A Welcome Demise

     "One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar!" - Helen Keller

      Welcome and so long February 28th so we can move closer to March and SPRING.  You can say what you want, but SPRING is knocking and I'm ready to answer!                       Not sure why I reached for my camera (maybe knowing/wishing/hoping) that the dear old groundhog  DID  promise an early SPRING.... but while letting Lady out for a middle of the night (potty ritual) the necessity for shooting the last pretty remains of winter.... I'm hoping will be the last of our winter bliss, please!  By tomorrow the temps should be above freezing!

Thanks Mom I needed that.....we can go back to bed now!

I really wanted to capture the brilliant sparkles (the roses of snow) but too tired to do anything but snap, snap....snap!

Sepia Saturday 63 : 26 February 2011

I find this week’s Sepia Saturday 63 fascinating for various reasons. When anything relates to ships or water there are so many courses one can sail......If you desire more information for playing along too just go here

http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2011/02/sepia-saturday-63-saturday-26-february.html

This man sitting outside during a cold Minnesota winter is an example of a vendor making a profit from our curious nature for all things at sea.  He knows he'll sell many copies with a headline "30 ADRIFT IN SOUTH SEAS" image courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, photographer unknown, appeared in Minneapolis Tribune.

So my Sepia Saturday begins this week's theme about the great Four-masted barque, "Richelieu"
and my bond and attraction to water with stories from the sea or other waterways.   "Richelieu" refers to- a French prelate and statesman, principle minister to Louis XIII (1585-1642), was the name-ship of a class of French battleships in WWII, is an airport in Quebec, Canada, also a river, a color and so much more.

So many boats, so little time…here are just a few.  A most interesting note is the building of ships, their christening, names given and later renamed, the labels/flags/names they carry (for country too) the ports they visit, and often their momentous demise, or rebirth.

The changing or reissuing of past names can confuse things....you see the French had another more famous ship named "Richelieu" later which was a battleship....in her honor I present several other vessels much like that French navy battleship.......

Postcard from, Tanapag Harbor, Saipan November 11, 1944.  Vessels (left to right) USS Salmon, USS Saury, USS Besugo, USS Burrfish, USS Pipefish, USS Sea Cat, USS Fulton, (tender) USS Ronquil, USS Tambor, USS Perch II, USS Pampanito, USS Archfish, and USS Searaven. (I've seen the USS Pampanito a museum ship berthed at Pier 45 San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf)

Now for a maritime disaster in Chicago, Illinois .... about a much documented ruin of the Eastland.  These images are from postcards from an antique store.

The S.S. Eastland- Clark Street Bridge- Chicago River

Just what happened?  The S.S. Eastland based out of Chicago was a passenger ship used for tours.  On July 24, 1915 she rolled over while tied to a dock on the Chicago River.  A total of 844 passengers and crew were killed in what was known as the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.  Following that disaster, the Eastland was salvaged and the United States Navy bought her and designated her as a gunboat (here we go again) renamed, USS Wilmette, and primarily used as a training vessel on the Great Lakes and was scrapped following World War II.

In her touring days they called her "Speed Queen" of the Great Lakes.  Sadly she was known to have too many flaws, too top heavy, her center of gravity too high, and she was over crowded once in 1903 causing her to list and water to flow up one of her gang planks.  So many incidents proceeded even a mutiny ensued on the 14th of August 1903 while on a cruise from Chicago to South Haven.

S.S. Eastland, after disaster on the Chicago River.  July 24, 1915.

...and this photo is of....

A postcard of :  The brave and the strong divers, and their untiring efforts aided greatly in the recovery of bodies from the hull of the ill-fated Eastland.

Flipping over to my father's scrapbook a look at a saying and a long time treasure.....

