Halloween Costumes and Other Attire

 

I did not get as many Halloween photos of the great-grands this year as last. But I didn't send out a reminder that I hoped to see them in costume like I did last year.

This one of Ayden and Greyson was taken at Blank Park Zoo's Night Eyes.

Looks like Louis and his Mom were at a Star Wars themed event.

Louis is a giraffe, I think, and Kathryn is a member of the Safari? 

Meanwhile, back home, little brother Henri is also a giraffe?

Great-grandma should have asked for clarification.

Whatever he's dressed as, he is a cutie.  

Katrina sent me a video of great-granddaughter Brynley in her black cat costume.

She was showing and saying "All candy from Halloween".

Looks like she made a pretty good haul.

And she's definitely a pretty cat.

No Halloween pics of Lily and Maverick this year but their dad, Evan, did share some photos of them at last Saturday's Iowa State vs. Texas Tech game.

Sadly it was the Cyclone's first loss of the season. 

Not a Halloween photo, though I think I look pretty scary, but a picture of me with the shawl that my e-pal Leslie crocheted and sent to me. 

When she said she was sending me something I never expected such a generous and lovely surprise. I can't even imagine the time and patience it would take to make a piece like this. 

The colors are definitely right for me - yellow jasper, crystal quartz and moonstone.

I'm not adept at wrapping a shawl; I'll have to practice. She also sent the wooden shawl pin.

They came in this appropriate little box as she referred to it as a bee shawl which I'm assuming is the name of the pattern.

This shows the colors better as well as some of the many different stitches.

The shawl is on the back of my office chair, handy for me to gather around my shoulders when I feel a chill.

Thank you again, Leslie. 💛

Oops. I almost forgot - one last Halloween picture. 

This is youngest great-grand, Everly, in a cow costume.

I borrowed (and cropped) the photo from her Mom's FB page.

She's three months old now.

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. 👻

One Final Puff Of Air

This is a blog I began several years ago and never finished. Today, All Souls Day - a day of remembrance for the departed - seems an appropriate time to add to it and post. 

I was standing where loved ones lay buried. Diagonally across the square mile I could see the top of the old pine on what was the west side of our garden. Sixty-four years ago I climbed it almost to the top. (I'm just a spot an inch or so from the top of the photo.) Now it is one of the last vestiges of the farm where I grew up - and where so many of my memories lie.

It took a long time for me to realize that there is no such thing as a true event. The people, date, time and location may be the same, but the stories about what took place all differ depending upon indivdual perspectives. What things we do all remember we often remember differently. Or something I remember may not at all be remembered by my brothers, just as they remember some things I don't.

In addition to the loved ones I was thinking about when I originally started this post, another of the people I am remembering today was my friend and classmate Donna. Today would have been her 81st birthday. 

Usually by this date we've had freezing temperatures. The flowers are done, the pots are put away.

But this year, they are all still blooming, even the tender Impatiens, even though we have had at least one official low of 32°. 

"The dead are never far from us. They're in our hearts and on our minds and in the end all that separates us from them is a single breath, one final puff of air." (Ordinary Grace William Kent Krueger.

Happy Celtic New Year

November 1st - All Saints' Day, Samhain, Calan Gaeaf, the end of the harvest season and the beginning of Winter, the darker half of the year, as well as the Celtic New Year. 

November comes

and November goes,

with the last red berries

and the first white snows.

With night coming early,

and dawn coming late,

and ice in the bucket,

and frost by the gate.

The fires burn

and the kettles sing,

and earth sinks to rest

until next spring.  (Clyde Watson)

This Olde Crone depiction has long been my favorite for Samhain Blessings. 

Calan Gaeaf  is the Welsh name for the November 1st celebration.

What I miss about not living in the country is the accompanying celebratory bonfire.

This Halloween card is from our Oregon kids, daughter Kari and her husband Ken.

November is a big month for birthdays and anniversaries in our family. Ken's birthday is one of those.

I'm not a fan of the early darkness, nor the cold and snow, but they go along with the changing seasons and I do love those.

