Don't Sing Them Blues

For me, I always feel a bit melancholy, this time of year. 

As do many of you.  We ring out the old and say hello to the new.

I wish you all happiness,  joy and love in this new year.

Enjoy your New Year's Eve and I'll see you next year!

Of course we'll be doing new winter projects to carry us over until spring arrives again!

I can relate to Pat Conroy when he said, 
"I hungered for beauty and those realms 
of pure elation granted to those who had the 

imagination to know what to look for and how to find it."

Write it on your heart (and in your smile)
that every day is the best day in the year.
Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
whispering, 'It will be happy!'
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Alfred Lord Tennyson
and me

Life is short, Break the Rules.
Forgive quickly. Kiss Slowly.
Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably
And never regret ANYTHING.
Especially that which makes you smile.
Mark Twain

"The only journey is the one within."

Rainer Maria Rilke

A quick word about critters

for SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

and the ones close to our hearts.

We laugh, lay and play with them.

We let them help with the wrappings.

They stand a watchful eye over our Lego productions.

They are the world's best greeters ever!

And now we welcome the new year.

Full of things that have never been.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Dear friends,

"Let life happen to you.

Believe me:

Life is in the right,

always."

Rainer Maria Rilke

Take good care of you-

Happy New Year!

Cornichons and Landscapes

Welcome everyone.

My post today is about pickles. 
But not, the kind you eat.

Can you find the hidden pickle in this landscape of holiday art?

I combine this unique pickle story
 with Carmi's post for

THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC

and Landscapes as our theme this week.

"A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away." - Eudora Welty

This site has been tastefully landscaped.

How about a snowy landscape to sled by.

Sometimes, we interrupt a snowy landscape 
to roll with silly faces.

Now for the second half of my post,
 on the subject of pickles.
My interest and love of a good mystery to 
solve involves one tasty green delight,
when it's not an ornament.

It seems the world is in a pickle
while trying to determine just where this
 Christmas Pickle originates from.

My inspiration for this post came from this article read here.

In the article above written by Melissa Eddy she mentions,
 Sascha Mueller from the eastern German region first learning of it on his trip to Frankenmuth, Michigan in the 199o's.

Well, I grew up in Michigan and every visit to Frankenmuth there was never a pickle ornament that I can remember. Frankenmuth Christmas Pickle story.
Until now.

A story is always as good as the storyteller makes it.
Legends unfold many a good story as well.


Just so you know, we do have a Pickle Ornament on our tree, but I first learned all about it from my daughter's Girl Scout Troop leader, and I especially liked the pickle tradition once she told us.
So I went pickle ornament shopping!
As the story goes, the first child to find the hidden pickle
 is assured of good luck in the coming year, and usually a special gift or reward is received as well.


Do you have a Christmas Pickle Story too? If so, please tell us.
A photo from the Library of Congress in Washington.

Stanley Hyams, co-owner of Washington Pickle Works,
holding two pickles in a room full of barrels of pickles 
(like a sea of pickles the barrels are a landscape 
of goodness ready to be bottled)

Christmas Pickle Legend you'll surely enjoy heard here.


Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.” - Eudora Welty

Thanks for stopping by
enjoy your day and take good care of you.

A Happy Merry Little

Holiday greetings to all.

Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.

My wishes for you

"Be believing, be happy, don't get discouraged. 

Things will work out."

Gordon B. Hinckley

Wishes of joy, love, peace and togetherness for all.

I'm hearing sleigh bells in the snow

Where tree tops glisten and children listen

Remember, you can never light too many candles!

Christmas cards mailed and we're receiving
happiness and good cheer for everyone.

May your days be merry

and bright

and happiness always in sight!

The more Dean Martin songs you hear the better!

Don't believe me?

Listen here,

you'll believe me.

How we spent last Friday night

 as a winter snow storm played it's snowy games outside.

What you believe will be!
and yes it's possible to go sleighing without snow!

It was a celebration of music through
 the mall last Friday evening for all to enjoy!

"I believe in love, I believe in hard times and love winning.

I believe marriage is hard. I believe people make mistakes. I believe people

can want two things at once. I believe people are selfish and generous at the same time. I believe very few people want to hurt others. I believe that you can be surprised by life. I believe in happy endings."

Isabel Gillies

"It is about trying to light a candle
 instead of cursing the darkness, 
and loving your life even if  
sometimes it feels as if it
has slipped away."
Isabel Gillies


A very Happy and Merry Christmas,
Hanukkah, Boxing Day, and Kwanzaa

 to all.

Thematic Photographic - Dirty can be Beautiful

Good morning!

THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC

Our theme this week is

Dirty

"When you're older, you will realize the only thing that matters,
 the only thing, is that you had courage and honor.
 Lose those things and you won't die any quicker,
 but you'll be less than the dirt on your boots. 
You'll still be dust,
 but you'll have wasted your short time in the light."Conn Iggulden

Very often the dirty
 waters within our days
will always, hold plenty
of beautiful things.

Even when you spend your day
 on the edge of darkness 
the light always finds its way to you.
Me

"Tell me to what you pay attention 
and I will tell you who you are."
Jose Ortega y Gasset


Take time to see the little joys
 during this fast paced season around us,
Take good care of you
and thanks for being here.

Being Merry

Here's the answer to yesterday's post of where in the United States
is this?
The answer is 

Santa Catalina Island.

Also called Catalina Island, or just Catalina

(or tranquil place to visit)

it's a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California

in the gulf of Santa Catalina.

Want to see inside? Click here. 

Beautiful music right in the video?

"Without music life is a journey through a desert."

"Wherever you go becomes

 a part of you somehow."

Anita Desai

Aren't the palm trees beautiful?

Two of my favorite things found in California are,

the Bird of Paradise flower and palm trees.

Click here to see an old post I wrote about my favorite flower.

and how about all the greenery?

Not to forget the tucked away places

 for your eyes to see all there is to see.

Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends,
but is played out over and over again
in the quietest chambers, that the mind
can never break off from the journey.
Pat Conroy
"The only word for goodness is goodness
and it is not enough."
Pat Conroy

Enjoy your day, thanks for stopping by
 and take good care of you.
I'll close with one truly inspiring quote from Pat Conroy
(if you've never seen the movie or read his book
The Prince of Tides
you're missing out.)

From the Prince of Tides

Teach them the quiet words of kindness, to live beyond themselves. Urge them toward excellence, drive them toward gentleness, pull them deep into yourself, pull them upward toward manhood, but softly like an angel arranging clouds. Let your spirit move through them softly.” 
Pat Conroy

Destination Unknown

Can you guess where this is in the United States?

Three guesses. First I wish I was visiting there again.
Second it's not in Arizona. 
Third it's an island.

"Nature didn't need an operation to be beautiful. It just was."

Scott Westerfeld

Another photo for where this island is.

"There's something about arriving in new cities,

 wandering empty streets with no destination."

"I dare you to walk where you have not yet walked.

And I dare you to notice.

And that's the point.

Just walk. See.

There's a whole lot of world out there.

I dare you to see it."

Charlotte Eriksson

Okay this I Spy Santa 
is really easy.

How many can you find?

"The surest way to become Tense, Awkward and confused,

 is to develop a mind that tries too hard. One that thinks too much."

Benjamin Hoff The Tao of Pooh

Stop thinking, begin seeing.

Thanks for sharing your time by saying hello.

I hope your week is filled joy and happiness

and much sunshine!

"Wisdom, Happiness, and Courage

are not waiting somewhere out beyond

 sight at the end of a straight line; 

they're part of a continuous cycle that begins right here. 

They're not only the ending, but the beginning as well."

Benjamin Hoff The Tao of Pooh

Critters and Colors of the Rainbow

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom."
Socrates

For this week's

THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC

the theme is

Colors of the Rainbow

"Bright eyes and subtle variations of blue

by

Rainbow Veins Owl city

Vase art by Jackson for my birthday a few years ago.

"You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down."
Charlie Chaplin
and
SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

Well hello there friend!

Did you know I can sing too!

Just snacking in Alabama.

Ho! Ho! HO!

Happy Winter-time to all!

Lyra seated in the rocking chair on the right with her girl scout trip enjoying a winter celebration in Alabama.

Downtown Huntsville.

"We are all cabinets of wonder."

Brian Selznick

An evening filled with lots of wonderstruck!

Don't you just love the look of awe on a child's face? Well, actually on anyone's face, it's just lovely!

"It is a happiness to wonder;
It is a happiness to dream."

Edgar Allen Poe

"Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back."

Plato

I sure enjoy your visits,

be safe, take good care of you

and have a wonder-filled weekend!