November embroidery -- Give Thanks

“We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.”
     — Author Unknown

[taken in 2009|11 at Mt. Takao]

I just love the coloured leaves in Japan! They are never that red or gold in Germany! ; _ ;

Today I went sightseeing with Zukkun~ We explored the area around Hibiya and went to an art museum which was… well… let’s put it that way: Some of the artists really need to see the doctor if you ask me. The most used sentence that came up when we saw a piece was “kimochi warui…” We had lunch at a japanese style restaurant again. Tendon this time. The good thing about Zukkun is that he loves japanese food and always takes me to japanese restaurants. The bad thing is he will never let me pay the check for us both. I had to fight hard to pay at least my part of the bill… and then ended up being invited to a coffee again. *sigh*

A table in the misty autumn woods on the Blue Ridge Parkway of Virginia.
© 2009 D L Ennis, All rights reserved.

NOTE: Permission for the use of my images is granted for personal websites and blogs but is to include a link back to this site and proper credit given to me, D L Ennis. Link to be used…(Visual Thoughts http://dlennis.wordpress.com/)

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Chad’s ankle looks even more disgusting today, parts of it are near-black and the whole side of the foot is a deep ocean blue.

I went to the farmer’s market today, it was 70 out and positively spring-like. I took off my cardigan and bared my arms and it was glorious. Stopped at the super-enthusiastic lady’s consignment shop and scored a nice autumnal light sporty jacket in a dark peach [wiki says ochre]. Got groceries with D, cooked a couple times, and did more housework in general than I have in awhile. I reorganized a little bit in the kitchen, which made me feel less resentful. I found the smell[s] in the refrigerator.

Watched Horatio Hornblower with Chad and made a pair of earrings and a knotted sea-color glass necklace, which I will probably look at after I’ve become more proficient at the knotting and think it is embarrassingly amateurish. But I like it now.

I am up too late again. I don’t know why I’ve been staying up so much, I hate waking up late, especially now that the day ends so early.

I still don’t know what we are doing on Thanksgiving, but D leaves on a train tomorrow mid-day and after that we’re kind of stranded. I should have bought a just-in-case turkey breast today. It is kind of looking like Chad is not going to be up to sitting in a car for the hour-long drive to San Jose, much less driving.

I think I will take the bus across town tomorrow to go to the cafe for a bit and will walk up to the shopping center to see if there is any of that turkey left. Just in case.

Si parla spesso sui blog di personalizzare quello che indossiamo, avere il pezzo unico o raro, o semplicemente così particolare da averlo simile ma diverso a quello di qualcun’altro/a.Ecco quello che ho pensato vedendo lei:

We often talk in our blogs about personalizing what we wear, having unique or rare pieces in our wardrobes, or simply have something particular similar but different to what other people have.This is what I thought about while seeing her:

Collana con nome

Tuzi

foto: tuzi

We’re fat, can barely fly, and love to get slaughtered!

(pic is from here)

“For they know not what they do.. Let the cross draw man to you.”

Even as I am so blessed, I find myself falling into temptation.

“Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me”

God is great. we are blessed.

As fall falls away and the autumn dreams bask in Death’s eternal rays

the foliage drifts and skirts along fall’s only greenery, across the pavement and through the fields, cut and dried.

And there we stand, naked and alone. Bare for all to see.

And the summer days have died. And we sit and seethe.

Waiting for someone to love us, and birth us a new spring, mend our broken being.

-Taylor Patrick Smith

Autumn in rural Alberta is immensity amplified.  Big sky and expanse of farmland is the main scenery, something what W. O. Mitchell describes as “the least common denominator of nature… land and sky.”

The air is crisp, fresh, and dry.  Colors are simple:  Big blue sky, golden harvest, even just hay rolled up in bales.  Farming against the snow-capped Rockies, rustic, serene, rejuvenating, harmonious fusion of nature and human endeavor.

Trees as windbreaks in the summer, nature’s sculpture in the fall.  So the leaves are gone, but only then can we see the beauty of the bare branches, like dancers celebrating the changing of the seasons.

The solitary figure in the field… en masse.

“Think I’ll go out to Alberta,
Weather’s good there in the fall.
Got some friends that I can go to working for…”

For some inexplicable reasons, as I’m posting these photos, a flood of nostalgia whirls up in me.  The melodies and lyrics of those songs and singers that we can claim our own keep filling my mind all day. Not too many up-and-coming like to hang around here, since all the fame and glory one seeks is down south.

But these remain our own: Gordon Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia Tyson, Neil Young… and songs about Alberta, about heading west to seek a new life, or to escape from the pain of lost love.  Maybe the wide open country, big blue sky and wide expanse of land do have their healing powers.

And memories, forever clear, keep us rooted… here’s home.

Sweetiegirlz is gone packing….for a lil bit.  I just wanted to wish everyone who will be visiting with family, dining with family, dining without family, and otherwise  partaking in the annual thanksgiving feast: 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! 

  I have so much to be thankful for and I know you do too.   i will have some great pictures to bring back to you all, and I am thankful that I am seeing my parents for the first time in 12 years, my brother and his family for the first time in 7 years. 

