Come-a to my house - Guest Blogger: Rhys Lake

People are special. 

Our uniqueness; our individual personalities, passions and stories.

As a photographer, I am always inspired in meeting new people and having the opportunity to hear some of their personal journey. What drives them and gets them up in the morning.

Our homes are one such extension of how we view life. Our houses become homes when we fill them with pieces that mean something to us. We can point to pieces of furniture and seemingly meaningless items in our homes with a sense of excitement, thinking back to the time, place or person involved when we found them. Our homes, then, are one such way of expressing our style and journey.

Therefore, what a privilege it was, to have Curious Acorn, aka. Jodi Lenz, open her home and allow me to showcase it. I hope, as I'm sure she does also, that as you explore her home that you are inspired to express your style and journey in your own unique way.

Click here to take the tour.

O-bla-di, o-bla-da, life goes on, brah!... La la how the life goes on... O-bla-di, o-bla-da, life goes on, brah!... Lala how the life goes on. ~ The Beatles

A while back, my friend Linda sent balm in the form of a note.  She wrote, "I felt like the world had gone out of kilter when my mother died."  

Out of kilter. Yeah, that's how I've felt. I miss my mom.

I'm not going to pretend everything was hearts and roses between us. It wasn't, but still...

She'd sometimes, in an angry tone, tell me I looked just like her mother.

Sometimes on bad days she thought I was her mother.

 Mothers and daughters. *Sigh*

For my part, I didn't make it easy on her in my teen years, spitefully ringing Hell's bells.

But God...slipped in, changing the tone, changing history, changing everything. We learn to honor and bless. We did our best, she and I.  Grace. 

My own girl will be here in a few weeks with her fat and sassy baby girl.  Mothers and daughters.  It is good.  La la how the life goes on...

Back to work

“It was November--the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the pineland alleys in the park and, as she said, let that great sweeping wind blow the fogs out of her soul.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Thank you, friends, for the kind words regarding my mom. I'm slowly making my way back. Love you.  

Break

Dear blog friends, thank you for the anniversary wishes. I'll be back to visit all your lovely posts soon. My mom passed away on Monday morning after a brief illness. So I'll be taking a little break. My mom was a woman who loved you in her fashion. My favorite memory of her was in the 1960's, with her bouffant blonde hair. When dressing up, she wore a beige blazer and skirt with matching beige stiletto heels, and she smelled always of Chanel No. 5. When I was little, I used to steal her Oil of Olay face cream and rub it on my cheeks. I wanted to look like her because I thought she was so beautiful.

"And I would like to cry in the car. 

The blue violet hills and the voice of Neil Young. 

I left the flowers outside your door. 

Your curtains were flying 

Though you were not at home. 

And I can only say that I have hoped for you. 

Safety from fears and darkness 

Are you feeling better than before? 

There's a hidden life for everyone. 

Sorrow remains though you can tell no-one.

The Host on your tongue is a perfect moon.

It does shine inside you. 

You shine into the room. 

And I can only say that I have hoped for you. 

Safety from fears and darkness 

Are you feeling better than before? 

Down in the hallways in wintertime. 

There is your great kindness 

And you are the light. 

And I can only say that I have hoped for you. 

Safety from fears and darkness. 

Are you feeling better than before? 

And I can only say that I have hoped for you. 

Safety from fears and darkness Are you feeling better than before?"

~Karen Peris, "You Are the Light"

I do, I did, I would again

At a shower and watching a bride-to-be open her many gifts, my then-5-year-old daughter Joy turned to me and asked, "Did you get a lot of presents when you married Daddy?" "Yes." "Well, I think my Daddy is the best present you got." So right, sweetie. 31 years ago today, two clueless kids said "I do," and grew up together. We've been up and we've been down, and I'd do it all over again. Here's to many more years. Happy anniversary, Mister.

Book it

Take an old hardback book with an interesting cover and boring contents,

a jar of rubber cement, a pair of scissors, a pile of favorite recipes scribbled on loose leaf paper, shared by friends,

or quietly removed from magazines while sitting forever in a doctor's office *cough* (what?),

Now plant yourself in front of a favorite movie that you've watched a hundred times. Cut, paste, and whistle watch while you work

Here's where I digress. I bought this old postcard and pasted it into the flyleaf of the book in honor of the grandmother I lived with when I was a kid. The scene makes me nostalgic for her kitchen. The similarity is striking, right down to the mirror above the sink and the old wringer-style washing machine.

