THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT FALL...

This video taken by my son in Boise.

Click on frame on lower right corner to enlarge -- but it will a little out of focus.

K is for ....

K  is for....

KITTY KISSES

... which I get a lot of , but I have to have Moth there to take the photo and you have to be pretty quick off the mark to catch it at the right second.  Sorry the quality of photo is not that good.  We should have had the flash on.

He really is such a love of a cat!  We've had about 7 cats over the past 40 years and Scruffy is just the nicest one we've ever had, with Pogue, our Siamese from about ten years ago being a close second.

Since I haven't posted many photos of Scruffy lately, I thought I'd just throw this other one in taken a couple of days ago even though it isn't a 'K' photo.

Below is a photo of one of my sister KAY's recent tangles.  She did several of these and they are so good they look like lace.  She does beautiful  art work with a very delicate touch.  Try visiting her  blog at kaybee-patchworkquilt.blogspot.com and  then while you're there click on Kaybee's Art listed in the side bar where she has posted many more beautiful pieces.  Her work is so good I feel it deserves a wider audience, so do go visit.

Finally for the letter "K"my husband and I were out taking our evening walk around the park close by the small lake, and look what we found -- enormous KOI fish.  So I quickly got out my camera remembering the letter  "K" was this week. 

 

Because the reflection was so clear, this last photo looks like he is swimming among the trees up in the sky.

Well, this is my contribution to ABC Wednesday this week, the highly successful and interesting meme begun by Mrs. Nesbitt and continued by Roger Owen Green, now in its 13 round.  To see more fascinating contributions, please click HERE.

Creative Tuesdays

THEME:  TEA-TIME

You could call this 'Tangled Tea' !!

It's always tea-time at our house, especially around three in the afternoon when we meet on the deck that overlooks the creek.  There we have time to talk of the events of the day -- or tomorrow.  So far the weather has stayed warm enough to sit outside for a couple of hours.  Ah, blessed retirement !

For other interpretations of our theme, please visit Creative Tuesdays -- and even join in.  You have two weeks to think about what you want to use in your interpretation of the current theme.  Please click HERE to see other interpretations of Tea-time.

FRIDAY -- MY TOWN SHOOT-OUT

TOPIC:  BLOWING IN THE WIND

I thought these two photos taken at the same place on the same day within minutes, neither of which are very flattering, were quite funny, but they do illustrate Blowing in the Wind very well:

Two sisters and we look like we have next to no hair because it is 

Blowing in the Wind!

A few moments later, this one isn't any more flattering than the last but at least we have hair!

My contribution to MY TOWN SHOOT-OUT. To see more interpretations which are probably more artistic, please click  HERE

J IS FOR...

J is for...

JONAH and JINX

  

A  'JONAH' today is a very unfortunate person and often thought to be JINXED.  It was not because Jonah was swallowed by a whale that he was thought to be JINXED.  It began when he tried to runaway from the task the Lord had given him, and he went by ship.  Fishermen and sailors it seems, are quite superstitious and when a fierce storm threatened to wreck the ship, the crew cast lots to discover who was the person on board causing their misfortune -- "and the lot fell on Jonah".  JONAH was the JINX.  The crew threw Jonah overboard. It was because they thought he was JINXED that he came to be swallowed by a whale.

The fishermen from my village of Flamborough on the East Coast of Yorkshire it would seem are just as superstitious as the their forbears of the eastern Mediterranean.  They had a number of things that they were sure would JINX their fishing expeditions.  Since fishing was their livelihood they were very careful about what was allowed to be mentioned  in the early hours of the morning as they plodded down to the  North or South Landings leading their band of working donkeys.  To mention any of the following, according to what history we have of Flamborough, would be sure to cause great consternation. 

The list of things that would JINX their catch begins with a priest or a woman who unwittingly crossed their path.  It was also considered great bad luck if anyone mentioned a hare, or a rabbit, a cat, an egg, a pig, a fox, or a goat whether they were baiting their hooks or on their way to launch their boats.  To whistle while out in their cobles (fishing boats) would  bring a gale.  ( I wonder if the saying "Whistle down the wind" would have had anything to do with that).

