I love children's literature.....


This beautiful picture book , "Sugar Cane", is a treasure which I found yesterday and am sending to our son-in-law from Jamaica, and our granddaughter.



Lilia (at 4 years old here, photo by friend Barbara Batson) truly looks like she could be the model for Sugar Cane!


We found the book in a nearby Victorian town, Eureka Springs. This town is always a treat for us to visit and to walk the curvy steep streets, delighting in the gardens and architecture....and lots of "hippie" vibe too!
Mr. Pear and I descended (literally...it is downhill to the main shopping area of the old town!) into this dreamy world late yesterday on a perfect autumn afternoon. The town was full of tourists who had come hoping to see fall color, but enjoying themselves none-the-less in the still lush green forested hills. Hundreds of Victorian cottages and mansions offer bed and breakfast.


Homes and porches are decorated for the season!

This cottage garden had the tallest, most lush bed of cleome I have ever seen....in the shadows here, as the afternoon sun is getting low and striking the treetops behind it.


Shops offer lots of intriquing merchandise! We visited the small bookstore, looking for a birthday card, and there we found the wonderful picture book. Here we are enjoying a snack on the balcony of a Victorian hotel and looking at the book a bit!

Being over in Eureka, even for a few hours is a wonderful escape from routine!We celebrated both of our birthdays....though the gift we bought was for someone else!
(I'm sure we'll get to read it with her when we visit!)

Autumn is late in coming this year!


Our garden is still full of marigolds!

They are the inspiration for this "paper" quilt called "AUTUMN". In the background is a traditional English poem :

Marigold
When the marigold no longer blooms,
When summer sun has turned to gloom,
See the forecast winter snow,
See the evergreen that lonely grows.

Mood glows to the fireplace,
Neglect the garden, see the ground harden
At a ghostly pace.
The golden summer sun is silver now,
The fruit has fallen from the bough,
The season moves to chestnut time,
Toffee apples, treakle, and mulled wine.
Quilts and furs and woolens gay,
You wrap around you, but the cold confounds you
On an autumn day.
Stout and strong the walls of home and hearth,
The curtains drawn against the draft,
The grain is reaped, the blade is mown,
Nights go in to call the harvest home.
The quiet of a heart at rest,
In peaced abounded, by love surrounded,
Here the home is blessed



This is an experimental piece for the upcoming art show....I am doing a" paper quilt "for each season...they are about 27x 35. This one has acrylic paint and tissue paper collaged on the painted and machine quilted background.

I'm Home!!!!!!!!! packages and envelopes here to be torn into!
(and e-mail galore to catch up on!)

(below: scanned image of a page from Living the Creative Life by Rice Freeman-Zachery)

I still haven't read all the snail mail and e-mail which was waiting here....(I only just got home!)
[My e-mail password did not work while I was at Mom's so I apologise for the unanswered mail......you are all so dear to remember me this past 2 weeks!]

I received a wonderful birthday gift book from my daughter and her family, "Living the Creative Life" (I'm not sure she should encourage that!!!LOL). I scanned a page from the works byViolette, where she is journaling about the pumpkin....just what I was doing at Mom's, (journaling about the pumpkin I had set up outside her house and what symbolism I was finding in it)... in a small moleskine. [I left my journal there to pick up again on my next visit so I can't scan and share right now. :-( ......maybe later!]

The mail also contained some professional photos from my son's wedding...I may show some of those soon.

I'm enjoying a cup of hot herb tea now, as it is chilly. I may switch to wine before the eveing is over!

(Note: These are photos from my birthday, October 15th, 2005. Looking through old photos here at Mom's! BTW, to find the beginning of this "story", scroll down about 4 posts!)

My daughter and son-im-law exchanging vows in Jamaica, as my granddaughter looks on. (I sewed the flower girl dress with the turquoise silk sash. My daughter wore her paternal grandmother's pearls and had native orchids in her hair.)
Advance rains from Hurricane Wilma are on the horizon.

I love this photo of my granddaughter, Lilia with the orchids in her hair too!

This is just a perfect photo!

Another successful destination wedding!

(A photo from my birthday in 2005....also my daughter's wedding day!)




This photo was taken on the way to the ceremony...we walked. The vegetation was so green and lush, shading the paths to the site of the wedding ceremony. It was partly cloudy the afternoon of the wedding....Hurricane Wilma was approaching!
I was truly joyful to be with family! With me and Mr. Pear is our son Andrew. At that time, we hadn't seen him for many months as he lived in Flagstaff. (My dress was a silk and linen brocade....subtle paisley and floral, in a coral pink.)

