Monday, May 26, 2008

Memorial Day

On Saturday I went to the airport with a small assortment of family members to see a sister off on her vacation to Colorado for a few weeks.

Airports are very fascinating places, with such a varied assortment of people. I have always liked the excitement and hubbub of so many different individuals setting off to so many varied destinations.

Once her luggage was checked in my sister still had a bit of time before her flight, so we sat and chatted and people watched. I do wish people dressed better. Where has elegance gone? In my youthful naivety, influenced by popular fashion, I would have thought it cool to wear snazzy sport clothes to travel. I shudder. My taste has developed and I now realize that while some people do it, it is not elegant. And it is hardly appropriate attire for “ to the manor born.”
Fashion is fashion, and something I have come to realize is that it very frequently falls short of showing how to dress appropriately. The difficulty lies in trying to decipher between what is fashionable, and what is truly correct.

Back from my fashion tangent, as we were watching people we saw several young men that looked like they had just got back from a tour of duty in the war. Then as we were watching my sister through security, there was a young man that appeared to be military saying goodbye to his family. It is very sobering to be aware of a tearful farewell between a young soldier and his father, siblings, and mother.

My prayers are with not only the soldiers that go off to war to fight for our freedom, but the family they leave behind. May God bless them and return them to their loved ones safely.

Memorial Day – And the soldiers who will never return, may God be with their families in a very special way.

Thank You! Because freedom is about more than being able to wear what you want to the airport.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Heels and Hay

My sisters and I were dressed for a luncheon tea in town, long skirts, heels, and I was wearing a wide brimmed hat. We’d already made our appearance at the grocery. Mother asked us to stop on the way home and pick up a couple bales of alfalfa. You read that correctly.

Uh, huh. We are very dutiful girls, but it was with chagrin that we anticipated meeting the farmer who had already previously commented on far less dressy attire.

We were spared.

He wasn’t home, everyone from the farm was at a horse event except his wife, who would sell us the hay. Yes, not load, sell.

When duty calls, one answers, so my sister and I, heels and all, each loaded a bale of hay, weighing about 80 -90 pounds each. (I’m not quite sure on the weight, but others with more experience say it is so).

Indeed.

Afterwards, I paid out of my pink clutch, returned to the car door and dusted off the alfalfa leaves and retrieved my white silk scarf from off the seat. This I draped around my neck, tossed the end over my shoulder in a dramatic gesture and reentered the vehicle. When you do unusual things, do them with flair.

Heels and hay? Well, why ever not?

Friday, May 9, 2008

This Was the Week

It was high time for me to get a cleaning routine going. Months after our move, the house still limped along. I finally decided enough was enough, and being inspired by Pleasant View School House, I got down to business and mapped out a cleaning schedule.

Before we moved to our current abode, I had a routine to clean the entire house quickly. Being a beautiful old home, it wasn’t exactly low maintenance, but with a long ingrained system, I was usually able to go over the entire house daily.

Then we moved to a much, much newer house that should have been a quick clean. But I’d lost my routine. I didn’t know the new house and so it has gone along, surviving with occasional spurts of cleaning. I like things clean, very clean, as a matter of fact, and so I have been less than pleased.

Determined to change, I first penciled out a basic schedule that would encompass everything I needed to do to keep the house top cleaned, then this week I did a practice run to see how it would work. I like the basic routine and now I can expand upon and fine tune it. Because of all the dear little mess makers around here, I think I will have to make a time every day to do a quick run through and pick up everything that has been left out. I might have to do this twice a day, once in the morning and then sometime in the afternoon.

It was the perfect time for a change with the wildflowers springing to life on the mountainside, the daffodils and grape hyacinth coming cheerfully to life in the yard. Perfect because I love flowers, and what better way to finish a nice cleaning job than to place a fresh bouquet of them as a seal of completion. Not just flowers either, I love cuttings of new greenery just budding forth for a simple, inspiring touch. It’s a good time of year.

Have a lovely weekend!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

The New Puppy

This is Miss Ailish, our new Irish Wolfhound puppy! This is perhaps not the best picture, but it is very insightful. She is eight weeks old in this photograph and it was her first day home! She really is very sweet. However, I noticed early on that she was inteligent and very determined, something that time has only confirmed.

Even though she is very young, I see lots of Wolfhound traits in her. She likes to lay at your feet when you are working and she wants to be with her people and she thinks she's a lap dog. She still hasn't learned that Irish Wolfhounds are stoic and don't cry. She's such a baby.

The fun thing is she is related to our families first two Irish Wolfhounds.

Hopefully I can get a picture posted with her wearing her pink bow. Pink seems to be her color.

Isn't that the sweetest little face?