Five Equine Shares...

Today, I am going to share five random things about the equine connections I have had, and I will be contributing not only to Willy Nilly if it's back, but also to Eileen's Saturday's Critters with this one:

1. When I was young I wanted a horse so badly, but my Dad was in the Navy and we moved a lot, and often lived in base housing, plus we didn't have extra money for a pet of that size.  Needless to say, my dream was never realized.  I have some great memories of horses, however, from my childhood. I had a few chances to ride, and be around horses and it always meant a lot to me.

My siblings, however, after my Dad retired from the Navy and moved back to Alabama, became the owners of several ponies.  I wasn't jealous of their good fortune.  I was already married and living away from them at this point.  I was just happy for them.  They also owned a horse at one time named Charlie.  My hubby and I rode Charlie a few times when we were there visiting. I still love horses, as I suppose all girls and women do, and I always will but I have moved on....

My youngest sister had just been thrown, saddle and all.  She was NOT happy! Her little friend looks pretty amused, though. :-)

2. When we lived in a rental house on a ranch in Texas, the owner had cattle and horses and occasionally a mule.  This particular mule I became fond of, and named "Baby." But he didn't stick around long.

 3. When our grandson was small, he lived for a short time in a cabin with his Mom and the owner there had a donkey who attached himself to our grandson and would bray at the gate if we had it closed and locked, wanting to see our little "Christopher Robin" so he could be "Eyeore."

4.  The friends who so kindly took care of our wonderful dog Penny right before she died also had a sweet horse named King.

5.  I don't see horses often in Tucson, though we do have friends who own horses who live an hour away (I just don't have any photos of them yet) but when we went to Madera Canyon almost a year and a half ago and came back through the Sonoita wine area, we saw these horses near one of the wineries.

That's another interesting fact about Southern Arizona that you may not have known...there are wineries!  And that area reminded me a lot of parts of California where wineries abound.  They are at a higher elevation than we are here in Tucson too.

Blackeyed Peas and Other Things

This is a continuation of last week's Willy Nilly Friday Five in many ways, leaving Christmas behind and moving into the new year.  Check out Tanya's blog for more great stuff...and come on and join us!

1.  First, the blackeyed peas.  I fought getting back on facebook for three and a half years, but Mom talked me into it.  I don't check it too often, but hey, there are times when it's good to catch up.  And on New Year's eve people started asking each other about whether or not they were going to have blackeyed peas for good luck on the first day of the new year.  It's a Southern tradition.  In fact, it's actually supposed to be blackeyed peas and hog jowl.  But anyway blackeyed peas are sometimes a little hard to find here in Tucson (as well as sometimes sweet potatoes).  I know it's because this isn't the South where such things are pretty common.  I was amazed when I found little plastic packages of fresh blackeyed peas for sale, so I bought some to have with our pork chops for New Years.  It wasn't until I started opening the containers that I noticed, just under the lid....

2.  Secondly, my birthday.  It's January 2nd but we have started celebrating my birthday on my husband's on the 31st as a joint venture.  January 2nd is just too soon after Christmas!  I got calls to wish me a lovely day, and I appreciated them greatly, and back on facebook there were many birthday wishes, which made me so happy!  I am 63 now.  I have had such a great 63 years...there is MUCH to be thankful for.  Everything hasn't always been smooth, but that's the way life is.  We get stronger and we learn from our mistakes, and we appreciate the good because we have seen the bad.  I like to think that, though my body has greatly slowed and is much creakier now, that I am ascending into the wisdom stage of old age!  :-)  Here I am as a little one with my Dad (the world has changed so much since the early 50s!) ....

Love Dad's rolled up jeans and loafers

3.  Four years ago on January 3rd, the day after my birthday, we lost my Dad.  I was glad he didn't leave us ON my birthday.  Also, the funeral was on the 5th, the day before Mom's birthday.  I was glad the funeral didn't land on hers.  But, the anniversary is sandwiched between us, and is just as sad.  I miss him.

4.  Getting back to the blackeyed peas, because in a way that sort've defines me....being from Alabama, but also being a Navy brat, traveling around with the family to Dad's different duty stations.  I learned a lot by seeing different parts of the country, and meeting different people with different customs and traditions, and different lives from my own.  I even got to live for six months in Hawaii as a child, and then two and a half years on Midway Island.  There are so few pictures of those years, but they are in living color, bright and sharp in my brain.

