Rambling through Moonshadows

Slowly silently,now the moon,

Walks the night in her silver shoon 

Walter de la Mare

One of the simple pleasures of life is sitting in a hot tub bathed in moonlight  under a canopy of skeleton trees with stars twinkling up above.  No wonder so many great songs and poems have been written about the moon.

When you look up at the moon, what do you see? What do you think?

As I am a lady of a certain age I still look for the man in the moon; For the younger set out there who haven’t done this if you squint your eyes you can just make out his face..

       

In China , the man has a name , Wu Kang. He is known as the God of love and marriage and what does he do? he ties the feet of lovers together with an invisible chord. Now that was news to me and maybe why so many great love songs are written about the moon. It  makes the chord stronger. Just ramble through some for a while…. “Moon River”, “Moonlight becomes you”, ‘Fly me to the moon”, “Blue moon”.

One of my favorites is “Moon Shadow” the song by Cat Stevens ….“ I’m being followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow”  and for a short time I was. Moonshadow was a darling little kitten that followed me everywhere. He was a little dappled gray tabby that danced in and out of the moon rays and like all kittens was a mischievous soul. I missed him when he passed on.

Might as well make a wish while you look at the moon. It’s also believed that if you do that on the evening of your birthday, you can see if the wish will be fulfilled  A crescent moon with its tips pointing up means your wish won’t come true . But if the tips point down, your wish will come true. A full moon signifies a year of good luck.

The moon has always been a thing of mystery and beauty .The Algonquins called each moon by a different name; January was the wolf moon. Can’t you just picture the wolves slinking through the snow over the mountain passes lit by the moonbeams and shadows. The native peoples have such a great way of seeing life.

Now what is the moon made of? Green cheese. Fortunately the smell of it doesn’t come through the atmosphere. It would probably be stronger than carbon gases and we don’t want anything more to worry about or to add to global warming.

Unfortunately the moon as a place of great mystery changed somewhat after a remarkable event that happened in the 60s. Do you remember it? It’s one of those events that is sealed for ever in your memory if you were alive then.  Seeing JFK on the television the other night I remembered he was the President that fired us up to get to the moon to see if it really was made of green cheese. Now when we look up at the beautiful orb in the sky we have a better idea of what it really is. Although I prefer the green cheese theory .

 That event certainly brought moon madness to the fore. Remember moon boots!. My boys had them and I still think of them clunking about in the enormous oversize boots instead of sandals. They must have been really comfortable.

I read  there is an effort underway to return to the moon . Maybe to test for sure the green cheese theory or to see if this time they can find Wu Kang.

Rambling on MY Birthday

"Today it’s my Birthday, I'm gonna have a good time! Doesn't everyone wake up with that thought on their birthday? It's your special day and even little kids know that it will be a day when they have a special day of their very own. Remember the parties when you were a kid? who should you invite? What present would they bring? What special cake and goodies would Mum provide, Ugh let's hope it isn't blancmange, (I couldn't stand that stuff especially the skin.)
My earlier birthdays have faded into the past now. I can remember quite well my children's birthday parties. Having two boys, these were incredibly noisy affairs and I always finished up with a splitting headache but they all seemed to enjoy them which was the main idea anyhow. I can't remember many of mine. I wonder why that is?

Birthdays come as a time to start over a new year and the big ones always loom large. I can remember a few of those. Being 21 and getting the key to the door, an old tradition in England. I think I still have the silver key card somewhere. Then my birthdays fade again but I do remember my 60th. We all went out to eat with a group of friends at an Italian restaurant and it brings to mind delicious profiteroles. Which reminds me I haven’t tried making them for a while?

I don't mind having birthdays like some people do as they get older.They dread being 40 and 50 is the absolute end isn't it to all good stuff that happens. I have found each age has its advantages but that’s another ramble to go on another time.
I did once think when I was about 63 of the great idea of only celebrating my birthday every other year. It slows down the progression of aging. Well, it worked for a few years but I got into problems when I had to fill in official kind of forms, 'What age was I really? I could never quite remember and you look like a fool if you don't know your age so I gave that up.

On my birthday I always remember my mother Flo. She had a pretty hard life as she grew up during the First World War and then had a young family during the 2nd World War. I suspect my birth was a real hardship to her as it was a very difficult birth; I was born very small, about 2lbs birth weight and a premature baby at that. At that time that must have led to all kinds of heart ache.

Birthdays also lead you to think of all your friends and relations. One of my great pleasures on my birthday is getting a  Happy Birthdays greeting  from everyone; cards sent from all over the globe, telephone calls, internet e-mail cards, wishes on Face book etc. I didn't know I had so many friends!! So if you know someone, even if it is just an acquaintance, don't forget their birthday. It does make a difference.

