The beautiful and surprising Texas sage

The beautiful and surprising Texas sage 

Photo by Mike

You see them all over my part of Texas, a dusty silvery green bush that doesn't seem to change much, that is until we have a good downpour of rain in the summer.Then watch out for a big surprise as they come alive and put out many pretty pinkish-purple-lilac flowers that for a while will cover the whole bush. They are lovely to look at and the bees love them. The bees seem to come from nowhere and seem to be determined to visit every bloom before they leave . That is just as well because the flowers don't last long. They are gone within the week and it will be awhile before they bloom again. They don't need much care once the bush is established. This plant will grow in rocky or poor soil and are very drought resistant so a good thing for Texas and desert gardens.

We have 2 bushes and it was a delight to see them this week. It made up for the searing hot weather we are having with the thought of a coming August just firing up ready to go!!

Golden Goblet and Sunset #2

Golden Goblet in Sunset #2

So quite disappointed with my first attempt at this challenge painting,I decided to switch to acrylic paint on canvas. The first problem I en-counted was to find a canvas board more or less the right size and shape. I settled on a square one as it was the only one I had, so right off I knew I would have to adjust the composition. I planned on making this a design in color , using mostly the colors from the original and trying to keep the various shapes simple rather than doing a copy.

I opened the paints and started very quickly putting a layer of paint down on the shapes. That was fun. I used a large brush and quickly did that. The sky was really interesting to do and I wished at some point the goblet wasn't there as it got in the way of my nice bold paint strokes. I just made a curved shape for each of the ribbons and cloth. Then I went back and put the touches on both the sky and the cloth. I felt all the time I was delaying painting the goblet. Eventually I painted it but it was difficult to do in a similar loose way because it is so ornate and it had so much light reflecting on it.

Still I did it. It's okay but I wish it had been more simple in form.

I must say I enjoyed doing this second painting .The technique is so different that the tight strokes I used in the first painting and I think the end result was fine. 

Golden Goblet in Sunset #1

Golden Goblet in Sunset #1  

My painting in watercolor

The challenge painting this month on paintanddrawtogether website was a very clever digital composition of photos combining a beautiful, if stormy sunset, shiny cloth and dark ribbon and a very ornate golden goblet.

It was definitely a challenge.

I started out using watercolors but soon found this was not going well. I wanted a light background but I couldn't get the goblet to stand out enough. So I then tried to darken the background which wasn't a good idea . It just got too muddy looking. The cloth was a big disaster as well as the folds were all in the wrong place .Also the composition itself was off because I had placed the goblet too far to the left.The goblet itself was complicated to paint with all the filigree and shine. I shall look on this challenge as a good learning experience.

Mike reckons if you stand a long way away from it it looks okay. That's my feeling as well.

Here is the original photo of the challenge.

So after a while thinking about it I decided to start over and paint another edition but this time use acrylic paint.

I'll show you that one tomorrow.

Using your GPS system

This was on http://www.neatorama.com

I saw this humorous sign when I was checking my pictures on Pinterest and it brought to mind that on the news just the other day were some videos of people that had done just that- trusted their GPS systems and got themselves into bad situations.

I can see if you are in a new area you would be looking at the GPS especially if it's in a rental car and you would probably go where it takes you without giving it much thought.

I think it's strange though that people would continue on a road where if they look out the window they can see the path ahead is going straight into a lake or into a desert . 

Some people actually got lost in Death Valley by doing just that, following their GPS until they were hopelessly lost and almost died before they were rescued.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/gps-astray-lost-death-valley-18743019

It sees to me that even if you have a GPS and especially if you are in a new area, maybe on vacation, you would also have an ( old fashioned ) paper map with you so you can look ahead and say to yourself , “No this can't be right”.

Let's check it again or ask someone. Of course in Death Valley that might be difficult.

A Special Blog

Okay a little puzzle for you'all! ( that's how we say it in Texas).

Count the stars.

Count the circles.

How many are there?

Here's a clue. (if you don't want to strain your eyes).

