Another Day That Will Live In Infamy

Yeah - I know - it's everywhere... Nine/Eleven...

But there's no avoiding it, really, so I've just embraced it - I watched some of the newer documentaries on TV last night and checked out some links I saw on Facebook this morning - oddly enough, one of the most moving was a Budweiser commercial that only aired once (on YouTube - the Clydesdales pull the beer wagon to Ground Zero and then - music swells - they bow...) Yeah, I cried

My brother said he was going to put the flag out, and I thought that was very appropriate, even though it's not an actual national holiday, like Memorial Day or Veteran's Day or the Fourth of July - so I put out my little $1.00 flag, too - it's waving nicely, even though I have to go outside every once in a while and untangle it 

He also told me about the memorial at Ground Zero - I  couldn't verify whether or not it's actually been completed - and that it consists of two pools where the towers used to be ("The design strives to make visible what is absent." - Michael Arad, architect) They're also building a new World Trade Center skyscraper there, but it will only be about as tall as the Empire State Building - I think that's also very appropriate - and it will be followed by two or three more office buildings (after all, office space is at a premium in New York City)

Check out the new USAToday 9/11 web page (I have a friend who works there - a lot of work went into this tribute)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/911

Let's stop the hatred...

Let's shed a tear;

Let's make it better -

Let's end the fear.

TJBGoogins

"You may say I'm a dreamer... but I'm not the only one."

John Lennon

Rest in peace - and may the rest of us be allowed to go in peace

Goodbye To Summer

For me, September is a time for looking back at summer (which feels like it's still here - hot & humid) and all the lovely plants that grew, flowered, fruited and are now beginning to thin out and look scraggly...so here are some shots of spring & summer in my yard

 Here is my lovely comfrey with its giant, fuzzy leaves, and over here, a huge swath of mugwort, which was growing everywhere this year (at least, this was the first year I knew what it was)

Wild white morning glory with a bee being busy inside... next is spotted jewel weed, also wild, used to counteract the itch of poison ivy...

Here is yarrow alongside a volunteer kale plant gone to seed...

 And here are wine berries, growing wild (I've never tried one, I just leave them for the birds and creatures to eat)

 Luscious little black raspberries that return every summer... I pick a few and leave hundreds on the bush for the blue jays and mockingbirds to take back to their young ones

 Here's a blue morning glory growing amongst weeds next to a large bed of mint

 There are more photos, but this is already quite LONG... I just love my little microcosm of plants and animals, it nourishes my soul... so let me leave you with a little information about September:

Wikipedia says...

• September's birthstone is the sapphire. The meaning is clear thinking.
• The birth flowers for September are the forget-me-not, morning glory and aster.

 ... and elsewhere (see link at the end)

September is National Chicken Month.

It is also Cholesterol Awareness Month in America.

The very first comic strip was printed in an American newspaper on September 11th, 1875

The famous leader singer of the classic rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury was born on September 5th, 1946 on the island of Zanzibar.

The poem “Mary had a Little Lamb” was published September 1st, 1830.

World War II began September 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland.

The US Treasury Department was established 1789.

September 5th, is National Cheese Pizza Day.

The 1st Continental Congress was called to order on September 5, 1874.

September 9th is National Teddy Bear Day.

September 16th is National Play-Doh Day.

September 19th is “Talk Like A pirate Day” around the world…an International event.

The first airport opened on September 29.

September 24th, 1789 — the US Supreme Court was established.

On September 18, 1851 the infamous New York Times newspaper published it first edition.

Native American Day is always celebrated on the 4th Friday of September.

September 12th is National Chocolate Milkshake Day

The 4th week of September is National Dog Week

The Great Fire of London happened September 2, 1666.

George Eastman got his patent for the roll-film camera, in September of 1888 and the Eastman-Kodak company soon was off to becoming one of America’s major corporations.

On September 5th, 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed a hijacking bill, making air piracy a crime punishable by death or imprisonment.

Former President Richard M. Nixon was given an unconditional pardon, for his role in the infamous “Watergate” fiasco by President Gerald Ford, September 8, 1974.

Read more: http://socyberty.com/history/strange-facts-and-historical-trivia-about-september/#ixzz1XW5fHMNH

Stay tuned for a post celebrating the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn, which can be such a lovely time of year depending on location, wind and weather, of course - stay well

Goodnight Irene - I'll See You In My Dreams

The storm has passed...  we were luckier than most (we lost power for six days - but at least we had running water)

My outside cat Willie (the stray I've been feeding for the last six or seven years) is missing in action but I am still looking... 





Oh - and Barry the betta fish up and died.

