Uhhh....

I bet even the weeping angels can't flip their tongues upside down like this.

A Poem For A Long Day

The Day is Done

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The day is done, and the darkness

Fall from the wings of Night,

As a feather is wafted downward

From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village

Gleam through the rain and the mist,

And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me,

That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,

That is not akin to pain,

And resembles sorrow only

As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,

Some simple and heartfelt lay,

That shall soothe this restless feeling,

And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,

Not from the bards sublime,

Whose distant footsteps echo

Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,

Their mighty thoughts suggest

Life's endless toil and endeavor;

And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,

Whose songs gushed from his heart,

As showers from the clouds of summer,

Or tears from the eyelids start.

Who, through long days of labour,

And nights devoid of ease,

Still heard in his soul the music

Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet

The restless pulse of care,

And come like the benediction

That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume

The poem of thy choice,

And lend to the rhyme of the poet

The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music,

And the cares that infest the day,

Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,

And as silently, steal away.

Contemplating Living By Faith, Not By Sight...

“Are not five sparrows sold for two cents?

Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.

Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

~Luke 12:6

Tuesday Trivia

1.

2.3.

Young Adventurer builds a molecule

He tells me this is what I would call acrylic.

I looked it up on this internet (and asked Danjo), and he's got the structure just right. He saw me looking up this acrylonitrile stuff and told me to look up cholesterol, so I did. I asked him if he makes that at school too, and he said no, their molecule kit doesn't have enough carbons and not nearly enough hydrogens. Maybe they need a better molecule kit.

I must say he did not get any aptitude with elements and bonds from me. That's a Danjo thing.

Big Day

This is the birthday girl, Venom the 14, and the graduate of the 6th grade, who is sick and tired of being Adventurer Two.

Upcoming will be Young Adventurer's molecule...

Daylilies only last a day

This is yesterday's daylily, dying, and tomorrow's daylily, ready to open, tomorrow.

The dying past and the maybe beautiful future.

I photographed today's daylilies too

(they looked alive--the Jolly Red Giant is quite something, today)

but this was the best picture of the lot.

Close Enough

This is the puzzle without the box, now that it's "finished."

I rely heavily on the picture on the box when I'm assembling a puzzle. I want to know what it's going to look like before I start, and I want to refer to the picture as I assemble the puzzle. Saves stress. Gives me confidence. I usually choose puzzles with lots of detail and as few large expanses of solid color as possible, because I get frustrated otherwise. This puzzle did not fit that mold. The box got traded out with another puzzle a couple of years ago, so the picture on the box, of a church in the Alps, was no help. And someone mean and lazy made it. All the pieces are essentially the same shape. Thankfully it is a small puzzle. It would have defeated me sooner if it had been large.

This puzzle did go better with some expert help at the beginning from Superwoman Susan et al. And Adventurer Two put in some work along the way. The green patch in the middle is thanks to her.

I can confirm that we haven't lost any of the pieces.

Happy People

Congratulations Peter and Laurel!

Since taking pictures of cute puppy didn't go well...

I decided to remember about the baby birds. These pictures didn't go particularly well either, but they are still baby birds. All but the first one, which I think is the mother of baby birds, yelling for dad to get home with dinner (or breakfast, as it were), before she and her children are eaten by a Cyberman disguised as a cactus.

Signs of things

This begs all sorts of questions, especially in the household of

Danjo the Magnificent, pharmacist extraordinaire.

At the very least, we have a new name for our gas grill.

If just seeing a sign like this doesn't add enough fun to your day...

there's always this fine site where you can make your own...

Because The Daylilies Are Blooming

Maybe tomorrow I'll post the pictures of the baby birds

You know it's scary when...

"Don't look away!"

Venom was not in attendance at the Doctor Who party, because she was at a different party. This left her alone on the sofa (not behind it) to watch the latest episode. There were shrieks (as the other two traumatized children were trying to fall asleep); there was the cry of, "Mommy!? Are you coming to watch this with me?? There were more shrieks--and she can really shriek--we've known that since her birth.

Finally, as the episode concluded,

"I think I might need a floor bed."

Floor beds were our way of solving the problem of terrified or otherwise sleepless small children in the middle of the night. We wouldn't let them in the bed with us (those of you who like to be crammed onto the edges of the mattress by restless toddlers--whatever), but we would let sleepless small thing drag in a pillow and blanket and curl up on the floor next to our bed. Everyone falls back to sleep faster that way.

Floor beds haven't happened in a while. A long while. Even for Young Adventurer. If Venom wants one now, she's going to have to move the laundry baskets herself...and sleep with the lights on--I'm totally sleeping with the lights on tonight...

A feast for the beasts

I get excited when I see things in the photo that I couldn't see when I was standing right there, like the sap beading up on the plant, or all the little aphids lined up there, just waiting to be devoured.

My Guys

A girl and a flower

Dear Amazon,

Today I have received a box from you. I was excited, as I have been for all the other boxes you have sent in the last couple of weeks. I opened it on the way back in from the mailbox, and to my extreme horror and revulsion, this is what I saw:

This is ugly. Indescribably ugly. Your photo did not do it justice, and Danjo, who must not have read the reviews before ordering it, was deceived.

Now all is not lost. It is a musical instrument accessory, and it does match the piano bench. Not that we would have chosen to have ANYTHING match this piano bench. Early '70's harvest gold is not a color we want to match. Ever again.

So, thanks for sending it so quickly, but please don't send any more.