Everyday Goddess

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2012-01-27T18:11:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

Cheers!

Snow Goddess Wisdom

2012-01-21T12:34:00.000-05:00

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,

but by the moments that take our breath away.”

~ Maya Angelou

It's finally snowing here in Connecticut - the snowflakes are as big saucers! It feels like a celebration day, the kind of day to create breathtaking moments.

In my mind I keep hearing, "make those yummy Caramels your grandmother used to make."

I'm going to combine butter, brown sugar and cream...who am I to ignore Divine Guidance?

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2012-01-13T11:58:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

Cheers!

Courageous Father Duffy

2012-01-08T20:15:00.000-05:00

image: Lee Friedlander

Courageous Father Duffy,

at the front lines bearing wounded soldiers off the battlefield,

offering them gentleness while proclaiming all is well.

Courageous Father Duffy,

at the urban front line of his time - Hell's Kitchen,

again offering gentleness while proclaiming all is well.

Courageous Father Duffy,

forever offering gentleness while silently proclaiming all is well,

standing sentinel in Times Square,

no matter who comes to tower and glare.

written for Magpie Tales #99

New Year Wishes for Everyone

2011-12-31T17:01:00.000-05:00

Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, light, wisdom, the lotus flower and fortune, and secondarily of luck, beauty, courage and fertility.

My three wishes for all of us for the coming year:

To feel Comfort: We are never alone. Look in the mirror and see your higher self. You are your own best friend! Treat yourself well. Speak kindly about yourself. Love yourself.

To act with Courage: Stand up for what you believe and act without delay. If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Your gift of giving your energy to help others is a blessing to you and to the cause.

To accept Divine Order: We are all on our own path. Sometimes the path is dark and hard to comprehend. Sometimes we get bruised by the unwanted hazards around us. Remembering to look in the mirror to find the one person who loves you will give you the courage you need to get to the beautiful garden just around the bend.

Best of everything to you and your families!

In joy,

Elise

Listen

2011-12-27T09:30:00.001-05:00

image: Bert Stern

Can you hear the warning?

"Slow down."

Can you hear the advice?

"Take care of yourself."

No.

The sound of your own laughter fills your ears.

Were you laughing at Death knowing you would always be Immortal?

Yes.

The sound of your laughter still excites us.

written for Magpie Tales

Millennium Feminism

2011-12-21T11:27:00.000-05:00

image: Lee Friedlander, 1966

blaming your brother's shadow for blocking your freedom is a flawed assumption.

stand in your full light by knowing you are shadowless.

be victorious in freeing yourself from your self-imposed cage.

uncross your own arms and spread your wings to fly sister.

written for Magpie Tales

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-12-16T19:10:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees: (honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

Aswin Jose: Casual Encounter

Heaven: Christmas Star

Karen Fayeth: My drug of choice

Tarang: Success

Cheers!

Unstuck

2011-12-12T10:13:00.000-05:00

image by Mostafa Habibi

rising incrementally from the quicksand of negative thoughts

by availing yourself of your harmonious relationship with your higher self

who gladly guides your ship upon a limitless sea of self discovery -

choose to creatively express your hard won truths -

free yourself up for sweet enlightenment.

written for Magpie Tales and for Theme Thursday

Dead or Alive

2011-12-04T15:43:00.001-05:00

Lunch, George Tooker, 1964, Columbus Museum of Art

without vision,

without coming up for air,

without introspection to see past the illusion,

how would we know if we were dead or alive?

written for this week's Magpie Tales prompt

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees: (honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

Shari Sunday: I hate the crazy Target Lady

Bella Rum: How do you love me, Amazon

Elisabeth: Guilt like a dead fish

Libraryscene: Miracle on Wall Street

Cheers!

Infinite Love

2011-11-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

When I become inflexible,
spiral me back into reality.

Make me know again
that only Love is real.

From the epicenter of our kiss
Infinite Love spirals through us.

Bringing us peace without end.

visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward

2011-11-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Awards

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees: (honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

Badass Geek: In which it's everywhere

Grace O'Malley: four ignoble truths

Judy Roney: Revelation

Olive Tree: I Am

Bradley A. Peraino: The Final Battle

Cheers!

Moon Glow

2011-11-15T14:26:00.000-05:00

Not sure why she woke up, Jessa Mae saw the full moon light streaming in through her bedroom window. Something about the quality of the moment made her want to experience it more fully. She put on her white nightgown and headed outside.

The chairs from Hoot and Scottie's wedding reception were still standing and looked surreal in the lustrous moon glow. Jessa Mae strolled around the haphazard arrangement, remembering last night's elegant reception. Hearing the crickets chirping in the grass and feeling the warm night air on her bare shoulders, Jessa Mae decided to have a seat.

Sitting still, closing her eyes and aware of her own rhythmic breathing, she was lulled into a blissful peacefulness. A soothing voice began to speak to her. Was it in her mind? Or was it in the glow of the moon's light? It didn't matter to her. She listened.

"Notice how the moon affects your energy. Gather and build your plans as the moon waxes towards full. Celebrate your creations during the full moon. Clear away your unwanted thoughts as the moon wanes. Following the moon cycle in this way is the ancient way and the harmonious way to manifestation. Be inspired to plant, harvest and clear the way each month."

Sitting a few minutes more, feeling empowered and safe, Jessa Mae thanked the Moon Goddess for waking her up.

visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt

2011-11-12T11:17:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Awards

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees:(honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

Foxglove Lane: The Sea o the sea

Isabel Doyle: Before Remembrance Day

Friko: November Light and Dark

emmett wheatfall: something curious

Kellie Elmore: Gratitude

Cheers!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-11-05T11:01:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Awards

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees:

(honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

Pattiken: Echoes

J Stewart III: Failure to communicate

Pearl: Of course, running in the opposite direction is an option

distracted by shiny objects: In Praise of the Great Bull Walrus

Cheers!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-10-29T06:00:00.029-04:00

The Goddess Award

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees:

(honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

Karime: The little things

Matadora: Flemenco quote of the day

Ed Pilolla: Peace Plan

ksdoolittle: old growth forest

Marilyn Kircus: Goodbye to Choke Canyone State Park

Cheers!

Welcome back Dr. Huxtable

2011-10-25T11:23:00.002-04:00

My daughter is not what I would call a TV addict. At 10 years of age, she has enough homework after school to keep her brain working until dinnertime, and three nights a week she has swim team. She spends a lot of time at the barn where she takes riding lessons when she's with her dad on the weekends.

All in all, she isn't wasting hours in front of the Idiot Box.

What troubled me was the content the Idiot Box was spewing.

The Disney Channel beckoned. All the girls my daughters age were watching Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverley Place and Sonny with a Chance. I watched the shows too, so I could refer to the content of a show to start us talking about values.

Disney sitcom writers would be shocked to know that due to their story lines which feature characters of dubious moral integrity, my daughter and I have had many great conversations about bullying, greed, exclusion, promiscuity and tolerance.

Essentially, I put their bad examples to use for good conversations.

Considering the fact that watching TV was pretty much inevitable, I decided to introduce us to the Huxtables, via the Cosby Show.

And to hear my sweet daughter laughing out loud because of some very well thought out storyline makes me know that I made the right choice.

Note to Disney sitcom writers: take a refresher course. Watch the Cosby Show and learn.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-10-15T06:00:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees:

(honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

The Bug: Ghost Jam

Stephen Hayes: A killer case of the hickeys

Argent: Why I can't get nuthin' done around here

jane.healy: socialising

Sinbad and I on the Loose: The little birdhouse on the prarie

Ruth: Tesselating

Cheers!

To the Willow Manor Ball

2011-10-12T20:42:00.001-04:00

The Willow Manor Ball is in full swing and I am delighted to be on my way!

Paul and Robert are so wonderfully understanding. They both had their hearts set on taking me to Tess's fabulous soiree. I just couldn't decide, so I said, "why don't the three of us go together?!"

Oh here they are! I do adore a Bentley, don't you? Must dash!

Being whisked around by Paul is exhilarating to be sure!

"What's that you say, Paul? Oh why yes. Robert does look a bit perturbed. You sit this one out Paul. Enjoy your cigar. Ta, darling!"

"Yes, Robert, I did notice you gazing at me from afar. The white tie is a nice change! Champagne for me? Of course, how nice!"

Before it gets too late, I must check in with Mr. Linky so Tess and everyone else knows we are here! What a splendid evening!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-10-09T06:55:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees:

(honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

Elliot MacLeod-Michael: Nirvana

Ricky Shambles: Occupy Cincinnati

Boom Boom Larew: I'm a fun person...really!

Annie (Lady M): How about this for a coincidence?

Teresa Evangeline: Girl in the Woods

Cheers!

Recalculating

2011-10-04T11:07:00.000-04:00

I began blogging three years ago as a way to vent my frustrations about big changes in my life.

I was a Bitchy Blogger.

I liked to be on a tirade against something, someone, anything, anyone. I used sarcastic humor as my MO. It was cathartic in some ways. Mostly, it was just petty.

Gradually, I realized I was ashamed of myself. Ultimately, I realized something vital.

My life is not something that is happening to me. My life is a work in progress that I am creating.

If I wanted different, I had to be different.

I began writing stories based on Tess's Magpie Prompts, and word themes from Theme Thursday. My ideas for stories excited me. My stories flowed.

I learned how to tap into my enthusiasm. And that opened up many more opportunities for me to be enthusiastic about. My offline life is exciting now too.

I am different.

I am not saying I'm not writing stories anymore. I am not signing off. I am listening to my inner Garmin voice who patiently says, Recalculating.

Recalculating online time and offline time. Finding the happy balance for both.

While always enjoying being an Everyday Goddess.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-10-01T08:41:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees:

(honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

Orkneyflowers: My favorite rowan, guardian of the hill

Letters of Note: Each of you is special, just because you're you

That Gentleman's Lady: The best way to wake the neighbors

Vicki Lane: Dumpster Reading

Cheers!

Becoming

2011-09-26T11:10:00.000-04:00

I am turning 49 today.

My forties have been the best decade of my life in the sense that I have become the woman I have always wanted to be.

The path I've walked to get me here has not been easy.

Events I had always feared happening to me actually did happen to me.

Divorce and financial set back are grim, life changing situations.

At some point in my early forties by the grace of Heaven above, I made a beautiful discovery.

I do not have control over what anyone else in my life does.

At the same time, I always have control over how I feel about what they do.

It is always up to me.

Knowing that truth has been the transformational key to my becoming the woman I have always wanted to be.

I'd like to share this birthday card with you, even if today isn't your birthday!

Deep within our being is a place of peace, joy and knowing.
It is a place called love.

We are not taught to live from that place for ourselves.
We are taught to shower it on others.

We do for others what we will not do for ourselves.
We give to others what we think we do not deserve.

We turn to others for the very feeling that comes from the self.
We are love from the core of our being.
It is the energy by which we were born.
We breathe love.

Why can't we learn to love ourselves the same way we love others?
If we can live from our being of love, we can't help but attract more of what we are.

Love is what we are.

When we know that and live through it, we can live "in love" with ourselves.

I Am love.

From Acts of Faith

by Iyanla Vanzant

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-09-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees:

(honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

Jenne Andrews: The Wings of Our Comprehension

Sukipoet: Gravity

Momma: Welcome Fall

Gemma: Animals doing weird things

Chris David Richards: Bloggity blog blog

Cheers!

Charming Hoot

2011-09-20T20:56:00.001-04:00

The Snake Charmer, Henri Rousseau, 1907

The Ballad of Scottie and Hoot

Gather round if you want to hear

the story of how Scottie won her dear,

Hoot Finley Haskell was his name,

by wooing ladies he made his fame.

Phoebe Julia Scott aka Scottie, set out to charm

into marriage ol' Hoot, on whose arm

many a beauty had been hooked

it was a wedding band for which they looked.

Hoot played the field ad nauseum

the ladies trampled each other because of him,

but ol' Hoot was happily noncommittal

enjoying his popularity way more than a little.

