tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86766053389466727442024-03-13T08:53:39.509-05:00MARGARET BUFFIE'S WEBSITE/BLOGPAINTING WITH WORDS: writing, writers, words, books, art photography and life....
Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.comBlogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-22493375890973002132023-12-19T14:42:00.002-06:002023-12-20T00:45:39.700-06:00BEING OURSELVES<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;"><i>Is anyone ever really themselves to others? Or do we try hard to "fit in" even when the binds of that "fitting in" feel like a straight jacket? I have always been an independent thinker, but as I grew older, I found myself noticing the societal buckles had loosened quite a lot over my past </i>35 y<i>ears. </i></span><i style="font-family: arial;">I wasn't aware </i><i style="font-family: arial;">when the last buckle snapped open. But that last snap has created an advanced somewhat curmudgeonly freedom that is filled with hazards, but also with my own truths and some surprising results.</i><i><span style="font-family: Shadows Into Light;"> Margaret Buffie</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><i>To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. </i>Ralph Waldo Emerson</span><br />
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ralph Waldo Emerson</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4VcdDGiaw0g/VfcSwZcaw6I/AAAAAAAADxY/6W80O0c-P2U/s1600/ralph-waldo-emerson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4VcdDGiaw0g/VfcSwZcaw6I/AAAAAAAADxY/6W80O0c-P2U/s400/ralph-waldo-emerson.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ralph Waldo Emerson</span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><i>This above all: to thine own self be true,</i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><i>And it must follow, as the night the day,</i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><i>Thou canst not then be false to any man. </i></span></div>
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<i style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Polonious: via William Shakespeare</i><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NpnmcqcJ8RY/VhQG098VQtI/AAAAAAAADyo/Slt92dBkZU8/s1600/William%2BShakespeare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NpnmcqcJ8RY/VhQG098VQtI/AAAAAAAADyo/Slt92dBkZU8/s400/William%2BShakespeare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79; font-size: x-small;">William Shakespeare Artist unknown</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><i>There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.</i> Vincent Van Gogh </span><br />
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79; font-size: x-small;">Vincent Van Gogh </span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><i>We only become what we are by the radical and deep seated refusal of that which others have made of us. </i>Jean Paul Sartre</span><br />
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-size: x-small;">Jean Paul Sartre, artist (as yet) unknown</span><br />
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79;"><i>If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found.</i></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79;">Anonymous</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><i>I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste
in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my
dinosaurs and leave the room</i>. Ray Bradbury</span> </div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Ray Bradbury by Sci-Fi Artist L.J. Dopp</span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;">Ray Bradbury</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; line-height: 16.8px; text-align: -webkit-center;"> <i>... no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16.8px; text-align: -webkit-center;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47;"> Eleanor Roosevelt</span></span><br />
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Anna Eleanor Roosevelt</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N26WqdT552M/VhQaoxZ8yCI/AAAAAAAAD00/7QysmsCm2lI/s1600/Eleanor%2BRoosevelt.jpe" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="395" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N26WqdT552M/VhQaoxZ8yCI/AAAAAAAAD00/7QysmsCm2lI/s400/Eleanor%2BRoosevelt.jpe" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Eleanor Roosevelt</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><i>And, indeed, if you think you're a genius of something,
what you achieve is very much according to your expectations; if you think
you're no good, you're not going to get anywhere. </i>Diana Wynne Jones<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Diana Wynne Jones</span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Diana Wynne Jones</span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47; line-height: 20px;"><i>Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us. </i></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47; line-height: 20px;">Jane Austen</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">The only two "authenticated" drawings of Jane Austen</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0if8tjPmLDc/VhQT-bqQOzI/AAAAAAAADzo/GDb6eXqLMXU/s1600/Jane-Austen-001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0if8tjPmLDc/VhQT-bqQOzI/AAAAAAAADzo/GDb6eXqLMXU/s400/Jane-Austen-001.jpg" width="315" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79; font-size: x-small;">Jane Austen</span></div>
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<i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47;">Two roads diverged in a wood and I </span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47;"> took the one less traveled by, </span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47;">And that has made all the difference.</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47;">Robert Frost</span></span>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p13tpVuK7jw/VhQJO_hatiI/AAAAAAAADzM/8WE3MIpc_M8/s1600/Robert%2BFrost.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p13tpVuK7jw/VhQJO_hatiI/AAAAAAAADzM/8WE3MIpc_M8/s400/Robert%2BFrost.jpg" width="332" /></a></div>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47;">Robert Frost</span></span><br />
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JgT6spwv0nM/VhQJO3AdHYI/AAAAAAAADzQ/mdJt7zvMzGU/s1600/robert%2Bfrost%2Bby%2BErcole%2BCartotto.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JgT6spwv0nM/VhQJO3AdHYI/AAAAAAAADzQ/mdJt7zvMzGU/s400/robert%2Bfrost%2Bby%2BErcole%2BCartotto.jpg" width="300" /></a></span></div>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79; font-size: x-small;">Robert Frost by Ercole Cartotto</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 20px;"><i>Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.</i></span></div>
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Henry David Thoreau<br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47;">I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. </span></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;">Let us see who is the strongest. </span></i></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #741b47; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #741b47;">Henry David Thoreau</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #741b47; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xbmSfxNlFD8/VhQagemy-7I/AAAAAAAAD0k/Qj1iIrvkwD0/s1600/henry-david-thoreau-300x160.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xbmSfxNlFD8/VhQagemy-7I/AAAAAAAAD0k/Qj1iIrvkwD0/s400/henry-david-thoreau-300x160.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QtgNodqvb44/VhQagM1x74I/AAAAAAAAD0o/Kp_1G6oYJPs/s1600/Henry_David_Thoreau.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QtgNodqvb44/VhQagM1x74I/AAAAAAAAD0o/Kp_1G6oYJPs/s1600/Henry_David_Thoreau.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself. </i><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;">Rita Mae Brown</span><br />
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dEa8bpTMMCg/VhQaYSK_kZI/AAAAAAAAD0c/qSyLTML2SeM/s1600/Rita%2BMae%2BBrown.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dEa8bpTMMCg/VhQaYSK_kZI/AAAAAAAAD0c/qSyLTML2SeM/s400/Rita%2BMae%2BBrown.jpg" width="312" /></a></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rita Mae Brown</span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;"><i>I often warn people: "Somewhere along the way, someone is going to tell you, 'There is no "I" in team.' What you should tell them is, 'Maybe not. But there is an "I" in independence, individuality and integrity.</i> </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;">George Carlin </span></div>
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George Carlin</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XQ9bOI117Cg/VhQaORiRq6I/AAAAAAAAD0Q/M_JEK03fFEM/s1600/george%2Bcarlin%2Bby%2Basamamoru.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XQ9bOI117Cg/VhQaORiRq6I/AAAAAAAAD0Q/M_JEK03fFEM/s400/george%2Bcarlin%2Bby%2Basamamoru.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #741b47; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">George Carlin by Asamamoru</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #741b47; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #741b47; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span></span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #741b47; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;"><i>And my personal favourite!!</i></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #741b47; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span></span>
<i style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">The things that make me different are the things that make me.</i></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #741b47; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; line-height: 18px;">A.A. Milne</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #741b47; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ePSnD9z3K1g/VhQZ5iTYVVI/AAAAAAAAD0A/TzLZEw90P_k/s1600/A.A.%2BMilne.jpe" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ePSnD9z3K1g/VhQZ5iTYVVI/AAAAAAAAD0A/TzLZEw90P_k/s400/A.A.%2BMilne.jpe" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-72244049317791205112023-11-06T14:00:00.047-06:002023-11-06T14:57:54.407-06:00Don't tell me the moon is shining....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><br /><span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: large;">Writing With a Painter's Eye</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: medium;">"Don't tell me the moon is shining: show me the glint of light on broken glass."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="background-color: white;">Anton Chekov</span><br /></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6;"><i>In this painting, glints of the moon on the road, the walls and the woman.<br /></i></span></span><br /><br /></span><h4><br /></h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBOEogY2YfFftrcjwvDkmIK36VdtyTX_UWP9V4b5_CpOu5gMEovttAr5NDqpm206VvfVunhWqbbs_EGiEQr7oCOORpwvcnveznb4XR65NxL2tyMjYFRygvBAeM4WpCaPEd6lKphWDfy_zaN7Hva2qGFockSSVfnNJycq4DAvRY_fayE6UW4qtZFtL1o2k" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="800" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBOEogY2YfFftrcjwvDkmIK36VdtyTX_UWP9V4b5_CpOu5gMEovttAr5NDqpm206VvfVunhWqbbs_EGiEQr7oCOORpwvcnveznb4XR65NxL2tyMjYFRygvBAeM4WpCaPEd6lKphWDfy_zaN7Hva2qGFockSSVfnNJycq4DAvRY_fayE6UW4qtZFtL1o2k=w504-h318" width="504" /></a></div></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"></span><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">I understand and agree with Chekov's point about how to use language to create strong imagery for the reader. <br /><br />As a writer (and an artist) I have
always "seen" the images I write about in my head - very clearly.
Some writers have told me they don't see the things they are writing about in
their mind's eye as they write. When I worked with novice writers, I talked
about using their inner eye while writing, in order to describe in words any vibrant
visual images they wanted to create in their stories. Many had no idea what I meant.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"></span></span> </div>
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<span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">I</span></span><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> would try to explain with this
example. "When you go for a walk, look up a the sky and try to describe in
words in your head what you are seeing. Do the lines of Canada geese flying
over look like just a bunch of geese passing overhead? Or do they look like
they are playing "crack the whip" in the ice-blue sky"? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">As a writer and artist I am always looking,
looking, looking. When I see something that pleases me, or catches my eyes, or
shocks me visually, I try to write it in my mind the way I see it. I probably
look a bit gormless at those times, but it works for me. I carry little notebooks
to jot down images as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"></span></span> </div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">I think it’s important that we, as
writers, use part of “writing time” to look, to examine, to </span><i><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">study</span></i><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> our <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>worlds - to help train that
inner eye, so our writing will conjure
up clear images in our readers’ minds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"></span></div>
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<span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"></span></span> </div>
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<span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">It seems to me there is a very strong
link between visual art and the art of writing. When Chekov wrote, "Don't
tell me the moon is shining: show me the glint of light on broken glass."
I believe he was telling writers to "see" -- to paint and sculpt and
create vivid images in their minds as they write, not to simply state the facts
by telling us what we must see. We have all heard the phrase “Show, not tell.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said it the best.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif"" style="color: #073763; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">I decided to see if I could express this connection I feel between
writing and “seeing” - by searching out artists and their paintings and pairing
them with writers' quotes. I hope this brings Chekov's image of “show not tell”
to life in an interesting way - using the expressions and descriptions and
visions of the moon and moonlight by writers and painters. </span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" style="color: #774444; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IMVi4GzRGTw/UFOZB09RHfI/AAAAAAAAA08/00Wlxn0Yiuw/s1600/Tom-Thomson-MoonlightandBirches.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="342" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IMVi4GzRGTw/UFOZB09RHfI/AAAAAAAAA08/00Wlxn0Yiuw/s400/Tom-Thomson-MoonlightandBirches.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763; font-size: x-small;">Tom Thomson "Moonlight and Birches"</span> </div>
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<span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="color: #073763;"><em>Have you seen the bush by moonlight, from the train, go running by? Blackened log and stump and sapling, ghostly trees all dead and dry; Here a patch of glassy water; there a glimpse of mystic sky?</em> </span></span></span></div>
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<span face=""Calibri","sans-serif"" style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763; font-size: x-small;">On the Night Train, Henry Lawson</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uDH7oOLb4dk/UFOdEottkMI/AAAAAAAAA1c/uroK-06k3Q0/s1600/Turner,+Moon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uDH7oOLb4dk/UFOdEottkMI/AAAAAAAAA1c/uroK-06k3Q0/s400/Turner,+Moon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763; font-size: x-small;">"Moon" JMW Turner</span> </div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;"><em>The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, <br /> The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, <br /> The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, <br /> And the highwayman came riding— <br />Riding—riding— <br />The highwayman came riding, </em></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;"><em> up to the old inn-door. </em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">The Highwayman, </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Alfred Noyes</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y1iiYvzoK9o/UFOh-_1xQVI/AAAAAAAAA18/E8bKBwpJ_kk/s1600/Winslow-Homer-xx-Moonlight-xx-Public-collection.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y1iiYvzoK9o/UFOh-_1xQVI/AAAAAAAAA18/E8bKBwpJ_kk/s400/Winslow-Homer-xx-Moonlight-xx-Public-collection.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;">"Moonlight" Winslow Homer </span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="bodysi1"><em><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif""><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;"></span></span></em></span></span> <span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="bodysi1"><em><span style="color: #073763;"><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif""><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!<br />Here we will sit and let the sounds of music<br />Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night<br />Become the touches of sweet </span></span><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif""><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">harmony. </span></span></span></em></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="bodysi1"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span face=""Verdana","sans-serif""><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Midsummer Night's Dream, </span></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="bodysi1">Shakespeare</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iVIPMbtf5-o/UFOmImIaS5I/AAAAAAAAA2c/kqvLN2yDZmc/s1600/starry_night9538.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iVIPMbtf5-o/UFOmImIaS5I/AAAAAAAAA2c/kqvLN2yDZmc/s400/starry_night9538.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="bodysi1"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="bodysi1"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: inherit;">"The Starry Night", Vincent Van Gogh</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<em><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;">Crazed through much child-bearing</span></em></div>
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<em><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;">The moon is staggering in the sky:</span></em></div>
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<em><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;">Moon-struck by the despairing </span></em></div>
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<em><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;">glances of her wandering eye</span></em></div>
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<em><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;">We grope, and grope in vain</span></em></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="color: #073763;"><em>For children born of her pain.</em> </span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763; font-size: x-small;">The Crazed Moon, William Butler Yeats</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DkbSy7vshQ0/UFSUiWS90dI/AAAAAAAAA3I/fKzplIIc5Ek/s1600/Moonlight+on+the+Sea+JMW+Turner.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DkbSy7vshQ0/UFSUiWS90dI/AAAAAAAAA3I/fKzplIIc5Ek/s400/Moonlight+on+the+Sea+JMW+Turner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;">Dieppe Sketchbook</span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;">"Moonlight on the Sea"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;">JMW Turner</span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"></span> <span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;"><em>I sat by night beside a cold lake</em></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;"><em>And touched things smoother than moonlight on still water</em></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;"><em>But the moon in this cloud sea is not human </em></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;">"Dog with Ladder", Joan Miro</span></div>
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<em><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;">The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand.</span></em></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;"> </span><span style="color: #073763;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><em>To lie on the bottom of the sky, like a gold doubloon.<br />The harvest moon has come,<br />Booming softly through heaven, like a bassoon.<br />And the earth replies all night, like a deep drum.<br /><br />So people can't sleep,<br />So they go out where elms and oak trees keep<br />A kneeling vigil, in a religious hush.<br />The harvest moon has come! <br /></em><span style="font-size: x-small;">"The Harvest Moon" Ted Hughes</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"> <em><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">And then as now you hung above those trees</span></em></span></div>
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<em><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;">From the tears that rose beneath my lids</span></em></div>
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<em><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #073763;">Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-4785885973279576422023-09-28T11:01:00.003-05:002023-09-28T11:06:57.754-05:00 "Almost Forgotten" Women Writers - Stella Gibbons"<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Stella Gibbons</u></b>:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Stella Gibbons was born in 1902 in London, England. She studied journalism at University College and worked for a variety of newspapers. She was the author of twenty-three novels and also published short story collections and books of poems. She died in 1989 at the age of 87. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Gibbons is best known for her 1932 novel <i>Cold Comfort Farm</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As Gibbons wrote <i>Cold Comfort Farm ...</i> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">"she believed she might have a hit on her hands early on: the girls who typed her manuscript laughed out loud at it, and when it was published in September 1932 this was proved to be true." (The Guardian c 1933)<br /><br />The public loved this book it, even if one critic was convinced that Stella Gibbons was a pseudonym for Evelyn Waugh. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The next year the novel won the </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">literary award</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Prix Étranger of the Prix Femina-Vie heureuse, which was rarely awarded to "comic novels", and this choice by the judges deeply incensed the arrogant and entitled Virginia Woolf. <i>"I was enraged to see they gave the £40 to Gibbons," </i>Woolf wrote to Elizabeth Bowen. <i>"Still, now you and Rosamond (Lehmann) can join in blaming her. Who is she? What is this book?".</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(This is why writers should always dispose of certain old letters!) Woolf was terribly snobbish about "non-literary" writers. After all, the literary writers she admired were the only <i>real </i>writers (a divine group in which she included herself) - and this letter certainly doesn't put her in a favourable light, to say the least! But I have heard remarks like this all of my years of writing - awards rarely make anyone happy, other than the winner!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I read Cold Comfort Farm some years ago and again more recently. It is sophisticated, hilarious, strangely dark and unsettling - but for all that, it is mainly a pointed parody </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">of the verdant, bucolic regional school of writers like Mary Webb, Thomas Hardy, Emily Bronte and especially D.H.Lawrence whose agrarian </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">lustful</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">novel,<i> Lady Chatterley's Lover</i> became a "cause </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">célèbre</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">" almost forty years later. Before that, only edited versions had been released to the public. When the full </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">unexpurgated</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">version was published in 1960 by Penguin, their daring decision led to a trial under the Obscene Publications Act - where a jury eventually found Penguin not guilty. <i>Lady Chatterley's Lover</i> became revered after that - because of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">the crusade against censorship - and for its form of extravagantly descriptive writing about a sexual relationship between a young stonemason and Lady Constance Chatterley.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">But this is about Stella Gibbons, not D.H. Lawrence.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> The (to some) aureate writing of many of these writers like Lawrence was just too over the top for many critics - and this appeared to be fodder for Stella Gibbons who wrote <i>Cold Comfort Farm</i> - a wickedly funny masterpiece of her own - parodying this form of (arguably) overwrought pastoral writing. And I, for one, am glad she did.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Recently, I decided to look at some of Stella's other books. I found that <i>Vintage </i>had brought her best ones out again. Exciting! But which to choose? I read a few articles, and it appeared that three of these novels - </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Westwood</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Starlight,</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> and </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Conference at Cold Comfort Farm,</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> were highly recommended. So I ordered </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Starlight </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">and </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Conference at Cold Comfort Farm.</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">I started reading <i>Conference at
