The Transit of Venus

At the moment, Venus is visible in the sky at dusk after sunset. 

As seen from the Earth, it is making its way 'round its orbit

and by June 5th it will pass in front of the Sun...

... a rare transit that will not occur again until the year 2117. 

This is the last time she will do so in my lifetime.

[File under: Things I should not take for granted.]

And so it is time to calibrate telescopes heavenward

and gaze into the early evening sky.

Tissue...? But I hardly know you.

So I was staring at this particularly beautiful tissue box one day, thinking that it was a shame it was empty and had to be broken down and tossed into the recylcling bin.  (I have these moments, now and then.) But in my own defense, tissue boxes can be quite pretty and in those places throughout the cottage where a box will be seen, I try to choose a pattern that will look nice in that space.

In fact there have been several tissue box designs that I've loved but never seen again, and I still kick myself for throwing out the empty boxes rather than refilling them.  (One in particular featured a stone stairway leading up to an old cottage, with potted geraniums on every step.)

So there I was, studying this pretty tissue box, and suddenly it came to me:

Gift tags! 

I disassembled the box, used a paper cutter to slice away the bits that weren't usable, used my hole punch to make an opening for a ribbon or tie and (as a friend of mine used to say) "WALLAH!"

I use these thrifty gift tags ALL the time, not only on gift bags and wrapped presents but on gifts of food, bouquets of flowers, knitting projects, or just random things I want to pass along to friends and family. It's a sweet way to enclose a note on any occasion.

 Whatever the style, there's a gift tag waiting inside a tissue box, just crying to get out. 

And I'll be there—armed with scissors and hole punch—to set it free.

For the beauty of the earth

Periodically the spirit will move me and I'll get out the paintbox

and play with watercolors. 

Because it was Earth Day, and because to me that means flowers...

...here are a few little pictures to celebrate our beautiful planet. 

Long may she live and prosper under our care.  

All-Day Singing and Lunch on the Ground

Young and old alike were singing lustily at the All-Day Singing I recently attended with a friend. It was raucous, moving, uplifting, and something I need to do more often. 

Shape-Note singing (which is non-demoninational) is nearly as old as our country, and was a method devised for those who could not read music. Four shapes (triangle, empty circle, diamond and square) and four tones (mi fa sol la) were all you needed to be able to follow along in four part harmony.  The four voices (altos, tenors, sopranos, basses) sit as individual sections around a hollow square while a leader stands in the center of the hollow, sawing his or her arm up and down to keep the rhythm. (And to get everyone 'on the same page' literally as well as figuratively, the tune is generally sung without words one time through.)

A tune book for Shape Note singing—the "Sacred Harp"—was compiled in 1844. There are many versions but the 1991 is the one most often used today...

...unless you're lucky enough to own an old family copy that was handed down,
like this one.







 If you saw "Cold Mountain" then you've heard Shape Note singing during the scene in Ada's church. It's a beautiful sound, nearly impossible to describe and which sadly does not always translate well on recordings.  (Or as my friend said to me afterwards, "You really had to be there.")  

And while Lunch on the Ground may sound like a paper plate mishap at a picnic, it refers to the traditional pot-luck suppers that Church communities or Sacred Harp societies would sponsor on the grounds of their Churches. Many of the time honored recipes served at these gatherings were compiled into "dinner on the grounds" cookbooks.  I was lucky enough to find this one at a book sale once.

[Images are from the documentary "Awake my soul", the Shape-Note Singing site at the University of Chicago, and the Special Collections at Appalachian State University]