A Lofty Ambition

On Friday I gathered some tidbits about kind deeds that are being done by individuals in my circle of friends, and today I want to tell you about a truly huge ministry that is being performed by a more organized entity.

Earlier this month, when I had the chance to visit Keetha of the Eclectic Company, she was volunteering at The Shepherd's Loft. The church she attends in Wisconsin Rapids has turned an entire church basement into the most complete clothing outlet I have ever seen.

On well arranged racks clothes are sorted and labelled, and townspeople can sign in, and fill two stand up grocery bags with clothing of their choice free of charge.

It boggles my mind that they have so many clothes to re-purpose to others and the scope and amount of stuff is just amazing to me.

Keetha herself has devoted an excellent post to this subject complete with fine pictures and I urge you to check it out. Just click here.

Our church with four times the members cooks and serves one meal per week for the community. I am humbled by the ministry of the Baker Street Community Church.

A Couple Questions on Sunday

Since I'm just as Fragmented on Sunday as on Friday, I'm stealing this meme while I take time out from my knitting project.

1. Did you make any fun purchases this week?

Not this week, but the yarn and the ball winder I ordered last week arrived in the mail from KnitPicks, and they are wonderful. It's amazing that an old woman can get such joy from rewinding yarn bits into usable balls of yarn. Never underestimate the power of a little machine.

2. If you could go to any musical concert, what would it be?

This is extremely difficult to answer, because my music loves are many and eclectic as heck, but today I'd vote for a show by John Pizzarelli, with his great group which includes his wife, Jessica Molasky, his dad, Bucky Pizzarelli, his brother and a few others. Great fun and great music!

3. What is your most/least favorite house chore?

I like to bake yeast products, and I like to do laundry. Dusting? Not so much.

4. Would you prefer new appliances or new clothes?

I'll pick appliances. I don't have to go into a little room and look into a three-way mirror for that, do I?

5. Do you prefer Miracle Whip or Mayo?

I was an adult before I realized they were two different things. My mom always stocked Miracle Whip, and my favorite thing to eat on toast was that sandwich condiment they used to make with MW and pickles. (It's probably tartar sauce----but what did I know?) I don't eat it anymore, because they don't market it anymore.

Well, now you know still more useless information about me, I have cobbled together a post for the day, and I will return to the project of the day.

And praying for my people on the Eastern seaboard.

Friday Fragments

Friday is the day that we gather together, bow our heads, and shake out all the bits and pieces that are needing expression. Mrs. 4444, at Halfpastkissin time is the hostess (or joker in charge) depending upon how well you know her blog.

Link up and join the fun.

This has been a week of observing random acts of kindness, and the the groups I know who foster this behavior.

One of the website I never really sign out of is one called HelpOthers.org. I've probably mentioned them before at some point, because it's a good collection of stories of good ideas people have had and observed for spreading kindness in the world. You never know how much a kind word will mean to someone.

Some of the ladies I meet with on Wednesday mornings have been sewing tote bags---really beautiful tote bags----which will be for sale at a fund-raising tea which happens annually to benefit a local nunnery. Another is making favors for a women's district meeting of her Lutheran synod.

Tonight at church I talked with the knitters around me who contribute their time and talent to make prayer shawls. Two of them have been instrumental in spreading the word to many communities and churches. Many people who have suffered illness or bereavement have been comforted by the gift of a prayer shawl. Many pray-ers have been blessed by connecting with families and many have been touched by the thought that others would devote so much time and care to make something that will comfort them.

There are still many knitting 8" squares to ship to South Africa to make warm covers for the orphan population there. There have been thousands given away, but the need continues.

American citizens who don't have any family members deployed, are writing letters to strangers in the service and sending boxes of much appreciated, hard to get items.

Mrs. 4444 serves as the advisor to a group of Difference Makers in the school in which she teaches. These kids are full of ideas and enthusiasm.

It is obvious that governments here and abroad can NOT solve the problems of the population, and the citizenry will have to mobilize themselves. Our governments can not afford to be compassionate, but there is much we can do that doesn't even involve cash. Just caring and redistributing our extra stuff to where it can be put to better use. (I'm preaching to myself here, too, folks.)

This isn't quite fragmented enough, but it's certainly long enough. Have a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

Just a Moment, Deer

It is rare for us to be out and about in town in the evening, and I'm thinking all our neighbors must be like that, too.

When we came home after 10 PM on Sunday night we had a young deer standing at the end of the alley, and we startled about six others who were grazing under the apple trees in the neighbor's yard.

Then last night, returning at 9 PM, the whole crew were at rest across the alley from where we'd seen them the night before. So they may sleep on our back lawns every night. They aren't exactly tame, but they don't bolt and run away from us either, when we're inside the car. They're more shy when we're on foot.

