Old Women

Some have a dislike (fear) of anything "granny". Everything is poo-poo-ed if it's too "granny".  The expression "not your granny's … (decor, car, crafts– whatever)" is touted as a good thing because to be "granny" means to be out-of-style. Well, I say poo-poo to that! Get over yourselves, youth obsessed. If you are lucky, you too will get old.

     Some of my paintings and drawings of "old women".

Reading

Watching

Shopping

Fetching blueberries

Wild Turkeys

Until about five years ago, the only turkey I had ever seen was the Thanksgiving kind.

But then those Wild Ones began to appear everywhere!

And they are wild indeed.  Scary even.  Last week I saw a poor fellow trying to keep about four of them at bay by using his bicycle as a shield.

The first time I saw them in my neighborhood was (believe it or not!) on a Thanksgiving Day.  I thought "how adorable" and "how appropriate" and got out the camera.

However, they soon got aggressive and spoiled my photographic endeavor.

I wonder why I am seeing so many of them!

I wonder how they taste.

Catholic School Education

How did the Sisters do it? ... I don't know. There were at least 50 children in each class and the Sisters rarely had a helping hand. We had folk dancing on Wednesdays taught by a regular dance instructor; I imagine that hour must have been a little touch of "heaven" for our Sister! She didn't even get recess off because there was no one else to perform yard duty.

Catholic school was the best of my education in every respect. Now that could have partially been because, at age 13, I went on to one of the two much larger public schools (dubbed Sodom and Gomorrah by Sister L, our principal) and because hormones kicked in. After 8 years of religion, rules and respect, it was strange to see students slouching in their seats when answering a question (we ALWAYS stood by our desks when speaking in class). No one in public high school could diagram a sentence the way we former Catholic school kids could. And I was particularly fortunate because Sister J and her propensity for "modern math" came along when I was in 7th grade, so I received an education in bases and square roots which not every parochial school was able to offer. I got so good that I competed in math competitions! Believe me, considering what happened in HS, that was amazing! Our class had a lot of good voices as well, and an excellent instructor, Sister A, who coaxed Latin 5-part harmony into our heads and melodiously out of our mouths. And history ... the crusades, serfdom, missions ... we learned it all with a healthy touch of secular history thrown in as well.   

If my dad had had his preference, he would have driven all his girls to the Catholic high school which was about 30 miles away. It was impossible, of course. He also had a stroke when I was 12. He could no longer drive me to YCS (Young Christian Students). I would receive my last scholarly honor pin at age 13. And on to high school where times were a changin'. I became too vain to wear my glasses. I started to smoke (quit ages ago.) I lost interest in school except for Art (Thank God for a wonderful art teacher!). Interestingly, the boys with whom I had gone to Catholic school, who were average students in grade school, really took off and excelled in high school! And many of the girls did well too, not falling into the trap that I did. The very same girl who, one year prior, had been in math competitions, had some sort of mental block about algebra in high school. There is, of course, much more to the story, but this post is to talk about Catholic school.

Some might argue that a Catholic education is not superior. I can only speak of my own experience, the care I felt and from which I benefitted. My own teen years made a difference, I admit. Whether Catholic high school would have changed anything in my education, it's hard to say because there were other factors.

I now live in a city where the Catholic grade school no longer is staffed by any Sisters.  I think the enrollment is pretty small and they have financial woes.  Sad.  Because for me it really was my best education.

Incidentally, most of my lifelong friends are from my Catholic school time. (Perhaps that is a comment on my personality more than education itself.) Soon, I will be having lunch with the two girls with me in the above illustration and with our 6th grade Sister ... what was she– 12 years old?– when she was teaching us?

Wiggle Worms

 Wiggle Worms ... Why?

More than 3,000 species of earthworm exist in the world.

Worms can have between 1-5 pairs of hearts.
(What's a "pair" of hearts, though?)

Gotta whole lotta love!

If a worm is cut in half, only the part of the body that has the head will live.

Because I'm headstrong!

Earthworms will eat almost anything that was once alive, but is now dead.

I eat dead stuff!

Worms cannot hear or see.

But we can wiggle!

 And that's why Wiggle Worms!

Worms facts from:

http://www.infobarrel.com/Top_10_facts_about_Worms

Agnus Dei

If you were ever fortunate enough to sing Latin at Mass, what version of Agnus Dei did you sing?  I have searched all of YouTube PLUS snippet after song-snippet on Amazon (and other sites) but have never heard my version!

