New Year's Eve Shopping

There is something peaceful about the early morning hours in a large city. The streets are serene under a dark sky, the pavement wet and lacking footprints. Storefronts cast a strange glow (if they have windows at all) and sounds are amplified; there is a uniquely wet and delectable sound made by a hefty halibut hitting a metal pushcart.We made our way into Pittsburgh before the...

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Betty Boop/Cab Calloway: Snow White

I find an interesting old cartoon every so often.Betty Boop is not one of my favorites but there are a few out there that I love. This one is the 1933 rendition of Snow White, with a guest appearance by Cab Callow...

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2008 Year in Review

Annie is too clever for my own good. She found this fabulous idea for reviewing our year. "You simply write the first line of the first post of each month. Include a picture if you like and, voila, you have your year in review." Visit There is no place like home. You can also share it at My Romantic Home, which Annie found as well.My 2008JanuaryEvery now and then I stop to read...

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Eartha Kitt

Farewell to a fascinating woman...

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I Believe...

I believe I’ll have another cup of tea. You don’t mind if I pour while imparting a bit of pre-New Year’s Eve advice, do you?Down through the ages, as the dying year wisps away at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, man takes it upon himself to make an Avowal of Resolution to Determine to Commence to Eradicate all the Bad Things from Life that coming year. Silly sounding and...

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Gennaker Leah Ann

Gennaker passed away on December 11. She was 15 years old.We’ve been though a lot of grief this year, first with some very private matters and then with Mattie passing away (not too gently) this summer. Gennaker came as a shock, although it wasn’t unforeseen; she was elderly, nearly deaf and a tad forgetful.I picked Nen out of a litter of puppies slated for a “pregnancy spay”....

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Tinker's Cafe, now on BTR

The Tinker’s CaféWe are well into our second month at Tinker’s (Blog Talk Radio) and Roidan and I are settling into a pattern. The whole thing has been rather disjointed up until now (and perhaps it still is.)We’ve tried the laid back approach. We’re not really sure if it’s working. We’ve tried meditation segments, bible study segments (off schedule) as well as our normal segments....

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News and Updates

I have a blog. (Hello blog.)It isn’t that I forgot that I have a blog; it’s that I have been too busy to actually do anything with my blog.Have you ever had a comfy friend, one who makes all the aches and pains seem to go away? Have you ever accidentally-not-on-purpose neglected that friend? So it is with my blog.I’ve neglected other blogs as well, such as my other blog. I’ve also...

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Recommendation: Distilling Thoughts

Distilling Thoughts You must visit here. I do not usually add "must" to my recommendations but I earnestly mean it in this case. Totomai's photography is magnificent. It is not often that I discover a blog that moves me with its pictures alone.I love photography. I suck at it. It's my camera. It isn't meant for quality work but rather for happy photographs of family, friends, pets and scenes. When I stumble across a photographer's blog (with pictures that remind me of snapshots that usually grace the covers and pages of National Geographic, Time or other renowned magazines)...

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Bragging

Sunday Scribblings (a weekly writers forum) listed bragging as a theme. “I don’t like myself. I’m crazy about myself!” – Mae West.Research the word “bragging”. It is synonymous with: arrogant, bigheaded, conceited, full of yourself, immodest, vain, self-important. It is akin to: overweening, high and mighty, egotistical, presumptuous, stuck-up, pompous, snobbish, portentous, ostentatious,...

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Mid Month Thoughts

We’ve had a fairly quiet month. Last Monday was Columbus Day. It was also Thanksgiving in Canada and I thought it would be amusing to celebrate a foreign holiday; my health kept me from getting the game hens stuffed and into the roaster. Suffice to say, we celebrated a day later.My motivation stems from Better Half’s desire to break away from the norm this holiday season; rabbit...

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Linda May

I discovered a lovely blog today, linda may. She chanced upon one of my Sunday Scribblings posts and I thought I’d stop by and read hers.What a charming woman! Reading her entries is much like sitting down and chatting over a cup of coffee. She has many wonderful pictures from her garden as well....

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My Autumn Wildlife Habitat Eco-Style

Fall is my favorite season. I enjoy winter with her blustering snow; spring and summer treat us to a riot of green dotted with a rainbow of bee-attracting colors. Autumn provides fabulous opportunity to study nature before the snow comes.“Fall! Oh Halloween and Thanksgiving! Oh and then we have Christmas and the New Year! I can smell all the good cooking, and I’m thinking of silver...

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Wellsburg Apple Festival, 2008

Wellsburg is a charming small town along Highway 2 in West Virginia. It has been around for quite a long time, sitting placidly alongside the Ohio River. Better Half and I discovered the Wellsburg Apple Festival last Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon.My first objet de plaisir was this odd little house tucked against a heavy brick building. I love old things. I married...

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History Time Capsule (Mingo, Wellsburg)

A bit of history in the Ohio Valley. The Wells Log House, mentioned below, still stands to this day.The following information was written in 1906 and was found in the cornerstone of Jefferson School, June 23, 1967. Some of the landmarks have been updated to reflect current locations for better reference.In the year 1749, the French inaugurated the trading system with the Indians...

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