Lady Bug Circus

A Poem

This was written by my daughter when she was 14.

It's dark but humorous. It's one of my favorites.

The girl holds her dolly as tightly as ever

The kitten-shaped cloth she’s owned forever

If only she knew what once he was

The child of a cat, a live ball of fuzz

Killed by a bullet that missed a bear

Drained of its blood and stuffed full of hair

Gave as a present, she loved it so much

From the day of her birth, it’s been in her clutch

She’ll never know why it looks so real

Because if she knew, it might lose its appeal

Now doesn’t it kind of make you think-

A carcass became a doll in a wink

And she’d never guess that it once had a heart

Before her dear Daddy ripped it apart

Paint by Number

We had a little yard sale this weekend. I never tell anyone I know for fear they would show up and find something they gave me with a 50 cent sticker on it. I just can't keep track of who gave me what and when, it will only get worse.The best part was spending time with my daughter on a project that interested her, earning money to spend at an Anime Convention. Anyway I had a stack of paint -by -numbers for sale and people kept asking me if I had done them, which I found horrifying and hysterical funny at the same time. Anyway...

In 1958 my mother was part of an artist's co-op gallery called Village Arts. They had just gotten the place up and running when they received a phone call from an artist who had a body of work he wished to show at their gallery. She and the others were very excited by this prospect, until he came in with his paintings. Yep, you guessed it, they were all paint-by -numbers. Keeping a straight face and turning him down must have been very difficult for my mom. It was a good story though.

Crickets

One summer I longed for the sound of crickets. Remembering back to carefree summers in California as a child, hearing their serenade in the still evening air as we camped in the Napa Valley. The only thing I could think of was to buy a bag of live crickets at a pet store (they sell them as frog food) and release them into our garden. Well I did and nothing happened, not one little chirp all night. Apparently it has to be warmer than it is here for them to make their sweet little sounds. Thank goodness there is this cool web site where I can go and get a hit of the sound I long for. I just wish I could remeber who to thank for turning me on to this site. Stephanie? Was it you?

Butterscotch Brownies

The Joy of Cooking has a great recipe for Butterscotch Brownies. The nice thing about it is, you can whip up a batch with what you (probably already) have on hand. They are delicious.

1/4 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

nuts or not (Sometimes I add peanuts)

Mix butter and brown sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat until sugar is well dissolved. Remove from heat, let cool slightly, then mix in the egg. Once well mixed add the vanilla, salt, flour and baking powder. Stir until well blended, add nuts if you want and pour into a well oiled and floured 8x8 baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Recipe can be doubled. They are soft and chewy (and a little crunchy if you get a side or corner piece).

Doing Laundry at Academia Falcon

The sun is shining in the Great Northwest today and signs of spring are everywhere. One of the things I'm looking forward to is line drying the laundry. Line dried sheets smell so good. Behind the shed in the back yard is where the lines are and it's one of my favorite places to sit. It's like an outdoor room with 3 sides with a garden view. Okay so where is all this going? My sister gave me discs of her photographs of our trip to Guanajuato and I'd like to show you where we did our laundry there.

This is the top of the stairs, just looking at it makes my hands sweat.

Not wanting to carry my dry laundry down the scary stairs, my sister went up and threw my clothes to me one at a time. It was really fun to look up and see the sun lit pieces falling though the air. I miss GTO so much.

On Valentine's day...

...it will be 17 years since this photograph was taken and I wouldn't change a thing.