them.  Yesterday we drove up to Bakersville in cold rain to see Crimson Laurel's great collection of good pottery.  Then we swung around Penland while it was closed, just so an out-of-state person could see what the layout looked like.

Today, if the weather permits, the young ones will go hiking with friends.  I will be free to do something on my own...but want to be available whenever they get back from their muddy pursuits.  I'll let 'cha know what happens!

Christmas to come

Sending a whole passel of wishes that you have a happy one.
Since I wrote this several days before Christmas, I'm actually thinking of the future...while you're reading this after it's posted on the actual day of.  So I sent my wishes forward from your past, and you're receiving them in the now!

Black Mountain, NC, Jan 29, 2010

Borrowing an old photo of my front yard during our white winter several years ago.  Don't know if it will look like this again.

But when we don't have a white Christmas, we have an opportunity to make it a special Christmas for other reasons. 

What, you may ask, am I doing special this year?  My youngest adult  son and girlfriend will visit for a few days.  I'll talk on phone with grandchildren that are thousands of miles apart.  I'll talk with friends closer to me.

We will eat well.  We will visit places with groovy art.  We will laugh at corny jokes.  We may get a bit tipsy with eggnog or other potent drinks.  I for one will not worry about calories or fat content for at least a week of delectable goodies.

And throughout all these wonderful activities over here in Black Mountain, NC... I'm sending you best wishes for a happy Christmas, with all your loved ones.

And for my blog friends, I'm not taking off for the next few weeks.  I may post a few things in advance, but will probably check to see what you're up to when I get a chance.  You are now part of my life, and I'd really miss you if I didn't see what you and your animals and families are up to.

Christmas Present

That's present time, not a present under a tree, or wrapped up.  Think Christmas Past, Present, and maybe Future.

Continuous snow all day Friday, Dec. 21, but not much sticking because of winds around 30-60 MPH.

Black Mountain Library

I love sharing pictures of my sweet little town.  In January these photos will be on my new blog, however.  Living in Black Mountain, NC

I bet you thought I'd have some pictures of my decorations.  Maybe on Christmas.  For now, it's still in a process of becoming Christmas.

But I do want to sent you wishes for a very happy Christmas with your loved ones.

Christmas past

Posting thisfor the Sepia Saturday coverage...and to share some thoughts and pictures from my earlier life.  Can't post a picture of Christmas in the future anyway.  So lets enjoy the past.

In 1953 our tree was real (it may have been about the time artificial trees came out, but not for us)  I loved the colored lights (all different colors, big bulbs) and the tinsel which was strung carefully, one by one.
My gifts are on the right...and I don't know what the boxes contain, but there's definitely an orange in my stocking (lying next to my Betsy McCall doll).  I remember Betsy McCall paper dolls which I'd cut out of McCall's magazine.  The real doll was a disappointment, but I don't remember why, the capricious nature of a young girl of 11.  I did learn how to play a simple form of dominoes (right there in front).

This was taken a month before Christmas, our apartment is on the second floor, reached by the porch to the right.  I remember how snow was beautiful for about an hour in St. Louis in 1953, then the coal dust settled on it, making it all grey.  We had to be quick to enjoy playing in it.  Of course it was nice to have a coal furnace to keep us warm.  Our Texas blood (and probably clothes) made us cold easily.

The best place to sled was Art Museum Hill, though there was a lake at the bottom, and we always were scared we'd tumble into it at the end of the long hill.  My Dad was the pusher to get us going, I don't think he tried to ride down with us.  But he may have come and rescued us and pulled the sleigh back up the hill (probably).

This is my Sepia Saturday contribution for the next couple of weeks...they will be back next year!  Add your own link to the fun, if you wish, follow the instructions on their blog!  And enjoy looking at the interesting historical blogs that are linked there!

Happy Winter Solstice 2012

OK, the world hasn't ended (yet) if you're reading this. (as many more people than usual expect to happen on Dec. 21, 2012)
I loved my grandson's FaceBook postings where he asked people to send their valuables to him before the end of the world happened.  Smart guy.

Lake Tomahawk, Spring 2012

Here are a few of my favorite places, which remind me of all my friends with whom I've shared each place.  It's a time of remembering on the darkest day of the year.

