Adventures in the New Year (already)

If the first few days of the new year are any indication, 2011 will be a year of adventure. We rang in the new year at home with good friends. A surprise visit from an auld acquaintance was the highlight of New Year's Day. We sent off the weekend with the celebration of our Amy's 30th Birthday, an event we called "Amy in Wonderland." The birthday girl's little sister and her bff pulled out all the stops on decorations. A good time was had by all..
A cold artic blast, a dusting of snow, several long days and nights necessitated by huge dockets and a local crime spree followed. The second weekend of the new year we spent recovering from the first weekend and week.
My hope is that soon we will be settling down to a familiar routine. But I am generally up for adventure...

1-1-11; the start of a good year!

New Year's Day, 2011.
Seminole, Oklahoma.
There's been 15 bean soup simmering in the crock pot all day. A group of friends said goodbye to the old year and hello to the new at midnight with sparkling cider, good music and conversation. We watched the Tim Burton version of "Alice in Wonderland" in anticipation of Miss Amy Elizabeth Arnold's 30th birthday party, which has an "Alice" theme. Amy's Daddy and her niece, Miss Emma Elizabeth Arnold, went to Edmond to pick her up, while others of us (Amy's mama and sister and our good friend Alicia) worked on decorations for the party.
Our friend Charley Taylor came to spend the afternoon with us. Charley and Amy share the same birthday so it was only fitting that we take the two of them out to dinner. More good conversation and a lot of laughs (as is always the case when Charley is around) were the highlights of the evening, along with some chinese food.
Because of the soup, it smells like New Year's Day. Because of the company and talk of news and resolutions, it sounds like New Year's. A shiny arrangement and our own rendering of the Baby New Year, make it look like New Year's.
If today is an indication, as it is said to be, of the course of the year, it will be a good one.

yuletide's ending

i am listening to my favorite Christmas cd's one last time as i pack away the decorations. the turn around time to have the house ready for yet another big event is short. much like the holiday. the season is too short for me. always. it comes too quickly and leaves as fast! i am putting away the ornaments and Christmas china grudgingly. it will be almost a whole year before i see the nutcrackers and santas again. our beoved nativity. the paper mache angels. i love having them on display. i have sat, more than one evening in december, in the quiet of the house at bedtime, just drinking in the beauty of the lights reflecting off crystal icicles and snowflakes.
an amaryllis and two gorgeous poinsettias and some paper whites we planted in november will be the only holiday decor remaining by bedtime tonight. soon the wreaths and swags will be taken down and their hangers gathered to be stored once again. i keep the Christmas cards and letters in a wire basket until new years with the birthday and anniversary cards and graduation and birth announcements that tell the story of the year 2010 in our household. they will be tied with a wide ribbon and stored with those from previous year's, too, soon.
i have savored the season. enjoyed it in full, so i should not be so sad to see it ending...yet somehow i am

o what a beautiful morning!

This was the scene as I walked outside this morning. A pleasant breeze was blowing leaves of all colors in a swirl around late blooming roses. Bells from a nearby church rang in the distance. The temperature was perfect. Bright sun. Puffy clouds. It was blissful. So much so that I stopped in my tracks and drank it in for several long minutes.
Days like this are too rare not to appreciate.

Postscript:
Evening breeze, full moon, pleasant moments...
Just a while ago, Tommy called me to the window to see an amazingly full moon, shining over our church across the street. He walked outside to take some photos and I followed, standing for a moment, once again, to feel a soft wind on my face, to listen to dogs barking somewhere nearby. This gentle fall evening needed recording here, along with a beautiful fall morning...

fall, ya'll!

