Paradise Lost invocation

Ah, at last I have come to the pièce de résistance, the epic poem, Paradise Lost by John Milton, a seventeenth century British poet. This was the final poem in my 1966 senior English class that we could learn for extra credit points, albeit, it was not the entire poem, just the first 26 lines. It was a daunting task, but I charged ahead, unfazed. It was very challenging to me. It was hard because it wasn't exactly the language of southern Californian teens. But several others in the class, along with me, the hard-core I-have-to-get-an-A students, all tackled the memorization of these 26 lines together. We frequently practiced the lines with one another. "With loss of Eden till one greater Man restore us...," "things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme," "I may assert eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to Men." It was hard, but fun when 5 or 6 others were all memorizing it, too. We walked around for a week or two spouting , "Of Man's first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree..."

Paradise Lost Book 1 (first 26 lines)
by John Milton

Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss,
And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That, to the height of this great argument,
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.

Blog sabbatical

I won't be blogging this week, possibly next week also due to the fact that I'll be very busy. This week: substitute teaching in kindergarten for my friend, Jeanne, plus 3 evening meetings, plus getting ready for Good New Club which starts next week. Oh, and then there's editing and singing with the worship team at three services on Sunday.

I'll be back when my schedule isn't quite so packed.

Have a wonderful next two weeks.

I might indulge myself with a tidbit or two of blogging if I can squeeze it in.

Portland Oregon's Rose Garden

Today's flowers are roses I photographed in July when we were on vacation in Portland, Oregon. Portland has a huge arboretum just to the west of the city center, and it includes a magnificent multi-acre rose garden. They have a center there in which new varieties of roses are continually being developed. These four are roses I particularly liked, though I didn't record their names. Enjoy!

September sky in Garden Valley CA

There is an infinite number of sky reflection views that our "lake," Oak Lane Reservoir, provides and they never cease to delight me.
My husband and I have lived in Garden Valley for nearly 31 years---the longest I've ever lived in any town or city.
When we first moved here from suburbia, I felt isolated because it was so rural and houses were few and far between.
But as time went by I came to love the beauty of this foothill community, even the dry fields and hills in the summertime...and I couldn't help but gradually meet people through the school where my husband taught math, as well as through my children's school, our church and youth soccer.
Now Garden Valley is home and I can't imagine living anywhere else. It's a rare occasion when I go into the local bank, store or post office that I don't see someone I know. Sometimes grocery shopping takes a bit longer than it should because I'm catching up on my friends' and acquaintances' family news in the aisles. There's no place like your hometown--where (almost) everybody knows your name!

See beautiful skies from all around the world at Skywatch Friday! Thank you Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise for maintaining it.

Sprinkler rainbow

I went outside this morning to turn off the sprinkler and a rainbow caught my eye. Since we don't get much rain here, I have to make do with sprinklerbows. They're still enchanting, even though they're not quite as spectacular as one in the sky.

If a sprinkler and sun made it, it must be called a sprinklerbow.

My dad Charles McGowan

My dad, born in 1919, grew up very poor in Denver, Colorado. Even though finances were bad for the McGowans, my grandmother managed to dress up her children, Charles and Anne, for the proper occasions.

Sailor suits were popular for little boys in the 1920s. In the photo above, Anne is around 2 and my dad, "Charlie," was about 4, all ready to go to church or maybe a party.

Here my dad was 5. My grandmother wrote on the back of this photo, "Denver 9/15/24 Heap Big Injun Chief Charlie -- posed this himself--Taken under our dining room window."

In the 1920s, westerns, both as silent films and then motion pictures, became wildly popular throughout America. Little boys, including my dad, all over the country wanted to dress like movie cowboys. In the photo above he was about 6, in 1925. He's all ready to rope a cow.

Above: 1927--My dad, 8, and his sister Anne, 6 (they're on the left), and two neighbor kids, are all dressed up for a dance recital.

Here's my dad in his Highlander Boys uniform in 1929, age 10. He had a wonderful time in the Highlander Boys, something like Boy Scouts...he frequently talked about it--They did camping and hiking and other Boy Scout-type activities. He looks a lot like my brother Mike here.

1942--Handsome young U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles McGowan, freshly graduated from the United States Naval Academy, and about to be sent off to the war in the south Pacific. Because of his being in the Navy, he and my mother, who had grown up in a well-to-do family near Detroit, Michigan, met eventually in Los Angeles at the Officers Club held at the Ambassador Hotel. Was it serendipity or providence or fate?....I say it was God's providence, because I came into existence because of those circumstances!

Sally at The (Mis)Adventures of Karl and Sally has begun a meme where you can share your old family photos and stories. Go back in time and take a walk down memory lane by clicking here for Remember Whensday!

