Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Almost December

In another recent blog entry, I wrote that the leaves had recently begun to change. Then, when I looked at some pictures I had taken I realized they really have not changed all that much. However, I am still looking for signs of autumn.

I suppose a crepe mytle without leaves counts, a bald cypress dropping leaves counts and one yellow leaved pear tree definitely counts.

Okay, this orange sweet gum tree definitely counts too as a sign that autumn is here. That little shrub there without leaves is called a 'burning bush'. It looks as if it might have burned already.

Changing subjects, I have so many projects going on now that I can hardly shake a stick at them all. I am making some jewelry. I am doing some around the house projects such as touch up painting outside. I am still cleaning out the garage and almost have it whittled down to nothing. I have a writing project going that is epic. I am taking a break as I write this because I might just go mad from all of the writing that I am doing presently. Even in these little art works, I write even if it is just a little letter. Fortunately, I do not have to write with a quill pen or I am certain that I would go mad. This little work might suggest that the letter is a love letter. It can be whatever you want it to be but really it is symbolic. Me + writing = Love. Even when it is a whipping, I love it.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Texas Autumn

The seasons in Texas frustrate me as I am not much into HOT weather. Warm weather I do not mind so much. Generally speaking, there is really only one season here where I live...summer. There are three other short time periods (the other three seasons) that if you blink your eyes, you might miss them. Even in winter which only lasts about a month or 6 weeks, I rarely wear a winter coat. I mostly wear sweaters or long sleeves without jackets even as none are needed. I love autumn but it is probably the shortest season of them all. Just last week, we began to have foliage changing colors. Probably by next week, the wind will have blown the colored leaves from the trees so it seems as if autumn is just a short lived dream. See what I mean, frustrating for someone who loves color so much.


Sunday, November 28, 2010

Thanksgiving

Did you have a good Thanksgiving? We had a nice one although subdued compared to years past since we were missing a loved one from our Thanksgiving table. But that does not prevent us from being thankful. As I grow older, I find thankfulness to come so easily. I am thankful for blue skies, warm sun, sweet kittens, easy laughter and so, so, so much more. I am thankful for every morning when I awake, am able to put my feet on the floor walk to the kitchen and enjoy a nice, steaming cup of coffee.

Monday, November 22, 2010

The Mystery Clown Man

I have known people in the past that were honestly frightened by clowns. It is a real fear for some. Some people are afraid of libraries. This too is a real fear. These people who fear libraries become all tight chested, heart pounding, palms sweating just upon entering a library. In a class I took on medical libraries, the vast majority of this class consisted not of librarians but of nurse practitioners learning to use a medical library. I was partnered with a person who was afraid of libraries. He was as terrified of libraries as I am of snakes. What frightens people may be difficult to understand but should always be tempered with understanding. If I was afraid of clowns, I might be afraid of this one below. On the other hand, he appears to be fairly harmless especially if he drew those cats, hearts and flowers.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Anne of Prince Edward Island

As a child, I loved the book Anne of Green Gables. I would pour over that book re-reading passages of it because I was so in love with the place she lived. She lived in a beautiful, seemingly fairyland yet it was a real place. The setting for the book was Prince Edward Island. I would pretend that I lived in the fairyland, Prince Edward Island. Fast forward many years later. I had a manager who really was from Prince Edward Island. He had left Canada to find fame and fortune. He had found neither when I knew him. He was very nice always taking us out to fun events like hockey games, baseball games, nature centers. His family owned a maple syrup farm back on PEI. I could not imagine that he left such a place. He told me all about the syrup farm. The place they made the syrup was called the sugar shack. He would bring the homemade maple syrup back to us after visiting. It was very tastey! This piece I made reminds me of PEI somehow. It seems to be Anne lying in a hammock on PEI. At least this is what I saw in my mind's eye all those years ago.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Ladies and Gentlemen...Introducing....Stella

This is Andrea with her new kitten, Stella. What can I say? It is in our genes. Stella is doing a little balancing act.


Thursday, November 18, 2010

The Sugar Plum Fairy

My mother always said "When you have a cat, you cannot have anything else." That is silly...right? Wrong. I have decided that my mother is very smart. Sugar is smart too. Since it has gotten a little cooler, that boy has dug himself a little ditch to sleep in by the front porch. It is just deep enough that he fits in it like a cat inside a bowl. Usually, he uses it for sleeping but last night, I found he has another use for it. It is also a bath tub. I apologize for the quality of the photo but I am still using my phone for everything. Call me lazy. It is okay. I don't mind. Anyway, back to Shoog...he is lounging here in his wallowing hole and taking a little spit bath. That boy is cute, isn't he? Oh by the way, see that 'gold cat' in the picture. That is a family heirloom. That thing is at least 45 years old. My stepmother gave it to someone ages ago. She made it in a ceramic class. Somehow it ended up on my front porch. I think Shoog thinks it is one of his relatives but not his mother. That is me and he knows it.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Victorian Tea Time

Queen Victoria is the monarch and it is time for tea.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Feline Lineage

What did I ever do to end the day before I met Photoshop? I cannot remember. However, it seems I can recall some form of housework. Photoshop is way more fun. This lady below looks kind of like me in Asian attire. I remember once a few years back, someone I slightly knew stopped me to ask me if one of my parents was oriental. I said no and asked why. He said 'Your eyes are slanted like cat's eyes.' I asked him, "Then why didn't you ask me if one of my parents was a cat?" He was left a little bit speechless.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Saturday Night's Alright