The final number of stars and circles adds up to the number of blogs I've done this year so far

You guessed it.It is 200. At least that's what it says in one place on Blogger and a different number in another place so it must be roughly right and I'm not about to count each blog individually It is hard enough to sometimes think of a new blog each day.Also I might add,to make a picture with exactly 100 stars and 100 circles.

So I am well on my way to actually doing the challenge of writing a blog each day for a whole year.

Thanks for reading it. And also for your comments and emails.

That is one thing that keeps me going.

Time Remembered with Cross Stitch

When my Mum was living she used to pop across the pond every so often to visit with us. As she got older in her 70s she would visit up to 3 months at a time and enjoyed joining in all the family activities. As she got older we kept the activities that were strenuous to a minimum to allow for her age which meant when she was staying with me we had to find things for her to do so she wouldn't get bored.

One thing she loved to do was to knit and crochet so that took some time but when you keep doing the same things it's nice to do something different for a change.

So one day I suggested doing some cross stitching. Now my Mum could sew simple stuff and mend clothing and even at times make her own dresses but had never had time to do leisure time sewing like embroidery or cross stitching.

I am not good at sewing,I can do basic darning which I learned in the Girl Guides and I can sew on a button. When I was at school at about age 7, we had to make a sampler of embroidery stitches but if there was a mark given for that it must have been a D I think. I found it very trying.

So I set to and bought some squares of cross stitch fabric and showed Mum how to go about it. She followed a pattern at first but then became quite creative and eventually made 4 colorful coasters which we still use today. They are a bit worn now but every time I see them I can see my Mum peering at the pattern and figuring out where to put the stitches. Not bad for an old lady of 79.

Maybe I'll make some too when I get to be 79 but don't hold your breath waiting for it!!

Chinese food and Birthdays

Chinese food and Birthdays

Doesn't it look delicious?

In our small family when we celebrate birthdays we usually do it with a meeting at a restaurant. It is the easiest way to get together.

Yesterday it was Mike's birthday and also Ben's today so we all agreed to meet at Bobo's Chinese restaurant, one of our favorite places to meet. We have been going to this restaurant since the 80s and the food is always great. We never have to wait for a table, and the owner and staff are old friends now. So it's always a great place to celebrate birthdays.

The food is always delicious and between us we mange to get a good selection of different dishes to share. Add the drinks, beer, wine and soft drinks followed by the fun of the Chinese fortune cookie and you have an great time with lots of laughter, catching up on family happenings and lots of good feeling. Presents and cards are exchanged with cards being passed around for all to see. Another fun thing we do is when the camera is set going on the turn-table in the middle of the table and a video is taken of all the guests with lovely faces being made for the camera. We all hope these do not appear on Facebook.

So you ask “But where is the Birthday cake?” So the family's excellent cake maker always bakes a cake and we get to enjoy it at home with a great cup of coffee.

Now who could want a better birthday celebration than this!!

The White Stag

The White Stag 

painting by Shirley

So we were coming home from shopping a few days ago and as we came over the hill on our road, there in front of us, slightly over to the grassy bank at the side of the road was this lovely creature- a white stag. It stopped, looked about as startled as we were to see it in midday and on the road as well , then with a few bounds, it was off with high leaps running gracefully along a side road.

This is not the first encounter we have had with this neighborhood creature. I saw it a while back , or one very similar along the road. I saw it in early morning just grazing peacefully along the side of the road but it was foggy that morning. I had passed it almost before I realized it was a deer but white? I really did think it was a dream or a hallucination until I mentioned it to some neighbors and they said there was a small herd of white deer that lived in the fields around our area. They were completely wild and managed to survive despite the encroaching building of new homes and even coyotes.

Such a gracefully creature and beautiful to behold. I hope they survive.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Mike and many many more!!