~Cheers!  SG

Today I am very happy to show you a few season fitting items of Miamai.
First i will start with the Abigail Shirt.

This shirt is an amazing multi usable piece of clothing. You can wear it as a casual top to a stylish jeans or you can addit to a classy skirt. Nice great made folds give the top a fresh look. If you take a look at the back you can see a nice detail of this shirt. The folds are going round from the front to the back and make the upper part of the back. The you have a sweet free space so that you can see the amazing back of a lady . The gloves, who are also included are repeating the filds on the seam! This shirt with the gloves give all outfits a precious touch!

Up next we have the Cydonia Pants.

This pants are something special. On the first view you see only pants. If you take a closer look your eyes be catched by the amazing leg parts. 4 attachment points are needed for this awsome designed leg parts. Ruffles and little lines with ribbons give this pants the special look. The pants layer it self has a great made texture and the belt with the same great texture matches perfect. This pants are a must have for this season!

Now lets get some color in the grey and dark days with the Mary Shirt of Miamai.

This pullover is a real highlight and perfect for the days getting colder more and more. What I liked so much was, that you don’t have a plain textured pullover only broken through folds. This pullover shows up with a nice basic color broken through shadows and light parts. The texture is made with an eye for the detail and with love for something special as we know it for all Miamai designs.

Take a look at the attachments. On each hand you have a sleeve that leads amazing from the end of the top shirt layer to the end of the pullover. My interst was taken mostly by the neckpart. The big roll collar is my personal favourite part on this pullover. It reminds me of cozy feelings when I hide my chin and neck  while I was standing at the window and looked out while I watched the first snowflakes falling down.

Details:
Pic1: Miamai – Abigail Shirt/charcoal
Pic2: Miamai – Cydonia Pants/brown
Pic3: Miamai – Mary Shirt/purple
Pic4: Miamai – Mary Shirt/red

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Today I am very happy to show you a few season fitting items of Miamai.
First i will start with the Abigail Shirt.

This shirt is an amazing multi usable piece of clothing. You can wear it as a casual top to a stylish jeans or you can addit to a classy skirt. Nice great made folds give the top a fresh look. If you take a look at the back you can see a nice detail of this shirt. The folds are going round from the front to the back and make the upper part of the back. The you have a sweet free space so that you can see the amazing back of a lady . The gloves, who are also included are repeating the filds on the seam! This shirt with the gloves give all outfits a precious touch!

Up next we have the Cydonia Pants.

This pants are something special. On the first view you see only pants. If you take a closer look your eyes be catched by the amazing leg parts. 4 attachment points are needed for this awsome designed leg parts. Ruffles and little lines with ribbons give this pants the special look. The pants layer it self has a great made texture and the belt with the same great texture matches perfect. This pants are a must have for this season!

Now lets get some color in the grey and dark days with the Mary Shirt of Miamai.

This pullover is a real highlight and perfect for the days getting colder more and more. What I liked so much was, that you don’t have a plain textured pullover only broken through folds. This pullover shows up with a nice basic color broken through shadows and light parts. The texture is made with an eye for the detail and with love for something special as we know it for all Miamai designs.

Take a look at the attachments. On each hand you have a sleeve that leads amazing from the end of the top shirt layer to the end of the pullover. My interst was taken mostly by the neckpart. The big roll collar is my personal favourite part on this pullover. It reminds me of cozy feelings when I hide my chin and neck  while I was standing at the window and looked out while I watched the first snowflakes falling down.

Details:
Pic1: Miamai – Abigail Shirt/charcoal
Pic2: Miamai – Cydonia Pants/brown
Pic3: Miamai – Mary Shirt/purple
Pic4: Miamai – Mary Shirt/red

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Some years ago, I began working on my own version of the Daodejing (certainly I do not claim to having any substantial knowledge of classical Chinese!  I had several other translations and other resources I was using, making it effectively a “version” rather than a “translation”).  The very first line of the first chapter of the Daodejing has an interesting word: ch’ang. A few samplings of how this first line is typically translated:

The Tao that cannot be told is not the eternal Tao. [Gia-Fu Feng and English]

The way that becomes a way
is not the Immortal Way. [Red Pine]

The Way that can be told of is not an unvarying way… [Waley]

The word ch’ang is typically translated into English as “eternal,” “immortal,” “everlasting”—something along those lines.  But  as I dug around various books and internet resources, I discovered that the word also can mean “everyday,” in the sense of “ordinary”—that is to say, “the norm.”  Personally, I thought “eternal” or “immortal” sounded far too abstract for the down-to-earth philosophy of the Daodejing.  If the way is so ordinary yet ever-present, why make it sound so elevated?  And so in my own version of the Daodejing the first line went like this:

the way prescribed is not the everyday way

If anything, haiku also is about the ordinary, the everyday.  I have been thinking more and more of haiku as a form of thanksgiving.  How can one be thankful for those simple things that we too often fail to notice every day?  The best haiku focus on those very things.  And so, with Thanksgiving coming up in the U.S., I thought this poem by Issa being  appropriate:

A good world,

dew-drops fall

by ones, by twos.