We lost one tree but it didn't crush anything - see? - it wasn't a very big one ( you can see it in the other photo, the one slightly leaning to one side in that space back there behind the clothesline)

 

 

 Our basement flooded a little but we managed to bail it out.

Hope to have more news when I have a chance to post again. Until then, stay safe and be grateful for the little things. 

Butterflies Are Free

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. ~ Charles Dickens

Last week, I tried to capture a shot of this butterfly in my yard (for a photo essay on gardening yet to come) - this one, to me, is "cabbage-white" because there's just a tinge of greenish-yellow throughout its wings. Summer is winding down - I aim to enjoy what's left of it, because I do not care for winter!

The butterfly, a cabbage-white, (his honest idiocy of flight)


Will never now, it is too late, master the art of flying straight.


~ Robert Graves

Here's more about the butterfly (there's no proof that the word is derived from "flutter-by"):

As author and etymologist David Feldman once asked, “who put the butter in butterfly?” The English common name did originate from the relatively simple combination of “butter” and “fly,” there’s a written old English citation for buttorfleoge, but the literal origin is lost. Some sources have erroneously suggested that the excrement of butterflies is thought to resemble butter. The problem with this, of course, is that other than to void excess water, butterflies do not excrete! Caterpillars do because they are the active growing stage, although a simple consideration of what they eat will make you wonder why anyone would consider that it, commonly called frass, resembled butter! More likely origins include considering that the males of the common brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni, Pieridae) of England are butter-colored, or that, as author Samuel Jackson suggested, butterflies and the churning of butter are the simultaneous harbingers of spring, or that the word derives from the old myth that witches and fairies stole butter in the night, in the form of butterflies.

http://www.aworldforbutterflies.com/etymology.htm

Thanks for fluttering by today!

Of Old Friends and Goldfish

Okay - so, as promised (last month), here is a rough draft of some cobbled-together art for a story I wrote a few years ago...

Since making the mermaid paper doll, I've decided that I will create my own art for the book and photograph it and either distribute it electronically or print it out and bind the pages together as a "book" - so, here is just a quick version of a "scene" from my book about a little girl named Tessa and her friends - ta-da!

What I intend to do is create a "scene" to go along with sections of the book that I've written... I'll "cut and paste" the text alongside the artwork (incorporating the paper dolls and background art...) and each page will exist on its own - I will reveal it on this blog or print it out and somehow bind it together as a book to give as a gift to those people who have small children who will hopefully appreciate it

So - this isn't an actual "scene" from the book but it's sort of a prototype - now I have to come up with backgrounds appropriate to the story on which to pose little paper dolls of Tessa and her friends (more to come in future posts)

Tessa's story is about accepting who we are - little and loud, quiet and proud - and being true to ourselves and our friends... yeah, that's right - friendship is key!


It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Time it was and what a time it was...
A time of innocence,
A time of confidences;
Long ago, it must be...
I have a photograph.
Preserve your memories,
They're all that's left you."
Paul Simon ~ "Old Friends"

Feels So Good

Today started out rainy and cool, my favorite kind of day... Now the sun is out, it's nearly ninety degrees and I feel like I just took a bath in melted butter. However, I still managed to get a few things done, mainly housework like cleaning the cat boxes, washing dishes and - finally - cleaning the fish bowl. Let me tell you, Barry (short for Barracuda) is a happy fella - nice, clean, normal pH levels and an air stone to play in - what more could a fish ask for? Oh, yeah, and some flakes to nibble on as a reward for not jumping out of the little container while I cleaned his home! So here's a shot (taken after I brought him home, actually) of Barry in his bowl on the mantel. Lots more to do, though - I want to plant two plants (a hydrangea and a sunflower) and then I have to get ready to go to Staples to buy some ink cartridges for my printer and then I am going to go to a crystal bowl meditation class with Randeane Tetu who's a holographic sound healing master. Randeane is a really sweet wonderful person and I love listening to her chanting/singing along with the two crystal bowls she plays. I'm going to wear the small covellite piece I wire-wrapped to assist me in exploring my past existences, if possible... and I'm wearing my new dress I just bought that's a lovely mix of blue, green and purple with pretty fish and starfish hand-painted all over it. Enjoy your life - enjoy your day - enjoy your self!

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Philosophy will clip an angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine -
Unweave a rainbow.
~John Keats, "Lamia," 1819

Photo: TJBGoogins/8-1-2011

When you see an intense storm approaching and suddenly there's wind and rain, thunder and lightning, and then it's passed over and you realize there's a sunset in progress and it hits those tiny water droplets that are still hanging in the air way up there... well, it can make you gasp, or smile, or shout out loud...

... or take a photograph to share with everyone. Enjoy!