Wishing you all the best from your travelling partner of 53 years and we haven't sunk yet.....
Here is one of your favorite songs from Youtube,"Somewhere over the rainbow"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fahr069-fzE

                    

A Conspiracy of Faith

A conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler Olsen

If you like detective and mystery stories this is a good one and as it builds to a crescendo towards the end of the book, it's a real page turner. The mystery keeps going right the way through the book .Even though the plot takes place in Denmark and Sweden, the author writes in the style of other great Nordic  mystery writers but adds a touch of humor to the mystery and a great deal of "how did that  happen and who could it be?".There are subplots within subplots which makes for  very complicated but entertaining reading.

The story starts with a bottle with a message written in blood being found on the coast of Scotland and develops into a gripping story of a serial killer living  in Denmark who is as clever as the police forces trying to find him.  The challenge is to to rescue his new victims before they die.

I will certainly look for other books by this author. It was a great read.

Cherries!

This is an attempt to make a blog using my tablet. I managed to make the photo and get it on Blogger but it will not let me put the photo wher I want it to go or add another it seems.
I just love Cherries. Can't say the same for Blogger.I have had to go back to my computer to try and finish. 
Do you remember the song" Life is just a bowl of Cherries". here is is on Youtube sung in the original style in 1931, Just a jolly little tune!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc6RS9e3Dhw

Made with #Pixlr# - http://pixlr.com/mobile

Piggy in the Middle

Piggy in the Middle

While I was writing my pig joke the other day I remembered this old game we used to play. You might also remember it. I think it was 'PIG” that got my brain going.

This was a pretty simple game played with a ball and as many kids as you had.

If you had 3 children, 2 would stand about 15 feet apart or even further if they were older and throw the ball to each other. The third child ( the Piggy) would stand in the middle and try to catch the ball.

If you had lots of kids the group would stand in a circle and throw the ball to each other but usually to one on the other side of the circle. The child or piggy in the middle would try to catch the ball. If the piggy caught the ball the person who threw it, became piggy.

This game as I remember it often was a way of making life miserable for a younger sibling or smaller kid. I was small and never could catch the ball thrown way over my head. I would just give up on it and that often was the idea . It was a way of excluding friends in the playground .I did not like this game and even when I wasn't playing I always felt sorry for the piggy in the middle.

I bet it is still played today to tease some kids as well!!

Meet Egbert the Egret

Meet Egbert the Egret

Portrait by Shirley.

Help has arrived to fight the grasshopper invasion!

Every morning if you get up early enough and go out in our yard, there he is , stalking along with his head bobbing up and down, catching his breakfast- grasshoppers!

If the dogs bark or chase him he flies off with a majestic flap of his wings. When he almost bumped into Cooper , the white cat ,who was out for his morning stroll, Egbert looked at Cooper and Cooper looked at Egbert, then both decided this white creature was not one of their own kind and so turned around and went their separate ways.

It is unusual to see an egret in the garden by itself. They usual are in big flocks that descend on a grove of trees and make a rookery with lots of nests, lots of noise and lots of mess. It can be quite a problem as the egret is on the list of endangered birds I think so they can't be moved and have to be tolerated until the nesting season is over.

The other place you will see them is out in the fields following the cows and eating the insects stirred up by the cattle.

So we were quite surprised to see Egbert the solitary bird in our yard but we welcome him.

Anything that will help kill grasshoppers is welcome!!

Joke Day

Joke Day.

Sometimes people send me jokes. Some are funny. Some are clever . Some I really don't find funny.

This one I liked plus I can't think what to write today on my blog!!

The Original Story of the 3 Little Pigs

Three Little Pigs went out to dinner one night. The waiter came and took their drink order.

'I would like a Sprite,' said the first little piggy.

'I would like a Coke,' said the second little piggy.

'I want beer, lots and lots of beer,' said the third little piggy.

The drinks were brought out and the waiter took their orders for dinner.

'I want a nice big steak,' said the first piggy.

'I would like the salad plate,' said the second piggy.

'I want beer, lots and lots of beer,' said the third little piggy.

The meals were brought out and a while later the waiter approached the table and asked if the piggies would like any dessert.

'I want a banana split,' said the first piggy.

