Happy New Year!

Out with the Old and In with the New!

A very Happy, Happy, Healthy and Blessed New Year

to all my Blogging Friends!

Every Inchie Monday

The theme this week is NIGHT.  Well, I could just submit a black square but actually night time is rarely completely pitch black.  Our San Diego Bay at night is really very beautiful, so I attempted to  produce that in one square inch.  

San Diego Bay at Night

I even tried to include the phantom image of the Star of India (left corner). I have to admit to editing the color a little in this.  I originally did most of it with my silver pen, but it really doesn't produce a thin enough line Then I discovered I could produce a more yellowish silver, which I really like., and tends to give the buildings a moonlight glow.  Well, I can't get too ambitious inside one inch.

  Happy New Year!    

To see more  Inchies visit HERE for the links, and while you're at it why don't you consider joining us.  It is a fun project and requires only a little creativity to interpret the topic.  See you next week!                                                       

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY

(For ABC WED X  please see page below this)

Sorry I'm a little late with this, but I'm sure we all know why!  This week's theme was ANGEL and there she was sitting on my Christmas tree.

I actually have two of these little glass angels made of silver and glass beads with a round pink face (much prettier than I have given her!)  I put her on black paper and did the beads with the silver pen my sister introduced me to.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

To see more of these miniature creations done by other members of the team please click HERE And think about joining us in this simple but entertaining project. The new themes are already posted on the Inchie link.

X IS FOR...

How could I pass this up?  We caught it as we were passing through Las Vegas on our way from our son's wedding in Lake Powell in September.  So I have been saving this for just this  moment and how convenient since it is Christmas Day and I don't have to spend family time on the computer.

Hope you had a great Christmas.

Incidentally I never liked calling Christmas, Xmas, because I was reminded by my brother many times that X is the unknown factor.  I  believe Christ can be known and I for one know Him as do many other people.  But then I realized that the tall, long X stands for the Greek letter Xi or chai which is the first letter of Christos, the Greek word for Christ, so I don't make a big deal about it anymore.  (My brother was only trying to get my goat anyway -- and of course, I bit!)

This is my entry for ABC Wednesday which is rapidly drawing to a close.  Come join us HERE

MAY YOU HAVE A VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS!

Copyright: Chris Jones

   OUR GOD CONTRACTED TO A SPAN...

INCOMPREHENSIBLY MADE MAN!

....and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...

(The ONLY reason for Christmas)

God bless you all my blogging friends.

W IS FOR ....

W is for....

WAILUA

Come with me as we take a short trip up the Wailua River to see the Fern Grotto, in Kauai.

First we board a large very stable looking boat on the river near the  Coconut Grove not far from Kapa'a.  There's my sister Kay, with the sunglasses, just above the B in the word BOAT.  Vicki's hat can be seen above Kay's head, Owen is behind Kay and Barry behind Owen.  (I'm taking the picture,)

The Wailua River is a calm and peaceful river so our motoring up to Fern Grotto (about half an hour) is very comfortable and we are given a description about what we are seeing.

Mostly it is jungle on both sides with high mountains in the background.  (Sorry the view of this didn't come out well enough to post).  On the way we pass paddle boarders and kayakers enjoying the peaceful river and lush scenery.

On the way, we pass a beautiful ancient settlement on the banks of the river.

After about half an hour we dock and disembark for a short trek through the jungle,        mostly bamboo in this stretch, with occasional clumps of the Ginger bloom among the rest of the greenery.

Eventually we reach a wooden deck with more ginger flowers surrounding and several awnings to keep off the showers or hot sun, whichever is the dominant weather at that moment.  Here we are told of the ancient associations at this grotto and then serenaded with Hawaian songs.  Unfortunately I couldn't easily get through the crowds to take a photo of the grotto itself and since I have seen it several times before didn't push my way through to the front to take photos.  Left that to my family and they haven't sent any copies yet.  Suffice it to say that the grotto is a shallow cave with many many ferns growing from the cliffs around it.  It is a favorite place for weddings Hawaian style.  Much of this area was devastated by Hurricane Iniki in the 90's and the ferns are just now beginning to grow back in good numbers.

