(all photos ©Sometimes, 2018)
A thing of beauty is a joy forever…John Keats
Category: This and That
Here’s the opossum, right on cue
serenity in a shallow brook?
No more kittens…but here’s a possibility
The latest kittens from next door. Barbara has been featured in this blog before…she is a rough and tumble lady that appeared from thin air long ago; she lived in the now defunct greenhouse across the road. Not sure where she lives now, she is very illusive.
[all photos ©Sometimes, 2018}
A Word About Words From the OED
The Oxford English Dictionary remains THE word bible of the English language. The OED is available online, with a Word-of-the-Day feature to which one can subscribe without cost. A full subscription is beyond my budget, and I do respect the OED’s the prohibition against re-posting in its entirety. Anyone can subscribe to the daily word post through the OED web site at http://www.oed.com/ to receive the without-cost daily.
Often these selected words grab my attention for various reasons, not only to find out what they mean, but also as discussion topics.
A recent word that intrigued me especially is — dis-candy — which means literally liquifying or melting candy (lemon drops, or life savers for example,) from its candied/solid state to the sticky gooey mess that sticks to everything when melted.
Shakespeare used the word to good advantage, with a metaphorical meaning, as taking the overly-sweet or romantic useage of cleaning up “purple prose” or misplaced or just overstated descriptions in a line of poetry or speech. English teachers often like to “dis-candy” students’ writing.
My wonder isn’t really the word itself, but the prefix (DIS -candy. ) Some substance that starts out as a sticky-sweet solid that deteriorates into a liquid, or disappears; or a cringe-worthy saccharine sweetness in speech or prose. Upon consideration I suppose that (DE-candy) would have a different connotation, perhaps meaning some of the ingredients or adjectives of said substance (i.e. lollypop,) or line of spoken words would be present originally, but removed from the final product never having existed.
Beside the point, neither of my two little desk go-to-dictionaries: The New Oxford Spelling Dictionary, 2014; nor The Merriam Webster Dictionary New Edition, 2004 include the word dis-candy. My criteria for go-to-dictionaries is that they are small paperbacks that sit on a shelf above my computer and can be retrieved with one hand.
Books of Childhood
In a previous poem I wrote about a gift I received for Christmas, which my mother had concealed in an Oxydol Soap box…a book which our teacher had read out loud to the class. That book, is called Snow Treasure, by author Marie McSwigan, was first published in 1942.
At age eight or nine I was very impressed with this book about Norwegian children who smuggled their town’s gold down mountain, past occupying German troops, to a fiord, where an uncle waited with his ship to whisk the treasure away to safety. The story is said to really have happened.
About 70 years later I obtained a copy of the book that had been discarded by a public library, and available at a book sale. Marveling at my luck, I quickly paid the pittance asked and left with this great treasure of my own.
bringing down the trees: a study in accuracy & precision
I spent most of three days watching the clearing of a 1.8 acre lot which I sold recently. The operation was both sad and fascinating. The company that did this work was efficient, the crews worked magnificently together, and the huge trees fell precisely as intended…where they had stood for a hundred years. (All photos are my own.)
Enter a caption
Housewife Work revisited
Once my youngest son commented that there were tasks that definitely fell under the rubric “Housewife Work.” That immediately got my attention, and the phrase has become part of our family lingo.
One of the things I have always enjoyed about moving household was that it involved clean cupboards, drawers, closets, having been cleared of collections and extra belongings that did not and never did belong to anyone who ever lived in the house. Although I admit there is the occasional “junk drawer,” that defies sorting out and/or disposal of its contents, that arrives intact at the new location.
We have arranged to have a flooring company come in and install vinyl planking in our main living, kitchen and dining room areas. What that entails is packing up the things from the china cabinets, moving all the small furniture like tables and chairs, and moving out the refrigerator, which really moves pretty easily on wheels…and the stove, which has never been moved since it was installed about 17 years ago.
The problem is that all those things removed from the affected areas have to go someplace temporarily.
I do have a lot of stuff, but the bulk of it is books, as I’ve written before. I sell books exclusively online now, but my inventory is housed here, in addition to my personal book collection and thousands of unlisted (that is not in the inventory) titles in the process of being listed. A few years ago I had two bookshops, one at the indoor flea market, the other at an antique mall.
So my dilemma is that before I can accomplish A I need to complete B; and so on from room to room. Sigh. A bit of organization goes a long way, that’s true…so I better get to work.
Writing about it helps to solidify my thought process…such as it is.
