FAMILY

The International Day of Families is observed on the 15th of May every year. The Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 with resolution A/RES/47/237 and reflects the importance the international community attaches to families. The International Day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families

In honour of the day, I'm borrowing some vintage photographs of families, identities unknown, from my husband's collection at Lost Gallery and Flickr

If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.
Thich Nhat Hanh quotes (Vietnamese Monk, Activist and Writer. born 1926)

The family is one of nature's masterpieces.
George Santayana

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life! ~Albert Einstein

The Only child?

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.
Alex Haley

Proud Relatives of Sons "called to arms"?

A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold. ~Ogden Nash

"The occasional animal" (+ my husband's caption)

Oh. I was just looking for my um...ball. Yeah, that's it. Pork chop? No. No, I haven't seen any pork chop.

Weekend with the Waistdeeps

While I wait, and try not to worry, and imagine, and obsess, here's something from the husband's huge collection of vintage photographs. A few years ago he took to writing fanciful fun narratives to some of the photographs. Not everybody "gets" this type of wackiness, but I enjoy it - always have -I guess that's partly how we originally latched on to one another! ;-)

It was to be a work-free week-end in the hills at the famous Woodsnipe Walls Manor for the members of the Waistdeep Nature Club. After gathering for the get-away in the gilded grand foyer, the group wandered out on the grounds for this group picture to commemorate the great event.

Just as the photographer yelled “pose” someone pinched the butt of Geary Stype, standing third from the right. Geary obviously suspects Gilda Goldflue standing just to his left. Gilda is ignoring him, of course. Geary did not see the guilty grin on Baldwin Molepost, just to his right. Actually Baldwin is grinning because he is secretly wearing a tie fashioned from a scarf belonging to Caldera Soo (standing, far left). Caldera designed her own blouse, hat and matching scarf. This morning her scarf went missing.Caldera, it must be noted is standing next to B. F. D. Blasko the well known vampire and vacuum cleaner repairman. They are not related.

The women of course perceived immediately that there were not enough men to go around. The men, of course, in typical masculine fashion, perceived that there were not enough women to go around.

All the girls are wearing hats for identification purposes.

Inside, the cook was making celery soup and singing "Heart and Soul” along with the wireless which was playing, “Night on Bald Mountain” by the Harmonicats.

Someone noted later in green ink, that Ivie Leak (seated fourth from left) was not a Waistdeep Nature Club member at all but an undercover writer for Popular Séance magazine.

But then, that’s another story, isn't it?

As reported by my husband, anyjazz.

Salmagundi on Saturday-Sunday

Nevada and South Carolina are in the news this weekend.

Primary caucuses are being held in Nevada on Saturday. Weeks ago word was that Hillary Clinton had a clear advantage in the state, but lately it's being reported that the race has "tightened", as Bernie Sanders appears to have caught up considerably. There's a whiff of change in the air these days, I'm anxious for it to grow, and Nevada's result will be a guide as to the depth and breadth of that whiff of change. On the Republican side it'd seem Nevada with glitzy Las Vegas embedded would be a shoe-in for Donald Trump. The area though, glitzy as it is, has a huge working class population who cater to the tourist industry.

Las Vegas, Nevada has more hotel rooms than any other city on earth. Of the top 25 largest hotels in the world, 15 are in Las Vegas.

State of Nevada has voted for the winning presidential candidate 96 percent of the time since all Lower 48 states first voted in the Election of 1912. During the past 100 years, Nevada has voted for the winner in every election except for 1976 when Jimmy Carter lost the Silver State by a narrow margin. (Ohio is the only state that has voted for the winning Presidential candidate in each Presidential election in the last 50 years)
(HERE)

South Carolina holds its Republican primary Saturday too, Democrats must wait until next Saturday for their SC primary. Will Donald Trump retain his lead...will Ted Cruz make gains? I know nothing at all about South Carolina, except that one of my favourite movies Prince of Tides is partly set there. Reportedly Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump still hold big, possibly insurmountable, leads in this southern state.

In other news

The mystery of MH370 lingers on...and on ...and on

From news.com.au

10 weeks until the search for the plane is expected to end after a year-long mission. If officials fail to find the wreckage, it throws up the possibility that a rogue pilot was controlling the aircraft at the end.

According to The Times, Australian officials are preparing to change their theory of what actually happened before it disappeared.

The 60,000sq km search area, which is almost the size of England, was calculated on the assumption that the plane was a “ghost flight” and that its pilots were either incapacitated or dead at the time it crashed. In this scenario the aircraft flew on autopilot until its fuel ran out and it crashed into the Indian Ocean.