"Down East" a most asked question of the Maine tourist is what does "Down East" mean?  In early times it seems the state was generally reached from Boston and other points by sailing vessels and with a prevailing westerly wind travelers sailed downwind to Maine, creating the local term, "going down to Maine" or "Down East."

also from that scrapbook is a Christmas greeting card from my father to his mother (now mine)

Apparently my father was aboard the U.S.S. Macomb DMS - 23 and besides my father's note my grandmother typed this message on the inside with her name below it...

A Mother's Prayer
God bless the ship Macomb
Wherever she may be
May His angels chart her course
Through every kind of sea.

My grandmother loved writing and creating poems, and yes this is a common sediment most mothers have while their sons or daughters are serving their country.  But my grandmother had a scare besides.   This is the story I heard.   It's not always the best of times to be in an automobile accident, but my father suffered one during a weekend leave, and lucky for him he had a short time in the hospital instead of going out on his scheduled ship which had some incident and sunk.

I close this post with sort of a mystery on the water.

            Going back to a family album this grouping of photos remains a mystery to me yet.  (I won't post them all) All are untitled, no story quotes and pasted in the middle of photos from Marseilles and Versailles France.  So your guess or knowledge could solve this unidentified collection of ship disasters.  For the purpose of this post my best presumption would be the location Marseilles, France, in and around the military fort located there.  Please offer any information if possible.

Smoke drifted like lost barges across the morning sky.....

heavy bursts of smoke...drifted away.....clouds sailing calmly as though nothing had happened...


Two ships together they slip.......



like lost soldiers never to return home again...

Side by side they shared a lost journey....

Interesting ship to the left of this photo.......

Through the smoke churning up on the right side of photo you wonder if something wasn't brewing on shore as well?

Oh these barrel drifting by could bring answers to this mystery....

The black-clouded smoke swirls no more and soon she will be completely out of sight, but surely not out of mind. 

.....and so ends this brief flash through life on the water......and just a short few of the very many vessels that have roamed our world......just as ships will forever more pass by in the night...so live long those lives that live by the sea...

Saturday Centus - The ATM machine began

     Good morning again everyone......welcome to this new adventurous week of Saturday Centus! ..and yes thank you Jenny for such an easy going, rich fulfilling, non-wicked, kind of silly.... prompt today!  If you have no idea what I'm talking about just go here

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2011/02/saturday-centus-atm-machine-began.html

So in less than 100 words here's my take at the ATM machine.....

 

             Sure already late for work with a flat tire so hubby graciously gives me his enormous truck.  Of course the freeways blocked so cursing (not really) my way through slow city traffic I spill my coffee after a long wait at the coffee drive-thru.  My bank isn’t open yet so walk-up ATM it is.  Wonderful it’s snowing again, as I slip on ice getting out of truck.  What next I ask, taking off my glove when unexpectedly the ATM machine began dispensing twenties right before my eyes! 

Six Word Saturday - 6WS - 26 Feb 2011

Welcome, welcome....and good morning.....I'm on time today! Okay I actually thought this up yesterday...you caught me and if you want to see what all this 6WS aka as Six Word Saturday is all about go here
http://www.showmyface.com/2011/02/six-word-saturday_26.html

Ecstatically happy over some wonderful secret!

Without pleasure man would live like a fool and soon die. - Pierre de Beaumarchais
So then, I 'll be living fully and enjoying life.......and I'll be....a wishing and a hoping for SPRING too!

Thematic Photographic 135 Letters

This hangs from a corner in my living room, "He liked to go from A to B without inventing letters between." -John Angus McPhee

We're back at Thematic Photographic and Carmi's clever choice this week with the theme is "letters" and take note he set the mark high this week for some really great fun....there are so many ways we can go.  If you want to learn more about this game check it out here http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2011/02/thematic-photographic-135-letters.html

I sent this postcard to my Grandma from my first far away field trip to Chicago! My very own little girl hand writing in the best cursive letters I could write!  Plus, I wrote this on the bus ride home!

So taking a quick trip around the house oh what else can I find with letters...

Livres is French for books....which hold a entire mass of letters .......
Of course Jack and Diane are there....

Then from inside a park in St. Paul sits a special bench .....