In spite of seeing them so often, I am still amazed at how many are around, and how at home they are in our yards.

My friend who was visiting this weekend said someone recommended a product for spraying her shrubs and plants, called, "Not Tonight, Deer." (I can remember that.)

Waiting for Chuck

Today was marked on the calendar with the cryptic message, "Chuck", and I have a bit of time while we are waiting, to begin this post. Chuck and his wife are friends from our time in downstate Michigan (among the trolls below the Bridge).

Chuck and Good Guy taught in the same high school in our old town and in spite of the fact that Chuck is a PK (preacher's kid) and Good Guy claims no faith, they are kindred souls. Go figure.

We don't have a lot of friends who are couples who we both like equally (and they aren't related to us). I have always thought that couples like that were hard to find, but these two interesting people are Our Couple.

We have watched their kids grow up, go off to college, choose their careers, marry, become parents; all in what seems an amazingly short period of time! Both of the parents are teachers and Mrs. Chuck is a musician as well, teaching piano, violin, and viola. She plays in a string trio and has exposed me to wonderful music I would never have found without her.

One time when we visited them, she wasn't feeling well, so we sent the guys off on their junket while we holed up at home and watched hours and hours of Pride and Prejudice, the BBC production with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

We always have fun with them so I should have drawn some fireworks on the calendar around the date. No need to wish me a nice day. The next few days are guaranteed great!

Fragmented, for sure

Mrs. 4444 gives us the opportunity to do exactly what I need this Friday. A place to make a list of unrelated items which I either don't know enough about, or have enjoyed in passing while whooshing past them online.

You can read the fragments of others and you can make your own contribution and link up at this party yourself at Halfpastkissintime. Try it, you'll like it.

I've spent time venturing into previously unknown territory this week. Online, I mean.

I discovered a fine website/blog run by some of my favorite artist/teachers. Kathy Johnson and Gwen Diehn do a blog on art journaling called, appropriately Artists Journal Workshop. Other talented people contribute, too, and it's a treat for me.

I saw a heartwarming video about a fawn being rescued by firemen from a pile of boulders while the doe hovered in the background. It was on Wimp.com and I can't find it anymore. The link worked at one time, and I apologize. You'll be able to waste hours there watching other videos though.

I also found some minimalist information. I still have way too much stuff, but I hanker to live with less. I get e-mails from Be More With Less, and there are many interesting blogs and websites. Such as the Barefoot Chronicles.

If you read and enjoyed "The Help", do not hesitate to see the movie. It is very well done, and though a few things had to be left out, the movie is real faithful to the book. Our book club discussed it yesterday, and my walking partner and I went to the matinee today. We enjoyed it very much.

I decided to join Carole's knit along and even ordered the wonderful hand spun yarn she urged us to buy. Now I can't wait for it to come. The yarn is coming from the Woolen Rabbit.

The art journaling site took me to Piece Work Wallets, where they make wallets, coin purses, checkbook covers, and such out of sturdy recycled packaging from other products. Like potato chip packaging, the plastic stuff that they pack sheet sets in, and that sort of thing. I love that kind of creativity and "repurposing".

I think that about does it for fragment sweeping for tonight. Have a great weekend. Read all the contributions. They are a great bunch.

Of Flowers and Steroids

At this stage of the summer, my flowers are on the wane. I didn't plant many annuals this summer and I just have a big pot on the deck with cosmos and impatiens.

There has been enough other plant life in the yard to keep us enter-tained. (Not to mention the baby bunnies.)

This plant with its huge white flowers is a favorite of mine, though. It is a variety of the moonflower and they are lovely. The whole plant is pretty with large dark green fuzzy leaves, and the buds of the flower unfurl in a spectacular way. Each blossom lasts only a day. The blossoms are very like petunias----if you magnified a petunia's size about 2o times.

This variety reseeds in the spring in my neighbor's garden. When I bought seeds and tried to grow them, they turned out to be vines and not like these at all. They were still showy and fragrant, but not like the ones I coveted. One year Red had lots of unwanted volunteers and I had moonflowers everywhere I could find a space to plant them. What a great year that was. Thankfully I took pictures of those.

I took this picture of Red's moonflowers this year, one day last week. They are in a flower bed on the side of his house facing ours, where he can't see them at all, and I can see them from my workroom. Isn't he a kind neighbor?

Busy at Home

Some days start off straight out of the blocks. I have a standing date to walk at 7 AM, and imagine my distress when I rolled out of bed this morning at 10 minutes to 7!