Scottie also found him quite desirable

the thought of losing him was fully unviable,

so she set out to attract him

by means of distraction.

Hoot found Scottie's seeming indifference

quite alluring, which lead him into a wilderness

of self doubt, unease and insecurity

his confidence was blown into obscurity.

Scottie played the perfect snake charmer

by advancing, retreating, thus chinking his armor

and in four years time

attained her place sublime.

Hoot and Scottie became man and wife

and when they embarked upon their new life

Scottie never forgot to use her aloof strategy

occasionally to bring Hoot back in line quite tacitly.

the rest of the Sonny Fuller saga can be read by clicking here

visit Magpie Tales for more thoughts based on this picture prompt

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-09-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees:

(honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

This week's honorees:

The Giraffe Head Tree: The Creative

Bernie Krausse: Large Carpenter Bee

Wyomingdiva: Notebook

bkmackenzie: glass houses

Cheers!

Visitation

2011-09-14T20:53:00.000-04:00

"I'm glad you're here Sonny. You just keep riding the White Horse to get here, easy as pie. Hit that ol' button again so you can stay for a while. I've missed you."

"Dad?"

Jessa Mae awoke at the sound of Sonny's voice. She had been sitting beside his hospital bed for two days. "Sonny, open your eyes. You're dreaming again. Your dad is not here. Listen to me, baby, I'm your wife. I'm real. I'm here. Come back to me."

Sonny heard Jessa Mae's voice and pressed the button controlling the Morphine drip for another dose. He wasn't ready to talk to her yet, but he was ready to talk to Beau, his father. Beau died during a routine parachuting exercise while in the Army when Sonny was less than a year old. Sonny's mother Jayleen raised Sonny as best she could on her own with some help from Beau's brother, Red.

"Just relax into it, Sonny. You're with me now. I missed you all these years. Keep hittin' that ol' button. It's the good stuff, alright. Pure. Not like the stuff I used to get, the stuff that finally..."

"Wait. What? Uncle Red told me you died during a routine parachuting exercise when you were in the Army. You mean that isn't true?"

"Well now, I ain't callin' my own brother a liar, but I was in the hospital just like you are now. But it wasn't because of no parachuting exercise. And I never was in the Army. The pain, well you know how it is. After they let me out of rehab, I found my own White Horse. Not pure hospital stuff, but it worked real good for a while."

"You were never in the Army? You were a junkie, and OD'd?" Sonny was confused. Part of him knew the Morphine was interfering with his right mind, but he wanted to hear the truth.

"Let's just say I found a way out of the rat race. You can too. Hit that ol' button again, keep talking to me. Stay here with me. I missed you Sonny."

Pain shot through the white haze and Sonny opened his eyes. He saw Hoot standing behind Jessa Mae. Sonny almost pressed the button again for relief, but he stopped himself and said, "This is where I'm stayin'. This is where I belong."

visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt

click here to get the back story on Sonny Fuller

All you need is Love

2011-09-10T09:52:00.000-04:00

No matter where we live or what we do, we have so much in common.

We love our children and want a better world for them;

We cherish time with our loved ones;

We want to have the monetary freedom to do anything;

We want to feel like what we do matters;

And we want to be treated kindly by others.

In the end, the paths may look different,

but the truth is the same for us all.

Choose Love.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-09-09T11:06:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

Touring the blog world is a fascinating journey for me. I find a stunning variety of voices out there combining a high level of creativity and originality. It's all quite remarkable, which is why I include this feature on my blog.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this week's honorees:

(honorees: please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!)

Dash: French Sampler

Brian Miller: We all bleed, read

Anna: Stuck

Debbie: Can I get an Amen?

Dave King: A Gooseberry Garden Spell to Prove a Lover

Cheers!

The Accident

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

"You better get a move on now Sonny, that major league scout is coming to watch you pitch today," Hoot said as he walked Sonny out of their office at the ranch. "I'm real proud of the accounting work you've been doin', you got a damn fine head for numbers." Hoot led the way out to the driveway while saying, "Now show 'em how it's done from the pitchers mound."

"I will Hoot," Sonny said and paused to shake Hoot's hand saying, "It's been a good year thanks to you. Jessa Mae and I are a happy, ol' married couple living here at Paint the Sky ranch while I'm learnin' bookkeeping from the smartest damn millionaire in Colorado, meanin' you of course. Just like you said, a smart fella needs a back up plan, and now I've got one." Getting into the pick up, Sonny added, "And who knows? Maybe after today I'll be promoted to the major's!"

Hoot was on his way back to the office when he heard the familiar sound of a landing helicopter. "God I love that woman," he said aloud and headed out to meet her.

Stepping from the landed copter, Scottie said, "I've been thinking about something since the last time I was here. Let's ride out to the ridge and I'll show you what I mean." She took Hoot's hand as they walked to the stables to saddle up for their ride to the ridge. The four years they had known each other had been hard for Hoot. He fell in love with Scottie the moment he first saw her, and proposed to her several times over the years. She always said he was on her list. He just hoped she meant it.

They arrived on the north facing ridge and Scottie said, "Let's unsaddle the horses and lie out for while. I'd like nothing better than to be here with you, watching the glorious sky change overhead." Hoot reclined against the base of a tree while Scottie laid her head on his chest. He wound a strand of her chestnut colored hair around his finger absentmindedly. The drone of an airplane approaching barely disturbed him.

Scottie, leaning up on her elbow to look into Hoot's eyes said, "Watch that plane up there Hoot. I'm painting the sky over your ranch with words from my heart. The message is for you."

The sky writer spelled out "Marry me Hoot." Hoot held Scottie's face in his hands and said in reply, "In my heart, I already have. I'm glad it's finally mutual, darlin'." They lost track of all time while they kissed.

They were drawn back to reality as Jessa Mae galloped up the ridge shouting, "Miss Scottie, Mr. Hoot! Sonny's in the hospital! We've got to go to him!"

Dr. Gordon met them personally outside of Sonny's room. He explained what happened. "Sonny was driving along route 491, near Cortez, when he saw a truck stuck in a ditch and the driver standing alongside it hailing him down. He figured he had enough time to stop. They decided Sonny would push the truck from the rear while the driver tried to drive out of the ditch. Sonny lost his footing in the gravel and jammed his shoulder hard into the trailer hitch. The impact dislocated his shoulder joint, permanently damaging the ligaments, tendons and muscles of his right shoulder. He'll never pitch again. I gave him a prescription for Morphine. He's going to be out for a while."

Jessa Mae went to his bedside, kissed his sleeping lips and sat beside him. Her tears rolled unstopped down her face while she waited for Sonny to wake up. Hoot and Scottie took seats at the foot of the bed, too sad for words.

The hospital room was silent until a man entered, a very agitated, uncomfortable looking man. He said, "I am Bruce Gilmore. I was on my way to watch a pitcher from our farm team, a kid who we thought we'd promote to the ranks. My truck went off the road and into a ditch, and I tried hailing down a few cars before Sonny stopped to help me."

Almost shouting at this point, Bruce went on to say, "I didn't know who he was at the time - he didn't tell me his name! He started to push my truck out, and then I saw him slip down. I turned off the engine and ran to the back of the truck. Sonny was doubled over in pain. It was horrible! I drove him here in his truck."

Bruce laid his briefcase on the side table and opened it saying, "I have the papers here with me, the ones I was authorized to give Sonny, to promote him." Bruce pulled out the contract from his briefcase and handed it all to Hoot.

Taking the papers Hoot said, "I'll make sure he knows. Everything." Rising from his chair, which somehow made Scottie and Jessa Mae feel safe and everything under control again, Hoot added, "Mr. Gilmore, you better leave. Now."

Catch up with my stories involving Sonny Fuller and Magpie Tales by clicking here: Magpie Tales prompt #77 and my story: Proposal

continuing with Magpie Tales prompt #78 and my story: Paint the Sky Ranch

followed by Magpie Tales prompt #79: Couples

and be sure to visit Magpie Tales the host site for weekly inspirational picture prompts

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-09-02T11:02:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible, so I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Angela: Candid camera ain't got nothing on me.

Keely: I would never boycott you guys

Marinka: I'm right, you're wrong.

Jeanne: Sleeveless in Seattle

Tania Kindersley: Bonus Post. Of pure rage.

Cheers!

Author's note: It's good to be back online, circulating through he blog world. Hurricane Irene made herself a nuisance in my town. Power lines still down, schools remain UN-opened for the new year...but we are lucky and grateful that there was not any real damage to home and hearth.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-08-27T06:00:00.027-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible, so I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Old Ollie: Midnight Kinhin - a response

Lucychili: concatenate

Suldog: Defenestration

Momo Fali: Lessons in Grace

Bryan: Don't Make Me Cut You.

Cheers!

Couples

2011-08-22T20:32:00.000-04:00

Jessa Mae and her sister Joyce Margaret were driving up with Sonny to Hoot's ranch. Sonny was telling them about the night he and Hoot went out to the ball field.

"I was sure ol' Hoot wasn't gonna be hittin' anything I threw by him. I smoked him a fast ball to start, 'cause I was kinda mad at him for making me feel like I was a dumb kid when I first told him about my plan to be a minor league pitcher. And you know what? That ol' sonofabitch smacked it clear outta the park. I ain't never been so surprised in my life. Come to find out ol' Hoot could have been a major league player when he was my age, which was nearly twenty-five years ago."

Jessa Mae took Sonny's hand and said, "Never mind ol' Hoot. He likes you now anyway. And it's real nice of him to let us be married here on his ranch." Jessa Mae's happiness was contagious. Both Sonny and Joyce Margaret were smiling just a wide as she was as they arrived at Paint the Sky ranch.

As Sonny walked the girls to the main house he said, "Hoot said he was gonna be out herding cattle today, and I should ride out to meet him. He's teachin' me some about ranchin' Jessa Mae. I'm gonna make you a damn fine husband, no matter what field I'm workin' on," and he gave Jessa Mae a kiss on the cheek. "You two sisters get set up in your rooms and keep makin' those weddin' day plans! I'll be in with Hoot around sundown," and Sonny left for the field.

Hoot was out rounding up cattle when he caught site of the familiar helicopter landing on his property. He thought to himself, for the thousandth time, "Damn, I love that woman."

Phoebe Julia Scott, or Scotty as she preferred to be called, emerged gracefully from the copter and was headed straight for Hoot. She had just completed one of her aerial photography commissions. Scotty had a busy flying schedule and a long list of clients which suited her just fine. Her passion for her work meant that she hadn't settled down yet, even at forty.

Hoot fell in love with Scotty when they met at the Governor's inaugural ball four years ago. Ralph Beval, Hoot's childhood friend who was now The Governor, was one of Scotty's clients. After a week of getting to know each other, Hoot proposed to Scotty. Her answer wasn't what he expected.

Still, their passion for each other was undeniable. Scotty strode up to Hoot, tipped his hat back, kissed him hard on his lips while letting him scoop her up into his arms. She said, "How's my cowboy? You happy to see me?"

Hoot smiled, smoothed a strand of her hair from her eyes and said, "Scotty, there ain't one day goes by that I don't hope you'll drop on down here, to stay. For good." The look in his eyes almost made her cry. After a moment, he charmingly asked, "When are you gonna make an honest man of me, and marry me?" His smile dipped a little as he hoped for her to finally say Yes.

Scotty winked at Hoot saying, "You know, I've been hired to shoot property in all 50 states now. I'm narrowing down my list of things to accomplish. Don't worry, you're on there too, Hoot. One of these days I'll fall to earth for you." They held hands as they walked over to a shady tree to watch the hired men bring in the cattle just as Sonny came riding up.

Hoot said, "Scotty, this here is Sonny Fuller, newly minted Triple A pitcher. He's kin to me by blood, and it seems, by baseball." Hoot patted Sonny on the back and added, "I'm teachin' him about ranchin', just in time too ya' know, he's gonna be an ol' married man by week's end."

Hoot went on to say, "Fool of a boy showed up here thinkin' all there is to do in life is to play baseball and get married." Hoot's eyes were kind, even if his tone wasn't.