With my sister and brother...goonie bird (albatross) in the background...they were all over our yard

5.  But I'm always just an Alabama girl.  I've inherited a love of growing vegetables from my Dad, who was raised in such a poor household with so many kids they had to have their garden to be able to eat.  He kept a big vegetable garden for years after he retired.  I love Sacred Harp music. (If you've never heard of it, look it up and find a fascinating ancient art form!)  I have churned butter in my Grandmother's butter churn (which I now own), and I love learning about pioneer skills.  I love quilting.  Well, in general, I am just old fashioned.  We live in a world where we are bombarded with the modern, and somehow I just don't seem to be able to keep up.  :-)  Oh well, it's 2015...and it's never too late to learn!  Got that new flatscreen, and signed up for Netflix streaming.  Woo-hoo! :-)

The cartoon lady should have a BIG smile on her face! :-)  Have a wonderful 2015!

Christmas Wishes Willy Nilly

As we approach the glorious celebration of Christ's birth, and share magic and joy with family and friends, I would like to share a few Christmas wishes with you on Tanya's awesome Willy Nilly Friday Five...

1.  This is our favorite Christmas movie, The Nativity Story, made I think in 2006.  We watch it every year:

2.  When I was a little girl in elementary school in Bainbridge Maryland where my Dad was stationed, I was in Chorus.  Time came for the Christmas play and we were to sing carols, and also a vignette of some of us in the nativity scene.  (Back in the DAY when all of this was OK!!!) There was to be a solo  of Away in a Manger to be sung by the girl who played Mary . I have always had a strong voice, and I wanted to be Mary with all my heart.  But, instead one of my friends was chosen to be Mary.  She had waist-length blond hair and a soft singing voice, which would be appropriate for a lullaby.   I learned about sin the night of the performance when I felt great satisfaction that as Mary sang to her babe in the manger, her voice didn't project past the second row of parents and guests in the audience.  It isn't a moment I am very proud of!  :-) (BTW--we practiced the carols so much, I still will automatically go into the "next" on in the program in my mind after singing one of the carols!  And that Christmas program was almost 50 years ago!)

3.  Two years ago I decided to read something to our grandson that I had never even read myself...A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  Oh, we all know the story.  We've seen version after version of it and have loved some more than others.  But I'd never read the actual STORY.  Well, the two of us LOVED it!  What a literary genius!  It's no wonder that this tale is one of our favorite parts of Christmas on the screen...but if you've never actually read it, you are missing out!

4.  When our grandson was small, I was doing handmade ceramic items and tiles, all hand-glazed by little ole me.  I worked a Christmas craft show in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. There was a Santa Claus that arrived...a very convincing one.  My husband, Russell went to him sneakily and told him that when he came by our table, to show the little boy there that he was the REAL Santa by calling him by name.  When Santa came by, he said "Well hello there, little C..... You've been mighty good this year!"  Our grandson was amazed that this had to be the real deal, and that he knew his name.  The look on his little face was priceless! :-)  It was a cute little ruse that we told him about within the last couple of years.

5. Lastly, I would like to share a wonderful, heart-warming story by Kristen in Texas over on The Rambling Introvert.  This is something that happened to she and her Mom in a shop they went into, and you are going to love it as much as I did, so click on the LINK.

And as a post script I just noticed that The Nutcracker Ballet premiered on this date in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia.  Since that connects well with my header picture, and last week's Willy Nilly I thought I'd mention that as well!

Merry Christmas to Each of You! I am so grateful for all of my Blogger Friends!  God bless you all!

More Willy Nilly STUFF

Joining in with Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five.  It's fun...you learn things about each other, and about STUFF.

1. I started a group at my church that is mostly sewing and crocheting for others and though we got a late start in the year, we have been busily trying to get some blankets made for the homeless veterans in our area, and baby blankets for the Tohono O'Odham Children's Home.  But we are also collecting items for them as well (new and gently used).  It is a huge blessing to me to feel like I am doing something worthwhile with my time at home.  Well, my house is pretty dirty, but I know I wouldn't be using my time to clean anyway, because I just really dislike housework, and now that I am infirm in many ways, it's so hard on me.  I do what I HAVE to! :-) You may wonder why blankets are so badly needed by the homeless vets here, but it can get VERY cold during the winter months here at night. If you are interested in making or buying blankets for the homeless vets (or giving them winter wear like coats and stocking caps) contact your local Veteran's Administration.

