Not long ago I learned a new word: “mondegreen,” from Throw Grammar from the Train . A “mondegreen” is a misinterpretation, most often of song lyrics, by a listener. The word comes from author Sylvia Wright who heard the words “Lady Mondegreen” in a Scottish ballad. She thought they sang: Ye highlands and ye lowlands Oh…
As I left off in the last post, toddler Anne was living with a foster family while her mother was in a mental hospital in British Columbia and her father was finding his way in California. (Society didn’t have the same expectations of fathers in those days.) Anne soon went to live with her mother’s older sister Vera on…
. . . . . . . . . . . . Often on weekend days we walk to the beach and around the peninsula. It is a 1.5 to 2.5 hour trip, depending on the diversions. There are frequently bald eagles around. They are the official national bird of the United States, where they’ve…
My mother’s story began in 1922. In fact it began a bit before – let’s say September 1921. That is when her parents were married. Adam, age 35, was a World War 1 veteran who, like many other vets after the war, was having trouble finding suitable employment. He was from a family of Scottish…
Here is the plan for the new year: Diet for the month of January (a minor “correction”). Finish doing whatever I decide to do with my mother’s photo collection. Label the rocks from my Australia trip. (Yes, I’ll explain that in a blog some day.) It is #2 that presents the most difficulty. Since I was…
Thanks for visiting in 2011! Here is the 2011 annual report for my blog, prepared by WordPress.com. I will try to keep it up for 2012. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,000 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would…
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” You might want to re-read that line by G.K. Chesterton and savour it, before I try to explain myself any further. [I am going to dig deep now for a plausible post. Sometimes it is a burden to have ANY readers.]…
Countdown: 7 days… The time has come for me to do something in preparation for Christmas! So here I am – preparing for Christmas by writing a Christmas blog. Does that count? See the nice red and green font below. Fortunately or unfortunately, we don’t have any children in the family at the moment, so…
Seeing Clarely 