Happy Winter Solstice

Welcoming the dark, which has given me plenty of sleep in the last few weeks. This night is the longest of the year, and embraces all my dreams, all the emotions that create them, that give me the messages that I need to hear from my inner and sweeter, most fragile self.

Dreams have awakened me several times, with an anxious sense of loss of those I love (though they are still alive.)  I want to hold them tight, cling to them. But when I speak with them on the phone over the miles, we're casual and talk of mundane things.  My fears belong just to me.  I know the mortality of our existence, and don't want to burden them with it.  In all likelihood I will leave this earth many years before them.  What can I leave behind for these loved ones?

That seems to be what this daylight-thinking rational-being considers.  The nighttime one is triggered by that fear of loss...that never again will we converse or hug or tell each other how really worthy the other is.  And I'm talking not of a lover, nor spouse, but of sons. These men that have their own lives and loves, their own children...who carry my genes and know my hopes and fears that I imprinted upon them with my gift of their lives.

So I will always feel that connection to them, though they must be men, they must be strong, poor dears.  But I see their sensitive sides often. They tenderly care for the smaller ones in their lives. They shrug off what is more burden than they can carry.

For me, I long to embrace them. I long to no longer have the knowledge of our immanent mortal separation. After I die, one or another of them will come to empty my apartment of so much paraphernalia that is of no value to them.

WINTER SOLSTICE PRAYER by Mary Saracino

Deep night, Dark night

Night of the longest sigh

Soulful night, Sacred night

Night of the longest dreams

Cold night, Holy night

Night of unfurling desires

Womb of the world, Birther of hope

Bringer of peace and good will

Pray, pray for all good things

That suffering for all will end

That life will thrive and generosity reign

In the hearts of all humankind

That joy will rise and children will fly

On wings of prosperity

Oh hear our plea, this silent night

When the moon is round in the sky

When hopes are high and eyes are wide

with delight and audacity

May Love prevail tonight, and always

Leading us back to our Source

May we dance with the dark, without hesitation or fear

And savor her promise of plenty

Deep night

Dark night

Night of the longest sigh

May our weary hearts stay vigilant and receptive

To all that is loving and dear.

Happy longest night of 2019 - and may you enjoy your dreams...and what they give you as messages to you only.

Finding an old friend

Those of us who love books, save a lot of them...on shelves and in boxes in my small home.  But I also make sure the ones on the shelves are ones I either have already read more than once, or plan to do so soon. That plan doesn't usually actually come about unfortunately.

So when my Sepia Saturday friend Gail started talking about an old favorite chilldren's book about Christmas, which included a story about Pegasus the winged horse, I knew exactly the same book that had been in my life.  Gail also had a doll similar to one I received in the early 50's...and she got hers later in her life.  But that book is the focus today. However, here is my post for the Sepia Saturday theme which started it all.

Her first comment was:

La NightingailDecember 18, 2019 at 12:41 AM

Wonderful photos - both from the present, and in the past. I remember our Christmas trees looking like yours in 1953 - with tinsel. I didn't mind putting the tinsel on, but I hated having to take it off carefully so we could save it for the next year. I had a Betsy McCall doll too - but not until I was in my early 20s. :) I found her in a discount store on a lunch break. She came complete with several outfits and I just had to have her. She was small - only about 7" tall. You mentioned in your comment on my Sepia post that you remembered the story of Pegasus in a Christmas book. Was that the Golden Book of Christmas which featured green tissue expanding honeycomb Christmas trees inside the front and back covers, by chance? I loved that book and I did give mine to my grandchildren. They're all grown now and I sometimes wish I had that book back.

I thought I'd given it to one or another of my grandchildren...I knew my sons wouldn't really care that much about it, though maybe when they were at my knee for bedtime stories, I might have read from it.  But there it was tucked in with lots of other Christmas books all about decorating and cooking for the holidays.