'I want a cheesecake,' said the second piggy.

'I want beer, lots and lots of beer,' exclaimed the third little piggy.


'Pardon me for asking,' said the waiter to the third little piggy,'

But why have you only ordered beer all evening?'

The third piggy says -


'Well, somebody has to go 'Wee, wee, wee, all the way home!

Maneki Neko

Maneki Neko

A while back a friend , who loves cats, gave me this little ornament. I thought it a strange looking little cat and put it on a shelf . I started to see these little cat figures in other places so I called my friend and asked about it .She said it is a symbol of good luck and often to be found in Chinese and Japanese and other Asian businesses and homes as well.

I checked this out and the story of Maneki Neko starts a long time ago in Japan. According to the legend the little cat lived in a temple .One day in a storm Maneki Neko beckoned a great lord into the temple by holding his paw up. The lord moved towards the shelter of the temple and a stroke of lightening fell a tree just where the lord had been standing. So the little cat was credited with saving the great lord's life. The lord was so thankful he honored the little cat by dedicating the temple to him.The temple of Goutokuji still exist and the little cat is still honored there with dozens of his statues on display.

So if you come across one of these little figures keep it . It is beckoning good luck to you.

Gardening and /or Housework?

Gardening and /or Housework 

I found this interesting quote as I was checking out the pinterest.com site and thought I should really make one of these. On a plaque as I like it so much.

Yesterday it rained a lot of the day so I did housework. The house certainly needed it!!

Today we finally have had sun without the rain , at least so far.

So today now I can do gardening. Mostly pulling out the dead and died off  Spring plants to give room to the lantanas and other summer bushes. 

Tomorrow will be a respray day to kill off my worst enemy this year- the dreaded GRASSHOPPER!

The Seventh Moon by Marius Gabriel

The Seventh Moon by Marius Gabriel

One thing about having dreary weather it makes me feel like reading. The book I have just finished reading was very interesting because it touched on a part of history and a part of the world that I know little about.

The Seventh Moon basically is a story of an Eurasian lady( half Chinese and half English), called Francine living in Malaya married to an English manager of a tin mine. It is 1941 the start of the Japanese invasion of Malaya in World War 2. They have a small child Ruth.

The family get split up and the Francine and Ruth flee to Borneo with the help of English army officer. Pursued be the Japanese invaders the child is left in the jungle with a friendly native tribe to save her life while the two adults decide to make it to safety by trudging out through the jungle. When the war ends all traces of Ruth have vanished and years of searching bring a conclusion that Ruth died in the jungle during the war

Fast forward 50 years and Francine is now a wealthy woman .A young woman Sakura appears at Francine's door in New York saying she is Ruth the child left in the jungle. But is she? The rest of the book will keeps you reading to find out the answer to that question.

Some of the story sounds not possible to me but it is well written and I couldn't put it down until I had finished it.

The title *The Seventh Moon” comes from a Chinese belief that those who died without proper ceremony come back in the seventh moon to haunt the living.

An “Arty” Find

An “Arty” Find   

When Mike was cleaning up his workshop a couple of weeks ago he found an old print of a painting that we must have had for a long time. Neither of us could remember where we had got it from. Did someone give it to us? Did we find it or buy it? I don't think we bought it although Mike really likes this painting. We probably picked it up at a garage sale somewhere.

Mike decided to renovate it and instead of leaving it in a dusty box in the workshop he would clean it ( carefully) and make a frame for it which he did. Then he has hung it up on the wall so we can now see itand enjoy it.

Meanwhile I checked on the artist ,Antoine Blanchard. He was born in 1910 and died in 1988, He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and had many life style changes , which did not allow him to always be an artist as he wished . When he returned to painting full time he became discouraged at the modern art forms and so went back to studying the older style of painting, the Belle Époque period in Paris. His paintings were based on locations around Paris in the 1890s and often took him days and even months to finish. He was a very meticulous artist. His paintings have definitely a certain style and he loved to make shimmering scenes full of bright colors and light.

