Happy Halloween

BeeBee Bo Bee needs a body. (Can you guess who did the naming?)






(Camera found in the GARAGE! No wonder I couldn't find it.)

tomatoes and stand

Now do you know what I mean about the tomato stand? So wonderful. Annie took the pictures with her sweet camera. Speaking of cameras - I can't find mine.

of paint-chips, poetry, and pie

If you hoard paint-chips like I do, here's something to do with friends. It's a Poetry Night, but don't tell them that. Bribe them with pie, they will come for the pie even if it is on very short notice.

Set out a cup full of scissors, a cup full of glue sticks, a cup full of pens, a dictionary, a basket full of paint-chips, and another basket full of blank or pretty paper. When friends come, invite them to create a poem (for pie won't be sliced until they do).

In no time there will be cutting, gluing, shouting out of words like "Silence", "Periwinkle Bud", "Cheerful Hue", "Crispy Gingersnap", "Theatre Lights", and "Serene Journey". There will also be the prettiest mess you ever did see.

Once the poetry is alive and underway, take a moment to present the pies.

After all that rolling, filling, pealing, whipping, and baking, pies should be presented before they are sliced. Now everyone is invited to dish up at their convenience. There will be lots of "mmm-hum-mms".


Believe it our not, but everyone will want to share their poem.

The poems are to be read to a captive pie-eating/enjoying audience. Provide a candle and matches at the designated reading spot so that the candle can be lit during the reading and blown out at the conclusion of each poem. Instead of clapping, snap fingers. There will be much gladness.

Annie was here

Hello again.

I excused myself for one week. I guess I should have made that four. Has that much time really passed? (The HUGE and heavy stack of knitting library books that Annie and I checked out are due back, so it must be true.)

So, do you want to hear about the most perfect week spent with my dear friend? Unfortunately words can't describe and pictures can only catch a glimpse of what time spent with a friend really means. You know. You all know what I mean by that.

Annie said it:
"...create a nurturing environment among women".
We were in the car, I was driving and I stopped her mid-conversation. "Write that down - what you just said." Her words are now sticky-noted to my dashboard. (Side note: my dad's dash board is full of index cards and sticky-notes, I couldn't help but think of him as I stuck the note at the base of the speedometer.)

"Create nurturing environment among women", the conversation was essentially that women nurture, and that nurturing for women is going to come from women. So take from it what you will, but for me it means women need women.

Dave and I were setting up the attic, getting the room ready for Annie's stay. I had to leave to pick her up from the airport and while Dave finished up. As I left I said "that (a small built-in desk in the corner) is going to be a writing desk - so leave it open and bring up a chair". He gave me a look, "is she going to be needing a writing desk?". I gave him a look, "trust me, if I were going away from it all I would want a writing desk". For Annie, I wanted to make that space (her space) feel special, welcoming, nurturing. As her friend, it was easy, I knew just how to do it: extra pillows, scented candle, flowers, hooks, baskets, select books, and a writing desk supplied with pencils, pens, and paper - a nurturing environment.

{Some of my favorite photos of that week. They remind me to open up to the good, take it in, and send it out. Enjoy.}


{I love this picture. The cookie was from Presti's Bakery (in Cleveland's Little Italy) we went there 4 times in one week. Intense. Annie may someday own a bakery - I would not even be surprised - so it was market research.}


{Evening herbal tea with cheese, crackers, and pie crust cookies. Recognize those fingers?}


{There...


...was


...pie


...SIX in all, don't worry, we shared.}


{Check out this AMAZING yarn Annie picked out for knitting her 1st scarf. The prettiest green - like a golden green apple - and beautiful in a seed stitch.}


{Pumpkin patch. Pumpkins are so wonderful.}


{Glad you came.}

Read about Annie's visit in her own whirling words here.