Aspenglow - John Denver

John Denver was born on December 31, 1943. I share sun signs with him. Maybe that is why I loved his music so much. Maybe it's was because his music made me happy and long for a simple life in the Rocky Mountains in a cabin. Of all of his songs I love, I love Aspenglow the most. It's one of his lesser known songs, but it's a song of Winter that actually makes me like Winter.

I remember the day he died. It was on October 12, 1997. I cried all day upon hearing the news. I don't know. I felt as if a dream of crisp white snow under golden aspen trees and high mountain tops had died, too.

This year John Denver would of been 71 years old.

The cool video above was done by RockySunshine8

Christmas Memories-Part 2

This happened when I was about eight/nine and we were living in a dinky mobile home park in Florance, SC. I guess things were lean that year because there was not much under the tree that I can remember. But on Christmas eve we all got a great surprise. A knock came on our door that night with a merry ho, ho, ho. OMG, It was Santa! At our door! With a big bag of toys! He came in and gave out presents all around. I can't remember what they were, just that we had a personal visit from old St. Nick.
Years later and really to this day we have no idea who it really was, but I have a suspicion that it was a dentist that work with my dad's dental lab.

Any special memory you have of Santa?

Christmas Memories-Part 1

I thought that since Christmas is only a week away that would share some past Christmas memories of mine this week.
I think my earliest memory was when I was five or six years old and was in my hometown of North Wilkesboro, NC. We were in the parking lot of a grocery store (probably a Piggy Wiggly) in my grandmother's Chevrolet surrounded by all the shiny decorations that were so popular in the sixties.. I remember looking up and seeing a light going by in the sky. Being just three I just knew it was Santa and that he was going to my mammaw's house and that he would leave without delivering presents because we were not there. That upset me bad.
Of course, it was a plane, but my youthful, Innocent self did not know that. My grandma explained to me that Santa would come back because it was still early and he had to go to other kids houses, too.
What did I get that year. The only present I remember I got (though I'm sure there were more) was a red cowgirl outfit complete with hat and boots (my favorite song that year was These Boots Are Made For Walking by Nancy Sinatra) and a pony. Yes, I really did get a pony. I named him Silver after the Lone Ranger's horse even though he was brown.

How about you? What is your earliest Christmas memory?

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Comments | Costumes and Decorations

The Creature from the Black Lagoon

I believe someone remade this movie to be released in 2011. Sorry, nothing is as good as the original, even if it is a bad movie.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

The Invisable Man

This movie always scared my mom. She hated it.

Movie Trailer-The Blob!

This was Steve McQueen's first movie. He later said he wished he had never made it as he felt it did bad for his career.

The Blob

Another Movie Trailer from the Past

My parents would take us to the drive in on Saturday nights. We would sit in the car, wrapped in blankets, listening to the tinny sounds coming from the sound box attached to the driver's window, begging for a trip to the conccesion stand. Then the big screen would light up and we would become quiet as the movie began.

This was one of the first movies we saw. It made me cry at the end. Really, it did. I was actually rooting for the monster. (I usually do.)


Rodan

Another Old Movie Trailer-The Mantis

The Cicada from Hell! lol

The Praying Mantis

October the First

Yay, It's October! My favorite month. It is time for the leaves to change and fall, the apples to ripen, and mums, pumpkins, and corn stalks bundles are everywhere. It's time for decorating ones front yard with Autumn scenes. It's time for watching a football game huddled under a blanket, for friends gathering around bonfires, time to pull out your most loved sweater. It's time for Starbucks to bring back the pumpkin spiced lattes!
It's also the month of scary. Halloween always singles the start of the holiday months. In my opinion Halloween should be a get out of work holiday so one can spend all day getting ready for that night. I mean, really, it's takes a while to become a convincing zombie.
Also, during October the TV stations pull out all the horror movies. And though I love horror flicks, there has been not too many of them lately. Sure there has been slasher flicks where the whole movie depends on special effects and shock value. The seems to not be a real plot. I guess this bothers me because I am a story teller. I like plot and deep characters. The suspense has been lost. Don't get me wrong. Everyone who knows me knows I can sit though twelve hours of zombie movies. I love B movies. But today's B movies lack the suspense of the old black and white movies of the fifties. There was just something about them-the fear of the unknown, the build up to the revel.
This month I will share the trailers of some of my all time favorite B movies. So, for your enjoyment here is the first (and my ultimate favorite)- War of the worlds (the original)

