Remembering Madeline

She would have been 16 today, and oh what plans we had for when she could drive a car! I won't dwell on what would have been or might have been - like digging for fossils at Jackson Hole, and taking our needlwork with us - but will continue to be grateful for the 13 years of bright and beautiful memories she gave me to carry in my heart.

The little rocking chair is the first thing I painted for her so long ago - she wasn't even walking yet. Her daddy bought the unpainted chair, and Granny decorated it. I took this picture with her Pooh, as she wouldn't stay still enough for me to get a shot with her sitting in it. Lots of smiles back then.

At this point, I am thinking about and grateful for the wonderful kind of life she had. The colors and gaiety of the rocking chair have the feeling! Madeline had the important things, and for that we are all eternally grateful. Along with beauty and intelligence, she had parents who loved her dearly, and loved and liked each other - and a little sister whom she alternately adored and detested.

She had kind of kooky (me) but very highly productive grandparents with whom I spent a lot of wonderful time - an added bonus. The other grandmother was a curator at the Kimball Museum in Ft. Worth, and the grandfather taught Russian history and civilization (and language) at TCU.

There were lots of aunts and uncles, too, who thought she was wonderful, and who added to her life significantly - things like kayaking, growing fields of lavendar and making soap, and enjoying fine science fiction.

She was blessed with material things also, and parents who were wise enough not to let her be spoiled and obnoxious.

Elegant Chickens!!

The chickens have now decided I'm no threat to their health and well being, so I was able to get kind of semi-close to them today for picture taking. I've been told that if I would take their favorite bowl full of something called "chicken scratch" out to them, we would have an instant bonding for a close and loving relationship. I'll try that after this present cold front passes..

This first photo is the view from my bedroom window - the "cottage" thing is my SIL's retreat - where he goes when he is not in favor with his wife - the doghouse, I think it's called.


It's also his woodworking shop, but I think he needs to intall a bathroom and efficiency kitchen and let me live in it and use it for a studio, as it has a vaulted ceiling and a skylight. Anyway, You can see the chickens back in the corner, which is what sent me running for my camera and the trip outside.
The closeup shot of three girls is showing "Pillow," who is the largest - and so named by the little boys because she is all white and very fluffy. Then "Betsy," who is not large at all, but is definitely the head chicken of this bunch. (the white one with the black tail.) This has been very amusing to watch, as she definitely establishes herself in the "pecking order." The dark one is "Henrietta."


This seems like a lot of trivia about nothing - but watching these feathered ladies has been one of the greatest stress relief things I've had in a very long time - it makes me smile!! Also, it has relaxed me enough, I think, to begin drawing and painting and stitching again. That feels good.

A Fancy Chicken

Everyone shows off their pets at one time or another on their blogs, so I decided to share my daughter's latest, as I am once again residing in her house to be waited upon hand and foot and well fed. (She has a different version of this)

Anyway, as she and the little boys explained, these are not "eating chickens" but are "fancy chickens." They aren't used to me yet, so I only have this one photo, which Jennifer had to take, as they ran from me.

Chickens are delightful creatures - not like I remember as a child when my grandmother had them for eggs and for frying. (those were nasty chickens). This picture is "Fanny" - like my grandmother (Frances Henrietta). OR the character Leslie Caron played in the movie with Maurice Chevalier.

All five chickens are different, and they all have names. A dog across the fence ate Audrey before her wings were clipped, so she was replaced by "Betsy."

My SIL is an architect, so designed and built the lovely chicken house for them. The yard is enormous, so this is against the back fence with lots of space between the house and the coop.

Jake (age 7) decided we need more chickens so as to name them for Biblical ladies. He likes "Miriam," and I like Rebecca. My daughter suggested maybe "Jezebel." We could do the five women of valor in the old Testament, (Bathsheba is one of these) and then the "bad ladies," as I believe there were several. That's a whole flock of chickens, so Jennifer said NO.

Anyway, these chickens made short work of interference by the three family cats. The dog - Godzilla - is a big, lazy yellow lab, who ignores them.

Church Needlepoint: A New Cushion

This project has been brewing for several months, and finally today, my good friend Louann Temple, with whom I've worked for a number of needlepoint pieces for the Church of the Good Shepherd here in Austin, brought me a wonderful picture for our new collaboration. I thought it might be of interest to many to see exactly how we go about designing church pieces from the very beginning - which usually begins with the selection of a theme or motif.