There is a story told, of an enterprising poultry and game dealer, named Nicholson, who went into a fisherman's cottage to ask if he wanted to buy any rabbits.  The fisherman was busy baiting his hooks at the time and replied with an emphatic "Neea!"   (No)

      "Then will you buy a hare?" said Nicholson. 

      " Noo thoo's gan far eneaf," (now you gone far enough) replied the fisherman in a rage, "tak thi hook" ( take your hook -- or go away,) and he turned him out of the cottage! After that Nicholson always asked if they were baiting their lines before entering a cottage to try and sell his wares.

Another unfortunate slip of the tongue was made by a young woman in the presence of her father-in-law, a Flamborough fisherman.  She mentioned that she had received a letter from Foxholes (another village in Yorkshire). The lines were being baited at the time,  so consequently she was severely reproached for using such an unlucky word and her father-in-law gave up baiting for the rest of the day. His fishing was JINXED.

This is my contribution to ABC WEDNESDAY for the letter J.  This highly successful meme is now in its 13th round (and is not JINXED!).  It was begun by Mrs. Nesbitt and continued by Roger Owen Green.  To see more contributions from around the world that are both entertaining and educational please click  here.

A MYSTERY SOLVED !

It began like this:

This being our first summer in our new home, we have been finding quite a few surprises among the plants and bushes.  In April, we became curious about this this small plant growing conspicuously in front of the house.  

By June it was about three or four feet high and had a fair number of small branches with green leaves. We had no idea what was. It was quite unprepossessing and boring looking. In fact we briefly considered removing it, but then decided to keep watering it and feeding it to see what happened.

Well, by the end of July, it grew another couple of feet and eventually developed two globe-like, claw-like heads  that we thought were the flowers.  We still had no idea what was.  I scoured the web to try to identify it with no luck.  I asked about it on one of my previous blogs, but no one recognized it.

The 'flowers' stayed looking like this for several weeks and we thought that was all there was to it.  Then one day....BOINGGG!  Look what happened. one of the claws popped open and then the magic began!

More and more popped open and these beautiful red-orange, tulip-shaped flowers appeared.  Their shape should have given me a hint right there.  But I still didn't catch on.

Soon both 'flowers' bloomed.

They were absolutely beautiful.  

So now I decided to see if I could find out its name again.  As soon as I checked on Google I remembered immediately.  It was the African Tulip tree.  I have seen it many times on Hawaii, only the ones on Hawaii are much, much larger....like 50 - 60 feet higher and quite wide with spreading branches.  No wonder I didn't recognize it!  Our little new-born is about six foot high and four feet wide.  

A week or two later we were walking around the park when we discovered another home with our tree in its front yard.  It is quite a bit more mature than ours, so now we know what we can look forward to.

Look how beautiful is!

Now the mystery is solved.  I'm so glad we decided not to pull it out instead of waiting to see what  developed.

MY TOWN PHOTO-SHOOTOUT

The theme this week is:               RETRO

I'm not sure this qualifies as RETRO enough for this theme:

It is a small tape recorder that I used frequently in my teaching thirty years ago...

 ...and below is a small transistor radio which we used to track tornadoes on when we lived in Minnesota.

 

Part of my problem in finding something RETRO in my town of Carlsbad, is that there is not very much left that is old.  Carlsbad has undergone a phenomenal boom in the past fifty years.  Our population has more than tripled consequently all the homes and commercial properties are new.  Our one indoor shopping mall was not built until the early seventies.  Our so-called 'down-town' has been re-formed into a cute village and boutique style.

I will admit that it was difficult for me to go searching for something more appropriate for My Town Retro this week, since we have had more dentist and doctor's appointments than usual -- and only one car. If you are thinking, "excuses, excuses", please overlook my inadequacies this time.

FOR MORE INTERPRETATIONS OF MY TOWN SHOOT-OUT, RETRO please click HERE