I set a record for drinking a provisional breakfast, dressing and hoofing it on down the hill. Pant, pant. The rest of the day was pretty easy.

I'm applying the binding to the edges of the baby quilt. I'm turning the heel on thermal sock number one for my oldest son (whose woolly socks are wearing out). I'm joining a knit-along with the followers of Carole Knits. I may even invest in the beautiful hand spun yarn they are all using.

I tried to send an e-card from my American Greetings account. I pressed "send" about ten times and never got any feedback that the card sent. I wonder if they got ten cards.

My sister visited us this past weekend with her Teddy Bear, Daisy. Daisy has learned to bark when she hears other dogs barking in the neighborhood. This is frowned upon by her mistress. But she is one cute little critter! Our family tends to have large dogs with a couple of exceptions. And those big dogs would all gladly sit on laps. Now that there's a real lap dog, she isn't that crazy about laps. Funny how things work out, isn't it?

We caught her in an exhausted mode in the picture above. So she was contented to sack out on Jane's lap. Daisy has just recovered from a hernia repair, spaying, and having some baby teeth pulled. She's just been released from wearing a cone, and life is good again.

Yesterday a friend in California sent me an e-mail with a link to a wonderful animal story. If you're a softie, check this out: Fawn rescued.

Have a great Tuesday.

Blessings Galore

Here we are, safely home from our travels to mid-Wisconsin where we had a fine time, indeed.

My first blessing is my husband, whose was willing to fit my excursion into his golfing plans. (He doesn't expect me to give him credit, nor does he read my blog; or he doesn't admit it.)

Maybe the most generous blessing was having Brotherbob share his two days of golf and lodging with Good Guy! This package was a gift from his wife for his birthday.

And for me, my excursion to visit with Keetha of The Eclectic Company was the blessing that affected me the most. I intruded on her life during two very busy days for her, but she graciously fitted me into her schedule.

We did some laughing, some serious talking, some exploring---she found me a great yarn shop. I'd head straight back there if I ever won the lottery. Since I don't buy tickets it's highly unlikely, but I could spend lots of money in that shop! And she also took me to the cheese factory.

I also discovered that we were within spitting distance of Pittsville, Wisconsin, a mecca for knitters who revere Elizabeth Zimmerman and Meg Swanson.

I went away from the cheese shop with fresh cheese curds, and smoked string cheese, and whips. (I'm including that just to torment my grandson, who'll be envious.) Florida isn't the dairy state.

Speaking of cheese, Good Guy and I made a side trip to Bob's House of Bleu Cheese, thinking it would be a source for amazing stuff. He doesn't stock much anymore, due to the fact that it doesn't get bought, and he ends up throwing it out. Later GG laughed and wondered how you can tell bleu cheese is spoiled---but that's a discussion for another day.

So, thanks and a hug to all our earthly benefactors. Live long and prosper, and praise the Lord. Not necessarily in that order.

A Wee Road Trip

For golfers there is always excitement when they get to play a beautiful course they don't play very often. And Brotherbob's devoted wife bought him a golf package at Sentry World in Stevens Point that is a present for Good Guy too. Because it's two days of golf, and lodging for two people.

Well, peeps, Stevens Point is but a sneeze away from Wisconsin Rapids, home of the originator of The Eclectic Company, one of the mischief makers who got me to start blogging. What better punishment for her than a visit?

You're right, nothing could be more suitable, or more fun! That's what I'm looking forward to tomorrow and Thursday. And I will take projects to work on, and a camera, too (for all the good it does me). If the wind is right, you'll probably hear us laughing.

You have a good week, too.

Our Book Club Choices

Since I can't find an e-mail address for Leanne of Arrow Acres and since she inquired about things our book club has read, this is sort of narrow in scope.

We have read these books, (and I have to admit that not everybody was equally enthralled with them.)

An MC Beaton mystery featuring Agatha Raisin. (It was a quick read but she's an unpleasant character. I've read a couple of Beaton's other mysteries, too with a different crime solver. The Scottishness of them is pleasant, but the stories are goofy.)

The No#1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. (We all enjoyed that one.)

Fool's Puzzle by Earlene Fowler (There's a whole series of these with Quilt names.) I like the characters.

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain inspired more laughter and discussion than anything else we've read.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was one I enjoyed way more than any of the others. I'm a Swede so I liked all the place names and description. Too violent for some, too.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. Quirky and fun.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. We all loved this book!

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. An all time fave of mine recommended to me by my son. He knew I'd love it.

Saint Maybe by Ann Somebody----I forget. (Depressing.)

Dreamer of the Day by Mary Doria Russell. (I love this author. This isn't my favorite book by her, but all her books are worth reading, in my estimation.)