It's a practice when ecclesiastical needlepoint is done, to cover the cost by offering pieces as memorials for families or individuals to donate. (I will be donating the canvas for this one.) My son had asked me a while back, after we lost our Madeline, if I had plans for a memorial for her - and coincidentally, Louann called me and said there is a bench that needs a new cushion - one behind the altar.

I was really really pleased at the timing! I told her our pet name for Madeline when she was a baby was "Angel Baby" - or to me, "Granny's angel" (when she wasn't being naughty), so she immediately thought of this beautiful carving behind and above the altar - just under the window.

The next step is to measure the cushion that's on the bench now, and then I'll start making sketches and deciding on the placement of the angel and how to best incorporate the gorgeous gold carvings. I do know that I'll include, somewhere, "Psalms 91:11" - which for many years has been one of my very favorites. "He hath given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." I remember my mother explaining my own guardian angel to me when I was a small child, and also the beautiful song from Hansel and Gretel - the operetta. I'll also write "Philippians 1:3" in a corner.

Anyway, I will make posts as this progresses to show what might be done by anyone for their own church.

Remembering Madeline

Granny's angel would have been 15 today, and I'm still, even though it's more painful today than a year ago, feeling so very grateful for having had her in my life for 13 wonderful and happy years, during which she was healthy, bright, and beautiful, and a joy to her family.

She was my first grandchild, and I decided quickly that this is what we have children for - to provide us with this kind of great, unconditional love.

She helped me set up the blog that I eventually renamed "Possibilities, Etc." as she was intensely interested in fairies at the time, so we used "Fairy Crafts."

She was my little apprentice and my bestest buddy, and so much like me, I think it worried her parents. When I was designing the pew markers for her church, Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, I told her that one day in the far future, the white ones would be used at her wedding. She said, "Oh no, Granny. I'm going to be an archaeologist and go dig at Jackson Hole." My kind of girl - my avocation besides Marine Biology, so I would have been right there - with knitting and needlepoint in front of the camp fire.

As the first grandchild, it was her privilege to name me, so I was named "Granny," with her father's coaching. Several years later, we were watching an episode of Beverly Hillbillies - her dad's favorite as a teenager, and she was looking very intently at an exchange between Jethro and Granny. Then I told her that was where I got my name. She looked at me, and said "Whose idea was THAT?"!!! I did tell her that the Queen of England is also "Granny."

The needlepoint canvas is one I drew and intended to stitch, but as her sister, Julia, was "on the way" I waited for her - and then never got either one of them worked.

Anyway, as I stated last year, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you." (a scripture quote that I can never remember where to find.)

ADDENDUM: After the lovely offer to stitch this piece for me, I need to explain that we lost her on Memorial Day weekend of 2008 in a freak accident on a four-wheeler. I have this piece, along with Julia's in my collection of Madeline things - her paintings and other treasures. She left me her two bags of knitting and needlepoint threads in her will, and I had written my will, leaving her the molds we made when we did pottery together, and all the glazes, etc.. She is the child of two lawyers - so of course she had a will at age 13.

Celebrating Madeline

I found this last week in a box - I had not stitched it, as by the time I finally got it painted, we were expecting her little sister, Julia. Then I got busy and never got them done. Finding this piece opened a floodgate of tears that I had held back since the accident last May that took her away from us, but I think she would prefer that we celebrate her instead of being sad today.

A grandchild is the most wonderful thing in the world - the reason we have children, I think. Total unconditional love, it has been, and I am so very grateful for the 13 bright, beautiful and happy years I had as Madeline's Granny. It was truly a gift! She was a delightful girl - intelligent, funny, naughty, beautiful - and having her in my life was like living in a high Renaissance drama sometimes. She was absolutely my clone, and was an artist, a poet, a needleworker, my apprentice, and aspired to be an archaeologist one day, and go with Granny to Jackson Hole to dig for fossils.

I am grateful too that she had wonderful parents, a good life, and lots of people to love her. Her memory brings many smiles to my heart - and I am reminded of a Scripture quote from long ago when I lost a childhood friend at a young age - "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you."

Showing off my Sam

Sometimes a mother just has to show off a bit - My multi-talented youngest son, Sam, is now making hunting bows and arrows, and has taken it to the level of an art form. We go on expeditions together to the "fancy wood" stores, and it is absolutely amazing what he can do with it. These pictures are of a bow he brought over to show me yesterday, that is a work of art - with five different kinds of wood in it - BEAUTIFUL thing it is. He has made videos you can see by clicking HERE. - these also show "how to make an arrow" as well as pictures of a beautiful bow he made for his little daughter, Grace.