~ ~ ~

Kobayashi Issa, Lucien Stryk (translator), Dumpling Field: Haiku of Issa, Athens: Swallow Press, 1991, pg. 55.

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]]> http://saaaaam.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/birds-on-quiet-wires/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:30:29 +0000 Samantha http://saaaaam.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/birds-on-quiet-wires/

I look back over the past year and it melds easily into the year prior.  I look at photos of Samuel when we first moved here to Salem, in 2007.  He was a baby, bald and beautiful and quickly learning how to walk and take over my heart.

I see the faithfulness of my God in our lives.  His protection, His grace, His love and abiding mercy blow me away . . . even when I prove so unfaithful, He still loves me . . . still accepts me back with loving arms.

Sometimes I lose focus of the good and zero in on the negative.  I find myself pitying my position and lack of moola that the school regime has left us in until Justin is done.  But, in reality, we are on the best ride ever!  My husband is not stuck in a wood mill . . . but is persueing, oh so diligently, a better future for himself and our family.

My boys are growing robust and inquisitive . . . full of life and questions.  I don’t dare take credit for their well-being . . . that thanks goes to God and His amazing grace.

So, here I am, standing on the brink of another Thanksgiving holiday and I’m in tears with gratitude to God and the graciousness of family and friends that has, and is, seeing us through this era of our lives.  I, everyday, learn to be more generous . . . more forgiving . . . more willing to give the benefit of the doubt; slower to judge.  And that is due to the example thats I’ve witnessed towards us.

Thank you, God!

Thankful to family and friends . . . you know who you are!

God bless your holiday and weekend spent with family and friends!!

It’s been a long week with no photographs… and the flu arrived at my house on Sunday. Sunday and Monday were absolutely beautiful days and it would have been great to get out and enjoy, but maybe there will be another 60 degree day or two.

Over the river and through the woods… back after Thanksgiving!!

Sunrise on Wetlands and Geese

After a frustrating weekend of mostly rain, intermixed with the false hopes of brief clearings, I finally got out Monday morning to my local wildlife refuge for some photography and to clear out the staleness in my lungs and head. I also wanted to try out my new Wimberley tripod head before leaving for Costa Rica this weekend. I was even blessed with a sunrise when I arrived. There is not enough water yet for a great reflection, but at least the Dusky Canada geese obliged me by blasting off once I got my gear all set up (they usually choose to go while it is still dark and I’m not ready yet). I am starting to hear reports back from Bosque del Apache in New Mexico where this kind of shot is a ho-hum, daily thing this time of year and was starting to feel kind of left out, so this helped.

Sunrise on Baskett Slough NWR

I was really starting to love the clouds, so once the geese cleared out of the damned way I switched to vertical to get the clouds in the shot. Interestingly, this file had a lot of color artifact in the sky when I converted the RAW file in Adobe Camera Raw, so I started over and converted it in Capture NX2 and there was no problem.

Black-tail Buck

When the sunrise was over I headed up a trail to try to find a forked horn buck I’d been seeing earlier in the fall. I found this three-point, instead. He apparently drove the forked horn off because I never found him. This guy was a wee bit nervous, but didn’t want to leave the ladies he has been courting so had to tolerate me because the does and fawns all know me (HIM again!) and won’t even move off the trail to let me by half the time. I was cursing the oak branch above him until I saw that it was out of focus enough to actually look very painterly. I love the pastel background!  What a great way to spend a Monday morning! Maybe that new Wimberley head has some kind of good karma in it.

The following six haiku were published at The Akita International Haiku Network on 31 October 2009.  Hidenora Hiruta has kindly translated them into Japanese as well:

pieces of sky―

autumn drizzling

in puddles

千切れ空秋滴るる水たまり

chigire zora  aki shitataruru  mizu tamari

heavy fog―

from pines, sounds

of dew dripping

霧濃ひし松樹の滴露の音

kiiri koishi  shouju no shizuku  tsuyu no oto

night shadows―

a lone cricket chirps,

then silence

夜更けるこおろぎ独り静寂へ

yoru fukeru  koorogi hitori  seijaku e

moonlit sky―

quivering crepe myrtles

and their shadows

月光に振るえる影やサルスベリ

gekkou ni  furueru kage ya  sarusuberi

not one word

whispered―

an acorn

囁きの一言も無しドングリか

sasayaki no  ichigon mo nashi  donguri ka

autumn daybreak―

sunlight blazing through

maple leaves

秋の明け紅葉眩む日の光

akino ake  momijiba kuramu  hi no hikari

A Homegrown Life creates a ‘Give Thanks’ banner using items found in nature. like sticks, leaves, pine cone pieces and such.

photo, A Homegrown Life

I know Halloween is over but you still can have fun making gourds into cute characters. Family Fun gives you ideas and shows you how.

Family fun encourages you to pick up fun things from nature walks and turn them into your next craft. Like these Technicolor Acorns made from empty acorn caps.