starry quilt

Another picture from the fair. For laughs I will have to post something that I've made one of these days. I really like this one. In spite of (or is it because of?) the simplicity of the design, it appeals to me.

Worthless Furball # 1

Not a very good picture, but even cameras with an “idiot” setting I need a little practice. It took me a day or so to find out how to disable the time/date stamp. The dog, on the other hand, was an instant expert in Human Psychology. We are all wrapped around his little paw and slaves to big brown eyes.

Through the Windshield

I take lots of photos out of moving vehicles. It shows.

This one isn't too bad, because the windshield was relatively clean (we had to keep washing off the pollen), and I was shooting in the direction we were moving.

I'm not sure where we were. Somewhere in the Midwest. I think.

Time for steel drum jingle bells

It's been a tad warm this week--which probably means we're in for it in January.

picture from flamingomango.com


(There's a lawn flamingo I pass every Wednesday, which is currently decorated for Christmas in a Santa suit. But it's hard to take photos from a moving car in the dark...)


Any chance of a White Christmas where you live? Do they give weather probabilities in negative numbers?

December 7

In remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day, five Medal of Honor winners who died 12/07/41:

• Mervyn S. Bennion, United States Navy Captain, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1887)
• Herbert C. Jones, United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1918)
• Isaac C. Kidd, United States Navy Rear Admiral, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1884)
• Thomas J. Reeves, United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1895)
• Franklin Van Valkenburgh, United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1888)

In the citation for Ensign Jones' Medal of Honor:

Ens. Jones organized and led a party, which was supplying ammunition to the antiaircraft battery of the U.S.S. California after the mechanical hoists were put out of action when he was fatally wounded by a bomb explosion. When 2 men attempted to take him from the area which was on fire, he refused to let them do so, saying in words to the effect, "Leave me alone! I am done for. Get out of here before the magazines go off."

I wonder how many acts of bravery will never be known, because no one survived to report.

(courtesy Wikipedia)

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Today is St. Nicholas Day. This is the story about St. Nicholas that has morphed into our custom of Santa Claus:

“One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a . The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.”

Did you find a toy in your shoes this morning?

Me neither. Maybe I should have left hay and carrots in them.

(Photos, drawing and quote for this entry found at the St. Nicholas Center , which has lots of other pictures and stories about St. Nick. Drawing of St. Nicholas and the three poor girls by Elisabeth Jvanovsky.)

Orchidaceae

I think it would be really cool to be a nature photographer, stalking wildlife in a natural setting, catching a fleeting moment forever in an immortal picture that would convey a sense of freedom, and beauty, and our kinship to the natural world.

This picture, on the other hand, is of a plant.

A domesticated plant carefully tended in a hothouse.

In captivity.

I think if I took a picture of a piece of gravel in a parking lot I would be closer to the wild.

However, I did manage to get a picture of it, not a blur where it used to be.

Good Enough to Eat

Isn't this delicious? I couldn't decide if I wanted a slice of cake, or to examine the stitching.

I wish I could make either a cake or a quilt that looked this good. Even the lettering ("Happy Birthday Nana") is "stitched". Those three blue ribbons were earned.