That was the day which Gail had written her second comment about the book.  I quote it here:

La NightingailDecember 19, 2019 at 2:01 PM

About the Golden Book of Christmas, did you ever watch the TV series M.A.S.H.? I had forgotten the title of that book I'd had as a child and wanted to find a copy of it in a used book store but without the proper title, no luck. Then an article appeared in our local newspaper written by a columnist for a Los Angeles paper talking about the book. I still wasn't sure if she was talking about the book I was looking for, or another, so I called her. Turned out it wasn't her book, but belonged to a friend so she couldn't assure me it was the one I was looking for, but offered to contact her friend & have her call me if she was willing to do so. Turned out her friend was the gal who played the part of nurse Kelly on M.A.S.H. and she did call me and we chatted for almost half an hour about the book which turned out, indeed, to be the right one & with the proper information, I was finally able to find it! :)

And my reply:

Barbara RogersDecember 19, 2019 at 7:38 PM

Gail...you are psychic...tonight was the MASH episode re-run where Hawkeye finally notices that Kelly is a woman! She did a great job of telling him what her feelings were! And I always admired her character! That's so great that you talked with her...and she knew about our Golden Christmas Book. That's wonderful!

And then, having found my book, I wrote this:

Barbara RogersDecember 19, 2019 at 7:42 PM

Oh my goodness! I still have it! I'm going to blog about it...probably publish tomorrow some photos, and the fun we've had talking about our favorite story!

You can still see where the pop-up folded tissue Christmas Tree was glued to the opening page.  I didn't remember the tree until Gail mentioned it...and there aren't any glue marks on the inside of the back cover.

 The title page

 And there' the 1947 copyright...as well as "Pegasus and the Star."

 There are 96 some pages, so I'm not photographing them all.  I think I'll get better results scanning them.  Yes Gail, I'll send them to you too, so you can enjoy them!

I feel like that little kid again. I got this book probably when I was much younger than when I got Betsy McCall, maybe 7 or 8 years old.  I had as many of the Little Golden Books as any child probably, and remember reading them myself, probably by age 5 or 6. That was before Disney and his artists took over much of American children's books.

Thanks again, Gail, for triggering this fond memory!

Wreaths for each grave

 I don't know if I have anyone I knew or am related to in this Veterans' Cemetery in Black Mountain NC. But I saw a photo of a convoy of semi trucks full of wreaths to be placed on veterans' graves. So I wanted to see them following my appointment across the street.

 I don't know why some graves have stones, and some have flat stones, and even some have little metal markers.

 But even the flat stone grave markers each had a wreath placed next to it.

 It's sobering to see so many men and women's graves who served in our military forces.

So sayeth my Rep-ulsi-can cou-sins

Being compared to Satin, from the Rep-ulsi-can relatives:

The article that was shared by my cousin, Pat on FaceBook: HERE.

What my cousin Patricia Rogers Seliger said as her statement about the article:
"I was listening to this speech on the radio as I was driving into work and heard her say this. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Nancy Pelosi transparently announced a coup against President Trump on Thursday morning, Dec. 5, 2019, a date which will live in political infamy.

There was never any doubt that the House of Representatives will vote on a strictly partisan basis to impeach the president, but it could not have been foreseen that Pelosi would frame that approaching act as a naked power grab.

Yet that is exactly what she did.

In opening her announcement to draft impeachment charges by quoting the Declaration of Independence, she acknowledged more plainly than ever before that she is taking a revolutionary act, that she is overthrowing the established order and that, in modern terms, she has launched a coup.

Consider the words she quoted:

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another ..."

This is either wildly inappropriate or a fundamental clue to the deeper meaning of the necessity of impeachment, as seen by the Democrats. These are not the words of an orderly transfer of power via legal means. They are a confession of the underlying intent of what has long been called "The Resistance" — and that is revolution, rebellion, the overthrow of an executive power that does not conform to the expectations of an aggrieved ruling class."

In answer to this post were these comments:

Commment by Shirley Woodlock

"This crazy woman wants to be President. She will get there any way she can, if she can.

Reply by 

Patricia Rogers Seliger She would be second in line if Trump were impeached. She has to know he never will be. They didn't even come to a vote yesterday in the House Judiciary Committee. They are expected to get the vote today, and then it will go to the full House and then to the Senate. The Senate will either acquit him or hold a full trial, where a lot of witnesses will be called including Joe and Hunter Biden, and their corruption will be exposed. Unless people are living under a rock, they will find out a lot of things the Democrats don't want them to know, so why she is doing this is a real puzzle. They are digging their own graves.