Sonny didn't mind, Hoot was right. He said, "Sir, I was a fool boy that day I showed up here, only a month ago. I'm a different person now thanks to you. I'll make you proud." Sonny's look of sincerity lingered on his face while Hoot looked at the fine young man who was turning out to be like a son to him.

"Jessa Mae and I are duly grateful to you, Hoot, for letting us have our wedding here," Sonny said. "She's gonna be the prettiest bride anyone ever saw."

Hoot, taking Scotty's face into his hands and looking directly into her eyes said, "Yup, the prettiest bride anyone ever saw."

Author's note: Looks like Sonny Fuller isn't ready to leave just yet! If you would like to read the first two stories based on the wonderful Magpie Tales picture prompts, follow these links:

The first installment is Magpie Tales prompt #77 and my story: Proposal
continuing with Magpie Tales prompt #78 and my story: Paint the Sky Ranch

Click here to visit other writers and read their stories for this week's picture prompt at Magpie Tales #79

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-08-20T13:39:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Melinda Owens: Dog Dags

Terresa: Tabula Rasa

Ecogrrl: Quarter til Ten

Steven: I am here...very briefly

Mary: Silence

Cheers!

Paint the Sky Ranch

2011-08-16T10:19:00.000-04:00

There was a note on the front door for Sonny Fuller. It said, "I'm out checking fences. Put your gear in the upstairs bedroom at the end of the hall on the right. Make yourself something to eat in the kitchen. I'll be back in by sundown. Hoot Finley Haskell."

Sonny was grateful that no one was around to see him gawking at the place. He thought staying with his Uncle Red's cousin was going to be some kind of hill billy nightmare. He was dead wrong. This was Paint the Sky Ranch owned by Hoot Finley Haskell. Uncle Red's cousin was a damn millionaire and no one ever told Sonny.

As he wandered through the main rooms of the house, it began to dawn on Sonny that Hoot Finley Haskell was not only wealthy, he was damned smart too. The entire length of one hallway, from the entry hall to the game room, was lined with diplomas and framed pictures of the same man doing different things: bull riding at rodeos, shaking hands with the Governor, cattle driving about a thousand cows, and lastly in a tuxedo dancing with a woman in a ball gown out on the front lawn of this very house.

Sonny was sitting in a rocker on the front porch when Hoot came around the corner of the house. "So you're Sonny Fuller. Red told me you'd be here today. We had a long day out there, damn fences. What about we cook up a steak? Come on in and tell me about your plans."

Hoot's kitchen was nicer than any that Sonny had ever seen, even on TV. They were getting dinner ready when Sonny said, "I'm fixin' to try out for the minor leagues. Pitching. I appreciate your lettin' me stay with you while I'm tryin' out." Sonny was pretending to be a lot more sure of himself than he really was. Inside, he was a jangle of nerves.

Hoot could see the boy was scared shitless and said, "Well, I heard you were going ahead with it, and I sure ain't one to stop anyone from following his dreams. I'm just wondering what you're going to do if it all goes the wrong way. What a smart fella always has is a back up plan. What's yours?"

Sonny was sitting at the marble topped table, fork and knife in hand when he said, "I ain't gonna need no back up plan, sir. I can throw a pitch at over 90 miles an hour. I'm sure to get a place on the minors. From there, I'll get picked up to a major league team by the time I'm 21, that's in two years, sir."

Laying his linen napkin across his lap, Hoot said, "Boy, you truly are as dumb as you look, ain't ya!?"

Sonny's heel skidded off the rung of the wrought iron chair he was sitting on causing his sneaker to squeal like a piglet on the polished floor tiles. Beaded with sweat across his forehead, Sonny said, "With all due respect sir, I'm the best pitcher those minor league scouts are gonna see for miles around here. A pitcher is what I'm gonna be." They finished eating dinner in silence.

While they were clearing the table Hoot said, "Tell you what Sonny. I'll drive you out to the ball field tonight. You pitch a few to me. Lemme see if I can get a hit off ya. Go get your stuff. I'll meet you out in front in a few minutes."

Eagerly, Sonny grabbed his pitchers bag from his room and was out front at the truck in no time. Hoot went to the game room to get his custom made baseball bat. On the way, Hoot was thinking to himself, "That boy is gonna have a back up plan come mornin'. My batting average was good enough for the majors when I was his age. I just didn't like playin' baseball as much as I liked ranchin'."

As he walked down the long hallway with the photographs of himself lining the walls, Hoot could hear in his mind the old scouts shouting, "Here comes Shoot the Sky Haskell. Hoot Hoot!" It made him smile.

As he got in the truck, Hoot saw a similar smile on Sonny's face. It was the smile of confidence, calm and happy all at once. "Damn, I sure hope he is as good as he says he is," Hoot thought to himself. Out loud he asked Sonny, "You ever considered workin' on a ranch?"

click here to meet Sonny Fuller

click here to read more posts based on this picture prompt at Magpie Tales

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-08-14T06:00:00.015-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Anna Brones: Top 10 Oddest Food and Foodie Blogs

Stickhorse Cowgirls: Vintage Recipes

Kristen Haskell: God bless the Avocado

Noor: Chai Haleeb

Deborah: The Meaty Treat

Cheers!

Proposal

2011-08-09T15:42:00.002-04:00

Summer Evening, Edward Hopper, 1947

"Aw, c'mon Jessa Mae. I done told you already why not." Sonny was getting short tempered. He knew how to handle his temper on the pitching mound, but around Jessa Mae, it was a whole different ballgame.

Especially lately. Jessa Mae had gone from a skinny kid into a full blooded woman, almost overnight. Sonny knew he was a fool to leave her home while he went up to Jackson to try out for the minor leagues, but there was no other way out of small town life for him. He had to go. And he had a plan.

"My mama and daddy say you're just dreamin' about being a baseball star, and that you should just pick up some tools in your daddy's garage and learn somethin' real from him." Jessa Mae thought they had a good point, but then again, she knew Sonny was stubborn, and stubborn was a good thing to be, she reasoned. It had worked for her many times already. Except now.

Sitting next to her on the porch wall, Sonny said, "Listen to me now, Jessa Mae. There ain't no way we can both go to Jackson while I try out. I'm gonna be stayin' with my uncle's cousin way out on some hillbilly farm, most like in a hay loft. That ain't no place for you. You just stay here, all nice a cozy, and I'll be back here to marry you and take you with me once I get on to the team." And he took out a small black box.

Jessa Mae's eyes grew wide and she let out a little shriek. "Sonny Fuller! You got me a ring? Are you really asking me to marry you?"

Sonny got down on one knee and said, "Miss Jessa Mae Rogers, I'd be the happiest man on Earth if you would be my bride. Just as soon as I'm pitcher on a minor league team."

Jessa Mae was kissing him before he could stand upright when her daddy, A.T. Rogers, came up the front steps. "Hey now, hold on a minute there boy. You got to show some respect around my daughter. She ain't to be treated like that. Ain't it time for you to be goin' home?"

"Daddy, Sonny just asked me to marry him. He gave me this ring. And I said Yes. Let's all go in and tell mama." Jessa Mae's excitement overwhelmed her daddy's shock enough to get him moving into the house, otherwise he might have stood there in a daze, for who knows how long.

A.T.'s mind was racing. Married? Wasn't she just his little girl? She was only 19. Sonny Fuller? Shit. Dammit. Married to Sonny Fuller? Aw Hell. What's her mama gonna say?

Dragging Sonny by the hand, Jessa Mae flew into the front room where her mama, Birdie, was talking on the phone to her aunt Gussie. "Mama, I'm gonna be a bride! Look at my ring from Sonny!"

Birdie dropped the phone and stood up saying, "Oh my Lord! Lordee! Child, what is goin' on?"

Proudly, Jessa Mae put her arm around Sonny and said again, "I'm gonna marry Sonny. Just as soon as he's pitcher on a minor league team."

A.T and Birdie looked at each other, then at Sonny, then at Jessa Mae. They both knew there was no way they were going to win out over their daughter's stubbornness.

It was Birdie speaking for both of them who asked, "Y'all want a church wedding, or one right here at home?"

Now it was all up to Sonny.

visit Magpie Tales for more posts based on this picture prompt.

Soaring

2011-08-07T06:00:00.004-04:00

Artist: Peter Max

What I learned from Mother Nature:
sit at the sacred campfire,
aligned to inner peace,
be crystal clear with your intentions,

to soar with new wings.

visit Monkey Man to add your story written with 160 characters - including spaces!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-07-23T16:26:00.001-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Stafford Ray with Cockroaches and digital watches

That Janie Girl with Dry Dry Dry

Cheeseboy with My Open Letter Redbook Magazine

Deborah with Before I Die...

Katherine with Foundations

Cheers!

I'm going to be on pause for a week.
No computer.
No technology.

Unless you count the flashlights.
And the fiberglass tent poles.
And the air beds.

The idea struck me,
everything has to stop
at some point
in order to keep going.

Resting.
Refueling.
Reconnecting.

Back to nature,
to visit Mother,
to celebrate!

And wait until you hear about the new campfire cooking recipes I've developed!
Seriously Goddess worthy.

The very thought of you

2011-07-19T10:01:00.004-04:00

I was an eight year old flower girl in my aunts wedding in Omaha, Nebraska when I first remember hearing this beautiful song. My brother and I spent many summers with my mother's parents. It's where I learned to play Canasta, to play chess, to first learn about the constellations in the night sky.

Our grandmother would walk with us to the town pool every morning for swimming lessons. In the afternoon, we would watch Perry Mason with her while our grandfather took a nap. He called it his committee meeting. I always believed he actually left the house to meet people at his office at the university. My brother later told me the truth. True gentleman that my brother has always been, he didn't taunt me for being so naive.

All of my mother's side of the family arrived for the wedding. My flower girl dress was an innocent shade of peach and the flower petals I tossed were from pink roses. To me, my aunt looked like a living Barbie doll, which to an eight year old girl is incredibly beautiful. Of course, her husband looked like Ken.

The wedding couple's first dance was to We've Only Just Begun by the Carpenters, another great love song. Sometime later, The Very Thought of You sung by the amazing Billie Holiday was played.

It wasn't the first time I saw my parents dancing together I'm sure and I've heard this song many times over the years since then. And each time it brings me right back to being an eight year old girl who is just beginning to catch on to the idea of True Love.

And even though I didn't write it, I still feel like it has become my internal soundtrack representing all that is True Love.

Today is Day 18 in the 30 day musical challenge issued by two of my blog friends, Stranger and Me

The prompt for today is to write about a song you wish you wrote.

This is my choice.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-07-17T06:00:00.010-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Rinkly Rimes with Pink Elephants

Chris Mancini with Baby on a Budget

Dulce with Another today

Lucia with Amaretto cookies

Gaurang Rao with Poem 159 - Vanamahotsava

Cheers!

Camping

2011-07-15T15:43:00.001-04:00

I was at the beach yesterday when I ran into some friends who I generally see during the school year. It was a glorious day, big puffy Caribbean like clouds floating through a sky so blue Mother Nature herself was surely proud.

It was my turn to answer the favorite summer question: "Where are you going this summer?"

"Camping. In a tent. For five nights," I said, with a broad smile.

"Camping!?" they replied in unison. Then a peppering of questions, "...with the bugs?...five nights?...in a tent?...what about toilets?...and showers?...are you out of your mind???

Obviously they were thinking this:

when in actuality, when I camp out, it's more like this:

Our trip isn't for another week, so I have plenty of time to gather my oasis gear.

Remember, just because it's camping, it doesn't mean it can't be chic.

Courage

2011-07-13T10:10:00.001-04:00

People of Chilmark, Thomas Hart Benton, 1920

How do you play The Game?
Hoping no one is watching?
Hiding in your self made garret*?
Or do you self righteously proclaim,
Little I ask, my wants are few**.

Are you so caught up in the day to day monotony of living without Courage
that you have lost sight of The Game going on all around you?

Have you forgotten your part
is to acknowledge your Courage
and accept that Life is depending on you,
waiting for you,

to take your place in line,
to play your part.

What you do,
how you do it
when you do it,
affects every person,
those in front of you,
those behind you.

