November sunset along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Picture by Nyssa. (Click to enlarge) 
". . . these are the times of dreamy quietude, when beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean's skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember, that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang." ~ Herman Melville. "Moby Dick"
Nyssa took this picture of a calm November sunset along the Gulf Coast in Pass Christian, Mississippi; before the ravages of Hurricane Katrina destroyed the homes and businesses of the people there. The beautiful white beaches and the smooth waters of the Gulf seen here, bely the power of Nature when atmosphere and water come together. But the people here are of strong stock and unlike some neighbors to the west, have not whined and complained; they have rolled up their sleeves and gotten back to the task of living. They accept the help of those they did not know and greeted them with true Southern hospitality and graciousness. And slowly life returns to the tranquility of long ago and far away. I am proud of the people of Mississippi and their example to all of us.
Submission to Tuesday Challenge for topic "coast". (end of post)
City nights, hot and humid. New York. "Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night." ~ Rupert Brooke (English Poet, 1887-1915)
My mind is going a mile a minute, things moving faster here than a speeding subway train and more activity than seen in Times Square. Stephen is not having the typical "buyer's remorse", I think that is left to me... and I am not really buying the house. So much to think about and only two weeks to do it. I don't remember my previous house purchasing experiences being this way... but times have changed. Help! I need to step back, take a cleansing breath and hide in the nearest cave.... oh, say, for about three months or so. I feel as if I am in one of those "Live comes at you fast!" commercials!
Oh, yes. The whole "why are you limping" thing is a very long story.... It will commence in the next post.... perhaps. I will say that my knee looks a little better than Mom's... no incision, but bruised.
Submitted to Tuesday Challenge for topic "night". (end of post)
Raindrops keep falling on my head.April Rain Song
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.
~ Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967)
The cold rain of Winter; a Nor'easter sets up shop just off the coast and spins, bringing rain bands in from the Atlantic. It isn't so much the rain that chills you to the bone, but rather that cold, damp wind with strength to knock patio furniture over and fling branches down from the overhanging trees.
The nourishing rain of Spring; sometimes gentle, sometimes turbulent and laced with thunder and lightning. It falls on the newly planted seedlings and rejuvenates the awakening flower bulbs.. Spring rain is the life blood of nature.
The sudden rain of Summer is desperate to refresh as we languish under the hot sun. Drops sizzle as they hit the asphalt and steam rises from the ground, only adding to our misery. Words such as sticky, humid and heavy come to mind.
The cleansing rain of Autumn; assistant to the falling leaves and ripening pumpkins. Harvest begs nature to stave off the water until the cotton is picked and the wheat safely in the bin. Mud slicks and layers of damp pine needles squish beneath galoshes as the kids trudge back to school.
Rain shows us many faces, brings the booming symphony of thunder, spreads the sweet smell of freshly mowed grass and glistens on exposed skin. It touches all our senses. And I love the rain.
Submission for Tuesday Challenge topic "rain". (end of post)
Still waters, fall reflections.
(Click picture for larger view) "No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see." ~ Unknown
Still waters on a fall day, the fish are silent, the insects gone and the water is as smooth as glass reflecting the trees and the sunlit blue sky. Water, the world's looking glass, reflects the beauty and serenity of nature. And as I stand here gazing at the scene, a peace and joy from the Creator fills my heart and mind.... this is contentment.
Submission for Tuesday Challenge topic "reflections" and LensDay topic "water". (end of post)
Hands across the generations. (Nyssa, Christmas 1988)
(Click picture for larger view) "When I was a child... With those five words, almost holy in their simplicity, we touch hands across the generations, each to the next. With that word 'when', we reach back, as if to take something special from a pocket. With the words 'I was', we stand with locked knees upon our place in history. And with 'a child', we remind the generations to follow that we were once young, too, and that they, too, will grow old and full of memories." ~ Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate of the United States
A small child with life unfolding before her, walks with her grandma on a windy winter beach. Little hands pat the sand and strain to find the foamy water... OH! It's cold! Grandma quickly dries those hands and encases them in her gloves...tiny hands hidden within those large gloves, safe and warm.
That's what we try to do as parents.... hide our children's hands, hearts and minds in a safe cocoon where the cold and rain and horrors of life cannot reach them; where they may grow strong in spirit, as well as in body. It hurts to know that we can only do so much to keep them in our hands of safety and all too soon those barbs of life will work their way through.
This little child grew up all too soon. Now her hands sport her own gloves and wrap arms around her friends during times of loss and my hands can no longer fix all her hurts. Perhaps someday, there will be another little girl walking along the beach with her grandma; tiny hands wrapped in large warm gloves and her future wrapped safely in her own mother's heart. Someday.
Submission for Tuesday Challenge topic "hands". (end of post)
Lost in The Great Gatsby. (Click picture for larger view) "An unread book is just a block of paper." ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." ~ Mark Twain
You may have a huge library full of books, but unless you open the cover and read, they are as Fitzgerald says, "just a block of paper." So, where do you like to read?
Nyssa reads anywhere... sitting on the hot tub, in bed, curled up in a dorm room nook, in the back yard on a cold day, in the car and yes, in the bathroom. I'm just glad she has always loved to read.
