Shadow Decoration
Charles Courtney Curran, 1887

I remember the day my beloved Latin teacher unrolled this print from the mailing tube to show to our class.  I loved the print, loved the subject matter, loved the shadows. When Bernie and Cho moved they gave me their beautifully framed print and it's hanging on my walls at home.

(I tried to make the image larger, to no avail.  Sorry!)

I love to read lists like this.  Having it in poetical form is delight upon delight.  What are some of your favorite items?  I especially like the strong crust of friendly bread, and hair's fragrance. Don't you love hugging a friend and smelling her/his hair?  Or am I weird?  Rupert Brooke hits all the senses doesn't he? 

These
I Have Loved

 
These
I have loved:

White
plates and cups, clean-gleaming,

Ringed
with blue lines; and feathery, fairy dust;

Wet
roofs, beneath the lamplight; the strong crust

Of
friendly bread; and many-tasting food;

Rainbows;
and the blue bitter smoke of wood;

And
radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;

And
flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,

Dreaming
of moths that drink them under the moon;

Then,
the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon

Smooth
away trouble; and the rough male kiss

Of
blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is

Shining
and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen

Unpassioned
beauty of a great machine;

The
benison of hot water; furs to touch;

The
good smell of old clothes; and other such—

The
comfortable smell of friendly fingers,

Hair’s
fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers

About
dead leaves and last year’s ferns—

                                                Dear
names,

And
thousand others throng to me! Royal flames;

Sweet
water’s dimpling laugh from tap or spring;

Holes
in the ground; and voices that do sing—

Voices
in laughter, too; and body’s pain,

Soon
turned to peace; and the deep-panting train;

Firm
sands; the little dulling edge of foam

That
browns and dwindles as the wave goes home;

And
washen stones, gay for an hour; the cold

Graveness
of iron; moist black earthen mold;

Sleep;
and high places; footprints in the dew;

And
oaks; and brown horse chestnuts, glossy-new;

And
new-peeled sticks; and shining pools on grass—

All
these have been my loves.

 Rupert
Brooke (1887-1915)

I remember driving to baseball games where DS #1 was the all-star catcher.  We would review "situations" on the way: there are runners on first and third, one out, and the guy on first takes off for second.  What do you do? Or, the count is two and two and the hitter likes high and outside: what pitch do you call?

Last night, our new-driver son was driving us home in the dark on a two lane highway.  Ever the coach, my DH started running situations by him: a deer steps into the road, what do you do?  [The answer in our family is always: let up on the throttle, cover the brake, keep your wheel straights, and HIT THE DEER; not because we eat venison, but because too many people have been killed swerving for animals in the road. BTW, we've never hit a deer or elk, but have had several close calls.]  Someone has their brights on and you are blinded, what do you do?  [Focus on the white line to the right.]

I'm sitting in the back seat listening, enjoying the interchange. I wondered how a coach would run situations in my life.  Of course, my mind ran to the worst one: a police officer shows up on my doorstep with the news that one of my beloveds is gone.  What do I do?  [The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.]  What are common situations I will run up against?  A friend calls and gossips: how do I respond?  Or, I realize I'm the gossiping friend: now what?  I wake up grumpy and want to be lazy today.  Do I cave in? 

My dear Mma Romatswe ran situations in her dieting: "Next time Mma Potokwane offers me any of that fruit cake of hers, I shall say, 'No thank you, Mma.' That is what I shall say."

Thinking about it,

Carol

DH and I went on a mega shopping trip yesterday in a larger city two 1/2 hours away.  We go to Costco and get 3-month supplies of detergent, feta cheese, olive oil, etc.  The book table always draws me in and the latest Mma Romatswe book beckoned!  Blue Shoes and Happiness.  I  so much enjoy these stories of Botswana - the culture, the simplicity, the humor, human nature.  IMHO, Blue Shoes isn't up to par with some of the earlier books.  I'm getting weary of the apprentices' immaturity, and a certain je n'est sais quoi is missing.

However, it's still worth a couple of belly laughs:

Really, I'm not bored.  But as I was making beds this morning I remembered a lengthy discussion with my friend Ilene and her sister Judy when I was a girl staying at their home. 

When you make a bed, do you place the sheet with the right side up or the right side down?  You will tell a difference when you open the bed.  If the right (finished) side is up, when you open the bed you will see the back side.  If the finished side is down, when you open the bed two finished sides greet you. 

It's really about obsolete as a question, isn't it?  I mean, how many sheets have a right and a wrong side, heh-heh?  The flannel sheets in our guest room do, that's why I wondered.

This is "Sommar" by Carl Larsson.  Don't you love farming scenes? Especially in watercolor?

Donna at Quiet Life has posted several Larsson pieces and I was immediately taken in.  Thank you, Donna!  I told my SIL Val [that's our favorite thing to do: share newly discovered treasures], who has been connected to a Swedish Covenant church community for many, many years.  Yes, yes, she knew (and loved) Larsson.  She gave me a lovely Carl Larsson calendar for Christmas.  Thank you, Val!

