Our Historical Society meeting

Tags

archives, digitize, finances, Historical Society, postaday2013

This evening we had our, I think that they are quarterly or maybe more often then that, Director’s meeting. These meetings are always very laid back and pleasant. Our ambitious President sets the agenda and gives us a blow by blow account of the finances, the upcoming projects, the various programs and he does it all without being bossy or overbearing. When I describe him as ambitious, it’s because he does a lot of the projects himself. He really enjoys being outdoors and physically active so he is always the first to volunteer his time and energy. He doesn’t however, force or guilt anyone into doing something that they don’t want to do. I really like that about our fearless leader.

We are being led into the digital age by our newest Vice President of Programs; Chips has taken our collection by storm; he has been digitizing and reconciling the ascension book with the digital record. It is a massive job, I know this because I had tried to do it last, just without the digitizing, and it was a nightmare. Nothing made sense because it had been done in such a haphazard fashion. Chips lives for this type of puzzle and he has gone to town with it and I am extremely grateful for everything that he has done.

My contribution to the next program which is May16th, our treasurer will be exploring the twentieth anniversary of the Scottish festival, will be pecan shortbread cookies. In French they are called Sables and they are quite yummy. I’m glad that my fellow Directors are happy with my contributions, it’s what I do best.

Earworm

What song is stuck in your head (or on permanent rotation in your CD or MP3 player) these days? Why does it speak to you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SmVAWKfJ4Go

I have always liked Johnny Cash as a recording artist, his songs and his voice pull at me, I suppose because they are so raw. My hubby and I became even bigger fans they day that my hubby went inot a chocolate shop called Teuscher’s on 61st Street and Madison Avenue and met Johnny Cash who asked if he could get our baby boy, who actually was just a baby back then, he was all of ten months old, a piece of chocolate and said that he was one of the most beautiful babies that he had ever seen. That is all that you have to do for a parent to get them to be your fan, compliment their baby, they will love forever.

When I first heard the song Hurt sung by Johnny Cash. I was convinced that it had to be his original, I was floored when I subsequently learned that it was actually a cover originally written by the Nine Inch Nails, who I happen to like as well. Johnny Cash could take any song and make it his own.

Writing for writing sake’s

Tags

discipline, postaday2013, therapeutic, therapy, writing

Today I wrote several more scenes further sending Madeleine closer to her overseas adventure. My book is coming along, I try not to get too impatient with myself, I know that I am taking forever with writing this book, but that is fine, for now. I also enjoy writing on my political blog and this one that you are reading right now. I guess that makes for quite a bit of writing. I enjoy it so much, often times I find it easier to express myself with writing then speaking. I can’t believe how quickly I got invested in writing, it came about very fluidly. I didn’t realize that I would make wonderful friends through writing. It didn’t occur to me, but in a sense it should have because we are all united in the common bond of writing and needing to express ourselves. It’s a great club to be a part of, it’s all-inclusive and without prejudice.

I am curious as to where my writing will lead me. It could be nowhere or somewhere, either way it will be here for when my children ever get curious as to what made their Maman tick. It is also a way for me to have a legacy, I suppose. My ego demands it hee, hee.

National Poetry month is nearly at an end. Try your own hand at prose

Tags

poetry, postaday2013, writing

I have three WordPress friends who are gifted at poetry and I love reading their creations every day. I admire their ability to shape words into such forms and thus giving them more emotion and meaning than if those words were plainly placed as I would be prone to do. I will however, in honor of this challenge, try my hand:

The fires in the hearth have given way
to embers; much as the sun dims to twilight
Another dawn makes for a new day
where the amateur baker prepares to fight
the elements, render them into forms that lay
pleasingly in the hot fires, easily rendering tiny bites
favorably received by all who might pass and give way
to more pleasing delights.

No more rhyming I mean it
Anyone got a peanut?
quote from the Princess Bride

Yesterday, the start of blooms in my garden

Tags

bulbs, daffodils, gardens, perennials, postaday2013, spring

I know that I had posted picture of my crocuses a little while ago, but now the big boys have just emerged, the daffodils, the tulips and the hyacinths up here in Blandford. I am very happy to share my new pictures, this year I don’t seem have many, in terms of my daffodils. This fall I will dig them up and separate the bulbs and perhaps next year, I will be luckier with more blooms. I can only think that the huge chipmunk population in my yard is to blame for the near absence of tulips and hyacinths, this year. Last year I took the time to dig up and separate the tulips and hyacinth bulbs and the iris rhizomes, so I can only attribute very hungry chipmunks because I mulched as well before winter. I have said it before, gardening is never boring, there is always a development that crops up, could be good or it could be bad, but it is always different and therein lies the challenge which I like so much.

On the move

If you could move to any location on the planet, where would you go and why?

I have written about this location before, Le Canon, France. I know that it is the ultimate location for me because it has continued to be my number one choice for years. There isn't any other place in the world where I would rather be; Le Canon a small sleepy village on the almost island near Bordeaux France is, in my view, an ideal location. Le Canon lies right on the bay and just a few kilometers on the other side, is the Atlantic Ocean. This small village is only 45 minutes away from one of the four major cities of France, Bordeaux. Simply imagine bright blue skies, shining sunlight, a warm wind carrying the smells of clean ocean scrubbed sand, pine trees and that hint of heat that gives it the singular aroma of paradise. The quality of life here is primordial, time slows down so that you can relish every one of your senses. Why live quickly if you are going to miss something beautiful? This is where I want to live the rest of my days. I would love to sit out on my terrase with a bowl of coffee and a pain aux raisins and just be one with my personal environment.