That is how important you are.

Draw upon your Courage,
play The Game knowing that everyone
is watching,
is affected,
is waiting,
for you,
to take your place in line,
to play your part,
for the forward movement of
The Game.

to read more one shots visit One Shot Wednesday

**to read more posts based on this writing prompt visit Carry on Tuesday

to read more posts based on this picture prompt visit Magpie Tales

*to join the quest for intriguing words visit 365 Word Quest

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-07-10T06:00:00.014-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Mama Zen with Bare Feet Burn

J Cosmo Newberry with The Green Grassy Patch

Titanium with Homing

Grandmother with A Grandmother in Rome

Outsiders

2011-07-05T17:00:00.006-04:00

I changed my name from Honoré to Rachel when I began working at the house since men are reluctant to hire a prostitute with a virtuous name. Yesterday afternoon, on December 23, 1888, Vincent came to see me at our house on Rue du Bout d'Aeles. I've been working at this house for five years ever since I ran away from my home in Montpellier. Vincent's name changed when he moved here too. The townspeople call Vincent, Fou Roux, and after what he did yesterday, and despite the many times he and I talked as if we understood each other while I watched him paint, I am beginning to think the townspeople may be a bit right about Vincent.

It was last Thursday when Vincent was out in the wheat field painting, when he said to me, "I greatly admire Gauguin, and I am beyond joy that he has come to Arles to paint with me. I desperately want him to treat me as his equal. But Gauguin, that old man, he is so arrogant and domineering!"

At that moment, Vincent seemed like a little child who needed help, so I said, "I know how that is. Old men can be vicious. My father was like that. Enfin, Vincent. Don't let Gaugin disturb you. Your paintings are full of light and color! I don't know how you see so much more than everyone else." It was true. The patterns he saw in the world around us made me wonder about what I was really seeing, or rather, not seeing.

Vincent, still agitated, said, "Oh Rachel, you have no idea how Gaugin and I quarrel fiercely about art! I am terrified that my angry outbursts will make Gaugin leave me! I am tortured by excessive tension!" He was visibly shaking, sweating a little too.

I needed to put an end to this discussion quickly before Vincent did something to hurt himself. I said, "Keep painting then Vincent. Forget trying to persuade an arrogant old man that you are right and he is wrong. You are right about your work, just as he is right about his work. You both have great talent." And then, trying to lighten his mood I said, "Do you think all of us at the brothel agree to use our talents the same way?" Vincent roared with laughter and I could tell whatever storm was raging in his mind had passed for the moment.

There was a dark cold rain falling yesterday afternoon when Vincent came to see me. I could tell he was in a great panic. His words were tumbling out and he was pacing around my room bumping into what little furniture I have. He said, "That old bastard! How dare he tell me my work is flat! That I use color only because I have no talent for form! I'll give him form!" And with that Vincent drew a razor from his pocket, stood in front of my mirror, grabbed hold of his left ear and with a quick downward stroke of great force Vincent cut off his own ear. Over my own screaming I heard him say, "Give that piece of form to my friend Gaugin!" He staggered from my room trailing blood down the hallway. Gaugin found him at the yellow house, lying on his bed unconscious, his head covered in blood.

Vincent is at the hospital now, in a critical state. As for me, the shock of what I witnessed haunts me continuously. My thoughts plague me too. I should have stopped him. I should have known he was going to get violent. I should have called for help while he was in his tirade. He may die now. It will be my fault for not protecting him. Who am I? I once was Honoré. A bright girl whose father beat her often for thinking too much of herself. And now I have the chance to think more of someone else. I will go to Vincent's yellow house and wait for him to come back. I will take care of him. I will make sure that no more harm comes to him. I am again Honoré.

click here to visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-07-02T06:00:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Christine with Welcome

Laurie Kolp with Slippery

Vodka Mom with How does your garden grow?

Lolamouse with The Zen of Strawberries

Cheers!

More to it than meets the eye

2011-06-29T09:48:00.000-04:00

Evan's first trip to a live performance of the New York Philharmonic was for is fourth birthday. Up until then, Evan's experience with classical music had been in the controlled environment of his home on Madison and 80th.

Evan's parents, Sloane and Raphael, met when she was studying at Julliard to become a conductor. Raphael, sixteen years her senior, was a Broadway show producer. When their love affair produced Evan, they agreed to settle down and raise him together in a home filled with music, language studies and travel. Evan was an unusually expressive child, often heard to gabble on and on in his crib. One day, Sloane was arranging the French books in Evan's room while listening to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 when she distinctly heard 18 month old Evan say "Tchaikovsky." Sloane and Raphael always knew their son was special to them, but this was the first time they thought he might be special in a much broader sense.

As Evan grew and increased his vocabulary, he described the moods, colors and shapes he saw when any music played. He was especially fond of Khachaturian and the other Romantics since their music produced the most delightful range of images. Every day after language studies, they would listen to the Classics. Sloane would conduct the unseen orchestra, Raphael would be the audience and Evan would recount the changing moods, colors and shapes that filled the air above their heads. For them, it was bliss.

The decision to visit the New York Philharmonic came about suddenly. Evan expressed a desire to see a production the way his parents and other people saw one. They explained to Evan that other people were going to be in the audience, and they would probably not welcome a four year old child's ecstatic experience. He would have to remain in his seat, unspeaking, for the entire program. Evan agreed and they planned to attend a matinee.

Arriving at Avery Fisher Hall was like coming home for Sloane. How many times she had walked through the main lobby dreaming of the day when she would bring her children here to see their first concert. Evan sat between Sloane and Raphael. Their seats were on the aisle just in case they wanted to leave early.

The long awaited performance began. At the sight and sound of the first notes of Borodin's Polovtsian Dances, Evan's excitement was clear. All at once, he pressed himself against the back of his seat, opened his eyes wide and smiled a huge open mouthed smile that didn't fade during the entire production. For Evan, watching a live musical performance was not only rich in beautiful sounds, it was an incredibly visual and emotive experience.

Evan described his visions and feelings to his parents on the cab ride home. He remembered every note, every nuance of mood and color. His parents could only catch a glimmer of Evan's profoundly beautiful perception of music. Arriving home, Evan ran straight for his easel and paints. Sloane and Raphael stood in awe of their beloved son, watching as Evan combined colors on his canvas while explaining to them his own understanding of Sound.

It was the first of many canvases that Evan would produce over the next few years. It was not the first time that Sloane and Raphael considered their son to be a remarkable soul whose message was clear: There is more to everything than meets the eye.

author's note: I based my fictional character Evan on a remarkable man named Daniel Tammet.

click here for more writings based on this picture prompt at Magpie Tales.

and click here to visit 365 Word Quest #538 Gabble

Brazilian Treat

2011-06-26T15:01:00.000-04:00

10:30am, doorbell rings.

neighbor boy selling homemade brazilian brigadeiros for
50 cents a piece.

best $5.00 i've spent without leaving my house.

try telling a story in 160 characters or less at link up at Monkey Man's Sunday 160

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-06-25T06:00:00.022-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Sukipoet with 4 short poems

Emma Wallace with Favorite Scents of Summer

Robin with Art Journal

Heather with Where I'm From

Steve E with Experientially Knowing

Cheers!

Jubilee

2011-06-21T18:41:00.000-04:00

Augustine Jubilee Henderson was the name written in perfect girls boarding school cursive on the back of the sepia photo. Heather came across it in a box she found in the crawl space under the stairs in her uncle's lakehouse. The box itself was marked Yard Sale. There were other items, a pewter serving platter, a cut glass vase, three faded peacock feathers and a beekeepers hat. Heather was quite delighted with her find.

Uncle Malcolm didn't come to his lakehouse anymore. He lived at The Gables now. Heather was his favorite niece so she had the keys to his house on Henderson's Lake. She remembered all the times Uncle Malcolm had referred to his lake house as "his lady on the lake". Maybe there was a reason, maybe she would have to inquire further, maybe there was more to Uncle Malcolm than met the eye.

Wednesday morning after the residents finished breakfast was the best time to visit The Gables. Heather arrived with the photograph in her shoulder bag. Was it her imagination or did Uncle Malcolm look a touch more sparkly? He had always been pleasant looking, and Heather remembered her Aunt Lillian, Malcolm's wife, saying that Malcolm was the best looking beau of all her suitors which was why she married him. Heather always had the feeling that Aunt Lillian was a bit of a phony. Oh well, they had stayed married for fifty three years, so Uncle Malcolm must have seen something good in Aunt Lillian.

Heather sat across from her uncle at the side table by the east window. After chatting about the recent tennis match scores from Wimbledon, Heather brought out the photograph. Her uncle's smile was immediate, like he was immensely pleased to see an old friend. She watched his expression and mood change to sadness just as quickly. Heather took hold of his hand and asked if he was alright.

Malcolm sighed, took a pocket square from his jacket and wiped his eyes. He pronounced her name with reverence, Augustine Jubilee Henderson. Each syllable was controlled and measured as if he was announcing her presence to the world. Malcolm had never seemed so poignant to Heather before.

Malcolm met Jubilee when they were both eighteen. She was vacationing with her parents at Mohonk Mountain House at the same time Malcolm was with his parents. Both families lived in Manhattan, hers on the Upper West, his on the Upper East, and both of their fathers were doctors. The families got on well together and no one minded the instant attraction between Malcolm and Jubilee. They continued to date through the next year while Malcolm attended Columbia University pre med. Wedding plans were made for after Malcolm's graduation.

Aggie, Jubilee's best friend from Miss Porter's school, invited all her classmates to a summer party at her parents lakehouse. All the girls had plans to marry over the next year, and this was to be their last vacation as single ladies. There would be canoeing, swimming, tennis and they planned to put on A Midsummer Night's Dream for fun. Jubilee left Manhattan by train, telling Malcolm she loved him and would see him at the lakehouse when they were ready to perform the play.

On the third morning of the girls vacation, Jubilee went for a swim after breakfast. All the girls were on their way down to the lake from the house, chatting happily about the day's upcoming events. Jubilee was a good strong swimmer and swam for the wooden float twenty yards out in the lake to lie in the sun for a bit. As she approached the ladder attached to the side of the float, her leg caught in the anchor line. Jubilee called back to the girls on shore that she was stuck, but they needn't worry. She dove under to loosen herself from the rope and hit her head on the pylon that jutted out from beneath the float. Jubilee was immediately knocked unconscious and drowned in an instant. The tragedy renamed the lake forever as Henderson's Lake in memory of Augustine Jubilee Henderson.

Uncle Malcolm eventually married Aunt Lillian and bought the house where Jubilee spent her last days. It was Aunt Lillian who marked the sepia photograph of Jubilee for a $1.99 Yard Sale item. It was Uncle Malcolm who secretly retrieved it and hid it away beneath three peacock feathers and a beekeepers hat.

written for Magpie Tales, a picture prompt writing site

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-06-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Petrina Lesko with The Single Red Brick

Pattiken with Hootenanny

Brian Miller with The short life of swans

Teri with Yesterday's Walk

Gaelyn with Full moon rising over Grand Canyon

Cheers!

Cupid

2011-06-14T20:31:00.001-04:00

Gwen loved living near the shore and she especially liked to walk the long stretch of sand at the beach. She went any time she had a chance. On her way home from yoga class one afternoon in late February, she decided to go for a quick walk at the beach. For some reason, as she drove into the parking lot, she felt a rush of excitement, like she was about to be surprised by something really nice. She pulled into a parking space near the sandy beach.

There weren't many other people down at the beach that day. It was a bit nippy but she loved the bracing wind. The parking lot which on a Saturday in July would have been completely full, was now just an empty lot. Raucous seagulls dropped clams hoping for them to crack open to become their dinner. The only people about were some die hard runners, a few fitness walkers and one mom with her teen aged daughter learning to parallel park.