Andrew brought his future fiancee

(and now his wife!), Mary, along to Jamaica so we met her for the first time too!

(Note: more photos from Jamaica, October 2005)

One of the most delightful things about being in Jamaica for the wedding was being surrounded by family and friends for several relaxing, peaceful days. Here my granddaughter joins me for a bit of art....watercolor by the sea!




Now she is watching Mr. Pear (whom she calls "Pom-Pom") swimming at the foot of the cliff.




Here she has borrowed my pink hat and is inspecting some local flowers.

(Note: Since I am away from my home with no camera or scanner or e-mail, I am writing about things using images stored on Mom's computer....like looking through one of her many photo albums....join me if you wish!)

Remembering a special
October..........2005

These are scenes from beautiful Jamaica.....above, Mr. Pear and our daughter, Laura, at the ocean. Next, the patio of the restaurant of the resort, with coconut palms.
Banana's growing along the paths of the resort. We were at the Rock House in Negril, Jamaica, for the wedding of my daughter and her fiance who is from Jamaica, in fact his grandfather was a Prime Minister there!
A "lobster claw" exotic plant, I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw this! It was a relaxing, tropical paradise!

A sunny Sunday morning



Mr. Pear was able to come for part of the weekend. (I can't leave & mom can't travel far yet...so he literally brought some sunshine into our world down here!) I am so tired now, but I will be back tomorrow to finish this post and tell you where we went!





Later....Monday morning (after a great night's sleep! Due to all this outdoor exercise!)

Little Rock has a beautiful
walking/biking bridge

which goes across the Arkansas River to North Little Rock.





The hike is about 2.5 miles across and back. It was perfect for a Sunday morning! The breezes made it very pleasant and made the flags on top of the
bridge fill the air with the snapping sound of their flapping and fluttering......



most eye-catching!



Bikers and fishermen too are out enjoying the day!



We savored every minute and then walked another nearby hiking trail!





Along that trail we found a small blue morning glory, perfect for a perfect morning hike!

(Surely, autumn is coming this week with rain and cooler weather!) Please keep Carmen and her family in your prayers. Wild fires are burning out of control in her area of California. Truly scary !

The Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies I am baking right now!
They are delicious! The recipe is from "Cottage Living" magazine September 2004!



I am also reading a bit while at Mom's....

The first book, "Yarn Harlot...the secret life of a knitter," is a
humorous series of essays about her knitting addiction, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee who also has a blog.


Speaking of knitting, I visited a new blogging friend, Marilyn from New Mexico. Reading her post, from a few days back, made me want the latest issue of Interweave Knit...Fall 2007. For this pattern.

I love the easy swing and asymmetrical closure of this cardigan...I think Marilyn planning to knit it too!

I am very intrigued by this book from Great Britain," Jane Brockett: The Gentle Art of Domesticity", just published by a domestic goddess and articulate blogger/photographer, Jane Brockett. Every photograph she uses on her blog is luscious....and her book would be a true delight. It has just been published and I may "need" a copy to celebrate my recent birthday!





Finally, both of these bloggers, Jane and Marilyn recommended visiting this knitting designer!

It's time for fall color!!!!

My three hundreth(300th) post!
......I am a "maple"..........A quietly "colorful" character!



Celtic tree lore has a tree for whatever month you are born in.....here is the one for this week....which is also my birthday week!


October 14-October 23: Those born on this date also fall under the lesser influence of a secondary tree...the Maple, whose motto is "Combative Angel" or "Independence of Mind." Maple individuals are far from ordinary and never completely satisfied with standard replies. They admire those who clearly assert themselves and rise eagerly to any challenge. Maple people are full of imagination and originality, inclined to stand out in a crowd due to their willpower and sense of committment. Though appearing shy and somewhat reserved, they are truly ambitious, proud and self-confident. Maples hunger for new experiences and have a desire to impress. They enjoy what is unknown, strange and even hostile. The inherent Maple need for independence often clashes with the need to be surrounded by a community. With a tendency to be nervous, Maple people have many complexities. They possess excellent memories and easily learn new things. The love relationships of Maple individuals tend to be complicated affairs.

