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