The Death Of A Lamp Shade...

Times speeds by and the cold weather has arrived.  I am not finished nor do I see an end in sight.  I think I may just always work at endless jobs and have senseless accidents.

I have often teased Hubby about his inability to navigate the dark house.  I did, in the past, move through the house in the darkness almost as quickly as daylight.  Not so much now.  It has nothing to do with my rearrangement of every piece of furniture in this house.  It has nothing to do with my congestion.  I think my internal GPS has died.

I get up several times during the night when I'm supposed to be sleeping.  I get a drink, hit the bathroom, get some lotion...there's always a valid reason I am up wandering.  Until recently this was no problem, if I wasn't sure where I was I could touch something and know exactly where I was at any location in this house.

Now, I've had to eat my words.  All that teasing of Hubby has come back to bite  haunt me.  I woke and for some reason got turned around and totally destroyed my lamp shade beside my bed.  Only when the shade fell to the floor did I realize I was just beside my bed.

Wally World to the rescue.  I purchased four lampshades since I had destroyed one I thought it was time to replace many.

We are wheeling out through the parking lot, Hubby is helpfully pushing the cart with lamp shades on top.  They fall.  Hubby is slow in reacting and he runs the shopping cart into them.  They hang, they drag before he can stop.  A women witnesses this and asked kindly if they are broken and I reply, one is.  Only another home improvement women would know or even care to enquire.   She stands there with a sympathetic look on her face as Hubby drives on while I carry the lamp shades.

New shades have been installed with the damage to the back side.

A brand spanking new flash light sits on my night table for my nightly trips.

A Halloweensie Contest...

Join the fun with Susanna Leonard Hill, children's author.

THE WEENSIE WITCH

Alone stood the witch
Other days of the year
But on Halloween
She showed no fear.

She mounted her broomstick
Kicked it in low gear
Her holiday began
Filled with cheer.

The sidewalks were filled
Goblins and ghosts
Ninjas and pumpkins
And a bat by the post.

She glided through
Close to the ground
She wanted to fit in
Her identity not found.

Down the sidewalks
Up the stairs
Children running
Everywhere.

“Thank you” echoed
Throughout the night
The candy-filled bags
Held very tight.

The young witch was shy
Candy smelled sweet
With down cast eyes
She whispered, “Trick or Treat”.

The Mag 141

Time to flex those talented muscles and write one for The Mag at Magpie Tales.

In the rain wrapping his coat

About her

The loving gesture and

Words won her heart

In the rain umbrella forgotten

The icy fingers

Soaked them

Bonded them.

Making a child took two

And a lifetime

The kiss celebrated

This promise in the rain.

My Baby's Grown Up...

I send you flowers,

Happy Birthday wishes,

and love

from everyone At The Farm.

May your new year be the best ever.

Autumn Is A Pretty Lady...

with orange, yellow, and red in her hair.

I need not look out my window. 

I can hear her arriving.  The breeze she makes in this last moment of summer brings sound and a climatic closure.  I hear the leaves dancing to the ground and the air cools around Lady Autumn.

It is quiet in the house.  The electronic drone of  humandom has lulled because I am alone.  The absence of noise and the rhythm of this season feels like a good blues song stirring my blood.

Yes, Autumn is a pretty lady.  As the air cools I hear the tat, tat, tat of a light rain and know that Winter soon will follow.

Autumn, you are one fine lady bearing the fruits of Summer.  The cooling air no longer smothers me like the hot arms of Sister Summer.  Oh, Summer will flirt with me some more but the power of her is waning to give Autumn a turn to shine.

She has relaxed me from a long day of work and equally hectic evening of people heading out into the night. 

I enjoy when Autumn visits.  I will soon need protection against her cooling breath but for now I rise only to retrieve my sweater.   I wrap myself comfortably and settle in to listen to her music.

Saturday Centus 131...And Then There Were None

Welcome to week ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-ONE of Saturday Centus with Jenny Matlock.

She says she's obsessed with fall.  I think we are all ready for cool relief from this forge hot Summer we have experienced. 