Then pictures from last year around late summer I went to Linden Hills, and stopped by The Rose Garden and Peace Garden and the Bird Sanctuary...these next photos are from the Peace Garden.... a lovely place to just be very still.....
and....off in one of the gardens......

Harmony is constant in the Peace Garden.....
and ....

and prayers are many on any given day......
and.....

Remember that life can be like a game of cards...and words made up of all kinds of letters can be like toothpaste....once you let it out ....you'd have a hard time trying to put it back!  Once you've said something, you can't just take it back. Somebody said something like that somewhere....

Not To Dare is To Lose Oneself

If only Soren Kierkegaard could be asked to lunch....I'd even buy!

Soren could even decide where we would dine......and of course, which wine...

 I find comfort in many of his quotes...here are a few.


"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."


"Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living."


"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily.  Not to dare is to lose oneself."

My Fantasy Makes Me Feel

Yes I wrote this poem and not recently but I found it again in a picture book I made for my mother.  It's part of what we (get to hold and treasure) after our loved ones have passed on.....and I thought of regifting them (in our family) but decided against it.   Every book I made for her had a reason....and when I go through them.....again, even now....it all comes dancing back to me...... ;)

My mother and I roamed all the cozy corners of Stillwater, with my children along usually, and Lady even made a few trips with us...after all what are quaint towns known for ...but to enjoy!

MY FANTASY MAKES ME FEEL . . . . .
Mesmerized by a magical force,
I yearn for an uncommon lust.
My fantasy is frivoulous by nature.
Don't you have them too?
My nerves get all shaky like pudding and
I'm trapped by ridiculous laughter and meaningful giggles.
Everyday I am!
Avenues of passion upon my feet.
I share a rapturous zeal.
Yesterday's woes are forgotten.
I'm mindful of the brief exchange.
Aware of waking into reality and life...all fresh once more
By keeping secret thoughts in my private attic,
I can escape to my basement of fears.   Sometimes, for no reason at all,less often now with my fantasy ever blooming it makes me laugh......Every time I think of it.
Don't most of yours?
Fantasies are rascals at our fingertips......everlasting and powerful.

Whimsical Wednesday wk 15

Once again it's Whimsical Wednesday and I feel the urge to think of things as though it were spring already!
If you care to join in too with any whimsy thing you care to share then please.... just go here
http://dthaase.blogspot.com/2011/02/whimsical-wednesday-wk-15.html
See all the pretty balloons
floating high in the sky 
won't you join me soon
so we can go round and round
the merry-go-round
so early in the morning!

  

What If

What if.....


You would never see the faces of your loved ones again? ....... Take time to say, I love you....... and hug them like you'll never let go!

Don't ask why love refreshes life... just be thankful it does!

If you feel that wild and angry creature lurking within the inner walls of your soul...just know there's always somebody who has it worse than you.
"D a r n  it  anyway!"

Oh, by the way......value all the days on the calendar.......! 

Sometimes you need to wear a little cake!



Don't forget to dress up once in awhile!

If you catch the wrong train...enjoy the journey....maybe you need a detour!

We don't stop playing because we grow old--We grow old when we stop playing!



"This is our cry, this is our prayer, to build peace in the world."

Say a little prayer tonight for someone who might need it more than you think...... good - night and happy dreams!

Sepia Saturday # 62 19 February 2011

Rolling right into another Sepia Saturday theme this 19th of February there are numerous inspirations from first glance which are still wheeling through my thoughts. Oh which path should I take? If you have something to offer by way of this week’s theme or your own Sepia Saturday thoughts just go here
http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2011/02/sepia-saturday-62-saturday-19th.html

          Sepia Saturday's theme photo is in.......Ipswich, Queensland, once called, “Terra Australis-Incognita – “an unknown land of the south,” Australia awaits with Ipswich being an urban suburb southwest of the metropolitan Brisbane some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south. Ipswich is situated on the Bremer River, so they’ve had their share of flooding, and was named in 1843 after the town of Ipswich, England- the name (Ipswich) is derived from the medieval name Gippeswick, also Gipewiz or Gepeswiz probably from the river Gipping and this Australian town was first settled in 1827 when limestone was mined there.