This is how I know autumn has truly arrived:
As I write this, the husband is in the front yard planting red mums. The sedum is blooming. I have just planted yellow and purple ones in the back. There is a fat pumpkin waiting to be carved and a flat of pansies waiting to be planted. I am waiting on caramel to melt for the honeycrisp apples that will serve as dessert tonight at the football game. Meatpies, the ballgame entree, are about to go into the oven. My baby, who cheered for four years at the stadium we will be sitting in is now a senior in college. She is on her way home to watch her cousin Trey play for the Chieftains, as his brother Jon, did before him.
Soon the band will be warming up and the announcer will be doing his "testing 1,2,3.."
Much is as it has been for many autumns.
Other things are different. Some of the faces change, some are perennial.
Some of the colors, at least at our house, are different this year.
The grandbaby insisted upon yellow mums. I tried to talk her into purple. I have always favored purple. "I thought purple was your new favorite color," I said to her.
"I weely, weely , want yewwow," said she, hence the yellow pansies, along with yellow mums for the back yard this year. She also picked out a purple mum. The rabid LSU fans in our family would approve. The Boomer Sooners will be fine about it, since the front is sporting crimson.

so long to summer 2010

according to my calendar (the one i've carried in my head since childhood) tomorrow marks the first day of fall. the tuesday after labor day is the day i have long recognized as the official end to summer.
though i am putting away my white shoes and my white slacks, it will be a while, if the current temperatures are any indication, before we exchange sandals for boots. back to school and/or the start of the football season, mark the change of the seasons from summer to fall for a lot of people, but not me. when the clock strikes midnight, in just a few minutes, i will declare it to be autumn, 2010, though only the two maltipoos here on the couch with me will hear. (and yes, i think i know how little they care!)
with only 10 minutes remaining of summer 2010, i am going to list the top 10 most remarkable things (at least from my point of view) of this summer. in no particular order:
1. the trip by train i took with four friends/colleagues to a conference in boston.
2. the whale watching excusion we took while in boston.
3. my grandbaby's wild third birthday party.
4. a fantastic visit with relatives from louisiana.
5. having 7 dogs at one time to care for.
6. having my baby home between semesters.
7. all of the projects we completed while school was out and i was between jury terms.
8. Movies: both watching stacks of home movies for the first time in a very long time and going to see a chick flick with my aforementioned baby daughter and my mama.
9. how utterly sad my little kitchen garden has been given numbers 5 and 10.
10. the incredible heat. this was, for sure, one of the hottest summers i can recall.

Hello, I'm Bentley...

Bentley Carlos Arnold.
I am two months old.
I was born May 2, 2010 under the potting table in my mom’s back yard.
Mom is a blonde lab.
They say I look just like my Dad.
I have two brothers and a sister.
We were supposed to be born on May 5, 2010 which is Cinco de Mayo.
My pet, G.G. Arnold and her friends, had Mexican names picked out for us.
One chose Jorge. One wanted Jose. And one said Jesus. I like that name. but they named me for a car and someone in a movie. That’s okay. I like the way my little friend Emma says it.
My sister lives at Emma’s house, with Emma and her sister and their mama. She is called Evangeline Pink. Her first name is for someone in a movie, too. Her second name is for Emma’s favorite color.
One of my brothers is a town dog. He is the color of caramel. He lives in a town where my pet, Katie goes to college. He has the most toys, I think.
My other brother is a country dog. He is blonde like our sister and mom. He lives in Bowlegs, Oklahoma.
I knew when the big man pet bathed me he was going to keep me. He said he was not playing favorites but that he was worn out after he got me bathed. Some visitors to the house said they knew playing favorites when they saw it.
For my one month birthday I got a chew bone. It is a color of blue that some of the people are calling “Bentley Blue.” I also have a collar that is the same color.
I am going to be living with Mom in the yard of a cottage house where I was born. that is nostalgic.
There are two house dogs at the Nostalgic Cottage. They don’t like me much. I chase them and try to play when they come outside but they nip and yip at me.
When I am not chasing the little house dogs, I spend a lot of these dog days of summer under the big magnolia tree, near the potting shed where we were born.
It is too hot in Mama's dog house and also in the shed, where the kiddie pool we all once slept in when we were new.
When the Big Man Pet waters plants in the evening, I cool off in the water of the garden hose. Maybe he will read this and know I want him to take that garden hose and fill up the nursery pool...