So we feel lucky to have a such a lovely painting on our wall even if it is only a copy. 

A Summer Ssurprise

A Summer Surprise

Today in our part of Texas we woke up to a great surprise.

It was raining! It was also only 70 degrees. Unheard of in July

Now I know this would not be a surprise to many people living in parts of the USA or Canada or even in Britain but to us it definitely was a delightful surprise.

Summers in Texas can be soul destroying affairs. They start early in May and can continue until well into September with ever increasing heat until by now, in mid July. we can expect days and days of 100 degree temperatures. That means the temperature will go up to at least 100 degrees and sometimes even further. During that time it rarely drops below 80 degrees at night too so we get more and more lethargic as the year progresses and we wait for Fall to arrive for relief.

Our yard doesn't look like this often in the Summer

Here we have very little rain in the Summer and usually what we get is either a fleeting shower which won't even wet the pavement before it dries up or else a storm.This might  bring with it fierce lightning and a downpour that last about 20 minutes but comes so fast and heavy the rain has no time to sink into the ground to do any good.

So you can see what a surprise it was this morning and what welcome relief from Summer as well. We know it won't last much longer than mid week but it gives us a break and we sure appreciate it!!

If this is what our summers will give us in this new climate change, I'll certainly go for it.!

Remembering Mr Softee

Remembering Mr Softee

Thinking about all those playtime games and also the hot summer days led me to another thought ”ice cream”.

When I was young we didn't have a refrigerator. We had a cold pantry with a stone floor which kept things cool in an English summer but you wouldn't have tried to keep ice cream there. So in summer it was always a special treat when Dad would give us a florin ( 2 shillings) and tell us to go get ice cream. Off we would run to the nearest convenience shop that opened on Sundays and buy a square block of ice cream. Always plain vanilla. My sister and I would run home as fast as we could so it wouldn't melt and Mum would slice the ice cream up and put it in between wafers for us to eat. What a delight!

By the time we had moved to Montreal , we had even hotter summers and although we now had a refrigerator and bought blocks of ice cream, the best treat ever was when Mr Softee and his travelling ice cream van came by. We knew he was coming by the cheerful tunes he played as he came around the street. You could hear him coming from two streets over and the cry came out “Mr Softee Mr Softee!! It was amazing as children and adults suddenly materialized from whereever they were and all enjoyed the lovely soft ice cream.

I still enjoy ice cream but none tasted as good as those we had on those hot summer days. They were very special.

If you want to really remember Mr Softee and his catchy jingle check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsCDGY8e0P8

A visit to a Cool place on a Hot Day

A visit to a Cool place on a Hot Day  

The heron sculpture

Usually we go visit the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens in early Spring or sometimes in the Fall.It is a lovely park like place with acres of flower beds and interesting trees and plants very close to the downtown area of Fort Worth and close to the interesting area of museums and art galleries.

We have two old friends we have been meaning to meet to celebrate their birthdays.Their birthdays are in March and somehow or other the dates we kept trying to meet were not suitable. They live quite a long way from us and Fort Worth is a great central place to meet .So we arranged to meet at the garden restaurant there. , a charming quiet restaurant that has lovely summer type foods and wines and we really hadn't considered just how hot it would be at the gardens in July in Texas.

I have no idea what they are.

The weather today was VERY hot so we knew we would not be able to walk around much without melting into a little pool of butter. We got there about half an hour early so while we were waiting we walked to shady area around a little pool which is surrounded by perennial flowers. In the middle of the pool is a lovely sculpture of herons. Just a charming place to sit on a hot day and watch the world go by. While we were there we saw a lovely young bride having her photo taken and I managed to take a couple of flower photos although I am not sure what they are.If you know please write and tell me.

Then it was time to head back to the restaurant, meet our friends, exchange all our news and have a delicious lunch complete with wine and good conversation.

Now that is one of the best things to do on a hot day in Texas.