2.  We are waking up to 59-62 degree mornings and I am loving it!  It's 40s at night, and high 60s in the day with lots of fall sunshine.  Snuggling under two quilts has become a wonderful pleasure!  As it gets colder at night, I do worry about the homeless...here and in much colder areas!

3. By the way, let me remind everyone, since Thanksgiving is upon us, that Butterball has succumbed to pressure and has Halal friendly turkeys now (prayed over in the name of Allah).  This is America's holiday, not anyone else's.  I will be buying a different brand, and be praying over my turkey myself, thanking God for His many blessing to my family and my country.  Just saying.

4.  Have you ever noticed when you open someone's blog there is sometimes a bar across the top that says "This site uses cookies.  If you use this site you agree to the use of cookies?"  I don't know about you, but I know there are lots of ways cookies get into your computer and I regularly remove cookies from mine, just to keep things running smoothly.  But, the warning is a little unnerving.  And in fact, today when I went to someone's blog, I immediately had a box pop up saying that Norton had successfully protected my computer from a dangerous malware attack.  After that it wouldn't let me write a comment.  I had to shut down blogger and get back in before all was well.  It makes one nervous to scoot across millions of miles of cyberspace to share and see what others share, doesn't it?  I wonder sometimes if using blogs (maybe not necessarily blogger, but perhaps some of the other companies) doesn't sometimes cause the computer problems some people announce from time to time.  I'm not going away...but I just wonder if it concerns anyone else.

5.  Sharing an old photo from my childhood in Maryland.  In those days, Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas was an incredibly wonderful roller coaster ride of joy! :-)

Dad was in the Navy, stationed in Bainbridge Maryland where this photo was taken. That's base housing. The base is no longer there. And that's me.  (Love that car!)  I remember COLD snows, making snowmen and flying down the hill out back on cardboard and roasting pans!

My Friday Five and InSPIREd Sunday

Joining in with Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five. Thanks Tanya for this fun meme!

1. For InSPIRED Sunday I would like to share the mission at Old Tucson.  This is not the original building because that one was destroyed by fire.  It is also not really a real church, but one built for use in many movies filmed at Old Tucson Studios.  I did attend a service there once, though, in the old church before it burned...our good friends were married there.  I carried the wedding cake I made for them over Gates Pass and down to Old Tucson.  To see a post about Old Tucson, which is a tourist destination, click HERE.   And here is the church...

2.  I also wanted to say something that relates to the Childcraft books I shared before.  Childcraft were made by World Book Encyclopaedias, and I discovered through your comments that some people had amazing memories of them, but others had never heard of the books.  All I can say is, if you didn't have a set as a child, you were really missing something.  My Great Aunt Lena was a school teacher, and she also sold World Books.  It was through her that we got our set of encyclopaedias and also the Childcraft set.  There was something else, and it was probably a gift for buying the set, but I remember this poster with great fondness .  We had it on one of our bedroom walls for many years and I used to love to look at all the details.  Nothing represents Americana better.

3. Another trip down memory lane this week was seeing Kristin of Texas's (onceuponaramblingblog HERE) post about The International Festival Institute (called Festival Hill).  It is located in Round Top, Texas, and it was where I worked at Administrative Assistant to James Dick for five wonderful years.  A summer musical festival is held there for the upper crust of music students, as well as  monthly concerts during the year, and wonderful forums on arts and history.  Festival Hill is a magical place, and  I have so many amazing memories.  I also miss my many great friends from Round Top.  I have to share this youtube video with you that shows the breath-taking Festival Concert Hall.  Please click on the link....

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnIP_GTVGaI

4. I have been reading The Greek Treasure by Irving Stone.  I read it once before in my early 20s.  I'd almost forgotten what a wonderful writer he was!  I met him once at a book signing where he was kind enough to sign my old copy of The President's Lady instead of the new book he was there to promote.  The Greek Treasure is about Heinrich Schliemann and his young Greek wife, Sophia who excavated and discovered the real Troy of Homer, and found Priam's treasure.  It has been a thrill to live in that world again, and discover Troy along with them...

