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Hey tabby!

Jane Taylor wrote the lyrics in 1806.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

When the blazing sun is gone,

When he nothing shines upon,

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Then the traveler in the dark

Thanks you for your tiny spark;

He could not see which way to go,

If you did not twinkle so.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

In the dark blue sky you keep,

While you thro' my window peep,

And you never shut your eye,

Till the sun is in the sky,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!



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Attached files

IT'S NEARLY CHRISTMAS

I write this in September

And I can already see my breath

Because the temperature is falling

To fifty degrees or less;

There are frosted mornings

And skies are turning gray;

Next thing, there'll be snowdrifts

Fit for a sleigh.

In stores, they're gearing for Halloween

With pumpkins on display;

After October 31, we'll count the days

To shop til Kris Kringle Day;

Just when I thought the craze was over

And the presents were put away,

Alas! I hear Santa "ho-hoing",

It's nearly Christmas Day.

Christmas is a magical time,

Is there any doubt?

But I'm going to need a psychotherapist

To get my anxeties out!

The sugarplums might be dancing,

But they're messing up my mind;

The silver bells aren't doing much

To help me unwind.

September comes and October goes,

November is just a glance;

Once again, there'll be invitations

To another holiday dance;

I'll decorate the Christmas tree

With icicles, stars, and lights,

But I'll need a ton of eggnog

To get me through this night!

--Joel Bjorling, Gilson, USA Age 58



So true. :wah:

:wah: Your Christmas card video was too funny, tabby......thanks!

Merry Christmas to all my FG friends! :-6







Our little corner of Christmas......

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For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

jones jones

lately owns

the FG home page.

Great pics

and topics mix;

Diversity the rage.

:wah:

“Another fresh new year is here . . .

Another year to live!

To banish worry, doubt, and fear,

To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me

To live each day with zest . . .

To daily grow and try to be

My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity

Once more to right some wrongs,

To pray for peace, to plant a tree,

And sing more joyful songs!”

William Arthur Ward quote (American dedicated scholar, author, editor, pastor and teacher)



Happy New Year!

click on the park bench below. Natures confetti.

Attached files

Love the snow picture, AFTR! No sign of any yet this winter but I'm hoping for at least one light dusting before winter's end ... fingers crossed!

Hey tabby!

It's supposed to be darn right cold tonight here...down in the 20's. No snow yet.



I found this gem to share:





Have you ever sleep-walked?

Epiphany is a Christian feast celebrating the 'shining forth' or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus Christ.

The observance had its origins in the eastern Christian churches, and included the birth of Jesus Christ; the visit of the three Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar) who arrived in Bethlehem; and all of Jesus' childhood events, up to his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The feast was initially based on (and viewed as a fulfillment of) the Jewish Feast of Lights. This was fixed on January 6.

The first reference to Epiphany in the Latin West is a slighting remark by Clement of Alexandria in Stromateis, I, xxi, 45: "There are those, too, who over-curiously assign to the Birth of Our Saviour not only its year but its day…" Origen's list of festivals (in Contra Celsus, VIII, xxii) omits any reference to Epiphany. The first reference to an ecclesiastical feast of the Epiphany, in Ammianus Marcellinus (XXI:ii), is in 361.

Thus in the Latin church, the feast of Christmas was established before that of Epiphany. Over time the western churches decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25. The eastern churches continued to treat January 6 as the day marking Jesus's birth. This has given rise in the west to the notion of a twelve day festival, starting on December 25, and ending on January 6, called the twelve days of Christmas, although some Christian cultures — especially those of Latin America — extend it to 40 days, ending on Candlemas, or February 2 (known as Candelaria in Spanish).

Prior to 1970, the Roman Catholic Church (and prior to 1976, the Anglican churches) reckoned Epiphany as an eight-day feast, beginning on January 6 and continuing through the Octave of Epiphany, or January 13. More recently, Roman Catholics in the United States mark Epiphany on the Sunday after the first Saturday in January (before this the Sunday between January 1 and January 6, in years when there was one, was designated the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus), and all Catholics and Anglicans (along with many other Protestants) now formally end the Christmas season on the Sunday immediately following January 6, or, for American Catholics, the ensuing Monday in years when the Epiphany falls on January 7 or 8. In either case, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is observed on the latter day, after which the first installment of Ordinary Time begins.

Today in Eastern Orthodox churches, the emphasis at this feast is on the shining forth and revelation of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and second person of the Holy Trinity at the time of his baptism. Usually called the Feast of the Theophany, it is one of the great feasts of the liturgical year. "Theophany" comes from the Greek for "God shining forth."

The Irish call this day Little Christmas. In Rome, "Epiphania" was transformed into Befana, the great fair held at that season, when sigillaria of terracotta or baked pastry were sold (Macrobius I, x, xxiv; II, xlix).