Pear Tree blooming by UU Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley, Black Mountain, 2012

A community of people come together every Sunday, year in and year out, here at this small brown church.  I especially enjoy being a choir member, and recently started volunteering as secretary for the Board of Trustees.

Flat Creek, Montreat, NC, Summer 2012

Nature is my source, everyone's source.  This creek is just there.  I like to go walking along it, or sit beside it, listening to its voice in the silence of the woods.

Blue Ridge Parkway, Fall 2012

The Blue Ridge is a place set aside from the areas it passes through, and provides vistas of the mountains around it.  I'm a sucker for vistas.  Just let me get my camera.

The Clay Studio of Black Mountain Center for the Arts

The community studio of which I'm a part, as well as a volunteer once a week.  Here many people have spent time shaping mud into artifacts of one kind or another, while the actual process of creativity has changed them.  A place of exploration, a place of healing, a place of sharing, a place of sometimes hurting.

A place in which I can make my home, watching seasons change, slowly building my own space.

I'm preparing for a new blog in the new year.  One which only shows one photo a day of Black Mountain and the Western North Carolina sites.  Hope you'll visit it (and I'll include a link here when I start it).

Whatever you do this Solstice-time, enjoy being around those you love.  Make the effort to reach out to those you think might be short on human contact.  It is appreciated a thousand-fold.

I now post on this blog every other day, and on my pottery blog the other days of the week.  After all, I have a life.  Well, I want to have one, anyway.

The season's activities

When it seems humanly impossible to do more in a difficult situation, surrender yourself to the inner silence and thereafter wait for a sign of obvious guidance or for a renewal of inner strength. Paul Brunton, Meditations for People in Crisis 

A beautiful reflection of the Lakeview Center, and the light tree in Lake Tomahawk, Black Mountain, NC.

These shots were taken the night we had a Holiday program in the pavillion, with Santa visiting.

He'd also been in the parade through downtown (which is only several blocks long).

The festivities include the free hotdogs, hot cocoa or cider, fruit and cookies which the Black Mountain folks passed out to anyone who came.

Though I don't eat buns with my hotdogs, I highly recommend not feeding them to the poor ducks, who obviously disagreed with me.

I dare say this lovely lady was part of festivities somewhere along the way.

The luminaries and the sunset sky added to the ambiance of a walk around the lake in the evening.

How do I decorate for solstice, you might ask?  Hopefully with some live greenery, and some indication that this is a time for dreaming, so symbols of the night like stars, moons and snowflakes.

Do I decorate for Christmas?  Yep.  I'm also in favor of Hanukkah and Kwanza.  But the main thing of all these festivities is that we come together in community and family, sharing love in the form of gifts.  These gifts may not be worth a lot of green money, but would be really appreciated if worth a lot of green energy in other ways.  Live plants are super.  Food and hand made crafts and art are also.  These show the love between us, and can become useful. 

Self-sabotage

When it seems something pulls the rug out from beneath my feet, it just may be myself doing it, a self-sabotage has happened again.

If you're one of those perfectly balanced people who just have some clear-cut enemies who cause all your problems, then don't read about this.

Christmas 2010

Self-sabotage happens unconsciously, which is why it’s so difficult to see that we are doing it. The important thing to realize is that this very part of us that resists our healing is the part that most needs our attention and love. Even as it appears to be working against us, if we can simply bring it into the light of our consciousness, it can become our greatest ally. It carries the information we need to move to the next level in our healing process.

When we recognize that we are not making healthy choices, we might even say out loud, “I am not taking care of myself.” 

Sometimes this is the jolt we need to wake up to what is actually happening. Next we can sit ourselves down in meditation, with a journal, or with a trusted friend to explore the matter more thoroughly. Just shining the light of our awareness on the source of our resistance is sometimes enough to dispel its power. At other times, further effort is required. Asking a counselor for help is nothing to be ashamed of.

Either way, we need not fear these parts that do not want to heal. We only need to take them under our wing and bring them with us into the light.

Spring 2010

Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.  Melody Beattie

Lighting the Yule Log, 2005 Festival of Lights

This Friday is Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.  Long nights are great times for dreams.  Coming together with friends to share warmth is also a fun thing to do on long nights.