Cold Comfort Farm</i> and then switched to <i>Starlight</i>, because it kept calling
to me. On a superficial level, Starlight's cover promised something a little
more intriguing. I will go back to "Conference" soon, because the parts of
it I read were clever and funny - such as using the "modern out-there" art to parody the self-congratulatory artists of the mid-forties. The arrival of the the artists and other "thinkers" attending the Conference ruled over by the inept Mr. Mybug has to be one of the best satires about the </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">burgeoning</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> "modern 20th C artist". Gibbons' treatment of their fervent mandate; the idea that all they needed was to be completely </span><i><span style="line-height: 150%;">different to </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">anything</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> before them </span></i><span style="line-height: 150%;">in their art in order to be noticed and celebrated. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The conference was to be called the, "Conference of </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">International</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> Thinkers' Group"</span><br /><br /><span style="line-height: 150%;">Her descriptions of these creative people is wonderful. The artists of the novel are stunningly similar to some of today's installment artists or anti-artists - some of whom destroy their art right after making it. Her take on them, and others at the conference, is hilarious. In the novel the artists are referred to as "transistorists." Included in this group are also writers, sculptors, neo-scientists, nutritionists and others. All crazy as loons.</span><br /><br /><span style="line-height: 150%;">Her characters are described perfectly - with a few short short, pithy observations from Flora. A good example of this is when Flora meets Mr. Mybug again after a number of years has passed and reflects "that the passing years had done nothing to mitigate Mr. Mybug's boundless asininity." I will definitely return to it!</span></span></span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c343d;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><i>Starlight</i>. Mmm. Whole different story. While reading </span><i style="line-height: 24px;">Starlight, </i><span style="line-height: 24px;">I kept wondering how Stella Gibbon's mind worked. <i>No holds barred brain </i>comes to mind. Brave writing. Risky writing, in a way, too. I envy her freedom to take a very unlikely story and run with it in directions that are pretty bizarre at times and yet strangely believable.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c343d; line-height: 24px;"><i>Starlight </i>probably isn't for everyone, for it's deeply atmospheric, sad, hopeful, unpredictable and disturbing. Also droll and wicked. It is about the dank and cold muddy lanes that slant past dilapidated houses in the back byways of post war Britain; it's about old age and poverty, and running away from life. It is also about facing life stalwartly, and accepting the outcome of certain events you have no control over. It is complicated and yet simple. It is unique.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c343d; line-height: 24px;">The first characters we meet are two elderly sisters, Gladys Barnes and her sister Annie who live in three unkempt rooms on the middle floor of twin-joined cottages in a cloistered, almost rural, back street of London. They are very close to poverty, but Gladys has a cleaning job that just makes ends meet. She takes care of "invalid" Annie, who sits on their bed all day wearing two coats, and covered in shawls and blankets. Annie wears a balaclava of large proportions on her head. When upset (which is quite often) Annie's small face retreats like a turtle into the depths of the balaclava. Gladys is all business and bustle. They play off each other and yet both and evolve and change as the story moves forward.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">Above their small apartment, living in a single room, is another tenant - a peculiar, but gentle old man, Mr. Fisher, who feels compelled to change his name once a week, but who has a determined mission in life. Which you can discover on your own.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c343d; line-height: 24px;">There has been news that their shared joint cottage may be sold and all three become fretful and frightened about losing their homes. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">These characters' lives are, indeed, turned upside down when a "rackman" buys the dual cottage from the previous owner and puts his beautiful, frail wife into the other half of the building. There is something very odd about the wife who seems to be suffering from something ... or some <i>thing </i>that is sucking away her energy. Her husband, Mr. Pearson, appears as a </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">tough gangster-like figure from the shadows. He both intrigues and frightens the sisters. Mr. Pearson has also hired an Eastern European young woman to tend to his wife. The girl is raw and strange and off-putting. Each character's development is a strong theme in this book as well, but the changes often do not develop the way you expect them to go - which is also fascinating.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> More importantly, at this point in the book, is the question - what is so wrong with Mrs. Pearson? Why is she clearly hiding away in the second half of the old cottage. And why does her only daughter avoid being near her mother and run away to work as rich woman's companion?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">Add to that cast, the local Vicar, Mr. Geddes, and his curate - and throw in a "devilish being" and you have a novel that is unlike any story you have read. I would advise you to stay away from reader reviews to avoid getting the whole story before you need to. I won't say more about this book, as it is yours to discover and explore.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">I think about this novel at the strangest times. I am still trying to decide what it is that makes me wonder about it again and again..... but maybe that is what good writing is meant to do, right? </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">At the beginning of the book, Stella Gibbons wrote:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #45818e;">I was reminded of Shakespeare's famous line reading this novel:</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: start;">There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, </span><br style="text-align: start;" /><span style="text-align: start;">Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.</span></span></i></span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-71457524004453448652023-02-08T01:08:00.000-06:002023-02-08T11:04:02.742-06:00Rain is grace...<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span>
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<b><span style="color: #45818e;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><i>Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth;
without rain, there would be no life. </i></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">John Updike</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #45818e;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #45818e;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></span></span></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOHwcMDtr8LUk1OG9CTm5MwKWDxKkpYHny0Nd8p2eR9rYtTL4_M7K3jhOueCiLzEpMheekUuLVRjHmdndTQaFZiGUZwYek6bpWVGFOR3BgLPsRsOWL8w7AORvjEUYF3Ddr6F5Hb3UmiJASYjAEMgCYfwGIW4SPLEuwCLMFlt71W5S7hmY9ewCVXZxO/s3456/IMG_2469%20cropped%20-%20hiding%20under%20the%20fallen%20jackpine%20in%20the%20rain%20%20July%202018%201000.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="2839" height="379" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOHwcMDtr8LUk1OG9CTm5MwKWDxKkpYHny0Nd8p2eR9rYtTL4_M7K3jhOueCiLzEpMheekUuLVRjHmdndTQaFZiGUZwYek6bpWVGFOR3BgLPsRsOWL8w7AORvjEUYF3Ddr6F5Hb3UmiJASYjAEMgCYfwGIW4SPLEuwCLMFlt71W5S7hmY9ewCVXZxO/w322-h379/IMG_2469%20cropped%20-%20hiding%20under%20the%20fallen%20jackpine%20in%20the%20rain%20%20July%202018%201000.jpg" width="322" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #76a5af;">Photo Copyright, Margaret Buffie</span></i></div></div>
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<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"> </blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><i><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">During the winter months, I sometimes "dream" of rain - falling on the boreal forest around my lake cabin and on city streets where I live. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">In my daydreams, it is usually spring at the lake. I see the first rain drops falling one by one, pockmarking the water until they are joined by millions of others - or I dream about those rare times, when I've watched a long sheet of rain come in from the far bay - a vast sweeping curtain - its huge determined cloud toward sliding toward <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a style="cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit;" tabindex="-1"></a></span>me. I remember the number of times I stood on our old dock, watching and waiting. When I see the wall of rain startle the water near my island into a wild dance I hold my breath. I know I'm about to get good and wet! In this photo I am hiding under the old lowering Jack Pine. Here are some of my favourite artists. </span></div></div></i></span>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bzA7CPEkkaA/VXMmfb1hWzI/AAAAAAAADcw/tcNWTsEAtVU/s1600/Rain%252C%2BGustav%2BCaillebotte.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bzA7CPEkkaA/VXMmfb1hWzI/AAAAAAAADcw/tcNWTsEAtVU/s400/Rain%252C%2BGustav%2BCaillebotte.jpg" width="291" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="color: #45818e;"><i>Rain</i>, Gustav Caillebotte</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ktthh6IyAbI/VXMmf7TJl8I/AAAAAAAADc4/19UarOHTGV0/s1600/John%2BConstable%2B%2B%2BSeascape%2BStudy%2Bwith%2BRain%2BCloud.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ktthh6IyAbI/VXMmf7TJl8I/AAAAAAAADc4/19UarOHTGV0/s400/John%2BConstable%2B%2B%2BSeascape%2BStudy%2Bwith%2BRain%2BCloud.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><i>Seascape Study with Rain Cloud</i>, </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">John Constable </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">As one song puts it, "I love a rainy day" </span></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">Right now, on June 7, 2015 - the tree branches are bowed from a heavy downpour and cars are swishing past my house. </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">If I went out my front door right now and took a short walk, </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">I would see the elms along our city boulevard dripping with rain and smell the distant scent of white lilacs, car exhaust, mowed lawns and I could peer into the many puddles on the road reflecting the images that surround them. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h61h2Q6Sf08/VXSCmmfRyLI/AAAAAAAADeM/0zyEZc6QKP4/s1600/Puddle%252C%2B1952%2BEsher.jpg" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h61h2Q6Sf08/VXSCmmfRyLI/AAAAAAAADeM/0zyEZc6QKP4/s400/Puddle%252C%2B1952%2BEsher.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Puddle,</i> 1952 Esher</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kPotFVC3SS0/VXXJ_0SEuHI/AAAAAAAADfM/Vmq_k6ZIpV0/s1600/pure%2Bpuddle%252C%2BDavid%2BHockney.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kPotFVC3SS0/VXXJ_0SEuHI/AAAAAAAADfM/Vmq_k6ZIpV0/s400/pure%2Bpuddle%252C%2BDavid%2BHockney.JPG" width="296" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><i>Perfect Puddle, </i></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">David Hockney, </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">IPad Art</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">But if I walk out my back door into the garden there will be the smell of my small purple lilac hedge, a few open roses and the welcoming </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">earthy</span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> spiced </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">smells of my herbs, as the maple tree behind the fence rolls its last few drops of water onto my fat peony buds. </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3EJr_g9wfJQ/VXSEXr26O3I/AAAAAAAADeU/KloazsVrtxs/s1600/Terrace%2Bin%2Bthe%2BRain%2Bin%2BMarquayrol%2B-%2BHenri%2BMartin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3EJr_g9wfJQ/VXSEXr26O3I/AAAAAAAADeU/KloazsVrtxs/s400/Terrace%2Bin%2Bthe%2BRain%2Bin%2BMarquayrol%2B-%2BHenri%2BMartin.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Terrace in the Rain in Marquayrol,</i> Henri Martin</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ypzDaUd2dd4/VXXli7Y7VbI/AAAAAAAADhg/aa3BbACQnSk/s1600/In%2Bthe%2BRain%2B-%2BFranz%2BMarc%252C%2B1912.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ypzDaUd2dd4/VXXli7Y7VbI/AAAAAAAADhg/aa3BbACQnSk/s400/In%2Bthe%2BRain%2B-%2BFranz%2BMarc%252C%2B1912.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>In the Rain, </i>Franz Marc</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><i>The Window in the Garden, </i>Henri Martin </span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="color: #134f5c;">I will be at my lake cabin soon, and I will have my cameras ready for my walks. After a rain, I know the paths behind our cabin well, and I will discover mushrooms of every kind that have popped up overnight; bright yellow witch's butter oozing out of rotting logs, orange jelly poking out of old woodpecker holes, aromatic milky mushrooms in the deep mosses, white puff balls with tender spiked heads, red, white, gray and orange mushrooms - some flat topped, some curved, some bobbled and spotted - all sleek with rain.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-juC5qiqUXMo/VXR5KvuCyGI/AAAAAAAADdc/lKiwpiAdb4I/s1600/Mist%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bforest%2B-%2BNicholas%2BRoerich%252C%2B1907.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-juC5qiqUXMo/VXR5KvuCyGI/AAAAAAAADdc/lKiwpiAdb4I/s400/Mist%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bforest%2B-%2BNicholas%2BRoerich%252C%2B1907.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Mist in the Forest, </i>Nicholas Roerich</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">The rocks I climb across will have deep cushions of sphagnum moss after a rainfall, some so green they look almost neon in the shade. I have to walk carefully as those rocks will be slippery with wet soil hidden under the moss, while the earth on the paths I descend into will be dark and rich with odors, There I will find my mushrooms.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>"The
sudden appearance of mushrooms after a summer rain is one of the more
impressive spectacles of the plant world." </i></span></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">John Tyler Bonner</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1MmvXyS3CBU/VXXlmxigzSI/AAAAAAAADh8/OOliJlUpaAc/s1600/cantharellus%2Btubaeformis%2Bknown%2Bas%2Byellow%2Bfoot%2Bedible.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1MmvXyS3CBU/VXXlmxigzSI/AAAAAAAADh8/OOliJlUpaAc/s400/cantharellus%2Btubaeformis%2Bknown%2Bas%2Byellow%2Bfoot%2Bedible.jpg" width="393" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Photo, </i></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c; font-size: x-small;">©</span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c; font-size: x-small;"> </span><i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Margaret Buffie</i></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>The rain begins with a single drop. </i>Manal al-Sharif<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>First Drops of Rain By the Marsh</i> © Photo Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thy fate is the common fate of all;</i></div>
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<i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Into each life some rain must fall.</i></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KRaVkn7HU2w/VXc-Jp728fI/AAAAAAAADjg/HJp3QX7rFDg/s1600/After%2Bthe%2BRain%2B800.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KRaVkn7HU2w/VXc-Jp728fI/AAAAAAAADjg/HJp3QX7rFDg/s640/After%2Bthe%2BRain%2B800.jpg" width="377" /></a></div>
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c; font-style: italic;">Blue Rain </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Photo </i></span><i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">© </i><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AUvop8N53Xk/VXXlj0mgKcI/AAAAAAAADg4/Ys9eHBskztA/s1600/Paris%2BStreet%252C%2Brainy%2Bday%252C%2BGustave%2BCaillebotte.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AUvop8N53Xk/VXXlj0mgKcI/AAAAAAAADg4/Ys9eHBskztA/s400/Paris%2BStreet%252C%2Brainy%2Bday%252C%2BGustave%2BCaillebotte.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Paris Street Rainy Day,</i> Gustave Caillebotte</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g2k0bbq3e_g/VXXlkWfFC6I/AAAAAAAADhI/tIYcn7C3Fcs/s1600/Spring%2BRain%2B-%2BErte.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g2k0bbq3e_g/VXXlkWfFC6I/AAAAAAAADhI/tIYcn7C3Fcs/s400/Spring%2BRain%2B-%2BErte.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Spring Rain </i>Erte</span></div>
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<i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At night I dream that you and I are two plants </i></div>
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<i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that grew together, roots entwined, </i><i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and that you know the earth and the rain like my mouth, </i><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>since we are made of earth and rain. </i></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">Pablo Neruda</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>I am a being of Heaven and Earth, of thunder and lightning, </i></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>of rain and wind, of the galaxies. </i></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c; text-align: center;">Eden Ahbez</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Rain Shower </i>Eyvind Earle</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>The rain began again. It fell heavily, easily, with no
meaning</i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>or intention </i></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>b</i></span><i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ut the fulfillment of its own nature, which was to fall
and fall.</i></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">Helen Garner</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how
to fall upwards. </i> Vladimir Nabokov</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XXomA_GIOF8/VXXLUbgGCCI/AAAAAAAADfY/Q32sNSO8xqo/s1600/downpour-1943.jpg%2BNicholas%2BRoerich.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XXomA_GIOF8/VXXLUbgGCCI/AAAAAAAADfY/Q32sNSO8xqo/s400/downpour-1943.jpg%2BNicholas%2BRoerich.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Downpour </i>Nicholas Roerich</span></div>
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Rain, Erte<br />
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i><br /></i></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Let us keep the dance of rain our fathers kept </i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>and tread
our dreams beneath the jungle sky.</i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">Arna Bontemps</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain; What a </i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>wonderful feeling, I'm happy again.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">Arthur Freed<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--khuqYDYo4E/VXXLrcM237I/AAAAAAAADfk/9lGO_5m9eV4/s1600/The%2BDance%2Bof%2Bthe%2BRain%2B-%2BDavid%2BAlfaro%2BSiqueiros.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--khuqYDYo4E/VXXLrcM237I/AAAAAAAADfk/9lGO_5m9eV4/s400/The%2BDance%2Bof%2Bthe%2BRain%2B-%2BDavid%2BAlfaro%2BSiqueiros.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>The Dance of the Rain, </i>David Alfaro Siqueiros</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>One must know the so-called 'lesson of a downpour.' A man, caught in a sudden rain en route, dashes along the road not to get wet or drenched. Once one takes it for granted that in rain he naturally gets wet, he can be in a tranquil frame of mind even when soaked to the skin. This lesson applies to everything. </i>Yamamoto Tsunetomo</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DHE62pO8vJg/VXeiO9Y67rI/AAAAAAAADlM/ocmn77ZpG0o/s1600/ando%252Bhiroshige%252Brainstorm%252Bon%252Bohashi%252Bbridge.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DHE62pO8vJg/VXeiO9Y67rI/AAAAAAAADlM/ocmn77ZpG0o/s400/ando%252Bhiroshige%252Brainstorm%252Bon%252Bohashi%252Bbridge.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Rainstorm on Ohashi Bridge</i>, Ando Hiroshige</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RjEF82AHX90/VXXlm6wScbI/AAAAAAAADh4/J1yjCHsmapU/s1600/dozhd%2Bna%2Bbulvare%2Bdmitry-kustanovich-russian-artist-rain.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RjEF82AHX90/VXXlm6wScbI/AAAAAAAADh4/J1yjCHsmapU/s400/dozhd%2Bna%2Bbulvare%2Bdmitry-kustanovich-russian-artist-rain.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="color: #45818e;"><i>Rain, </i>D</span><span style="color: #45818e;">mitry Kustanovich </span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i><br /></i></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;"><i>Listen to the falling rain,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;"><i>Listen to it fall,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;"><i>And with every drop of rain,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;"><i>I can hear you call,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;"><i>Call my name right out loud,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;"><i>I can here above the clouds<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;"><i>And I'm here among the puddles,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;"><i>You and I together huddle.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;"><i>Listen to the falling rain<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;">Jose Feliciano</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1WPJAGE-2vw/VXXlkX9DUII/AAAAAAAADg0/4Se5OUB5Fq4/s1600/Rain%2B-%2BMarc%2BChagall%252C%2B1911.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1WPJAGE-2vw/VXXlkX9DUII/AAAAAAAADg0/4Se5OUB5Fq4/s400/Rain%2B-%2BMarc%2BChagall%252C%2B1911.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Rain, </i>Marc Chagall</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EOq2zvHWrfE/VXXlnZLIP9I/AAAAAAAADiA/AhHjcPwhKBw/s1600/lovers-seated-at-the-foot-of-a-willow-tree-1901.jpg%2521%2BLovers%2BSeated%2Bat%2Bthe%2BFoot%2Bof%2Ba%2BWillow%2BTree%2B-%2BCamille%2BPissarro%252C%2B1901.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EOq2zvHWrfE/VXXlnZLIP9I/AAAAAAAADiA/AhHjcPwhKBw/s400/lovers-seated-at-the-foot-of-a-willow-tree-1901.jpg%2521%2BLovers%2BSeated%2Bat%2Bthe%2BFoot%2Bof%2Ba%2BWillow%2BTree%2B-%2BCamille%2BPissarro%252C%2B1901.jpg" width="316" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Lovers Seated at the Foot of A willow Tree, </i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Camille Pissaro</i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>.... my poetry was born between the
hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it
steeped itself in the forests.</i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;">Pablo Neruda</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QXMZD25mwrQ/VXXnsOf-D2I/AAAAAAAADio/lnd07ft54lg/s1600/Thunderhead.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QXMZD25mwrQ/VXXnsOf-D2I/AAAAAAAADio/lnd07ft54lg/s400/Thunderhead.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Thunderhead,</i> Tom Thomson</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O9g0Nlb78Tk/VXegDR3QJaI/AAAAAAAADkk/Phd1NUdp6aY/s1600/Rainy%2BLandscape%2BII%2B-%2BNikos%2BHadjikyriakos-Ghikas%252C%2B1977.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O9g0Nlb78Tk/VXegDR3QJaI/AAAAAAAADkk/Phd1NUdp6aY/s400/Rainy%2BLandscape%2BII%2B-%2BNikos%2BHadjikyriakos-Ghikas%252C%2B1977.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Rainy Landscape II </i>Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><i><span style="color: #134f5c;">T</span><span style="color: #45818e;">here's always a period of curious fear between the first
sweet-smelling breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;">Don DeLillo<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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Rain in Belle-Ile - Claude Monet, 1886</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MKw_egUKhJs/VXegq5WBLCI/AAAAAAAADkw/3WHSDW9VMxs/s1600/Ray%2BEmbankment%2Bin%2BBasel%2Bin%2Bthe%2Brain%2B-%2BAlexandre%2BBenois%252C%2B1896.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MKw_egUKhJs/VXegq5WBLCI/AAAAAAAADkw/3WHSDW9VMxs/s400/Ray%2BEmbankment%2Bin%2BBasel%2Bin%2Bthe%2Brain%2B-%2BAlexandre%2BBenois%252C%2B1896.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Ray Embankment in Basel in the rain Alexandre Benois </i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e; font-size: large;">After the Rain</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>This morning's scene is good and fine, </i></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Long rain has not
harmed the land.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;">Du Fu</span><span style="color: #134f5c;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Fog and Storm and Rain,</i> Eyvind Earle</span></div>
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<i style="color: #45818e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a Rain, </i><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;">Arkhip Kuindzhi</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Rain Mist and Sun</i>, </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;">A. J. Casson</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J1yKi4SVUxI/VXXljOObaVI/AAAAAAAADgc/dH4IscRiiSs/s1600/JEH%2BMacDonald%2BClearing%2Bafter%2Bthe%2BRain.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J1yKi4SVUxI/VXXljOObaVI/AAAAAAAADgc/dH4IscRiiSs/s400/JEH%2BMacDonald%2BClearing%2Bafter%2Bthe%2BRain.jpg" width="281" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;"><i>Clearing after the Rain</i> JEH MacDonald </span></div>
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<i style="color: #45818e; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you are so full of sorrow,</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #45818e;">that you can't walk, can't cry anymore, </span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #45818e;">think about the green foliage that sparkles</span></i></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><i><span style="color: #45818e;">after the rain. </span></i></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #45818e;">Omar Khayyam</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XoA9HQOYTBM/VXXlj911xmI/AAAAAAAADgw/l1MoPWadXos/s1600/Pond%2Bat%2BMilton%2Bon%2Bthe%2BHudson%2BGeorge%2BInnes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XoA9HQOYTBM/VXXlj911xmI/AAAAAAAADgw/l1MoPWadXos/s400/Pond%2Bat%2BMilton%2Bon%2Bthe%2BHudson%2BGeorge%2BInnes.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Pond at Milton on the Hudson,</i> George Innes</span></div>
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<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-28488927460590971152022-08-25T12:45:00.006-05:002022-12-19T12:58:52.872-06:00MY PAINTINGS - Copyright held by Margaret Buffie<p><span style="color: #45818e;"> <span style="font-size: large;">I have a Bachelor in Fine Arts and have been painting for many years. My writing of novels also took up years of my creative energy. These days, I am concentrating on my art. I will slowly add my finished ones and older ones in the next while. </span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMO5PQOPQ4jXwbJRjnuobTWBjeoTiM9ZeEjcpBbc0O_Fci9X9h51vt08PlRIf8y44jjSo9J7hJBzGgKZ_AWronce7Y4KXNhViHXA2GiBpbREWGWUDGEHiaGIUYrBpdqr5Wt_waVyZydg5o9dsWUYAmbxwPOSWN8S3IKp9Ani--Bzk92FKRddzQ0_I/s1080/Art_2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="1080" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMO5PQOPQ4jXwbJRjnuobTWBjeoTiM9ZeEjcpBbc0O_Fci9X9h51vt08PlRIf8y44jjSo9J7hJBzGgKZ_AWronce7Y4KXNhViHXA2GiBpbREWGWUDGEHiaGIUYrBpdqr5Wt_waVyZydg5o9dsWUYAmbxwPOSWN8S3IKp9Ani--Bzk92FKRddzQ0_I/w449-h283/Art_2.jpg" width="449" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana;">Joe Pye Weed in the Marsh</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Copyright - Margaret Buffie, </span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Private Collection</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDhhK7aI1DzdMXiqMaCpFk5mXZp8h9A91wv_DX3Vojk8ILll4zyJTihhyUWOFd9kY6lyyRJtDsHR54RwEDZnQefCPFJPngE1Lde6pc8HmAKTCCOOiuWYzLmhlLGiJKqekYprfP_DLhGzbYuetrL-oZ3KNhi9FjAGh9zzuQz89ayvgczjHHWe61xQl/s853/Art_4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="720" height="485" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDhhK7aI1DzdMXiqMaCpFk5mXZp8h9A91wv_DX3Vojk8ILll4zyJTihhyUWOFd9kY6lyyRJtDsHR54RwEDZnQefCPFJPngE1Lde6pc8HmAKTCCOOiuWYzLmhlLGiJKqekYprfP_DLhGzbYuetrL-oZ3KNhi9FjAGh9zzuQz89ayvgczjHHWe61xQl/w409-h485/Art_4.jpg" width="409" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Birch Clump and Misty Island</span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Copyright - Margaret Buffie,</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8aSwi7XjYU1MAmiQg7qiIGg3FaS7rffRtjaGqarrLQDEhOjct-vKCRPqU5GAz12ljZ5p_yx8CK6ax0bcTsLjE4F9HTlyqtLDu2u5r5kVmxY3wK8sLALDMqFBb3KwUEXVc0aQpxZVsxg9wMZ10ZW6CXP9SF0D1iOhqlVaDvXC2_GvLIbSWuQHTUCwG/s3648/Birch%20from%20my%20veranda%20window.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3648" data-original-width="2736" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8aSwi7XjYU1MAmiQg7qiIGg3FaS7rffRtjaGqarrLQDEhOjct-vKCRPqU5GAz12ljZ5p_yx8CK6ax0bcTsLjE4F9HTlyqtLDu2u5r5kVmxY3wK8sLALDMqFBb3KwUEXVc0aQpxZVsxg9wMZ10ZW6CXP9SF0D1iOhqlVaDvXC2_GvLIbSWuQHTUCwG/w324-h362/Birch%20from%20my%20veranda%20window.JPG" width="324" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana;">Birches From My Veranda Window<br />Water Colour</span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Copyright - Margaret Buffie,</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsESd4MgKfsU7jG049x8x-xDrzRqEB4chQ_sNHRd_IuypKuJ5FpYbffuXfiK_YBPSBhwjSiSmyFcL7PvDpic3pQKQ6mlo9EtyYzzSisg2MIaAIzGDKYSM7nca3wmSaMxYHTgA6ZVjuWaUhw9QXdgP3GwGFogIouB5t0k51XIv-uI9WY_JwRUZvd6kx/s1238/Dark%20honey%20fungus%20(Armillaria%20solidipes%20Armillaria%20%201000.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1238" data-original-width="1000" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsESd4MgKfsU7jG049x8x-xDrzRqEB4chQ_sNHRd_IuypKuJ5FpYbffuXfiK_YBPSBhwjSiSmyFcL7PvDpic3pQKQ6mlo9EtyYzzSisg2MIaAIzGDKYSM7nca3wmSaMxYHTgA6ZVjuWaUhw9QXdgP3GwGFogIouB5t0k51XIv-uI9WY_JwRUZvd6kx/w355-h440/Dark%20honey%20fungus%20(Armillaria%20solidipes%20Armillaria%20%201000.jpg" width="355" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: verdana;">Honey Fungus <br />(Armillaria solidipes Armillaria) </span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Copyright - Margaret Buffie</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My Dark Garden </span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Copyright - Margaret Buffie,</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjROe_gVELfLjDwYmsmGIqcfGNZEA4m5fkQ5q9V7OBqYYSuUAOMij8rlxbnYOxIvtabBpDZBT1ZD7H5oY2y8u05krffS2rdnEVfpC-8AAwAhM1YbQtDEYSF8kHDks5Fj0YSMxERKiYBs4e2nCStanE0n5z1e2aaGfH47MsHgdSS-34lW9HBcW0_YMP3/s1521/IMG_3472%20Iris%20painting%201000%20contrast%20to%20match%20painting.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1521" data-original-width="1000" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjROe_gVELfLjDwYmsmGIqcfGNZEA4m5fkQ5q9V7OBqYYSuUAOMij8rlxbnYOxIvtabBpDZBT1ZD7H5oY2y8u05krffS2rdnEVfpC-8AAwAhM1YbQtDEYSF8kHDks5Fj0YSMxERKiYBs4e2nCStanE0n5z1e2aaGfH47MsHgdSS-34lW9HBcW0_YMP3/w379-h550/IMG_3472%20Iris%20painting%201000%20contrast%20to%20match%20painting.jpg" width="379" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Marsh Irises</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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font-family: verdana;">Arriving At Our Dock In Dad's Hand-built Boat</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Copyright - Margaret Buffie,</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguTMGI5IqdLWAOyQusvpFlbfn5zMU2HLbcFcEPKNIoz2Raczp4psgmyPcvkQXd7usStAXqDuvOsvgbzy8zbgc34Pdlw4nl8HzUmouOGWWnalvrczyigJG4Gis0yB1lZ4YzPiIABNL63Nw8fWSS8Bz0H1IrwEkz09NwlOTK85McgHyevv_XXE1IADeF/s1200/Lake%20Angel%20-%20painting%20llighter%202016%20FINAL%20Lighter%201200%20for%20BLOG%20JPG%20signed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="907" data-original-width="1200" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguTMGI5IqdLWAOyQusvpFlbfn5zMU2HLbcFcEPKNIoz2Raczp4psgmyPcvkQXd7usStAXqDuvOsvgbzy8zbgc34Pdlw4nl8HzUmouOGWWnalvrczyigJG4Gis0yB1lZ4YzPiIABNL63Nw8fWSS8Bz0H1IrwEkz09NwlOTK85McgHyevv_XXE1IADeF/w427-h323/Lake%20Angel%20-%20painting%20llighter%202016%20FINAL%20Lighter%201200%20for%20BLOG%20JPG%20signed.jpg" width="427" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #e06666; font-family: verdana;">Angel Mist </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana; font-size: small;">Copyright - Margaret Buffie</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana; font-size: small;">Private Collection</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCa4IoBvdRg_8iGaO_2yl9eNBc1-dJEL0-ohW9i6wVg5fCnuEUeBS74GtvX0I-mtdELxD9MmooFzLNz8aq4nBVi7ZPcD-BKMLEbOwwO2-iH4SjECB09UYOkdXLxAEf8i0bWVMnPnJFx4XvgkUwaIM7aacmC1xGWjekOtAxLMxx6PhvcweOzW9gRpL/s1200/Windy%20day%20on%20Long%20Pine%201200.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="1200" height="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCa4IoBvdRg_8iGaO_2yl9eNBc1-dJEL0-ohW9i6wVg5fCnuEUeBS74GtvX0I-mtdELxD9MmooFzLNz8aq4nBVi7ZPcD-BKMLEbOwwO2-iH4SjECB09UYOkdXLxAEf8i0bWVMnPnJFx4XvgkUwaIM7aacmC1xGWjekOtAxLMxx6PhvcweOzW9gRpL/w410-h339/Windy%20day%20on%20Long%20Pine%201200.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div>Storm Clouds</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Copyright - Margaret Buffie</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Private Collection</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSQc_L-IVs36nG1Boc_3bQGIoSrNzC8ewQuEiVJbud4u4lmTI11XMXd7Syg9xxFQGFeBWXPpgkh9JnOWtAiOkozu840NaGOmWp5_t8sJe3dz3peTUEOgjZYp4kJxMHop3inb9qAZtA5IShn9WrxAOvm78ymQtoeOJC9-kiiMMW6xRdOMROL4HsJCCu" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1237" data-original-width="1693" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSQc_L-IVs36nG1Boc_3bQGIoSrNzC8ewQuEiVJbud4u4lmTI11XMXd7Syg9xxFQGFeBWXPpgkh9JnOWtAiOkozu840NaGOmWp5_t8sJe3dz3peTUEOgjZYp4kJxMHop3inb9qAZtA5IShn9WrxAOvm78ymQtoeOJC9-kiiMMW6xRdOMROL4HsJCCu=w424-h310" width="424" /></a></div><br />Winter at Long Pine</span></div><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Copyright - Margaret Buffie</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Private Collection</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></span></span></span></div></span></div> <p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-72414873147672206542021-03-10T13:30:00.002-06:002023-01-20T21:53:25.439-06:00WINTER SHADOWS <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7QVG1Sy-6v8/TtUgumlY4fI/AAAAAAAAAI8/Vn_Yux3Qt9w/s1600/wintershadows+200.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7QVG1Sy-6v8/TtUgumlY4fI/AAAAAAAAAI8/Vn_Yux3Qt9w/s400/wintershadows+200.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">Shortlisted: <b>The Canadian Library Association's Book of the
Year for Young People</b>, 2011 (WINTER SHADOWS) </span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br />
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WINNER: <b>The Silver Nautilus
Award for 2011,Teen Category</b>: From their site: "We look for
distinguished literary and heartfelt contributions to spiritual growth,
conscious living, high-level wellness, green values, responsible leadership and
positive social change as well as to the worlds of art, creativity and
inspirational reading for adults, children, teens and young adults."<br />
Winners' books were featured at Book Expo America in 2011. (WINTER SHADOWS)<br />
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Nominated: The <b>2013 Young
Reader's Choice Award</b></span></i></span></div>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">sponsored by the Pacific
Northwest Library Associaiton, made up of libraries from Alberta, British
Columbia, Idaho, Montana and Washington.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><i><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Shortlisted: <b>McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award -
Older Category </b>2011 (WINTER SHADOWS)</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7rHoUNurtVY/TuKCNhXkM0I/AAAAAAAAANU/1STX24ZXQDY/s1600/Front+of+the+house+decorated+for+Christmas.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7rHoUNurtVY/TuKCNhXkM0I/AAAAAAAAANU/1STX24ZXQDY/s400/Front+of+the+house+decorated+for+Christmas.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="background-color: white;"><em>This story takes place in the heavy snows of Manitoba along the deep river banks of the Red River.</em></span></span></div>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><em>When Cass finds the star brooch once belonging to Beatrice Alexander, visions lead her to Beatrice's diary. Do the girls really communicate across time, or is it all in their imaginations?</em></span></div>
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<em><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c;">Besides developing the stories and connections between Beatrice and Cass, I also had the pleasure of researching and looking at the food and entertainments that might have occurred at this festive holiday time. </span></em></div>
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<em><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c;">A </span></em><em style="color: #134f5c; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">lot of people don't realize until they've read Winter Shadows that the entire story is spun around a Victorian Christmas in an early settlement along the Red River; as well as a modern Christmas story in the same stone house along that river.</span></em></div>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c;"><em>I used this holiday because it is often used in stories to bring families together in celebration and harmony. But when those families are in fact, very dysfunctional, it can cause all kinds of new stresses - some that break spirits and others that offer new strengths.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #674ea7;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: white;">I</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c;">n the 1850's along the Red River, in the small settlement of St. Cuthbert's where</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c;"> Beatrice Alexander lives, Christmas is one of the few festive holidays that breaks the cold monotony of a long winter. It is a time that Beatrice usually loves; but because she is now living with a very nasty stepmother who seems to be influencing Beatrice's kindly <span style="font-family: inherit;">Métis fath</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">er, Christmas looks very bleak indeed. Only her old Cree grandmother has been "put away from sight" in one of the bedrooms in the house, offers her solace and demands that she remain proud of her heritage. </span></span></i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #674ea7;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c;"><em>The Christmas of 1856 becomes a catalyst for even more tension between Beatrice and her stepmother Ivy. And when Ivy's son, Duncan Kilgour, arrives on the scene, even more tension develops - of a different kind. </em></span></span></span></div>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c;"><em>In the modern world, in the very same stone house that Beatrice lived in all those years ago, Cass is also living with a difficult stepmother, Jean, and her annoying daughter Daisy, as well as Cass's dad - who wants this to be the start of a new and happy life for all of them together.Cass's mother died two years before, and Cass resents her stepmother Jean taking over her mother's place. This is not a happy family looking forward to Christmas.</em></span></div>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>My research for the settings for Winter Shadows took me to rural Manitoba St. Andrew's, a parish on the Red River in Manitoba, which still has some of the old stone houses from around 1850. </i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>The exterior of my house in the novel, Old Maples, is fashioned after that of Captain Kennedy's house along the Red River (now a tea house and museum) and some of the interior comes from a typical small whitewashed Red River squared-logged house; the sort where the farmers and former servants of the Hudson's Bay Company lived; and also the Governor's House at Lower Fort Garry, a few miles away - as Beatrice's father had once been a man of rank in the Hudson's Bay Company. </i></span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ifIp_99CQ1M/TuJ4KdJ51ZI/AAAAAAAAAMM/8aYGDTiujzQ/s1600/Kitchen+hearth.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ifIp_99CQ1M/TuJ4KdJ51ZI/AAAAAAAAAMM/8aYGDTiujzQ/s400/Kitchen+hearth.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-size: xx-small;"> Photo by Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Governor's Kitchen - Lower Fort Garry</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana";"><i>Above is hearth in the Governor's house at the fur trading post which gave me an idea of what the old hearth could look like in Old Maples - which Cass (in modern times) sees for the first time when the workmen renovating the old house tear off the wall that is hiding it. She finds an important link to the past inside the sooty hearth wall. There are a lot of hidden things in that old house! Even a ghost...</i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> </span><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-size: xx-small; text-align: center;">Photo by Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "times new roman";">Governor's Kitchen - Lower Fort Garry</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana";"><i>This is the old kitchen at the fort, below, c 1850. Although it's not exactly the same as my other main character Beatrice's kitchen in 1856, it's pretty close. Her home kitchen at Old Maples is a bit larger, as it would be the centre of family life unlike the Governor's house. You can see the smoke hanging in the air. In Beatrice's kitchen there is also a large wooden table to work and to eat at and six wooden chairs - and her step-mother Ivy's locked store cupboard! A similar table is seen below.</i></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-size: xx-small;"> Photo by Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><i>Cass and Beatrice share the same house over 150 years apart. Both are unhappy young women, each facing a tough new stepmother as well as other big changes in their lives. They often look out the windows of the old house to the river and trees beyond. Are they really seeing each other through time?</i></span></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-size: xx-small;"> Photo by Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #0c343d;"> </span><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #134f5c; font-size: 13.2px;"> Photos by Margaret Buffie </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><em>CANADIAN LITERATURE: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review: June 2011</em><br />The female protagonists ....at the brink of independent adulthood ... are aware that they have to think seriously about the consequences of their decisions. ... Beatrice, and Cassandra have extra challenges because of their dysfunctional families, and they feel isolated from their contemporaries who appear to come from more stable and conventional ones. Their fathers’ inability to emotionally support or protect them is the catalyst towards change in their lives.<br /><br />Margaret Buffie’s Winter Shadows tells the intertwined stories of two Manitoba girls who are separated by time but united by parallel situations. Their timelines intersect at similar moments in their lives when they are trying to adjust to reconfigurations of their families, brought about by the remarriage of their fathers. The strained relationships with their stepmothers and stepsiblings form the bulk of the crises in the novels, and at moments of particular emotional distress, the girls have visions of each other that give them strength and encouragement; the past and future influence each other for the better. The modern Cassandra is worried she is losing her mind and seeing ghosts, but Beatrice, who lives in the nineteenth century (and is later revealed as Cassandra’s ancestor), is closer to her First Nations roots and more open-minded about visions. Although the wicked stepmother paradigm seems to be followed initially, the novels move towards better comprehension of the stepmothers’ characters, not surprisingly misinterpreted by the teenagers at the beginning. The novel’s hopeful ending comes from more effective communication and greater understanding of others’ positions, an understanding that leaves the protagonists with an improved, if not an ideal relationship with the stepfamily....Cassandra and Beatrice are sympathetic protagonists whose stories of eventual personal empowerment are thought-provoking. The well-told narrative and the argument that critical thinking leads to compassion and just action towards others make ... attractive choice for young adults.</span><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><em>American Library Assoc's BOOKLIST: January 2011</em><br />Hatred for their wicked stepmothers bonds two girls living in a stone house in Manitoba, Canada, more than 150 years apart. Grieving for her dead mother, high-school senior Cass is furious that she has to share a room with the daughter of her dad’s new, harsh-tempered wife. Then she finds the 1836 diary of Beatrice, who is part Cree and faces vicious racism as a “half-breed” in her mostly white community. In her journal entries, Beatrice weighs her feelings toward the town minister, who she thinks about marrying, and the free-thinking Duncan, who may just be a troublemaker. As Cass bonds with her classmate Martin, she begins to see Beatrice in her dreams and even writes advice to Beatrice in her diary. The alternating narratives are gripping, and the characters are drawn with rich complexity; even the stepmothers are finally humanized. Readers will be pulled in by the searing history of bigotry as well as the universals of family conflict, love, and friendship. Grades 7-10. --Hazel Rochman</span><em><span style="color: #351c75;">QUILL AND QUIRE, DECEMBER 2010:</span></em><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Vicky Metcalf Award-Winner Margaret<br />Buffie returns with a breathtaking novel<br /> that is part realism, part time-travel fantasy,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;">and part coming of age tale. Winter<br />Shadows focuses on two young women who<br />live in the same Manitoba home a century and a half apart.....