Tag: family

Almost that time!


Last year in September, I left Debby at the grocery store while I ran some other errands. She was still deep into shopping when I got back. I’d been doing a lot of coloring that month, so I grabbed a Halloween-themed cat coloring book I found inside the grocery store and colored in the car while I waited. I think the page (above right) is the only one I colored from it, not even another one in October. I posted the page only on Instagram.

Today, I enjoyed an incredibly productive day, and I think that’s because I’d had eight solid hours of sleep with no interruptions, which is kind of a miracle. Along with three rounds of dog and dog-waste policing I did on the grounds, I dust-mopped the house to get up lots of dog hair, dust, and leaf bits, mopped the library, cleaned both bathrooms, ate all my meals and took all meds as scheduled, washed up the dinner dishes (Debby cooked the meal she shared with us), and most of all, I FINISHED THE CHAPTER that I’ve been working on since the seventeenth century. It needs a reread and no doubt some edits, but now I can move on, and hopefully the next ones for the remainder of this novel will go more quickly. Nothing would make me happier than to have a full draft of Book 7 before New Year’s Day.

To celebrate, I took a break to dig out that 2023 coloring book and color a Halloween page. Tomorrow will be my last skeleton-music-homage photo for the season on Instagram, so I’ll devote Thursday to posting those here before we officially close the Halloween season by sundown (no trick-or-treaters this year).

Sunday Sundries

When I started the Sunday Sundries theme to replace Button Sunday, I didn’t mean that each Sunday would have a grouping of sundry items that had nothing to do with one another. Each Sunday may have related items*, but most Sundays will introduce some new and random thing. If you read here (THANK YOU!), you can always suggest something, and I’ll see what my home or environment provides.

This week, the group is PIGS! I’ve had to purge them periodically through the years, because they were given in such abundance, but here’s a good sampling of what’s around. These don’t include the holiday ornaments that are packed away.


A few Piglets from the curio cabinet in the writing sanctuary–this is the cabinet the Harvey flood didn’t get. A couple of the Piglets are Hallmark ornaments, gifts from Lynne.


Some of the stuffies from a cabinet also in the writing sanctuary. That very large pig on the left used to grunt “Jingle Bells” (and may still). It was a gift back in the early ’90s from Christine and John. Christine was another assistant manager at the bookstore, and if I’m not mistaken, I wrote this pig into A Coventry Christmas because whenever I got called to the cash wrap area, I took it with me to make our shoppers smile and reassure them the line was moving fast. At least a dozen times, men offered me ridiculous amounts of money for the pig. THAT is what comes of husbands and fathers shopping on Christmas Eve.


These are pigs who live in the toy chest that’s under the dining room window. I adore them, and most all of them are gifts. I found Miss Piggy at a thrift store to use back when I did Runway Monday, because Miss Piggy had been a client on “Project Runway.” Lynne once appeared in a home movie back in the Seventies as Miss Piggy. She was fabulous.

The living room display cases that came with our house at Houndstooth Hall (thank you, Mr. S) needed two photos to get them all in. These include pigs I’ve had the very longest. My original six to a dozen pigs all had names and stories, most of which I’ve forgotten, except for Jimmy Hogga and his wife, Mrs. Hogga. If any of these pigs happen to be excessively ugly, they probably came from Lynne and later her granddaughter Lila. Finding them to give me has been a holiday hobby for them.


These are the pigs who guard the pantry. That paper towel holder is from my brother. The cross-stitched pig is from my mother. The little quilted pigs were made from vintage quilts and purchased from an antique store in the Houston suburbs where Lynne, Tom, and I used to shop every Christmas for unique gifts for each other and family. I miss that store!

There are likely more pigs here, but these were the easiest to find.

ETA: GASP! How could I forget sweet Olivia who has her own shelf in the library; two bag clasps that hang out in the pantry; and the pencil holder that resides on my big office desk?

(Previous Sunday Sundries posts have included shells, bookmarks, Mary Stewart books, crayons, old blog features, oracle animal cards, romantic comedy DVDs, political buttons, items related to The Netherlands, random small boxes, bracelets, writing research aids, DVDs I’m watching, comics I’ve read through the years, Eddie Van Halen paraphernalia, Mary O’Hara books and some plastic skeleton photos, books to donate and some local Little Free Libraries.)

Questions, No. 8


I haven’t done one of these since March of 2022. Took it from the shelf, randomly opened it, scrolled down the page until a question caught my eye: What is your favorite author whose name begins with the letter R? As my mental search engine kicked into gear, I promised however it turned out, I’d go with the first name that came to mind.

That would be U.S. author Tom Robbins, who is still with us at 92 years old. He was born in North Carolina and is considered a post-modernist, and I have my brother to thank for getting me to read my first of his novels, Another Roadside Attraction. I never looked back.

