Shasta

Just a few pictures to commemorate my dog, Shasta. She ran away during a thunderstorm last week and was found dead in the ditch by the side of the road yesterday.
But this is not about what she is now but what she was to us when she was alive. She was a good girl and had a happy life with us. She will be missed.

Fall potporri

So the blog is, for the first time, brown. I am a few days late in changing the template but just havn't been around to do the neccessary couple clicks. I must say that I have been fairly pleased with the simplicity and ease with which I was able to perform this action. There is something to be said for letting someone else set things up. At the same time it means that one has to limit one's self to whatever the creator deems right. But I am not complaining. To me the trade-off is worth it on my end since I have neither the time nor know-how to try to make my own template (let along blog).

I have recently had some of my photos sent from yahoo pictures to flikr and so am just beginning to explore that place. Depending on how easy it is to upload and play around with I am considering uploading all my pictures there. I have been a little nervous from the fact that most of my pictures are only to be found on this laptop. I start to wonder what happens if anything happens to this laptop. The whole idea of the internet started from ideas like mine. If I upload them, then no matter what happens to my physical computer I should be able to have them still. That is, as long as everything doesn't crash...

I printed off a bunch of pictures a few days ago and am really happy that I decided to do that since there really is a difference to having a physical print from having a picture on the computer. Each actually has its advantages but I like to be able to have the best of both worlds I guess!

On a sad note I just got a phonecall from Mom to tell me that my second dog, Shasta, who ran away in a recent thunderstorm was found in a nearby ditch--hit by a car. It is almost bizzare how we just lost Sparky and now Shasta. Almost doubly hard to take. And she was in her prime.



But not to leave on that note, we have been having unseasonably warm weather lately (I think we're breaking records) and it is up to 30 (celcius) around here today! Something I've never had the opportunity to experience before is shuffling through the dead leaves at the side of the road in flip-flops! It adds a whole new dimesion to the experience.

on socks

I am not really what you would call a girly girl. I think my own personality coupled with my being raised with three brothers worked against that tendency. I revel in my tomboyishness most of the time... But then there are feminine aspects that occasionally raise themselves. In such situations I generally feel compelled to embrace these tendencies.

Take socks for instance. Most of my life I have worn sports and work socks from similar bulk packages to what my brothers get. This has a practical reason: I use these socks for work and sports. It was not until the past year that I decided to buy some socks from the girls' section for the times I wasn't working or playing sports. Imagine my delight when I discovered that I could take something as prosaic as socks and let them be beautiful :) abundance of colour, soft materials, fun patterns... It was fun to wear non-work socks! Mind you, I just noticed that all the socks I chose are striped (generally considered the only appropriate male pattern for linen) but they are striped in yellows and pinks and blues. And I happen to prefer stripes over other patterns.

So this autumn, as I mourn the loss of my barefootedness in my retreat from the cold, I have some comfort in the excitement of finding a drawer with pretty socks (as well as normal ones) waiting to be worn.

nostalgia

For some reason today I have been thinking a lot about my trip this past summer.
Here is a picture of my travelling companions who by going through the same experiences and trials became closer to me than many people I have known for a much longer period of time. Funny how life works.

commenting

Someone left the following poem as a comment on one of my post from way back in January. Since I thought it is worth reading, I decided to bring it to the attention of those of us who do not regularly check back in the archives.

