SOL Tuesday - The Puppies

Slice of Life Tuesday
April 25, 2017

The Puppies





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My son and daughter-in-law's dog gave birth to eleven puppies on the day before Easter. Eleven! I'm not a dog expert, but that seems like an awfully big litter, doesn't it?

Here is a picture of the puppies when they were 5 days old.

Today I've written a haiku to celebrate their arrival:

The Puppies

Eleven puppies

Squirming, sleeping, whimpering...

Cuteness overload!

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JudyK  April 25, 2017

SOL Tuesday - Memories of a Special Bookshelf

Slice of Life Tuesday
April 18, 2017

Memories of a Special Bookshelf





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In my childhood home, my two sisters and I shared a bedroom, a large room that took up most of the top floor of our one and a half story family home. The room, unfinished when the house was constructed, had been built by my dad with thick knotty pine walls and a tile floor. It was a wonderfully cozy room, with sloping ceilings, two windows, several storage closets, two built-into-the-wall chests of drawers, and a built in bookshelf.

That bookshelf was the place where my sisters and I displayed figurines, stuffed animals, assorted treasures...and of course, books. There was quite a variety of mostly old books on the shelf. The ones I remember ranged from children's books, such as Little Golden Books, to young adult books. I loved to read when I was young, and I read many of the books from that bookshelf. Some of the books I read over and over again because 1) I liked them so much, and/or 2) I was in the mood to read but had nothing new to read, so re-reading old books was my only choice. (The nearest branch of our public library was pretty small and was over a mile to walk to, so I didn't get there very often. And my grade school had no library at all!)

There was a book on that bookshelf that I remember reading numerous times, but I can't recall the title. I know that the book was quite old, and its main characters were two next-door-neighbor girls named Dolly and Dottie. I don't remember much of the plot of the book, except for one chapter when the girls were roller skating and collided with each other, with some not-very-good results. I'll have to do some research to see if I can come up with the title and author, just to satisfy my curiosity. If I do, and if I can find a copy of the book, it might be fun to read that book again.

My favorites of all the books from that bookshelf were Trixie Belden mystery books. We had the first four or five books of the Trixie Belden series, and I read each of them multiple times. Trixie was a 13-year-old girl who solved mysteries, and I absolutely loved her character.  She, along with her brothers and friends, had all kinds of adventures. They solved various mysteries, often getting into trouble along the way.  The books were always suspenseful -- even when I was reading them for the umpteenth time -- and fun to read.

And then there was Nancy. Nancy Drew, that is. We had one Nancy Drew mystery book on that bookshelf, and I read that book as well. But I didn't like it very much, and I only read it once, so I don't even remember which book of the Nancy Drew series it was. I'm sure that the book was well-written, but I just couldn't identify with the character of Nancy. She was an older teenager, already graduated from high school, and she was perfect. She was rich and beautiful and had a boyfriend and played golf and drove a convertible. I couldn't relate to any of those things. 

Some girls loved to read about Nancy Drew. They admired her and aspired to be like her. But not me. Nancy was too perfect, too far removed from the real life which I lived. Give me Trixie Belden -- who made mistakes and got teased by her brothers and had to do household chores and save her money to buy things -- to read about, over Nancy Drew. ANY day.

Ahhhh, the books from my childhood. They were my friends. (Well, except for Nancy.) They kept me company on a rainy day, they added liveliness to boring summer days, they sparked my imagination and let me get glimpses into other teenagers' lives. Even if they were fictional lives....

Trixie and Dolly and Dottie made reading fun, and I am thankful that they were a part of my childhood.


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JudyK. April 18, 2017

SOL Tuesday - Haiku Trio For This Day

Slice of Life Tuesday -- 
Tues. April 11, 2017

Haiku Trio For This Day

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Some thoughts about Tuesday, April, and the number 11



Tuesday
Day after Monday 
We glide back into routines
Working hard again

April

Chilly rain, warm sun

Flowers bloom, trees bud, earth stirs....

New life beginning

Eleven

Less than a dozen

Not as popular as ten

Prime number...unique

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JudyK   :-)  April 11, 2017

SOL Tuesday - Balloons!

Slice of Life Tuesday
Balloons!







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I took this picture almost nine years ago, one summer evening when my daughter-in-law Kathleen and I were out running errands with my two then-very-little grandchildren. 

It all happened as we were driving along a country road a few miles from my house. We rounded a curve and started up a small hill when we were suddenly greeted by this wondrous sight. That is not something you see every day when you are out driving around, at least not where I live!

We quickly saw that there was another hot air balloon floating very close to this gorgeous yellow one, and we just had to stop to look at them! There happened to be a gravel patch by the side of the road on the other side of the little hill, so we hurriedly pulled over and hopped out of the car. A man and a woman, who were out in their yard across the road from where we parked, looked suspiciously at my daughter-in-law and I as we jumped out, looked up, and started taking pictures....But as soon the couple stopped staring at us long enough to look up, they understood.

By then it was obvious that both hot air balloons were rapidly descending and looking for a spot to land. As they swiftly drifted across the road and over a small patch of woods, Kathleen and I jumped back into the car to follow them. We drove a short distance to an intersecting road, turned onto it and went past the woods, and there, just off the side of the road, were both freshly-landed balloons. We once again pulled off onto the side of the road. Also pulling over right then were several other cars that had observed the goings-on... including the couple who had been regarding us with such suspicion just a few minutes before. They had also hopped into their car to follow the balloons.

This time when Kathleen and I climbed out of our car, we got Kathleen's two little ones out as well. What an amazing sight lay before all of us! The balloons had missed the trees, and a couple of houses, but not by much. We watched, fascinated, as the balloon pilots slowly deflated their balloons and prepared to pack them up. It was a fascinating, I-can't-believe-this-awesome-thing-is-happening kind of evening.

For much of my life I had thought about how fun it would be to ride in a hot air balloon over the countryside. I suppose that thought started when I was a little girl and had seen "The Wizard of Oz"? I don't know. But I still to this day like the idea of quietly floating high in the air, watching over everything down below. I think it sounds so peaceful, so serene...and yet so exciting at the same time.

I don't remember where Kathleen and I had been going that summer evening so long ago. Wherever we had been going, we never got there. Instead, we were unexpectedly given the opportunity to put normal life on hold for a little while and just be in awe of something beautiful, and we grabbed the opportunity and enjoyed it.

I recommend that more people do that more often.

:-)

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JudyK  April 4, 2017