Even I am Artistic!

"Old age ain't no place for sissies." ~ Bette Davis

"We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too."
~Helen Hayes

"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a love sickness."
~Robert Frost

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Hi and Welcome to Thursday! The weather has begun to cool off here and that is always a blessing to us.. No air conditioner.. no heat.. Lower electric bill.. I love that.. and in these penny pinching times.. anything that helps lower a bill is a huge blessing by my standards..

Today is Thursday and that means I share three things with you who will visit here.. I hope you enjoy your visit and hopefully will come back again...


1~}- The Thursday photo challenge this week has listed the theme "ART" and goes further to explain it as follows... ~ Paintings, Drawings, Murals, Graffiti, Crafts, Brushes, Pens, Pencils,...~

I could have walked around snapping pictures of the drawing on my kid's room walls.. the bucket of paint Dave left sitting in the floor of the room we are working on.. the hand painted birdhouses that the children and I made years ago for our feathered friends.. the sketch books Coop left in his old room.. the pencil drawing Anthony made for me of the Gunslinger... The Apple Emily colored for me in first grade.. The velvet "Love" poster Jenny made for me.. or even some of Davids art work.. But I didn't.. I am still using someone else laptop and I am trying my very best to be a good borrower and not add anything... unless I positively have to... to her computer.. So I searched the very few pictures I had added and all the pictures of hers and way back in the distance behind her and her beloved.. I spotted some very beautiful art.. The trees in this shot are very appealing and artistic to me.. The statue isn't half bad either.. I love all things art and I think that Art covers an extremely large area.. My Mom's quilts are art.. Photographs family and friends make are art.. The food Reuben cooks is an art...The birdhouses we make from gourds are art.. Tattoos that my friend Red puts on people are art..Even the way I twist and turn words is an art.. I think almost everyone has some artistic talent... Maybe you can draw good sidewalk chalk pictures or build a great sand castle?! ..But My very favorite form of art.. is the beauty found naturally in our everyday world!..

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2~}- I recently entered a contest that I think I talked about where I didn't notice that it was "rounds"... My first round poem was called Spilled Colors and then I got the note saying I had to report to the sight and choose a name from a list and write a poem about a name on the list... As soon as I scanned the list I spotted a name that I have heard many times before... Uncle Weston has been a ghost story around these parts for many years.. A black Man ghost who plows a mule by lantern light is a ghost story that you never forget.. especially when you have stayed many nights in the house with your sister who lives on that land where he is said to walk... The contest is over and I didn't win.. I don't care about the winning really.. I usually write by what moves me .. once I saw this name I knew that I had to write Weston's story.. But I have had a gazillion comments on the poem.. I hope you like it.. If you ever come to this neck of the woods I'll be glad to show you where Uncle Weston plows.. I'll almost bet we could even get my oldest sister to put on a pot of coffee..


The Widow's Mite ~ (Weston)


Weston worked and worried
from sun up till sundown
for the freed-man knew the reason
that Pap had gone to town.

Pap had loved his family
but now that Ma was gone
Pap had said to Weston
"I can't do this alone."

Pap had hitched the wagon
and said "I've got to ride"
" But I'll be back this evening
with Leatha by my side.."

The young uns worried Weston
as they picked and teased all day
No matter how they nagged him
not a word did Weston say..

Pappy loved his Leatha
She worked right by his side
she proved herself a help-mate
not just an Old Man's bride.

Weston held each baby
As if they were his own
and all too soon for Leatha
God called Pappy home

The Young uns said to Leatha
we will give you land
some lumber for a two room shack
a mule and Pappy's Hand.

the Child bride was a widow
she had no will to fight
Weston was a freed-man
who became the widow's mite.

Weston spoke to Leatha
as the sun rose on the day
"Get yo babies Mammy
and lets be on our way"

Side by side they worked the land
a forty acre sprawl
they watched the sons grow in to men
straight and strong and Tall.

They called him Uncle Weston
their Pap had set him free
But he stayed to help their mammy
and hold them on his knee.

Crony; Benson; Dorris
and baby Elloree
all loved their uncle Weston
and now we come to me..

Weston died one Sunday
I now live on the land
where Mammy came with babies
and one old wrinkled hand.

They say Old Weston walks here
Him and his Mule Belle
They plow and plant the acres
and see that we are well..

I never saw a spirit
but sometimes late at night
I here the mules bell jingle
I see a lanterns Light..

Uncle Weston was a freed man
His skin as black as Night
But Mammy was a widow
and he was Mammy's Might!

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
9-16-2009

a special thanks to Crony's daughter Nancy
and to her daughter-in-law Trudy for sharing
their stories of Mammy and Uncle Weston

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3~}- A Haiku to finish out the three..

