Wordy Wednesday

A NAVAJO LEGEND OF WINTER

NAYENGEZANI, Destroyer of Wizards,
Bearing the war club, the quiver and bow,
Sang as he strode through the roar of the blizzards
Over the road to the Mountain of Snow--

"There dwells the Cold-Woman, high on her barrow,
Sending the Winter to fetter the land;
Her shall I slay with the flint-headed arrow,
Freeing my race from her evil command!"

Deserts he traversed through perils uncounted,
Fearless of weapons, regardless of spells;
Threading the ice-cumbered cañon, he mounted
Clear to the crag where the Storm-Brewer dwells.

Wrinkled and agèd, unfed, unbefriended,
Lacking the lodge fire's comforting glow,
Shivered the Cold-Woman, tempest attended,
Shaking the robes of her pallet of snow.

Swept in a cloud through her frigid dominions,
Vague in the mists that enveloped her form,
Snow buntings fluttered on eddying pinions--
Spies for the Winter and heralds of Storm.

Loud spoke the Hero: "Thy harsh rule is ended!
Cruel my errand! The Spring to restore,
Ready to slay thee my strong bow is bended;
Men from thy rigors shall suffer no more!"

Tossing her tresses, she answered in sorrow,
"Loosen the arrow and slay, if thou wilt,
Blindly triumphant, forgetting the morrow!--
Mine be the triumph and thine be the guilt,

"When all the prairies, the forests, and mountains
Parch in a Summer that findeth no close!
When all the rivers and nourishing fountains
Fail for the lack of my bountiful snows!

"When not a breath of my blustering season,
Health-giving, freshens a pitiless sky!
When those thou lovest, undone by thy treason,
Thirsting shall perish and fevered shall die!"

Low spake the Hero, unnocking his arrow:
"Mine is the folly! Thou, Mother, art wise.
Rule as thou wilt from thy snow-shrouded barrow,
Sender of blessings that come in disguise!"

Nayengezani strode down through the ranges
Homeward, untainted with death-doing wrong,
Blessing the Year for its glorious changes,
Weaving his thought in a burden of song:

"Dark is the East Wind and yellow the West Wind!
Blue is the South Wind and white is the north!
Who hath the wisdom that knoweth the best wind--
Save the Creator Who sendeth it forth!"

The Cold-Woman - Arthur Guiterman

Wordy Wednesday

On the Way to School - Charles Ghigna

I'll tell you why I'm tardy and I hope my excuse will do.
I stopped to view upon a leaf a spider and some dew.
She spun a web before my eyes with a soft and silver hue,
And when she looked, I looked at her and whispered, "Peekaboo!"

I think I may have startled her and so I waved good-bye,
But when I turned around to go, I met a butterfly!
I almost caught him in my hand to bring to class for you,
But when I tried to peek inside, away my treasure flew.

And that is how I'm tardy, but I had to tell you why.
It's all the fault of a spider's web and a sneaky butterfly!

Busy bee

That's me!

Ok obviously I'm not actually a real bee, this was one that I managed to snap quickly on my old point and shoot digi camera (wish I had a better camera - one day maybe but it's at the end of a very long list) while the kids were playing at the park.

I'm currently fostering a young lad who needs a LOT of attention so my computer time has gone from hours and hours to mere seconds. :) So I'll probably not be around as much for a wee while until things settle down and routines get put in place.
It was a lovely sunny day here yesterday but I see that there was a lot of rain everywhere else, mind you we had a full day of rain on Saturday so when the sun came out to play yesterday we went paddling in the sea and making the most of it because it'll probably be rain again tomorrow.

Wordy Wednesday

This is She - Arthur Guiterman

On order that must be obeyed
I sing of a dear little maid;
A mirthfully serious,
Sober, delirious,
Gently imperious
Maid.

And first we'll consider her eyes
(Alike as to color and size);
Her winkable, blinkable,
Merrily twinkable,
Simply unthinkable
Eyes.

Then, having a moment to spare,
We turn our attention to hair;
Her tendrilly-curlative,
Tumbly-and-whirlative,
Super-superlative
Hair.