</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;">This communication across time </span><span style="color: #351c75;">obviously</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;">draws on the conventions of fantasy, but these elements</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;">arenever forced or implausible, and there is plenty of<br />suspense and energy to sustain the two alternating narratives."</span><span style="color: #351c75;"><em>CANADIAN MATERIALS, OCTOBER 2010:</em><br />The past setting of this novel is simply stunning. Buffie immerses the reader in the cold, the food (and the effort it took to find and prepare it), the influence of the church, and above all, the intermingling of the Scottish and native and English cultures in the settlement near Selkirk, MB. She is clearly sympathetic to the native/Metis wisdom and connection with the land, using many Cree words (that are both easily understood in context and explained in a glossary).....Buffie is a master of the ghost story, carefully allowing Cass and Beatrice to drift in and out of each other's lives in convincing fashion. The convention of the diary allows Cass to connect the dots and learn more about her ancestors. The dialogue both in past and present is authentic, revealing character and moving the action along.</span><span style="color: #351c75;"><em>DR. ANDREA DEAKIN<br />Okanagan College Library NOVEMBER 2010</em>:<br /><br />....The 1856 setting is particularly effective and engaging. You feel the cold, you watch the preparation of a feast, you learn about the society and its expectations, and you become engaged in the lively character of Duncan Kilgour and his odd courting. The culture, the time, the expectations of that time, is all brought vividly alive.<br />Beatrice and Cass interact, sense each other, and affect each other in a thoroughly convincing way in this engaging novel."</span><span style="color: #351c75;"><em>KIRKUS: </em><br />Buffie’s characters and the conflicts they face are deeply engaging...Of special interest is the rare portrait of a multiracial community when informal marriages among British and First Nations people were common.<br /><br /><u><em>Other excerpts by online reviewers</em>:</u> "It's been a few years since I read a Margaret Buffie novel and the wait was so worth it! I have always admired her writing. She makes a ghost story believable and engaging. In her new book, she introduces her readers to Cass and Beatrice, ancestors born one hundred and fifty years apart, but with a strong connection.....There is so much here to attract readers. It is historical and informative about Manitoba's past. It deals with the issues that blended families face, in the past and in the present. It helps us understand the need for communication during difficult times, and it offers up characters who will live long in our memories. What more can we ask?" </span><span style="color: #351c75;"><u>Sal’sfictionaddiction.com</u></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;">"It was an enjoyable read, well written with wonderful characters, a great setting, and an interesting plot to which many can relate. It was a little like a contemporary Cinderella meets Jane Eyre, with a pinch of Mr. Darcy." </span><span style="color: #351c75;"><u>Mimosa Effect.</u> </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75;">"I found the story line intriguing. It's like two different novels are being merged into one using the diary as a vehicle. <em>There's</em> a special ending to both stories and I won't give away what happens. Get yourself a copy and read this charming tale of two young women coming of age. You won't be disappointed."</span><span style="color: #351c75;"><u> bkfaerie blog</u></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><u><br /></u></span><span style="color: #351c75;">"I adored WINTER SHADOWS. As I read it, it completely consumed me. ...this is a beautifully crafted book, and I thoroughly enjoyed every page. 5 stars"<u>bookreporter.com</u></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e_EWypD9eAs/TtUeiGbeVOI/AAAAAAAAAI0/OQ7mF04wvvs/s1600/Beatrice+Xmas+card+blue.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e_EWypD9eAs/TtUeiGbeVOI/AAAAAAAAAI0/OQ7mF04wvvs/s400/Beatrice+Xmas+card+blue.jpg" width="265" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-size: x-small;">( I found this lovely little Victorian Christmas card to "Beatrice sends best wishes for a Merry Christmas" and felt it had to be from her!)</span></div>
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<em><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-size: x-small;">Winter Shadows is available in hardcover and paperback in most local bookstores (like McNally Robinson's here in Winnipeg) - and through online bookstores such as Chapters, Barnes and Noble, Amazon and more. It is also available as an eBook on most online bookstores in their eBook sections.. </span></em></div>
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<b><u>New Review:</u></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/winter-shadows/</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">FROM THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY</span></b><br />
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Winter Shadows</h1>
<div class="meta" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url("i/border-2px.png"); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat-y; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: proxima-nova, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">
BY <a href="https://historicalnovelsociety.org/by/margaret-buffie/" rel="tag" style="border: 0px; color: #553300; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MARGARET BUFFIE</a></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: proxima-nova, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cass's father’s new wife is distant, comes with a bratty new stepsister in tow, and spouts clichés with every breath. Meanwhile, in 1856, the same stone house is home to Beatrice, just returned from teaching in Upper Canada to another beloved father, and another stepmother who neglects Beatrice and her Cree grandmother. Expected to marry, Beatrice soon faces a choice between two very different men.</div>
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Connected by Beatrice’s diary, the two young women become ghosts to one another. Cass wonders if her “shadows” are signs of clinical depression and insanity, while Beatrice, raised in the Metis culture with a strong belief in the powers of dreaming, accepts Cass as a spirit girl. Over the coming Christmastime, the worlds converge in decision and ultimate harmony.</div>
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Lyrically told, with compelling characters, <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Winter Shadows</em> illuminates the stigma of mixed ancestry in 1856, as well as the stigma of depression today. Great storytelling.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-62658960822746574512020-02-28T01:06:00.000-06:002020-02-28T01:06:00.641-06:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: grey; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.5px;"><i>When a painting stays in your mind forever,</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: grey; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 19.5px;"><i>it burrows deep and fuels your own creativity </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: grey; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-size: 19.5px;">every single day. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">MBuffie</span></i></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PqCx4wkzW7Q/Xli6KI8VZ3I/AAAAAAAAFGM/PCo1qPegOWwvpAr_lbKEv2ZYIpD-v2CJgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1200px-Caspar%2BDavid%2BFriedrich%2BWanderer%2Babove%2Bthe%2BSea%2Bof%2BFog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1537" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PqCx4wkzW7Q/Xli6KI8VZ3I/AAAAAAAAFGM/PCo1qPegOWwvpAr_lbKEv2ZYIpD-v2CJgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/1200px-Caspar%2BDavid%2BFriedrich%2BWanderer%2Babove%2Bthe%2BSea%2Bof%2BFog.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Casper David Freidrich, 1818</i></span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-77901161324641431482019-01-22T13:06:00.000-06:002019-07-02T01:03:38.770-05:00Imagination is more important than knowledge.....<div class="vk_ans" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px;">
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<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large; font-weight: lighter;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge
is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the
entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i> Albert Einstein.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> - <span style="line-height: 1.2;">t</span><span style="line-height: 1.2;">he faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.</span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: lighter; line-height: 1.2;"><i> - the part of the mind that imagines things.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: lighter; line-height: 1.2;"> - the ability of the mind to be </span><span style="line-height: 1.2;">creative</span><span style="line-height: 1.2;"> <span style="font-weight: lighter !important;">or resourceful.</span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 15.6000003814697px;"> - </span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;">an act or process of forming a conscious idea or mental image of something never before wholly perceived in reality by the one forming the images (as through a synthesis of remembered elements of previous sensory experiences or ideas as modified by unconscious defense mechanisms)</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><i> - the ability or gift of forming such conscious ideas or mental images especially for the purposes of artistic or intellectual creation</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Note from Margaret:<b> </b><br />Knowledge<b> </b>deals with facts; through science, observations of actual events, etc while imagination is driven by "inventive creativity" that is, images and ideas that are not actually real, but which can present an original view of a person’s creative thinking. I believe that knowledge is also an important part of imagination, because we often use our learned knowledge to recreate, reinvent, and envision new things </i></span><br />
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<span data-dobid="hdw" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Knowledge</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">- facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">- awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #a64d79;">Fiction - Intellectual invention</span></i><b style="color: #0b5394;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">-</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> invention or fabrication as opposed to fact.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- literature in the form of prose, especially short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Fiction as an invention or fabrication and creativity can also translate into other art forms:</i></span></div>
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<span data-dobid="hdw" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Visual Invention: Art</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: lighter; line-height: 1.2;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: lighter; line-height: 1.2;">- the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />- also the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, visual arts, music, literature, and dance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think that knowledge can, at times, be an important part of imagination. Creative people often use their knowledge to recreate, reinvent, and envision new things using that knowledge. </span></i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Margaret Buffie </span></i></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here is just one example of one artist using his own knowledge to express his own internal image.</span></i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wjMjdxa1U0I/VLXuQBDkixI/AAAAAAAADA8/4_QPSqKr9V0/s1600/The%2BLibrary%2BDam%2BFB%2BSurrealist%2BPainter%2C%2BJacek%2BYerka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wjMjdxa1U0I/VLXuQBDkixI/AAAAAAAADA8/4_QPSqKr9V0/s1600/The%2BLibrary%2BDam%2BFB%2BSurrealist%2BPainter%2C%2BJacek%2BYerka.jpg" width="332" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jarek Yerks, </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Library Dam </span></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">Quotes and art that can enlighten us about Imagination.....</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mark Twain</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rene Magritte, <i>The False Mirror</i> </span></div>
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<i style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds". </i></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Gilbert K. Chesterton</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1PDbe94xro8/WsvDVP-OZDI/AAAAAAAAE2Q/7Ao1-DdosogJOsXsftkwZ_De4lyQ6Z5EwCLcBGAs/s1600/Surreal%2BCastle%2Bin%2Bthe%2BClouds%252C%2BYerak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="736" height="347" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1PDbe94xro8/WsvDVP-OZDI/AAAAAAAAE2Q/7Ao1-DdosogJOsXsftkwZ_De4lyQ6Z5EwCLcBGAs/s400/Surreal%2BCastle%2Bin%2Bthe%2BClouds%252C%2BYerak.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jarek Yerks<i>, </i></span></span><i style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Surreal Castle in the Sky</i></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> "</i><i>I saw the angel in the marble </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>and carved until I set him free."</i></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Michelangelo </span></i></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WEsXPYmNIyQ/WsvGRiq5oDI/AAAAAAAAE2c/8JR6NoKLanIJFZmvtRiRE71f6N1vq5lcgCLcBGAs/s1600/Angel%2Bby%2BMichelangelo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WEsXPYmNIyQ/WsvGRiq5oDI/AAAAAAAAE2c/8JR6NoKLanIJFZmvtRiRE71f6N1vq5lcgCLcBGAs/s400/Angel%2Bby%2BMichelangelo.jpg" width="291" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Michelangelo, <i>Angel</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394;">"Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Leonardo da Vinci</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RFl-hHCWO_o/WsvG5nTQT7I/AAAAAAAAE2k/nfTTdzwUH5QTNpKFw16jPg4HW14JujXdACLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BDream%252C%2B%2B1910%2BHenir%2BRousseau.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="1271" height="258" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RFl-hHCWO_o/WsvG5nTQT7I/AAAAAAAAE2k/nfTTdzwUH5QTNpKFw16jPg4HW14JujXdACLcBGAs/s400/The%2BDream%252C%2B%2B1910%2BHenir%2BRousseau.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Henri Rousseau, </span><i style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Dream</i></div>
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<i><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk."<br />John Keats</span></i></i></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j71HjEsWo7k/WsvHihxVtAI/AAAAAAAAE2s/RECE3HUompEqz4gwSJVrHJAQwrlrwyyOACLcBGAs/s1600/Titus%2Bas%2Ba%2BMonk%252C%2BRembrandt%2B1660.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="450" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j71HjEsWo7k/WsvHihxVtAI/AAAAAAAAE2s/RECE3HUompEqz4gwSJVrHJAQwrlrwyyOACLcBGAs/s400/Titus%2Bas%2Ba%2BMonk%252C%2BRembrandt%2B1660.jpg" width="336" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rembrandt, </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Titus as a Monk</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Casper David Friedrich, </span><i style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Abbey in the Oak Wood </i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">T</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">he tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. William Blake</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Van Gogh, <i>The Olive Tree</i></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #0b5394;"> </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. </span></span></div>
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<i style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Albert Einstein</span></i></span></i></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not’? </i></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZulaurvZeiw/Wsz3KXvVhdI/AAAAAAAAE3g/NFcqDrg18kEur7NpaZt0VT5gSRqP7OFWgCLcBGAs/s1600/Illustration%2Bart%2Bby%2BBeatriz%2BMartin%2BVidal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1077" data-original-width="739" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZulaurvZeiw/Wsz3KXvVhdI/AAAAAAAAE3g/NFcqDrg18kEur7NpaZt0VT5gSRqP7OFWgCLcBGAs/s400/Illustration%2Bart%2Bby%2BBeatriz%2BMartin%2BVidal.jpg" width="273" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Illustration art by Beatriz Martin Vidal</i></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-56964059083159296002017-11-24T14:14:00.002-06:002017-11-24T14:14:54.843-06:00Winter's promise ....<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>In the depth of winter</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>I finally learned that </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>There was in me</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>An invincible summer</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Albert Camus, poet</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4Ph1stwpkao/Whh1HvbWhPI/AAAAAAAAE0o/mDh9YaktOlQ5ld2frx_UOvtIKCZtMA9tQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Snow%2B-Long%2BPine%2BLake%2B1200%2BIMG_0060%2BJPG%2Bsigned.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="897" data-original-width="1200" height="297" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4Ph1stwpkao/Whh1HvbWhPI/AAAAAAAAE0o/mDh9YaktOlQ5ld2frx_UOvtIKCZtMA9tQCEwYBhgL/s400/Snow%2B-Long%2BPine%2BLake%2B1200%2BIMG_0060%2BJPG%2Bsigned.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-size: x-small;">Snowfall at Long Pine<br />Oil on canvas, copyright, Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-72245429904356265132017-10-02T15:55:00.000-05:002020-03-22T23:35:49.376-05:00There's something about the water.....<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: transparent; color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There's something about the water - that solitary kind of peaceful feeling. </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: transparent; color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You're on Earth but not quite. </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">John C. Reilly</span></span>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-size: x-small;">Photo copyright Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>When you see a fish you don't think of its scales, do you? You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through the water... If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement, give a pattern or shape of reality. I want just the flash of its spirit. </i>Constantin Brancusi</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1_aJ0Jvdj6I/WdKjvZn7iiI/AAAAAAAAEzs/lFIgv-HA-L8mAx35orBUXerxnVeXnyDMgCLcBGAs/s1600/Reflection%2B2017%2BSept%2Bwalk%2B3%2BIMG_1980%2B1000%2Bfixed%2BFB%2Band%2BBLOG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1246" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1_aJ0Jvdj6I/WdKjvZn7iiI/AAAAAAAAEzs/lFIgv-HA-L8mAx35orBUXerxnVeXnyDMgCLcBGAs/s400/Reflection%2B2017%2BSept%2Bwalk%2B3%2BIMG_1980%2B1000%2Bfixed%2BFB%2Band%2BBLOG.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;">Photo copyright Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #134f5c;">The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire. </span></i><br /><span style="color: #134f5c;">Pamela Hansford Johnson</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;">Photo copyright Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>I love to watch the movement of light on water, and I love to play in rivers and lakes... </i>Berlie Doherty</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Photo copyright Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;">Photo copyright Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S1oT9Mx2gb8/WdKlO3RmEKI/AAAAAAAAEz4/K8WHE78L21E-8Tw6fOmxEVlO4IcnY4HjQCLcBGAs/s1600/Cloud%2Bwater%2Bwith%2Bwhirligig%2Bbeetle%2BFB%2B900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="900" height="253" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S1oT9Mx2gb8/WdKlO3RmEKI/AAAAAAAAEz4/K8WHE78L21E-8Tw6fOmxEVlO4IcnY4HjQCLcBGAs/s400/Cloud%2Bwater%2Bwith%2Bwhirligig%2Bbeetle%2BFB%2B900.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Clouds reflected in water and a swirl from a Whirligig Beetle.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Photo copyright Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-size: 14px;"><i>I will do water - beautiful, blue water. </i>Claude Monet </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.</i> Lao Tzu</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;">Photo copyright Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Morihei Ueshiba</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. </i>Loren Eiseley</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm off to the lake for close-up of the cabin for the winter. Hope to take photos of autumn around the lake. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To quote Claude Monet:</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession.</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d;">All photos on this page are my copyright property. Please respect my rights. Thanks!</span></div>
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You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-39866976607231174192017-05-24T13:06:00.003-05:002017-05-24T13:06:54.447-05:00Quote of the Week<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">even one solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Vita Sackville-West</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I agree. This time, however, my house is filled with the smell of white lilacs. Our neighbour's tree bloomed while we were at our lake cabin and I will probably have only one day to enjoy them. But the fragrance alone is worth it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">White Lilacss</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Painting: Oil on Canvass, © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-31804997943440778612017-04-30T11:38:00.000-05:002017-04-30T11:38:08.449-05:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Oh, Spring! I want to go out </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and feel you and get inspiration. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My old things seem dead. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I want fresh contacts, more </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">vital searching. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Emily Carr</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Photo copyright Margaret Buffie</span></span></div>