Adding another layer to a tattoo

Tags

color, dream catcher drawing, postady2013, tattoo

Almost 6 years ago, Nov.1 2007, I went into the hospital in dire circumstances. I was deathly ill and the emergency room doctor was so pessimistic that he told my hubby that I had two days left at the most. My hubby told him that he wasn’t needed and got the hospitalist, Doctor Baker, to take over. He saved my life by taking charge so quickly and finding us a doctor that was willing to take serious care and not give up. Prior to all this, from time to time, I would draw dream catchers. I learned about dream catchers while studying about the Native American culture in high school and I started drawing these as whimsical expressions of art when I was 15 and I had a few fans over the years. After my scary diagnosis my hubby took the dream catcher that I had drawn for him and had it tattooed on his back so that he would forever carry something of mine that I had created.

Today my hubby and I went to Northampton because my hubby was inspired to add a special splash of color to enhance the existing tattoo. A few years back, a lunar eclipse happened on his birthday and so he wanted to capture the gorgeous oranges, yellows and reds surrounding the circle. It didn’t take very long and the results came out to be exactly what my hubby envisioned. I’m very happy that his tattoo means so much to him and that he found another way to give it even more meaning.

Person, place, thing

Get to a nearby cafe: write about a person, place, and thing in as great detail as you can muster.

Oh so now we are doing the Parisian thing, sitting in a cafe a la Earnest Hemingway, seeking and writing about the one thing in the truest way possible. Well, I'm at the Nichols cafe and I have just written my little comment on an article in the Huffington Post and cross posted onto my political blog A progressive's thoughts.

This morning is all about reading and writing and then afterwards, I haven't a clue. Today being Saturday, the whole day is open and ripe for adventure. By this evening I will have done something that will give me material for a second post. If not then in my second post I will be commenting on the lack of adventure or how restful a day can be when there is nothing to do but be with the one that you love. Either way, later on today my imagination will produce something for someone to read, I hope. I'm sure that my little Jack, our Jack Russell, will do something comical, he tends to do that, so I can always write about him.

Where was I? Oh yes, I am writing about something in great detail. I think that I just sort of did that, I wrote about the possible prospects of today. It is nice when you haven't any idea of what a day can bring. I used to feel that way often when I was in college and it was most exciting, I started my days wondering who was I going to meet, what was I going to learn and what, if anything, was going to happen that was going to change my life. That is when you are young and fancy free and the road of your life is like an open highway. I hope that my two babies see it that way, it helps to diminish the scariness of uncertainty. I think that it changes the stress of what am I going to do with my life? into what opportunities are going to come my way today? Uncertainty is fretful, but adventure is fun.

The history of the Boy Scout’s: A Historical Society program

Tags

Boy Scouts, Historical Society, history, lecture, postaday2013, program

Last night’s program was a hit. We were in luck, the speaker was informative, enthusiastic and engaging. Ironically he is from Blandford, he moved here in 1978 and I have never seen the man before last night. I was very happy to meet him, his name is Bob and he had been with the Boy Scouts association for 60 years. His position is one of volunteer, both his time and his services in the legal capacity. I wasn’t the only one who had never met Bob, the only one who knew Bob was his childhood friend who lives on his road, Chips, who also serves as a director in the Historical Society so that is how we came about the program. Chips is wonderful when it comes to getting his old friends and colleagues donate their time and expertise for our entertainment.

I learned so much about the Boy Scouts. I had no idea that the Boy Scouts were started in Great Britain by a famous military hero Baron Robert Baden-Powell who after his military exploits wrote a book on military scouting that was adopted by young Englishmen in their boarding schools and taken into the field.

Bob spoke so eloquently of Baron Robert Baden-Powell, he really brought him to life. He spoke of his adventures in killing the pig with a short pointy stick, receiving India’s highest honor after killing the pig with his short stick and writing a book about it. In all seriousness, Baden-Powell with his colleagues were wild boar hunting without any weapons other than short swords, that was a sign of a real hunter, wild boars are very feral and fearless, so the physical risk to themselves and their horse was great. Baden-Powell won the highest award as the premier wild pig killer because after his horse was gored by the wild boar, he bravely put the boar down. His exploits in India led him to many promotions and then off to South Africa. All of this was in the late 1800’s and very early 1900. Somewhere in old British Rhodesia, Baden-Powell successfully held his city in a 200 plus day siege against enemy forces three times the size of his force. He went home to Great Britain after this, a national hero. His fans were the young men who read his book on military scouting and they aspired to be scouts.

My caneles were a huge hit and I am so happy that I made them because no one else brought anything else. It was my goodies and that was it. They threw themselves on my little caneles and kept saying “who made these?” “What is this?” These are so good” I was so happy. I love baking. A very pleasant evening.

The ultimate companion

Head to one of your favorite blogs. Write a companion piece to their penultimate post.

One of the first blogs that caught my eye and heart when I began blogging two and a half years ago is the wonderful http://www.weescoops.wordpress.com/. Today she wrote a fantastic post calling Finding the Path to Beauty, I hope the link here will bring you to her insightful post http://www.weescoops.wordpress.com/findingthepathtobeauty/

Education is such an important part of our society and our lives. What gets lost, I think in the huge subject that is education, is just how subjective it is; for every different ideology there is a a different expectation in educational results and methodologies. Personally, I believe that the best education and the best educators are the ones that help fan the sparks of creative and analytical thinking. Having the responsibility and the ability to instill and pass on the tools that allow students to take facts and resources and distill them through the prism of their own critical thinking filters gives them more than just knowledge, it arms them with flexible and perceptive logical reasoning, something so vastly important in this digital age. We don't want to educate parrots, we want to educate independent thinkers and hopefully a few philosophers along the way.

In terms of beauty, I think that there is nothing more beautiful than a pair of wise, empathetic and soulful eyes. Eyes that are wide awake and ready for the world and everything in it.