We were once again serenaded with traditional Hawaian songs.  This talented trio then also entertained us all again as we returned  down the river from our adventurous trek to Fern Grotto on the WAILUA RIVER.

This is my entry for W for ABC Wednesday, that wonderfully successful project launched by Mrs. Nesbitt and capably continued by Roger Owen Green.  This is the eleventh round of the alphabet and we are expecting to begin the twelfth round in a couple of weeks, so why not join us in this educational and entertaining  weekly event . To see other intriguing entries  click HERE

Every Inchie Monday

This week's topic -- RAINBOW -- reminded me of a dear friend of ours who has now long gone to be with the Lord.

This friend had a very nice SUV-type van, which he had especially and professionally painted on either side with a huge rainbow and the words,

GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES.

You could see it around town somewhere any day of the week, and of course outside church on Sunday.  This was his way of reminding everyone of God's faithfulness.  

We will soon be at the beginning of a New Year.  Why don't you consider joining us?  It's quite simple.  It doesn't have to be drawn.  It can be a collage of paper clippings, beads or other small

items and best of all, it is only 1" square so it doesn't take forever to do.  Take a look at those which others have done by visiting HERE

NOODLES AND DOODLES

Thanks to my sister for this title!

The 'noodles' are what we used to keep ourselves afloat in the pool when we were on Kauai.  I can't swim, but love the water and would stay in for an hour at least.  My sister Kay, can swim but didn't feel confident since she hadn't been in the water for a long time.

Well, we may not have the prettiest smiles, but we sure enjoyed ourselves!

Such a pretty pool with a fair-sized waterfall at one end. The water was coolly warm.  That means on cool days it felt warmer in the pool than out.

DOODLES

If you have visited my blog before, you will know what my 'Doodles' are.  I am experimenting with making a simple frame, but that will be a while before I perfect it.  In the mean time I have two more in color and two in white on black.  They are such fun to do.

Leaves and Butterflies

Leaves and Vines

Even as life goes on as usual for most of us, we're still remembering those of the Sandy Hook School tragedy.

More Kauai photos coming up soon.

V is FOR....

V  is  for ....VALUABLE
I don't own much in material things that I would call valuable -- although probably in comparison with 3rd World countries almost everything I own would be called valuable.  But in comparison with most of America I'm pretty average.

However when my mother passed away about ten years ago, my sister and I found among her things this ring with a note attached:

The photograph makes them look like large diamonds but believe me they are not.  However, there are two things which make me wonder just how valuable this ring is.   The note attached to the ring stated that this was my grandmother's engagement ring.  Since this grandmother married in 1912, that makes the ring at least 100 years old.

The other thing is that I know that diamonds mined before a certain date are called old mine diamonds and this ring is definitely from before that date, so they are probably old mine diamonds which are more valuable than newer ones.

As you can see, there is one small diamond missing, so that would bring the value down.

Naturally the ring is in a bank lock box -- just in case it is worth something. But I took it out and photographed it a few years ago to see if I could find out its value.  That's when I discovered that it was going to cost me more to have it valued than it was probably worth!

Ah well, in the vault it will stay, and any dreams of great wealth I may have are locked in with it.

This,  post is my submission to ABC Wednesday, the wonderful project founded by Mrs. Nesbitt and continued by Roger Owen Green.  It has been through the alphabet 11 times  and we are coming up to the end of this round.  Why don't you visit the ABC Wednesday blog and see other intriguing entries by clicking HERE and consider joining us for the next round, soon to be coming up?

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY

Oh boy!  These topics are getting harder.  This week's theme is MUSIC. So here is my interpretation, done on 1"  square, using Prisma Color pencils and black pen.