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You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-48758005831929996392017-04-15T13:40:00.001-05:002017-04-15T13:40:59.102-05:00Eastertide brings renewal and hope.....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2tRl_Xnf1OA/WPJPVlsavEI/AAAAAAAAEt8/rrX3wZRLtGM9iEAGAMM1DvwB__2ZBkm6QCLcB/s1600/Bird%2527s%2Bnest%2Bfront%2Bhedge%2BChipping%2BSparrow%2Beggs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2tRl_Xnf1OA/WPJPVlsavEI/AAAAAAAAEt8/rrX3wZRLtGM9iEAGAMM1DvwB__2ZBkm6QCLcB/s320/Bird%2527s%2Bnest%2Bfront%2Bhedge%2BChipping%2BSparrow%2Beggs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "guardian text egyptian web" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-small;">Chipping Sparrow eggs in my front hedge.<br />Photo copyright - Margaret Buffie</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Easter celebrates the coming of spring, of renewal, of change and of hope. We need all of those now!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Like most of our ancient traditions, many of the symbols of Easter lie in pagan celebrations. <br /><br />Rabbits, for instance, come from the pagan festival of Eostre,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> which celebrated a German goddess - Ostara (Eostre) -</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> the goddess of birth, fertility and spring. Her </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">symbol was a hare or rabbit. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The exchange of eggs is also an ancient pagan custom, celebrated by many cultures. And eggs are also symbolic renewal, fertility and hope.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">According to the English monk Bede, the former pagans in England called April, or the month marking Jesus’s resurrection, “Ēosturmōnaþ” — Old English for the “Month of Ēostre.”</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">In the Old Testament, the Israelites baked sweet buns for their favourite idols, and of course, the early christian leaders were angered by sacred cakes being baked at Eostre. In the end, realizing they could not stop the cooks who refused to listen to them, they gave up and blessed the cakes instead. Later this tradition was transformed into a variety of acceptable "Christian" bread forms - having a cross marked on each cake or loaf of bread. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As my mother was English, and attended Sparling United Church in the West End, she always made hot cross buns. But as an adult, I also began to make Easter bread - </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Paska - </i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">to celebrate the German half of my family</span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">. </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Both recipes use a lot of eggs. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5kQElll3P7A/WPJOf9MFadI/AAAAAAAAEts/UlhhHO1g_EsnkHq6k8nkZzGF4E89LyxFwCLcB/s1600/Hot%2Bcross%2Bbuns%2B500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5kQElll3P7A/WPJOf9MFadI/AAAAAAAAEts/UlhhHO1g_EsnkHq6k8nkZzGF4E89LyxFwCLcB/s400/Hot%2Bcross%2Bbuns%2B500.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My hot cross buns</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rehs3YF0kLA/WPJPUlqdoZI/AAAAAAAAEt0/4l1miZ20GYQrPuCmBGd9UDbC7qEoENyjwCLcB/s1600/Making%2Bpaska%2Bsponge%2B1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rehs3YF0kLA/WPJPUlqdoZI/AAAAAAAAEt0/4l1miZ20GYQrPuCmBGd9UDbC7qEoENyjwCLcB/s320/Making%2Bpaska%2Bsponge%2B1000.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Making the sponge for Paska Bread</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tQoYF_2jex0/WPJPWIoq-nI/AAAAAAAAEuA/cTPgAVM_kQYaSbSNWM-UVs_Y4YMzyEcXwCLcB/s1600/Paska%2B2010%2B%25282%2529%2B1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tQoYF_2jex0/WPJPWIoq-nI/AAAAAAAAEuA/cTPgAVM_kQYaSbSNWM-UVs_Y4YMzyEcXwCLcB/s320/Paska%2B2010%2B%25282%2529%2B1000.jpg" width="320" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My Paska Loaves</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>EGGS</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">I didn't know the history of the colouring of eggs so I looked it up. This is part of what Wikipedia says:</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b style="background-color: white;">Easter eggs</b><span style="background-color: white;">, also called </span><b style="background-color: white;">Paschal eggs</b><span style="background-color: white;">,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> are decorated eggs </span><span style="background-color: white;">that are usually used as gifts on the occasion of Easter of springtime </span><span style="background-color: white;">celebration. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide </span><span style="background-color: white;">(Easter season). The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs wrapped in colourful f</span>oil<span style="background-color: white;">, or plastic eggs filled with confectionary </span><span style="background-color: white;">such as </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);" title="Chocolate">c</a>hocolate<span style="background-color: white;">. Although eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility and rebirth,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> in C</span>hristianity<span style="background-color: white;">, for the celebration of Eastertide, Easter eggs symbolize the empty tomb </span><span style="background-color: white;">of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);" title="Jesus">J</a>esus<span style="background-color: white;">, from which Jesus </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_of_Jesus" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);" title="Resurrection of Jesus">r</a>esurrected<span style="background-color: white;">.</span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: nowrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">In addition, one ancient tradition was the staining of Easter eggs with the colour red "in memory of the blood </span><span style="background-color: white;">shed at the time of his crucifixion.</span><span style="background-color: white;">This custom of the Easter egg can be traced to early Christians of Mesopatamia, </span><span style="background-color: white;">and from there it spread into Russia and Siberia through the Orthodox Churches, and later into Europe through the Catholic and Protestant Churches.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> This Christian use of eggs may have been influenced by practices in "pre-dynastic period in Egypt, as well as amid the early cultures of Mesopotamia and Crete".</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">My family has coloured Easter eggs for as long as I can remember. Simple plain colours.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When I was a child, our parents would hide the hardboiled red, blue, yellow, purple and green eggs all around the house and we would search for them. one basket for each of us was also hidden and filled with a variety of candy and usually one large rabbit from our local chocolatier, <i>Mordens Candies</i>. Bliss.</span></span><br />
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As I grew older I experimented with the simple colours. When I had a family of my own - and as an artist - I tried different ideas for fun. Here are a few results....</div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Design and photo © Margaret Buffie</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Design and photo © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; text-align: center;"> Design and photo © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Design and photo © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">2017 Eggs</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">HAPPY SPRING AND EASTER EVERYONE!</span></i></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></i></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-83518174099156915002017-03-08T14:17:00.000-06:002017-03-08T14:17:36.412-06:00 QUOTE OF THE WEEK <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“Hope” is the thing with feathers -</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>That perches in the soul -</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>And sings the tune without the words -</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>And never stops - at all </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Emily Dickinson</i></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-56581767416906207942017-03-05T11:58:00.002-06:002017-03-05T12:11:23.040-06:00Cold Comfort Camera<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've looked at snow "from both sides now, from up and down" to quote the great Joni Mitchel, but I <i>do </i>know snow. I grew up in Manitoba.</span></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Huge sloppy flakes, tiny beads that sting your face, curtains of snow, drifts of snow, hard layers of city snow like prehistoric layered ice and earth, soft snow that you fall back into without fear; crystal snow that creeps with icy fingers onto your neck between your parka and your scarf; that freezes your toes in your ice skates; that burns your face, cuts deep into your wrists just above your mitts and numbs your silly nyloned legs on the way to school.</span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And I </span><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>see </i></span><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">it. I see how it transforms my garden, my city, my street. I long to see it more often at the lake where we spend so much of our summer. </span></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">I know the colours of snow in light and in the dark. I know the long shadows that fall across it: clear shades of blue; dust gray, mouse brown, sun pink, green tinged, sheer frosted white, and dirty sand brown. And when it begins to melt I recognize the pockmarks than deepen in the snow that mean a thaw is at work.</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">I know snow's indescribable smells - early snow that smell of earth and sun - and late snow in the city with the dark moist smells of tar and sand. At the lake cottage there will be the smell pine and the echoes of mouldering leaves feeding the earth below. I've tasted snow. I've felt it, formed it and built with it. </span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">My memories of lake visits always start with cross country skiing in; of the cottage floor and walls covered in frost until the fire gets hot enough to warm the wood; cutting and bashing through ice for water; snowshoeing through the woods dodging clumps of snow that slide off the spruce and balsam trees onto knitted caps and shoulders, and the whap whap of it falling off our warming roof to the ground below. Most of all, the deep silence broken only now and again by hushed breezes and distant bird chirrups in the night.</span></span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Irish poem, 9th Century</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>My Street in early winter</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>"</b>Nature has undoubtedly mastered the art of </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">winter gardening and even the most experienced gardener can learn from the unrestrained beauty around them."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Vincent A. Simeone </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffbf0; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"I've been a dweller on the plains,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffbf0; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">have sighed when summer days were gone;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffbf0; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No more I'll sigh; for winter here</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffbf0; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hath gladsome gardens of his own."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffbf0; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Dorothy Wordsworth,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Garden gate</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Still morning </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The arbour that separates our two gardens</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Icicles outside my studio window, overlooking the garden</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Iced Alyssum Flowers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span>Through my studio window - late afternoon</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My little winter hummingbird</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Frosted leaves</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The snow cones of cone flowers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cotoneaster berries with frozen drops of water. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I can see myself in one of the drops</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5uWlvpvpMAg/WJNlnXnk2sI/AAAAAAAAEn4/D5p4cqyDHawk-dgipLUcXG0uIQKyFwh6QCLcB/s1600/Frost%2Bon%2Bsage%2Bwith%2Bladybird%2B600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5uWlvpvpMAg/WJNlnXnk2sI/AAAAAAAAEn4/D5p4cqyDHawk-dgipLUcXG0uIQKyFwh6QCLcB/s400/Frost%2Bon%2Bsage%2Bwith%2Bladybird%2B600.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sage and ladybug held in deep frost</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Early morning snow on my veranda stairs </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">leading to the street. No mailman yet, to scar the smoothness</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Drifts of shadow waves near the river</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Early morning visitor</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Nature has many scenes to exhibit, and constantly draws a curtain </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">over this part or that. She is constantly repainting the landscape and all surfaces, dressing up some scene for our entertainment. Lately we had a leafy wilderness; now bare twigs begin to prevail, and soon she will surprise us with a mantle of snow.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">David Thoreau</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Swathes of snow, constantly changing shades </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and movement - yet all done in complete silence. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Shades of crystal blue</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Ski slope" in my garden</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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Frost</h3>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-left;">It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-left;">the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-left;">This crisp winter air is full of it. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-left;">John Burroughs</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">“December's wintery breath is already clouding </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summer's memory...”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">John Geddes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Behind a frosted window I see a small creature peering in at me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another visitor waiting behind the frost, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">white shoulders gleaming.. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Moon Flowers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dancing Frost</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A little forest of frost</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Knitted frost</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Feathered Frost with Hidden Figure</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Early Winter at the Cabin</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Balsam cast in ice-white amber</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Stone and Ice</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Headdress</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A breath of wind will puff it all away</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The log cabin in hiding</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Going to a snow ball</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The old dock</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Soon the ice will come and as it </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">deepens and thickens, </span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">it with twist its wooden back.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Heading out for a walk</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Settling in </b></span></div>
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"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."</span><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Ruth Stout </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffbf0; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffbf0; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">journey, and enjoy every idle hour. "</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The shed of leaves became a cascade of red and gold and after a time the trees stood skeletal against a sky of weathered tin. The land lay bled of its colors. The nights lengthened, went darker, brightened in their clustered stars. The chilled air smelled of woodsmoke, of distances and passing time. James Carlos Blake</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Earliest snows soften the leaves</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hatted fence soldiers on guard</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Garnished ice branch</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Light but relentless snow all night long</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The artist of winter chisels silver icicles just for me</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Shadow me - between two elm trunks</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<b style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spring is not far off</b></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> The days are getting long, the shadows longer still. The sun is warmer on my back. </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My boots are dripping and damp. Spring is creeping toward me.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">© </span><i style="color: #741b47; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ending with one of my favourite quotes about winter!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Winter is the king of showmen,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Turning tree stumps into snowmen</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And houses into birthday cakes</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And spreading sugar over lakes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Smooth and clean and frosty white,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The world looks good enough to bite.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That’s the season to be young,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Catching snowflakes on your tongue.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Snow is snowy when it’s snowing,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I’m sorry it’s slushy when it’s going.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">~Ogden Nash</span></div>
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You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-70531311011722182442016-10-23T12:15:00.000-05:002016-10-23T12:15:12.167-05:00UP THE CREEK WITH MY PADDLE....<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">One cold morning in a late August, I woke up at 5 am and looked out the window of our veranda. The light over the lake was luminous, misty and so inviting - how could I go back to bed? I dressed quickly, stuck my flat-topped straw hat on my head, my sneakers on my feet, grabbed my cameras and paddle, and headed for the canoe. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At first, I was only going to paddle </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">on the still water</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">through the mist into our two bays. I wanted to catch the full sunrise, which can often be stunning and each one is unique. So I paddled around, followed a beaver for awhile as he headed home from work, and when his tail smacked the water and he went down, I turned the bow toward the eastern far bay </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">where the sun would rise from behind the wall of trees</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wu0I553zKXM/V7XAq_O1PRI/AAAAAAAAEes/50X1oNw4aas_-_A1z5YbSpAnyUy1zVyqwCLcB/s1600/IMG_0285%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wu0I553zKXM/V7XAq_O1PRI/AAAAAAAAEes/50X1oNw4aas_-_A1z5YbSpAnyUy1zVyqwCLcB/s400/IMG_0285%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo copyright, Margaret Buffie</span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The creek is behind the mist, middle right, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I paddled slowly toward the pink glow through the mist. The sunrise was very slow coming up or I was just impatient. It was chilly out and the mist was refusing to scatter. My hands hurt from the cold, so I pulled my sweater over them and kept paddling toward the third bay - in silence - except for the slow dip and swish of my paddle. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Half an hour later, I was a third of the way into the eastern bay. Ahead is a wide creek that cuts deep into the marsh at the far end of the bay. The creek connects eventually to a wide beaver dam, and behind it is another watery marsh, and not far off is a nearby lake which one can reach via a very narrow waterway and an old walking trail.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But ... I had not left a note for my family. Two days earlier I had had a freak accident with my canoe when I stepped into it off a rocky ledge and realized the rope holding me in place had somehow loosened. I did the splits over the water, with one foot the canoe and the other on a rocky ledge. I fell into the water up to my shoulders, banging my calf on the gunnel of the canoe, and tipping the canoe over, so it took in gallons of water. My weight took me down. I tried to stand up, my head just above the waterline, but my feet were sinking down into the muck. No life jacket. Yes, I have learned that lesson. Finally.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I saved myself from going under and drowning, by wresting one leg out of the muck while holding onto the full and wallowing canoe. By then, the water was past my chin. I finally found one flat rock underwater a good stretch behind me and was able to stabilize</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> my drop into the muck - then, I was able to pull the canoe toward me as wobbly ballast. After a long struggle, I finally balanced both feet on the rock. Now what? I saw </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a 4 litre plastic bottle in the canoe that I use for ballast</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> and </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">by using my big pocket knife I cut off the base of bottle to create a good scooper.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I bailed the canoe for what felt like hours. To make a long story shorter, I fell in once more, trying to get off that rock and into the bailed canoe! So, I bailed it again. This story would take too long to go into here, but thankfully one of my family members heard my shouts (no one heard my emergency whistle which seemed deafening to me!) and I was finally rescued by two family members in a small fishing boat. My husband and family slept through the whole thing, of course. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Back to the third bay: Paddling to the creek reminded me I had not left one this morning, so I knew I could be in trouble if I crossed over into bay three and vanished down the creek. But I was halfway there - one of my favourite spots on the lake. So now what?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Go back? Go forward?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Maybe it was to prove to myself that, as an experienced canoeist, the near drowning was a fluke. I somehow had to put it behind me behind me with a solemn promise that I would never again take the chance of getting off on a ledge to pick cranberries without a life jacket on .... or maybe it was me getting back on the horse in hopes that the nightmare I had during the night wouldn't come back and haunt me.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No one in my family ever gets up before 8 am, except me, so I ga</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ve myself 2 1/2 more hours to be back at our dock. And I dug my paddle in.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo copyright, Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The opening to the creek just ahead.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I took the photo below <i>after </i>I left the creek and the sun was up. You can see the entrance to the wide creek was full of huge clots of beaver debris, and chunks of marsh that had broken away during a big flood earlier in the summer. The flood lasted a few weeks - and in the wind and rising water, the marshes on the lake released large pieces of flotsam "islands" of marsh plants and bog that, in this case, closed the creek off to anyone except a canoeist.