Friday Mutterings

Weekend weather

Taking a cue from Toni and doing some 'Unconscious Mutterings'.

Happy Weekend!

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Familiar ::       smile
2. Style ::           maven
3. More than ::   anything!
4. Glistening ::    snow
5. Obstruction :: Construction
6. Orifice ::        Shmorifice
7. Hugely ::        relieved
8. Tempest ::      in a teapot
9. Sauce ::        Hunter
10. Herbs ::        de Provence

Whatever you mutter about this weekend I hope it will bring happy results.
 

Thursday ...

It is 8 O'clock in the morning and I sit here eating an apple and drinking a cup of hot  steaming  Orange Pekoe tea from Ceylon ,my favorite kind and wonder if going back to bed is a good idea.  I am very sleepy.

Outside the day has a fall look to it with overcast silver skies and wet, gradually changing leaves. Touches of red and gold are already popping up. More and more each day.
The days go from chilly to downright warm as nature decides which suits her fancy and you never really know what to wear.
  Late last night the  first of the true Indian Summer storms  arrived complete with noise.
   A resounding clap of thunder and then rain  falling off and on until  early this morning .   Now, as the sun rises  higher in the sky drops are still falling from the Rhododendron by my office window and splashing on the ground one by one.
A frog is being very vocal for this time of year, complaining about the weather perhaps. You can never be sure with frogs. They are inscrutable and defy every attempt to interpret them. A laugh, a frown all look the same on those squishy green faces.

It is pitch black here at night.  It can be somewhat eery  to poke your head out the back door and see blackness all around, yet here the rain pounding on the pond and falling through the changing leaves.
It can be chilling to hear the scream of a fox in the middle of the night too.
The wind ruffles through the trees and they almost seem alive and whispering to you.
But after the rain you can smell the scent of salt and cedar in the air.  It's refreshing and wonderful.
What's it like where  you are?

Lunch Time

Kids, especially boys who play sports, are rebelling against the new school lunches, which, frankly wouldn't fill a bird let alone a growing boy who expends thousands of calories playing football. Growing girls in sports would need more too. So, they made this video. It is a lot of fun. Kids are now even selling black market foods at school.
The video is really cute.
That's free enterprise for you.

School Daze

 

This post is a bit different than usual.  Would you  please bear with me while I rant a bit?
I just heard a news report on American education on the news channel. They interviewed some legislator or other. His solution? Longer school days. Longer school year. Begin the day earlier and stay later. Ugh! Kids fall asleep now from lack of sleep. 
Children up through their teens need 10-12 hours of sleep a night. Longer hours, longer year? More isn't better.
 
 In the days of the one room school house, there was no high tech but kids learned.
 Laura Ingalls Wilder lists a typical school day. 
Part of it was adding up columns of numbers like this: 1239+5393+2987+7653= .. in your head.
 Talk about how to develop memory skills and create orderly thinking. 
They learned Latin. Latin is a sure way to increase brain power and that is well proven in studies.
Latin study increases vocabulary and understanding. 
Studies show that children learning at a low level rapidly advance when taught Latin and that reading comprehension increases dramatically. (Valdosta State U research)
 I taught my daughter Latin in her last two years of home school. 
Before that she attended both religious school and public school. The home school day was 3 hours long.  
 
  I think teachers need to be allowed to teach. They are not stupid. They have some great ideas but I think too much interference stands in their way. 
Can there be methods? Children are individuals. Methods might suggest a path but I think teachers must be free to judge the needs of the children in their care.
Today teachers are required to have so much education it isn't funny.
I had teachers who never set foot in a university and two who attended what was called "normal school".
They were great teachers. 
Teaching is a talent. 
I have watched the education of the Famous Anonymous Kid.       Her teachers have been stellar.
 The only fault I have found with education is the failure to teach penmanship and to insist on proper grammar, spelling and structure in their reports, etc. (This from the Queen of  impossible paragraph messes.  I seem to try and mess them up as much as possible. )
 And let kids fail. They will learn in life soon enough that not working leads to failure. We aren't talking about kids who try and just can't seem to keep up. That is a whole other story. But if they don't or won't do the work they need to be allowed to reap the rewards.
Let them also learn that failure is not the end. They can pick themselves up and do better.   Let them know how many great men failed but did not allow it to stop them. 
We need to redefine failure, however.   Right now it has a dead end feel to it that is unreasonably harsh.

One year I got a call from one son's physics teacher about giving him a 'D' for not handing in his work. She was so very upset over it. 
When I told her " go for it!" if that was the grade he worked for, she was speechless. 
After  a long silence she said, "Oh, thats great. Thank you. I was so worried. Families today demand good grades."  
It was not easy on him. He was an honor student and it ruined his record.  But it taught him that things aren't given to you. You must work to achieve things.
Well we all want our children to work hard and do well,  but I want good grades  from the child, not from the teacher!  She's already proven herself scholastically.

And, I am more worried about the citizenship grades on the other side of the report card than anything.

