Category Archives: Blogging

I Want One of These and A Secret Door Bookcase

Spotted this mentioned on Huffington Post today. Emerald Pellot of Little Things shared the DIY You Tube video from I Like To Make Stuff about how to build your own secret door bookcase. I know I couldn’t make it myself but I can still dream. The only thing is I would like it to open into a finished room or secret passageway. That’s why I love those old European castles and big mansions that have these hidden rooms and hidden stairways. It’s pretty hard to duplicate in modern Californian tract houses but it would be fun to try.

Thursday Doors is hosted by Norm Frampton. You can click to read about it and read other interesting posts. Today’s post is dedicated to my coming back from the flu, happy daydreaming, and having my first cup of coffee in a week. Featured image is of Lyme Park ( otherwise known as Pemberley ) by David Dixon on geograph.org.uk.

Imaginary Destination

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I wrote about this imaginary place previously for my post “Spectacular Settings.” This really captures my imagination. I am reposting a part of it. It is the setting from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Mrs. Medlock, the housekeeper, describes the setting ( Misselthwaite Manor) to the main character Mary: “Not but that it’s a grand big place in a gloomy way, and Mr. Craven’s proud of it in his way—and that’s gloomy enough, too. The house is six hundred years old and it’s on the edge of the moor, and there’s near a hundred rooms in it, though most of them’s shut up and locked. And there’s pictures and fine old furniture and things that’s been there for ages, and there’s a big park round it and gardens and trees with branches trailing to the ground—some of them.” She paused suddenly and took another breath. “But there’s nothing else,” she ended suddenly.

Why I like this setting:

I love mysteries and this setting is very mysterious. A six hundred year old mansion on the edge of the moor with a hundred rooms, and most of the rooms closed off. A secret garden, a sad reclusive uncle, and a child heard crying at night. I love when Mary starts to explore the gardens and then one day, when it rains and she can’t go outside, she decides to explore the house. What will she find down all those dark corridors and behind those closed doors?

I would love to go to a place like Misselthwaite Manor and roam around the inside and outside. To find secret rooms and secret gardens. ❤

This post is for Love Is In Da Blog hosted by Bee Halton, prompt 25 February “fantastical destinations.” Book cover image from Houghton Library at Harvard University.

Ain’t I a Woman?

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Ain’t I a Woman?, is the title of a speech given by the African American suffragette and abolitionist who called herself Sojourner Truth. I first read this speech when I was studying Women’s history in my American History course in college. I loved the speech from the first time I read it. We do not have an exact version of the speech which was given on May 29, 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio because it was not recorded word for word but have a version by Frances Gage who was present at the time. In the speech Sojourner says she has never been given any special treatment like some others claim are due to women. And she asks, “Ain’t I a Woman? ”

A text of the speech and some history.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The Prompt for today was to use a contraction at the beginning and end of our posts.

Five things to know about #HarperLee

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via Five things to know about #HarperLee.

Harper Lee died Thursday February 18, 2016. Sad news. Here’s a post from Smithsonian with a few interesting facts about the author. I can never forget “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The Old Tire Swing

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The first house I can remember was up in Clear Lake. I don’t remember very much just a few snippets of my life then. I do remember the tire swing that was tied to tall tree at the front of the house by long ropes. It wasn’t just an old hard rubber circle but the rubber had been cut from a large balloon tire. The swing was more like a bucket style. I have a memory of my older brother pushing me in that swing higher and higher and up over the roof of the house. My parents were upset to see through the back picture window my feet popping out over the roof.

I get tired of all the hyperbole and contention when we have a presidential election year in this country. The debates, debates and more debates. I know it is important for our democracy to have an exchange of ideas but my make up is such that I do not like arguments and confrontation. It’s not that I can’t get on my own soapbox but these debates are uncomfortable to watch with all the gotcha stuff from the candidates and the press. I am not convinced debates helps us really know what the candidates are about. They just show us who can score more points in a debate by embarrassing his/her opponent.

During the Dust Bowl days and the great migration of the people from the dust bowl states to California there were many people from Oklahoma coming to our state of California. They were called Okies by many people here. The Grapes of Wrath describes what it was like for people then. I have an early memory of these country people living up the road from us in Clear Lake. I went up to their house with my mother and all these men were sitting on the front porch, dressed in black suits with somber looks. Holding shotguns with blood hounds laying at their feet. I remember feeling a bit frightened of them as we stepped up on the porch to visit the woman of the house. I don’t know why we went there that day. Maybe to say hello or bring her something. Sometimes the woman would visit my mother. My mother said the woman would say she had to get home to make dinner. My mother said she knew she was just going home to make potatoes.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Our word for today is “tire.” Featured Image is “End of the Road” by Don Graham on Flickr. I want to include his caption here:

“One of the remaining stretches of Old Route 66 runs from Kingman, AZ to Wiliams, AZ. About midway between is the almost gone town of Hackberry. Just outside of town, a man in restoring what used to be a popular stop along the route. There is a gas station and general store. Nearby lies a broken down ruin of an old travel court. Often, when the Okies were following the Mother Road to their promised land in California, their old car would break down. Not having the money to fix it, they would park it and trade the gas station owner for a few nights in a cabin. That is what this scene reminds me of.” (Don Graham)

I want to participate in Love Is In Da Blog Stream of Consciousness as well and contribute my post to Bee Halton’s site Just Fooling Around With Bee. I want you all to know that I do LOVE stream of consciousness writing. I find it does free up my creativity and I can take it where it wants to go. And you never know where you will end up. I am often pleasantly surprised and I hope you are too.