I've typed more here twice and lost it both times. Somebody's trying to tell me something.....

To be continued:

Another Great Read

I have just finished re-reading The Help for my book club. We have talked about reading it for many months, but were waiting for the paperbacks to be published. Being on the list at the library seemed to take longer than anyone's patience could endure.

What drove us to reading this together now was the fact that a movie will soon be released and we want to have a chance to discuss it before seeing the film.

I am very conscious of being a life-long Yankee, a stranger in another culture, when I read a book set in the South, especially when it concerns race relations.

My only experience was six months in Virginia in the early 60's. ( Hardly long enough to qualify as an observer in that length of time. ) Especially after coming from a part of the country with so little diversity, as I mentioned the other day.

But, I have lived among other people for a very long time indeed. I have observed some people with a sense of entitlement and superiority for no particular reason that I could discern. So I have no trouble at all with believing that a fair cross section of employers and maid's experiences are represented.

So I have to join the legions of others who enjoyed and heartily recommend this book. I liked the characters, except for the rascally villians, and I enjoyed the various plot lines and the mysteries that were part of the story.

Now, I ardently hope they made a wonderful movie from the book!

Another Opportunity

So many of you have commented on the comments for charity, that I assume that many of you who pop in from time to time as kindhearted, generous folk.

I'm sure that this organization has been doing good work for a very long time, and I feel as though I'm the last person on Earth to hear about them, but just in case, here's the scoop.

There's a way to lend money to small enterprises in third world countries; small amounts of money which don't make that much difference to us, but can make a world of difference to others. Our contributions are pooled and loaned to people who can't get conventional loans.

When/if the $25 is repaid to us, we can collect it from Kiva or we can choose to re-lend the money to another borrower in need. (They have just had a promotion in which new folks could get acquainted, risk-free, by lending $25 that was supplied by some other benefactor. Don't ask. I don't know) I signed in today to read about the program, joined the Michiganders team, and left some money, too. That promo money has all been used up, by the way.

It's worth spending some time there just to read about the teams that have formed. There are about 16,000 teams from schools, states, countries, philosophies, and some of them are laugh out loud crazy. I almost joined Cheeseheads for Change, or Nurses, or Women Helping Women. There are so many possibilities!

Anyway, in the spirit of public service, and as my kind deed of the day, I'm just giving you a heads up. My blogging friends who have been doing this for quite a while are discouraged that more people haven't joined up. I just consider us planting the seed of information.

As for me, sometimes I think about these things for quite a while before I make a move. But if you are curious at all, you how much fun surfing the internet can be. Check them out at Kiva.

We are learning that only so much can be done by our governments at any level. Much of the help in the world is going to have to be done by the good people of every persuasion, who care about other people.

Evidence

I have spoken before about the deer population in our neighborhood and wanted to show you some evidence of the way they feast on the shrubbery. My neighbor on the northwest corner of the block has a lot encircled by cedar shrubs. At least they used to be nice full cedar shrubs.

The deer have eaten them as high as they can conveniently reach, and they are quite free of greenery. They go inside on the grass and eat the other side, too.

In my yard, they are especially fond of the hostas used to grow where the raspberry bushes have sprung up. (Yesterday's post.) Never a dull moment.

Be Careful What You Wish For!

One of the less appealing aspects of summer here is that, in order to be good neighbors, we have to be vigilant about mowing our lawn.

Good Guy is a "let's get Astroturf" kind of guy, and our objective was to eliminate grass somehow. We are too lazy to make that work, and last summer we hired a kid to cut the grass. He did a fine job too, when we could find him.

But this year, our kind neighbor started cutting our grass at the same time he did his own. I told him I'd gladly hire his daughter to do it, to which he replied, "You'd be better off with me." Well, you don't have to hit me with a brick. I wrote a check, brought it to him, and said, when you need more, let me know." He mows, edges the sidewalks, runs the weed whacker. He's worth his weight in gold!

But, while we were plotting how to eliminate grass, I kept thinking, "If I'd only started planting raspberry bushes when we moved here, we'd be eating berries all year long." (A gross overstatement, but a happy thought.)

Then I noticed that we were getting volunteer raspberry brush along the long side of the deck. That's cool. I bought a tame bush this spring and added it to the wild stuff. Not only is it thriving on the side, it is coming up through the small spaces in the decking! We will be able to reach out from the kitchen table and grab a handful of berries----in due time. Perhaps you can spot the leaves coming up through the decking.

There are some invasive species that I just love!

Every Day

You know what a booster I am of Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project. I agree with her that more gets accomplished on a project if I do something every day.

She'll tell her yourself right here.

More later.