Twas the Night Before Christmas

And All Through The House

Not Even a Mouse

When We All Get Together

Now that the fairy dust is settling
I'll update my blog with a few shots of our week with my parents
{who came a long way to be with us}
and some of our 4 generation family fun.

{ Although I probably should be dusting that fairy dust. }

Life's Pleasures

To become a grandparent is to enjoy one of the few pleasures in life

for which the consequences have already been paid.

~Robert Brault~

Do you know why grandchildren are always so full of energy?

They suck it out of their grandparents.

~Gene Perret~

Ivy Helen

Autumn Photos Cont.

Wind is Rising

Light-Motion-Gravity

These last few beautiful days of Autumn {while their Mommy has been busy with the newest member of their family}, our swing set has been a favorite spot for these two.


Leif has longed for the magic of swinging all by himself the way his brothers can. He has finally got it. This is a good thing {for all of us}!

They can spend hours.

The child amidst his play is learning the action of light,

motion, gravity, muscular force….

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Boys Meet Girl

Lola Colette has her debut.

Waiting For Baby Sister

So anxious to welcome our new

baby sister!

In the mean time though,

we'll just play and enjoy this magical Fall day.

Live the Width of it

Food For Thought Friday

This is an amazing critique of the state of the American academy , by a 50 year Harvard Professor, Harvey Mansfield, in this interview on the Hoover Institute's
Uncommon Knowledge

(This interview makes a great case for classical education and great books study.)


"Statistically, Harvey Mansfield should be a raging liberal. He’s been at Harvard since 1949. In 2008, 93% of Harvard faculty political contributions were to Democrats. At Yale in the same year it was 94%. While it is no secret that America’s colleges and universities are bastions of liberalism, Harvey Mansfield in our latest episode discusses how that happened and the effect that it has on our society."


"One of the first casualties of the liberal stranglehold on the academy is a healthy emphasis on Western Civilization."

One more stop

I ended my afternoon with Heidi's boys at the local farm where we love to buy produce in the summer. They helped me pick out corn and other vegies to take home.

Boys at the Park

Slightly melancholy- ( let's just look at these flowers and see the ducks across the pond.)

Animated (all the ducks are gathering around now !)

Or - not having versus - having a bag of old bread ( handed to us ) to feed those same ducks.

Now this is more like it!! A feeding Frenzy!

Blackberries

"I love to go out in late September among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries to eat blackberries for breakfast, the stalks very prickly, a penalty they earn for knowing the black art of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries fall almost unbidden to my tongue, as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words like strengths or squinched, many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps, which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well in the silent, startled, icy, black language of blackberry -- eating in late September." Gallway Kinnell, Blackberry Eating

Justin & Olive - Part Two

Justin & Olive

September

"Lord, it is time. The summer was very big.

Lay thy shadow on the sundials, and on the meadows let the winds go loose.

Command the last fruits that they shall be full;

give them another two more southerly days, press them on to fulfillment and drive

the last sweetness into the heavenly wine."

~Rainer Maria Rilke~

"Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields,

The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth

And you walk under the red light of fall

The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain

The sharp, gentle chill of fall.

Here as we move into the shadows of autumn

The night that brings the morning of spring

Come to us, Lord of Harvest

Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."

"By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer’s best of weather

And autumn’s best of cheer."

~Helen Hunt Jackson, September, 1830-1885~

Rudyard Kipling

There is a reason why Rudyard Kipling is considered a master of story-telling genius! I have been enjoying all his books this year, starting with Kim and progressing through The Jungle books, none of which I had ever read before. I loved them all. Now I've added one more. This excerpt from The Naulica (1891) is a sample from the latest one I just finished.
( My book is a small, red, leather-bound copy from 1909 -smooth and worn.)

And just to set the mood, this random photo from my France file. (since I've never been to India)

Context....the protagonist has traveled to India (of course) attempting to rescue his lady-love and to search for a notorious, but fabulous necklace which he is told might be somewhere is in an abandoned, mysterious, walled city.


:: The shadows grew more distinct: he could see that he was standing with his face to some decayed tomb. Then his jaw fell, ( wow, is this the birth of that expression?) for without warning or presage, the red dawn shot up behind him, and there leaped out of the night the city of the dead. Tall-build, sharp-domed palaces, flashing to the color of blood, revealed the horror of the emptiness, and glared at the day that pierced them through and through.


:: The wind passed singing down the empty streets, and , finding none to answer, returned, chasing before it a muttering cloud of dust, which presently whirled itself into a little cyclone-funnel, and laid down with a sigh.


:: A screen of fretted marble lay on the dry grass, where it had fallen from some window above, and a geeko crawled over it to sun himself. Already the dawn flush had passed. The hot light was everywhere, and a kite had poised himself in the parched blue sky. The day, new-born, might have been as old as the city. It seemed to Tarvin that he and it were standing still to hear the centuries race by on the wings of the purposeless dust. [ ]

:: The silence of the place and the insolent nakedness of the empty way lay on him like a dead weight. For a long time he did not care to whistle, but rambled aimlessly from one wall to another, looking at the gigantic reservoirs, dry and neglected, the hollow guard-houses that studded the battlements, the time-riven arches that spanned the streets, and, above all, the carven tower with a shattered roof that sprang a hundred and fifty feet in the air.

From Heaven

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Psalms 84:11-12

Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those

who take refuge in him.

Proverbs 30:5

Food For Thought Friday

Trying something new here.

Food for thought Friday #1



A very interesting interview on National Review's Uncommon Knowledge.
There are 5 segments to watch of this interview with Thomas Sowell ,
author of Dismantling America. When you get to their website just click on
the perma-link under each segment.

Happy Birthday~LEIF

In summer, the song sings itself.

~William Carlos Williams~

White Flowers

To analyze the charms of flowers is like dissecting music;

it is one of those things which it is far better to enjoy,

than to attempt to fully understand.

~Henry T. Tuckerman~

Colours change: in the morning light, red shines out bright and clear and the blues merge into their surroundings,

melting into the greens; but by the evening the reds loose their piquancy, embracing a quieter tone

and shifting toward the blues in the rainbow. Yellow flowers remain bright,

and white ones become luminous,

shining like ghostly figures against a darkening

green background.

~Rosemary Verey, The Scented Garden, 1981~