 Reply:

Shirley Woodlock Patricia Rogers Seliger yes they are. She and her husband; also their company are just as corrupt as the rest of them. I am so ready to see that swamp drained.

Another cousin said:

Chris Rogers She’s not crazy, she’s evil. She has the same lust for power as Hillary and the rest, the same lust that got Satan and his followers kicked out of heaven. I just want to see her kicked out of the House and into Guantanamo!

Another comment by:

Kat Main “May the trap she/they are laying be that which ensnares them” just like Haman’s gallows. This has been my prayer!

Reply by:

Patricia Rogers Seliger Mine also.

Next comment:

Andre Lefebvre It's like watching a controlled demolition in slow-motion. Their need to assign a higher moral value, patriotism, overthrow of "evil" is making them look deranged and disconnected from the reality of their own country. The very definition of "entitledelite" right there.

Next executive order should be to limit terms of service in Congress and the Senate to curb the growth of incestuous political relationships. It's a self-serving closed-system.

Reply by:

Patricia Rogers Seliger Exactly, they are desperate to protect their "you scratch my back, I'll scratch your" system of corruption. They've had a nice little thing going enriching themselves using their position. No coincidence that many of them become multi-millionaires in Congress. We MUST have term limits. Ted Cruz has introduced a bill to that effect. Now we need justice for these crooks.

-----------------------------

I was not able to share these comments from cousin Pat's post, so I just shared the article about The Democrats (Satin? really?)

So here I am...definitely not one of these mad people.

Down-time gets filled in with...

illness.
It doesn't seem fair.

I had a week with very little planned.

Then Monday while waiting for the free veggies (thanks Bounty and Soul) to be unloaded a bit late, I started losing my voice. I attributed it to some of the moldy veggies...I saw them wipe blue stuff off the lemons. Any chemicals in the air can do the "laryngitis" thing to my throat.

By the time I picked up some tomatoes, some potatoes, and a loaf of pretty stale Ciabatta bread, and the Food Connection gave me a boxed dinner of roast beef and brownies, I was coughing again. That was a nice start of a meal which I definitely stretched with the new bread, saving half the beef for another meal.

So I started taking the antibiotics which my Dr. had given me in case I got sick while I had been traveling in the fall. And I started taking pro-biotics to counteract one of the worst side effects (for me) of diarrhea from the antibiotics.

So Thurs. I had a physical therapy appointment, and I wore a little face mask to not share my germs with anyone. The physical therapist took me seriously, put his hand on my forehead before he would even see me, and wouldn't touch me but just gave me directions, and as soon as I left, he was spraying his table with whatever cleanser he uses.

So far I haven't had any fever. But my sinuses have definitely improved, so I may have knocked out a sinus infection (which I'm prone to getting.)

I'm still coughing, and nose still runs more than usual. But I'm not tired enough to nap any more, nor did I ever have muscle or joint pains. So with lack of fever and those flu like symptoms, I'm pretty sure it's just a cold. I don't get them very often.

But when I had such a low scheduled week, I left myself open for getting sick and needing to stay away from people. However, when my friend invited me for dinner on Thur.s night, I certainly went, and enjoyed not wearing a mask. But I didn't have much appetite, though the fare was delicious. I just brought about half of it home in a box.

Next week I've got a lot to do, so I'm getting better!

500 issues of their blog!

Congratulations to Sepia Saturday! This is their 500th posting.

I sometimes share something of historic interest (to me at least). But I always find the other Sepians have some really interesting things to read about!  Since 2009 Allan and Miriam have put this theme out on blogger, with a prompt photo that I often can't match. But they are kind and let me post my dribs and drabs of old photos and stories.

Here's my first posting (or just about) from Alchemy of Clay Oct. 2010. I don't think I'd found SS yet.

And "When I was 69" started in Sept. 2012...HERE.  It was a blog that let me chat about other aspects of my life besides my pottery interets.