Ms Jenny says, "The prompt this week is the picture above.   I promise next week I will come up with a dastardly written prompt.  Number of words: EXACTLY 100 words.
Style of writing: Any  The regular restrictions apply: PG, no splitting of the prompt, play nicely and visit the other entries, any style or genre of writing you prefer. Please display my link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.


Five little pumpkins
Sat on a wall
They clung carefully
So’s not to fall.

In came a family
To garden so fair
Looking for Pumpkins
Oh, look there!

A boy picked one
And in his mind he saw
A Jack ‘O Lantern
Spooky enough to scare them all..

The second family boasted
Best carvers under the sun
They chose three
Then there was one.

The afternoon was slow
People chose different things
Like tall corn stalks
And Halloweenie wings.

The last one sadly sat
Through the setting sun
Heard a voice say, I want pie
And then there were none.

In God We Trust

"In GOD We Trust"
6 MILLION HITS

OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY MADE THIS AND IT JUST CAME OUT 4 DAYS AGO AND HAS HAD 6 MILLION HITS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=JVAhr4hZDJE&vq=medium#t=19*
Thank you Oklahoma .

I hope 100 million watch this! Oklahoma State University is located at Stillwater , Oklahoma . This is without a doubt the best video that has come out and apparently 6 Million others think so too because there have been 6 million hits in 4 days. Please watch it again and again and send it on to others. I believe the pendulum has started to swing so let's keep it going.
*This is very well done.*

OUR THANKS GOES OUT TO THE GREAT OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY FOR THIS OUTSTANDING            JOB.

 

Update On My Babies...

Many of you may remember I used to have horses.  It was a dream all my life and finally it was true.  There are many posts that talk of them, many pictures, but this one was the most poignant, the most painful, the one I was proudest of and the most sad about.

I heard a rumor that my, no longer mine, horses had been sold.  I panicked, I deliberated, I fumed. 

I finally called the ranch to see if it were true. 

Nope, not sold just promoted.  They have gone to another facility within the organization where only the really trained horses go. 

My beautiful gentle babies have moved to The Big Barn, The Show Barn, The Completely Horse Crazy kid place.  An indoor arena, a big barn and two outdoor arenas where they are brushed, coddled, petted, ridden and loved every moment of every day. They are continuing to help children learn how to love and be responsible for another living creature.

This was the gift I wanted to give when I gave up my dream.  I love you, my babies, I still miss you.

Live long and love, my beauties.

Thursday's Things In A Row...

Around the house for rows today.

Not much choice what can I say? 

A trio of candles standing tall

In hand carved ashtrays against the wall

A shelf dedicated to King

Yep, I've read everything.

Rocks, fossils, petrified wood

All make the fireplace look pretty good.

My style is different.

It's true I know.

I show things I love

When I create my rows.

 

Join the fun

at A View From The Edge.

Poetry Jam...Throw-A-Way Dogs and Roses

Connecting to Poetry Jam this week.  I was nine hours late last week but wrote a poem anyway.  I do not claim to be a poet but hey, gotta give it a try.  For those who know me, I didn't murder anyone this week.

Love is the subject.  What is our passion is the question.  The answer is competely up to us.

I LOVE

Throw-away-dogs

Drinking from my water garden

At daybreak

Their eyes showing

With uncertainy

 Removed and forgotten

 They are finally home.

Pink roses

In the dark

 Holding fragrant memories

That tickle your nose

And take you back

To Grandma.

Dining Room

Well, here we go again.  Things just haven't been lining up for me lately.  Thank you, dear Blogspot. Topping my dining room table are the half price bargains I found at Pier 1.  I love that store!



The Dining Room is large in the old farm house.  The walls are natural pine, grown, cut, milled and seasoned here At The Farm.  It is a large room as dining rooms go and has plenty of room for the extras I like to have in here like Granny Pruett's pump organ and the huge table Mom and Dad had made out of red cedar and black walnut.  I don't think I could ever part with these.

My added decorations here are rather different too.  On the organ are three sad irons from the family, stones, old tools and a Shirley Temple pitcher from Hubby's parents, a cow bell, pictures, an old piano lamp and some other odd and ends.

