(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!]

It has been a busy October weekend; there was something new to visit in our town!

The business started for me after posting the ghost pumpkins on Friday. My friend, Lizzzzy, who lives here, and I went to the opening of our town's botanical gardens. The first phase is now complete and it is very impressive! (Do you see the chairs with green upholstery?) Part of the shade garden area...my favorite on this sunny warm October Friday!
Lizzzy showing how large the Taro leaves are in the shade garden!
This marvelous plant with colors I had never seen in leaves and seeds before is called "Hot Biscuits Amaranth".
Mr. Pear and I went back today for more walking and looking at amazing plants!

Our town also had a Bikes, Blues and Barbeque event this weekend. It drew over 350,000 visitors. I will post about that (with photos) later today (I hope!)

My front steps this morning. We have a shady front so this year I chose the "Ghost Pumpkins"as light colors show up more on our steps. Our cat, "Shadow" seems to approve!

This is a quilt I made a few years back which features both a black cat and a ghost pumpkin (right above the garden gate...which is like our old-fashioned garden gate.) It also has the crow totem...it may be a pattern from Country Threads.

What is a "Mute Swan"?

The Silver Swan

The silver swan, who living had no note,

When death approached, unlocked her silent throat,

Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,

Thus sung her first and last and sung no more:

Farewell all joys! O death, come close mine eyes;

More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.

------Traditional English Poem

this is the question which came to my mind when reading Robyn's post about Celtic lore for this month, the month called "gort" or "Ivy". (The month I was born in.) Mute swans are the animal associated with this month.

As it was learned from the Internet, they are simply the swans we usually think of.

They have bright ORANGE bills with a black outline and a "knob" at the top. Though not

totally mute, they can't make much sound because of the long graceful neck.

I am still hoping to do a swan painting or two, as I posted about a few months ago.

Being open to someone else's life...(pain and joy!)






this is my daughter's friend Kim who has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). (Kim was diagnosed not long after the birth of her son, Luke), Jin is her husband. They were high school sweethearts.


Kim sent this note re: a fund raising video for ALS

Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 8:14 PM

I’d like to tell you about a video you can view on-line. It’s really well done, and each time the video is viewed, a donation is made to help find a cure for ALS. Please pass it on!
http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/382360


Your prayers and encouragement mean so much to us. The support you’ve given has been amazing!

Love,

Kim

Again,this is the link to the video...each time it is viewed, money is earned for research for a cure for ALS!

Five for Fighting

October is a bittersweet month


October’s child is born for woe,
And life’s vicissitudes must know
But lay an Opal on her breast,
And hope will lull those woes to rest.


Traditional English rhyme

This rhyme came from Pips' Almanac today, I was not overjoyed to read this. I am an October child. So I decided to read some defintitions.

woe n.
1. Deep distress or misery, as from grief; wretchedness. synonym: regret.
2. Misfortune; calamity: economic and political woes.
interj.

vicissitude n.
a : a favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance : a fluctuation of state or condition b : a difficulty or hardship attendant on a way of life, a career, or a course of action and usually beyond one's control c : alternating change


(one thing about the English, those rhymes stretch one's vocabulary!)
The "woe" would have described me as a teenager...I was pretty morose in those days...but I grew out of it!
Vicissitude is a new word for me, but I have come to recognize that things do change constantly, and this is not always bad!

Let's see about "hope"...(from Wikipedia)
Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope implies a certain amount of perseverance— i.e., believing that a positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary.

After reading this and mulling it over a bit, I read Lowell Grisham's "Morning Reflections" to which I subscribe. After the bible readings were discussed, Lowell had added this quote:

Have low expectations and high hopes. Have low expectations of people so you don't force them directly or indirectly to meet certain anticipations you might have as to how they should or should not respond to you and your actions. But have high hopes for them based on a ruthless faith in God that something good, something dear and beautiful will come of it if you are looking and listening with an open heart.

Forgive yourself and other people for their defensiveness. Being cautious is natural for faithless and hopeless persons -- and we all fall into this category more or less.

Be as open as possible to being surprised by the encounter. In other words, we must not look for our god and reactions that we feel would be important and right. We must position ourselves instead to see whatever we will see amidst the joy, pain, apathy, anxiety, peace, depression, or tension we experience. When we are truly open, we will be surprised by something in the encounter. And that surprise -- that unique presence of God -- can be called by another name: holiness. (from Robert J. Wicks, "Living Simply in an Anxious World")



This is the perfect reading/reflection after that rather discouraging Traditional English Rhyme! I see hope mentioned again, and also the idea of being OPEN.

I remember the poem "Having Come This Far" with the line"my book is an open life" by James Broughton. Being open, having hope ( and faith and charity!) is how I hope to encounter life this October!

[ watercolor painting "Bittersweet for Julie" by Lila]