So the sun is out, it’s a lovely day in Texas, I shall spend the rest of the day, pottering around, and then this evening have a lovely dinner with my best friend, my husband Mike at a favorite restaurant. We will talk and laugh and have a GOOD time. A great way to spend a birthday.

Rambling through Time

 My son’s birthday happened last week and he had reached the grand age of 50. Where had all the time gone? Only yesterday wasn’t it that I was telling him” do your homework” and “you’ll kill yourself on that skateboard”? And just where did all those cute grandkids go to as well? Such lovely babies. Now when they come to visit they look like grown up adults, well almost…

I think I figured it out. Time is measured at a slower rate when a person is young and gradually as you age, it speeds up. One year when you are 5 is certainly not the same length as when you are 50. George Carlin did a great piece on just this phenomenon .Look it up on the web it’s great.

  As a child, summers were endless. Odd enjoyable memories come to mind; fishing for tadpoles, riding my bike. Lots of time to enjoy, to play, - no worries, no responsibilities. Time dawdling past…

  When I was in a young teenager, I truly thought the best age to be would be 19. Don’t ask me why? Can’t even remember if when I got to 19 it actually was the best. During those years I should have done more like backpacking around Europe but as Mike says. “Life happens while you are making other plans,” Anyhow just too far back to remember clearly those years ….. Time wasted…

My middle years went by so fast. There was so much to do and time was just gobbled up in housework and college and kids’ hockey games and teaching and cooking and planning for vacations, taking care of the dogs etc, etc... just like today’s middleagers. No time lost here

                                             

If I thought those years went fast, I didn’t realize then that the later years when we got to be oldies, would just fly by .What happened to my sixties? You meet old friends you haven’t seen for a while, and you know time is affecting them as well and it isn’t good.

But the strange thing is while time is speeding up and the body is slowing down inside yourself, in your innermost being. You feel almost the same as you always have. Inner time has almost stopped.

Obviously time needs to be captured, held and regulated. We all try… we take photos and videos. We paint scenes, we make scrapbooks, we reminisce about old times but time is harder to hold than that. We look at photos of our teenage years and can’t remember who the people are, even if there is a name written as well and pictures are even worse. Time is starting to erase these places. Now that’s not nice.

I have noticed that all through life if you are active and busy, time speeds by whereas if you can’t find anything to do, have no purpose time drags by. Maybe the answer to slowing the clock of time is to do nothing and every day will last for ever. I don’t think I would like that at all.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if we could save time in a bottle, just like Jim Croche sang?  I know what I would keep. Do you??

 My s

  Wh

Diamonds

    Finally the sun has come out. For the past week we have been experiencing our Texas winter. Very cold, well it is for Texans. There was a little snow but not a fraction that they get up North, some drizzly- type rain and lots of gray skies, very reminiscent of England and  lots of frost.

    

     Now during this wintry patch I went out one morning to do my walk and there were ‘diamonds’ all over the driveway. During the night a sharp, strong wind had passed over and blown the little snippets of ice off the branches of the trees that form an arch over the driveway and there they were, diamonds in plentyall over the place. Even in the watery sun, they sparkled like the most expensive jewels you can get.

  And that sent my mind arambling….When the immigrants of the past heard that ‘the streets were ‘paved with gold’, did it really mean someone had actually seen a street bathed in the rays of a sinking sun and just thought it was gold? I wonder.

  As I walked little diamonds stuck to the bottom of my running shoes, - is that a term that is used these days? Running shoes? After all I don’t run anywhere and I think that might lead to  another side ramble which I won’t explore today.

  However it did lead me to thinking of that lovely song by Paul Simon, “Diamonds on the soles of her feet”. I always liked that song with the great harmony from the African singers. I wonder what it really was all about. I’ll have to check that out too.

Thinking about that  led me on to remembering when we were at Denton watching the Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the courthouse lawn, surrounded by all the sparkles and shiny lights, a small girl came by and she had diamonds on the souls of her feet. Well, not exactly diamonds but a little flashing lights that came on as she took each step. What a lovely idea. I’m not sure I’d have the nerve to wear running shoes like that at my age but they sure looked like FUN.

  Thinking of that little girl and her shoes led me on to thinking of “Lucy in the sky with diamonds”- the Beatles tune there was such a fuss about whether it was written in a drug induced trance or was inspired by a child’s painting from school. So does it really matter now? It’s just a lovely song and the words just make me itch to get to my oil paints and get the feeling of the song down on a canvas. Maybe I'll do it this week.

“Picture yourself on a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies”. Lucy has kaleidoscope eyes but the sun is in her eyes so of course when she looks up she sees, guess what? Diamonds.

   Such a nice image on a dreary January morning.