My first sharing with Sepia Saturday (on "When I was 69") was their edition number 150, Nov. 10, 2012...about phones and switchboards.  I certainly didn't post every week, whether on topic or not.  And usually if I didn't post, I didn't read the others' posts either. Shame on me.

What do I have to share on this momentous occasion? Head scratching, reviewing some old files...

I'll go with some seasonal shots from 2012...one of the few times I had family visit me (at least since I moved to Black Mountain NC and live in smaller and smaller places!) Since I started blogging about then, I may have actually posted some of these photos before. (Sorry friends, they aren't really Sepia, again.)

A sellfie with a digital camera (before I had a smart phone) of myself in red, and daughter-in-law, Kendra.

Son, Tai, and Kendra converse about the dinner...and I found when I visited them, they do this over just about every meal!  A couple of dedicated chefs!

Tai and myself visiting a good friend and neighbor.

 I love this candid shot of Kendra coming up with something interesting, while Tai watches.

The dinner was delicious, and I found candlelight is hard to take photos. But I was more interested in eating at the time!

And I noticed that before they arrived, I did post a Sepia Saturday about real black and white photos from the 50s...so I've posted it below, so you can visit my past Christmas.

I hope everyone has a happy Christmas, and enjoys the turning of our mother earth through the Winter Solstice and begins the next year with joyful hearts!

Friday, December 21, 2012

Christmas past

Posting this for 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!

Time's person of the year 2019

ENVIRONMENT 

12/11/2019 07:07 am ET Updated 39 minutes ago

At UN Climate Summit, Greta Thunberg Lifts Up Science, Blasts World Leaders

By Chris D’Angelo

The Swedish activist accused politicians and big business of using “clever accounting and creative PR” to create the appearance of climate action.

photo by By Chris D’Angelo

MADRID ― At a high-level event Wednesday [Dec 11, 2019] at the United Nations climate summit, Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg slammed world leaders for “misleading” the public with insufficient emission-reduction pledges and dove into the growing science that shows governments must act quickly to prevent catastrophic warming. 

Thunberg kicked off her speech at the 25th Conference of the Parties, or COP25, by telling world leaders that she wouldn’t have any personal or emotional headline-grabbing one-liners, like when she told world leaders she wanted them to panic.  

“I will not do that, because then those phrases are all that people focus on,” she said. “They don’t remember the facts, the very reason why I say those things in the first place. We no longer have time to leave out the science.” 

Thunberg highlighted numbers from last year’s sobering report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading United Nations consortium of researchers studying human-caused temperature rise. It found that to have a 67% chance of keeping the global temperature from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels ― the aspirational goal of the Paris climate agreement ― the world can only emit 570 gigatons of carbon dioxide. Studies show we are on track to blow past that carbon budget within a decade, and that meeting the 1.5-degree target requires cutting global emissions 7.6% every year from 2020 to 2030. 

“How do you react to these numbers without feeling at least some level of panic?” Thunberg asked a room full of delegates and others gathered at the summit. “How do you respond to the fact that basically nothing is being done about this without feeling the slightest bit of anger?”

Thunberg noted that 100 companies are responsible for 71% of greenhouse gas emissions, and that since the Paris agreement, global banks have invested $1.9 trillion in fossil fuels. She accused political leaders from rich countries of “misleading” people about the crisis and “finding clever ways around having to take real action,” including outsourcing emissions overseas to poorer countries and refusing to compensate vulnerable nations for climate-related damages.

The U.N. climate talks, she said, “have turned into some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition.” 

She continued:

The biggest danger is not inaction. The real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening, when in fact almost nothing is being done, apart from clever accounting and creative PR.

In just three weeks, we will enter a new decade ― a decade that will define our future. Right now we are desperate for any sign of hope. Well I’m telling you there is hope, I’ve seen it. But it does not come for the governments or corporations. It comes from the people. 

Wednesday’s “High-Level Event on Climate Emergency” also included speeches from Jennifer Morgan, the executive director of Greenpeace International, and Hilda Flavia Nakabuye, a youth climate activist from Uganda. As the panel discussion came to an end, dozens of young activists from the Fridays for Future movement stormed the stage, where they chanted and staged a sit-in to demand immediate action. 