Once out of her car and into the frosty air, Gwen knew she would have to keep moving if she wanted to stay warm. Good thing she had her down jacket and favorite handmade purple knitted hat and scarf to wrap up in. She trotted onto the beach and stumbled on a piece of driftwood under the frozen crust of snow. Glancing at it more closely she saw a perfect little spiral shell attached to one of the crusty wooden limbs. The shell itself was like a tiny gem, so smooth and meticulously engineered. Gwen popped it in her pocket to take home with her to add to her growing collection of natural marvels.

The wind was picking up so she started to run a bit startling a group of seagulls. They flew up calling their song of surprise and she envied their ability to fly. Gwen kept running to the end of the beach and decided not to keep going on the cinder path trail that wound around the point. On warmer days she loved the view from that side of the beach. It was a great place to watch the sailboats or freighters on their way up and down Long Island Sound. She turned to walk back when she saw someone flying a kite, about half way down the long beach.

Gwen used to love to fly kites with her dad when they had family picnics down here at the beach. Her dad taught her how to make the kite climb higher and higher by letting out the line slowly once the wind had caught in it. With a tingle of excitement, she headed down to see what was going on up close. As she approached, Gwen could see the kite was shaped like an eagle and the guy flying it was losing control over it. The kite was just beginning to dip and do that weird loopdeeloop dance which meant crashing was imminent. Gwen ran up and without thinking took over the line.

She let the line spin out and felt the tug of war subside into a much gentler tension. The eagle was up soaring again. It looked for all the world like it could fly all the way to England. It was magical to watch that beautiful eagle flying up there in the icy blue sky. Gwen wasn't aware of her trills of laughter as she was admiring the sight overhead. Her hazel eyes were shining bright with excited happiness.

Cam was surprised by this stranger taking his kite away from him. He was about to tell this woman to back off and get lost until he began to see how skillfully she flew his kite. She was not a threatening person by any means. Her smile and pleasant expression were actually quite beautiful. The more he watched and listened to her happily giggling the more intrigued he was by her.

Cam soon realized that if he hadn't been asked to clear out his uncle's house upstate, he never would have found this old kite. Who knew Uncle David was really Cupid in disguise.

visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-06-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

The Clever Pup with Through a glass darkly

Blog Princess G with What I did this Spring part 5

Tom with Random Friday Thoughts

Pheromone Girl with 55 words of warning

Ross Horsley with Today's word is Shock

Cheers!

The Seer

2011-06-08T09:35:00.001-04:00

Gypsy screamed and then fainted right after receiving her first clairvoyant message. Luckily it was during gym class when she was in the outfield at school, that way everyone thought she was succumbing to the heat and not to her psychic gift.

She had often wondered why her Aunt Tish had named her Gypsy. The details about how Aunt Tish found her in a basket outside the hospital where she worked didn't include anything about Gypsy's biological parents. The only thing in the basket besides Gypsy was a white marble that looked like a blue eye. Gypsy wore it around her neck on a chain of gold, always hidden from public view. None of her friends even knew she wore it everywhere.

Playing outfield on that record breaking hot day was about the worst thing Gypsy could imagine doing. She had let her mind wander while the first two hitters took bases. She had been thinking about the class trip to the beach next week, when she began to very clearly see the ocean waves crashing on the shore. It was like watching a movie.

Gypsy watched the scene unfold. All her classmates where enjoying splashing each other and generally goofing around. The teachers were chatting with the chaperons. She could see everything from her vantage point. She saw Todd body surfing and getting slammed by a giant wave that sent him under water, unconscious. That was when she screamed and then fainted.

The vision was so real, so overwhelmingly convincing that Gypsy was sure this accident was going to happen. She didn't know what to do. Should she warn Todd? And everyone else? Should she just keep quiet? Before going to sleep that night, Gypsy put the blue eyed marble on her forehead and prayed for an answer. It came to her in a dream: she would swim out with Todd at the right time and be there to save him from going under. All those swim team practices and life guarding classes were going to serve her well.

Now at 32, Gypsy had become very comfortable with her visions. That day in the outfield when she was 16, was when her psychic eyes opened. She had helped many people over the years with her gift of Sight. None of them ever knew how much.

written for Magpie Tales based on the picture prompt

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-06-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Andreas with Mothers of the Disappeared - at fifteen and thirty three

Pisces Iscariot with Everybody hates a love poem

Ken Mac with Jim and Karla Murray Storefront

Laurent with Making oneself understood

Cheers!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-05-29T12:02:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Barb with Cape Kiwanda Beach Magic

Johnny Nutcase with The Whole of the Moon

Gaelyn with Winter returned to Grand Canyon

Robyn with Feeling lucky

Cheers!

Facebook in the age of oil paintings

2011-05-26T10:05:00.001-04:00

Follow this link to my Magpie Tale.

Don't forget to leave a comment!

and don't forget to visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt.

Item Rare

2011-05-18T19:37:00.001-04:00

I never thought

of myself

as a true bibliophile,

Never cared to collect

first editions

nor autographed copies,

(A front page

dedication to me

might be quite nice,

but presently, I'm not circulating

within the crowd

of literary glitterati

who would inscribe their homage to me)

so when I sat for a pedicure today,

I didn't need to speak Korean

to know that my nail technician,

was astounded

to be in the presence

of something so rare.

I held not

a Smart Phone,

nor an iPad

nor a Kindle,

but something much more rare:

A hard covered,

many paged,

borrowed from an actual

Library Book.

click here to visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt and visit One Shot Wednesday

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-05-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Kid Denver Poet with Walk Away(inspired by Surviving Picasso

Saz with I know this for sure

Yogurt with Morning Omen

William Blakes Ghost with Song to You (existential howl)

Cheers!

The Pact

2011-05-10T14:22:00.005-04:00

I used to hate it when the Dogs from the village came to taunt me. Everything is different now, ever since The Pact. We Wolves used to envy the Dogs living pampered lives with the Humans. Humans who gave Dogs delicious bits of food - from their open hands no less. If I were to get as close, they would have used those same hands to grab any kind of weapon available to kill me. Humans have never understood the Wolf ways.

Except for one Human. He came to find me here in the hills above the village. I could tell he was different from the other Humans right away. There was a beautiful light surrounding him. My Grandfather told me about the different kinds of light around Humans. The beautiful light is sign of the good ones. No light at all means they are evil. It is my great luck to be the only Wolf in our pack to see a Human with beautiful light.

He came to me slowly, and all alone. I saw the beautiful light begin to grow around him. There was the scent of Spring flowers in the air around us. His gentle hands made the sign of The Cross. All animals know about The Cross. Our ancestors were the first to behold the Great Son when he was born. Every generation of every Animal family tells the story of the Great Son who had the most beautiful light surrounding Him. We know of His life and death.

As he approached me, out of respect for the beautiful light, I laid down at his feet. He said: "Brother Wolf, you do much harm in these parts and you have done great evil. All these people accuse you and curse you... But brother wolf, I would like to make peace between you and the people."

I followed him to the village because to be near him was enjoyable. He told the Humans that the Evil I had done was out of hunger. He asked for the Humans and the Wolves to make a pact. They would agree to regularly feed the Wolves and the Wolves agreed that they would not prey upon the flocks of the Village. He even made a pact with the village Dogs to leave the Wolves alone.

Before he left, he blessed me on behalf of all the Wolves. The Humans were now convinced that they would not be harmed. We Animals know that the Humans are our Cousins. We want to live in Harmony. We wonder when the Humans will choose to do that too.

visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt

In honor of Mother Earth

2011-05-08T09:13:00.003-04:00

I came across this poem by chance, which of course means that is was meant to be. Thank you Divine Mother for sending me everything I need, at all times, whether I'm looking or not.

Mother Earth Prayer
by KiiskeeN'tum

Mother Earth hear your child,
As I sit here on your lap of grass,
I listen to the echoes of your voice
In my brother, the Wind,
As he blows from all corners and directions.
The soft and gentle raindrops
are the Tears you cry
for your children
Teach me the Lessons you offer:
To nurture my children,
as you nurture yours,
To learn the Lessons of the Four Kingdoms,
that make up this World of Physical Things,
and To Learn to Walk the Path chosen so long ago.

Mother Earth,
hear your child,
Be a bond between the Worlds of Earth and Spirit.
Let the Winds
echo
the Knowledge of the Grandfathers.
Who await,
unseen,
yet visible
if I only turn my eyes to their World.
Let me hear their Voices,
in the Winds that Blow
to the East.

From the East: I seek the Lessons of Childhood:
To see with the trusting innocence of a small one,
The Lessons of Spirit, Given in Love by our Creator.

From the South: to Learn the Ways of Questioning:
The Fire and Independence of adolescence,
The Truths, and how they help us Grow along this Path.

From the West: where the Grandfathers teach us Acceptance of Responsibility
That come during the years of Marriage and Family.
That my own children grow Strong, and True.

From the North: where the Elders, who by their long lives
Have learned and stored Wisdom and Knowledge.
And Learned to Walk in Balance and Harmony with our Mother, the Earth.

Mother Earth, hear your child.
Hold my hand as I Walk my Path in this World.
Guide me to the Lessons I seek,
bring me closer to Our Creator,
Until I return to the Western Direction,
to once again
Enter the World of Spirit,
Where the Sacred Fire Awaits,
and I rejoin the Council of the Elders,
In the Presence of the One Who-Created-All.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-05-07T07:42:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Christine with Tender Tootsies

Templeton's Fury with This Little Piggy

Ramesh Sood I Live by Moments

Tumblewords with Friday

Cheers!

Migrant Mother

2011-05-02T11:26:00.001-04:00

I left Oklahoma in 1925 and came to Oroville, CA. It's where Leroy died in 1931. I'm 28 years old and I have five kids. That one I'm holding, she never even saw her daddy. She was born after he died. I pick cotton in Firebaugh for 50-cents a hundred pounds. I leave home before daylight and come in after dark. I don't even weigh a hundred pounds. Anyway, we survive.

I saw them boys going up the hill with gas cans. I knew they were looking for trouble or maybe just a way out. They are Okies too. One of them got beat up real bad by the railroad bulls back in Nebraska and the other one is just full of hate. Lighting fires is all they can think of doing.

Those trains roll through here with folks not going anywhere and not caring about it. They just ride. It's more than what they was doing at home, probably. Back home isn't there anymore anyway. It's buried in all that red dust.

I'll never forget it as long as I live. We lived in an old, old house. The windows, of course, were not all that great. It was horrible. That red dust would get in through our windowsills, down the chimney, under the doors and it was just – everywhere. No matter how much you covered the cracks it always found its way in. You couldn't hardly clean it up. The rag that you was cleaning with would be stained blood red with dust. It was on everything. Our clothes, our hair, our food. We lived with the dust, ate it, slept in it, watched it almost bury us alive.

But we got out of those storms. They come on hard and fast, those storms. People caught in their own yards when it hits grope blind for the doorstep. It was like getting a shovelful of fine sand flung stinging against your face. You can't see nothing. You can't breathe. You hear the howl of the red dust screaming up behind you. You come to a full standstill hoping to get your bearings right for no light in the world can penetrate that swirling murk. You think you'll never see the light of day again.

Working in this cotton field with the smoke from those fires is all I got now. But it's better than red dust. And I ain't like those hoboes, riding the rails, getting beat up or worse, going nowhere, begging for food. At least I got something.

visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt.

*I've been summoned for jury duty and may be out for a while, hopefully not too long!

The Haight

2011-04-26T13:39:00.003-04:00

Kelly packed some clothes and left her dorm room without looking back. She was meeting Gabe at Grand Central under the big clock at 2pm. They were doing it. They were headed to The Haight. Kelly didn't tell her parents she was going, she knew they wouldn't understand. They were Establishment. Gabe's parents were no better. Besides, Kelly reasoned, she would be back after Spring Break, and they wouldn't even have to know she was gone.

They bought train tickets for Cleveland and took a Greyhound the rest of the way to San Francisco. More and more kids like them got on at each stop. At rest stops they all shared booze, smokes and lovers. They were the Beautiful People. It was the first time in Kelly's life that she felt so free, and so alive.

Off the bus in San Fran, Kelly and Gabe followed their friend Marlene who they met in Albuquerque, to The Haight. She had a cousin who lived on Baker Street which was a perfect crash pad for them. They were finally at their longed for destination. Kelly dropped acid for the first time that night.