  I was never much one for collecting or wearing jewelry .My sole diamond glitters on my hand each day and has done for over 50 years but when I look around I see diamonds now just everywhere I look. No one can steal them;they cost nothing and  they are free for all to appreciate if you just look.

Starting out.....

Mind Ramblings

When I was growing up in England, one of the nice things to do was to take a”ramble” through the countryside. This was not a hike, complete with heavy backpack or an exercise routine dressed in the appropriate jogging suit but a gentle leisurely amble through the woods and fields, looking at the odd flower, dead bird or whatever crossed your path. You went where the path would take you or where it might lead to another interesting place.

It occurred to me that as I was doing my daily exercise walk, which I try to do every morning for about half an hour, I was still ‘rambling’ but at this point it was my mind that was going from one thought to another. For background you should know also I do my walk just up and down my driveway many times with a counter to mark my progress so you really do need to let your mind wander a bit or it would get ultra boring. How interesting and peculiar are the thoughts that flow from a random idea, song or view. They pop into your head lead on here and there through your mind – rambling.

So spurred on by old friends who has just started blogging,(see Then & Now) and because I enjoying reading their blog very much I thought I’d give it a try as well to write down some of these ramblings of the mind on a blog. Might be interesting, might not but I like to try new things and at my age new things to try are getting a bit limited.

I certainly see lots of new things around and am envious of the younger people these days who still have the physical skill and strength to try and enjoy them although to be honest, even in my youth I wouldn’t have been one to go bungee jumping or sky diving. Extreme sports? No not really my cup of tea. But I do like to try these new technologies and gadgets that seem to come out even more frequently than I can count these days. I’m not that much interested in how the new gadget looks or works but more in what it can do and can I use it? My husband will be the first to tell you technical I am not

Computers seem to me to be a”magical tool”. How did we ever manage without them? I first started exploring them without any training, the way I do most new things; just by learning through a discovery method- See it, Try it, if it works Great, If not try another way. It’s just amazing how much you can find out that way.

I tried first an old Commodore machine, loaned from the local library, so clunky and boring but fascinating as well for its time, then graduated to the wonderful Amiga and was thrilled to learn how to paint and even make quaint animated videos on it. I remember going to a club meeting of Amiga enthusiasts, mostly older and younger men, very few women and listening to a discussion on the first attempts at email and searching on the internet. The birth of the World Wide Web! Truly amazing! But that’s another rambling for another time.

The trouble with “mind rambling” is just knowing when to stop. That’s why it’s useful to have a walking counter, even if my Grandkids think it’s a bit strange.

Starting out.....

When I was growing up in England, one of the nice things to do was to take a”ramble” through the countryside. This was not a hike, complete with heavy backpack or an exercise routine dressed in the appropriate jogging suit but a gentle leisurely amble through the woods and fields, looking at the odd flower, dead bird or whatever crossed your path. You went where the path would take you or where it might lead to another interesting place.

It occurred to me that as I was doing my daily exercise walk, which I try to do every morning for about half an hour, I was still ‘rambling’ but at this point it was my mind that was going from one thought to another. For background you should know also I do my walk just up and down my driveway many times with a counter to mark my progress so you really do need to let your mind wander a bit or it would get ultra boring. How interesting and peculiar are the thoughts that flow from a random idea, song or view. They pop into your head lead on here and there through your mind – rambling.

So spurred on by old friends who has just started blogging,(see Then & Now) and because I enjoying reading their blog very much I thought I’d give it a try as well to write down some of these ramblings of the mind on a blog. Might be interesting, might not but I like to try new things and at my age new things to try are getting a bit limited.

I certainly see lots of new things around and am envious of the younger people these days who still have the physical skill and strength to try and enjoy them although to be honest, even in my youth I wouldn’t have been one to go bungee jumping or sky diving. Extreme sports? No not really my cup of tea. But I do like to try these new technologies and gadgets that seem to come out even more frequently than I can count these days. I’m not that much interested in how the new gadget looks or works but more in what it can do and can I use it? My husband will be the first to tell you technical I am not

Computers seem to me to be a”magical tool”. How did we ever manage without them? I first started exploring them without any training, the way I do most new things; just by learning through a discovery method- See it, Try it, if it works Great, If not try another way. It’s just amazing how much you can find out that way.

I tried first an old Commodore machine, loaned from the local library, so clunky and boring but fascinating as well for its time, then graduated to the wonderful Amiga and was thrilled to learn how to paint and even make quaint animated videos on it. I remember going to a club meeting of Amiga enthusiasts, mostly older and younger men, very few women and listening to a discussion on the first attempts at email and searching on the internet. The birth of the World Wide Web! Truly amazing! But that’s another rambling for another time.

The trouble with “mind rambling” is just knowing when to stop. That’s why it’s useful to have a walking counter, even if my Grandkids think it’s a bit strange.