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo copyright, Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo copyright, Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After battling over clogs of flooded marsh, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can see the mist rising and the bend ahead. </span><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love this photo. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Photo copyright, Margaret Buffie</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo copyright, Margaret </span>Buffie</div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just around the corner should be the beaver dam. </span><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The lily pads are thickening.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The beaver dam stretched across the span of water </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and surrounded by marsh plants.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alien world</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the other side of the beaver dam is an alien world. There are waterways that lead past low grassy areas where I once saw a moose standing in one of the open ponds eating lilies. It is a dreamland with beaver dens, deer, water fowl and that strange silence you get in the mornings with only faint chirps and songs of small birds in the distance. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I'd had a partner with me, I'd have hauled the canoe over the dam and gone further, but I was still injured from the accident the day before and ... I hadn't left that promised note, so I turned around. and paddled back home, happy as a beaver with a nice juicy lily pad rhizome to chew on. Memories. And photos. And there is always next summer!</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-34241601031156503552016-06-15T12:15:00.000-05:002016-06-22T00:24:40.813-05:00Return to Twin Bays<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Finally I have returned to Twin Bays, after a long cold winter away. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sunrise OverTwin Bays. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(I imagine this is what the recent fire in our area would have looked like if </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We were not allowed to return to our cabin until just a few weeks ago because of a fierce wildfire that came very close to our lake. The fire was caused by something called dry lightning - striking an old part of the forest which had many old decaying trees - waiting, like tinder, for a chance to explode into flames. Dry lightning is just what it sounds like. Clouds full of fire and no rain. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The photo below is not mine, but was taken by someone at a nearby lake and used in the media (no credits given that I could see) to show the wild fire moving closer and closer. This photo has almost a painterly quality to it. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We were, of course, extremely concerned for almost a month. Not just for the wildlife, and the destruction, but also for the looming possibility of losing the old log cabins my dad and grandfather built, my paintings, our gathered treasures over the years, the journal my husband has kept about the lake since we were married, and many more things that meant so much to our family. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Eventually the fire stretched to about 20 miles in length and licked against outbuildings on the lake next to ours. At first the fire was too hot for water bombers to get close enough to spray it - and of course ground crews were not allowed near it. People were evacuated from four different lakes, including ours. But eventually with cooler weather and some rain, water bombers were finally allowed to fly over. Ground crews then moved in and used water devices to pump water from the lakes onto cottages, cabins and the homes of permanent residents in the area, as well as trying to clear-cut areas to keep the fire at bay. Finally, after weeks of worry, the all-clear was called for the lakes, including ours, even though the fire was still burning in an uninhabited area. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">When we arrived at the marina at the end of the lake we were so happy to be back! We were told by another camper loading his boat, that they had had what is referred to as a"pollen" storm a few days before we arrived. </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">A hard winter, a</span><span style="background-color: white;"> slow spring, and many of the species of trees released their pollen at the same time. The pollen waves covered homes, cottages, boats, docks, and waterways. When we arrived at the end of the lake in our boats, remnants of it had been driven by south winds into one of our small bays. The next morning, I took a shot of it. It covered everything in the marsh, beaver dens, trees, lily pads, the water .... and as the wind picked up, </span><b style="background-color: white;">me</b><span style="background-color: white;">! I sneezed my way back home in my canoe!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pollen on the water in Bay One </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As soon as I could, I explored my usual paths, and paddled my canoe each day checking out my favourite places and celebrating that we still had our beautiful lake intact.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Early that first evening, I paddled toward the largest beaver lodge I have ever seen. I had noticed the previous September that an energetic beaver was starting on a new den. And it appears that during the nice autumn weather, he worked diligently to show the other beavers how it is done! It's huge.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Giant Beaver Lodge </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Usually in that bay the lily pads are so thick I can hardly paddle, but in early June they are rising up from the clusters of leaves growing on the thick layer of mud about four feet below the surface. The beavers create these wide ledges of mud as they groom and plan their own deeper secret waterways - something that I have learned how to find so I can move more easily on the water. Most of the lily pads are red below the surface but once they rest on top of the water, they turn green.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lily Pad Rising </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Everything seemed to be in bloom in both bays. After a good rain most of the remains of the pollen had washed off the plants. Bog Rosemary below is a sturdy and pretty plant - and its buds are round and a pale pink shade with tips that look like pursed lips (with a darker lipstick). Sadly it does not have the fragrance of domestic rosemary.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bog Rosemary </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I suspect that a lot of of the pollen on the lake came off big Jack Pines like this one in Bay One. In spring the cones from the previous year are hard and dry or cracked open and seedless. In spring, however, the new male ones look like pale baby corn or teeny bunches of bananas. It is the male cones that create the ripe pollen. Apparently there are also female cones on the tree. I did not know this until I read up on it. As a kid, I wondered at the sight - on slow blowy days - of gusts of yellow pollen wafting off Jack Pines trees and drifting over the water. From the centre of this bunch of cones, you can see the beginning of the new needle growth </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">in the middle,</span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">which will soon grow long and more upright. They call this stage "candling" and when they are all pointed skyward, they look like candles on a Christmas tree. The females fruit in May and look like tiny reddish pink pineapples. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jack Pine Candling. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Below is the lovely Bog Laurel. One of my favourites. They are </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">gorgeous</span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">flowers and the buds are as pretty as the flowers. These plants were all around the edge of the marshes when I was a kid, but one year, the trappers were allowed to trap the beavers on our lake because they kept rebuilding a dam that interfered with the level of the lake. After that, to my eyes, the marsh became static - the lily pads slowly began to thin more and more. After a few years, we rarely saw laurel bushes. Now we have a different way of keeping the lake level, the beavers are not being killed, and with four active beaver dens in our twin bays, the bog laurel is appearing again, as are other plants that I haven't seen for a long time. The marshes are clogged with huge and varied lily pads with their white and yellow flowers. It is as if the marsh has come alive again. We now have muskrats, and swirling families of otters as well. The beavers are cutting into the marsh, moving it around and refreshing it. I sometimes wonder if the beavers will be taken again - but so far, they are left in peace. I think the awareness now, that beavers actually keep lakes and marshes alive, is part of the reason why. Live and let live seems to be the consensus - which makes me happy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bog Laurel </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here is another plant I had not seen in a number of years and was excited to see this year. The elegant Marsh Calla (Calla palustris) or Water Arum </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Marsh Calla or Water Arum in all its beauty. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The flowers below belong to the Leather leaf plant. Its leaves are thick and leathery. It blooms very early in the spring , so these blossoms are almost ready to drop their petals. And when they do, they leave rather attractive seed pods behind. This plant is at its most beautiful in the fall - when its leaves turn a variety of beautiful subtle fall colours. The third photo in this line up I took last fall. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leather Leaf - Chamaedaphne calyculata </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.32px;">When you walk past an old stump, stop and look closely at it. It can hold some amazing little treasures that look like they come from the bottom of the sea. I paddled past a stump that I've watched age and break down over the years. As I drew closer, I spotted a sun dew plant smack in the middle of it - which means the wood is succulent enough now to carry a water plant! It is also encrusted with various lichens, as you can see. I usually search and find sundews embedded in the wet water mosses along the marsh. They are a carnivorous plant, with sticky tipped "tentacles" that trap small insects. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 22.4px;">The tentacles are highly sensitive and the leaf will then fold over, bringing the insect into contact with the </span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.4px;">sticky </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 22.4px;">balls of the plant's digestive secretions. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sundew plant and lichens on an old dead (but very alive!) stump. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Old Bearded Stump. Isn't he a beaut? </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After my canoe visits around the bays, I went for walks in the woods. I almost stepped on this tiny cluster of mushrooms fruiting across the old trail. I recognized them, but didn't know their name. I have a new book I bought about Ontario mushrooms and after some discussion with my daughter, and a bit of an autopsy on a few I'd removed, I am sure, now, that this is the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.32px;">Omphalina ericetorum mushroom. No common name that I can find. Like pretty little umbrellas in the misty rain. It had been raining for a couple of days, so they are quite translucent. They fruit on moss and wood. Not edible. Apparently they are very bitter. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.32px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Omphalina ericetorum </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.32px; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is another fruiting plant I found on the same day as the umbrella mushrooms. The rain that day brought out all kinds of surprises - mushrooms, mosses in seed and more. These are the seeds or fruiting bodies of the pretty juniper moss. It is called Juniper Polytrichum or Polytrichum jiniperipun. They look like lit birthday candles to me! Eventually the white and orange tips will dry and send out seeds with long white tresses. This group of seed heads has a thread of water drop silk from a spider swung across them - if you look closely. It was so quiet in the forest. No wind at all. Just the sift of light rain.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There seem to be a plethora of moccasin slippers (also known as lady slippers) this year. The one below is in its early stages of growth and is a soft green and looks fragile and new. I almost missed it because it blends so well into the foliage around it. But further along the higher path, I found a few more - dotted with pollen - and wearing their grandest colours.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Later, I slowly paddled into Bay One again. It has some logs laying half in and half out of the water. I took photos of a male and female Mallard standing side by side on this very log last year, looking rather like an old married couple posing for a photo. But this time, I found someone else visiting the log. I call this photo "A <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.32px;">Reflection on Turtles". Heh, heh. "I've looked at them from both sides now from up and down and still somehow....." sorry Joni Mitchell! .... I really don't know turtles at all.</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.32px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />We have a friendly turtle with a deep gash in his shell, clearly from a propeller accident, who comes to visit us when he feels like peckish, but he also comes up to us if we splash the quiet water with our hands. He's been floating into our shore for many many years. You see his head go up and down as he moves in for the food. He gets oatmeal and whole meal crackers.His name is Timothy. But this sleek beauty has a lovely shell. I wonder if they know each other? And if so, do they swim together? Have baby eggs together? She was clearly reflecting on me, too. She slipped off her log after I passed her by.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;">And this little creature greeted me as she always does every year - buzzing every window in my cabin ordering to me to get that hummingbird feeder set up. NOW!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hope you all have a great summer!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-4693284626546309142016-04-13T13:34:00.000-05:002016-04-13T13:34:23.860-05:00Sunrise over Twin Bays - from my canoe<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I spend most summer mornings and evenings paddling around the two bays on either side of our small peninsula and its small island. I take photos of the long vistas, close ups of the critters, the marsh, and anything that catches my eye. In the winter I also paint scenes from memory and a few of the photos. It will be a few weeks before I can get to the cabin. But soon.....</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For this blog I am focusing on sunrises I have caught on film and one painting finished this month.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i> I will
arise and go now, for always night and day</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>I hear
lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>While I
stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>I hear it
in the deep heart's core.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #134f5c;">W .B. Yeats</span></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Early Morning Mist: Oil on canvas </span></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">© Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good Morning Sunrise!</span></div>
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<b style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">©</b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So lovely was the
loneliness</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Of a wild lake,
with black rock bound,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> And the tall
pines that towered around.</span></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Edgar Allan Poe</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><div style="text-align: center;">
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<b style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">©</b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>A lake carries you into recesses </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>of feeling otherwise impenetrable. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">William Wordsworth</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Beneath their silvered film of haze.</i></span></div>
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<i style="color: #45818e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Where mists and fogs in ghostly bands,</i></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i> Vague, dim, clothed in spectral light;<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Drift in from far-off haunted lands,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">WW Campbell</span></div>
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<b style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">©</b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>The smoke from distant forests created startling contrasts </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>over the lake; changing the colours of misted blue to gray, black </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>and </i></span><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>s</i></span><i style="color: #45818e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">hock orange </i><i style="color: #45818e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- as if a fireball had dropped onto the water.</i></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<b style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">©</b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive
feature. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>It is earth’s eye; looking into which the </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>beholder measures the depth
of his own nature. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry David Thoreau</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">©</b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Blue, limpid, mighty, restless lakes...<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> ...</span></i><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Low rimmed in woods and mists, where wakes,</span></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Through murk
and moon, the marsh bird’s cry.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><i>Where ever on, through drive and drift...</i><br />WW Campbell</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">©</b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Where fires of dawn responsive rise,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i> In answer to
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Past lonely haunts of gull and loon,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i> Past solitude
of land-locked bays,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.” </i></span></span></div>
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<b style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">©</b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dale Morgan</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>I've looked at clouds from both sides now</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>from up and down and still somehow</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>to find anyone who would express yellow with base notes</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>or dark lake with treble. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wassily Kandinsky</span></span></div>
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<b style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">©</b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At sunrise