The street life was in full bloom. Beautiful People everywhere with flowers in their hair, making music, giving improv performances, and just being Free. The sights and sounds were intensely magnified by the LSD and Kelly felt like she was living inside a Kaleidoscope.

Kelly and Gabe stopped in a bar to hear the Jefferson Airplane, later Janis Joplin came onstage. Sometime before dawn they made love in Golden Gate park. They woke up on the grass and were told The Diggers were serving free food to anyone who was hungry.

The days and nights passed by in a haze of Hashish smoke, shrooms and music shows by famous and not so famous players. Kelly and Gabe experimented with all of it, sometimes drifting apart into other circles of Beautiful People. By the end of October they realized they had forgotten to go back East.

Kelly had been staying with Marlene for a few nights when Gabe came back. He said he was going to be a roadie for the Grateful Dead, and he was leaving the next day to tour. Kelly liked the band and had gotten to know them pretty well when she had been Jerry's girl for a while. She decided to go with Gabe.

Kelly and Gabe were known as Ma and Pa too anyone who was anyone. They followed The Dead for years until Gabe OD'd in Detroit in '83. Kelly left the band in '94 to finally reunite with her parents so they could meet their 22 year old grandson Orion.

visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt

Spring Break

2011-04-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Spring break for my daughter and me!

Lots of sleeping late, day trips to NYC, spending time with good friends.

See you next week.

In-joy ~ Elise

click here to visit Monkey Man and the other participating Sunday 160's!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-04-15T14:55:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Crazy as a Cool Fox with Letting Go

Malady with My shiny new absurdities

Rosaria with Easing in and easing out: a solution to improve the workforce

Nonamedufus with How Cliche

Mama Zen with This Light

Cheers!

Success

2011-04-10T15:40:00.001-04:00

The standard of success in life isn't the things.

It isn't the money or the stuff.
It is absolutely the amount of joy you feel.

click here to visit Monkey Man and the other Sunday 160 writers.

(water color by my daughter. i'm keeping safe watch over her ears you can believe.)

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-04-09T06:00:00.001-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

James Bringman with Billiards Basics: how to play pool like Minnesota Fats

Lauren with And anyway they canceled the Easter Egg hunt

Hedgewitch with Two Feathers

Nanny with Screen Door

Debby with Who decided to put Great in front of Outdoors?

Cheers!

True Love

2011-04-06T15:53:00.003-04:00

Becoming a mother opened Elaine's eyes. Seven years of marriage to Charles hadn't been easy. She met him when she was thirty-two and he was forty-eight. He was unlike anyone she had ever known. Charles was from a well off old family, had graduated from Yale and had taught writing at the college level. Elaine's first impression of him was that he needed a bit of cheering up, he was somewhat lost and sad she thought. They read poetry aloud to each other and spent time in Georgia at his mother's ancestral home. Elaine believed in Charles even if she didn't feel her heart flutter with love for him.

Charles was a believer in real estate development and borrowed money from just about everyone he knew to buy property that he could fix up himself. Elaine's savings were not spent at first. They did the work together and had a few decent rentals that were paying off. It was when Charles decided to buy an old boarding school that would become their home that the bottom dropped out. Elaine's money was used to no avail. The mortgages were too high to cover. The ship was sinking and none of the marriage counseling sessions had any impact on Charles. He would admit neither responsibility nor defeat.

Their only child, a daughter, was born in the midst of their turmoil. Elaine, after much personal debate as well as discussions with a therapist decided to end the marriage. Whatever plans, dreams or visions she had shared with Charles were now things she saw as unlikely and impossible. She and her daughter moved in with her parents and the bitterest of divorces began.

Elaine let her mind wander before going to sleep at night, to think of happier times was a relief to the reality of going through a divorce. Every once in a while thoughts of Dale would pop up. She thought back to the last time they had spoken. Nine years ago Elaine had been in a pretty serious car accident and she called Dale. He was doing well and she could hear how happy he was to be a father. That long ago phone call ended with them wishing each other well, and they both agreed there were no hard feelings.

Late one afternoon, Elaine had just come back from meeting with her lawyer when the house phone rang. She answered it, and her emotion at hearing Dale's gentle voice brought tears to her eyes. He was stunned that she was there, and said that he had felt like something horrible had happened to her, that he had been having dreams about her needing help. He went on to say that he had been divorced for almost six months and wanted to know how she was and this was the only number he had for her. They were on the phone together for nearly two hours.

Dale was a great comfort to Elaine during that period of time while she was getting divorced. They agreed that their personal relationship would begin again and it would not cause living arrangement changes for their families. They agreed that putting the needs of their children's happiness was the top priority for each of them. They also agreed that they would pledge themselves to love, support and cherish each other for the rest of their lives.

For Elaine, who is a deep thinker and a believer in destiny, reviewing the choices of her life is not a cause for self-recrimination. She also believes that our choices may bring us devastating unhappiness while also bringing us the way for another part of our life's story to unfold. She is certain that the love she shares with Dale is and will always be constant. So now when she cries with him, it's tears of joy that wash over them both.

click here for more Magpie Tales based on this picture prompt

First Love

2011-04-04T21:27:00.004-04:00

Elaine was twenty-one when she met Dale in a bar in Port Chester NY. Dale was only two years older than Elaine and their instant attraction for each other was obvious from the moment their eyes met over the rims of their shot glasses. By the time Elaine was twenty-four she began to have doubts about her future life with Dale. He was sweet and she loved him, but she wasn't sure if he would be able to provide for them and a family of their own. Elaine didn't know how to tell Dale all of her fears and ended up by saying that she needed time to think about their relationship. Dale was heartbroken. Elaine was too.

It was four months later when Dale came over to see Elaine. They made love and cried their eyes out afterward. They were not getting back together. Nothing had changed in Dale's life to make Elaine feel secure in a future for them. Six months after that, on a Saturday afternoon, Elaine called Dale. They agreed to meet at the bar.

Elaine was there first and her heart skipped a beat when she saw Dale. She reached up to hug him as he sat down. Dale stiffened and she backed off quickly. She nervously recovered by saying how much she missed him. Elaine talked about her new job as an office manager for a small software company, she was making good money. She rushed on, talking about her high hopes for a bright future, one that she wanted to share with Dale. She took his hand in hers and he pulled his back.

Dale was saying something about a new girlfriend. Her name was Colleen, she was Derrick's sister, a guy from work. They had been together for a couple of months. Elaine couldn't concentrate. Her heart was pounding. She couldn't hear well. She needed fresh air.

It was pouring rain as she made her way to her car with Dale following her. They both got in. Elaine wasn't sure if her face was streaming from the rain or her anguished tears. She was pleading with him to take her back. Dale said he still loved Elaine, but he wasn't going to break up his new relationship. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Dale got out of Elaine's car. She sat there watching the rain pouring itself out down the windshield while her own blazing hot tears burned new rivers down her face. At some point the rain stopped, she didn't know how long she had been sitting there, she didn't care.

Elaine made it home, to the safety of her room. The days and weeks passed. All she did was go to work, go for long walks at the beach after work and save money. Eventually she got up enough courage to call Dale at work. It was late on a Friday afternoon. Derrick answered the phone, Colleen's brother. He sounded a bit strange when Elaine asked for Dale. He said Dale left early that day. Something made Elaine ask why, was Dale getting married or something? Derrick said the wedding was going to be the next day.

Elaine doubled over as if she had been hit in the stomach. She sat up and the wave of loss rose within her to spill itself out of her eyes. She thought she had felt deep sadness before, but this, this was far worse. The pain of that day stayed with her for six more years. Until she again got up enough courage to call Dale.

visit Magpie Tales for more writings based on this picture prompt

Facebook message received

2011-04-03T11:08:00.000-04:00

My entry for the Sunday 160 challenge sponsored by Monkey Man

Facebook: that boy who broke your heart 30 yrs ago sent you a message.

Where once was closure now exists exhumation and query. Dare you click the link to reply?

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-04-02T10:15:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Melinda Owens with My Girl

Pearl with You should know by now...

Technobabe with Some of us can change our stripes

Dave King with I Delphinus

ADG with Martin the tailor and Eva the forgiver

Cheers!

Mona Lisa and Leonardo

2011-03-29T17:58:00.002-04:00

Of all the queries,

and unlimited theories,

The simple fact remains:

Mona Lisa's smile contains

an expression enigmatic -

alluringly charismatic -

which led it to spiral

through time; to go viral.

Did Da Vinci foreknow

within his portfolio

that La Gioconda would become so famous?

Certainly, he was no ignoramus.

As for Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini,

if she sat for Leonardo today, I bet she'd be wearing a bikini.

please visit Magpie Tales #59, Writer's Island: Unlimited, and One Shot Wednesday for more posts

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-03-27T06:00:00.017-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Eric Alder with Balance

Tracey with Careful Selection

Eco Yogini with The Yoga of Voting

Peter Fernando with Why sometimes it's good to be a loser

Erin with Why are we here?

Cheers!

The Vision

2011-03-22T13:05:00.000-04:00

Victoria loved daydreaming while stretched out on a comfy sofa in her solarium. She had installed a corner Koi pond planted with bamboo bushes that stood eight feet high. Flowering Orange trees, Jasmine vines and Gardenias scented the air. It was a magical place for Victoria, who loved to escape into its beauty as often as possible.

Victoria had just gotten home from errands and sought the refuge of her favorite place. It looked like a storm was on its way, which made her feel a bit excited. Being in the solarium when a storm was blowing was thrilling with the palpable thunder and the dazzling lightning creating havoc all around her. She reclined on the sofa to await the storm.

Sounds of distant rolling thunder drummed in the background of her wandering mind. Victoria began to see a different place, a stone castle situated in France? England? She wasn't sure. Letting herself go deeper, she felt herself standing in a stone room, near a wooden cradle with a baby, a girl, sleeping inside it. She felt a sickening fear and panic. She simultaneously knew that her beloved husband, lord of their castle, was not there to protect her. He was on a Crusade. His enemies knew they could take over his castle and holdings by storming the gates, and by killing her and the baby. She could hear the shouts of the men and the clanging of their armor getting nearer. The heavy wooden door to her room was hacked through and crashed to the floor. The armored men charged at her and her baby with their swords drawn. There was a blinding white flash and the images stopped.

Victoria opened her eyes in the same instant to see a blinding white flash strike her favorite oak tree outside. The topmost branch was hanging by a thread in a most gruesome way looking like a severed neck with its head still attached. Victoria was still caught by feelings of deathly danger and scrambled to her feet. What was really happening? Where was she? Why had she witnessed such a horrible event? She grieved for the innocent young mother and her baby.

Slowly her answers came to her. It must have something to do with Karma, she imagined. In this present lifetime, she was happily married to Christopher, a wonderfully devoted man. He wasn't like most men who wanted freedom to go on long fishing trips with the guys, or to find hobbies that didn't include her and their children. He was happiest when in the circle of his family.

Victoria was looking forward to telling Christopher about her vision. She felt a connection to the young woman who lived in that long ago time, whose life was so brief and whose love was so strong. Victoria could feel her own deep love for Christopher echo what must have been between those two other lovers. She relished feeling the state of Love that connects lifetimes. And she wondered, had she really been in touch with a past lifetime? Had it just been a daydream? She decided it didn't really matter. What really mattered to her most of all was the feeling of deep Love, inseparable and eternal.

click here for more at Magpie Tales and here for more at Writer's Island:Inseparable

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-03-20T07:57:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Sarah Lindahl with How dare he know me so well?

Northwesterlywind with And this is why no one will ever marry me

Jan Morrison with Friday Challenge

Libby with Logic boards, garden porn and surviving Japan

Cheers!

Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?

2011-03-17T15:47:00.001-04:00

I love this Chinese story about Luck. I remember hearing it for the first time when I was in elementary school at an assembly we had with a Chinese storyteller. She held us all captivated with her beautiful way of telling stories, and her authentic dress. She was exotic and lovely. Many of us wrote to her later to thank her for her visit. Her name was Wei Wei, which means Rose and this was the story.