Isn’t it amazing how something so minor as a bicycle is useful but can go unnoticed in many photographs from years ago? Then after the mention of them you can spot them almost everywhere.



I recognize my Aunt Margot on the left, and the boy on the very right is my cousin Jorg, not sure who the other boys are, surely just friends.

Today bicycling isn’t well facilitated in Ipswich with very few marked-on road lanes, making private vehicles their main transportation.


Even more interesting to me is observing places with names begging to be uncovered. In fact Sepia Saturday's photo showing a jewelry business was first opened by William James Prouds on Pitt St. in Sydney in 1903 and became the largest and most trusted jeweler’s chain in Australia.

Now to add some photos from two of my family's old time photo albums with photos or postcards depicting bicycles and shopping centers of the city...... I find bits and pieces of the shops names in these photos extremely interesting while playing Sherlock ........

"...and the bicyclist in the shadows moves to the lead.....Porte de Hal, Hal's Gate Brussels, "The only remaining part of the ancient fortification of the town from 1383 now a museum of a collection of weapons of war.



Ah yes, pedaling along Esch, Rue de l'Alzette, also known as Uelzechtstroooss-the longest shopping and pedestrian street in Luxembourg.

Now for a mix of bicycles and strolling along d'Orleans, Pithiviers is found in Loiret in the Lire Valley regions of France, and Pithiviers is also a delicious "almond cake that comes either in a puff pastry (best known) or as a fondant cake...with fruit decorations."  Perhaps they are biking to their favorite pastry shop below!

"Have to get to the Pastry Shop pronto!"

This is a postcard my grandparents must have purchased while visiting Les Petits Tableaux de Provence.  This bearded man always intrigues me.  Oh what delicious food might he have?  I can only dream of the marvelous items that can be selected along this avenue market place.

Below is a dealership for the Citroen, a vehicle I hated as a little girl on my first European trip, but today they are a favorite of mine.  Perhaps you've seen the actor Simon Baker's Citroen on the television series "The Mentalist" a favorite show of mine......and what a fascinating building too!

Pithiviers (Loiret) Avenue de la Gare and pictured here is a shop which houses the Citroen vehicles.

This last photo stood out with the man appearing like ....he was walking while chatting on his cell phone, don't you think?  The place is actually where you can take a bicycle tour in France,  Le Vieux Moulin - Loire Valley Bike Tours and you can enjoy a bicycle tour from the comfort of their secluded country estate and explore wine valleys and apparently so much more.  Are you ready to see for yourself?

Vicux moulin - old mill

Whimsical Wednesday # 14

            It's Whimsical Wednesday again and I changed things a bit by playing with scraps of paper and tiny jewels!   If you desire your own special whimsy join in here http://dthaase.blogspot.com/2011/02/whimsical-wednesday-wk-14.html

The more playing the merrier!  So surprise yourself with a gift of whimsy!

There are no wrong turns or shortcuts to anywhere worth going!


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



Whimsical Wednesday wk 13

Happy ...Whimsical Wednesday....it's time for more whimsy of any type really....it's not just about grabbing pen and paper.....they accept all kinds of whimsical things.....for pure whimsical delight!    So if you desire to hop along at Whimsical Wednesday just go here http://dthaase.blogspot.com/2011/02/whimsical-wednesday-wk-13.html

So many hearts--so little time

Love without gladness--Is pure sadness!

                                                        
                                                          

                                            

Whimsical Wednesday wk 12

                 Good wishes to all whimsical, artists, fairies and other such blogger friends, today opens a new week in Whimsical Wednesday. Where you create your own theme!  So, if you want to toss one in too....
http://dthaase.blogspot.com/

                        Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbor Day
                                                 Always February 7th