I’ve mentioned on here before that had I finished my Masters program, I knew I’d either pick the works of Tom Robbins or Larry McMurtry as my thesis subject. That thesis (and a foreign language requirement) are the only two things I didn’t complete. Did well in all my classes. Passed my masters comps. Then somehow it all slipped through my fingers and I moved away without finishing the program. These things happen.

From my bookshelf, his eleven novels:

Another Roadside Attraction; Even Cowgirls Get The Blues; Still Life With Woodpecker; Jitterbug Perfume; Skinny Legs And All; Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas; Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates; Villa Incognito; Wild Ducks Flying Backward; B Is For Beer; Tibetan Peach Pie

 

Tiny Tuesday!

A new smaller skeleton joined the pack at Houndstooth Hall: young Ambrose’s twin sister Amarise (whatever century some variety of plague occurred was hard on this family). Here’s a photo from her first appearance on Instagram, wearing a “Who The Hell Is Ben Cote?” button that I let her claim because, as Lord Cuttlebone explains, “Never come between a girl and her devotion to a guitarist, songwriter, performer, and possessor of great hair.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. For more of my Instagram skeleton Halloween homages to music artists, check behind the cut.

Continue reading “Tiny Tuesday!”

Pick One, No. 12

It’s funny, but when I look at this book, or the would-you-rather book I used yesterday, I recognize that I’m very opinionated and can easily pick one choice over another. However, what isn’t so easy is explaining why–not that I don’t have reasons, but I don’t always want to discuss them publicly. =) I also like it when I have an existing photo or the ability to take a photo for my selection.

Today’s pick:
Question 1704: Teddy bear or security blanket? (and why…)


Me and Dr. Neil, my teddy bear since I was three, named for the doctor who was taking care of me in the hospital when Uncle Gerald and Aunt Lola visited and gave him to me. He’s still in the cabinet next to me, though this photo was taken by Lynne when I was fifteen/sixteen. I never had a security blanket.

Sunday Sundries


If I read anything over the next week, I plan for it to be a reread of Mary O’Hara’s wonderful series. I first read a condensed version of My Friend Flicka as a kid, and my mother owned a copy of the third in the series, Green Grass of Wyoming. I think I was able to check out and read Thunderhead from the University of Alabama library when I was a student. I treasure this collection of library bound hard copies. If my memory is right, I had help getting them from my friend Steve V, who worked at a Houston independent bookstore (Detering Book Gallery) that helped customers find and acquire rare or long out-of-print books.

I’m putting the most recent musical homage photos from my Instagram feed behind the cut. There are some fun recollections, or if nothing else, the photos offer an interesting look at some of the T-shirts at Houndstooth Hall belonging to Tom, Timothy, and me. =)

Continue reading “Sunday Sundries”

Sunday Sundries

Inspired by another Word Search Puzzle, I pulled books from my shelves that feature some of my favorite cartoon characters. I think for most of the early part of my life, Peanuts would have been the cartoon or comic I knew best. Since I’ve featured Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and friends many times, many ways on this website, I don’t feel at all bad that I don’t have any Peanuts books. (I do have a set of cartoons I took out of one of my mother’s books from the 1960s, but I’m not sure where those are.) My Christmas ornaments, old refrigerator magnets, and many other random items feature Peanuts characters. Even the housewarming present our realtor gave us when we closed on Houndstooth Hall was…

As an older child, I read the comics in our Sunday newspapers: Dagwood and Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Family Circus, Prince Valiant, Mary Worth, Dennis the Menace, Pogo, Heathcliff, Garfield, Boondocks, For Better or Worse–the list could go on, because I read all of them in the paper, even the ones that weren’t funny or I didn’t really like/appreciate at that age. OH, and the Love Is couple!

When I became friends with Lynne at age twelve, I was introduced to comic books, because she had so many: Archie and the full Riverdale cast, Casper and Wendy, Little Lulu, Richie Rich, Pink Panther.


Later, these became some of my favorites, which is why I have books of several: Doonesbury, The Far Side, Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, and Foxtrot. Some of of these, and some from the categories listed earlier, I still read via my Instagram feed.

Below is the puzzle that started me on this topic, and from its list, I read these (not already mentioned): Cathy, Dilbert, Mutts, Hi and Lois, Marmaduke, and maybe a couple of others.

Do you still read or follow cartoons, comics, or the funny papers? Which are your favorites?

Saturday fun

Last night as I was falling asleep, forcing myself not to think about the chapter in the Neverending Saga that has given me so much trouble, my brain suggested, “Fix the chapter BEFORE the one you’re working on.”

So I went back and eviscerated that chapter. Time will tell if it was the right choice, but I pondered my next move, next chapter while I played this game.

I finished in record time because author names will always jump out at me. If they’re there to find, that is. I worked longest looking for “Bronte,” until I finally glanced at the word list and realized Bronte wasn’t on it.