I was too tired tonight to make a piece for blogging so I will just continue with more of the same from the previous post.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Best Part of the Day

The Best Part of the Day is the name of a song. The best part of a day is when you go to an EJ concert and it is just beginning. The saddest part of that same day will be when he sings "Your Song" which signals the ending of the concert. EJ will always make sure you get your money's worth though. He will guarantee 3 hours worth of great music. Somehow I keep playing my lucky hand in order to score the good seats. Do you think EJ is looking straight at me in this pix below? I think he is. Even if he is not, I am going to pretend he is.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Illuminate Yourself

As I have said so many times, lots of my dreams are like epic movies. Last night was no exception. I had a dream that I was an old, wizened man looking similar to Mark Twain and was a college professor. I was some muckety-muck at a college that I think was somewhere like Savannah. I say this because there was a lot of old trees with hanging moss about the campus. I really think I was probably the dean of the college but I was filling in for a professor that I had fired because our academic standards were falling. I went into a large class and proceeded to kick bootie and take names as they say. I told the students I would expel them for cheating and expected a higher standard from them than they had been producing lately and for quite some time. I was as tough as nails. Odd dream you may say. Knowing myself, not really. I did not have to dig deeply to know the source of this dream. It stems from football. The coach of the professional team we watch about here was fired this week as I had been saying he needed to be fired for years. Any team that receives as many penalties as this team receives means one thing...poor discipline. That comes from the coach. This team has many problems but I am not delving that deeply into it here. In my dream, I took that scenario and put it into a world to which I could personally relate. Not sure where the southern charm of the dream came from though. That may require more analysis. We can learn so much from dreams. Dreams illuminate our inner selves just like this lady below is being illuminated by the lamp.


Check out the va-va-voom fairy!


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Pondering the weather and trees

Is it cold where you live? It is not cold here where I live. The weather has been very odd this year. We have not had any autumn weather yet. Yes, it is cooler than it was in the summer which I guess is what autumn is here but all of the trees are still green and none are losing their leaves yet. The greatest part about that is that I have not had to use air conditioning or heater for over a month now. However, I understand things are about to change. Tomorrow, it is supposed to begin raining and the temperature is supposed to drop some. I am never big on using the heater though and honestly, I never have to that much. Generally, my house will stay around 60 degrees even in the coldest part of the winter. 60-65 degrees is the perfect temperature to me. Last winter when my electricity was off for 5 days, the temperature did drop in the house to around 50 and it was feeling pretty cold.

This piece I made has a sylvan look about it. I do love trees and the forest look. However, the trees in my yard cause me great expense and trouble. However, they do shade the house in the summer which I know makes a great difference on the electricity use. My neighbor has a bald cypress tree that is so tall that I worry about it falling.

No sylvan look here, just thinking about France. I am not sure what the moon and the piano keys have particularly to do with France. They just fit.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Sugarplum

I have not spoken of my Sugarplum lately. Boy ran into some difficulty...nothing serious but we had issues. Therefore, I had to do some of my detective work. See, here is what happened. Sugarplum loved me. Notice I say 'lov-ed' with 'ed'? Then, we hit the skids. I still loved him but he was leary of me. He would come running to me then mid-run, he would slow to a walk like 'oh yeah, I shouldn't act so happy to see her'. Then, he would approach me with a squint. This was all very odd. I worried. He squinted. Unassumingly, I talked to several neighbors mentioning my Sugarplum to each of them after awhile. Most would say they only had seen him from a distance lately because he seemed shy suddenly. Then, one neighbor mentions to me "That cat that looks like Sugarplum has been sleeping in my garage but I run him off by getting my squirt bottle after him." Dum-de-dum-dum...DUM! Long story short, we got it straightened out. We have an agreement that she will not 'squirt' anyone anymore...Sugarplum, his look-a-like, or anyone that looks totally different even. Sugarplum does not love me again yet but I know he will eventually. True love always wins out, right? Wrong, that is mostly only in the movies but I feel confident that it will in this case.


Sunday, November 7, 2010

The Green Lady

The sky outside this lady's door is amazing technicolor. It makes me think of a dream. Do you know if you dream in color or black and white? I dream in color. Often, I ponder the colors in my dreams. Most times the colors are so vivid that it causes me to stop and analyze them. For example, in one dream, I was driving a green car. It was a bright, cheerful, grass green. I love colors. I am sure that has something to do with my vivid color dreaming.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Sisters

I think these ladies in this picture are sisters although they do not look that much alike. Do you know who you look like in your genealogy? Apparently, I look like my maternal grandmother. Many people have told me this lately. I never knew her. However, I have seen pictures of her and I do agree. I have a picture of her when she was about 16 years old. When I look at it, I feel like I am looking at a picture of myself at that age. She never knew me and I never knew her yet we have so much in common.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Tribute

My heart is broken today. My brother-in-law of  46 years passed away at midnight on November 3rd surrounded by his loved ones. We were all there to help him make the cross over to the other side. He went to the larger life peacefully in his own bed in his own home that he loved so very much.

He was the epitome of what a man should be. He loved God, his family, his cats and he never met a stranger. His heart was made of pure gold. I never introduced him to anyone that did not tell me that he was a gem of a person to know. Never really having a father of my own, he became a type of surrogate father to me.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1999. Since that time, he endured every type of medical treatment imaginable and fought through nightmares that would bring most to their knees. He was a positive person with a positive outlook on life but time and illness eventually takes us all from this world. This is how it is meant to be. Still, it makes it no less sad for those left behind.


Tommy, we will see you again soon.

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