“We need leadership on climate action, not talks,” an emotional Nakabuye said. “You’ve been negotiating for the last 25 years, even before I was born. Do you want the whole of Africa to first perish before you start acting?”

Source: HuffPost

Ah the pain in my neck

I just started physical therapy. I asked my primary doc if it might help with pain in my lower neck and shoulders...and he said yes, probably.

When I filled out the "diagnosis" questions I came into the moderate level of neck pain, I think.Without going into details, I've felt uncomfortable just sitting and working on computer at my desk, or at a table...sitting erect, not leaning on the back of a chair.

So off I went to a newly named Physical Therapist office, but the same good therapist I've seen for years, for various problems. He's helped me with my knee, my hands, my feet, and just about everything.

We set 4 goals...and he gave me some simple exercises to do at home...and an appointment twice a week for the next two weeks.

I'm really looking forward to this!

Thanks and a saga for your pleasure

Cathy Babula and I have shared going to shows together for a while...splitting the fees and the sales and wrapping, and set-up and take down often.

She has made some amazing work this year, while I've done less than usual.

We both must say a great deal of gratitude to those who stepped up and helped us behind the scenes.

The Saga of the Van Lights and getting to the show on time!

Tim loaded his van with my pots (3 tupperware bins) and shelving unit...then we met Cathy and he loaded Cathy's table and pots and shelf, after he'd already added another seat to the van so we all could go together to Marion from Black Mountain Friday evening.

Did I mention Black Mountain was in the midst of a festival called Holly Jolly? Pedestrians and police stopping traffic for them to cross the streets...a real slow-down for traffic. Happy shoppers, free treats in stores, music...you get the picture.

We took a back route to the Interstate and got as far as the first exit going east and the van's headlights began to go completely out, and we smelled that "hot wire" smell that sometimes happens with electric wires. If we hadn't had the lights go out before that exit, we would have been trapped going all the way to Old Fort on the pass over the mountain...which would have been pretty darn scary.

So Tim found his flashers button (with the help of my phone's flashlight) and we went back to Black Mountain, quickly giving up any options to get to Marion to set up by 6:30 (which was only about 20 minutes from then already.) The flashers made the van somewhat visible to other cars, and Tim knew the road in the dark, which it was!

We parked at Tim's house, which could be reached without driving through town, and he downloaded our various pottery show stuff into his other vehicle, his small pickup...which could hold one other person and half the cargo from the van. Then he took Cathy and her things to her pickup...while I sat in the dark in his very dark van in his dark front yard.

Eventually he was back with empty pickup, having again gone through the Holly Jolly crowd, or the back way (I didn't ask.)  So he loaded the rest of the stuff from van to pickup, and he took me home. But we drove directly through town, with several (infuriating?) pedestrian crowd crossings.  I was easily showing my impatience by then.

There we put things in my car. Cathy and I had decided to drive separately early the next morning to set up in Marion without Tim.  I had originally asked Tim to have a dinner as a thank you for his help, but we were all pretty tired by then (Friday night) so I gave him a "rain check."

Thus the saga of the van's lights and not taking us to set up in Marion for the pottery show.

But Tim happened to be available for unloading my car the next evening when I got home from the show, and he was agreeable for having dinner out that evening! I was tired but hungry for seafood and cheese cake for desert. And he hadn't been working on his light situation because he'd been working (with real pay as a bookkeeper) that day.

Our other helpers behind the scenes were volunteer high school students who had big flat dollies with which they loaded our things from cars to our booth, and then back again following the show. We tipped them liberally.

I love the display shelf my son gave me for putting my sculptures and pots on, but I haven't been doing much lifting lately, and putting the shelves in place required a couple of other folks to help. Thanks so much.

All in all, I'm glad I took part in this market. It was definitely different than anticipated!

Cathy Babula's pottery

 My partner in our booth, Cathy, had a green table cloth.

 Cathy Babula's exhibit, before the customers arrived at 10 am.

I think she sold around 1/3 to 1/2 of her pottery.  She was very happy!  And tired. She had been sick for a few days, and was really pushing it to just be there.  But the pottery was beautiful!