A New Blog!!

No picture right now - but the good news is that I have nagged my James (#5 child) to start his own blog to show his magnificent "suspended universe" artwork. (see it here, as well as in a previous post of mine) I had not seen him in three years until this past Memorial Day weekend, as he is in the Navy and had been overseas three times in that period. What a relief it was to see him and his little family. Anyway - before he left to go overseas, he set me up on the internet and taught me how to e-mail, find a chat room, etc. etc., as I had refused adamantly to even have a computer until then. My Joe had given me one for Christmas, and James made me use it. Do I need to say how long it took me to become addicted? While he was here, I showed him the entertainment and great rewards of doing a blog, as well as showing off my skills - so I have spent much of today with IM's between us, as he is back in Oklahoma now - helping him set up his blog. Do take a look at it. I'm sure it will be very enlightening and entertaining when he finds his wings here. He is my own child for sure (and very talented with art and music) - we march to "a different drummer."

James' Art

James' Artwork - more later. We are very tired - first visit after three years of Navy and being overseas. His mama is certainly glad to see him. A bit of explanation - besides being in the anti-terrorist force, my James is an artist/musician/tree climber and all kinds of other wonderful things, and father of our beautiful little Sierra - was full of mischief as a little kid. We just split our sides laughing at dinner, as he and the brother who was also here enlighted me about some of the pranks I never caught them doing - and remembering the ones I did see. (I have four boys - all grown now) Anyway - these are his "universe suspended" - he casts these things in resin to appear as planets, etc. The piece on the stand is the earth and moon. The small flat one is Jupiter - you can see rings around it if you look closely - and the moons. Fascinating.

Addendum: REMEMBERING!

I was just looking at that picture and remembering. This is the very house that I tried to paint yellow with my new crayon, as Mother had always talked about wanting a "yellow house." (She got one after the war - a very pretty ivory colored house, which qualified as yellow). Mother cried, as it was a rental house, but I remember the landlord collapsing in laughter on the porch steps when he saw it. I also remember that we were fortunate people, as we had an ice box for food storage. Mother would put a little square thing in the window on ice delivery day - it was in four different colors, with how many lbs. of ice she needed - It was placed so that what she wanted was on top. I used to change it when green wasn't on top, as that was my favorite color - and the ice man with his giant tongs finally learned to consult her before bringing in the blocks of ice. We still were calling a refrigerator (miracle of modern technolory) the "ice box" thirty years later.

TIF February "REMEMBERING"

It seems that Gail's beautiful renderings on needlepoint canvas of the AG dolls has started several episodes among many of us of remembering beloved dolls in our early lives. This has, as have other activities, evoked wonderful memories of childhood, throughout which a common thread has been a beloved doll of some kind. This photograph is one of my most treasured possessions - my parents sometime, I think, in the spring of 1944 (I wasn't four years old just yet, as I celebrated that birthday at Ft. Pierce, Fla. in connection again with Daddy's preparation to go overseas in the Pacific front) I call this the "Palm Tree Dress Photo." Daddy had just returned from Hawaii, and brought Mother this dress - white with fine shoulder pads and a green palm tree. She was soooo elegant to me in that dress with her "spectator pumps," which were high fashion in footwear at the time. Daddy was tall and handsome in his dress whites. I remembered this photo, as I do admire my parents so in continuing, against great odds, during WWII in giving me some semblance of a normal childhood - and a doll (and new best friend) for each birthday/Christmas. Toys were scarce during that time, and dolls were expensive - but I always had one. I think it was Linda Lou who was my gift for the 4th b'day, but she met a sad end in that we were in Norfolk later that year, and downtown in a snow and wind storm. Daddy was in his dress uniform, and supposed to keep his right arm free for saluting, but I whined and yowled, as I remember, until he picked me up. Then I lost control and dropped the box containing many clothes belonging to Linda Lou that my grandmother had sewn for us, and the clothes blew out into the street just as a streetcar full of sailors was passing by. It had to stop while Daddy went out to retrieve all those doll clothes. You can imagine the glee of those sailors. Daddy was an officer. Linda Lou spent the duration of the war in a locker at the train station. In remorse, for my 5th birthday (at Corona Del Mar while Daddy was overseas) I was given a rag doll dressed like Rosie the Riveter, whom I immediately defrocked and attired with a dress. She was Christened "Susan Jane," and stayed with me through college. Until I married and left home, I still was given a beautiful doll each Christmas - mainly those absolutely exquisite Madame Alexanderkins - the small ones. My sister later destroyed those, as she was never a doll person. Oh well. That's what baby sisters are for. She will be 60 next month. EGAD!! I'm older than dirt.