Attached is a video of me (except you only hear me) singing the version that I remember:

I thought that it was from the St. Gregory Hymnal; however, the two versions in here don't have the "rests" before the first "Agnus Dei" and the first "miserere".  I can vividly recall Sister hitting the wall when the rests occurred, so much so, that, in my head it is a part of the music.  She was wonderfully patient teaching us some very complex, multi-harmonied songs, often in Latin.

Leave a comment and tell me about the version you sang.

Creche How-To Make a Nativity Stable

I think Nativity creches that are designed as caves are beautiful but I decided to go with a stable because my figures are antiques from Germany and I think a barn complements them.

Beautiful and decent-sized Nativity creches are expensive! Because the best ones are rustic, I decided to build my own.  It was fun to gather the "supplies": branches, twigs, eucalyptus and redwood bark ... plus some palm fronds (they were not actually "fronds" but those hard pieces below the fronds with the long, grassy tips) that fell from a huge palm tree.

Tools I used: jig-saw, hack saw (for when I didn't want to make noise) heavy-duty stapler, and a hammer. And lots of white glue!

DO click on each photo for a nice, clear, larger view!

Front View

I cut the base size of my bottom ply-board to 8" deep x 18" wide. That's the great thing ... you can make it any size you want!

I then glued and nailed (from the bottom) the rear supports (funky 1x2s).  The two side supports are 12". The center support is taller at about 14".  Cut the end of the center support at an angle (to accommodate the roof).  My center support had a hole in it which inspired me to take apart an old 15 watt lamp and insert the cord.  It would be easy to drill a hole for a light.  Make sure the bulb clears everything by an inch or so.

Onto the front.  I cut two 1" diameter branches to 12" high and glued them about a half inch back from the front. Then I glued and stapled a curved piece of strong bark to the branches.

Rear View

Here you can see how the cord is stapled down the center rear support.  The light bulb is NOT touching the front bark as it appears here!

Ignore the back twigs in these photos and just concentrate on the roof which is two pieces of masonite board (I just happened to have) the right a little wider and overlapping the left and glued in place.

I ripped and glued strips of my grassy palm tree to each side of the roof, weighed the "thatch" down with boards ... and let it dry overnight.

Next day I added bits of bark to the front and glued any loose strands of roof.

I cut and glued strips of ply-board on the base between the supports. In the back I also glued a ply-board strip towards the roof (which you can see in the third photo).  The back wall is twigs cut to fit between the ply-board strips and glued in place.  (The horizontal, twirly twigs along the back are just for looks.)  Then I added two twig rails to the sides.

I added some straw to lay in the bottom and that may be enough.  For now I'm pleased with it ... so happy it has a light!  Let me know if this has been helpful to you.

St. Patrick and the Holy Trinity

"Even the plants of the field tell about God.
The shamrock has three leaves but only one stem.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not three gods,
 but one God."     ~ St. Patrick

I think that a gif illustrates the concept plus it is fun to make.

Nativity Angel Craft

I made this little 5-1/4 inch angel from a  25¢ thrift-store doll!

Here's how:

1) Cover hair with masking tape.
Wrap lightweight cardboard around body.
Glue on lightweight cardboard wings and ribbon.

2) Cover the entire thing with gesso.
Make the back reasonably flat.

3)  Cover the whole thing with a plaster-type product;
I used Fix-All  (love that stuff!).
Put plaster in the bottom to make it flat, steady.
I stuck a curved wire in the back for hanging.

4)  Paint with acrylics!  Add a little glitter
to the headpiece and VOILA! . . .
a rustic little angel!

Mink at Mass

When I was very young, women were still wearing mink stoles with the little animal faces and paws attached.  Sunday Mass was an occasion to dress up and some women would adorn themselves with this strange item.  Kneeling behind one of these stoles and being stared at by those beady eyes was sometimes scary, sometimes fascinating and always distracting.

The Catholic faith has made me at times fearful and fascinated.  There have been distractions certainly.  For long stretches Catholicism was out-of-style for me and I ignored it except when I was frightened and prayer was the most comforting thing.

I wonder what distractions a child might have at Mass these days– anything as odd as dangling, dead animals?  Fur stoles are thankfully out-of-style (as are mandatory head-coverings for females).  Happily, I am now a less distracted Catholic.

One World, Many Stories

  Summer reading is upon us and I drew this ... sometimes a simple, literal interpretation is the best (and librarians are fond of "literal", heh, heh)!

and, of course, I just have to animate it!