But if the plane is not found in this area, it may suggest someone was controlling the flight at the end and managed to glide the aircraft for up to 160km, beyond the bounds of the search area. The “rogue pilot” theory suddenly comes back into play.

Unfortunately, if the plane is not found in the next few months, the world may never know what happened to flight MH370. Australia, Malaysia and China agreed last year to end the search if they reached the end of the zone without finding the plane.

On a lighter note

From husband's vintage photos "Talking Pictures" section at Flickr



Husband's caption:
Earle Smith and Vera at the 828 house.
Vera wore her pointed paper hat of invisibility. Earle kept his club ready, just in case. He knew all her tricks, he thought.

Alternative caption suggested by Michael Donovan
"So, he wants to make you his common-law wife, does he? Well, I've give him some common-law wife right up the you-know-where if he shows his ugly mug around here again!"

Another alternative by Debbie Irwin
He knew the little pest would be back. Those pointy headed fairies had had their way with him for the last time. He had the idea that this club in his hand was not the "fairy chaser" the dealer had convinced him it was. In time, he would build his own. He feels the victory is near. It is his time, by God. IT IS *HIS* TIME!!!

And from the always chuckle-worthy Wrong Hands by John Atkinson (borrowed after the hopefully adequate donation of a tip for requested "cup of coffee"):

I'm going with:
EDGY - ALIEN - TIME TRAVELS - SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
(Thereby hangs a tale?)

Weekend Bits & Pieces

Here's a quiz to try: How dark is your personality? - 5 minute test.

Astrology could be said to have a metaphorical link to colour. Colour, I am reliably informed by my husband, has hue (the actual colour), chroma (the intensity or brilliance), shade (greyness from added black ) and tint(added white)...all factors carried forward when any mixing of colours takes place. See?

Netflixing: Recently we've watched Uncanny - very interesting movie about AI (artificial intelligence). There are twists, some more obvious than others. It's the kind of movie where a second viewing is indicated, after searching online for commentary about what was missed.

We re-watched Primer but found it even more confusing than on first viewing. Seeking information on the net just scrambled my brain some more.

We've also binge-watched (13 episodes over a few evenings) the TV series Zoo. Very good story, if scary at times. Premise: the animals of Earth have said "enough is enough" and turn on humans. Why? That's the mystery to be solved. It's cleverly filmed with, inevitably, CGI and is generally well performed by some little known (to us) actors.

Expressions _ Just one look...
(Borrowed from husband's vintage photograph collection, in his "Talking Pictures" album at Flickr - see sidebar link)

You're gonna regret this.

 

 Take off my WHAT?

Then, Nola noticed an interesting odor.

You think so? Wait'll you see this!

 Wanna see what I got in my pocket?

We haf ways to make you talk.

I gotta quit drinkin'.

 

Donkey Talk

Husband uncharacteristically failed to write a caption for this vintage photograph from his collection. He says he concentrated on the fact that some colouriser, at some point had been tinkering with it, and coloured just the trees.

For a bigger version (recommended) click on the image, the bigger image which appears can be made even larger (if your screen is up to it) by clicking on the down-pointing arrow (at far right) under the photo. A selection of sizes is offered there.



My brain's not at what it calls its best today - too many pills, but I've come up with:

Donkey to another donkey: Her skirt tickles...but if she ever takes that hat off, I'm eating those flowers.

Other Donkey: We trek 50 yards, then a photograph? I suppose these people think they're doing the Great Outdoors thing. Pike's Peak this ain't! Snort!

First donkey: Hey, have you noticed something funny about the trees round here?

Anybody willing to help out with something a tad better?

PATCHWORK POST

Kicking off with a (slightly edited) patch from my 2008 archive:

Collective nouns can be fun and creative. For a collection of them, see here. From that list I like these deviations from the more common herd, flock, swarm: a congress of baboons, a scold of jays, an exaltation of larks, a nuisance of cats, an ostentation of peacocks, a murder of crows, a murmuration of starlings.

Just for fun, I've chosen twelve new collective nouns - one for each zodiac sign, for descriptive use in a natal chart where a cluster (collective noun = stellium) of planets appears in one zodiac sign; alternatively these could be used by followers of Sun sign astrology, to describe a group of people who share the same Sun sign.

A rush of Aries
An affluence of Taurus
A chatter of Gemini
A nest of Cancer
A parade of Leo
An exactitude of Virgo
An arbitration of Libra
A collusion of Scorpio
A magnification of Sagittarius
An institution of Capricorn
A current of Aquarius
A mirage of Pisces

And to pull together the whole caboodle:
A cadence of zodiac signs!

