Do not copy any of my artwork, poetry or photography without my permission.

Do not copy any of my artwork, poetry or photography without my permission.
....carpe diem. The Daylily. "Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun." Khalil Gibran. She gives her all for just one day then bows her head to God and fades away to nourish the next generation. God I pray I may give my all each day to honor you and bow my head at the end to nourish the next generation. Peggy Jones. NOTE............ Please folks do not copy any of my art or photos on my blog without my permission. Thank you for your good manners.

Blogs full of blessings

Monday, April 30, 2012

Mosaic Monday new life in our plant family

Mosaic Monday



 The first bloom on my topsy turvy tomato  plants.
Top left petunia in the bottom of the topsy turvy hummingbird attractor pot.
2nd left petunias in the to of the pot.
Old faithful hens and chicks.
Go here to visit other Mosaic Monday pretties.




Wonderful weekend with our daughter and family over the week-end.
Got to know our granddoggies better.
Well a little better
Poppy and Gibby.
There was a lot of yapping going on.
Our daughter tried to tell me they were just happy to see us but I got the feeling they were jealous.
After everyone but me had left the house for the day this morning they acted more hospitable.
They are spoiled rotten.
Can't help it they are too cute.









Sunday, April 29, 2012

Sunlit Sunday

I know Sunlit Sunday at My Little Home and Garden is on hold for the summer but I love the idea so I continue to use it.






This pot of Hens and Chicks have been in this pot for at least 10 years.
The pot is just plastic and pretty weather beaten.
I added a little fertilizer early in the spring and it has thrived.
Reminds me of myself.
What one sees  on the outside is not as important as what is on the inside.
Fertile dirt, good nutrition and love make up this little scene.
I love these plants.
I love my family and friends.
Have a beautiful Sunlit Sunday even if the sun is not shining in your neck of the woods.

Grands



5 of our chicks.
Don't know what Papaw is so pensive about.
He was probably tired of posing for photos.
Too bad.




Friday, April 27, 2012

Sepia Saturday 123

Summer is coming.

May activities and traditions from my little home town in Kentucky.

 This is a photo of School Day at the Washington County Fair c. May 1925. Each class appears to be in costume. "George Washington" is at the right.
This shot was obviously taken from inside of the audience area since there is a pole obstructing the view.
I remember this location very well. 
It was the Gazebo in the center of the horse show arena. The annual horse show was a big deal when I was a young girl.
My grandfather and father raised horses that performed in this  arena.
There was an organ in the Gazebo and a young boy in our town played that organ for years for the show.

I remember attending the fair in the 40s and 50s as an elementary school student.
Photo courtesy of Washington County Kentucky Bicentennial History
1792-1992


I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers:
Of April, May, of June, and July flowers.
I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes.

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
Hesperides (1648)
Go to this link for more Sepia Saturday



Thursday, April 26, 2012

Friday Shoot My Town

Theme for this week

Time
Passage of time

I found this hard. Not using the obvious clocks how do you convey the passing of time?
I decided on before and after photos.

 



5 days between these two photos.


That's all there is folks.
I am having trouble uploading or downloading or whatever I was doing to get my photos.

Go here for more passing of time blogs on Friday Shoot My Town.










Share the Joy Thursday.


I am feeling so much better today than yesterday. 
That in itself gives me much joy and to get to share my joy.
Thank goodness for opportunities to visit with blogger buddies and support each other in our everyday joyous adventure through life.

I have plans to be with two beautiful grands this weekend and sure did not want to be feeling ill.

 What joy these beautiful grands have brought us.
Two of the 11 we have been blessed with.


Go here to share some more joy on this beautiful 
Thursday. 



 Having.......my regular Maxwell House coffee in my everyday coffee cup along with Ruth and our friends.

Thinking.........Looking forward to the weekend with 2 grands.
One in her school play and the other in a celebration receiving her senior ring.

Feeling........How blessed our family is in so many ways.
Hard times have come and go over the years but the good times always out-weigh the bad. They may not seem like it at the time but they do.

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."



 Here to share with Ruth and friends.






Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Back to bed

Not feeling well at all today.
The wind and dampness and pollen have finally gotten me down.

When looking for something by Maxine to cheer me up today, found this.

t
The reason this struck me as so funny is that earlier this AM as I was sneezing and snorting and trying to work on my computer, I spilled my entire cup of coffee right into my lap.
The coffee went all over my keyboard and both legs.
Thankfully I had a plastic runner under my chair so none of it hit the carpet.

Right on the bugger that was stressing me out.

The point is I realized I was stressing myself out.
Dah.
So I will just cool it today.
So shutting up for the day and back to bed.
Thank goodness the sun is shining today but I will just be admiring from inside.


Monday, April 23, 2012

Down memory lane on Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday
Down Memory Lane.

April 23 1960

 Can you believe and we still love each other.
Just love that little bride and groom on the anniversary cake in the left lower corner.
It was on our original wedding cake.
The material on the bride's dress is missing and the colors are a little faded.
So much for aging.


I know this poem is very long but I decided to include it as it is so beautiful and truthfully I had never read it in it's entirety.

Of course one may scroll past it.

For all those who love.

Rabbi Ben Ezra

By Robert Browning
 
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!''

Not that, amassing flowers,
Youth sighed "Which rose make ours,
Which lily leave and then as best recall?"
Not that, admiring stars,
It yearned "Nor Jove, nor Mars;
Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all!"

Not for such hopes and fears
Annulling youth's brief years,
Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark!
Rather I prize the doubt
Low kinds exist without,
Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.

Poor vaunt of life indeed,
Were man but formed to feed
On joy, to solely seek and find and feast:
Such feasting ended, then
As sure an end to men;
Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?

Rejoice we are allied
To That which doth provide
And not partake, effect and not receive!
A spark disturbs our clod;
Nearer we hold of God
Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe.

Then, welcome each rebuff
That turns earth's smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!
Be our joys three-parts pain!
Strive, and hold cheap the strain;
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!

For thence,—a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks,—
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts me:
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.

What is he but a brute
Whose flesh has soul to suit,
Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?
To man, propose this test—
Thy body at its best,
How far can that project thy soul on its lone way?

Yet gifts should prove their use:
I own the Past profuse
Of power each side, perfection every turn:
Eyes, ears took in their dole,
Brain treasured up the whole;
Should not the heart beat once "How good to live and learn?"

Not once beat "Praise be Thine!
I see the whole design,
I, who saw power, see now love perfect too:
Perfect I call Thy plan:
Thanks that I was a man!
   Maker, remake, complete,—I trust what Thou shalt do!"

For pleasant is this flesh;
Our soul, in its rose-mesh
Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest;
Would we some prize might hold
To match those manifold
Possessions of the brute,—gain most, as we did best!

Let us not always say,
"Spite of this flesh to-day
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!"
As the bird wings and sings,
Let us cry "All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!"

Therefore I summon age
To grant youth's heritage,
Life's struggle having so far reached its term:
Thence shall I pass, approved
A man, for aye removed
From the developed brute; a god though in the germ.

And I shall thereupon
Take rest, ere I be gone
Once more on my adventure brave and new:
Fearless and unperplexed,
When I wage battle next,
What weapons to select, what armour to indue.

Youth ended, I shall try
My gain or loss thereby;
Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold:
And I shall weigh the same,
Give life its praise or blame:
Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old.

For note, when evening shuts,
A certain moment cuts
The deed off, calls the glory from the grey:
A whisper from the west
Shoots—"Add this to the rest,
Take it and try its worth: here dies another day."

So, still within this life,
Though lifted o'er its strife,
Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last,
This rage was right i' the main,
That acquiescence vain:
The Future I may face now I have proved the Past."

For more is not reserved
To man, with soul just nerved
To act to-morrow what he learns to-day:
Here, work enough to watch
The Master work, and catch
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.

As it was better, youth
Should strive, through acts uncouth,
Toward making, than repose on aught found made:
So, better, age, exempt
From strife, should know, than tempt
Further. Thou waitedst age: wait death nor be afraid!