 

Romance for conservatives

Dad in an ROTC uniform

I never saw this picture until my parents were both dead.  I wonder where they had hid it all their lives...when my family kept doing it's very conservative activities and denied that romance had once blossomed for these two people.

Imagine my surprise to see the caption my father wrote in this album from his youth.  "Us Before Cupid" sounds like there was definitely something that changed from friendship into romance.  

My parents went to the same high school, and both were in ROTC, marching around in the mid 30's.  They married in 1937.

When as a teenager I tried to celebrate my parents anniversary and asked them to kiss, they refused.  I never saw anything physical between them...no touches at all.  They called each other "Honey" however.

So since my sister and I did exist, we figured out that our parents did something besides sleep in their double bed...which of course was totally yucky to consider.   I think their dedication to their religion and perhaps raising us girls, not to mention they both worked full time and kept the household, took all the romance out of their lives.  But who knows what was going on in their private lives.  After all we lived with them in the very conservative 50s.

This is my Sepia Saturday contribution for this week.

Intentions

I swear I will not dishonor my soul with hatred, but offer myself humbly as a guardian of nature, as a healer of misery, as a messenger of wonder, as an architect of peace. - Diane Ackerman

Today was day two of baker and elf helper in wrapping and sending gifts to children and grands.  After the delicious Cuban Bread, there was banana nut bread.  And now a LOT of chocolate chip walnut cookies.  Oh dear, where shall I spread the sweetness?  They have to be shipped, because I'll only have one son and girlfriend visiting, for 2 days, which means they can carry some back with them...but there's way too much for just the 3 of us.  So back to packaging and shipping.

A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” Lao Tzu

 During this season of giving, it is the intention behind the thought that is most important.

Yesterday also the contractor was working on the porch concrete.  He had to grind it, remove railings, and poured new concrete so it will hopefully drain away from the house...the raised front porch.  Nobody who visits can ever figure out which door is the front door, but a clue is you either walk into a laundry room or a studio.  What's behind door number 3?  Tee hee.  (There isn't a third door.)  I do have a wreath on the front front door.

OK, I'm out of flour and butter and sugar.  Onward!

Oh wait, I've got new ceilings being put in and painted.    But the contractor called just as I finished my shower (good timing) that he's not coming today after all.  His child is sick.  And he's going to paint all the plywood over at his house.  That's great, so I won't have to sleep elsewhere tonight.  

Hope he can finish it tomorrow.
 
Then I'll finally decorate.  I've got 2 small trees and lights, and lots of snowflakes and amoeba ornaments of various colors!

I was really grateful that I'd finished all my pottery for this year.  But I haven't after all.  So I'm out of the kitchen and back into the studio for the rest of this week.
 

 

Dedicated to the sacred...12.12.12

Miracles abound!

Enter your temple, or cathedral, or a place that brings you to connect with your concept of the spiritual.  A place known as the temenos, coming to us from the Greek verb τέμνω, meaning "to cut". 

... it signifies an area of earth or ground forbidden to mundane uses and dedicated to the sacred. The temenos was an important feature of the mythological landscape in early times, at times a shrine, temple or a sanctuary structure made by human hands, but most often an open air enclosure or sacred grove.

Virgin of Guadalupe Day, December 12.

Today we celebrate how a goddess (later to be named the Virgin of Guadalupe) sent a young indigenous man to tell the new conquering religion to build a cathedral on a sacred spot where the older culture had always venerated her as a goddess. 

Stars on her cloak, the moon at her feet, roses that bloomed in December, the depictions of this Madonna always have the same traits.  Her actual cloak became the western hemisphere's "Shroud of Turin." And she is known as a Black Madonna, as if her skin tone represents the indigenous peoples.  For more information on the Virgin of Guadalupe history and her miracles, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe

The former name of the mother-goddess was Tonantzin, and her temple was at Tepeyac outside what was to become Mexico City, and as noted in the 2 histories (both in Spanish and Nahuatl), the Spanish had only been there about 10 years when these miracles happened.

13 Indigenous Grandmothers

Miracles are available still today.  Do we see them?  Do we ask for them? Yes, especially at this time of year.

Happy Hanukkah

May we all be blessed by the miracle of light in this season.