Something is wonky with our cable today. Since Tim isn’t home tonight, Tom and Eva went to his place to watch the Alabama-Georgia football game with Pollock. Meanwhile, Debby’s watching it at her place. I was in the mood for a little baking, so I took them both a sampling of my results.


Sausage and cheese balls are an ideal snack for football viewing. I have a big salad to eat, but I’ll definitely eat some of these, too.

Time for me to get back to see if changes in Chapter 14 will help my progress on Chapter 15.

These hurricane updates

It’s so hard to watch the updates on Hurricane Helene and think of all the friends and family we know and love in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Coastal living and climate change are a scary combination.


Hurricane Helene view from International Space Station/X via Reuters

ETA on 9/28: Asheville, North Carolina, photos show unthinkable damage from flooding.

Sunday Sundries, movies, part 1

The book series I recently reread follows generations of three families from the 1770s to the 1940s. The characters are schoolteachers, journalists, lawyers, writers, entertainers, soldiers, and impoverished to aristocratic, and the books’ timelines encompass the American Revolution, the American Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II.

As many times as I’ve read them (and in recent years, acknowledged what makes them problematic to today’s readers), this time, they hit differently, most particularly the years leading up to the second world war. The rise of fascism, the marginalization and annihilation of  “the other,” the lust for power and greed that allowed atrocities, division, and propaganda to replace reason, decency, and diplomacy–these all had a too-familiar feel in today’s world. I felt numbing sadness from the invasion and occupation of nations from 1939 to 1941: Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. And because of the first book in the series, in which Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, appears as a fictionalized character, I thought many times of Colonel Charles E. Stanton’s famous quote as he stood in front of Lafayette’s tomb on July 4, 1917: “Lafayette, we are here.” The date marked the arrival of the U.S. Army to assist France in World War I as repayment for the valuable help of the young marquis during the American Revolution. And of course, my own father helped repay that debt to France when he landed at Normandy on D Day in the next world war, and he served in France, Holland, and Germany.

The sadness from the books lingered as I began viewing a set of movies included in British Cinema Collection: 8 Acclaimed Films. This collection was released in 2014, and I probably bought it then or shortly thereafter, but I’ve never even removed its cellophane until now. There are eight movies on two disks.


I’ve been watching them in order, and I think I’ve seen only two of them before (I haven’t finished, and I may have seen one of the films that remain) (ETA: I had not seen a third film from this collection). I began with 1995’s A Month By The Lake, with Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox, and Uma Thurman. All three actors are wonderful in their roles. Set in Italy in 1937 at Lake Como, it’s described as a “delightfully sexy comedy.” I agree, but it also has a bittersweet tone because of the looming war (when Italy would ally itself with Germany and Japan). The movie continued the reflective mood I’ve been in since finishing my book series reread.

In 1999’s My Life So Far, Fraser Pettigrew (played by Robert Norman), ten years old, lives on a Scottish estate with his large family that includes his parents, grandmother, siblings, and a variety of other family members and new acquaintances who come to visit. I very much enjoyed this movie and its great cast (led by Colin Firth, Rosemary Harris, Irène Jacob, Mary Mastrantonio, and Roddy McDowell). It’s set in 1927, a time of ongoing recovery from World War I and with World War II looming on the distant horizon. On a personal note, possibly only Colin Firth could begin by playing a character I like, then turn really despicable, and somehow manage to charm me again at the end of the film.

I’d seen 1995’s The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain before, but I enjoyed the rewatch. Great cast, including Hugh Grant, Tara Fitzgerald, Colm Meany, Kenneth Griffith, Ian Hart, and Ian McNeice, among others. Two cartographers are sent to a small town in Wales in 1917 to measure the height of a mountain that may qualify as only a hill. Again, I experienced a bittersweet sensation. Set while World War I is still raging in Europe, two of the characters are former soldiers, a man from the town who’s shell-shocked, and one of the cartographers, who, when questioned about why he isn’t serving at the front like all the men missing from their village, admits that he did serve but was discharged after experiencing the same shell-shocked symptoms. There’s abundant humor and some romance, but its biggest attraction for me is how this town of elderly inhabitants, along with women, children, contentious, quirky, and not entirely able-bodied people, work together to defend their mountain’s honor and their village’s pride.

The fourth movie on this disk, 1998’s Sweet Revenge, isn’t the kind of movie I generally watch. Though it’s described as quirky, mean people behaving badly will never be my chosen genre. I did appreciate the excellent cast (Sam Neill, Helena Bonham Carter, and Kristin Scott Thomas in the lead roles, with an equally talented supporting cast), and I think people who like black comedy would enjoy the movie. Two people driven to consider ending their lives due to the impact of horrible people (one a boss; the other, a lover), encounter each other on a bridge. One of them comes up with a revenge plan that the other reluctantly agrees to. Chaos ensues.