Heinrich Schliemann was born on January 6th, 1822 as son of a Protestant minister in Neubukow / Mecklenburg (Germany). He described his life in the autobiography »Heinrich Schliemann's Selbstbiographie« (Autobiography of Heinrich Schliemann). On December 26th, 1890 he died after an ear surgery in Naples.
In 1870 he married the 18 year old Greek girl Sophia Engastromenos. On the photo above she wears the famous gold jewelry from the so-called »Treasure of Priam«, which Heinrich Schliemann had discovered in Troy.
The couple had two children, Andromache (1871-1962) and Agamemnon (1878-1954).

My book reviews are generally found on my sidebar but I reserved this one for my Friday Five.

5. My fifth random is to share some of the wonderful sky views of S Arizona I have taken photos of this month.  Our cloudless blue skies have been slow in arriving this season.  We even had a freak Autumn thunder storm two weeks ago:

The Santa Catalina mountains from my house

Sheep on a Hillside & Willy Nilly Fri 5

For Saturday's Critters and Camera Critters...these are domestic sheep, let out of a huge truck that was sitting there, I suppose to be allowed to graze here in the mountainous area south of Ouray, CO.

And now some Willy Nilly Friday Five:

1.  We also saw a mountain lion on our trip....alas there is no photo.  The poor thing was crossing the road in front of us as we drove back toward home in AZ.  From a distance, we couldn't tell if it was a dog, or what....then as it became more clear that we were looking at a mountain lion crossing the road, the car in the passing lane whizzed ahead of us, honking at the lion, which suddenly sped off the road and into the scrubland.  I wish I'd had a video of me juggling my camera to try to get it in position to take a photo!  It was probably comical.  Alas, it was quickly too late as the car came between us and the cat....and then the lovely animal dashed into cover.  We actually stopped the car on the side of the road to see if we could see it, but it was long gone.

2.  Recently we attended the first birthday of a cutie pie from our church.  Boy, that brought back memories of those years when our daughter was small!  The little one was so excited about her presents, and loved eating her cake with her fingers and becoming a mess.  It was all so adorable!

3. We just had the second in a quatrain of blood moons, all landing on Jewish holy days.  The third blood moon will be next April.  The fourth and last, which will also be a super moon will fall on the Feast of Tabernacles September 28th, 2015...also in the Shemitah year.  Shemitah had a different earlier meaning, but in recent times, reflects punishment on God's people.  It fell on 2001, and again in 2008.  (Think about that)  Now it will be in 2015.  Also the moon turning to blood is a sign in the heavens that heralds the coming apocalypse and return of Jesus.  Normally a blood moon is just that, a red moon, the result of an eclipse, but a quatrain is unusual, and especially one to land on Jewish holy days, with the last in the Shemitah year.  If you are at all curious about this, do some research.  There are at least two excellent books, and info on the internet as well.

4. Last week's Willy Nilly had a great list of things from Tanya, and reminded me of how much I miss some of my sweet childhood things.  It is Autumn now, and also my Mom posted a great Autumn poem.  These two things reminded me of my Childcraft books.  Oh how I love them! (Mom gave the set to me as an adult!) The poems and stories and great information they contain brought me endless hours of childhood pleasure!  The illustrations are wonderful!  Here is the Autumn poem I remember so fondly.  It was written by Robert Louis Stevenson:

 In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

5.  Here are some views of Childcraft from the internet.  Tell me if you remember these awesome books as well!

Here are the two poems on the pages above in case you can't read them:
Left page--
by Dorothy Aldis

What Am I?

They chose me from my brothers;
"That's the
nicest one," they said.
And they carved me out a face and
put a
Candle in my head;

And they set me on the doorstep. Oh
the
Night was dark and wild;
But when they lit a candle, then I
Smiled!

The other poem is called Black and Gold, by Nancy Bird Turner

Everything is black and gold,
Black and gold tonight;
Yellow pumpkins, yellow moon,
Yellow candlelight.

Jet-black cat with golden eyes,
Shadows black as ink'
Firelight blinking in the dark
With a yellow blink.

Black and gold, black and gold,
Nothing in between--
When the world turns black and gold,
Then it's Halloween!