"Never fear shadows.  They just mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby."
Ruth E. Renkel

A day since it started...sorry.  I did wish my friend and family member who is Jewish a Happy Hanukkah and happy birthday too, but she was on a cruise so didn't open the card till today.  The good thing about Hanukkah is that it lasts 8 days, like the lamp with only a day's worth of oil.  Every miracle should be celebrated.  (I'll have more about miracles later this month.)

Today is yet another sunny warm day here in North Carolina.  We enjoy it, but  may remember how it will have a flip side eventually.  But for now, I'm happy!

Remembering Green-ness

Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
--Kahlil Gibran

When the other side of the earth hosts springtime, our side (northern hemisphere) hosts the grey days of the year.  In 2 weeks we'll have Winter Solstice with  the longest night of the year.

This picture was a springtime joy and the water doesn't reflect sky so much as the green-ness all around it.  And look at that gorgeous color of the moss at the foot of the tree!

I share this with all of us looking forward to the changes mother earth brings, no matter what they may feel like.  I read a blog from Japan who just experienced another earthquake yesterday, and how his family is trying to live a normal life after they had to move from the area where the big one hit last year. 

I love reading blogs from people in the Southern Hemisphere where they share gorgeous plants and flowers.  For me, right now, it's a memory.

I share this as my Weekend Reflections contribution.

Old Family Portrait

My father's parents, and his older brother who didn't live to adulthood.  The home at 1209 Broadway in Galveston, was built by my father's father.  My father wrote the caption later. (NOTE: I'm not sure this is the home Poppy built, but it was their first home...perhaps the Swaseys?)

My impression of this picture is that the family of proud parents and new baby sat on their porch, and somehow a photograph was taken.  I note that both parents hold a handkerchief.

I know that both my grandparents survived the 1900 un-named hurricane, which had devastated Galveston.  Even that didn't bring about the changes that have been made by now, but some things were evident.  The house on Broadway was on stilts, allowing storm waves to pass under the house and hopefully not damage its contents.

My father was one of the 6 children born into this family, probably right in the home, though 2 died as children. 

I'm glad these ancestors lived to produce their families, daily going about the tasks of child care, feeding a family, schooling children, men working for a living.  My grandfather was a bookkeeper.  So was my father.

My grandfather did continue to have the mischievous grin that he displays here, when I knew him as a youngster myself.

Fund raising

When you go to a private school, you think everyone around you is prosperous.

Then you learn that there's an office (where your mother has worked since you moved here to go to this private school) that is all about fund raising.

The Patron's Office at the school was all about letting all the people who might be interested in supporting the school know what it was all about.  That was in the 1950s, so it didn't include anything beyond slide shows and tape recorded presentations.  (Of course there were also people giving talks to introduce the presentations.)  These were the forerunners of PowerPoint.

These people worked many hours to put together these presentations.  I may have seen one at some time or another, but I really don't remember.  I do remember being in the attic offices in the Administration Building where my mother worked. 

Which one is she?  The one working the tape recorder (reel to reel) wearing headphones.

She also spliced the tapes using some great mind-altering solutions.  I know I loved smelling them, one of my first chemical highs. At the time I also loved model glue, turpentine, and gasoline fumes, and coffee when perking.  I learned that even coffee didn't taste like it smelled, just as those other scents would eventually make me pretty sick.  But I digress.

The students came to St. Louis from all over the US, from 7th grade through college.  My tuition was reduced by my mother's dedicated working (a married mother with a full time job in the 50s...oh my!)   I received a million dollar education in 1955 dollars, well, maybe not quite that much.  And there was the hitch that you had to worship their god, it being a religious school also.

This is my Sepia Saturday post, about the attire worn by working people in the 50s.  Not much to say about it though.  Go see other's posts at Sepia Saturday blog.

computer out

I'm not being able to work on laptop with it's screen...so plan to carry it around till I find a fix.

See ya in the funny papers!

Reflections

A room full of reflections in that TV...while a girl and her dad play around with the spaces.

Another girl in front of windows which reflect ceiling lights...

A restaurant full of shiny reflections, as well as 2 other of my 4 granddaughters!

This is my submission to http://weekendreflection.blogspot.com/

Go see all the great photos that are posted there!