Reading began early with the classic children's book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Every night we read this book, beginning the first night home from the hospital... "In the great green room, there was a telephone and a red balloon and a picture of...." One of her first words... "moon"; her answer to the question, "What would you like to read tonight?" We branched out to Caps for Sale, When You Give A Mouse A Cookie and others. We bought books and we checked them out of the library, twenty or thirty at a time; reading the classics first and then starting with the beginning of the alphabet and working our way through the children's section. We read fairy tales and Shakespeare plays, poem treasures and Bible stories and when she learned to read on her own The Wind in the Willows, The Chronicles of Narnia and Charlotte's Web. In high school and college she has found a fondness for Virginia Woolf and other modern writers.
We have different tastes in books, my daughter and I. She never gravitated toward some of my favorite childhood reads such as The Swiss Family Robinson, Nancy Drew Mysteries, or The Black Stallion Series. I went through a biography phase and she didn't. I read The Lord of the Rings back in the late 60's before it became a popular read, although I didn't read them in the right order; she hasn't gotten the urge to do so yet.
We both agree that The Giver by Lois Lowry is a must read for older kids, teenagers and adults. (a fabulous and thought provoking book) And I admit that we both love Harry Potter... actually we fought over Harry Potter a few times.
And now armed with my library cardn I can again revisit those classics from Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and others. As I sit with a good book in a quiet space, I travel back in time to an old stone smokehouse off the 100 year old farm house in Illinois where my grandparents lived. I see a chunky little brunette girl sitting in the window seat with boxes of Reader's Digest Condensed Books at her feet and an open book in her hands. She is reading by dim light through the small soot coated window panes, when faintly she hears as if from another time and place.... "Roxanne? Come to supper!! Where is she?" Oh to be that little girl again.Dear little child, this little book
Is less a primer than a key
To sunder gates where wonder waits
Your "Open Sesame!"
~ Rupert Hughes, "With a First Reader"
The crocus have bloomed and gone.
(Click picture for larger view) "Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil."
~ Reginald Heber
All winter the grass is brown, the trees bare, and often the skies gray. We rely on small patches of color....a cardinal here and there, the blue patch on a female mallard wing, ever present pansies and purple ornamental cabbage... and of course, the Christmas lights. But during the coldest months of January and February, even these are too scattered and far between. Then in March, after the many "two steps forward, one step back" of fluctuating temperatures, it seems to sneak up on you and yet, bursts on the scene like an explosion. Spring! Daffodils, forsythia, dogwood, tulips, cherry trees, Bradford pear, redbud and of course those tiny harbingers of spring; small, almost an afterthought but often first... the crocus. Royalty in purple, sunshine in yellow, a clown in stripes... they come and go too soon. And Spring goes on.
Submission for Tuesday Challenge topic "spring". (end of post)
Lady Willow in silhouette. "Which is more beautiful, feline movement or feline stillness?"
~ Elizabeth Hamilton
As the weather warms, birdwatching becomes a significant part each cat's day. The crew takes turns. OK, so on occasion one of the wide bodied Ragdolls will jump up on the chest, knocking someone else off. Afternoon sun streams in the window providing a well lit feeding station for their study from the relative darkness of the room. This makes for interesting photos at times. Here, Lady Willow has been watching the finch flit from branch to thistle feeder and back. A group of three goldfinch showed up and served up a drama of fluttering wings, high pitched chirpings and round robin pecking as each tried to drive the others away. All of this commotion sends Willow's tail into overdrive with twitching and flicking; her head and eyes barely able to keep up with the pace, darting back and forth. Exhaustion made her pause and stare at the soft chenille robe on my bed, contemplating a quick nap and for an instant she sat in complete stillness; just long enough for me to snap her in silhouette. In profile she rather looks like a lion with her mane of long hair around her neck and that regal nose. Royalty, thy name is "cat".
Submission for Tuesday Challenge topic "silhouette". (end of post)
Mimus polyglottos: This one is not a happy camper!
(Click picture for larger view) "Then from the neighboring thicket the mockingbird, wildest of singers,
Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung o'er the water.
Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious music,
That the whole air and the woods and the waves seemed silent to listen."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Evangeline"
The birds never really leave Virginia Beach for the winter; in fact most become more active as it gets colder. A couple of years ago, Vicki sent me a net bird feeder to hang in the bush outside my bedroom window and thus, a tradition was born. Of course the birds eventually pecked huge holes in the netting and two new metal feeders took its place; one for sunflower and other bird feeds and one for thistle. We have a parade of chickadee, finch and wren along with mourning dove picking up dropped pieces on the ground. This year the cardinal found us as have the starling and an occasional mockingbird. Mornings are prime birdwatching for the cats and myself; mockingbirds are among the most active, swooping down to the fence and flitting between the trees and the roof of the shed, with stops on the fenceposts and the dog house. I hid behind the pine tree and waited. Soon I had several shots of these comical creatures; handheld shots using my birthday present (70 - 300mm IS Zoom Lens). This is one of my favorites. It reminded me of the now famous photograph, The Mad Bluebird. Don't you agree?
Submission for Tuesday Challenge topic "zoom". I wonder if this grumpy fellow would feel more comfortable over at Friday's Ark? There are sure to be other birds there.
(end of post)