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Norman Maclean</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>The trees giving thanks to the sun for another day.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-47464897923089402272015-11-23T13:52:00.000-06:002015-11-23T13:52:34.263-06:00"Almost" Forgotten Women Novelists - Richmal Crompton<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">WHO IS RICHMAL CROMPTON?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">As a young teenager</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The photo used for her book covers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Richmal Crompton 1946</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Richmal Crompton (Lamburn) is one of -- </span> </span><span style="color: #674ea7;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #003300; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #003300;">"</span>...that generation of women in literature who had earned for themselves the term woman novelist, or simply novelist, as distinct from "lady-novelist" or "authoress".... They were modern in the 1920s and 1930s, very much belonging to the literary world of Maugham, Walpole, Wells and Bennett.... they were not a "school" in any sense and had no more in common than a belief in the novel." </i>Rupert Croft-Cooke </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #003300; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(1969)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0c343d;">If I could, I would edit the quote to add "from the 1920's to the 1970's", as some women writing in the 1930's published into the 60's and '70's.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0c343d;">Eleven of Crompton's forty-four novels for adults, were recently released in mid-2015 by Bello Publishing, which </span></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">is a digital imprint of Pan Macmillan that focuses on republishing out of print books, which they determine deserve new exposure to the reading world. </span><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I liked the covers right away and was intrigued by some of the book descriptions.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I would recommend the three covers below to begin with - for both Crompton's style and her ability to create layered and complex main characters and secondary characters - and for the strong storylines. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I won't go into specific details of each of the six books I've read to this point, but if you like Daphne Du Maurier, Nancy Mitford, D.E Stevenson, Angela<span style="background-color: white;"> Thirkell, or works like Vita Sackville-West's <i>All Passion Spent</i>, or Barbara Pym's <i>Excellent Women</i> etc. </span>I am sure you will find a lot to enjoy in Crompton's books. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Her novels are highly expressive, and full of risks; sometimes teetering on the edge of melodrama, but never <i>quite </i>going over the line. <i>Narcissa </i>comes closest to that line. In fact, Hitchcock could easily have done a movie about </span></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the main character, </span><span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Stella. However, the </span></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">hidden depths of personality flaws in her novels are done so cleverly and with such subtlety that you can forgive some of the Bette Davis-style movie drama. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Crompton </span>was pro-Suffrage, and apparently involved in the Suffragette movement while in University. I wonder if this may have influenced her to write about ordinary solid middle class women, living ordinary lives which often break apart by the blinded actions of those very women themselves.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Caroline, in the novel of the same name, or Stella in </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Narcissa, </i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">are women troubled by deeply layered and complex psychological problems - and in their fractured minds - from lonely self-absorbed upbringings - they believe the only way to continue to exist is to build a world where they can fully control everyone within their intimate sphere - all the while holding on to the ideals of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. After the two world wars, life is changing too quickly for them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Crompton had </span></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a keen eye for the frailties of her characters. Nothing went past her unsparing gaze and if you see qualities in her characters that make <i>you </i>uncomfortable, like I did, you know she hit her mark. </span><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Despite those unflinching observations, I also became aware of the deep compassion she held for her characters, which only deepened her work. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The power of the main character or other adult characters in a number of the novels forces the young adult characters, especially, to face difficult, heart wrenching decisions; mainly because they know any decision they make that goes against the main characters' visions and determinations will have heavy consequences. Some of them cave in and make those compromises. But a number of the younger characters eventually make determined choices to move forward on their own, knowing they must break away in order to survive - to hold onto their own individuality and to create their own future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0c343d;">Crompton's work brings back a long ago era, allowing us a detailed picture of the social order in the world her characters lived in - a world that still had a divide between master and servant, and especially between men and women. Yet there is a timeless essence to her work; a familiar universality of the human condition that resonated strongly me as a "modern" reader.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <u>Brief Bio of Richmal Crompton:</u></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Richmal Crompton (Lamburn); </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">teacher, children's writer, novelist and short story writer, </span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">was born in 1890 in Bury Lancashire. </span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Her father was the Rev. Edward John Sewell Lamburn, a Classics Master at Bury Grammar School and Clara (nee Crompton). Richmal attended St. Elphin's Boarding School school for children of the clergy.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have not read her children's writing - the most popular being the "William Books", but I have now read six of the eleven adult novels put out by Bello Publishers, and I will buy and read the rest. I can't get enough of them right now! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sadly, I can't find her novels in my local library. I wanted to recommend them to other readers. (They do have <u>six </u>books about the Kardashian family, however... if you're interested.) Not funny, I know...</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><br /></span><span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Richmal graduated in 1914 with a BA in Classics, and began to teach Classics at St. Elphin's school. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the really interesting things about Richmal, and so far I can't find much more than the single agreed-upon "fact" of it by biographers etc - is that, she was probably involved or very interested in the Suffragette movement. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When she was 27, Richmal moved from St. Elphin's to teach at Bromley High School in southeast London. In 1923, at age 33 she contracted polio and lost the use of one leg. She was forced to give up her teaching career and began to write full time. Within three years of leaving her teaching, her William books and other writings became very successful - enough that she was able to buy a home for herself and her then widowed mother, Clara, in Bromley Common called "The Glebe."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Later, in her forties, Crompton suffered from breast cancer and had a mastectomy. </span></span><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She was known to say that she was rather glad she had contracted polio because, from that terrible illness, she was able to create a whole new life which </span><span style="background-color: white;">she e</span>njoyed<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> very much.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Crompton never married, but spent a lot of time in the company of many of her nieces and nephews. Despite her disabilities from polio and cancer, during the Second World War, she volunteered for the Fire Service. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Richmal Crompton died January 11th, 1969 at home in Chislehurst, Kent, Bromley.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Other novels for sale and as e-books by Crompton are:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d;">This is a "Christmas" themed novel</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am reading this one now!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Books from Richmal Crompton's Private Library</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.625px; line-height: 22.9247px;">(University of </span>Roehampton<span style="font-size: 14.625px; line-height: 22.9247px;">, Archives and Special Collections)</span></span></div>
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You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-56746695402105473412015-10-27T11:14:00.000-05:002015-10-29T22:43:15.844-05:00Hoarfrost waxes bolder ...<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I woke up very early two mornings ago to a deep frost in my garden. Many of the plants have been cut down, but I was able to get some pleasing shots of the frost here and there. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"Hoarfrost Waxes Bolder" Photo © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Summer is gone with all its roses,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Its sun and perfumes and sweet flowers,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's warm air and refreshing showers:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And even Autumn closes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yea, Autumn's chilly self is going,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And winter comes which is yet colder;</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each day the hoarfrost waxes bolder</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And the last buds cease blowing.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Christina Rossetti, "Bitter for Sweet".</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Purple Sage "Geode" </i>Photo </span><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Frosted Morning Blues </i>Photo <b>© </b>Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> <i>Lemon Thyme and Elm Leaves</i> Photo </span><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i> Primrose Green</i> Photo </span><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Sun Breathes Away Frost </i>Photo <b>© </b>Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Thyme Passes</i> <b>© </b>Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-23046546666195534672015-09-17T10:02:00.000-05:002015-09-21T11:00:10.349-05:00An Imperious Summons.....<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's always hard to close up our cabin in Northwestern Ontario, especially as we grow older. But as we have to boat in, we make a decision when the days grow short, and the birds begin to gather ready to migrate; that it is time to pull up boats and canoes, turn off the water, put the boat motors away in sheds and pack up for the winter. <br /><br />I find it heart wrenching every single autumn, but remind myself that we are so so lucky that my grandparents in 1918 and parents (1948) chose to build cabins on this lake and we, as children, climbed the rocks and explored the forest every summer, as our children and grandchildren do now. Me, too, of course as you can tell from my many boreal forest photos!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I read this quote recently at a memorial service for an old timer who spent most of his life at our lake. It really touched me.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Through the marshes and the forests</span></div>
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And from all the dreaming northland</span></div>
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The wild birds flock and rise."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">P. McArthur </span></div>
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Watercolour Print by Ireart on Etsy</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-89437379257830949712015-08-13T11:30:00.000-05:002015-08-13T11:30:41.110-05:00I've looked at clouds from both sides now...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19.1428565979004px; text-align: center;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Clouds Reflected in Lake - Photo <b>© </b>Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<i style="color: #a64d79; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19.1428565979004px; text-align: center;">I've looked at clouds from both sides now, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19.1428565979004px; text-align: center;">from up and down, and still somehow </span></i><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19.1428565979004px;"><i>it's cloud illusions I recall. </i> </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19.1428565979004px;">Joni Mitchell </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19.1428565979004px;">Note from Margaret: Many of these photos I snapped were shot in the two bays where I paddle my canoe each morning and evening. We all have different horizons to look at every day, but if we look closely we will see that the sky above each horizon changes dramatically every second of every day. Many of us in our busy lives, hardly notice. </span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"> You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds. </span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><i> </i>Henry David Thoreau</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cumulus Blue</span> </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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Truly, were I every evening to depict sunrise, (or in this case, sunset) and every morning to see it, still I should cry, like the children, Once more, once more!</i> Jean Paul Friedrich </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Magenta Sunset</span></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.</i> Rabindranath Tagore</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Layers </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? — it is the same the angels breathe.</i> </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Mark Twain</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Angel's Breath </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><i>There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thunderhead Castle </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wandered lonely as a cloud...</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">William Wordsworth</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One Cloud </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Those clouds are angels' robes. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Charles Kingsley</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Angel's Wings </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jm5sp8Xv4U8/Vcux_VeQJxI/AAAAAAAADv0/XU8exMqmprw/s1600/Morningmist%2Bangel%2B-%2Blight%2B-500.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jm5sp8Xv4U8/Vcux_VeQJxI/AAAAAAAADv0/XU8exMqmprw/s400/Morningmist%2Bangel%2B-%2Blight%2B-500.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Angel Robed in Mist and Clouds</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The ground we walk on, the plants and creatures, the clouds above constantly dissolving into new formations - each gift of nature possessing its own radiant energy, bound together by cosmic harmony.</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ruth Bernhard</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;"><b> </b>Stripes in the Sky © </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Clouds on clouds, in volumes driven,</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Curtain round the vault of heaven.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thomas Love Peacock</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j9e66pTpx-8/Vcurn_4Un2I/AAAAAAAADs4/48iydmusI8M/s1600/Coming%2Bor%2Bgoing%2BIMG_9067%2B800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j9e66pTpx-8/Vcurn_4Un2I/AAAAAAAADs4/48iydmusI8M/s400/Coming%2Bor%2Bgoing%2BIMG_9067%2B800.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 20px;">Coming or Going? </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><i><span style="line-height: normal;"></span></i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><i><span style="line-height: normal;">The inner half of every cloud</span></i></span></div>
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Is bright and shining:</div>
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I therefore turn my clouds about</div>
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And always wear them inside out</div>
</span><span style="line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">
To show the lining.</div>
</span></i><span style="line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mR5Ry6iBIZ4/VcutHVPB3RI/AAAAAAAADug/11xPsx8RiiY/s1600/IMG_8392.tif%2BGold%2Bwater%2Bsunrise%2BMay.jpg%2BFB.BLOG%2Blighte%2B800r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mR5Ry6iBIZ4/VcutHVPB3RI/AAAAAAAADug/11xPsx8RiiY/s400/IMG_8392.tif%2BGold%2Bwater%2Bsunrise%2BMay.jpg%2BFB.BLOG%2Blighte%2B800r.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Golden Morning</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The man who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight has been present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world.</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Ralph Waldo Emerson</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sliver </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--rscJ8N9Wv0/VczCPl-ct1I/AAAAAAAADwo/tkejuO_VHY0/s1600/IMG_0332%255B1%255D%2BOrange%2BMoon%2BForest%2Bfired%2Bmist%2B1700.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--rscJ8N9Wv0/VczCPl-ct1I/AAAAAAAADwo/tkejuO_VHY0/s320/IMG_0332%255B1%255D%2BOrange%2BMoon%2BForest%2Bfired%2Bmist%2B1700.jpg" width="294" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Fire Smoked Moon at Midnight </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rosy clouds were spread like flowers in the sun's pathway... the singing world of the air hung exulting in the hues of morning and the heavenly blue; sparks of clouds darted up from gold bars along the horizon; at last the flames of the sun streamed in over the earth. </i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Jean Paul Friedrich Richter</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KhHi07Gv7C8/Vcurp1oE7xI/AAAAAAAADtY/D6LEC0MWSuo/s1600/The%2Bsun%2Bbeing%2Bborn%2B2%2B1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KhHi07Gv7C8/Vcurp1oE7xI/AAAAAAAADtY/D6LEC0MWSuo/s400/The%2Bsun%2Bbeing%2Bborn%2B2%2B1000.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A New Morning is Born </span><b style="font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; line-height: normal;"><i>The clouds that gather round the setting sun</i></span></span><br />
<i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="line-height: normal;">Do take a sober coloring from an eye</span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality. William Wordsworth</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jdkbTzF1hoo/Vcurqi1xgfI/AAAAAAAADto/OTT7A6yVEpw/s1600/clouds%2Bdark%2B2012%2B800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jdkbTzF1hoo/Vcurqi1xgfI/AAAAAAAADto/OTT7A6yVEpw/s400/clouds%2Bdark%2B2012%2B800.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Darkling Clouds </span><b style="font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uUronONFgSg/VcutIn5NKrI/AAAAAAAADu0/bGZUNMtDa_k/s1600/Marsh%2BNight%2B1200%2BBLOG%2B1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uUronONFgSg/VcutIn5NKrI/AAAAAAAADu0/bGZUNMtDa_k/s400/Marsh%2BNight%2B1200%2BBLOG%2B1000.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Descent into Night </span><b style="font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; line-height: normal;"><i>Ye glorious pageants! hung in air</i></span></span><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To greet our raptur'd view;</i></div>
<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">
<i><span style="line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">
What in creation can compare,</div>
</span><span style="line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">
For loveliness, with you?</div>
</span></i><span style="line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Bernard Barton</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mOfpO5x1ogw/VcutIuRpo-I/AAAAAAAADuw/JkSp4IMoz1A/s1600/July%2B31st%2Bsky%2B-%2Bno%2Bboathouse%2BFB%2B900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mOfpO5x1ogw/VcutIuRpo-I/AAAAAAAADuw/JkSp4IMoz1A/s400/July%2B31st%2Bsky%2B-%2Bno%2Bboathouse%2BFB%2B900.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Sailor's Delight </span><b style="font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><i>A few amber clouds floated in the sky without a breath of air to move them. The horizon was of a fine golden tint, changing gradually into a pure apple-green, and from that into the deep blue of the mid-heaven. </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Washington Irving</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Promises to Come </span></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #134f5c; line-height: normal;"><i>Those playful fancies of the mighty sky. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #134f5c; line-height: normal;">Albert Smith </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sky Writing</span> </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Drifting </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am the daughter of Earth and Water,</i><br />
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I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;</div>
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I change, but I cannot die....</div>
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Percy Bysshe Shelley</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Changes Ahead </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><i style="background-color: white; line-height: normal;"><br /></i></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>When we look up, it widens our horizons. We see what a little speck we are in the universe, so insignificant, and we all take ourselves so seriously, but in the sky, there are no boundaries. No differences of caste or religion or race. </i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="background-color: white;">Julia Gregson</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Speck in the Sky </span><b style="font-size: small;">© </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Margaret Buffie</span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-23632267860392963172015-06-29T10:18:00.004-05:002015-06-29T10:43:39.673-05:00To Weave Her Patterns.....<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have seen nature's patterns while travelling - and in books and online - that show the amazingly intricate designs in nature, particularly underwater creatures such as spectacularly complex ocean shells, reefs etc, and the exotic patterns on birds and fish .... and it is awe inspiring.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My own world is more simple than that - so I explore patterns which I find in my garden and in the natural things I discover at my lake district in NW Ontario. By noticing, and then studying, patterns (that I often saw in my camera(!), I started looking for them with a kind of obsessive eagerness.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I find the smallest and most secret patterns are the most interesting, while those that I don't recognize by eye (until they pop up in my camera) are always the most surprising.<br /><br />We are all taught patterns made by humans - like those in music, and of course, patterns in mathematics, visual patterns in forms of human art, in language and in other "human created" patterns. But to see them in nature, <i>not </i>created by humans -- but by a complex form of earthly energy (that we still wonder over), is always a miraculous thing for me. <br /><br />Humans had nothing to do with the creations of the patterns below, but for me they have allowed me to appreciate and to know deep down, that despite global warming and changes in the environment, nature <i>will</i> adapt - and that those things in nature - created outside of human skills will always survive, even after we are long gone - creating new and old patterns of - right down to the sheer perfection of perhaps a newly designed single feather - or butterfly wing.</span></span><br />
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<em><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="background-color: white;">reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.</b></span></em></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="background-color: white;">Richard P. Feynman</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Spider Web Coated in Morning Dew</span><br />
<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b>For most of the history of our species we were helpless </b></i></span><br />
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<i style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>drought, illness and comet </b></i><b style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>personally</i></b><i style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>. We created </b></i><i style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>myths and</b></i><br />
<i style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b> spirits in an attempt to explain the </b></i><b style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>patterns of natures. </i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Ann Druyan</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; line-height: 32.4000015258789px; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>There is no better designer than nature. </i>Alexander McQueen</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Marsh Mushroom</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie </span></div>
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<i style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.</b></i></div>
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<b style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Muir</b></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gem Studded Puffball</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 19.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><b><i>I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in nature, which </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 19.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><b><i>if we consciously yield to it, will direct us aright. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 19.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><b>Henry David Thoreau</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Brown Marsh Mushroom</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Frog Skin</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The interpretation of our reality through </span></i></b></b><br />
<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;"><i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #45818e;">patterns</span> </span></i></b><b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">not our own, </span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #45818e;">serves only to make us </span></i></b></span><br />