This is the wall where the organ used to set.  I have simplified the decorations.  The chest is old and contains some essentials and holds a favorite statue. The iron skillets are for use, the tiniest is my cornbread skillet.  The old framed print a gift from a friend.  In the fifties you received a free canvas print when you filled up your car in Georgia.

Pull up a bar stool by this dog and you can eat, watch me cook or just enjoy good conversation.

 Every thing is not old. This statue by Pets with Personality stands beside the family's old kraut slicer.

We must not forget those who first lived here.  I honor them with their treasures displayed under glass on top of an old wooden barrel.

I have one on each side of the organ.

These are not all the artifacts I have found

but they are the most recent.

I think, I hope, the ancestors would approve but that is not why I have these things.  They feel like a part of me.  A home should be to comfort you. These Things, although only things, do just that.  A smell, a sound, a texture and my family lives once more.  All the generations come together and we are one At The Farm.

A New Discovery...Poetry Jam

I found a new challenge...I'm really challenged every day but I mean a creative challenge.  I need them you know because I head in many directions with my words.
Sometimes they are loud, sometimes soft but I keep 'em comin'.  I hope you're never bored here.
The new playground I just discovered has many participants.  This week's Poetry Jam is Shadows.

The mushroom cast a shadow

In early morning sun

Little did it know by Eve

Evil would be done.

The lady picked so carefully

The edible with the bad

No one would suspect her

For the death of the loathsome cad.

Carefully cleaning all the fungi

She prepared a meal

It was difficult

Her wounds were not yet healed.

The Cad had killed her husband

Her soul mate for life

The selfish little monster

Wanted her for his wife.

The lady had no choice

And stayed to protect her child

But the things that happened

Were absolutely wild.

She sliced and diced

The morsels she'd chosen

Battered and cooked them right

Fresh and not frozen.

With the child asleep

Fires carefully tended

They sat down to dine

One bite and his life ended.

No remorse did she display

Bruises unhealed from the night before

They came to take her away

She sweetly smiled as he lay on the floor.

They declared self defense

her daughter they didn't take her

Eve got a good job

She's the town's new baker.



I Like Funky...

I like color, unique items, historical items and comfort.  This is my stopping spot.  Throw my purse on Granny's old chair from the drugstore/soda fountain closed umpteen years ago.  Keys and loose things go in the tray on the small chest.  Shoes stop here too.  Notice my lime green flip flops, the trash I should have emptied and a concrete lawn statue named after a dear friend.  I must decide how to hide that cord.

I like color.  One of my paintings along with a cobbler's stool.

One side of the fireplace mantle holds a toy from a dear friend

and a lantern from generations past.

I

I enjoy lining things up

I enjoy lines

The Blogger alignment gods did not listen to me today.

I enjoy repurposing items.  This is a painted sewing machine table used for my tv stand and underneath is a black walnut table made by Dad.

 

As the commercial says, "How you like me now?"



Life At The Farm...The Wet Look

Glad to see you Rain.  Really been missing your visits this year.

Next Spring and Summer would you please come more often?

The Mag 140...The Birth

Oh, Tess, Tess, Tess.  You  have outdone yourself with this challenge.  So many directions I could go from here.  I never read the others until after I've posted mine.  It's amazing the creative variety that is birthed from the viewing of a single image.

Join the challenge, follow directions and create a masterpiece of words for Magpie Tales.

THE BIRTH

Thomas, Benjamin and John assigned to create the image that must say it all.  Much discussion and many drinks drove the creators to the brink.  Committees later years past due they chose this seal for me and you.

Gracing our money is The Eye of Providence, the all seeing eye beaming above an unfinished pyramid.  "Favor our undertakings" engraved on the top and "New Order of the Ages" inscribed below.

Oh, the time spent by generations reading conspiracy and danger into a simple doodle thrown together by a few drinking men. 

The Birth Of A Doodle

For years they doodled

All through the nights they drew

What symbol for the nation

What sign for me and you

John, Ben, and Tom were stumped

They wanted a symbol to say

How great the new nation

today tomorrow and yesterday

A nation unfinished as the pyramid

With the Eye watching we will not fail

Hey, how about New World Order

As they sipped their ale

We'll never know the meaning

No matter how we try

The secret left the world with them

Like all the men before they died.