Enough now, if the Right
And Good and Infinite
Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own
With knowledge absolute,
Subject to no dispute
From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone.

Be there, for once and all,
Severed great minds from small,
Announced to each his station in the Past!
Was I, the world arraigned,
Were they, my soul disdained,
Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last!

Now, who shall arbitrate?
Ten men love what I hate,
Shun what I follow, slight what I receive;
Ten, who in ears and eyes
Match me: we all surmise,
They this thing, and I that: whom shall my soul believe?

Not on the vulgar mass
Called "work," must sentence pass,
Things done, that took the eye and had the price;
O'er which, from level stand,
The low world laid its hand,
Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice:

But all, the world's coarse thumb
And finger failed to plumb,
So passed in making up the main account;
All instincts immature,
All purposes unsure,
That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount:

Thoughts hardly to be packed
Into a narrow act,
Fancies that broke through language and escaped;
All I could never be,
All, men ignored in me,
This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.

Ay, note that Potter's wheel,
That metaphor! and feel
Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,—
Thou, to whom fools propound,
When the wine makes its round,
"Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!"

Fool! All that is, at all,
Lasts ever, past recall;
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:
What entered into thee,
That was, is, and shall be:
Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure.

He fixed thee mid this dance
Of plastic circumstance,
This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest:
Machinery just meant
To give thy soul its bent,
Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed.

What though the earlier grooves,
Which ran the laughing loves
Around thy base, no longer pause and press?
What though, about thy rim,
Skull-things in order grim
Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress?

Look not thou down but up!
To uses of a cup,
The festal board, lamp's flash and trumpet's peal,
The new wine's foaming flow,
The Master's lips a-glow!
Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what need'st thou with earth's wheel?

But I need, now as then,
Thee, God, who mouldest men;
And since, not even while the whirl was worst,
Did I,—to the wheel of life
With shapes and colours rife,
Bound dizzily,—mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst:

So, take and use Thy work:
Amend what flaws may lurk,
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim!
My times be in Thy hand!
Perfect the cup as planned!
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same!


Go here to share other Mosaic Monday's with Mary









Saturday, April 21, 2012

Sunlit Sunday without sun

Sunlit Sunday without sun.

My Knockout Roses are coming on fast.
I got a shot of one on Saturday while it still had water on it from the rain this morning.
No big sunshine but they are beautiful.








God knew what joy flowers would bring to our lives when He created them, just for us.



Friday, April 20, 2012

Sepia Saturday 122

Sepia Saturday



 
Students at school 

Academic classes, fine arts, music, physical education, clerical skills, home economics were offered here and it was one of the premier schools in the state.
Rich girls, poor girls, no one was turned away. 
The Sisters made it happen. 

This is the main street of the campus and the very same avenue where soldiers were cared for during the Civil War regardless of which side they fought on.
This sacred ground was declared a demilitarized  zone and still is to this day.

 

Photo from "Impelled by the Love of Christ" 

History of Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Kentucky

1912-1924

by

Frances Krumpelman, SCN

 

Definition of ACADEMY

1
a : a school usually above the elementary level; especially : a private high school b : a high school or college in which special subjects or skills are taught c : higher education —used with the <the functions of the academy in modern society>
Nazareth Academy was founded in 1814 in a log cabin in the country outside of Bardstown Ky. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth religious congregation was only 2 years old having been founded in 1812 by Catherine Spalding and a couple of other local girls at the request of  Bishop David who saw the need for a school in the new state of Kentucky.


In 1922, with 25 students, the school was moved to the new campus of the Sisters of Charity a few miles north of the original founding location.
The first high school diploma was awarded to the students in 1925 by Henry Clay.
In 1921 a Junior College was added and in 1938 the Junior College became a 4 year college with degrees in education.
The academy was then closed and the campus functioned as a college until it was moved into Louisville Kentucky  in the late 40's.
In 1950 Nazareth College awarded the first baccalaureate degree in nursing in the state of Kentucky.
Today this beautiful campus is still the site of the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity, Nazareth Village I and II a senior retirement complex, Nazareth Retreat Center, Montessori School, Community gardening spot, offering areas for our town citizens  to have their own little garden plot.
When college classes were offered here I took my basic college classes and then went to U of Ky. for my nursing.
I am out there several times a week for various things and it is a happening place.