A farmer used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills. The farmer's neighbors sympathized with the farmer over his bad luck. The farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills. This time the neighbors congratulated him on his good luck. Again he replied, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

The next day the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses and fell off its back. He broke his leg. Everyone thought this was very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

A week later the army marched into the village and conscripted every able bodied young man. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. All the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. And he replied, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

While we were happy for the farmer and his son, Wei Wei pointed out that this story is meant to show us how events may look bleak one day, and a blessing the next. Who really knows?

click here for Theme Thursday: Luck

Violet Ghost

2011-03-15T16:29:00.002-04:00

In 1901, just before he resigned from the Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn, Violet realized she was in love with William Butler Yeats. They were both members of the Golden Dawn, as was Maud Gonne. It was obvious to Violet that Maud would never marry William no matter how many times he would propose. Violet's heart bled for him yet when it came to matters of the heart, Violet was ever modest in her expression. She could not bring herself to proclaim her love for him.

Violet turned to the language of flowers for assistance. She hoped the simple bouquets of white violets would speak for her carrying their message of "lets take a chance on happiness". Violet sent them to William who responded that he was hopelessly in love with Maud. As a way of indicating her enduring love for him despite his hopeless love for Maud, Violet sent William a bouquet of blue violets which held the message of "I'll be true, always."

Violet grew large amounts of white and blue violets in her conservatory. Her inheritance from her Irish grandmother gave her the life of ease and comfort. She devoted herself to remaining true to her love by literally consuming the messages she had sent to William. Violet candied her white and blue violets and ate them at every meal, reciting a little incantation while chewing them: "One violet white for happiness and one violet blue to remain true." Her daily ritual continued until she finally heard from William.

Maud had married another man. William was shattered, yet believed he would pull through his despair in the arms of women. He remembered Violet and called upon her. Their lovemaking was brief amid the white and blue violets growing wild on the lawn under the wisteria arbor. After William left, Violet realized her horrible fate was the same as William's. To be in love unrequited is a fate worse than death.

At her last meal, Violet ate her candied violets, repeated her incantation and drank a final cordial that she had concocted by mixing a lethal dose of cyanide with an eau de vie of her own violets. Violet left careful instructions that her cyan tinged body should be laid out naked all but for a necklace woven of white and blue violets and that her grave should be adorned with white and blue violets. An epitaph and final tribute to her love for William read: "One violet white for happiness and one violet blue to remain true. An Irishman loved another while a Violet's bloom grew." Those of the Golden Dawn who knew her say that a violet haze can be seen hovering over William's grave as the unmistakable scent of sweet violets fills the air.

click here to read more posts based on this picture prompt at Magpie Tales

click her to read more posts based on the word prompt: Tribute at Writer's Island

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-03-13T09:02:00.000-04:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Kristen with Bookworm in the making

Tropical Mum with The return of the Table Manner Tyrant

Yandie with Hidden Staircases, Secret Rooms

Karen with Red Fox

Masha with A close up photography experiment

Cheers!

For the love of garlic

2011-03-09T20:29:00.000-05:00

With only three days until The International Garlic Festival, Ted was a busy guy. He intended to showcase his organically grown Artichoke Softneck variety by offering samples of his famous Pasta with Garlic and Oil dish. The delicate pasta combined with generous slices of garlic and extra virgin olive oil was the perfect way to highlight this beautiful strain of garlic. Ted decided a live presentation was essential. The aroma of the cooking garlic would draw people over to his booth and once in front of an audience, Ted was a master.

Giulia had recently entertained the idea of owning her own pasta market. Her grandmothers recipe for a basic pasta dough was so versatile, the possibilities were almost endless. And who doesn't love pasta? Is there anything better than fresh linguine tossed with virgin olive oil and generous slices of garlic? Giulia could see herself, standing at the marble topped counter of her market, mixing up pasta dough by hand for a waiting crowd of customers. What she really needed was a fabulous name for her store. That would come in time she mused.

Picking up her mail at the post office, Giulia noticed a flyer announcing the annual International Garlic Festival. It was being held that day, and since she never doubted her intuition, she decided to go. Who knows, she thought, maybe I'll find what I'm looking for.

Ted's booth was all set up and he was boiling water for his linguine. He wished he had made his own pasta, but he was hopeless when it came to making pasta dough. He needed someone skilled to make it for him. In the end he bought a fairly good fresh linguine and figured it would suffice. As he was dropping it in the almost boiling water, Giulia approached his booth.

She couldn't help herself from cautioning him that the water wasn't ready yet. Ted, slightly irritated, turned to see who was speaking so abruptly to him. He changed his mind instantly when he saw Giulia. Never had he seen anyone more beautiful and confident than Giulia. For Giulia, the instant attraction was mutual. After introducing themselves, Giulia said she would be happy to bring Ted some of her homemade linguine for his demonstration. Of course, Ted was thrilled and said yes.

The afternoon at his booth was the most popular site with many orders given for his Artichoke Softneck and her linguine. Many customers assumed that Ted and Giulia were married and complimented their homegrown business which was so full of love and flavor. To prove them right, six months later, they were married. After their honeymoon in Italy, Ted and Giulia opened their little gem of market named, For the Love of Garlic.

click here for more writings based on this prompt at Magpie Tales

Carrying a secret

2011-03-07T12:46:00.000-05:00

Penny had just started her summer job on the Cape when she met Alan. Penny was working at a local bookshop located next door to the luncheonette where Alan worked as a waiter. Their instant attraction to each other took them happily by surprise. They began to spend all their free time together, going for slow walks along the beach under the night sky, or getting in an early morning game of tennis. It wasn't long before they were lovers. As Alan said later, their relationship was effortless right from the start.

Penny's sister Georgia came for a visit in July bearing secret news from their home in Maryland. Penny's old boyfriend Hugh was still upset about breaking up with Penny. He wanted to get back together with her. Georgia said Hugh was planning to surprise Penny with a visit. Penny hadn't been feeling well lately, so the idea of Hugh's visit made her even more sick to her stomach.

The last time she saw Hugh was just after graduation. They had dated each other off and on over the past year and their relationship always followed the same course; beginning passionately and ending in a break up. Penny felt physically used and emotionally hurt so when she heard about the chance to live on the Cape for the summer, she took it, hoping to avoid hearing from Hugh again. And then she met Alan who swept her off her feet. How could she break the news to Alan about Hugh?

Penny's plan was to tell Alan after their morning run. She woke up that day feeling nauseous and figured it was just nerves. She mentioned feeling sick to Georgia who said she noticed that Penny had been sick every morning since she had been there. They checked the calendar and made a doctors appointment.

The confirmation was positive. Penny was carrying a secret. By her calculations, she had conceived Hugh's baby the last time they were together in late May just after graduation. And then it dawned on her, she had already been pregnant when she moved to the Cape for the summer. She confessed everything to Alan who said he would marry her anyway and be the father of her child. Penny almost accepted. The next day Hugh arrived. Penny and Hugh were married by August.

Alan heard from Georgia eight years after that summer. She called to tell him that Penny wanted to see him again, for the last time. Penny was living in a hospice in New Mexico having been diagnosed with cancer. Alan went to her and never left her again, even after she died.

click here to visit Theme Thursday: Book and Writer's Island: Secret.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-03-05T17:35:00.019-05:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Simon Grady with mistakes in constant new variations

Lynette Killam with Watery Hippos Reflections

SDM with Collect call for the Colonel

Bee's blog with Countdown to Carnival

JRM with Shirts off in the dentist's office

Cheers!

The Lemon Juice Cure

2011-03-02T12:57:00.004-05:00

The sailors had scurvy - their blood trailed across the HMS Salisbury -
and I, James Lind, was their doctor.
I knew I must organize and improvise to find a cure.

Relying on the gifts that acids might bring,
I chose twelve men with scurvy,
assigned two to a group,
and having six groups altogether,
I began to experiment.

To the first group - a quart of cider daily,
the second - twenty-five drops of vitriol,
six spoonfuls of vinegar for the third group
and a half pint of seawater for the fourth,
to the fifth, a spicy paste and barley water
and to the sixth, two oranges and a lemon.

On day six, the sixth group was fit for work,
and as there were no more oranges or lemons aboard,
and none of the other groups were improving,
I had to conclude that citrus fruits were a possible cure.

In 1747 aboard the HMS Salisbury, James Lind conducted the first ever clinical trial. It was based on the hypothesis that acids could cure scurvy. Even after his own findings though, he never advocated citrus juice as a single solution since he believed scurvy had multiple causes which required multiple remedies. He wrote a treatise on scurvy which was largely ignored. The medical establishment was not convinced by any of his findings and so dismissed Lind's evidence as anecdotal.

It wouldn't be until 1794, almost fifty years after his initial hunch, that lemon juice would find its way officially on board a Navy ship. Experience had convinced many officers and surgeons that citrus juices provided the answer to scurvy even if the reason was unknown. On the insistence of senior officers, lemon juice was issued on board the Suffolk as she was on a twenty-three week, non-stop voyage to India. The daily ration of two-thirds of an ounce of lemon juice mixed in grog contained just about the minimum daily intake of 10 mg vitamin C. There was no serious outbreak of scurvy. This astonishing event led to widespread demand for lemon juice aboard ships. The following year the Admiralty recommended that lemon juice should be routinely administered to the entire fleet.

The Suffolk set sail in May of 1794 and James Lind died in July of 1794. I wonder if anyone bothered to tell James about the official plans to administer fresh lemon juice daily to the sailors. It's certain he never knew the outcome of their trip and how his findings proved to be true.

click here to visit Magpie Tales for more based on this picture prompt and to Writers Island for more based on the word prompt: Improvise

Monday's Morsel

2011-02-27T18:00:00.008-05:00

Welcome to my new feature. Monday's Morsel is all about sharing good food recipes. Each week I will serve up a new menu item and you can too! Post up your favorite recipe on your blog beginning Sunday dinnertime through Monday dinnertime, then come back here and share it with us.

Include a link to your Monday's Morsel in the comment section and then visit the other foodies who are doing the same. Appetizers through desserts, we are creating a delightful Smorgasbord!

Breakfast is a big deal around my house. We treat it as a real meal, well, every meal is a real meal around here. We like to talk about food, shop for food and prepare food and of course eat food. At breakfast, my parents and my daughter like sunny side up eggs, and I like granola. I never found a store bought one that I like, so I was thrilled when Mollie Katzen created this one. I've made it several times and given it as a hostess gift, presenting it in a glass jar with the recipe attached. You'd be surprised how gratefully people receive it saying now they will have something to eat in the morning!

Granola - from The Sunlight Cafe by Mollie Katzen

Shopping list:
rolled oats, oat bran, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, maple syrup, dried cranberries, raisins and soy protein powder.

preheat oven to 325'
lightly spray a roasting pan

In the roasting pan combine:
4 cups rolled oats
1 cup oat bran
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup slivered almonds

In another bowl combine:
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 Tablespoon vanilla
Pour the liquids over the dry ingredients and mix well.

Stir in and mix thoroughly:
1 cup soy protein powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Bake for a total of 60 minutes
Stir it after the first 20 minutes and return it to the oven and then bake for another 20 minutes and stir it again and bake it for the last 20 minutes.

After 60 minutes you add:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup raisins
And let it cool.

I make it scrumptious by adding plain non-fat Greek yogurt and cherry preserves.

Don't be daunted by the process, you will be proud of yourself once you've made it!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-02-26T10:28:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Broken Biro with Nintend-OHHH

Marie with Work to be done

Maggie with Sensory Delight

Neva Gagliano with Upness

Cheers!

Life Review

2011-02-24T11:02:00.002-05:00

As I sit in meditation with the frozen earth surrounding me,
Playing with the pieces of my memory as if they were pieces of a puzzle,
I realize that what once seemed so permanent and fixed -
like the very earth itself under my feet-
is nothing more than an image floating across the screen of my mind.

Most of the pieces fit into place easily giving me a pleasant feeling.

Others rise up like a parade of tyrants -

berating me, plaguing me,

torturing me -

with their memory.