Dave and I planted a few rows of peas .. we planted them late in the year but were hoping to get a few pots of fresh ones before the frost finished them off.. We picked a dishpan full this week. Mama sure is a lot faster pea sheller than I am.. she had them shelled by the time I got our lunch fixed.. Three quarts of peas for the freezer and a rare weekday lunch with me.. Mama and Dave.. I love fresh peas and corn bread...

supper time

field peas with fat back
bubbling on the wood stove~
tummies rumble

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
9-20-2009

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That is three for Thursday.. another week has almost come and gone.. I noticed yesterday that the stores have Halloween and Christmas decoration all crammed in there together..I did finally find a pilgrim stuffed on the bottom shelf way down on the end of the aisle.. I was thinking about decorating with a skeleton in a Santa suit with a lady pilgrim.. baking a pumpkin pie.. for his wife.. That way I can just decorate once time and leave it up till just before New Years! wouldn't that be artistic?? ... Maybe I'll pass on the decorations all around and just quietly be thankful for the artistic beauty I see around me everyday... Have a great day!!
Patsy

Tuesday?! Ok What is it???

"Truth maybe stranger than fiction, but fiction is truer."
~ Frederic Raphael

"I write fiction because it's a way of making statements I can disown."
~ Tom Stoppard

"Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything."
~ Ivana Trump

"Get you facts first, and then you can distort 'em as much as you please. "
~ Mark Twain

Today's riddle is more of a why is it than a what is it. As you can see, it is a tree with a brick wall built inside of it. It is a live Oak tree. It is just one of many trees that have brick walls inside of them.
When my children first saw them they were frightened of them. Walking along you can see some that come to the ground like the ones pictured here and others that might be way up high in a tree. They really are a little scary to see being that they are all in the cemetery of some very old Church ruins. It also doesn't help that vandals tried to open all the above ground vaults many years ago and damaged most of them. So to be walking around and spot these trees near Vaults with tilted and broken tops is indeed the stuff you might expect to see in an old Horror film or read about in a murder in the dark mystery book. Cooper and his Friend even knocked and called out is anybody home on one of our stops there. We Love this place.. We have to pass it on our way to the beach. It's a good spot to stop and stretch your legs for a minute and maybe have a cool drink from the hand pump. I have been going there ever since I was a child. My children have been going there for a long time too. Dave doesn't mind stopping there for a few minutes and even agreed to stand by the tree for me but he really isn't interested in being anywhere near this place at night he says..

I would have loved to have seen this Church in her early years. Even as Ruins it is a peaceful and touching place. There are many rumors of ghosts here. I haven't seen one that I was certain was a ghost. I did see what I thought was a Mennonite woman there a few years ago standing by a child's grave. She appeared to be doing the same thing I was and just reading the headstones. She stood there a long time with her head down and I honestly thought she was saying a prayer. It was only after she walked through the gate and was gone that I remembered that there were no cars parked outside the gate. I hurried to the gate and peered up and down the long road.. Nothing!!! She was gone!! One of the ghost stories goes that a young woman is often seen at the grave of her child.. She will leave through the gate and disappear. She is also supposed to wear a brown dress. I can't for the life of me remember rather the Woman I saw was wearing brown or some other dreary drab color. Was she a ghost? I would like to say YES!! but I can't swear it was a ghost. It could have been a fast walking in an ugly long dress Mennonite woman who had a car hidden somewhere outside the gate..... Spooky Huh?!

These pictures were made at a place called Old Sheldon Church! It is the ruins of a Church that was first burned during the revolutionary War and then burned again By Sherman on his Trek to the sea. The walls refused to fall and to this day still stand. Many people choose this spot for weddings and other celebration and it isn't rare to ride by and see people picnicking here.

Today's questions is not what it is; it isn't where is it either. Today's question if you would like to offer a guess is Why are these trees bricked up? What purpose does it serve to have bricks laid in the hollow of a tree? Does anyone know? Do you think there are boogies bricked up inside these trees? Did someone with a stack of bricks and some spare time just get bored? I'd like to hear your response to these questions.. Tell me what you think.. Cooper and Emily used to think there were boogies bricked up there . I'm pretty sure their older brother told them that. I'm also almost sure that I might have told Anthony that so I guess it's all my fault.. I have actually looked into the reasons for there being bricks in the trees. There are a couple of reasons in fact. Do you have any idea why this was done? would you like to make a guess? Please leave me a comment with your answer. And I will leave a comment tomorrow with the reasons I was able to find! Who knows; Maybe there really are boogies bricked up in those trees! Have a great day!
Patsy