Forbear to dismiss with a shrug
Her nose, undeniable pug;--
Her strictly permissible,
Turn-up-like-thisable,
Urgently kissable
Pug.

Now, moving a point to the south,
We come to an Actual Mouth;
A coral, pearliferous,
Argumentiferous,
Mainly melliferous
Mouth.

Observe, underneath it, a chin,
Connoting the dimple within;
A steady, reliable,
Hardly defiable,
True, undeniable
Chin.

By all that is fair! it appears
We'd almost forgotten her ears!
Those never neglectable,
Tinted, delectable,
Highly respectable
Ears!

And last let us speak of herself,
That blithe little gipsy and elf,
Her quite unignorable,
Absence-deplorable,
Wholly adorable
Self

Home Grown

Now I mentioned homegrown tomatoes. Oh yes I did.

Despite spending several back breaking - my muscles are still under protest several days later - hours working in the garden my veg plot is still half strawberry patch and half land of the weeds.

The rest of the garden is more weed free but still desperate for something more doing to it. The lawn still has a huge brown patch from our camping adventure at Easter! And when you have to mow your block paving you know you're definitely losing the battle of keeping up with the gardening.
Oh and did I mention the neighbours who chopped my hedge down? Or the fence man who STILL hasn't come to put me up a fence so I can have some privacy in my own garden? Aaaagggh!

Anyway wee one and I took ourselves off out for a drive the other day and found ourselves at a Homebase, don't ask!

I didn't get any of the things I actually need (lack of funds) but we did pick ourselves up two bargains that will hopefully pay for themselves.

Not sure why as they didn't appear any worse for wear than those that were still at full price.


Reduced from £4.99 to £1.98


At that price is would have been daft not to have a matching pair eh? :D


They perked up considerable after a good watering, but then inevitably not long after I watered them it started to rain and didn't stop for hours and hours!
Here's hoping soon we'll be able to nip out to the back door and pick some of our very own tomatoes.

Summertime Nom nom nom's

Now having a pinterest account for some time now you'd think I'd have saved where I found this recipe wouldn't you?
No you probably know me well enough now to know that I wouldn't, that I would see it, think ooooh that looks not only yummy but really easy to do. Thus store it away in my head and have it pop back up again when I least expected.
Yeah that's the Taz you know so well. ;)

So anyway I didn't invent this recipe, I don't even know what the proper name for it is BUT I do know that it is delicious and wee one agrees.

There are only 4 ingredients, well 5 if you want to include the bread. ;)



I don't have quanities I'm afraid. I just used my eye and thought "yeah that looks about right."

* So take a large bowl and pour in a good glug glug glug of olive oil.
* Chop up a bunch of spring onions, finely.
* Chop up a good couple of handfuls of toms, I used cherry vine ones but you could use nice big ones, especially if you've got some home grown - more on that later.
* Take some feta cheese and crumble up. Again no quantity but I guess it depends on how big a bowl you are making.
* Mix up together with the oil and leave to sit for as long as you like, or not long at all if you're like me and wee one and just wanted to eat it straight away.
* Slice up some nice fresh bread, we used a French Stick.


Take yourself out in the sunshine, sit down, take a slice of bread and smoosh it into the dish.


And enjoy!


Added bonus - wee one spotting that the end of the bread was a heart shape, the end to a perfect meal.

Wordy Wednesday

Father William - Lewis Carroll

"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head--
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."

"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door--
Pray, what is the reason of that?"

"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment -- one shilling the box --
Allow me to sell you a couple?"

"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak--
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"

"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw
Has lasted the rest of my life."

"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose--
What made you so awfully clever?"

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down-stairs!"

I'm Bored....Jar

Like most parents I'm always on the lookout for something to keep the smalls entertained, especially over the long summer holidays. Up here in Scotland that's right now. We have made a list of things we'd like to do or could do in the past but after coming across this on HomeSpunThreads wee one and I spent an enjoyable afternoon making up our own I'm Bored Jar. Oh and a spare wee one for when she's at her Dad's as she tells me it's always boring at Dad's house. :/

First take a clean jar or you could use a baby's milk can or coffee can with a lid.


