unattractive people can be engaging... hell... they can even SING...

I'm sure everyone has heard the marvelous clips of the Scottish woman, Susan Boyle, with the voice of an angel and apparently the soul of a very wise woman. I, like others, felt moved by her beautiful voice. I was especially impressed with her good nature and the way she seemed to either ignore or actually not notice the rude and insensitive audience... not to mention the rolling eyes and smirks from the judging table. Then I was just gobsmacked (as she would say!) with her lovely, lovely voice. I thought about how strong she must be and how much inner confidence she must have to be able to perform like that in spite of very little obvious outside support. Her honesty as she went through the litany of telling how she was an unmarried woman who had never been kissed or had a date was somewhat overwhelming. I wondered why she chose to share that part of her life.

And now I've read she has indicated she is not interested in being turned into a slick & chic performer.... I was so pleased to hear her say, "There's nothing wrong with me..." when asked about having a makeover. The person asking the questions seemed briefly somewhat surprised as Susan Boyle went on to explain, "That would be sort of fake, wouldn't it? Wouldn't be me now would it?"

WOW! A not especially attractive person can SING? And then dance a little jig when the audience response is overwhelmingly good? Who knew??? What next? Perhaps the world will recognize ugly people can write and act and design and report the news on TV. Fat people can take photographs? NO! When did this happen?

So... lemme get this straight... it is NOT a requirement for all front desk people to have perfect figures, gorgeous blonde hair, and plumped up lips? Fat people can report the news? Ugly people can sing? Bald people have real emotions and feelings? Pimply faced people fall in love? Deaf people aren't dumb?

I'm thinking this Susan Boyle woman has hit upon something. The world is made up of maybe 5% beautiful people. There's plenty of room for the rest of us (hell... think about it... probably takes the other 95% to keep the 5% going... ;- ) .

a new word for me... quiddity...

I like odd words.... this was the 'word of the day' for Saturday, April 18th.

quiddity \KWID-ih-tee\, n.:
1. The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing. 2. A hairsplitting distinction; a trifling point; a quibble. 3. An eccentricity; an odd feature.

He wanted to capture not just live animals, but the aliveness of animals in their natural state: their wildness, their quiddity, the fox-ness of the fox and the crow-ness of the crow-- Thomas Nye, quoted in "Ted Hughes, 68, a Symbolic Poet And Sylvia Plath's Husband, Dies", New York Times, October 30, 1998

She has looked after my interests with consummate skill, dealt with my quiddities and constantly kept up my spirits.-- John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination

It is neither grammatical subtleties nor logical quiddities, nor the witty contexture of choice words or arguments and syllogisms, that will serve my turn.-- Michel de Montaigne, "Of Books"

I began . . . to give some thought to the memoir I had promised to write and wondered how I would go about it -- his freaks, quiddities, oddities, his eating, drinking, shaving, dressing and playfully savaging his students.-- Saul Bellow, Ravelstein

Quiddity comes from the scholastic Medieval Latin term quidditas, "essence," from quid, "what."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for quiddity

a little of this and a little of that... cycling MS-150; folk art trees

I've been away a bit... feeling very tired it seems. Hopefully it is just the nasty weather...we had 4 inches of rain in about two hours Friday... and another few inches today. The MS-150 bike ride to Austin was cancelled for today, but is a "go" for Sunday... first time in 25 years.... 13,000 cyclists coming in from all over the US are stuck figuring out how to get to the new starting place Sunday. My niece's husband is riding in it... they're driving to Bastrop today to join the new starting point (LaGrange) early Sunday. (LaGrange had ELEVEN inches of rain Friday... terrible flooding and tore up the camp where 500 tents were set up for die hard cyclists who couldn't get hotel reservations).

Anyhow... here's something I came across online. I love folk art, bottle trees, etc... but I'd never seen (or thought of) a fabric tree! This one is about 7 ft. tall. Wouldn't this be a nifty way to use up all those leftover pieces of fabric... or pieces of clothing? I may give it a go. These days I'm more into thinking up projects rather than carrying through with plans. Basically the cloth was torn or cut into long strips and wound around tree branches and fixed with glue. If used outdoors it obviously won't hold up a long time... perhaps a season or two (depending on how much fading & deterioration you can handle... for me... wd probably still be standing at least 5-6 years!).

One of the homes in my old neighborhood had several crape myrtle trees along the side street. Each year the owner painted the bare trunks in several bright colors & I remember they seemed quite festive during the dismal days of winter. The paint didn't seem to harm the trees as they are still blooming (30 yrs later)... and still painted.

Bluebonnets, Azaleas, and Longhorns...

...only in Texas! Texans are proud of our wildflowers and owe a debt to the late Lady Bird Johnson for her efforts at preserving Texas native flowers along our highways. The first three photos were taken in around Bellville, Cat Spring, and Brenham, Texas.

This photo was taken at one of the Houston public parks and is an unusual close-up view of azaleas with skyscrapers in the background. Although azaleas area not native, I thought the photo fit with the bluebonnets.

A Texas longhorn framed by Texas bluebonnets in the Texas hill country.

I do not know who took these photos so can't give appropriate credit.

anniversary of death of my best friend, Mary, doll artist

"Pansy"

"Sissy"

"Walter & Petunia"

"Twins"


"Jazz">

Sunday, March 29th, was the anniversary of the death of my best friend, Mary. She was diagnosed with a fast growing glioblastoma multiforme, grade 4 on 911, had surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy and then passed away on Good Friday. Mary was a delightful and multi-talented artist who always saw the glass as half-full... and sometimes brimming over. She was also the original 'momma' of my darling Gertie. The first photo above was taken when she was in Germany selling her original sculpted dolls on HSN Germany. She's holding the factory version of her first doll, Lucinda. All the other dolls are some of her original sculpted dolls. The head, arms, and legs are porcelain and the bodies are cloth. An armature allows the dolls to be posed. Most of Mary's original dolls were about 24" tall and all were dressed in vintage/antique clothing which Mary altered and/or remade to fit them. She liked to present her dolls in vignettes suggesting a story and she loved having her dolls playing "dress-up" ("Jazz" was designed to be playing dress-up with one of the girls whose photo I can't find right now...).... and Mary just loved searching for all the little accessories that made her dolls unique.

Mary also made gorgeous reproductions of French and German antique dolls. I'll post some of those another day. It has been seven years since Mary died and I still miss her so much. She was truly a bright spot in my life and I'm lucky to have had her among my friends. I'm sure she and Gertie are in heaven with many squirrels for Gert to chase and flea markets and gardens for Mary to explore.