  

Do you remember this image?  "His Master's Voice" on the RCA Victor records. I remember seeing it on the labels of the old 78 rpm records, that my father used to have.  My own first 78 rpm record  with this label that I owned was of Mario Lanza singing "Drink, Drink, Drink" from The Student Prince.  It wasn't my favorite but it was the only Lanza record the music shop had left.  What I really wanted was "Be My Love" but it was many weeks later before I had saved another seven shillings and the music shop had it back in stock.

At the age of 12, Mario Lanza was my introduction to music, opera, and other classical music.  My father's love of operatic arias,  which he played frequently (he had been a child tenor in his church) and a favorite children's recording "Sparky's Magic Piano" (Snafu please note) were other motivations. Finally, when my high school choir performed "Il Trovatore" and "Carmen" I was hooked. 

In later years the King's Singers, a British a capela sextet, who have a great USA following 

cemented and broadened my love and knowledge in this field.

If you would like to see others' interpretations of this week's theme please click HERE

U is for ....

'U' is for.....UNDER
Now here's a lucky shot if ever there was one.

We were on Kauai last week. At one point we stopped in a parking lot for lunch and the wind blew up and a little rain began. As we got out of the car dozens of little chicks began running to their moms for shelter UNDER her wings. The sun had been shining earlier so the moms were sitting on the warm Tarmac of the parking lot. Every chick knew its mother and every mom knew its chick. 

DON'T SKIP OVER THIS PHOTO TOO FAST NOW-- LOOK HARD AT  HER RIGHT SIDE.

What a lucky shot!  I didn't even know I'd got it until I looked at the photos afterwards!

 If you know Kauai at all you will know that there are chickens roaming free all over the island.  They say it is because everyone on the island owned chickens and when Hurricane Iniki devastated the island in 1992, like everything else, the chickens and their coops were blown away.  Who can capture and identify their own chickens out of the hundreds that were set free?  Of course  now the chickens are having chicks and their numbers continue to expand.

There's an old hymn from the 1800's, called UNDER HIS WINGS (written by William Cushing, music by Ira D. Sankey).  This photo reminded me of that hymn, but it also reminded me of a favorite Bible verse of mine:

He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge.  Psalm 91:4

This post is for the letter 'U' in ABC Wednesday, so capably run by Roger Owen Green and founded  by Mrs. Nesbitt.  Our profound thanks to you both for all the hard work you have put in to keep this amazingly popular project going.  If you would like to see more of the entries for the letter 'U' please click HERE

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY

This week's topic for our square inch artwork is MAGIC:

Children love to have a magician come to their parties.  It seems as though he can perform magic tricks. A favorite one is to pull a rabbit out of his magician's hat . So my Inchie this week is the rabbit in the magician's hat.

To see more interpretations of this week's Inchie topic please click HERE

T is for....

T   is for trouble!
And I'm in trouble for ABC Wednesday.   I started a story on technology (supposed to be funny) but I didn't have time to finish it.  Saw some cute little twins at the pool -- adorable!(Now you know I am in trouble because I don't want to use that overworked word,) but they wouldn't stand still for a moment -- in and out of the pool and the sand box then off for a nap, so I didn't even have a chance  to ask permission.

Then 'tangles' never being far away from my brain, I thought of that. But you have seen so many of those (which I actually call doodles, but my sister calls them tangles and we were together this week) so I didn't want to inflict that on you again.

Being right as close to the beach as a condo can get, 'tsunami' was on my mind, especially because they did actually have a tsunami warning --not a watch-- only a couple of weeks ago.  It didn't amount to anything, thankfully.  But if anything major happens in Alaska or Japan.....

Still not finding anything for my letter T, and here it is Tuesday, we went on a tour of our own, (that means we didn't have to pay for it, except for gas), and I saw masses and masses of tangles of a different sort than those created by humans.  So in desperation I took a couple of photos, and here I am at the deadline and TANGLES it will have to be -- but not mine or Kaybee's.