Maybe we should have a "fine art" month of blogging and post some of our favorite prints. 
Lo! an inspiration!  Fine Art Friday!  Who's with me?  Doesn't that sound like fun? There's always room for more beauty in our lives.

Sometimes reading slowly is beneficial.  The last chapter I read from Temperament gave the ratios (rate of vibration and inversely length of string) of different musical intervals. An octave (Somewhere Over the Rainbow) has a 2:1 ratio.  A perfect fifth is 3:2, a fourth (Here Comes the Bride) is 4:3; While a major third (Kumbayah) is 5:4, a minor third, 6:5, writes Isadcoff, "is associated in romantic  musical works with feelings of melancholy or passion; ...Chopin's achingly sad funeral march in his Sonata in B-flat minor is launched with the leap of a minor third."

I couldn't hear the funeral march in my head, so I picked up Chopin and looked through the index.  There it was!  I played it through, well, whittled my way through it - but it was a great diversion and gave me a connection with the text. 

                ~         ~         ~         ~         ~         ~

I flipped through Imitation of Christ and realized that this is not a book I want to sail through.  I plan to read one mediation a day, which will take me into September.  I am thankful to George Grant for stimulating a desire to read this book. Griffin's notes about translating the Latin are worthy of any Latin teacher's time, but even more they are just plain fun to read.  Here's the opening sentences and a quote from today's reading, which BTW, you can read with the Search Inside feature:

Walking on,

Carol

I knew she was coming, but I barely recognized her when she stepped out of the car. I hadn't seen her in several years.  My friend Michelle (in the black tee) lost **110** pounds in the last 1 1/4 years. WOW!  Gracious!  She had gastric bypass surgery - her liver was about to give out and it was vital to her health to lose weight.  She has changed her mind along with her habits:  no-soda ever,  yes- avocado a day,  yes- lots of tomatoes, no-white flour and no-sugar, no-hamburgers.  In addition she has morphed into a very, very active person: horse back riding is her passion, extreme (climbing up and down ridges) hiking is a regular activity. What is truly incomprehensible is that she was widowed halfway through the weight loss and kept losing. It's been so good to have time with her.

                                              ~      ~     ~    ~     ~

Don't you find other's successes inspiring? 

These words popped out at me on Sunday, reminding me of the grace available to me to gain victory in this daily battle:

The following commencement address was given by  Dr. B. at a recent homeschool graduation ceremony.  He graciously gave me permission to post an excerpt here.  It was such a lovely time looking back at the growth of two very special people and celebrating their completion of high school work.

The direction which you take early in life
makes a huge difference in terms of where you end up.  If you know what your target is, you want
that direction to be as straight and true as possible if you want to hit the
mark.  Once a bullet is out of the barrel
its path can easily be altered. Gravity affects it, the wind, a tree limb, a
fence post, school, a scene in a movie, a bad habit, bad company, a brief and
fleeting moment of passion, or any number of things can change the path of that
little projectile.  You are entering your
formative years, the years during which you will be shaped and molded, and the
decisions you make will have a big affect your path.  You see, the earlier you angle 1 or 2
degrees, the further from the target you will land.  You are about to leave the barrel, and I hope
you have had a barrel of fun. But outside the barrel may not always be
fun.

A very wise man (not myself) once penned
words something like this:

“My children do not forget my
teaching

Write my words upon your
heart

For length of days and years of
life

And peace they will
impart

Trust the Lord with all your
heart

And not the wisdom of the
day

In all your ways acknowledge
Him

And your road will be
straight.

Search for wisdom and, my
children,

Pursue her every
day.

The fear of God will start you on your
way.”

One of my favorite quotes is, “Don’t let
school get in the way of your education!” 
I believe that school can be very helpful, but you must remember to “keep
your eyes on the prize.”  Often we go to
school to learn skills, and we want you to do that.  We are sending you off to become
leaven in this world; we want you to have an influence on it more
than having it influence you.  Much of
our influence comes from qualities we can't see on the outside.  It's stuff below the surface.  Probably 90% of our influence is made up from
our character.  Many people make it
through college and neglect their character. 
Your skill may get you to the top-but it is your character that will keep you
there.

A new food discovery!!  Yippee!!  The flowers of chives are edible.  I had a delightful time learning from "Baba", the grandmother of Joanne, a graduating homeschool student.  We were stuffing mushrooms and ran out of the stuffing. 

Ah, the joy of improvisation!!  We poked in the fridge and thought out loud and came up with an herb/cream cheese stuffing that was delightful.  Baba went to the garden and cut fresh herbs and I mashed the cream cheese. We added a little Caesar's dressing and some garlic. Baba came in with a handful of chive flowers and thought they would be lovely sprinkled on top.  She washed them carefully and separated them into tiny fragments.  With a dubious attitude I tasted one: delicious!

These guys can go in salads, on top of omelets.  Can you think of other uses?  Is this even news to y'all?  I came home and looked at my two chive plants and the flowers are all beyond the beyonds; pretty droopy.  But I'm excited for this new tasty bit of information!