Go here for more Sepia Saturday





 
 

Friday Shoot Out--- theme---The Rule of Thirds


April 20: Rule of Thirds Post shots from town that use the Rule of Thirds as a compositional tool.




To test my understanding of the rule of thirds I am noting what I have done in my photos and ask for the adm group for their critique.
That is if you have time.

St. Francis is my subject.
I took this with the idea that the statue is in the left third vertically.

Correct or not folks?



The subject in this shot is the bird nest.
My idea is that the item is either in the left third vertically or the left third horizontally.


This shot depends on what my subject was.
If the grouping on the shelf, it is in the top third vertically.
Now if it is of the antique desk top, it is in the lower 2 thirds.
Does this shot, if in the 2/3 of the photo count in the rule of thirds?



The rose buds being the subject on the left vertical side and the leaves being in the lower third.






The bloom at the intersection of the grid.




The subject in this one is one of the Ten Commandments on the side of this building.
But also the sky is interesting here.






My understand of landscape shots if the sky has no interesting features keep the landscape in the lower two thirds but if the sky has interesting activity keep the landscape in the lower third.
That was my plan here.





That's my story for FSO


Go here and check out the other entries





Thursday, April 19, 2012

Share the Joy Thursday



Share the Joy Thursday
I received this on Sunday via e-mail from a friend.
It filled my heart with Joy.



The joy of knowing the gift of faith is one of my prized blessing from God.


Having.......a cup of hot chocolate in my fun Doc Martin mug.


Feeling..........good about the fact that HH and I have done some gardening and will have our own tomatoes for this summer season.




Thinking..........Have been reflecting on the words of Jesus from this past Sunday's gospel John 20, 19-31.
Jesus came to the apostles and showed them his hands and feet and the wound in His side.
Thomas, when he was told about what they had seen said,
"I'll never believe it without probing the nail-prints in His hands, without putting my finger in the nail-marks and my hand into His side."
 A week later Jesus came to them again and Thomas was there.
He did feel the nail-holes and the wound in His side and said that he believed.
Jesus said ,
"You became a believer because you saw me, Blest are they who have not seen and have believed."

What comfort that gives me.

I do believe and I have not seen.

Go here to enjoy other shared stories. 




Go here to visit with Ruth and friends.









Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Note Card party.

Good thing I went over to Vee's today I would have missed the Note Card Party and I already have mine ready.















Did these cards on Picmonkey.


Go here for Vee's Note Card Party. 





Doing one of my favorite things day


Doing my thing day.



My first day back to paint class yesterday had me coming away with this start.


I know this has a long way to go to look like this.


No one knows how many layers of paint it takes to have a finished project like this.
I just hope I can manage it.


Now


This is probably my most favorite thing to do.
At least it is the one I have the most confidence in doing.
But it is very important doing the later years to continue learning new things.

The brain at rest stays at rest.
The brain that is active stays active.
Or something like that.

You know the story.





No one in this family has had a baby for several years and even though one grand daughter is married, there are no plans for a baby for awhile.

Our youngest daughter's best friend is expecting a baby girl any day now.
They have been friends since they were elementary students.
Our daughter was in her wedding.
She was the organist in our daughter's wedding.
I love this beautiful friend of my daughter.
Her name is Carman.
So finally I have a new baby to make a blanket for.

It is 48 x 32 inches and every stitch was made with love.
The beautiful mother-to-be, Carman, at any minute now, may have the beautiful little
Madeline Cade in her arms.





Now to wash it and block it.






With the remaining yarn, called Chenille, I am making a little bunting hat for her.
This yarn is just like what chenille bedspreads are made from.
It was hard to work with at first but as I got used to it I love it.
It is so soft. 


Now back to my baby crocheting.
Better get to tweeking that painting too.
We will hopefully finish it next week.