I would go along with most of this.....especially the "independence of mind"! Which sometimes conflicts with the need for community.
Blogging has helped me to enlarge my community and I am truly grateful to all of you who visit and comment! I have been able to feel connected to a community even when away from home! [BTW, a very synchronistic event happened this afternoon! I was taking Mom to her primary care physician's office and who did I see but Annie of Little Rock Daily photo....who had stopped briefly in the waiting room, to get directions....
What a small world even the blogging world can be!]


Read more about your Celtic tree zodiac here.

When granddaughters have dolls, we have to come to their aid.....fashionwise! ( This is a photofrom angrychicken.typepad.com ....)

Having a fun, crafting sewing day....planning to sew doll clothes! of course, having the granddaughter here to "help" would make it even more fun!

Mom taught my sister and I to knit, so I can also use odd bits of Mom's leftover yarn to create sweaters and hats for the American girl doll...

This is the glass tray I saw in the hospital gift shop.......it is called a "gypsy" tray by Fringe Studio....so cool....looks like collage and it has a pear! Just wanted to share it with all of you!

This is a quilt on the living room wall at Mom's. It is "Lady of the Lake" and is quilted in "concentric" lines as if a stone were thrown into the water. It was one of the first quilts which I made in the 1980's. I like the peaceful, balanced quality it has even with the triangles and "arrows" leading the eye out from the center. Today I can think of this as the "pulse" of energy going out to all parts of the body from a beating heart.
Here is another area of Mom's living room. A bookshelf with antique irons being used as bookends on her collection of books about Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Mom read the whole series of "Little House" books to us while we were growing up. We always thought that Michael Landon was not correct in playing "Pa" (Charles Ingalls)in the TV series without a beard! We visited the Laura Wilder home in Mansfield, Missouri when I was 12!

Then we moved to a farm in Arkansas and had our own "Little House" adventures!

Mom sold the farm and moved to Little Rock 30 years ago. We have a medical school and good hospitals here.

This weekend, she had a proceedure to install a pacemaker. Her heart had been beating very slowly and sometimes pausing for 4 seconds or so. Now she should have good circulation and no more "fainting"/ falling spells.

We are also lining up Home Health RN and therapists to come and help her. Here is a diagram of the amazing pacemaker.....

I may or may not blog much for a bit...

I just took my mom to the hospital for chest pains...and they are keeping her to see if they can get heart to beat more normally....so keep us in your prayers and have a great weekend!

This is the tool of the day! a wire brush..
Beautiful weather here in Little Rock! I am cleaning white wrought iron trim on Mom's ( house this is NOTa photo of her house, just want to illustrate painted wrought iron!)....and getting ready to re-paint!

No trees/leaves have turned yet but fall is in the air! A friend sent me crock pot soup recipes via e-mail....so we may try one.

Tonight after all this work, and to celebrate both of our October birthdays, Mom and I and a friend of hers, will go to an Italian restaurant, The Villa, which has been here since 1951! Yum!!!!!

For days there is a dull roar heard as a background sound in our town. The Annual Bikes, Blues, and Barbeque event is here again!

The first weekend in October, an estimated 350,000 bike (or blues? or barbeque?) fans descend upon our area of the planet.
This used to irritate me no end.!!!!!!!

I was delighted when we were in Flagstaff at this time last year!!!!

************************************

This year, remember, I am trying to live with an "open" and accepting attitude.

SOOOOO........lets go see what this is all about!
It is mind-boggling to see so many bikes together!
And not a few gals wearing black leather...(this one has gray on the temples....YES!)
After dark, Mr. Pear and I went downtown for the evening, walking in crowded streets, going from bar to bar...to find standing room...and some lively interesting fellow "party-animals" (HA!)......
A new sign appeared on a local restaurant.... Good beer, good food and interesting conversation...........and corner evangelists!!!!!

One corner preacher had a sign saying....."THIS PARTY ENDS IN HELL"!

[Most of the "revelers" were harmless, aging baby boomers out for a warm fall evening; there was a strong presence of law enforcement. Our city does not allow alcohol to be served or carried out onto the street....and the weekend is organized to raise money for local charities.]

So, because of my new "open" attitude, I got out of the house and was able to eat barbeque rather than cook! [ I would find myself starting to tense up and worry about, "where will we ever find a place to park..etc...." then I would remember that I am "open" now, I didn't have to try to control even that!,.... sure enough, both nights, a place "opened" up for us as Mr. Pear drove up!]