 I would love to see school systems bring in their retired teachers and seek their counsel and advice.    There would be a wealth of great ideas there.  The experts never seem to get it right but the 'experts' they go to are never teachers themselves!

 I know.. complain, complain. 

 Just an aside:  When writing the post I toyed with the possibility of using html  brackets around the word 'rant' to open and close the post just to add a little fun to  the look.
I should know better. 
It can be done as a joke but not as I did it and being too lazy to bother, I just went on without bothering.
Well in checking the post and it's html Blogger did indeed turn 'rant' into an

the html of this post click to enlarge

html command.
Every single sentence in the html of this post begins and ends with  rant  /rant.
See? Blogger know when I am ranting!!
 I had a good laugh over this. 


 

Hello Autumn

 

Back to school!

The Farmer's Almanac has this to say. "The earliest autumn since 1896 arrives this Saturday, September 22, at 10:49 A.M. (EDT). At this time, the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator from north to south."
So goodbye summer and back to school time is finally here.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

.

Daybook Entry

FOR TODAY Outside my window...It is dark. The sun has set and night is earlier now.

I am thinking...How soon the cold of winter will be here..the lovely twilight of fall.  How much I enjoy hearing the different sounds of the seasons.
Sound is different in the fall as the air thins out sounds seem to travel farther and become crisper.

I am thankful...to be alive, to be learning to dance in the rain. Trying not to worry about my back so much.

In the kitchen... A store bought sandwich for dinner. Too painful  to cook today.

I am wearing...a black and white plaid shirt, sandals and denim!

I am creating...my fall blog background got put up today. I am working on it but took time out to post this meme.

I am going...No where. No plans right now. Everything on hold.

I am reading...Just completed a "Jesse Stone" called Killing the Blues.

I am hoping...for peace in the world finally and forever.

I am looking forward to...Thanksgiving and autumn color.



A peek into my day...

the kitchen window

The Children's Hour

Famous Anonymous is writing poetry now and it is really quite good stuff.  She gave me a few to read tonight and I was really impressed.

Her dad is a newspaper editor and he was duly impressed.
Writing runs in the family (I am a ghost writer now) so it may be that she is headed in that direction.
But, we also have doctors and scientists in the family - my father was a chemist and her other grandfather is an MD. It remains to be seen where it all ends up.
We've a ship's captain in the family as well. She does love the ocean!

You just never know and things have a way of fooling you.

What a wonderful time I have with these children.
 Its a joy to hear what children have to say and to watch them play. I can't get enough of it.
I have no new photos of the Famous Anonymous to share but I did make a poster of our little one, Sarah.

She's a real girly girl.. nail polish, sparkly shoes, princess gowns and dresses. She is a huge Cinderella fan and loves My Little Pony. And the big news is she is in pre school for a few days a week and loves it.
She's  a social butterfly.

Still a bit of summer left. Fall comes in on September 21 but I am already getting excited about changing the blog over to an autumn theme.

Do you know this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?
          The Children's Hour

Between the dark and the daylight,
   When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
   That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
   The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
   And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
   Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
   And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:
   Yet I know by their merry eyes
They are plotting and planning together
   To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,
   A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
   They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret
   O'er the arms and back of my chair;
If I try to escape, they surround me;
   They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,
   Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
   In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
   Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
   Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,
   And will not let you depart,
But put you down into the dungeon
   In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,
   Yes, forever and a day,
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
   And moulder in dust away!

~~~~

.... Oh how true. How true. 

In Remembrance

In MemoriumSeptember 11, 2001

The Last of the Summer Roses

I love this rose. I forget it's name but it has a strong rose scent to it which I like. Its petals are are pink with a hint of yellow at the base giving it a warm glow.

It's one of the prettiest roses I have ever seen.
I grow mini roses around the little pond.. the tiny rose bushes they sell in the super markets. But this is a regular rose bush that struggles in the sandy soil.
I dump fish water on it to help it along which it seems to love.


There are two wild roses that grow like crazy. One on the side of the house and one in the back yard up over an out building.  No stopping them as they are beach roses and love the sandy soil.

Do you grow roses?

And have you seen this old British program? 'The Last of the Summer Wine', a sweet, funny show.
I always connect it with roses in my mind.Not sure why.. summer I suppose.

Stormy Day

Wild thunder storms all day today.

The ponds are over capacity with fresh rain water and the fish are loving it.
They love to play in the rain drops and stay close to the surface when it rains nibbling at the drops as they hit the water.
After the storm you can hear them eating the plants that hang into the pond. They are little piggies and eat quite loudly at times. As the water level gets higher they can reach more on the plants and the rocks surrounding.
A good time being had by all.
The woods are soaking wet behind the house too.

Labor Day

Labor Day came and went quietly for this old union member. I was a proud member of the AFLCIO and the Air Line Pilots Association.
But nothing happening today except for try to fight off a cold. Woke up with a soreness in the tonsils and hanging in there with vitamin C and plenty of tea.
Hope your day went smoothly and that you had fun whatever you did.