Forrestine C,. Hooker. Prince Jan, St. Bernard, How a dog from the land of snow made good in the land of no snow. Garden City, N.Y., Toronto, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1921.
Belle Owen. A Prairie Winter. New York: The Outlook Company, 1903.
John Strange Winter, Frances E. Compton, Mrs. Molesworth. The Christmas Fairy. Philadelphia, H. Altemus, 1900.
I love the juxtaposition of the Christmas book title placed next to a graphic design full of fruit and flowers.
Edith Ogden Harrison. The Lady of the Snows. Illustrated by J. Allen St. John. Chicago, A.C. McClurg & co., 1912.
Avalus has sent us some curious ‘shrooms for us this Friday. The photos are from the end of October.
On Campus, I found these two circles, but no witches (These are called “Hexenringe,” lit. witches circles)
Mushy Circle, ©Avalus, all rights reserved
mushy circle 2, ©Avalus, all rights reserved
W. Crispin Sheppard. The Rambler Club’s Winter Camp. Philadelphia, The Penn publishing company, 1910.
Winter Poems by Favorite American Poets. Illustrated. Boston, Fields, Osgood, & Company, 1871.
C.B. Burleigh. All Among the Loggers or Norman Carver’s Winter in a Lumber camp. Boston, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard co., 1908.
Earlier this year VBFF sent in a chainsaw sculpture from a nearby city tour she’d taken. Today, VBFF has sent us a couple of other chainsaw made sculptures from the same visit. Most of the statues were carved in place around the community, hoping to draw shoppers to the area and promote tourism. Here’s the link to the Tree Trunk Tour in London, Ontario, if you’d like to know more about the sculptures and how they’re made.
©VBFF, all rights reserved
©VBFF, all rights reserved
Sad little Minion and his faithful dog friend, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Can we talk about Christmas decorations?
I like seeing the houses in my neighbourhood all dolled up for the holidays. I find it cheerful, especially on gloomy days like today when Jack and I are dealing with bad weather (5°c with heavy rain.) Some decorations, though, are better than others, and I might be an old grump for complaining about this, but I don’t like inflatable lawn balloons. Most of them are powered by pumps and require hydro to run, and so most people who have them only run them in the evening, which seems smart and thrifty. The trouble is that these balloon decorations turn into limp puddles of plastic that look like shit when they’re not operating, which is most of the time. I think they look sad and messy.
I don’t do a lot of decorating, but I do did have a set of LED lights built into the railings when we rebuilt the porch 2 years ago. They were connected to a wi-fi controller inside the house and were operated by an app on my phone and tablet. I say were, not are because 2 nights ago someone disconnected them from the controller and tore them off one side of my porch. They’re no good to anyone without the controller, so it’s just vandalism, and it will be expensive to repair. It isn’t the first time we’ve had things stolen from our front yard. We live near a high school, and kids will be kids. Usually, we put the nice stuff in the fenced back yard, but I never suspected they would tear apart the housing and steal a built-in LED light strip that is of no use to someone else. Our guard dog (Jack) is older now and sleeps hard. I think it’s time to invest in a home camera system and a nice big sign that says, “Smile. You’re on Camera.”
I try to live in a state of gratitude and maintain a cheerful disposition. Some days it’s more complicated than others.
This Santa isn’t connected to hydro. I think he just needs a good blow and then insert the plug to keep the air in. No daily pumping required. Good Santa.
Edith Francis Foster. Marigold’s Winter. Illustrated by the author. Boston, D. Estes & company, 1908.
I have something very special from Nightjar for this Monday morning.
We had a rainy November, in fact I can’t remember a month in the recent past when it rained so much. The rain completely flooded the fields behind our house and again, I can’t remember when this last happened. I’m told by older people that this is what November used to be like and how the fields used to look like this time of the year. Makes sense. Before “normal” and “drought” became synonymous. Today we had a bit of sun and I had to go for a walk with my camera. While taking these photos all I could think of was Caine, for reasons I don’t think I have to explain. Hopefully the photos speak for themselves. Came back home with tears in my eyes and had to share this with you all. Water is Life. ♥
Your photos are beautiful, and they also make me think about Caine. She enjoyed photographing water in its many forms. I know she would love these pictures. Thank you so much for sharing them, Nightjar.
©Nightjar,all rights reserved
Charles D.G. Roberts. In The Deep Of The Snow. New York, T. Y. Crowell & co, 1907.