What makes a toddler laugh?

...and I'm talking about falling down laughing.

Could it be his daddy jumping over the bed? I love hearing the chortle of my 19-month-old grandson, Drew, in this little video (click on links below). The daddy is my eldest son, Nathan. He is my guest blogger today for My World Tuesday. He has kept a blog up for his son ever since before Drew was born. He writes it as though he is writing to Drew.

See the toddler hilarity here.



...and more toddler chuckles here

Join the fun and see places all around the world at My World Tuesday.

Late summer at Oak Lane Reservoir

This is the view across the lake (Oak Lane Reservoir) at the bottom of our hill
This is the big weeping willow tree growing on a very small island in the middle of our lake. My husband and a neighbor stuck a freshly cut willow branch from our neighbor's tree into the wet soil of the island about 25 years ago and it has flourished. You can see the cattails in the foreground, growing on our side of the lake.
Another view of the willow tree and its reflection. The lake looks bluer than the sky. In real life, the lake is more of a dark greenish-brown color. I used the vivid red, green and blue setting on my Canon camera.
It's another blue-sky cloudless day in northern California. This is the way it looked last Friday and I was thinking, Rain, rain, please come today, don't stay away another day, but then this week on Monday it finally rained.

See beautiful skies from all around the world at Skywatch Friday! Thank you Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise for maintaining it.

Remember the 1950s (and 1940s)?

In 1949, when I was around 1, I had just become a walker, or should I say, a toddler. My family of 4 at that time (Daddy, Mommy, Judy and me) had recently moved into a subdivision of homes in San Bernardino, California. It was the first house my parents had ever owned--small and identical to all the others in the neighborhood, but it was home. My father was a civil engineer for the Southern California Gas Company and my mother was a stay-home mom.

This was one of the first colored photos my mom took of us. By 1951, my brother Mike had come along. Judy was 4, I was 3 and Mike was 2. My dad built this nice fieldstone rock wall around part of our back yard. My mom planted pretty yellow and pink roses along part of the wall. When we were older we used to jump off the wall for fun.

Here, in the summer of 1951, I'm three and a half, hanging upside down from the swingset my dad had built for us. Being upside down was one of my most favorite things in the world to do. I guess I liked the feeling of the blood rushing to my head and the view from that perspective. I'd hang upside down from the monkey bars, from the swing chain, lean over backwards from the piano bench, from my bed, ask Daddy to hold me upside down. I attribute it to being a breach-born baby and must not have gotten enough head-down time in the womb.

Pat-3 1/2, Mike-2+, Judy-4 1/2, Mary Alice- 10 days old. The Gas Company had transferred my dad to Whittier, CA, so we lived there for a couple of years. In September of 1951, my sweet little sister Mary Alice was born. So my mother had four kids within four and a half years. Sometimes people would ask my mom if we were Catholic or Mormon and she would say, "No, we're Methodists." It would be one more year until Judy, the eldest, started school.

My poor brother Mike was outnumbered by females, and he had two moms telling him what to do and what not to do: my mom and my sister, Judy. Judy is keeping Mike in line here with that look.

1952-Judy was definitely the second mom in our family. My perception was that she always got to hold the baby and I never got to hold the baby. Sometimes we would play "house." Judy would always be the mother, Mike and Mary Alice would be the kids, and all that was left for me was to be the father. :( So I made the best of it and tried to talk in a low voice.

Fall 1953 - Mary Alice-2, Mike-4, Pat-5, Judy-6. My mom would take lots of posed group pictures of us in hopes of getting a good one to send with our family's Christmas card. This was one that didn't quite make it.

December 1953- Mike-4 1/2, Pat/5 1/2. I guess this Santa would only take a maximum of two kids at a time. I think this photo should be used in a How-To-Be-Santa-Claus manual illustrating what not to do, i.e., pinch little kids' arms and hold little kids too close (especially little kids who were afraid of him, like me).

By this time we had moved back to San Bernardino, where we lived until the end of 5th grade for me (June of 1959). For Christmas in 1954 we all got cowboy and cowgirl outfits. Here I am as a 6-year-old scowling cowgirl. Actually, I just loved my cowgirl outfit, but I was not a big-time smiler. In fact I was a very serious child who rarely smiled.

1955- fall. Judy,8, and I, 7, are wearing dresses that Mom made for us. A neighbor had taught our mom how to sew, convincing her that since she had 4 kids, she really should learn how to sew. My mother sewed lots of our dresses in the fifties and taught all three of us girls how to sew, too. Those were the days when girls were only allowed to wear dresses or skirts and blouses to school.