I want to cut off their grooves, angles and prominences.

Until I realize that all my pieces fit me extremely well.

All is well.

visit Magpie Tales for more writing based on this picture prompt

Monday's Morsel

2011-02-20T17:00:00.096-05:00

Welcome to my new feature. Monday's Morsel is all about sharing good food recipes. Each week I will serve up a new menu item and you can too! Post up your favorite recipe on your blog beginning Sunday dinnertime through Monday dinnertime, then come back here and share it with us.

Include a link to your Monday's Morsel in the comment section and then visit the other foodies who are doing the same. Appetizers through desserts, we are creating a delightful Smorgasbord!

When we order Chinese food from our favorite restaurant, we always seem to have a carton of rice leftover. This presents a quandary for my parents, as they were raised during The First Great Depression and cannot abide food going to waste. Believe me, I have seen more bits of food being scraped or pared down and then eaten than you would think possible. They assure me that I am a food snob. I agree. So to make everyone around here happy, I invented a quick remedy. I call it:

Double Happiness Semi-Homemade Fried Rice

You will need:
1 carton (or so) cooked rice
various chopped vegetables - broccoli, carrots, peas, corn, anything you want can go into your skillet. In fact, it's a good way to clear out the almost at the end of their freshness vegetables in the fridge. Coincidentally, this "using up" makes everyone happy. They like the thriftiness and I won't have to endure the scraping and paring I mentioned earlier. This is also why I named my invention Double Happiness Semi-Homemade Fried Rice!
1 medium chopped onion
1 or 2 cloves of chopped garlic - the smaller the chop, the more garlicky the end result
grated ginger - a bit is delightful, too much makes the end result taste like soap.
Olive oil - about 2 Tablespoons
Peanut oil - about 2 teaspoons - this adds a great taste and you don't need much.
1 large egg, beaten
3 or 4 Tablespoons Tamari or Soy Sauce

Procedure:
Heat the oils in the skillet and add in the chopped onion, garlic and grated ginger. When the onions look clear, add your chopped vegetables. If you are using some frozen vegetables, now is the time to put the lid on the skillet for a few minutes to help them defrost. When the vegetables are tender, add the rice and mix. Add the beaten egg and the Tamari or Soy Sauce and stir all ingredients together. The egg will be fully cooked when you can see little bits of scrambled egg, just as if you ordered it from your favorite Chinese restaurant.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-02-18T21:03:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Daisyfae with Honk

Philason with Time Flies

slpmartin The Embrace

Anymommy with Three steps to a calmer, more serene life

De Campo with I'm putting the Whole Army on Time-Out

Cheers!

The Glassblower

2011-02-16T10:04:00.001-05:00

In fifteen hundred and fity-three
Arnaldo blew glass in It-a-ly.

Taking a chance on a rare oppor-tun-ity
and to improve upon his leg-a-cy
he married a girl from Si-ci-ly.

Costanza was only twenty-three
and came from a wealthy fam-i-ly
she had money, beauty and incident-i-ly
a passion for men who could blow so dream-i-ly.

They moved to busy Vati-can Ci-ty
Arnaldo blew and blew for the Church quite happ-i-ly,
alas poor Costanza never lost her vir-gin-ity,
To Arnaldo, that is, just between you-and-me.

click here for more Magpie Tales and for more One Shot Wednesday

Monday's Morsel

2011-02-13T17:00:00.005-05:00

I know it's time to make Banana Bread. The recipe comes from Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics, and I haven't met anyone who didn't say it was the best banana bread ever.

Banana Bread - yields one loaf

1 stick room temperature sweet butter*

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat the oven to 350' degrees. Butter and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan. In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar; mix well. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and mix well. Add the mashed bananas and mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

*A note on butter: I use sweet butter, rather than lightly salted butter, in everything that I bake because I find it gives a much more distinctive buttery taste, and like Paula Deen and Julia Child, I adore a buttery taste. Also, using softened butter gives you a giant headstart on creaming butter and sugar together.

For instance:

Creamed butter and sugar are the foundation for anything delicious don't you think?

Ready for the oven. I always butter and flour the baking pan, it makes it so much easier to turn out the end product.

I'm planning to serve this at my Valentines Day brunch which will be the prelude to a special day in New York City. Bill and I have tickets to see a live taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-02-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Doctor FTSE with All Houses

Dorset Days with A quote for Friday

Noni with Headline: Spring comes in February

Suz with I like Squirrels

Karen L R with Under the sky

Cheers!

Gossip

2011-02-09T15:50:00.002-05:00

Everyone in Millerton knew about Liz before she had even moved into her new house. They knew she had left her NYC life for a simpler one in tiny upstate Millerton. They knew she was single, in her middle forties, had no unsavory habits and had enough money to close on the house without a large mortgage. They knew she was planning to start fixing up the exterior of the house as soon as she moved in, which was a relief to many in town who thought the old place was going to collapse from neglect. They even knew she was going to start a little back yard organic vegetable garden come spring. They were all relieved that she seemed to have sense. They were even more relieved to know that her improvements would put that old dump back on the tax roll.

Liz didn't know how much was being said about her around dinner tables, or the post office lobby or even in the church vestibule. It wasn't until she had lived in Millerton for almost two years that she overheard two women she didn't know who were in line behind her at the bank talking about that new woman in town who was making a big splash. Liz thought they must be talking about someone else, so she listened closer because she loved a juicy bit of gossip. It was when they described the green house with the yellow trim that Liz's stomach flip flopped.

How did they know so much about her, she thought. Personal things, like how she had moved to Millerton for a simpler life. How she didn't need much of a mortgage to close. How she had planned to fix up her little house because, and here the two ladies sneered a bit while saying "she felt sorry for the old place, sitting neglected for so long." They even knew what she had planted in her back yard organic farm, and that her green thumb needed a bit of cultivation itself.

If there was one thing Liz couldn't abide, it was gossip. Liz put her house on the market with a broker from two towns away that afternoon. Everyone knew about by dinnertime.

click here for more Magpie Tales based on this picture prompt

Monday's Morsel

2011-02-06T13:51:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my new feature. Monday's Morsel is all about sharing good food recipes. Each week I will serve up a new menu item and you can too! Post up your favorite recipe on your blog beginning Sunday dinnertime through Monday dinnertime, then come back here and share it with us.

Include a link to your Monday's Morsel in the comment section and then visit the other foodies who are doing the same. Appetizers through desserts, we are creating a delightful Smorgasbord!

This is a recipe that I have made again and again. My brother brought it home from Home Economics class when he was in eighth grade, circa 1972. It has been breakfast, lunch or dinner many times over the years, and is one of those go to recipes that never let you down. And it's versatility will astound you.

A note on Maple Syrup. I love Grade B Maple Syrup. It's a richer Maple taste and if you haven't tried it yet, you really should.

Griddle Cakes

In a large bowl combine:
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons white flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

In another bowl combine:
1 large egg well beaten
1 cup milk
3 Tablespoons melted butter

Add egg mixture to flour mixture. Stir to combine all ingredients. The batter will be a bit thick. About a 1/4 cup of batter will form one pancake. I usually make four at a time on a hot griddle. The size of each pancake is up to you.

This recipe is also very versatile. You can add pretty much anything you like: blueberries, mini chocolate chips, bananas, even grated cheese. Experiment and let me know what you come up with.

Also, you can make a thinner batter by adding more milk which will yield a Crepe like pancake. Very delicious served with cinnamon sugar, or jam or Nutella! Or skip the sugar, and go savory. Try a thin slice of Prosciutto and Asagio, or Pesto and a thin slice of heirloom tomato. The only limit is your imagination!

Enjoy!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-02-04T08:48:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Uma Maheswari Anandane with The Temple

Tom with Zombie Artist Faceoff

Spacedlaw with Taper

Ellen Abbott with Ice Ice Baby

Brian Miller with The problem with Gods and dreamsicles

Ona Filloy with Ryan Street

Cheers to all!

January

2011-01-30T11:06:00.000-05:00

O January,
gifts you brought were many;
lice and flu brought home from school,
thousands of inches of snow,
a power surge to wreck my hard drive?
too cruel!

visit Monkey Man for more Sunday 160, write a post using 160 characters - spaces count too!

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-01-28T15:46:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Rosaria with The end of the journey...

Lille Diane with Are you a worry wart?

Rene with Threshold

Irish Gumbo with Fell from the sky

Cheers!

Flu Shot Poll

2011-01-24T11:52:00.000-05:00

Have you gotten the Flu Shot?

Yes
No
I think so
I did and got the Flu anyway
I did and did not get the Flu, yet
I will never get the Flu Shot
I always get the Flu Shot
I never get the Flu Shot and never get the Flu
I always get the Flu Shot and always get the Flu anyway
I demand everyone in my family gets a Flu Shot
I demand everyone in my family gets a Flu Shot and wears a Haz Mat suit from September through May

Your responses are welcomed! We are having a lively debate about this topic at my house, and your input is greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer:
Any Flu like symptoms experienced after taking this poll should only last for 24 hrs. but see your doctor if symptoms persist for more than 4 days or are accompanied by a cough with fever.

Toasting the Posts of the Week

2011-01-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Goddess Award

I follow a lot of blogs, and often I come across posts that I feel deserve to be read by as many people as possible. So I give an award for a post well done and the link for others to click on.

If I have ever awarded you one of the Goddess Awards please feel free to take the spinning sun to your sidebar. Click on the image, copy the HTML code onto a HTML widget and your Goddess Award will be up and running. Linking back to me is always appreciated!

This week's honorees:

Pearl with Everything is starting to click

Sausage Fingers with Yes Sir

Beta Dad with Get the Potty Started

Captain Dumbass with Posts Cards From the Edge

Little Hat with Underground Angel

Cheers!

Curling

2011-01-19T21:19:00.002-05:00

Maud, Bertha and Clara were the female members of the Grand Ledge, MI curling team. The team had been established by Maud's husband Angus after they moved to Grand Ledge from Kilsyth, Scotland in 1908. Angus was an excellent cabinet maker and his busy new shop in Grand Ledge was a joy to him. He also brought his love of Curling with him, which meant that he would need to form a team in order to play. It just so happened that the people of Grand Ledge were eager to learn how to play because they had heard a lot about the winning team over in Lansing twelve miles away. In fact, so many people wanted to learn that Maud was enlisted to help Angus teach, which turned out to be a very good thing since Maud was an excellent Thrower. Her aim was phenomenal. Maud's new best friends from the church choir were Bertha and Clara. Maud mentioned the Curling team idea to them, and they figured they would be good Sweepers since they each had a lifetime of sweeping floors behind them. They turned out to be excellent Sweepers for the team. But as Bertha was also a mid wife, she would occasionally, and by necessity, have to miss out on a match. Clara on the other hand, was always available, since she was a piano teacher and never scheduled her pupil's lessons on a game day. Naturally, Angus was the team leader also known as the Skip, or as the rest of the team members fondly called him, their Bonnie Skip.

The Grand River was a perfect spot for the team to gather for practices. Anyone who wanted to watch them was welcomed to skate up river where the ice was smoothest. Some men from the Lansing team came to watch the new team and became a bit confused to see women on the team. Angus was asked by the Lansing men why there were women on the team. Angus replied quite directly that they were on the team because they were good players. That ended the conversation for that day, but some of men from Lansing were not willing to give in.

The team from Lansing was all male as were all of the other Curling teams. It was pointed out by one of the men on the Lansing team that there weren't any rules saying that women could not play on a team, but still the rumbling continued. Word got back to Grand Ledge that some of the Lansing men were not pleased about possibly losing to a team that included women. So Maud devised a plan.

The story goes, that Maud held a social one late November afternoon inviting the loudest rumblers. She made her famous Cranachan to serve to her guests and a Black Bun Cake. She also served some very generous samples of Angus's home made Scotch. The rumblers left Maud's table more than satisfied to have a coed team in existence. And later, after Curling season was over, Maud became the first woman to own and operate the very profitable distillery specializing in making Kilsyth's Grand Ledge Scotch.

visit Magpie Tales for more writing based on this picture prompt!