Sunday Quote

In the house made of dawn.
In the story made of dawn.
On the trail of dawn.
O, Talking God!
His feet, my feet, restore.
His limbs, my limbs, restore.
His body, my body, restore.
His mind, my mind, restore.
His voice, my voice, restore.
His plumes, my plumes, restore.
With beauty before him, with beauty before me.
With beauty behind him, with beauty behind me.
With beauty above him, with beauty above me.
With beauty below him, with beauty below me.
With beauty around him, with beauty around me.
With pollen beautiful in his voice, with pollen beautiful
in my voice.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
In the house of evening light.
From the story made of evening light.
On the trail of evening light.

- Navajo, Native American Tradition, The OneWorld Book of Prayer

Beannachd Dia dhuit

May your toes turn to fingers...

And your fingers turn to toes...the old Clarkson birthday cake curse.
Hope the angels can make your special cake just like you like it but if not, they can ask Mom to help out. Happy Birthday, Dad.

Eat Pray Loved This.

I was not on the Eat, Pray, Love bandwagon - glanced at the beginning at the book and heard the Oprah buzz and was, frankly, put off by the rich girl goes on trek to find herself hype...but I may be picking up that book again and looking at it in a more open, give it a chance way since stumbling across this talk by the author Elizabeth Gilbert - which is not just a wonderful and witty and intelligent and thoughtful and inspiring look at creativity - but also something I needed to hear at this specific time of old things rising and new things approaching and all the in between.

Nice place to have morning coffee

or afternoon tea or evening glass of wine, heck, a glass of water and that view would be pretty swell, too.

Sunday Quote

My name is Sluggery-wuggery
My name is Worms-for-tea
My name is Swallow-the-table-leg
My name is Drink-the-Sea.

My name is I-eat-saucepans
My name is I-like-snails
My name is Grand-piano-George
My name is I-ride-whales.

My name is Jump-the-chimney
My name is Bite-my-knee
My name is Jiggery-pokery
And Riddle-me-ree, and ME.

by Pauline Clarke

Bliss, not necessarily in that order

The good old days of good old phones

The sky was exceptionally pretty - see the husband take a shot with his new bff. I have been taking many photos of him taking photos with his Droid to amuse myself. People with these new phones - apple or droids or whatever cannot seem to just tell you they are on the phone. They have to say they are on their droid. Or their i-phone. (I think it's called i-phone). I personally miss the days of phones with cool shapes and a dial that was real and a receiver you could tuck under your neck so you could do stuff with your hands like wash the dishes. A phone attached to the wall so you didn't have phones tethering you to the mundane world and no answering machines cause if you weren't home you were out and just call back later, alright? Sigh. I miss the quiet of stores and restaurants and libraries and the park where people did not have their phones constantly ringing and were not talking talking talking all the time on their phones. I miss manners - where people were not calling you and then you hear the background flush of the toilet, I mean, really. Really? Really! I miss that a phone call was a special thing. I miss that people didn't call each other just to list the contents of the grocery store's dairy aisle because they don't know how to put together a list. And I miss payphones. They are disappearing from the landscape. I miss the one's with the cool glass doors like in the movie The Birds because it turned making a simple phone call into something that felt cool and mysterious even if you were just calling home to tell your Mom you missed the train.
But enough gripes, this fountain was really pretty as were the patio views the other night. There is still a lot of pretty out there even with all the endless ringing and yakking.

Best of Westchester bash

A fun evening last Weds, the annual Best of bash put out by Westchester Magazine was at the Glen Island Harbour Club - thanks to Trudy for the veep tickets! There were booths with samples and treats galore and models of both animal print and stiletto heels variety and a gorgeous view of the shoreline (the better to sit and sip a drink by) and great people watching with a rocking good band. The husband picked up about a zillion cards and menus of restaurants that wooed him with samples that he wants to try, all and all, different and fun. And of course, heaven for me, a parking lot pic of the sky in a puddle, just the sort of thing that I adore :)

Sunday Quote

O Thou
who hast given me eyes
to see the light
that fills my room,
give me the inward vision
to behold thee in this place.

O Thou
who hast made me to feel
the morning wind upon my limbs,
help me to feel thy Presence
as I bow in worship of thee.

-Hinduism: Chandra Devanesen, The OneWorld Book of Prayer

Last of Roy Rogers round-up

My mother used to tell me the story of how she tried to get me interested in sunglasses. She and my sister looked very Audrey Hepburn glam wearing theirs and my mother wanted me to wear them as well...my reply to her, around age ten or eleven, was no thanks, I want to squint like Roy Rogers.
I got a huge kick out of seeing all these treasures from the now closed Roy Rogers and Dale Evans museum, meeting Dusty their son, showing my little boy all the cool stuff - he dug it all, especially the car - who wouldn't, and for some reason a wall of badges (not seen here)and to my surprise, the dining room table with cowboy motif china really rocked his world. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed this small blast from the past.

fancy cowboy and cowgal duds

one of these days...

I will learn how to do something on blogger that will allow me to post as many photos as I want on one entry...until then, here they are bit by bit....when we were in the city, passing Christie's, and saw the horse in the window and went over to investigate - well, I had no idea mere mortals could just stroll in to Christie's much less take photos (hey, I asked, guards said okay), and look around. The auction was tonight but I was out at the Best of Westchester Party so I put in a bid on some cool rings Dale Evans owned. An absentee bid. I felt like Donald Trump. Bidding at Christie's, little ole me. Imagine that? Not a chance I will win but it really is more the experience and thrill of playing in the same fields as the gentleman my son overheard remarking to the other that he was going to start the car bid at about two million. Well, yeah.

Where's my cowboy boots?

Yes, that is Trigger and Bullet and yes, they are stuffed. I remember reading about the horse some time ago but didn't know about the dog. Also didn't know you could go into Christie's where this pre-auction viewing is being held and just roam about. Really really interesting and the people there are very nice. Have a lot of additional photos except they will have to wait until tomorrow when it is not time to go to sleep. I loved Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as a kid.

Lego NYC

We also hit up the Lego store by Rockefeller Center - more of an accident as we were aiming for something else but serendipity intervened...we like the Lego replica of the Center and the all Lego Atlas, but James mad for the large and yes, all Lego, dragon because he wondered how it stayed up (glue? duct tape? crossed fingers?). Fun people watching, happy kids building Legos and playing Lego games upstairs and adults looking burnt out entirely, cross-eyed with exhaustion. Of course, some adults really get into legos themselves.

Times Squared Rain

The plan was to run in to NYC for a couple of hours since the youngest wanted to go back to the M&M store his friend took him to...does a little rain stop such a quest? Nah...but really, three levels in a store all about M & M's? Kind of frightening to note what people will buy - like I should talk, letting the boy pick out sweets that would cost half in the local grocery. Note to manufacturer - the ones with the pretzels inside really need to make it to the outside world. More on our wet and humid travels later...got a date to make a pie.

Flower Power