Current Photo Friday theme: Bold
Central Park, New York City, June 2007
Tag: friends
Tiny Tuesday!
From the book of Tiny Pleasures, I spotted this one:
When I did my recent book purge, I discovered that in the past, I had a tendency to grab whatever was handy to use as a bookmark (despite several posts this year featuring the abundance of bookmarks I own).
Here are a few of the things I found tucked into books I’m rehoming:
Three actual bookmarks: one with an inspirational saying, one from the Doris Day Animal League, to which I was a contributor long before I worked in animal rescue, and one with other state and Texas locations of Half Price Books.
Two business cards, one from the bookstore where I was employed as an assistant manager starting a few months after we moved to Houston, and one promoting The Deal and Three Fortunes In One Cookie, with contact information on the back.
A red ribbon decal that was probably part of a donation appeal from an HIV/AIDS-related organization.
A thank-you card from Amy after she spent a summer living on the second floor of our fifth Houston home (The Compound was our sixth, and Houndstooth Hall is our seventh; between our first and third, we spent the summer of 1990 living with Lynne and Craig. I guess we paid their hospitality forward with Amy; then here at the Hall, Lynne and Minute lived with us for a few weeks between homes). So many good friend memories.
I emailed Amy photos of the message she wrote inside the card, and we reminisced about those times. The envelope is postmarked September 1, 1994, when a postage stamp was 29 cents.
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.)
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.
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.
WYR? No. 4
No. 888. Would you rather go back and get to do high school all over again or have all your debt paid off?
“GET TO” do high school all over again? I’ve heard there are people who think of high school as their glory days, but I not only don’t think of high school that way, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to return to their high school years. There are dear friends I knew in high school who are dead now, and I wish they were alive, healthy, happy, and only as far away as a phone number. I knew good people in both my high schools and had a lot of fun along with my teen angst, but NO. PLEASE, Magic Genii, if you must yield your power on my behalf, take my debt away. I’d rather live unencumbered by debt now than live in the past. I’m fine with my gray hair and wrinkles.
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. =)
Early* Saturday post
*early as in 12:30 AM
I haven’t gotten done some of the things I wanted to this week. When I was taking care of at least a few of those things during Thursday errands, I spotted these on my way home.
A Little Free Library. Even skeletons like to read.
And they’ll also invite you over to shoot the breeze.
I’ve had my eye on this Jolly Grinning Giant for a while. If I ever saw his people, I’d have asked if I could bring my skeletons over for a photoshoot with him. But his people are never outside.
Friday had some sadness. The first time I let the dogs out, they spotted a young squirrel. He barely got away from them, just a few feet up a tree, where he rested in the V where the tree splits. It was obvious he was either injured in some way, or maybe dehydrated, or just terrified. With help from Debby, I was able to get my frantic dogs inside, while the neighbor’s dogs were very vocal on the other side of the fence. We coaxed the squirrel out of the tree so Debby could carry him in a cloth pillowcase outside the fence to the side of the house. Then Tim got him into a box, tucked inside a towel, to take him to the SPCA’s Wildlife Rehab unit. Unfortunately, the young squirrel died en route. At least he didn’t die from either my dogs or the large neighbor dogs attacking him, but in an air-conditioned truck with a kindhearted, calm driver taking him for help.
Also on Friday, I was able to finish this book. Another political thriller that I couldn’t put down. Now it’s time to take a break from reading and work on my own novel.
Mysteries and Politics
Reading is what I’ve been up to, and these books were purchased locally at Murder By The Book.
New this year:
I can’t believe Requiem For A Mouse is my friend Dean’s sixteenth book in his Cat In The Stacks Mystery series. I feel like I just started reading them! Writing as Miranda James, his cozy series features a librarian/widower named Charlie Harris and his helpful Maine Coon cat, Diesel. The books are set in a fictitious college town, Athena, Mississippi, and every time I read one of the novels, his characters make me feel like I’m spending time with old friends. There are other cats, the occasional dog, and enough bad guys and murders to keep Charlie busy as an amateur sleuth. Plus: a library and plenty of good Southern cooking!
Martin Walker’s Bruno series includes 24 works, including novels, novellas, and a short story collection. There’s also a Bruno cookbook he wrote with his wife Julia. The series features Benoît Courrèges, aka Bruno, a former soldier turned policeman, enjoying the “pleasures and slow rhythms of country life” in the fictional village of St. Denis in the Périgord Region of France. The novels’ horses, dogs, townfolk, and meals are part of those “slow rhythms,” but Bruno’s romances, the crimes he solves, and the historical context Walker provides season the novels with delicious details, while the international intrigue adds a soupçon of suspense. I’ve learned so much from Walker’s books and his booksignings, and an offhand post-war diplomacy tidbit he once mentioned at a signing inspired me to research and develop an intricate part of my own Neverending Saga.
I got this one a couple of years ago and have finally raced through it in two days because I COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN.
I would hope anyone reading here knows who Hillary Rodham Clinton is, and Louise Penny is the author of the Inspector Gamache mystery series set in the fictitious Three Pines, Québec (the nineteenth novel in that series is due the end of this month, and I can’t wait). The real-life story of how the two woman became friends, and how publishing figures and life events brought them together to write a suspense thriller, is naturally fascinating to me–friendships having been not only a huge part of my adult life, but also because I co-authored novels with friends. Though I only occasionally read thrillers, political or otherwise, this one held me spellbound. It features a new administration in the White House, including a new president and his female secretary of state. She was the head of a publishing empire, and the president may have chosen her only to settle an old grudge and ultimately disgrace her. We get to travel the world with this one, and meet plenty of heroes and villains, though sometimes we’re not exactly sure who’s who. Though published in 2021, the themes and ideas explored remain topical, and I appreciated reading about strong, smart women, complicated and often painful family dynamics, and fascinating settings (the political leaders and figures throughout are fictionalized, though there are effective references to real-life international figures, as well). I also was delighted to find Easter eggs in mentions of Penny’s Three Pines village and characters (Clinton was a reader of the series before she and Louise Penny were introduced). I hope one day these two will write another together.
Tiny Tuesday!
Barbie and friends do a reenactment of me preparing to find fashion, dress skeletons, and post photos to social media (i.e., my Instagram account), with Lord Cuttlebone and his nephew Ambrose supervising (i.e., chattering unsolicited advice into my ear). Since the theme is set: a spooky season homage to music, WILL I HAVE ENOUGH T-shirts or band memorabilia to do the entire month of October? The Shadow knows…
I’ve put my first seven days of photos behind the cut, if you want to see the artists I’ve featured.