Some colourful paper.


One of these beauties.


A glamorous assistant who does things like this.

Yeah ok the remnants of the nail varnish isn't so glamorous...moving swiftly on!


Write lots of ideas for fun things. The link on the website gives you a couple of sheets of ideas but they are very American based so you may want to write some of your own. Plus you can sneak in a few of your own ideas in there. Y'know those things you've been wanting them to do for ages but they're always too busy with homework and after school stuff. ;)
We sprinkled in a few sparkles too, well you can never have enough sparkles can you?



And there we have it. Two I'm bored Jars ready for action. If we start running low after a couple of weeks I'll just pop some more ideas in. Don't worry about repeating ideas. I think we put in about 5 make a cake's and several go to the beach/park's. ;)


I'm hoping the jar wee one plans to take to her Dad's gives him a nudge to do more with her but as the saying goes you can lead a horse to water. Yadda yadda yadda. I don't think it's even entered his head how hurt big one is that he took himself off on a last minute holiday before going back to work instead of spending that precious time with her before she went to Malawi. You'd think the fact she could barely bring herself to talk to him properly on the phone might have given him a clue but no. I'd give him the heads up but the last time I tried to help in a situation like this he threw it back in my face and refused to take any responsibilities for his actions. So you'll understand how much it all upsets me, when all I have ever wanted is for him to put them first.

Anyway now I'm rambling and this was supposed to be a happy how to post. Let me know if you make your own I'm Bored Jars and any good ideas for things to do. ;)

Finally.......here is the bathroom

A double shower cubicle and a nice white toilet and sink to replace the avocado suite.

We shifted the sink round from it's original setting as it made no sense having it there plus it freed up space on that wall keeping all the pipework together instead of the huge box thing that had hidden it all before. I took great pleasure ripping that box out I can tell you.

Nice shiny towel warmer/radiator that's very good for hanging socks on to dry. ;)


Another shot of the shower. Oh and the added bonus of being able to see where the ex tore down a wall in the back hallway about 3 years ago and then well you know the rest of that story. You can see where the wall was by the missing lino on the floor. You'll notice that the tiling is not finished at the doorway. That's because the plan is to continue the tiling out into the back hallway and kitchen, so to keep the flow we left it like that for now. I keep saying we - that's me and the guy that fitted the bathroom and never came back. LOL

And there we have it my shiny new bathroom minus the air extractor that hopefully I'll get fitted one of these days. Don't look too closely as I took these pics quickly to show you all and I hadn't done the housework yet. Yet! Who am I trying to kid - it's too sunny to do housework! LOL

Radio silence

Well that's that then. Big one is away to Malawi and I won't hear from her now until the end of July when she comes back.

The drop off on Wednesday was a bit of a drama. There were tears, there were highs and lows and there was a middle of the night drive to collect a missing item of her uniform while she slept unaware that her wee sister and I would be standing at the pick up point in the morning ready to give her that one last hug and kiss that she wasn't expecting. Oh and the missing bit of uniform. :)

When I looked back after leaving her at her friends house and saw that sad face how could I not do something that I knew would make her smile? She had said earlier in the evening that she wished we could be there in the morning to wave her off.

Once wee one and and I had done the return 100 mile drive (fortunately wee one had slept during the night's journey) she took herself to school for the afternoon and I took myself off to my bed for some much needed shut eye. I'm getting too old for a 400 mile drive and a night of no sleep not to have an effect. :p

Later in the afternoon I switched on my laptop to discover a beautiful message that big one had left the previous afternoon, just before we left the house to take her down.

Then up popped a private message - she was at Heathrow, the flight to Malawi was due to leave shortly but she just wanted to send wee one and I more hugs and kisses and let us know that the fact she was about to fly to Africa really hadn't sunk in yet. Bless her.

I'm really going to miss having her here but I know she is going to have an amazing experience that hopefully she will look back on in years to come with good memories. I'm so proud of her and I can't wait to hear all about her adventures and I'll be sure to share with you all too. ;)