Saturday Centus 130-Art For Inspiration

Ms Jenny is getting into the swing for Halloween.  Her prompt this week is pictorial.  PROMPT: 100 words based in this bizarre picture  WORD COUNT: Not to exceed 100  STYLE OF WRITING:  Any
PICTURES:  Any additional

Let's scare up some words for Ms Jenny.  Join the fun and stop by Saturday Centus to read the creative contributions.

Death By Chocolate  

Driving until my eyes wouldn’t stay open I stopped at a motel for the night. Entering my room I tried to settle in but I couldn’t shake that uneasy feeling that I was being watched.

I checked then rechecked the lock, the deadbolt. No one was getting into my room.

In my rush to leave I hadn’t eaten so I ordered something chocolate, my cure for anything.

“Room Service!” was muffled by the thickness of the door. Through the peep hole I saw the eye.  No more chocolate pie for me I thought as the door crashed to the floor.

The New Room...

I thought I was just gonna put the finishing touches on my new pink, uh, Plum room but it couldn't be that easy for the person who is always messing up.  Nope, got my regular box springs and mattress, slats laid out, and raised the bed six inches so I could accommodate a single drawer unit under the bed.  Piece of cake.  That's what I thought. 

Then I try to get it to fit.  Here's what happened.  Nice.  I try everything in the world I can think to get it to fit and came to the conclusion that this bed frame is so old it must be smaller than a standard.  Not so.  It finally hit me to USE THE INTERNET to get the correct dimensions and check that against the bed frame.

As you can see my wonderful idea of stacking books to raise the bed didn't work as I was trying to force  a QUEEN size mattress into a regular bed frame!  Yep, that's right I bought a queen size mattress for a regular bed! 

In this case size DOES matter.  Won't be getting an Einstein Award this week. AND to top that off blogger is freezing and giving me the blue circle dance.  Maybe it's a sign I should go pick up walnuts. 

It's Thursday's Things In A Row Time...

 Time again for me to roam

Off to the capitol but not alone.
Rows of buildings
Rows of cars
This far from home is just too far!

Rows of brick

Rows of glass

Car bridges, train bridges

Buildings in  a row.

This bad sister left Marcy at the doc's

And shopping I did go.

I was here

and here

Lowe's, Home Depot,

Micheal's and Pier One.

Didn't take long to get my looking done.

Back to the Doc

Marcy has been freed

For checkups closer to home.

Yippee!

For more visit Pat at A View From The Edge.

Political Opinion...

"Oh what a tangled web we weave

When first we practice to deceive."

After more than two hundred years

this line is still true.

I Got Clay!

As I ran a short errand yesterday I had a nice surprise coming home.

A grader man improving our road.

It always washes here so they are building the road up

and recutting drainage to divert the water.

Hopefully that will work.

Recutting the ditches and reshaping the road.

It's great. 

I suppose not many people get as excited about red clay as I do.

When it dries it will be a nice firm road.

Monday Afternoon....

and I'm just now posting!  What in the world is wrong with me?  Wellll, hold onto your hats 'cause this is really scary.  I have no idea what's happened.

I've been deep cleaning for three days!

I have cleaners and rags to prove it.

I have an empty sink which is a rarity with a teenager and a man in the house.  This handy dandy item from Marcy helps you use those tiny slivers of hand soap.  Place in a jar, add water, instant liquid soap.  No molds to shape the soap, no recipes, no cooking in a big black kettle over an open fire.  Just soap and water with a dispenser.  Easy Peasy!  

It's that time of year that I TRY to clean/oil the wooden walls. I have been behind on jobs just because of life in general or I've been lazy, you choose.  For every one thing you move it requires moving something else.  Easel, paints and play canvas are not supposedto be here!  Back to the craft room with you.

I did get outside once to view sunrise through the colorful trees.  I believe fall is here.  I have to get back to work.  Got another room to paint. Alignment for Blogger is not cooperating.  Can't be lolly gagging around.

...miles to go before I sleep.