The Thing I do Best is Now the Thing I Do FIRST
Trying to follow my own advice…I have been neglecting my blog and that is the thing that bothers me the most….not the blog, but the neglect…. So I dug out this old poem from 2015. (Having said that, I am about to write a post about my current task at hand—contracting with professionals to have my kitchen/ding area and living room re-floored. It is a big expense and a big job, which involves moving a lot of stuff out of the way. stay tuned…
Shifting Priority
I have decided to change my priority
without worrying about inferiority
or the ways of the majority.
No longer will I pretend to put domestic concerns
ahead of my life’s purpose — Writing!
Back in the day any writing I did was secondary
or confined to the secretary’s desk.
For a housewife back then
furtive moments were doled out as rewards
or stray opportunities to pen
wayword words or purloined phrases,
words of wisdom
a note, a word, a reminder
–confined to the backs of envelopes
or shopping lists,
written in pen or pencil…or lipstick
or eyebrow pencil..
Gone are the days when making soup,
baking cookies…
and pies
scrubbing and ironing…
dashing through the store with a grocery cart
all had top priority over the Writing Art.
No frilly little aprons or caps
are needed to fulfill MY kind of Real Work
no pretty cotton dresses
and certainly no high heels!
From now on–I…
View original post 25 more words
Why is it called Latin America? (re-blog with new title)
Q 1 —Why do we hear so little about countries in Central and South America?
Q 2 — Do citizens of all Latin American nations speak Spanish?
Q 3 — What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?
Q. Why do we hear so little about Latin American countries?
For one thing, we Americans tend to get our news from a relative few sources, including local television as the most personal news…about our neighborhood, the city, county and state. Local news bring us details about local sports teams, schools with leaky roofs, who is being arrested or has excelled in something.
The other major news source is cable news like CNN, MSNBC, FOX. These news networks follow major events around the world—almost always from a standpoint of the United States involvement with the current “newsworthy nation.” Friends or foes get the news coverage in order of their relative importance to Washington.
Mexico and Canada tend to get the most news coverage, being our immediate neighbors to the north and south. Other nations, notably Venezuela, which usually has an adversary position with the United States—as one of the chief “bad boys” that are not on the favorites list. Cuba held that position as thorn-in-the-side for more than half a century, and was rewarded with punative embargoes that tried to crush the island’s fortunes.
Why is it called Latin America? Because it was dubbed with that name at various times in History, including by Napoleon and Jose Martí (a Cuban writer) and others for various conversational purposes. The collection of nations included in the designation Latin America were originally settled by the European countries speaking Latin-based (Romance) languages: Spain, England, Portugal, France. Some of the islands in the Caribbean were originally romance-language speakers after colonialization, although others speak Dutch or English..
The Spanish settled all of the South American continent except Brazil, which was and is Portuguese speaking.
The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed at Tordesillas on June 7, 1494, and authenticated at Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa. Following is an excellent Wikipedia.org article about the Treaty of Tordesillas and its lasting influence on the division of the world between the Spanish and Portuguese. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas
Here is an excellent site that I found while researching the above material. http://www.dosmanosnederland.com/en/index.php The succinct but thorough History of Latin America contained here is highly recommended for the casual interest in the region, and provides a good review and timeline.
The Late Great MOBY
Moby was completely black in color, here in his advanced age (17 or so) he has some graying that shows up light in the sunlight. These photos were taken in September 2017. He died in January of 2018. (©Sometimes, 2018)
U.S. Business as usual in Latin America the age of Trumpism
Ever wonder what is going on down South…way down the continent?
No matter what havoc the US wreaks in the world, it is the same method of operation in Latin America…Imperialism is alive and well. Our current leadership in Washington is fully involved in the often-nefarious goings-on, not missing a step in the affairs of the Central and South American countries. The Latin American policies of former administrations: Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, etc., etc. back to the dark ages of U.S. history… are intact under Trump.
TeleSur is a Venezuela news site that daily features news of a myriad of developments from an other-than-Washington point of view. As some of my blogging pals know, my education and background in Latin American History makes me keenly interested in that area of the world.
[NOTE: This particular link is to an opinion piece written for Telesur. While it is <ahem…opinionated> I recommend it as informative and knowledgeable.]
A walk with Sister down back…
The closing date is near, and soon most of these blooming trees in the photos will be gone forever. Not all…the part being sold is about 1.7 acres, but the remaining six or so acres will remain family property. Here are a few of the phots I took the other day when Sister (my calico house cat) and I took a walk to the back, where the highway fence marks the edge of our land. Thanks for tagging along!
before mowing
Poppies & lilacs & rhododendrons O My!
A Rose in the Rain
©Sometimes,2018