Christmas 1955 - Pat-7+, Mike-6+, Mary Alice-4, Judy-8. I was happier about this Santa because this time I didn't have to sit in his lap. Mike was a buffer between Santa and me. Judy and I are wearing the same dresses as in the last photo, but this time with sweaters on due to the cold (65 degree) December day.

January 1956 - These are dresses that we received for Christmas from our grandfather in Michigan. I'm almost 8, Judy's almost 9, Mary Alice is 4, and I don't know who the baby is, perhaps a neighbor.
Fall 1956 - Mary Alice-5, Mike-7, Pat-8 1/2, Judy-9 1/2. My mom made all our dresses and Mike's shirt from the same fabric during the summer. Remember when Ric Rac was used as decoration on dresses? I think this was the first day of school for us.

Fall 1958 - Mary Alice-7, Daddy-39, Pat-10. My mom made these dresses for us and they were our "church" dresses. We only wore them to church. Remember those days when you dressed up to go to church? How things have changed!

Sally at The (Mis)Adventures of Karl and Sally has begun a meme where you can share your old family photos and stories. Go back in time and take a walk down memory lane by clicking here for Remember Whensday!

Tertullian Turtle guards my porch plants

I'm not one who collects knick knacks, as in our dusty part of the world they just become dust-collectors...BUT...a concrete turtle? Yes! Mind you, this does not mean I'm going to collect 137 concrete animals to grace our garden/yard/porch. I have a modicum of self-control. I found this cute little (but heavy) concrete turtle at a store in Laguna Beach when we were on vacation there. He has smooth stones embedded in his concrete back. I named him "Tertullian" after a 3rd-century Christian priest who said, "He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies." So when I look at Tertullian, it reminds me to try not to live in a way that benefits only myself. Oh, btw, I also picked the name because I like alliteration.
Click to embiggen.
Here you can see Tertullian faithfully and perpetually on the alert guarding my porch plants. They're really my house plants, but I put them out on the front porch from April through October and they love it out there.

To be honest, I had gone into that store looking for a somewhat realistic concrete sculpture of a frog, but all they had was cartoonish and garish frog "yard art." But then I saw the simple, muted beauty of Tertullian and all his siblings, and I fell for him hook, line and sinker.

Rain at last!

Just a couple of days ago, I was thinking, Rain, rain, come today; don't stay away another day...and this morning I woke up to the soothing pitter-pat sound of rain hitting the house. At last, after three long months we have rain. It's not supposed to be a lot, but any rain is better than none.


Views of our deck

And I had just been thinking that I had to water everything today...one less chore I have to do!

"As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night will never cease."
Genesis 8:22

Today's Flowers - Vinca or Periwinkle

In order to prevent erosion on the banks created when we cut into the hillside for flat areas for our house, driveway and back yard, we planted clumps of of vinca (from our former neighbor's house) on those banks. We planted them in 1981, about 2 or 3 feet apart, and now the vinca completely covers all those banks. One drawback to vinca is that it is a "thug" plant which takes over everything if you let it. The good parts are that it's drought resistant and freeze resistant, and also in the springtime it's covered with these lovely purple flowers. I don't like its thug-like ways, but I do love the profusion of little purple flowers covering our hillsides in the spring.

See all kinds of beautiful and unusual flowers at Today's Flowers hosted by Luiz, Denise, Laerte and Valkyrien.

Blue sky and house on a dry hill

This is the home of our neighbor down the road. We've had no rain since May or June so the hillsides are dry and brown.

See beautiful skies from all around the world at Skywatch Friday! Thank you Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise for maintaining it.

Don't recline your seat when the car is moving!

Our young friend and new mom, April, has a serious warning for everyone who ever rides in the passenger seat of a car: Do not EVER recline your seat when the car is moving. Your seatbelt could kill you if you are in that position during a collision, even if your car is only going 25 mph. She speaks from experience.
April was riding in the passenger seat, sleeping with the seatback reclined all the way. The car was in a collision and the seatbelt tightened and slid up from her lap across her ribs, breaking five ribs, which then lacerated her spleen and liver and bruised her pancreas. She was in excruciating pain, and could have died from her torn liver. The doctor put her into an induced coma for two days before doing surgery to remove her spleen and sew up her liver.

The good news is that she is recovering amazingly fast, though the five broken ribs are still agonizingly painful. Jerry suggested that she wear a T-shirt to church on Sunday with the words "NO HUGS--broken ribs" written on it. So she took his idea and ran with it. This is what she wrote on the T-shirt she wore her first Sunday back at church after the accident:
So, if you're in the passenger seat in a moving car and you're sleepy, you'll just have to let your jaw hang open as you sleep sitting up.