Hook Wreck Henry's - phase II "my trip"

It is said that the artist sees the world through different eyes - and I believe in my case it's entirely true! I get such great enjoyment from the simple things - nature and also the picturesque. I will start off with a picture of the back of my T-shirt that Jason gave me at his Dockside Cafe - Hook Wreck Henry's. I wore it with pride yesterday when I went to the doctor for diagnosis and treatment of a bit of walking pneumonia I acquired from a lady next to me on the plane back to Austin. (it's good to be past 60, and allowed to be a bit eccentric). It was soooo good to see this boy (man now approaching 40) who was so very bad along with my Charlie since they became friends at age 14. I got several really fine, heartfelt hugs from him. It's good to see them all happy and doing well and behaving, etc. Miraculous! This is the back of the place, as the front is on the water. It looks like any other little fishing village restaurant, but the food and interior are quite different. There is no fried food - Jason went to culinary school, so serves the finest of seafood dishes - beautifully prepared and presented in this rustic setting. The pier runs along the front by the open air eating area, which includes a bar in a "Tiki" shack with hidden gas heaters to keep visitors warm on chilly, dreary days while sipping and dining outside. The flag says Surrender the Booty, which, of course, my little grandson loved when I showed him the picture. ( My daughter frowned.) Oh well. Isn't that what grandmothers do? closeup of the flag: The fishing boat (Denny's) came in while we were there, as did a flock of pelicans that were, I swear, posing for a picture for me to paint. Denny goes out to catch fresh grouper for the restaurant. YUM! This place is just up the street a bit from what I call the Rainbow House - in my previous post. I am determined to go back, rent that house, and set up my computer and painting studio. It was good for the soul, and stimulated some creativity I thought I had lost.

"Going Home"

I'm not really sure how to begin this, except to say that it has been like waking up from a beautiful dream, and trying hard to keep sleeping so it won't stop. I returned to Austin last night from a week long visit with my #2 son, who lives just north of Tallahassee outside a beautiful small town called Havana. Four acres of enormous pine trees - complete with owls and magnolia trees and big camellia bushes in full bloom. It was raining and freezing cold the whole week, but it was a visit to restore the soul. (We also had a fine fireplace with plenty of wood to burn) The picture is of my son Charlie, loading wood north Florida style - a man on a backhoe keeps it neatly piled, and the way to buy is to keep a notepad with the number of armloads one loads into the car. I don't know if it is because I am an artist - but I have always said that this region, of all places on the planet, is the one that literally feeds my soul and fuels my creativity - and I have sorely missed it in the 14 years since I left. I insisted that he and his wife take me to Panacea, which is my very favorite of the little coastal fishing villages just south of Tallahassee - and of course I had to stop at the classiest "tourist treasure" shop we could find. (there aren't but three there, as it hasn't been found by the tourists yet.) This is the front of "Linda's store," - a very classy spot with a fine mixture of gorgeous and tasteful antiques and totally tacky tourist stuff. This was her last day in business, so she helped me out with a big bag of seashells I had promised my grandson, Jake, - and told me he doesn't need to know they aren't native. I think they are all from Indonesia. (it isn't seashell season in north Florida.) We laughed and made memories here that I will never forget! On the side of this building is a big mural depicting a mermaid - lighting wasn't good due to cloud cover. As I said, this region causes me to want to get out the watercolours again and start painting - I saw a picture on every street corner and some in between. The little house across the street is vacant and very colorful - and I am threatening to run away to Panacea and live in it. Wonderful thought!! The next installment will be pictures and descriptives of Hook Wreck Henry's seaside cafe - a friend of my son's from high school has opened this wonderful establishment - gourmet cuisine in a seafood shack setting - right on the water, with it's own fishing boat. When they were in high school, I never expected that they would turn out so well - educated and productive and still friends. They were very imaginative in their mischief and misdeeds!! I felt more love in the hugs from these guys, and laughed more than I have in many years. I'll do it again maybe in the spring when the dogwoods are in bloom.