A Murmuration of Starlings

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The unique patterns that the birds form as they flock together is called a murmuration. Isn’t that a wonderful sounding word? I was inspired to write this post after seeing a photo story in the LA Times. I had never heard of a murmuration. Is it because it is like a soft whisper that can be lost in all the daily noise?

Sharing this with all my readers and Love Is In Da Blog hosted by Just Fooling Around with Bee

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I’m All Thumbs (and fingers)

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“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.”

The Santa Anna winds are blowing and are forecast for next week in the LA area. We are also having high temperatures into the 80s by Monday. We don’t believe in Winter in LA. I do not like the Santa Annas. They are dry, hot winds that make me edgy and itchy. They can promote wild fires.

Is a thumb a finger? A thumb is one of our five digits but we call it a thumb and not a finger. It is good we have thumbs because they enable us to do many things but if we had all thumbs we would be clumsy. Thus the expression “I’m all thumbs! ”

Fingers and thumbs are called digits. I wish I could perform some prestidigitation and make the Santa Annas disappear. ALAKAZAM!

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Image by Pixabay.com

An is for Anacapa

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Anacapa Island is part of the Channel Island chain off the coast of Southern California. On a fairly clear day you can see the Channel Islands from the coast. They are not far yet are a world away from the mainland in their environment. I have heard their names, Anacapa, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Miguel, and Santa Rosa , but have never visited them. Anacapa’s name comes from a Chumash Native American Indian name for the island, Anypakh. The Chumash lived on these islands in olden times. Reading a bit about these islands from the National Park Service website, I would like to see about planning a trip there one day. There are animals and plants located on these islands that can’t be found anywhere else. Anacapa is home for seabirds, like the California Brown Pelican and Western Gull, sea lions and harbor seals. There is interesting history to be learned about the human inhabitants as well. Like Frenchy LeDreau who lived on Anacapa from the 1920s to the mid 1950s alone in a cabin with his cats. He lived off fishing and sold lobsters to get supplies and liquor. Frenchy’s Cove is named after him. The lighthouse on this island was a welcome beacon for ships navigating the Santa Barbara Channel. Reading about Anacapa makes me think about what a wonderful gift our National Parks are to all of us.

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Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Images in slideshow provided by NPS website and/or Wikimedia.

Odd and Even Patterns

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This is Stream of Consciousness Saturday (try typing that real fast) and today our prompt is/are the words “odd and/or even”. Don’t ask me why but this made me think of the fact that if you add two odd numbers together you get an even number for the answer, always. Then I remembered an exercise we did in the Teaching program I was in back in 2009 or so. It was the Math Class for teachers on ways to teach math concepts to Elementary and Middle School students. I am sure many people are aware that there are all these new ways of teaching Math that are different from the ways we learned. One thing that was fascinating to me was this little exercise we did on patterns. When I told my instructor about how fascinating it was to me, she told me that some Mathematicians spend their time just studying patterns. It is kind of like this mysterious, mystical, metaphysical thing. Like “Suitcase” would say in the Jessie Stone series, “The information is out there.”

Part of the exercise from the Math book was start with the number 3 then jump by 5s and write down the numbers until about 130. I did it this morning until 133. Then it says notice as many patterns as you can. I noticed that 3 and 8 keep alternating as the last digit. Now if you add the double and triple digits of the numbers and write your answer over the number you will notice another pattern, (start with 3 again)….3, 8, 4, 9, 5, 10, 6, 11, 7, 12, 8, 13, 9, 14, 10, 15…and so on. Every other number increases by one. AAAAhhh! Just kidding, I think. I did another one starting at 1 and jumping by 3s. I noted that the pattern of second digit repeating does not begin until you reach 31. I could probably experiment with these patterns all day.

Maybe I will just count by 2s and say we are even. 🙂

Ulam’s Spiral via Wikipedia

While looking for a number chart I found Ulam’s Spiral. If you read about Ulam’s Spiral it is kind of spooky. Maybe he was abducted by aliens. He doodled this and found out the prime numbers fall on diagonals. Then some mathematicians came up with a formula for it.

Steam of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill.

What is this thing called love?

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What Is This Thing Called Love? by Cole Porter

I was a humdrum person
Leading a life apart
When love flew in through my window wide
And quickened my hum-drum heart
Love flew in through my window
I was so happy then
But after love had stayed a little while
Love flew out again

What is this thing called love?
This funny thing called love?
Just who can solve its mystery?
Why should it make a fool of me?
I saw you there one wonderful day
You took my heart and threw it away
That’s why I ask the Lord in Heaven above
What is this thing called love?

You gave me days of sunshine
You gave me nights of cheer
You made my life an enchanted dream
‘Til somebody else came near
Somebody else came near you
I felt the winter’s chill
And now I sit and wonder night and day
Why I love you still?

Lyrics via Metro Lyrics.com

“What is this thing called love? That’s why I ask the Lord in Heaven above, what is this thing called love?” So mysterious. What is it that makes people fall in love with each other, pheromones? Recognition of souls? The other person has the attributes that we are missing? Oh well, this song makes me want to fall in love.

I love the music that go along with the lyrics. Here’s Ella Fitzgerald on You Tube via carinaG Sorensen:

Cole Porter wrote many other great songs that are so romantic. I really like the movie De-Lovely with Kevin Kline as Cole Porter and Ashley Judd as his wife Linda. OK, you tell me, what is this thing called love? And what are some of your favorite Cole Porter songs?

A little extra Cole Porter song, “Night and Day” by Billie Holliday on You Tube via RoundMidnight TV: