..Knee deep in water

 

fire and water

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze

Isaiah 42  

These days I feel like I am in the middle of a smoky leaf pile as it is just starting to be a full on fire and my legs are in water 2 feet deep and rising..

!

                                                                        

                                                            Jelly Roll and Celine Dion

                                                                                        

fire and water 

  

Torch in the Dark Fount

 

Flynn struggled with creating meaningful narrative in his latest book, Torch in the Dark Fount.

    Liam carefully spread his own shawl upon….

    

Who? Why would he “spread” any shawl upon…? Delete…delete…

    Liam grasped his knife and savagely shred the silken shawl ….

A little better….type, type…

    Conor presented a fragile white crocus dipped in enemy blood to Warrior Queen Maeve. "The blood of  your enemies, my Queen...
"

Ah, much better, Finn decided.  With a chest filled with pride, he headed to his kitchen.

source

He did not push save, something he would regret in a few hours.

Wednesday Words  were started by Delores until her computer fought with her. Words can be found on Elephant's Child. 

 

 Please visit her site and meet other participants.
This was from 2011.

Walk through the Fire

  

Disasters storm through our state in greater numbers.  

Here in S. California, wildfires are vacillating from 20-??% containment so far, in our Riverside County.

Chaparral Fire, Murrieta, CA

About 40 miles away

We can see the smoke, 

10% contained.

These photos were taken from our yard. These were about 

20 miles away, 2008

This is always another cycle, annually expected and dreaded. Equally disastrous is the current Hurricane Ida, and eventually other hurricanes. The earthquakes in Haiti have shown the power of a restless earth. God bless and keep those people in the pathway of that horror. 

BUT

 

Make Way for Trees

Trees are patient.  Trees go and grow wherever there is food, water, and light. Trees do not care what year, decade, century or millennia it is. 

Rainbow Eucalyptus

Roots can put on bark...

The Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland

 Trees have right-of-way. Do not stand in one place for too long.  Just saying.

Rain! Glorious rain!! Where are you,..

Wet….damp…drops…freshness…gray skies…water…rain…rain….

The Southwest is a tinder box of dry brown crispy vegetation.

Here are some photos of the last rain we had.  It was utterly wonderful.

Can you see the lines of rain??

The ferns were turning brown.

Click on photo to "embiggen".

Ignore the pool toys--grandkids, what can I say?

Joy, pure joy.

Are you watching the skies for rain clouds?

The Letter Q is for Quinine

Q is often an awkward letter with which to work.  It is somewhat like the ugly cousin who hangs back, while all the other relatives are having a great time.  And, then she inherits a boatload of money, and then....

The Letter Q

In the 1700s when England was creating its empire, malaria became a persistent problem.  Eventually someone discovered that the bark of the chinchona tree could be dried and then ground.  As QUININE, It could be used to treat malaria.

Also called Jesuit's bark

The Ultraviolet light reveals the presence of quinine, although now negligible.

The problem was that the taste was absolutely foul and almost unbearable.  

British officers directed the cook to create a concoction that would make the quinine at least palpable .  He must have been brilliant in his combination of sugar, lime, and gin as soldiers were happy to take their medicine.  Since the military were already given a ration of gin, this mixture made sense.

Cases of malaria dropped dramatically.

So, lift your glass to the humble beginning of the G & T:

Here is to Q for Quinine.

W-X Posts: Wyvern and "X", part 1

The letter “W” whirls around my brain like a washer on heavy duty spin.  All my great ideas, the ones I took rigorous notes and scribbles about back in March, now smell as bad as a tri-color pasta salad left too long in the trunk.
 

No, I am just teasing.  I decided to go with a monster theme here, naming one with "W" and the other with "X".

So here it is: 

Wyvern: n.  (heraldry) a two-legged dragon with outspread wings and a barbed tail [M.E. wyver fr. O.F. wyvre, var. of vivre, serpent]  

It makes me wonder how this creature (mythical, I hope) was created.  It took some creative minds and some frightened peasants to come up with such an extreme creature.  Two legs!  Wings!  A dragon!  Barbed tail!  Nothing in God's animal kingdom existed like this Wyvern.  Extremely creative.  Extremely frightening!

From Wikipedia (God bless it!) 

This Wyvern relief carving is in Italy!  

A Wyvern, which is apparently well-known to all except me

 I bet you think I will drop the ball with "X".  Check it out tomorrow!

The Bride by the Creek

See*Photo*Write

The creek ran still, deep that day.  Already the church bell chimed, its deep tones bouncing off the rocky Missouri bluffs.

Dorothy knelt by the creek’s edge, her hand warm against her swelling belly. “Oh, Billy!  Why’d you go?” she whispered.  Shiloh had been brutal to gentle souls like Billy.  He fell in the first hour.

Hush, hush, her parents wanted it all hushed up.  Old Widower Howard Carnes would marry her, they said.  He needed a mama for his five children, they said.

The church bell rang again; it was almost time to meet at the church.

“Oh, Billy,” Dorothy sighed.  

Taking careful steps into the creek and then sinking into the enveloping chill, Dorothy watched as her long veil floated in the still water over her head.

P.S.

Pam and Dawn really chose a great photo!  To give it different perspectives, I wrote three stories of less than 200 words.  I will be posting them for the next 3 days.  Susan