The Numbers have it or do they?

Counting  the cardinals ( photo by Mike)

Inch worm, inch worm, Measuring the marigolds
Could it be, stop and see, How beautiful they are….

Frank Loesser

We have a lot of trees on our acre yard. Mike will tell you there are about 300 and he’s more than willing to go out and actually count them to make sure. That’s the difference between us; he is a “numbers person” and I am not.

I have to make a big effort to learn any new phone numbers, driving license numbers or car license numbers and even now I have to look up my social security number even though I’ve had it for a lot of years. Now Mike on the other hand, can remember a tremendous amount of phone numbers even of homes we lived in ages ago. He knows all the license numbers, even mine, which is very helpful when I have to fill out forms.

The numbering system I use is fairly loose. I use a lot, not many, quite a few, far too many to count, etc rather than basic numerals, That is not to say I can’t understand or do mathematical problems. I was taught the basic skills, recited my times tables until they came out of my mouth automatically and even mastered algebra and calculus when I was young but never really truly enjoyed it or found much use for it. Combine that with growing up in England and figuring out pounds, shillings and pence and pounds, (different kind), ounces and stones and you can see why my love for numbers is not pronounced.

 

When I was teaching grade 1 in the 60s, New Math was all the fashion. Can you imagine a class of 35 kids 6 years old each with their own box of Cuisenaire rods, a clever system of colored blocks based on a numerical size. By manipulating them in different patterns, numbers and basic math was taught. The kids loved them. The noise of all these blocks of color being shifted about was incredible. The rods were forever falling on the floor getting lost. Kids stuck them up their nose and in their ears. Lots of interesting structures were built. How much the kids learned about numbers is debatable.

Trying to visualize large numbers is incredible difficult too. All those huge crowds that gather for large events and someone always seems to be able to say just how many there are. Quite amazing really and not always believable. I liked the idea of the school that was collecting 1,000,000 cents to give to charity but also to let the children visualize a million.

I’ve also noticed that we don’t seem to use millions so much anymore as billions and trillions are much more in fashion. I doubt if many people can even imagine a trillion so it becomes just another word. Writing it is entirely a different puzzle. Just how many zeros would that be? A lot!!

Maybe that’s why I never buy lotto tickets. I can’t imagine those huge amounts of cash and whatever would I do with it if I won it. Lucky numbers feature in many people’s choice for choosing lotto numbers and most people seem to have a regular lucky number.

Now is it a coincidence or just luck that my house number when I first met Mike was 171 and I found out shortly after that his house number was also 171. Did that seal our destiny? Our house number now is 1177 so I can only think luck and good fortune  is still with us.

So numbers except for the few I need to use, hold no fascination for me.

You won’t find me playing Bingo. Meanwhile Mike is fixated on Sudoko but I give up on it after the first line.

 P S. Please post your thoughts on this topic in the comment box and become one of my followers.

Rambling with Names on my Mind

Big Sad Tom

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

William Shakespeare

I often have to think about names. Names can be the difference between life and death in a few cases. That’s a bit dramatic until I explain it. Every week or so I take photos at my local animal shelter of all the adoptable animals so I can advertise them on the internet. I have sometimes found the name I give them can make all the difference between being adopted or not. Take for instance, Big Sad Tom. When I saw him, a huge tabby cat with a few years on him, I doubted if he even would get on the adoption list. He looked so sad. So that’s how he got his name. Prospective adopters must have thought so too because in a few days he was adopted.

And it’s not just him. People often adopt pets because they had a Buddy when they were a child, or Lucy reminds them of the daughter that is no longer with them, or Fluffkins is obviously the cutest fluffiest kitten you can imagine. Mind you, Fang for a little timid chihuahua and Snowball for the blackest cat I ever saw worked well too.

It’s a bit like that with peoples names as well. If you say any name you immediately get an impression about that kind of person, depending on your personal experiences. Bill and Fred seem very straightforward and reliable to me. Tiffany or Vanessa are ladies destined to be famous in some way. Does our impression really hold true of the person? Does the name itself shape the person? If that is true it would be wise to really study names.

We all have some time looked up the meaning of our name and depending on what it says, agree or disagree. Its always nice to read you are a ‘seeker after truth” or “the most loyal” Have you notices it doesn’t often say in those name  meaning books , “a real nasty piece of work” or “liar “ or “ glutton”.