In Spain, Cuba and some Latin American countries Epiphany day is called El Día de Reyes (Kings' Day, as the Magi are known as the Los Tres Reyes Magos) or Pascua de Negros (Blackmen Christmas). In Spanish tradition, on this day, the Magi deliver Christmas presents.



And you thought the Christmas season was over? :-6

Okay..setting the religious aspect aside......have YOU ever had an epiphany?

"a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience."

I like this song:

Today.......just some fashion tips:

Fashions that turn back the clock - CNN.com

"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you ..... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself."

- Ruth Stout

Attached files

Let's take a short trip on Route 66:

January, 1795

by Mary Darby Robinson

"Pavement slipp'ry, people sneezing,

Lords in ermine, beggars freezing ;

Titled gluttons dainties carving,

Genius in a garret starving.

Lofty mansions, warm and spacious ;

Courtiers clinging and voracious ;

Misers scarce the wretched heeding ;

Gallant soldiers fighting, bleeding.

Wives who laugh at passive spouses ;

Theatres, and meeting-houses ;

Balls, where simp'ring misses languish ;

Hospitals, and groans of anguish.

Arts and sciences bewailing ;

Commerce drooping, credit failing ;

Placemen mocking subjects loyal ;

Separations, weddings royal.

Authors who can't earn a dinner ;

Many a subtle rogue a winner ;

Fugitives for shelter seeking ;

Misers hoarding, tradesmen breaking.

Taste and talents quite deserted ;

All the laws of truth perverted ;

Arrogance o'er merit soaring ;

Merit silently deploring.

Ladies gambling night and morning ;

Fools the works of genius scorning ;

Ancient dames for girls mistaken,

Youthful damsels quite forsaken.

Some in luxury delighting ;

More in talking than in fighting ;

Lovers old, and beaux decrepid ;

Lordlings empty and insipid.

Poets, painters, and musicians ;

Lawyers, doctors, politicians :

Pamphlets, newspapers, and odes,

Seeking fame by diff'rent roads.

Gallant souls with empty purses ;

Gen'rals only fit for nurses ;

School-boys, smit with martial spirit,

Taking place of vet'ran merit.

Honest men who can't get places,

Knaves who shew unblushing faces ;

Ruin hasten'd, peace retarded ;

Candour spurn'd, and art rewarded."



The more things change; the more they stay the same.

This evening, plug in your ear phones, play the video below and close you eyes.







You ARE a shining star.

Fire and Ice



Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.



Robert Frost

Attached files

The Begining of Song of the Open Road

By Walt Whitman

1819-1892

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1

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,

Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,

Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,

Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,

I do not want the constellations any nearer,

I know they are very well where they are,

I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,

I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,

I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,

I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in return.)

2

You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all

that is here,

I believe that much unseen is also here.

Here the profound lesson of reception, nor preference nor denial,

The black with his woolly head, the felon, the diseas'd, the

illiterate person, are not denied;

The birth, the hasting after the physician, the beggar's tramp, the

drunkard's stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,

The escaped youth, the rich person's carriage, the fop, the eloping couple,

The early market-man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into the

town, the return back from the town,

They pass, I also pass, any thing passes, none can be interdicted,

None but are accepted, none but shall be dear to me.

3

You air that serves me with breath to speak!

You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape!

You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers!

You paths worn in the irregular hollows by the roadsides!

I believe you are latent with unseen existences, you are so dear to me.

You flagg'd walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges!

You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves! you timber-lined

side! you distant ships!

You rows of houses! you window-pierc'd facades! you roofs!

You porches and entrances! you copings and iron guards!

You windows whose transparent shells might expose so much!

You doors and ascending steps! you arches!

You gray stones of interminable pavements! you trodden crossings!

From all that has touch'd you I believe you have imparted to

yourselves, and now would impart the same secretly to me,

From the living and the dead you have peopled your impassive surfaces,

and the spirits thereof would be evident and amicable with me.

4

The earth expanding right hand and left hand,

The picture alive, every part in its best light,

The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is

not wanted,

The cheerful voice of the public road, the gay fresh sentiment of the road.

O highway I travel, do you say to me Do not leave me?

Do you say Venture not--if you leave me you are lost?

Do you say I am already prepared, I am well-beaten and undenied,

adhere to me?

O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you,

You express me better than I can express myself,

You shall be more to me than my poem.

I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the open air, and all

free poems also,

I think I could stop here myself and do miracles,

I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and whoever

beholds me shall like me,

I think whoever I see must be happy.

5

From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines,

Going where I list, my own master total and absolute,

Listening to others, considering well what they say,

Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,

Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that

would hold me.