Whenever we're out and about, on the road, and notice an old decaying house, husband stops to take a photograph. There are several of these in his Flickr section "Rust and Ruin". Three such photographs inspired him to write a few lines of suitably melancholy prose, which I especially admire. He's not normally a melancholy guy, but gazing on the houses in his photographs, what other reaction could there have been?

Here they are:

We Moved Away

We built our house, we made our home;
Of laughing sounds and cookie smells,
Of warming thoughts and gentle touch.
We had such lovely plans to stay.
And then,
We moved away.

Time Was.

She sat quietly a moment longer. His gaze drifted to a shadowed corner of the room.
The summer air shuffled the sounds of the day through the open window, somehow adding to the awkward density of the moment, adding to the pale silence between them.

Finally she stood, her hands dutifully smoothing the wrinkles in her skirt. “I must leave now,” she said. “I must go.” She forced a smile and turned toward him.

He continued to stare at a faded spot in the wallpaper.

In her mind she was already walking away.

Another day.

Dusty sunbeams filtered through the uneven window blinds beside his bed. He sat up and rubbed his eyes with his palms. There was a dark and heavy pain inside him. It was the loneliness he knew would grow and consume him before day’s end. He hoped again that this would be the last day, just as he had hoped yesterday and the day before and the weeks before.

As the edges of his reality warmed to the day, he told himself to think of something else; anything else. But he was already thinking of her.

The 2014 entry on The Arrow of Time is up now - if you haven't seen this from my links in previous years, take a look now - it's fascinating, and sweet.

Cute!

While snooping around husband's Flickr page I noticed this vintage photograph from his collection - it reminded me immediately of a painting featured in yesterday's Arty Farty post on Maxfield Parrish:

 Ecstasy

What a clever idea for passing on important messages/lessons! I'm wondering what else, related to modern technology (and otherwise), could be passed using variations of this idea..

Final patch ~ How do you know you're shopping in Texas?



Oops!! In my love-hate affair with Texas, one of the things I love about Texans is their ability to laugh at themselves.

Boots and Hat.....

The cowboy, familiar icon of The American West - Old West. Cowboys, real ones, still exist, but fairly tame versions of the 20th century Hollywood cowboy. Best thing about classic cowboy image is the work-wear: great boots, snug jeans, big belt buckle, and best of all the hat. It's probably a bit on the adolescent side, but I still do get a thrill when I see a guy dressed in what's come to be known as "western wear". It underlines for me the fact that I really am where I am - which still surprises me again and again even after going on 10 years! How the heck did I get here? How did that happen? Is it some crazy dream?

My husband and his family are definitely not into the western wear thing. I sometimes get the feeling that they don't like it one little bit. Familiarity breeding contempt perhaps? I suppose the politics of our area might have something to do with it, but much as that bothers me too, on one level (actually I loathe and despise it), I can still enjoy the sight of a guy in western wear and the sound of good ol' country music (not modern country-pop music). I must have inadvertently fallen into this weird "love" back in the UK, while watching TV series such as Lonesome Dove, Centennial, maybe even Dallas had a hand in it too.

Considering the areas through which most of our road trips have wandered and locations of antique stores where husband has found his vintage photographs, it's surprising that he has hardly any featuring cowboy types. I guess real cowboys didn't go much on having photographs taken; they'd be out on some line camp, alone with the cows and coyotes for much of the time.

This one started young....



Did he grow up like this?




Some of the fun comments on the above at Flickr, 3 years ago:

fulvue
I'm a lineman for the county......

anyjazz
And the banker never wears a mac in the pouring rain.

fulvue
Very strange!

moos
Holy cow! I've seen lots of denim clad butts - but this one takes the beefcake!

anyjazz65
Ain't he a peach? Beats a poke in the eye and bein' snowed in.

cowgirlrightup
I could use one of those....:) Moos sent me. Happy New year!

moos
I just commented to a flickr friend that he's probably at least eighty by now. But you know, if he still likes to clean. . . just ignore the Copenhagen drool.

gebodogs
He fills out his jeans nicely too.

gebodogs
Oh, and I'd like one too....one that does floors and cooks.

anyjazz
It's all in how you train them, girls. This one is obviously house broke.

Jean Albus
The laundry is not what I noticed first. :) Happy New Year, Karen. xo

anyjazz
Yeah, I spotted the jug of moonshine by the steps first.

These four guys were obviously horsin' around for the camera in borrowed outfits




Here's a real live example snapped by husband in a small town not far from home:




Wonder if one of those hats would suit an ol' Yorkshire gal?