But please don't let my tardiness and unoriginality disappoint you this week.  I already have settled on U,V,W, X ,Y, Z  so it should be a terrifically easy to get these together for the next few weeks.

This is my post for ABC Wednesday for the letter T.  Please visit HERE to see others' efforts.  Our thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger Owen Green for
their moderation of this exceptionally successful project.

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY

This week's topic is   AIR  You might think this would be a difficult topic to portray, but I didn't really have to think about it much at all because of our recent travels.  So here it is:

But don't think that because it is just a little Inchie that it didn't take much effort to do!  Because I didn't have my scanner, I first had to draw the inchie on an inch square.  Then I had to photograph it.  Then I had to put it from my camera's memory card onto the laptop. Then because it was WAY too large I had to resize it.  Then I had to crop it, straighten it, adjust the color, and add a border.  None of these steps was a straight forward 'one time hit a button and save' process.  To start with I didn't know how to resize, but with my sister's help and some knowledge of Paint I did it.  I learned several other new things from this lengthy process, so it was all worthwhile. 

Behold my Inchie!!

To see more inchies please visit HERE to see Trillian's blog and others who have joined us.

A SNAPSHOT OF SCRUFFY

S is for Scruffy -- what else could it be?

The clock moved inexorably towards seven-o'clock. Scruffy stood up and stretched his stiff back limbs.  He had been sitting sentry duty at the patio window watching for  any stray cats since first light.

Now to move on to his second duty of the day, but first a short snack.  That done, he scrambled silently up the stairs to the only bedroom of significance.  There were two lumps in the bed, looking like sacks of potatoes, and they were giving off soft snores.  With a quick  leap and a chirrup he settled on the bed and began to purr up a storm. The bodies stirred a little -- at least one of them did . 'She' lay still, sleeping snuggled under the sheets.

Scruffy stepped lightly over the stationary body and saw 'his' hand move.  'He' waggled his fingers and that was the sign that it was time for sticky, salty kisses. Scruffy's kisses were not the slobbery kind  but were soft and warm; a genuine show of affection developed to show his sincere appreciation for being rescued from the shelter.  It hadn't been too bad there.  It was warm, dry and there was always plenty of food but Susie who shared his room along with several other cats, was sassy and spiteful.  Besides he would sooner have the solicitous attention from humans he could trust.

After sufficient finger waggling, and some gentle strokes over his silken fur, Scruffy slowly descended (to prevent the shock to his joints) to the floor again knowing that 'he', with a sigh and a stretch would follow shortly.  Seconds later he was bounding down the stairs criss-crossing in front of him. This was the part of the day that was super special. He waited at the spot  at the foot of the stairs.  'He' spoke to him gently and scooped him up settling him with one hand  securely under his back legs. His front legs hooked over the other arm.

"Shall we see what's out there, Scruffy?  Did you send off any scurvy interlopers?"  he asked. They walked to the patio window where from his new height Scruffy could sit in splendor and survey his domain.

After a few moments of this, it was time for a snack again then back upstairs to see if 'she' was stirring.  No such luck.  He knew that sitting on the bed would only send her back to sleep.  There was one way to get her to struggle out of bed, but he was much too polite a cat to do that.  Ooops! He shouldn't have even thought about it.  He could feel his stomach sloshing.  Oh dear, oh dear....
slurp...gulp...hiccup...too late...swoosh!

"Oh Scruffy!  She sat up swiftly and sighed.  Ah well, he thought sadly.  Mission accomplished.

This blog is my contribution to ABC Wednesday sponsored by Mrs Nesbitt and her colleague, Roger Owen Green.  To see more entries for this satisfying project please click HERE You will find it entertaining, informative and even educational.  Thanks Roger and Denise!