November comes from the Latin word novem which means nine. In the early Roman calendar November was the ninth month. 

Autumn is my favorite time of the year, partly because of my birth month but also because its tone is mellower, its colors richer and it is tinged with a little sorrow. It speaks of maturity and wisdom that comes with age.

"Some of the days in November carry the whole memory of summer." (Gladys Taber)

This first day of November, 2024, has been lovely. Sunny, breezy enough to rattle the drying leaves of the oak trees....

.....warm enough to have the windows open. 

Happy November!  💛🍂🍁🔥

October 2024 Reading List

I managed to read more books this month this month - a total of nine.

Harvest is one of Tess Gerritsen's older books (1996) - "the book that launched my thriller writing career."  When money is no object, you can buy anything, even a donor heart. 

The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason is a historical novel set in 1914 Vienna. Lucius, a 22-year-old medical student is sent to a field hospital following the outbreak of WWI. This is the second book by Mason that I've read. He is a talented writer and I would read more of his books if my library had them.

The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan was the July pick of Reese's Book Club. The library has been featuring Reese's picks and recently acquired their 100th book on her list. I've decided to try a few of them.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd  came out in 2014 which is when I first read it. It is based on the life of Sarah Grimké, a Charleston woman of the 1800's, the daughter of slave owners, who became an abolitionist.

The Mermaid's Chair is another of Sue Monk Kidd's novels. I believe I said last month that I planned on re-reading her books because a) they are so well written and b) it has been long enough that it is almost like reading them for the first time. This one is set on Egret Island off the coast of South Carolina. 

A Death in Cornwall is #23 in the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva. Gabriel is aging which makes me wonder how much longer the series will go on. As long as Silva keeps writing them, I'll keep reading them. 

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin is the first book I've read by this author. The protagonist is a poet: ("The greatest works of poetry are the stories we tell about ourselves.") and the book is about her and her siblings over their lifetimes. It was an okay read, but I really wanted the author to share that one great poem she kept alluding to - she never did.

The Unwedding by Ally Condie is another of the Reese's Book Club picks. It is a whodunit set at a resort in Big Sur, CA. 

The Baker's Daughter is by Sarah McCoy, a new author for me, recommended by a friend. It is 1945 in Germany and the baker and his family have been protected from the worst of the country's terror and desperation by a high-ranking Nazi who wishes to marry the baker's daughter. When she helps and hides a young Jewish boy, she puts them all in danger. 

Sixty years later, in El Paso, TX, a writer is trying to file a feel-good Christmas story for a local magazine. She wants to interview a baker about traditional German holiday foods. In an effort to find the heart of the story, she learns more about the baker and the last bleak year of WWII. The book alternates between 1945 Germany and 2005 El Paso.

The Baker's Daughter and The Winter Soldier were my favorite books this month - one set in WWII, the other in WWI. Both authors go on my 'wish to read more' list.

Happy Halloween 👻🎃

Softest of Mornings

 

Softest of Mornings

by Mary Oliver

Softest of mornings, hello.
And what will you do today, I wonder,
to my heart?
And how much honey can the heart stand, I wonder,
before it must break?

This is trivial, or nothing: a snail
climbing a trellis of leaves
and the blue trumpets of flowers.

No doubt clocks are ticking loudly
all over the world.
I don’t hear them. The snail’s pale horns
extend and wave this way and that
as her fingers-body shuffles forward, leaving behind
the silvery path of her slime.

A Poem For Douglas

 Midlife

       By: Julie Cadwallader-Staub

This is as far as the light

of my understanding

has carried me:

an October morning

a canoe built by hand

a quiet current

above me the trees arc

green and golden

against a cloudy sky

below me the river responds 

with perfect reflection

a hundred feet deep

a hundred feet high.

To take a cup of this river

to drink its purple and gray

its golden and green

to see

a bend in the river up ahead

and still

say

yes.

More Photos From Last Weekend

 

More pictures from last weekend at Pammel State Park. 

These were all taken by the professional photographer.

Great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

 

It really was a perfect fall day and fun to be with family, but I have to admit, I was pretty tired at the end of the day.