I recall the way she would flour the rim of a water glass to use for cutting biscuits, and the full glass bottle of Schlitz beer that made its noontime appearance on the kitchen table.

The yellow liquid gradually disappearing didn't hurt her ability to make amazing meals.

Seriously, that woman never left the kitchen--cooking us all three hot meals a day--which I totally did not appreciate when I was young.

Looking back, I do believe it was she who planted the love-of-cooking seed in my heart.

La la la, back to the book. Along with the cutting and pasting, add a little imagination, some collaging, and messing about with markers,

and you have a recipe for a recipe book. The End

To Celebrate a Simple Life

"I can't do this, Sam. "I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something." "What are we holding onto, Sam?" "That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

How can you read these words and not love Tolkien?  I'm a bit of Tolkien geek. And I'm fortunate to have good friends who feel the same, and are happy to geek out in blessed fellowship. Did you know that, being the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, September 22nd has become Hobbit Day? (More importantly, it's our grandson Rembrandt's first birthday, which was celebrated on the other side of the country with his parents and those other grandparents...we're not jealous, are we precious...no, no...*cough*) So although our thoughts were with little Remy deep in the heart of Texas, we distracted ourselves with wonderful Hobbity pursuits.

"There was a buzzing and a whirring and a droning in the air. Bees were busy everywhere. And such bees! Bilbo had never seen anything like them. … They were bigger than hornets. The drones were bigger than your thumb, a good deal, and the band of yellow on their deep black bodies shone like fiery gold." --The Hobbit Friends brought some fifty pounds of honey from their hives which we worked together to extract (they also brought some Hobbit food to share). Extracting honey from the comb is an all-day affair, let me tell you. To keep up your strength...

...you have second breakfasts, elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and supper. The handsome lad wearing the bandanna is a genius. Eli has been raising honeybees since he was a young boy. he helped us inspect our hive. We learned more from him during a thirty-minute hive inspection than we have in all of our beekeeping studies. You're awesome, Eli. Thank you again. Now, on to the feast.

Gotta love that Tookish grin. "As I was saying, the mother of this hobbit - of Bilbo Baggins, that is - was the fabulous Belladonna Took, one of the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took, head of the hobbits who lived across The Water, the small river that ran at the foot of The Hill. It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbit-like about them, - and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures. They discreetly disappeared, and the family hushed it up; but the fact remained that the Tooks were not as respectable as the Bagginses, though they were undoubtedly richer." --The Hobbit

Coney soup. "Gollum withdrew grumbling, and crawled into the fern. Sam busied himself with his pans. 'What a Hobbit needs with coney,' he said to himself, 'is some herbs and roots, especially taters--not to mention bread. Herbs we can manage, seemingly." --The Two Towers

"You can drink your fancy ales, you can drink them by the flagon, but the only brew for the brave and true...comes from the Green Dragon!" --The Return of the King

Mushroom pie. "Hobbits have a passion for mushrooms, surpassing even the greediest likings of Big People. A fact which partly explains young Frodo's long expeditions to the renowned fields of the Marish, and the wrath of the injured Maggot. On this occasion there was plenty for all, even according to hobbit standards. There were also many other things to follow, and when they had finished even Fatty Bolger heaved a sigh of content. They pushed back the table, and drew chairs round the fire." --The Fellowship of the Ring

Lembas bread. "'I thought it was only a kind of cram, such as the Dale-men make for journeys in the wild,' said the Dwarf. 'So it is,' they answered. 'But we call it lembas or waybread and it is more strengthening than any food made by men, and is more pleasant than cram by all acounts.'" --The Fellowship of the Ring

More lembas bread. "Well, let me see. Oh yes, lovely. Lembas bread. And look! More lembas bread. I don't usually hold with foreign food, but this Elvish stuff is not bad." The Two Towers

Victoria sponge and seed cake to "fill up the corners", as Bilbo would say. "After the feast (more or less) came the Speech. Most of the company were, however, now in a tolerant mood, at that delightful stage which they called “filling up the corners”. They were sipping their favourite drinks, and nibbling at their favorite dainties, and their fears were forgotten. They were prepared to listen to anything, and to cheer at every full stop." The Fellowship of the Ring