I inhale great draughts of space,

The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.

I am larger, better than I thought,

I did not know I held so much goodness.

All seems beautiful to me,

can repeat over to men and women You have done such good to me

I would do the same to you,

I will recruit for myself and you as I go,

I will scatter myself among men and women as I go,

I will toss a new gladness and roughness among them,

Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me,

Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me.

Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts. ~Martin Buxbaum

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/arts/ ... at-73.html

My favorite song by Miz Aretha:

For the car lover:







And the original song from 1965:

I am currently reading a biography of Barbra Streisand. I thought this early recording she made is absolutley charming. She was a young teenager at the time...already ambitous and focused on future stardom. But her voice here is pure and sweet....and so young.

I read that Miz Streisand was a nervous wreck performing that night before a live audiencs. She was scared that she was a target up there on the stage. That is why she moved around alot and sometimes forgot the words to the song she was singing.

Who did she think was targeting her, AFTR and why? As in a hit of some sort? Or simply feeling vulnerable in front of a live audience?

tabby;1382780 wrote: Who did she think was targeting her, AFTR and why? As in a hit of some sort? Or simply feeling vulnerable in front of a live audience?


There were evidently (even then) terrorist threats and she was also feeling vulnerable in front of a live audience. However, she did choose to perform this way to help her career. She did not like the distractions of a live audience however. Her biggest fear was at the height of her budding career, where was there to go after that? She begin with raves about her great singing talent and felt she had to maintain the same quality from then on. The pressure was on.

Now for some guys singing love songs:

along-for-the-ride;1383448 wrote:


The Voice: Whitney Houston (1963-2012) | Entertainment | TIME.com

I just saw this news this morning. Another tragic victim of drugs. A famous, talented, beautiful person. So sad.

Life goes on...........

My horoscope for today:

February 13, 2012

Leo (7/23-8/22)

You may sense that a person in a position of authority is subtly flirting with you. The fact that someone of this stature is paying so much attention to you will be a nice ego boost -- and feel free to enjoy it. But any sign of encouragement on your part could be misunderstood and possibly used against you later. Play it safe, and try not to mix your professional life with your personal life right now.



:wah:



.

Yesterday, I received another Valentines gift from Hubby. The flowers are lovely and the teddy bear is too cute. But what means the most to me is that he took the time to find that gift for me and surprised me with it. It is the thought behind the gift that counts.

Living with someone who truly cares about you makes everyday Valentines Day. :-4

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“People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.”

Anton Chekhov quote (Russian playwright and master of the modern short story, 1860-1904)



“February, when the days of winter seem endless and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer.”

Shirley Jackson quote (American Writer, 1919-1965)

Today. let's make some stops at some unusual road side attractions:



Outrageous American Roadside Attractions - Yahoo! Travel





I have been to South of the Border. A huge place.:wah:

I know..I know...it's Monday.....but I want to talk about Saturday. This past Saturday was nice...Hubby didn't have to work. So we slept in, relaxed awhile. Then we went to the Yamaha place to buy a cover for our Motorcycle. Then we bought a peach tree to plant in our back yard. Then we had dinner out and looked around our local Goodwill store. Nice to spent the day together away from home and our job.

February

By Margaret Atwood (b. 1939 Margaret Atwood)



Winter. Time to eat fat

and watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat,

a black fur sausage with yellow

Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries

to get onto my head. It’s his

way of telling whether or not I’m dead.

If I’m not, he wants to be scratched; if I am

He’ll think of something. He settles

on my chest, breathing his breath

of burped-up meat and musty sofas,

purring like a washboard. Some other tomcat,

not yet a capon, has been spraying our front door,

declaring war. It’s all about sex and territory,

which are what will finish us off

in the long run. Some cat owners around here

should snip a few testicles. If we wise

hominids were sensible, we’d do that too,

or eat our young, like sharks.

But it’s love that does us in. Over and over

again, He shoots, he scores and famine

crouches in the bedsheets, ambushing the pulsing

eiderdown, and the windchill factor hits

thirty below, and pollution pours

out of our chimneys to keep us warm.

February, month of despair,

with a skewered heart in the centre.

I think dire thoughts, and lust for French fries

with a splash of vinegar.

Cat, enough of your greedy whining

and your small pink bumhole.

Off my face! You’re the life principle,

more or less, so get going

on a little optimism around here.

Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood

"Wan February with weeping cheer,

Whose cold hand guides the youngling year

Down misty roads of mire and rime,

Before thy pale and fitful face

The shrill wind shifts the clouds apace

Through skies the morning scarce may climb.

Thine eyes are thick with heavy tears,

But lit with hopes that light the year's."

- Algernon Charles Swinburne, A Year's Carols: February

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/alg ... -swinburne