Gone From My Sight

I am standing by the seashore.

A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze

and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength,

and I stand and watch

until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud

just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, ‘There she goes!

Gone where? Gone from my sight – that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar

as she was when she left my side

and just as able to bear her load of living freight

to the places of destination.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says,

‘There she goes! ‘ ,

there are other eyes watching her coming,

and other voices ready to take up the glad shout :

‘Here she comes!’

Henry Van Dyke, 19th century

via Kaari Meng in relation to the Sandy Hook tragedy

Elvis Has Been Spotted in Memphis

My sweet friend and her children, who live in Memphis, Tennessee, have been having lots of fun with "Elvis" the elf. He often finds himself in sticky situations.

Today I am thankful for...
Doctors
cozy beds
daughter home from school
Inez


I need to...
de-clutter, simplify
finish some project's I started


For Christmas, I want...
to make it more about Jesus than gifts
simplify
to sit and visit with my family members

Blackstock and His Lists

Blackstock's Collections:

The Drawings of an Artistic Savant

Gregory L. Blackstock is autistic and an artistic savant. He creates visual lists of everything from wasps to hats to emergency vehicles to noisemakers. His art is stirring in its detail and inspiring in its simple beauty.

Blackstock was a pot washer for twenty-five years and supplemented his income by playing the accordion on street corners. He began making pictorial lists at age forty and had his first gallery exhibition in 2004.

This is one book I have enjoyed picking up at different times and enjoyed reading the lists and studying the drawings. Highly educational with a touch of whimsy. These drawings had to have taken a lot of research and I imagine Mr. Blackstock is a very smart man. I have definitely learned from him.

The Return of the Moosepath League

Hooray! The Marvelous Moosepath League is back!

Moss Farm, or the Mysterious Missives of the Moosepath League!
by Van Reid

     "Under the wise and jovial leadership of their chairman Mister Tobias Walton and the shrewd and gallant Sundry Moss, this 19th century gentlemen’s club from Portland, Maine has foiled pirates and kidnappers, joined a hobo army to save a burning village, bumped into the supernatural, and successfully treated a depressed pig!

     Return, now, to the early days of the club as (without benefit of their leader and his aide-de-camp) it becomes the self-imposed duty of Ephram, Eagleton, and Thump to deliver a letter to Walter! It is a mission of surprising complication and befuddlement, made no less so by Mrs. Actonia Mint, whose best friends are invisible to the world and whose family (the mystery-prone Seams) is only one embarrassment away from having her committed.

     Mister Walton, meanwhile, travels to Sundry’s homestead, where folks prove, by turns, warm and memorable, eccentric and irascible. The travelers deal with romantic entanglements and get wind of a ghostly visitation, even as the Members of the Club climb up and down Portland’s social ladder in their valiant attempt to find Walter!

     As ever, the Moosepath League is in the fore!"

www.moosepath.com to order

Cook's Favorites

Shock! I know, I know. It has been forever! Burn out and being busy are my excuses.

I have been traveling so much that when I am home, I am ready to cook. I LOVE Jacques Pepin! Next to Julia Child, he is my favorite. I have watched all his shows in the past. He has had teaching shows with Julia, by himself and even with his daughter. I purchased his newest cookbook back in May and have been saving it until recently. I am like my mom in that I love to read cookbooks! We may not cook anything out of them, but we will read, tab, make menus and pour through them. It is very relaxing. This one has 700 of his favorites and Monsieur Pepin has a DVD in the back of this cookbook that is AMAZING! I want to get a DVD player to put in my kitchen so I can watch it over and over again while I cook. He teaches the basics of good French cooking. Simple, short and to the point. I love this book!

 The other book that I have been enjoying and have just read the first five chapters is Tamar Adler's The Everlasting Meal, Cooking with Economy and Grace. The two books are very similar. Both encourage to use what you have in your refrigerator, use good ingredients and enjoy yourself while you  cook it.

Both are excellent.

French General Weekend In California

Kaari Mengs darling shop French General

The Marvelous Molly Meng grandstanding. 

Molly Meng, Me, Kaari Meng and Kick Meng. Kaari's sister and sweet mother.

Busy creators

Jackie and Eileen from Phoenix, Arizona

Pam Garrison's  Sampler

My little buddy Cathy Mogull with me. We were in France together.

Pam Garrison and Charlotte Lyons class on sailor valentines.

Kaari's collection of vintage beads.

Vintage linens and quilting fabrics.

I had a lovely time visiting with the friends I went to France in June 2011 once again. The classes were wonderful and taught by some amazing teachers. Kaari taught a bracelet class, Molly taught a folded book class, Charlotte Lyons and Pam Garrison taught a sailors valentine patchwork class, Michelle Jorgensen taught a shadow box collage class and Anna Corba taught a beeswax coated collage book. Kaari is as gracious and lovely as ever. This March she has her own French General line coming out at Michael's, so be sure and check it out. It is a tasteful paper line based on many of her French discoveries. This is a huge opportunity for Kaari and she has worked very hard making sure each piece was as it should be. Congratulations Kaari! Thank you for a memorable weekend!

Book Snob

"I don't really trust a person who doesn't read." -Lisa Borgnes Giamonti


One of my favorite blogs in the blogosphere is Lisa Borgnes Giamonti's 'A Bloomsbury Life'.
She was writing about the first thing she does when she visits a persons home is to look at their books. I am the same way. I automatically gravitate to their bookcase. It might be a cookbook in the kitchen or just a book that is sitting on a table. If I don't see a book, I am suspicious and do not feel a connection. I am lost for words. (pun intended) Cold.

You can tell so much about a person by the books he or she reads or by the lack of books.

I feel a warmth in my heart when I see a Bible sitting on a night table. If you want to learn an amazing Story, read the Bible. When I visit a friends home for dinner and look up and see on a shelf Glady Taber, Tasha Tudor or a book about the Cotswolds, I relax a little more. I know I have found a kindred spirit.

The new e-readers are great for travel and are very handy, but I like to share my books, too. You can not share your e-reader like you can an old copy of Elizabeth Goudges The Middle Window or D'Aulares Greek Myths. It's how I discovered so many of my favorite authors. Because of a friend sharing her books, I learned about Elizabeth Prentiss and John Buchan.

Are there others out there who feel the same way? I guess I am a sort of profiler. I can tell a lot about the person by the books he or she reads or doesn't read. Does that make me a book snob? Gladly so.