There must be something about December

When you're overloaded with holiday stuff, and even say no to some of the practices, there is always more to overload you. Well, me I mean. And I keep saying yes to more things to do!

This was the final result of my granddaughter's clay project...I hope I can see it after it had been fired...not sure if she's going to put black slip into the grooves she carved. I hope she takes a pic of it  when it's finished.  Kind of Medusa, isn't it?

So the day I was leaving Ohio, I planned to get up early to beat the rush hour traffic. Didn't work like I planned at all. I kept waking up for hours, every 3-8 minutes, at least from 4-6 am. So when the alarm went off, my poor old body bravely got out of bed, drank a half of my coffee that daughter-in-law made for me, took my morning meds, and lay back down and went to sleep. I ached all over, and was nauseous.  Great! (I had taken a flu shot, better not be sick!)

 About 2 hours of good sleep (or was it 3) I was finally ready to hit the road.  Traffic was really good at 10 am! But I went on the wrong interstate out of the loop around the city, and had to backtrack and get on the right one.

 I had stopped for gas and saw this truck carrying a couple of pristine army ambulances...so later as I passed it I had time to catch a shot or two.

 However, after about 4 hours (including some stops for gas and you know...) I was getting tired again. That means I start coughing hard, and I didn't want to drive at the same time. I was aware that getting over-tired also leads me to lung infections. So I made it to Lexington KY, and found a motel pretty early.

There are mountains all through Kentucky and Tennessee, so it's a beautiful drive even on dreary cold days. At least all the snow had been the day before.

You can barely see the top of the distant ridge has some snow on it. I never saw any along the highway! Whoopee for that! Home by mid-afternoon, and mostly unpacked that night!

On Monday I'd been asked to help out at the office at church this week. And on Tues. another woman called and said she'd also volunteered to help. So Wed. there we were trying to get the computer to behave.  Something had jammed the email program, I kid you not!

We just kept getting error messages. Then we had our friend who does i.t. come look at it, and I finally found my note as to another way to get to the email which worked.  But none of us could fix the problem.  And let's just say every time I thought something I wrote on an update to the newsletter, (which had some major flaws originally) was going to work, it later gave problems.  My friend said "it's like Mercury retrograde again and again."

We didn't turn off the computer, but put it to sleep. And we'll both look at things again tomorrow!

The sad news was finding out my friend who had been working there up till Thanksgiving week is very ill and won't be working for a long while.

I napped each day, and then had good 9 hours of sleep each night, and right now (knock on wood) I'm feeling almost normal (for me.)  I've got a long pottery sale on Saturday coming up, and have to spend as much time as possible getting things tagged and packed into bins.

Clean dog and pretty stairs

My son has cooked (mostly his doing, but with family help) a turkey, but look here, another animal in his arms!  After a muddy walk, Cody really needed a bath...and so Russ turned into a dog-washer. Here he is drying the little Pomeranian.

 Where did the breed Pomeranian develop? I'm glad you asked, because I asked a few days ago, and now I found out.
 Wikipedia says:

The Pomeranian is a breed of dog of the Spitz type that is named for the Pomerania region in north-west Poland and north-east Germany in Central Europe. Classed as a toy dog breed because of its small size, the Pomeranian is descended from the larger Spitz-type dogs, specifically the German Spitz.

And this was another skill that the man-of-the-house showed me...twining swags of greenery along the banister - which had some golden shiny bows added after I went to bed last night.  Here it is in the morning light!

I'll probably be joining all the other people on the highway Mon...am at least waiting till some of them go back to work/school. I've heard many of us have traipsed from city to city this year, and there's snow predicted tonight some places on my way home.

Going hither and yon

First of December...

A very brief double rainbow. It hailed a while ago, then bright sunshine a while, then more rain, which resulted in this. Very changeable weather!

All my granddaughters have different places to be today.
One for lunch with friends...and then someplace else.
One for indoor hockey practice...here's her uniform!

And one is in her room doing major cleaning until she leaves for work at an assisted living, where she works serving dinner.

My son and his wife will probably go pick out a tree for them to decorate at some time. They've asked me if I want to go...but I'll only want to take photos, after all, they will have to live with it for a month!