I’ve always loved this old sign on North Main Street, especially the curved arrow!
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it lit, though. I wonder if it still works.
It reminds me of the Northside Video sign, but it has to be much older.
Someone still lives in the house next door (with those deer statues..), but the lot has been empty for some time now.
We’re all for a return to Gregorian music (and the Kyrie and a lot of Latin)!!
“If there’s a soundtrack in Heaven, it’s Gregorian.”
-Kevin Hawke
Since 2008, when we first went to a Mass at Sacred Heart, I’ve been puzzled by the symbol on the cover of these hymnals.
The embossed cross, I can see. But the gilt-embossed circle and gumdrop-looking flower-ish design? And that one gumdrop thingy that’s not gold?
Well, it took me until today, but I finally figured out the meaning.
See, I had a little more time than usual to unfocus during this morning’s Mass.
I know that sounds bad, but we went to Spanish Mass today, and I am not a Spanish speaker.
Usually, I can follow pretty well with the translation bulletin; it has the Spanish and English side-by-side on each page.
But today was my first Spanish Mass with our new priest, Father Tony. Instead of reading the message on the front cover of the translation bulletin like our former priest, Father Charles, who wasn’t perfectly fluent in Spanish, Father Tony, who is, gave his own homily, no translation.
I could pick out some words here and there, but not enough to string together anything coherent, so my mind just wandered a bit…
And it hit me.
There’s one circle in the center of the cross that represents Jesus.
And there are 12 embossed gumdrop shapes around the circle that represent the 12 apostles that Jesus chose.
And there’s one gumdrop shape which is not gilt that represents Judas, the one apostle who turned away from Jesus completely.
I’m not sure if there’s any meaning in the shapes…
Taken at Luray Caverns, July 31, 2009, using a camera technique I call “swirling.” 😛
All year long, through illness and swamped-from-work-ness, I have persevered in posting a picture each day as I vowed to do starting January 1st.
At least a few times, I just barely made it, sliding in at 11:58 p.m.. But I posted.
Until yesterday.
Excuses, I have many … we just moved … boxes still everywhere … ordered furniture hasn’t arrived … my nemesis TMJ reared its demonic head after months of ease … that time of the month …
I could certainly go on and on, but I’d prefer to focus on how I felt this morning when I realized I hadn’t posted a picture yesterday.
Well, there was an initial panic. Like a second.
And then there was calm.
All is fine.
Perfect.
Yes, this morning, I actually got a picture of one of our resident hummingbirds!!!
The main male and female were fighting over the feeder.
I kept seeing them blur by the windows, and when I paid closer attention, I saw the male sitting on a tree branch watching while the female came to the feeder, hovered around a bit and then started to sip. Then, the male flew down very close and fast, chasing the female off.
They did this over and over, the chase swirling through the sky into the neighbor’s backyard and back.
I went over to the window and stood, phone in hand with the camera app open, and when the female came to hover, I snapped as fast as I could.
I got two pretty good pictures, but they’re not nearly as clear and focused as I would like…
Look at her wings, though! They’re flapping so fast, they look almost see-through, strikingly translucent.
Awesome!!
It’s been a week, and the feeder’s down halfway — not bad, considering how tiny those sweet hummers are. 🙂
The ones we have, like in Ringgold several years ago, are Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds.
A male is clearly dominating the feeder. We can tell it’s a he by his red chest.
He usually sits on a branch of one of the trees in the back of our yard waiting and doing fly-bys on the other hummers who come up.
It’s almost impossible to pick him out until he moves and then we can track him. While he’s seated, though, he’s almost completely camouflaged, at least from this distance.
And there’s another most prominent female. She, like all female Red-Throated Hummingbirds, does not have a red throat at all. She’s mostly gray.
Both the male and the female have been very curious about us, taking time to hover to the side of the feeder in between sips, just looking in at us.
The other day, when I opened the curtain in the morning, the male was at the feeder. Instead of flying off like I would’ve anticipated, he hovered over to the center of the picture window, checking me out. It made me feel like an animal in a zoo he was visiting…a little Twilight Zone-ish.
I hope that they’ll get comfortable enough to let me take some pictures soon. 🙂
So we were sitting at the light, heading home this evening with some Sonic for dinner, and I happened to check out the sign…
Um…sideways??? How did the birds handle that???
I just managed to get this picture before the light changed.
In case you can’t see, here’s a closeup:
This week, like every second week, Kevin has to work five 12-hour days — two on, two off, three on. It doesn’t help that last week, he was on vacation while we moved and all…
I was looking through Fourth of July pictures from years past, and this one from 2008 caught my eye … and my heart.
Two people I miss dearly: my aunt Idella, who passed away the month after this picture was taken, and my 18-year-old son Ryan, who is now all grown up … and away.
Love and miss them both so much!
Our new house is not a new house. It was built 55 years ago, and at least two families that we know of have lived here.
It’s been well taken care of and had a lot of thought put into it, little touches and big.
The parallel curvature of the backyard bushes and bricked flower garden. The hook just outside the casement windows that crank open to refill the hummingbird feeder. The dogwood branches that fill the master bedroom window.
We are so blessed to have this house.
But still, we have to make it ours.
That means cleaning and changing and moving around.
And we’ll surely continue all this and more for as long as we’re here … which, at this point, may be forever. 🙂