The Game of 'IT" ( Tag)

Now here's a game I bet everyone played when they were young-

TAG or as we called it IT. You will remember the game was played in recess or after school where a group of kids got together , one was chosen as “it” and then chased the other kids . When one was touched or tagged they became “it'. 

This is one of those games that has many forms. Sometimes it's teams trying to tag others, think of tag football .Sometimes it has a variety of rules - area to run in, safe areas or whatever new rules an enterprising kid could come up with. Sometimes it was played in a nasty way when a kid would be victimized by the group and would never be able to catch anyone . Sometimes it would get really rough but usually I remember it was all good fun and really gave everyone a lot of exercise.It got rid of a lot of pent up activity and made us ready to go inside and start doing our school work again.

I also bet when you think back you will remember the counting rhymes or dips that chose the beginning “it”. 

Remember “Eenie, meenie, miney, Mo, etc” or 

'One potato , two potato, three potato four” or

'Dip dip dip

My little ship

Sails on the water

Like a cup and saucer,

You are IT.'

I read that these days tag has been outlawed in many schools as being too dangerous with kids and even adults being knocked over or bullied. That seems a shame as I am sure those instances could be remedied with a little overseeing by the supervising adults.

I also read  this and   found it very interesting.  A group of high school seniors  started playing tag over 20 years ago and that game still continues to this day with each boy , now grown men in fairly influential positions, trying not to be tagged.

The fun goes on.

If you want to read about it in more detail go here.

http://mynorthwest.com/76/2191035/Twodecade-game-of-tag-keeps-group-of-friends-together

The Flipping Card Game

The Flipping Card Game

The cards I am talking about are those that were found in the packs of cigarettes and other commercial items bought just after the second world war. I never had any but Mike in his various boxes of stuff has a pile of lovely cigarette cards . They are all different kinds showing pictures of birds and butterflies, trains , cars , important people etc.

 When I asked him how come he had so many he said it was a favorite game but not really a trading or swopping game, it was a game of skill where you won more cards and that's how he has so many. The game was played by leaning a set of cards against a wall , ( I guess the ones you had too many of or didn't want to make up a set) Then other kids would flip their extra cards at yours and if they knocked them down and covered the card, they would keep your cards but if the card stayed standing you would keep their cards. Pretty simple. It seems it was a very popular game.

Whether the original educational idea of reading the information on the back of the cards ever came into it I don't know. Maybe that was how the cards were advertised to sell the cigarettes .Obviously it was a time when a lot of people smoked and this card collecting became very popular.

Forward to the 70s and I remember my boys collecting hockey cards and had stacks of them at one time. I vaguely remember them being bought in small packs so they must have been either sold or given away with candies or something else. I don''t remember my boys ever playing the flipping card game but I do remember they collected certain ones which led to a lot of trading. As they got older the cards were forgotten like a lot of other things, I used to give the old cards out to my students when I was teaching as a bonus for a good work. I guess looking back I should have kept some of the cards, they may have been worth a fortune these days.

Jacks or Dabbers or Five Stones

Jacks or Dabbers or Five Stones

Thinking about marbles yesterday reminded me of another game that I was pretty useless at!! 

In England where I grew up it was called Dabbers or Five Stones .Sounds like a paint game doesn't it? Here in the States or Canada I think it's more commonly called Jacks. It is known all over the world, the game being very similar but called all kinds of names. It started out in the ancient world as knucklebones or cachstones probably because the jacks were either knuckles bones from small animals or just regular stones. Kids all over the world have used all manner of things to play at Jacks, apricot seeds in Egypt, and rice filled small sacks in Japan but the game is very similar with different variations.

The object is to take between 5 to 12 jacks and then another larger ball or stone. Then while throwing the ball up in the air, the object is to pick up and catch a certain number of stones with the same hand before the ball bounces. So the order is :throw, scoop up jacks, catch , all in a very quick movement. The jacks on the ground are placed in different positions and te game gets harder as you go on.There are many variations on this and some players get very clever at catching and picking up the jacks.

I remember I was not good at it. Never could catch the ball and pick up the other stones at the same time. Mike can still play it pretty good .

