Friday, July 6, 2012

old pictures

~~http://www.etsy.com/shop/AndSoForth

I always considered myself lucky when on a rainy Sunday afternoon someone would bring out an old photo album for me to look at while the adults talked about things I wasn't even vaguely interested in.  Much akin to that  new amusement TV, these pages could be sources of  thought provoking wonder.
Most of the photos were of dour men and women standing uncomfortable and stiff in front of a car or house, trying to ignore the camera as they cut a birthday or anniversary cake.  I could just hear them saying, "Put that damned thing away!".     Pictures of scenery were rare, film and developing it were expensive.  and there were postcard views in abundance in those days, every dime store, train station and drug store had racks of them.   The scenery and houses  were my favorites.
Then there were photos like this one, unposed photos of other children, and they were enjoying some of the same things that I did.  True the children in these pictures were grown up now and talking grown up talk in the next room, and the clothes and toys were not exactly like the ones I  had, but i was pretty sure that they also loved to look at old pictures much more than listen to grown-ups complaining in the next room.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Sometimes I think about how it must have been those  sultry days in early July so long ago with all of those wool wearing, pipe smoking, powdered wig bedecked men who who were signing the Declaration of Independence, and say "Thanks!"

Monday, July 2, 2012

july full moon

Even the breeze is warm, and air smells of fresh cut hay, drying under the clear noon sky.  the sun reflecting off the stubble and ground making your legs feel  like they are too near the coalstove.  This is haying, those  dry days  in early July when the hay is cut, dried and bailed to be stored in the barn, fodder and bedding for the animals this winter.  And sometimes the hay loft is a place for the young man and his best girl to sneak a cuddle or two. 

A time when the fireworks  Mother Nature fills the sky with can be at least as beautiful and the man made ones that mark the 4th of July, and a whole lot more  frightening.
7-2-12

The full moon of July has been called the Hay Moon, and the Thunder Moon for obvious reasons, it is also known as the Buck Moon because  antlers are beginning to grow.


 Currants, with their rich fragrance, much better than their flavor, are almost done now, they got an early start because of the mild winter.  I once added currants to the mead I made from surplus honey given to us, it was tasty and powerful.   This moon is also called the Mead Moon.  With the ripening of blueberries and raspberries during this month it is now wonder it is sometimes called the Berry Moon.  The long hours of picking and watching the clouds overhead, thinking  as you avoid thorns and sometimes bees, a contemplation, meditation, watching for shapes in the clouds and of course sampling the sweetness of ripe berries.


It really is true, you can hear the corn growing, those eerie pops, and snaps, zips and rustles one hears as the "knee high by the 4th of July"  stalks try to reach their full height, a wondrous thing that  during the Moon, when some  called the full moon the Ripening corn Moon.






YUM!, guest blogger on making Naan....something I am new to and still working on

  Naan is tasty!   I wanted to make some, and from there on out, wellllllllllll, it's been a learning experience!   And I don't give...