Vanitas Vanitatum, Omnia Vanitas
(Anne Bronte, September 4, 1845)

In all we do, and hear, and see,
Is restless Toil, and Vanity.
While yet the rolling earth abides,
Men come and go like ocean tides;
And ere one generation dies,
Another in its place shall rise;
That, sinking soon into the grave,
Others succeed, like wave on wave;
And as they rise, they pass away.
The sun arises every day,
And hastening onward to the West,
He nightly sinks, but not to rest:
Returning to the eastern skies,
Again to light us, he must rise.
And still the restless wind comes forth,
Now blowing keenly from the North;
Now from the South, the East, the West,
For ever changing, ne'er at rest.
The fountains, gushing from the hills,
Supply the ever-running rills;
The thirsty rivers drink their store,
And bear it rolling to the shore,
But still the ocean craves for more.
'Tis endless labour everywhere!
Sound cannot satisfy the ear,
Light cannot fill the craving eye,
Nor riches half our wants supply;
Pleasure but doubles future pain,
And joy brings sorrow in her train;
Laughter is mad, and reckless mirth–
What does she in this weary earth?
Should Wealth, or Fame, our Life employ,
Death comes, our labour to destroy;
To snatch the untasted cup away,
For which we toiled so many a day.
What, then, remains for wretched man?
To use life's comforts while he can,
Enjoy the blessings Heaven bestows,
Assist his friends, forgive his foes;
Trust God, and keep his statutes still,
Upright and firm, through good and ill;
Thankful for all that God has given,
Fixing his firmest hopes on heaven;
Knowing that earthly joys decay,
But hoping through the darkest day.

book list

I have revised the list of books on the sidebar to reflect those assigned for this term (rather than talk about those from last term). There are quite a few (and the list doesn't include the various textbooks and assorted supplimentary readings also assigned). I am so thankful that I have already read about half (and studied a few) of the novels on that list and I am hoping those I have not read are the shorter ones...
For whatever posterity this blog may have/create I shall write out the list again in this post (since the sidebar may change but the post stands forever).

Beowulf (comparing two translations)
Oliver Twist (Dickens)
Jane Eyre (C. Bronte)
Mary Barton (Gaskell)
The Moonstone (W. Collins)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde)
Oroonoko (Behn)
Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)
The Female American (Unka Eliza Winkfield)
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (Smollett)
The Missionary (Sydney Owenson)
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (O. Equiano)
Mansfield Park (Austen)

old-fashioned daylillies

I think it's time for some more pictures

A little Seuss

I found this short quote in my lingustics textbook (of all places). It was there to illustrate a child's unconscious understanding of relative clauses but I shall put it here for its merits as a thought rather than merely its structure (although its structure is part of its appeal, of course).

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

ring lessons

my sister gave me this ring a few years ago and I have always liked it. After I took this picture of it he outcome reminded me of a drawing of three loops intertwined as a symbol of the Trinity that my Dad showed us when I was little.
That was the first visual illustration of a Biblical truth that realy stuck with me. I never have had a problem believing the concept of the Trinity and I wonder if this may have had something to do with being so facinated with the drawing that it stuck with me. Rings as a symbol of eternity is another concept that I love.

summer blooms

before the fall colours invade this blog I'm sending out a salute to the colours of late spring and early summer.

on straightforwardness

a short quote from Anthony Trollope's fifth book in the Palliser series The Prime Minister

It could not be that he fancied Lady Rosina to be clever, nor can we imagine that her conversation satisfied any of those wants to which he and all of us are subject. But nevertheless he like Lady Rosina and was never bored by her. She was natural, and she wanted nothing from him. When she talked about cork soles she meant cork soles.

The Secret Mountain

I was able to re-live a fun part of my childhood over the weekend when we read aloud The Secret Mountain by Enid Blyton. When I was younger I loved her books and read (and re-read) as many as I could get my hands on. I don't know how well known Enid Blyton is in Canada since she was a children's author in Britain probably fifty years ago but in our many treasure hunts through second-hand bookstore Mom and I have been able over the years to come up with quite a collection of the different series she wrote. Although most of the books are rather predictable, formulaic and cheesey, I always love returning to some of my favourite childhood companions. The books may not be intellectually stimulating but they always come out right in the end, they always present loveable characters and I know that when I have children I shall be very happy if they choose to spend their afternoons in the company of these fictional characters and maybe learn a few lessons unconsciously while enjoying following along in the thrilling adventures and mysteries found in the books just as I did.