I think you will still see kids playing this game but now they have jack sets made with plastic colored jacks so I bet there are even more variations on this old game. .

Marbles

Marbles

Actually I never can remember playing marbles although I did collect them for a short while. I think marbles was basically a boy's game.

Marbles were small round balls about 1” to 2 “ in diameter that had started off in ancient times as little clay or mud balls that were used to be played in all kinds of invented games. They even found some in the pyramid tombs in Egypt.

 By the time I collected them they were usually made of pretty colored glass or even ceramics. Mike says the most valuable ones were made of steel and were ball bearings and were much to be desired when you were playing a game. I guess they were that way because they were in short supply after the war.

The games seem to be played in many different ways. One way a game is played where the kids gather around a circle that is drawn on the earth and a marble is placed in the middle and then turns are taken to knock it out. The other way Mike says he played , was along the gutters of the road usually on the way home from school. You would again go in turns trying to knock the other players marble and I guess if you did so you would win it.

” Onesis” were 1inch marbles and so I guess “twosis” were 2inch marbles. I am sure a lot of the fun was in collecting , exchanging and trading marbles as well as playing the game for both boys and girls

I think the girls liked them as they were really pretty especially the big glass ones with the swirling patterns inside which makes me wonder” whatever did happened to my marbles”.

The phrase,” I think I've lost my marbles”. comes to mind.

I did find one interesting marbles game you could play on a computer if you want to try it.

here it is:http://games.yahoo.com/game/marble-lines-flash.html

Hop Scotch

Hop Scotch

I think if a few more children would realize the fun they could have playing this old street game, we would see less overly chubby kids around.

Hop Scotch was a game for both boys and girls

This was a favorite game of mine although I don't think I was great at playing it.

We had the ideal place to place to play as outside on the pavement ( here called the sidewalk= took me forever to get used to this American term) we had slabs of paving stone so it was very easy to get a piece of chalk and mark out the hopping squares. Stones and pebbles were all around so we were set. You could either play by yourself or with friends.

The idea of the game is to throw your pebble into square 1 and if it lands inside the square but not touching a line, you would hop up the squares, landing 2 feet then hop and land again till you get to the end where you then turn around and hot scotch back picking up your pebble as you pass it. If you step on a line or put a foot down when you shouldn't or fall over you lose your turn. If you complete it you get to throw again into square 2 and so on.

As I remember some of the kids were so good at it they could do the whole thing before it got to your turn which would make for a lot of grumbling from the ones waiting.

This is a very ancient game and supposedly was invented by the ancient Romans as a practice exercise to train their soldiers in complicated foot work. Some of their hopscotch courses were over a 100 feet long. The children of the time saw the soldiers practicing and so the evercise got copied and then traveled all over the ancient world.

So if you have some kids who don't know what to do give them a piece of chalk and let them play . They will have fun I know it!

Cat's cradle

Cat's cradle

Playing the game

So here's another game we played when I was young- Cat's cradle. All you need for this one is a long piece of yarn or string which you form into patterns over your fingers to make different kinds of “string figures”. They all have different names, like Jacob's ladder , Eiffel tower and my favorite, French Lace which was one of the most complicated but I did manage to do it once in a while.

This is a very old game which originally was thought to have started in the far East in China or Japan and then spread throughout the world much to the delight of children although I think again this was probably a girl's game rather than a boy's game.

Here is the cats cradle

It is often played with 2 people using one piece of string and each in turn takes it off the other players hands until you can't go any further.

I thought I would remember how to do it as I remember playing it a lot when I was about 10 or 11 but apart from the first figure, the cat's cradle I couldn't get any further.

Youtube to the rescue, I found this excellent video of 2 young girls showing you how to play and they were great !. Here it is if you want to have a go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAZhx5PKgl4

Paper Dolls

Paper Dolls

I thought for a while as it's summer that I'd write a few blogs about childhood games especially ones we used to see being played when I was growing up but rarely see now.It will make a change.