A great deal of time usually goes into a finding new baby’s name. Does it sound right? Is it modern enough? Will it go with the surname?  Our granddaughter Ashleye was in the newborn nursery flanked on all sides by nine other little babies, Ashley, Ashleigh, Ashleey etc. The era of your birth is often associated with your name. Not many Flo or Matilda’s about now.

Some names are also funny, at least to other people. I went to school with a nice girl called Hazel Hedge and I often wonder if she got married and what her name is now. I hope it isn’t Hazel Bush or Hazel Nutt.  My mum once told me she stopped going out with a boy called Bert Bug as she couldn’t bear the thought of becoming Mrs. Bug. She saved me from being a little bug  Thank you Mum.

As you get older, it seems names get less important. I look at a photo of high school friends and even though I can remember the person and even events of that time, their name completely escapes me... So if I met one of these friends now would I remember her name if I came face to face with her but then again would I even recognize her at all? A thought to ponder.

The Spark in the Mind

Chrissy's gift

          We all have it. It’s far more developed in some and if you ask some people they will tell you, “ Oh you are so  clever, (artistic, musical, inventive etc.) but I couldn’t  possibly do that”. So what is it?  It’s that creative spark, that I think  we are all born with.

      

I know we all have it because I used to teach Grade one and every single child had it. Just give kids of that age a piece of junk, a cardboard tube, a few felt markers and they come up with all kinds of interesting objects indeed some are so creative you really can’t tell just what they are !. Yes there are a few kids that stand out even at that age. I remember a little guy named Phillip who was so creative, that basic skills like writing and reading were not important to him. He was forever making things and drawing things and then inventing wonderful tales to cover his creativity. His parents didn’t understand but through his creativity he was learning not only his basic skills but lots of other essential skills as well. I often wonder how he managed in life.

  

 What parent hasn’t bought a great toy for their young child for Christmas, only to find the toy discarded after a few moments as the box it came in was  far more fun. A big cardboard box and an idea is a lot more fun than a pile of plastic. They even show these occurrences on YouTube these days.

  The same way give a child a computer , show him the basics and let creativity take over. I imagine many parents gets surprised at just what their child can do.

In the 70s we  bought our son Russ a pair of new  skis as he was just learning to ski. At that time skis were extra long, measuring well over a person’s height. After only one outing, we heard sounds of sawing coming from the basement. Russ had cut a good 2 feet off the skis to make them work better so that he could ski faster. Have you noticed how short skis are today. ?

  

 I was standing in my kitchen one day and turned around when I heard,”Mum??” and came face to face with my son’s waistline. Normally I could look over my son’s head easily. What had he done? He had taken an old pair of shoes and nailed blocks of wood on the soles to make himself taller because he was fed up with being one of the smallest boys at school. That idea only partially worked but it was

a lot of fun and he got an A for effort and idea.

  When I was at college training to be a teacher we had an exercise which we had to do to develop creativity. We were put into small groups, given a brick, and an hour and told to come up with as many ideas as we could. For a while, we all sat stunned and then the creative juices started to flow; some very clever, some silly but everyone could think of something and at the end of the time period we were just amazed at how many ideas there were.

     

So I cheered aloud when I heard President Obama, say the way out of our current recession was to foster creativity and initiative in education. Without it we are dead in the water and any amount of memorizing facts and figures will not help. Sure basic skills are important but the ideas and with it, the motivation must come first.

Jain's champagne bottle top chair

    

So creativity is still very much alive. Just check out the internet. For instance  Go to StumbleUpon.com. Each page shows it in all kinds of forms.- music, jokes, photos, stories, writing etc.  I find young people especially creative as they dare to do things and will find time for it as well.

  Another fascinating video showing creativity in action is the Dreaded Stairs. See it on Youtube .I watched it and thought what a great idea for losing weight.

 I also think it’s important to keep the creative spark alive especially as you get older and often have more time which does help . When you are making something be it a painting , a craft, a piece of music or learning a new skill, it makes you come alive. You can feel your brain tingling. You can’t get bored or depressed. You communicate with others about your ideas . You don’t get lonely so all in all it’s a good thing. So try something new. I have. I’m writing this blog but who knows, maybe tomorrow I’ll try to line dance!!

     

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.