<b><i><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">ever more unknown, ever less free, ever </span></i></b></div>
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<span class="bqQuoteLink" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 26px;"><b><i>more solitary. </i></b><b>Gabriel Garcia Marquez</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A Wasp's Nest</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; line-height: 32.4000015258789px;"><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. Lao Tzu</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Brown Foliose Lichen </span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>I go to nature to be soothed and healed</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>and to have my senses put in order. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>John Burroughs</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Orange Tree Mushroom</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<b style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;"><i>I consider myself a farmer of patterns. </i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; text-align: left;"><b>Alexander Gorlizki </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dried Tree Trunk</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: #45818e;">To understand is to perceive patterns. </span></i></span><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Isaiah Berlin</span></h1>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Web over the water </span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>A repeated shape is not actually the same – </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>the more subtle, the more poetic this repeat is, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>the more we feel that resonant pulse. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Suzanne Northcott </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Arrow Head Rock </span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>The only difference is our perspective, our readiness </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>to put the pieces together in an entirely different way </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>and to see patterns where only shadows appeared </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>just a moment before. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Edward B Lindaman</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Magical creatures" Found Under An uprooted Tree</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e;">We artists have been affected by patterns in nature </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>since day one. Every line we lay to paper and every move </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i><span style="background-color: white;">we </span><span style="background-color: white;">make is part of the magical sequence - and the </span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i><span style="background-color: white;">line goes where it needs to go depending </span><span style="background-color: white;">on one's</span><span style="background-color: white;"> influences. </span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Kristi Bridgeman </b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Island reeds</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I<b><i>nteresting phenomena occur when two or more rhythmic patterns are combined, and those phenomena illustrate very aptly the enrichment of information that occurs when one description is combined with another. Gregory Bateson</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Slanted Light on Lily Pads</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>In the Egyptian we have no traces of infancy or </i></b></span><b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>of </i></b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><i><span style="color: #45818e;">any foreign influence; and we must, therefore believe </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>that they went to inspiration directly from nature.” </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><b>Owen Jones</b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">(Note, while at my lake cabin is in NW Ontario I love to find feathers lying around in nature - and in this one, I see a First Nations Moccasin in its pattern!)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Baby Loon Feather</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Look deep inside nature, and then you will understand everything better. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Albert Einstein.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Canadian Anemone </span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>All my inspiration comes from nature, whether it's an animal or the layout of bark or of a leaf. Sometimes my patterns are very bold, and you can barely see where they come from, but all the textures and all the prints come out of nature. </i>Diane von Furstenberg </b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hosta Leaf</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sedum </span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>It is the marriage of the soul with Nature that </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>makes the intellect fruitful, and give birth to imagination.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Henry David Thoreau</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sxTShTimmac/VY7G5Mv3ovI/AAAAAAAADmY/vN9fjWawTp0/s1600/Tulip2013%2B1FB%2BBLOG%2Bcropped%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sxTShTimmac/VY7G5Mv3ovI/AAAAAAAADmY/vN9fjWawTp0/s400/Tulip2013%2B1FB%2BBLOG%2Bcropped%2B2.jpg" width="391" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tulip Petal</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cone FLower</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Knapweed with Honey Bee</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>Rhythm. Life is full of it; words should have it, too. But you have to train your ear. Listen to the waves on a quiet night; you’ll pick up the cadence. Look at the patterns the wind makes in dry sand and you’ll see how syllables in a sentence should fall. </i>Arthur Gordon</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First Drops of Morning Rain on the Lake </span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Some of nature's most exquisite handiwork is on a miniature scale, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>as anyone knows who has applied a magnifying glass to a snow flake. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Rachel Carson</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Very Tiny Snail Shell in the Marsh</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #45818e;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></span></div>
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<b style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Deep in the time when summer lets down her hair?</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><b><i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Shadows we loved and the patterns they covered the ground with</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Tapestries, mystical, faint in the breathless air.”</span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><b>F. Scott Fitzgerald</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dew On Spider Web in the Grass</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature. </i>August Rodin</b></span></div>
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<b style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Pay attention to the intricate patterns of </span></i></b></div>
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<b style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">your existence that you take for granted. </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #45818e;">Doug Dillon</span></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Black Swallowtail Caterpillar</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gypsy Moth Caterpillar </span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Luna Moth Caterpillar (sitting on my camera strap!)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Very Tiny Marsh Snail Shell</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Snake Skin Shed Sliding Through Rocks</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo: © Margaret Buffie</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Final thoughts from someone I deeply admired:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. </i>Rachel Carson</b></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-49865612691099682292015-06-19T11:43:00.001-05:002015-06-20T13:57:28.380-05:00<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"MURDER YOUR DARLINGS"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>How not to create purple prose.....</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>When someone, usually a critic, says that a certain style of writing is purple prose, what exactly do they mean?</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>In his 1914 lecture "on Style", Arthur Quiller-Couch. (from his reprinted 1913- 1914 Cambridge lectures "on the Art of Writing") talked about extreme ornamentation in prose.</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 28px;">"If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."</span></span></div>
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<i><u><span style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="line-height: 28px;">So what are the darlings that must be murdered?</span>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />Imagine you are at a local fair and an enthusiastic friend buys you a huge pile of purple cotton candy on a paper stick as a "treat." In my case, I might attempt to eat a bit, just to be polite. But, even now, just the thought of it makes my teeth hurt.</span></i></span><br />
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<i>Cotton candy is fluffy, sticky, and sickeningly sweet. It melts in your mouth leaving a saccharin syrup to swallow. Once every ten years I might try a mouthful. But that's the most I can suffer. It's all about personal taste, really, isn't it? Not to say it's </i>wrong <i>to eat it, but one should be aware of the downsides of eating too much<u> </u>of it. </i><i>Purple prose can be like that. </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>There are a lot of definitions about purple prose out there but they are all pretty much saying the same thing. The most obvious purple writing is like making the reader eat an inordinate amount of sticky sweetness - the kind that sticks to your teeth and makes them ache.</i></span><br />
<i><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></i>
<i><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It also can force the reader to take part in an overabundance of crashing, slicing, dicing and swooning if there is a lot of dramatic action in the writing. </span></i></i><br />
<i><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></i>
<i><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Swashbuckling historical novels are called Bodice Rippers for a reason.</span></i></i><br />
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(But if you want to actually write a book full of purple prose ... for fun or because that is what you like to read ... be my guest. Let's get that out of the way right now. )</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>But for those of us who do not, how does a writer </i><i>recognize that they are actually writing purple prose and not strong, creative descriptive writing? How can they see when they are whipping up images that are simply too sticky or "over the top" or embroidered in a way that will hold their readers back from participating in a real world that involves <u>them</u> and makes them want to read on?</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><u>Here are four simple things to remember:</u></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><u><br /></u></i>1. <u>Purple Prose first and foremost is distracting. </u></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><i>If you're reading a novel and become only aware of the <u>words </u>being used while the story, characters or plot are taking second place - and you realize that many of the words the writer</i><i> has used seem to too ornate, overly descriptive, full of old cheesy cliches,etc t</i><i>hen chances are pretty certain you're reading purple prose. </i></span></span><br />
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<i>That is not to say that rich language should be left out of strong writing. But good imagery should slide its way easily and seamlessly into a reader's consciousness as they read.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br />Beautifully crafted writing has words and imagery carefully placed in a story in order to allow just enough atmosphere, emotion, and visual description - in the just right way - to allow enough room for the reader to fill in the rest of the created world themselves. This is vital to clear, strong writing. It is the kind of writing that holds the reader captive, breaks down that forth wall, and tumbles them right into your story -- and, best of all, offers them the gift of making your story <u>their story</u>. </i></span></div>
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<i>The opposite of writing purple prose (and we've all tried to grind our way through this kind of writing), is when a story lacks any kind of descriptive writing</i><i>, or strong characterization, or compelling story to the point where the piece becomes a stodge of blinding dullness for the reader because of the complete <u>lack </u>of imagery and "life" in it.</i></span><br />
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<i>So this is a balancing act we are talking about here.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>2. </i><u>Purple Prose is exaggerated, ornate and off-putting</u></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Purple prose is verbose, extravagant, overly descriptive, and full of worn out cliches. It doesn't mean the entire book will be made up of it, but often just enough phrases and repetition of certain words (like "munching" on food) will clang the purple bell at regular intervals and put the reader off. </span></i><br />
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<i>Here are a few "over the top" examples of purple language:</i></span><br />
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<i>The first couple of quotes come from a Sci-fi "book" called <u>The Eye of Aragon.</u> It was written anonymously and sent via computer to readers. It has been described ... (according to Wikipedia) .... as one of the genre's most beloved pieces of appalling prose and is well known on the net. And remember this is really over the top!</i></span><br />
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<i>Quote 1:</i></span><br />
<pre><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> A sweeping blade of flashing steel riveted from the massive
barbarians hide enameled shield as his rippling right arm thrust
forth, sending a steel shod blade to the hilt into the soldiers
vital organs. The disemboweled mercenary crumpled from his
saddle and sank to the clouded sward, sprinkling the parched dust
with crimson droplets of escaping life fluid.</span></pre>
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<pre><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Call the EMTS!</i></span></pre>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> </span><i style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></i><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Quote 2:</span></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The girl burst into a slow steady whimper, stooping shakily </span><br />
<pre><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to her knees and cringing woefully from the priest with both arms
wound snake-like around the bulging jade jade shin rising before
her scantily attired figure. Her face was redly inflamed from
the salty flow of tears spouting from her glassy dilated
eyeballs.</span></pre>
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<pre><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Scantily clad! Glassy dilated eyeballs and bulging jade shins!! Swoon! </i><i>(Not.)</i></span></pre>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><i>The entire story reads like this. </i><i>Once again, that's not to say rich descriptive language shouldn't be used. But it must be used with care and in the right place. </i></span></span><br />
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<i>Here is a short list of some purple phrases and cliches that make me cringe - to give you some idea of what not to use - unless you want to, of course.....</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i><i>-Twinkling eyes -- and that includes sparkling, teasing, and glittering.</i></span><br />
<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-Rose red lips, parted and moist... ack... nooo</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>-Tears slid like oil from her blue orbs....</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>- Do not ever describe breasts as orbs, mounds or globes... or any other part of the anatomy as in the above!</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>- Trembling limbs, trembling lips, trembling anything....</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>- Call a moon a moon - do not resort to one writer's description of the"lunar orb". In fact, delete the word "orb" from your vocabulary!</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>- he had a thick mane of hair.... Please. No.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>- avoid the use of imagery that involves nature and the character - that is, describing lips as opening petals, hearts as full of ice, arms as snake-like, hair as sun-kissed tendrils, fingers as lily white .... </i><i>and on and on and on.</i></span><br />
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<i>If you find yourself thinking, wow, that is a wonderful rich phrase I have just penned, chances are you need to murder it!</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>3. </i><u>The ultimate aim of writers who use purple prose is a skewed one and often simply misplaced.</u></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394;">People who write purple prose are either pulling your leg (and this is a new "trend") or are eager writers who somehow just fall into purple prose - usually beginners or unedited writers. Their misdirected, but ultimate aim is to manipulate your emotions and to also to make you remember their writing. They think that overly sensual, overly rich and ornate descriptive language will get your pulse racing and your heart beating faster and hold your interest longer. It just doesn't work that way - unless the reader is inclined to fan themselves often while reading.</span></i></span><br />
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<i>Adjectives and adverbs are useful tools for writers - if done in moderation - judiciously placed so they can offer something special for the reader -- a scent, a colour, a rich setting, an intensity that can will only enrich writing. <br /><br />But when overused and repetitive, they will actually make a reader feel as if they are being smothered in cotton candy - and the writing then becomes an intrusion into the reader's intimate and private reading of a story that should be theirs and no longer the writer's. It's like having someone tap dancing frantically all around you while you try to read - all the while shouting, "Look at me, look at me I'm a writer! I'm <u>your</u> writer! Are you feeling it? Are you feeling it?" </i></span><br />
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<i>When you throw a book across the room, you are really aiming at the writer not the wall!</i></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #3d85c6;">H</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">ere's a simple example of wasted purple writing: </span></i><span style="color: #0b5394;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><u>Real writing</u>: The waitress set the cup of coffee on the counter.</i></span><br />
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<i><u>Purple prose writing</u>: The buxom curvaceous waitress, blond curls twisting like vines around her head, lowered the enormous red mug of fragrant nutty coffee onto the glossy surface of the counter. (If that is the only time this character appears, you can murder all those darlings!)</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4.<u> Purple Prose is simply "overwriting".</u></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Overwriting is when you use three or five qualifiers when you could use one. If you are having a herd of wild horses pounding down a dirt road, dust boiling up behind them ... you don't need to add slathering, wild-eyed, sweating, dusty, whipping manes, crashing hooves or any other qualifier. </span></i></span><br />
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<i>Once again, I must reiterate, that by overwriting, you will remove the reader's innate ability to put images into their own visual interpretation of what is happening. That balancing act is one of the hardest things to learn about writing. One that all good writers fail now and again. This is why Quiller-Couch says to go ahead and write it all in - but <u>then</u> go back and kill the sugary darlings that adorn, embellish, festoon, or decorate your verbose overwriting. Like I just did ...</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i>Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" has a chapter called "<u>An Approach to Style</u>." This is still one of the best books to read for any writer. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i><i>A few of their pieces of advice in that chapter are:</i></span><br />
<i style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do not overwrite</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Do not overstate</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Avoid the use of qualifiers</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Do not construct awkward adverbs (like "redly" in one of the above samples)</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Avoid fancy words</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>Be clear </b> </i></span><br />
<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They say, quite rightly in my opinion"...since writing is communication, clarity can only be a virtue. And although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one." </span></i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Style means the right word. The rest matters little.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;">—Jules Renard</span></span></div>
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You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676605338946672744.post-24422451595062012112015-05-23T23:37:00.000-05:002015-05-23T23:41:40.414-05:00Illusion <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="bqQuoteLink" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px;"><a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/arnoldnewm141175.html?src=t_illusion" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;" title="view quote"><i><span style="color: #134f5c;">Photography,</span> <span style="color: #134f5c;">as we all know, is not real at all.</span> <span style="color: #134f5c;">It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.</span></i></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Arnold Newman</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OWw7iUQkmrA/VWFRPPR8IAI/AAAAAAAADbI/RBbZGsuMvvg/s1600/Marsh%2BRelfection%2Breversed%2Bcropped%2B1900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OWw7iUQkmrA/VWFRPPR8IAI/AAAAAAAADbI/RBbZGsuMvvg/s400/Marsh%2BRelfection%2Breversed%2Bcropped%2B1900.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Boreal Marsh Illusion</i> © Margaret Buffie</span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">C</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">lick to see the larger image.)</span></i></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Feel free to comment.
You can also join my blog and get my posts via email. Go to my homepage and click on "Follow by email." You can join via Google. Quick and easy. No obligation at all - and does NOT require you to join Gmail!</div>Margaret Buffiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902505902994554240noreply@blogger.com2