All Purls. No Swine.
Cross-posted from Ricochet: Oh, “dear, dear, dear.” I tried out that phrase, beloved of my father when dealing with a screaming infant, on my 18-month-old niece a few days ago. She immediately picked it up and responded, “deoo, deoo, deoo,” thus instituting the first two-way conversation we’ve ever had, even if only over the phone. I’m… Continue reading Music Hall Memories
My head kept telling me she wouldn’t live forever, but my heart simply would not believe it: Patricia Helen Mead Muffett, July 13, 1923–December 10, 2022, Rest in Peace. It’s the first time for a little more than one-hundred fifteen years, that neither my Dad, nor at least one of his siblings, has walked the… Continue reading Ave Atque Vale: Goodbye, Miss Chips
With the recent devastation wrought on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island by the remnants of last week's Hurricane Fiona, and the current emergency as Florida is inundated by Hurricane Ian, I thought I'd dust off a post from a couple of years ago about a great storm from the nineteenth century, almost exactly 171… Continue reading The Yankee Gale
My mother-in-law, Geraldine Zbozny, died fifteen years ago today. Here's a reprise of a post I've published annually for the past few years: It’s been fifteen years since my mother-in-law passed away, and perhaps it’s time to tell a bit of her story. Geraldine Virginia was born on May 13, 1918. She’d have been 104… Continue reading A Mother-In-Law For the Ages
Those words were spoken by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, to the family members of those who perished on September 11, 2001. And I’ve often thought she must have been channeling C.S. Lewis at the time: To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.… Continue reading “Grief is the price we pay for love”–September 11, 2022
A post from a few years ago on Ricochet. It was published just prior to Christmas, on the anniversary (December 10) of Edward's abdication. I offer it again today, on this second day of the four-day-long-weekend celebration of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee for several reasons. First, it's true. Second, today (June 3, 2022) is the… Continue reading Before There Was Harry and Meghan . . . There Was Edward and Wallis
On this April 16, 2022, a day that would have been my grandmother Molly's 124th birthday, I bring back a post originally published five years ago today, on Ricochet. Nothing's changed. My grandmother Molly could be a rather stern old lady. She was born when Queen Victoria was still on the throne, on April 16,… Continue reading On Granny. Oh, and On Chocolate, Too. And a Few Other Things As Well
During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world were discussing whether any one belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for… Continue reading Amazing Grace–A Lenten Post
So there I was a day or two ago, still in the rather miserable late stages of recovering from Covid, snuggled under the heated blanket with Psymon sitting on my lap (not so much, TBPC, because it was my lap, but because–heated blanket–hello?), watching an old episode of NCIS which had fetched up on one… Continue reading “Close Your Eyes. Think of Everything Good”
I've mentioned before how much I enjoy Ammo Grrrll's Friday morning posts on Powerline. Today's post, Make New Friends, and Keep the Old, is no exception. Her fond recounting of some of the entries in "Mama Dorothy's autograph book" put me in mind of this post I wrote on Ricochet eight (!) years ago about… Continue reading Roses are Red . . . Jokes, Adages, Sayings