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY

The theme this week is Accessories.  I thought about reproducing the page from my windows memory that is named accessories but decided that might be more work than it seems, so here instead is my version of Accessories:

To see more Inchies on this subject please visit HERE

Sorry, this must be brief...got places to go, people to meet, things to see....catch you later!

BUSY DAYS

Everyone's busy this week with Thanksgiving.  I just have to get away from all the hype.  I hate what they've done to Christmas and Thanksgiving. So I'm outta here!

Sorry, one more doodle.  I did this one a few weeks ago and wasn't sure I liked it, but I find it sort of  'grows' on you -- no pun intended. I could call it Veggies, but officially it is in my book as 'Foliage'.

Now, for the people who think I'm too hard on myself, I have to say I quite like this and may try another one like it one day soon.  

Really, I am not quite so hard on myself as it may seem.  As I said on AJ's blog, I have an analytical mind by nature and by training. I've been taught that  there's always room for improvement.  In a high school of 600 I only ever remember one  student getting an end of term grade of A- in seven years. (Those were the days when everyone's grade was read out before the whole school assembly!  Imagine that happening today!) To get a B o r B+ on any assignment was a great achievement.  The theory was, no one can achieve perfection.  How different from today when everyone must win a ribbon so no one feels left out or inadequate.   If you reward everyone, no-one needs to put out a lot of effort. Ah well, I'm on a hobby horse of mine now. 

As an educator of the old school, with a few of the new school more humane refinements incorporated,  I'd like to see a lot more emphasis on achievement, effort, respect, politeness, consideration and a more realistic approach to evaluation.  Amazingly, my students really seemed to appreciate this.

'Nuff said.

I picked up some malware this week, so haven't done so much commenting on ABC Wednesday as usual.  Watch out for Snap Do which likes to hijack your browser and then collects mounds and mounds of information, clogging you computer.  My computer guy's advice is, immediately shut down you computer. That stops it collecting. Then scream for help.  We're all clean and up and running now.

As I'm not as organized as my sister (see there it is again!), I will try to be on time with the weekly projects, but can't promise.  We will be spending two weeks together and that will drive my husband batty because we are so much alike in what we do and the way we think.  He will definitely be in the minority.  We both mumble too!  (Inside joke).

R is for....

R is for....

RED

There are five different shades of red in this doodle (plus some shading and highlighting).

Read...

Raymond Richards rebuked himself roundly, realizing that Rita would see red when he told her that he had run a red light. A $500 fine was ridiculous but realistically he knew it was really what he deserved.  They wouldn't be ruined by the fine but their savings were rapidly dwindling and his real estate company was on the rocks due to the recession. Resources for college for the kids were drastically reduced since last year.  Then yesterday there was the red tag sale at Ross's where their daughter, Rosie, had ragged on them until they'd bought her a whole new wardrobe for next week which she would be spending with Rianna, a rich, Redlands coed, who somehow thought she was royalty and was relentlessly recruiting Rosie to the same rank.  Thank goodness Rick was not reaching for a similar goal.  He had the regimental leanings of Ray's father and relentlessly pushed himself towards that goal by first joining the ROTC.
      
Ray redirected his route by taking the ravine road down to the river to ruminate upon his revelations.  He turned off the radio which had been playing "Red River Valley" and was now recounting the latest responses from Red China to the recent re-election of the president.

Perhaps we will have to refinance our home, he thought remorsefully.  There'll be no more watching the Redskins at the stadium, he resolved. Resolutely he realized they needed to cut back rigorously on their recreational weekends at the Radisson Resort and Spa.  At least he had time to reverse their reservations for next weekend. 

It wasn't just the $500 he realized.  They needed to refresh and renew their budget rigidly.  But Rita loved their ritzy life style.  She reveled in her social contacts and she certainly wouldn't relinquish her role in the Red Hat Society.  But their bank balance was close to being in the red.

Ah well, it was beginning to rain and he was ravenous.  He could almost smell the redolent barbecue ribs waiting for him. As he pulled into his residence, Rover, his retriever came racing rambunctiously to greet him.  Rita was waiting at the front door.  His heart sank.

Well this is it, he thought ruefully,  I hope it doesn't end in a major row. He reluctantly moved towards the front door.  Rita, red-eyed and crumple-faced, rushed towards him.

"Oh Ray!" she recited, "I rear-ended a police car today!"  Then she burst into tears.

This post is for participation in Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger Owen Green's ABC Wednesday.
If you would like to see more of those creative entries please click HERE

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY

This week's topic is MANE:
(An Inchie is a piece of art done in any media  but it must be on one inch square)

Hmm....

This has not turned out quite as I hoped.  I wanted to get the idea of movement -- a horse either galloping or shaking his head.  I think I got that, but a bit too much hair.  Then I used the white pen that my sister introduced to me which is good in reality but doesn't reproduce too well on my scanner, so my horse looks a bit like a dog.  Ah well, there's always next week.

Please visit this LINK to see how others have done with this theme in one inch.

In the mean time, I have been practicing some new doodle designs and this one is the result:  My doodles are drawn on 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches with prisma colors and black pen.

I call this one Blue Fan. Needs a more imaginative title.  I'm open to suggestions.

Q is for...

Q is for....

QUINCY QUACKENBUSH'S QUANDARY

Quenton Quigley checked his cash quarterlies in his quaint old fashioned office when the next quarry of his quixotic temper appeared at the door. It was Quincy Quackenbush, one of a quartet of poorly qualified clerks. He was quaking in his boots waiting for the querulous old man to question him about the quantity of paper that had been used by the outer office in this last quarter.

"Twenty-five quires of quality linen-finished sheets," quoth the old man in his quarrelsome way. He moved his quartz paperweight, picked up his quill and quizzically checked the sets of quadrupled invoices in front of him.

Quickly, Quincy tried to quieten the old man by quoting his office mates.  "Quade says it was only 20 quires", he said, his voice quivering.

"Don't quibble over numbers with me," Quenton retorted, pulling his grandmother's quilt more tightly around his cold legs and trying not to think of the hot quail soup and quiche he knows is waiting for him at his dining table.  He took a quaff of his hot cider that was beside his desk lamp.  He was cold and hungry and Quincy quailed before the hard gleam in the old man's eye.

"I'll dock your pay by five quid this month, I will, and you'll give up your quota of vacation days too," the queer old man added in his quest to quash the extravagance of his employees.

At that, Quincy swiped at the quiff of hair that had fallen over his eyes, drew himself up tall and without even a qualm of nervousness he declared, "No you won't, because I quit!"

This is my entry for ABC Wednesday, begun and maintained by Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger Owen Green.  If you would like to see more interpretations of the letter Q please click HERE.

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY

Time  for another Inchie.  The topic this week is HEART: 

Valentines were never big in the U.K. when I was growing up.  Now, with the theme of heart, I couldn't think of anything but valentines.   This is my effort.

It reminds me of that song in Les Mis (one of my favorite shows), "A heart full of love..."

To see other interpretations on this theme, please visit Every Inchie Monday, HERE

WHAT AM I MISSING ?

Fall is almost over and winter creeps on.  We really don't get fall down here in San Diego, But look what I am missing....

Copyright Owen A. Jones

A spectacular photograph taken this week by my youngest son,  on the street where they live in Boise!

Maybe I do miss fall after all!

P is for Lake POWELL

Here are the last of my Lake Powell shots. Actually I have many more, but these are the best, I think.  So hard to choose.

That's us over there on the shoreline on the left hand side of the photo.

A closer view.  The house boat is beached with anchors.  No tides to worry about here.  Anchors always are a source of concern when we have sailed off the California coast.  Haven't done that for a long time.  But the tides and wind -- and other boaters, make anchoring a tricky thing.  We would usually set turns at anchor watch if we were anchoring overnight.

The scenery at Lake Powell is spectacular for miles and miles. 

Red sandstone sculpted into all kinds of weird and wonderful shapes.

The best time to take photos is when the sun is creating shadows and that wasn't always the case  when I took these photographs...

...so I had to adjust them a little. But just look at the reflections!

This was one cave that is a favorite  -- very deep.  Owen decided to dive in and investigate.

Just look at these striations -- just like molten rock frozen in time!

This one is interesting  because if you look closely you can make out what looks like an angel carved into the rock, just to the left of the shadow.  Of course it is known as Angel Rock.

And this is one of my favorite shots of the whole trip -- both my sons deep in conversation about the course home at sunset and the performance of the boat.

Both of them are very experienced sailors and pretty handy with mechanics too.  Level-headed and not likely to take chances, they have been keen sailors since they were young teens and have carried this love until now in their mid-life.  They have owned boats since they were old enough to buy their own and every summer vacation is spent on the water somewhere.

This is my contribution for ABC WEDNESDAY letter P.  To see more entries for this project headed up first by Mrs. Nesbitt and now by Roger Owen Green, please click on this LINK

Every Inchie Monday and a couple more Doodles

The prompt this week for Every Inchie Monday is LIGHT.  Not an easy subject to portray on one inch square.  I have already seen a couple which have been posted and they're pretty nifty.  Here's mine:

I'm almost doodled out, but I can't seem to stop.  They are so easy to start and then you  get caught up in adding patterns to it.  Pretty soon you're hooked and you can't wait to add the colors and extra embellishments.

Ah well, here are two more I have done this weekend:

I call this one Caterpillar.

This one is "Flower Rainbows."

To visit Every Inchie Monday and see other interpretations of LIGHT please click HERE

OH! OH! OH!

Here's another post for 'O' for ABC Wednesday in addition to the one below.  Please visit the post before this one which is my official ABC Wednesday entry, but I couldn't let this  pass:

Take a look at this mountain lion in my son's backyard on Tuesday night.  Definitely an Oh! Oh! Oh! Only a young one but Momma and Poppa are out there somewhere.  My son lives on the edge of town but definitely not rural.

See this caught on his video cam. HERE

O IS FOR....

O  IS FOR OPERA AND OVERTURE

I know a lot of people do not like opera, but bear with me for a moment please.  This video clip is of what I consider to be one of the saddest pieces of music I have ever heard.  Even now when I hear it I get prickles down my back.  You don't even have to know the story to hear the sadness.

  

It is the overture to Verdi's La Traviata.  Even if you don't like opera, just give this piece a try it's only three minutes and see if you can't hear the poignant sadness that is in the story about to be performed. Of course it is a story about true love that is doomed from the start and ends in the heroine's death and the hero's devastation.

I learned to love opera in high school where our school choir performed several.  I also learned to love it from my father who had a variety of pieces recorded on His Masters Voice and would play them over and over again.  I'm sure he didn't realize that I, as a ten year old child, was absorbing them without knowing and cultivating a love for such music. I certainly didn't realize it.

I actually like a lot of different kinds of music, including the Beatles, the Mamas and Pappas and the Beach Boys among many others.

This is my entry for ABC Wednesday, for the letter O.  Why not click HERE and see what other topics our participants have chosen for their  'O' entry.  You won't be disappointed.
Thanks Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger Owen Green

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY...

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY'S THEME this week was SILVER.

Oooh!  That was a tough one.  Couldn't come up with anything very interesting or unusual.  The biggest problem being the fact that I use Prisma Color pencils and their metallic silver doesn't scan very well.  But I did my best and came up with quarters and dimes as silver in change.

Just to remind you, INCHIES are small pieces of art done in any variety of media  but displayed on one square inch.

If you would like to see what others have done on their inchie for this theme please click on this LINK. I actually think my sister, Kaybee's effort is brilliant.  Am I biased?  Go take a look.