ECLIPSE

 "We are all like the moon, we all have our darker side...." 
                                                                      -J.R.R. Tolkien

 Supermoon Eclipse( coming out of totality) Jan 31-18

 "We ran as if to meet the moon." -Robert Frost

 "But even when the moon is waning, it is never changing shape."
                                                    -Ai Yazawa

 "We are going to the moon and that is not so very far. Man has so much farther to go within himself." -Anais Nin

(Extra pic  from April 2014.)

 "Tell me the story about how the sun loved the moon so much that she died every night, just to let him breathe." - Hanako Ishii

HOWARD's DAY....(story of a deer)

" I don't have to take a trip around the world or be on a yacht in the Mediterranean to have happiness. I can find it in the little things, like looking out into my backyard and seeing deer in the fields." - Queen Latifah

 Every day Howard  makes his rounds. His Big eyes at the back window.He Stares. Chews while he does it. He owns it.

 He likes to visit. Especially in Winter. 

 Oh and in summer.

 And in fall and spring, for that matter. 

 Howard plops himself down at the  back of the other garden beside us. I have walked past him in the dusk, taking out the garbage,  and only realized  on the way back up the hill, that he is there.......He flicks his ears. Tilts his head. His eyes bug out.

 Howard seems to prefer watching the birds. Like the Lark Sparrows massing on the lawn.

 In their feeding frenzies in  winter, when days are biting and chill. Howard chews  while he gazes at them. He loves their seeds.He waits till they are gone....

 Howard  must think he is a bird. Partial to sunflower seeds, he is, slurping  them up daily. Sometimes he waits till I've filled the seed pan,hiding by the fence. Then swoops in after I leave....

 He is there in the morning. In afternoon he sleeps by the seed pan. Or by the Laurels.

 In July he pulls golden plums off the  big tree at the top of the hill. The branches go "SNAP" as he twangs them from his jaws.

 In September he goes after the apples on the hill. 

 You can hear him crunching and slobbering.

 The day we found the injured Lark Sparrow, Howard was on the hill. Basking in the pale sun, in his spot  on the hill.

 He must feel safe there. He has an uninterrupted view of the mountains.

 He sees the mist roll in and out. He is like a king on his throne.

 The Lark Sparrow had a beautiful set of wings. 

 But she didn't make it. She died that day. Cradled in Morgan's hands.

 Howard watched us bury her . He was very attentive. I put an apple in the seed pan that January day.

 Howard dutifully slip-slobbered and cr-cr-cr-crunched that apple till it was all gone. Then he worked on the remaining seeds. After  that, full of seeds and apple,he sauntered off to parts unknown.  I've never seen him in a hurry.  He swings his antlers as he leaves. 

 But he'll be back. He always comes looking for more yummy treats. He'll peer in the window.............. Just like a cat I used to know......
Photographs 2018
                                

The JEWEL BOX ( circa 1920) Stories about Heroines

 "A Lady with a Lamp shall stand in the great history of the land,a noble type of good Heroic womanhood..." --"Lady of the Lamp" from " The Jewel Box"

Nessie, in 1936, in Victoria ( yes, my mother)

 It finally came. The second copy to my original that belonged to my mother in the first half of the 20th century. Hers damaged with fire and water and  the second  still quite clean, with crisp colours and pages untarnished with mold spots.

 One of the few perks my mother had, living on the Bethune Farm, she told me, were her books. They were like good friends. And there weren't that many of them to go around. How she LOVED to read. To imagine she was one of the characters in her books. "Nothing could break the spell unless I, as a swineherd, married a kings daughter, and brought her home to the wedding feast in that hovel.YOu have rescued the land......" - "Jewel Princesses

Laurie, Mrs. Clark , Nessie, 1920's

 The Jewel Box had been a school prize she had been given. Just like the second book.....it had also been a school prize for "Good Conduct and Deportment".1911

 Herbert Strang  was the pseudonym of two English authors, George Herbert Ely (1866–1958) and Charles James L'Estrange (1867–1947). They wrote adventure stories!Modern and Historical. The "Mrs. Strang" , as in the Jewel Box "author"  was the pseudonym for stories for girls. They worked for Oxford University Press and as such were held in high regard.

WWII Nessie heading off to work at Dockyard

 My mother used to tell the story of  how she would read the Jewel Box outside in the piles of sweet hay that her father and work hands had tumbled together to go into the barn.

 Or she would take it with her when on a community picnic. Such as this one, above,down at Long Lake. 1919 about. "She spurred her house forward and seized her opportunity. She grabbed the reins of the other horse and she was off in a twinkling...." "Ride of a Dauntless Girl"

Stuart, Isabella, Robert, Bill 1940

 And then it was left in the attic once day. In the small cabin they lived in. And on this particular day, her brothers, Stuart and Bill, were smoking in the attic. It caught fire. There was a lot of damage. But her book was saved. Grandfather and Grandmother weren't too impressed.

Nessie and Grandfather Robert 1933

The colour plates still as bright as they were one hundred years ago.  One of my favourites is the story of Florence Nightingale "The Lady of the Lamp"...."Lady in chief enters, shading a small lamp with her hand. She stops by each man, and speaks to one and another, soothing this one's delirium...." 

 "An Adventure in Dutch Guiana", "Emperor's Bird's Nest", "The Heroine of the Quetta", "Prince Boohoo's Powder","the Jewel Princesses", "Ann Judson-Heroine","The Terra Cotta Coat", and "The Ride of the Dauntless Girl"

Cutter in Winter, 1920's

 The Jewel Box is filled with stories that are most likely difficult to find these days. Stories of brave young women, who , against all odds manage to overcome their fears and become real life heroines."You have broken the enchantment, said the King. ....." -The Jewel Princesses

 And yes, there was no "Mrs. Strang" ,it was the two authors, Ely and L'Estrange who wrote   the heroic girls stories. They were ahead of their time. "She determined she would try to save them all. She was only 16. She tied the severed rope around her body, and slipped into the ocean and started to swim...." "Heroine of the Quetta"

Bill, Nessie, Isobel, Stuart, 1920's

           My mother also said she would read these stories to her siblings, on  just warm days  with their dog Jessie. They would read about girls scaling walls, or riding to in the dark of night to save a man's life,  paddling rapids, and  towing a raft to land. "It was a race for life now, any moment an alligator might seize her. There was a sound like thunder in her ears, then she was drawn up into the boat...." -An Adventure in Dutch Guiana

 Heroines doing things they had never thought they could or would do. But did. "Oh I must be brave, I must, and god will help me out!-"An Adventure in Dutch Guiana"

Davy and Nessie, on board the "Kathleen" 1936 honeymoon

2018