Today I was thinking about paper dolls. I guess it was because I grew up in a time of scarce resources in the 40s and 50s and there were few toys around and not much money to buy the ones that were appearing in the shops.

One of our favorite things to play with were paper dolls. These were dolls that were printed out on cardboard. You cut them out and then had a great time choosing the outfit and accessories they would wear. These all came in a fairly cheap book and were often given as a special treat to little girls. When you got one it would be kept as a favorite toy and the girls would play with them for hours. The clothes would be attached to the doll by paper tags that you bent over the edges of the doll. I remember sometimes the clothes wouldn't stay on very well. I also remember my sister Babs and I playing with them but she, being older and smarter, designed new dresses for her doll by drawing new outfits and painting or coloring them .I can't remember doing that and I was very envious of her as her dolls were always so much prettier than mine.

These paper dolls were so popular that there was even a pop song very popular at the time being played on the radio

You can hear it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RTzIi4e2CI

“The Mills Brother's” sing “ paper Doll.

If you are old enough I bet you even remember the words.

I looked up this game on the web and found out it has been delighting little girls for ages as it was started sometime in the 1800 in France , where else would a game with fashionable clothes get started. It then spread across Europe and also to the Americas. Paper was expensive at that time so often paper was recycled and paper dolls were made from pieces of cardboard and the dresses from old letters.

Now I think little girls get the real thing. I'm not sure you could buy a paper doll book anymore. I wonder if you can.

But it was a lot of fun making your own doll and dresses.

The Last of the Lilies

The Last of the Lilies

This is the last of the paintings of lilies and I kept meaning to do this one for a long time. When you paint in watercolor , it is best if you have 2 painitngs to paint at once as it seems you spend a lot of time waiting for sections to dry . So while I was painting the hibiscus , I was painting this one as well.

I quite like the colors on this one but the format on the paper was not good so I learn a little from each painting I do and hopefully remember that for the next one.It was also difficult to get the background dark enough to provide a good contrast.

No more lilies now till next Spring.

Fireworks on the 4th of July

Fireworks on the 4th of July

The Statue of Liberty reopens tomorrow after being repaired

I have to start by saying I am not really a fan of fireworks. I like the big professional displays and will “Ooh and Ahh” with the rest of the people but the fireworks lit off by just about anyone in various places, leave me cold and even angry sometimes.

All the big cities it seems as well as Washington set up the lovely huge displays on July 4^th and even some larger towns and cities. Unfortunately for us our little town has an ordinance that let's people set off fireworks on their own property but it mustn't go on anyone else's land. Obviously this is an ordinance that can’t be controlled. We always end up with the ends of rockets in our yard. Every year for a couple of days before June 4^th ,then on June 4^th ,and then on and off for a week after June 4^th ,all around us we have bangs and the occasional zipping noise as a rocket fires off into the night. The dogs just hate it and so do I. It has nothing to do with celebrating July 4^th .I hate it on New Years Day, on kid's birthdays and the other times as well.

There is a good reason for this I think. When I was young the fireworks could be bought around Guy Fawkes day, a celebration in November in England. On that day bonfires would be lit and people would gather to sing songs, cheer on the Guy that was burning and throw , you have probably guessed it, Fireworks. I was young and it frightened me badly.

The only other experience I can remember was when my girl guide group had a firework party. I must have been about 12 at the time. We all brought fireworks and dropped them into a cardboard box and then the leader was going to set them off in an orderly way as the party got going. It just so happened that a spark from the very first one that was set off fell into the cardboard box and there was immediate action. It just exploded with so much noise and flaring lights and rockets going in all directions that it was a real miracle that no-one was hurt. We had all dived for cover as soon as the first bang went and kept our heads down for until darkness fell again. It was pretty scary I can tell you.

So I hope all the celebrations all go well tomorrow. I Hope people have a great time celebrating Independence Day . I hope we all have lots of good food to eat and friends to see and a good time. There will be lots of lovely parades,

That's the way it should be celebrated.

Happy Fourth everyone!!