A Soft Rain and Memories

Isn’t amazing how seasons can change so subtly , but noticeably? This past Monday, Labor Day, Summer’s last holiday, we had a huge storm. Lightening, thunder, torrential rain, even hail, high winds, the works. It did some major damage around here with trees being uprooted and roofs being ripped off. I passed the lake while all this was going on and it looked like there was a hurricane going on. The waves were huge. Summer’s last hooray.
Yet, today, just three days later the rain came in so softly we barely noticed it until we heard it on the tin roof and smelled it through the open doors. A lovely musty, earthy smell. A chilly, wet smell.
A Fall smell.
It was a smell that made me wants to curl up in a chair by the open window, wrapped up in my favorite old sweater, with a hot cup of earl grey tea. It brought to mind past Autumns, school days (when school still started in September), football games observed from underneath blankets, bonfires on the banks of the New River, the day long chore of cutting wood and raking leaves.
Many of my friends lament the end of Summer, hate the Fall, and though I will miss the endless hot days of the Summer, I really love Autumn.
So I will most likely bore everyone to death during the next month or so with my blogs about Autumn.
Ps-art will be posted this weekend if my “photography room” cooperates and the weather clears.

A Little Forgotten Bowl

Sometimes things that we take for granted as being there are overlooked. Take this little bowl. I made it in the early eighties in an attempt at pottery. I figured out early that pottery was not for me, but I did manage this cute little bowl. I think it shows the beginning of the colors and shapes I would use later on, but when I made I really didn’t think about it much.

I have carried this bowl every place I have moved to since then (an astounding seven times). I placed it on my kitchen counter among an array on candles and used it as a catch all. Today I was cleaning off said counter and noticed the bowl in the light coming from the window. It was filled with stuff. Since I was cleaning I dumped the stuff out to see what was there.

Wow, memories. Let’s see…from top left…

A silver watch with rhinestones that my dad gave me. It’s just a tad too small and the battery is dead, but it is from my dad. He gave it to me the year before he died.

A small bottle of patchouli oil, bought to give me a sense of creativity (I have many of these strewed about the house).

A box of matches from July 4th (wow, what a great fireworks show in the neighborhood).

A river rock found on one of my “let’s clean out the river” excursions several years ago.

One of my favorite pair of earrings. (I wondered where they were.)

A set of toe rings (Forgot I had those).

A penny from the Bahamas (no idea where that came from. I have never been there. Love to go though).

One of my many anklets with bells for belly dancing (or just walking about the house tormenting the furry ones. Barney tries to pull them off me).

And in the middle one lone earring that my ex-fiancé bought me. (the mate was lost many, many, many moons ago).

Who could of imagined that a little forgotten bowl would of held so many memories.

First Snow and Christmas Past

Looks like we might have a white christmas this year. It's snows just alittle bit here every other day. I would love to see some snow on Christmas Day. Just not enough to keep me from getting to work later on in the week.

I really don't remember having a white Christmas in-well-decades.

I do remember one Christmas when visiting my grandparents when I was a child it snowed on Christmas. I can still see the white blanket glistening under a bright sun as we traveled familiar roads to reach their house, excited about seeing them, knowing there was all kinds on goodies awaiting us. Grandpa always had cream drops for us and Grandma baked cookies. They weren't rich and usually their presents consisted on coloring books and crayons, bubble bath, maybe night gowns that Grandma had made us girls. It was enough. Just being there with them at Christmas was what we wanted.

A Bright Leaf

You see before you one bright leaf, shifting in the Autumn breeze, hanging in the darkened shadows of the other leaves still clinging to Summer's green. One small orange-yellow leaf, showing the ravages of time in it's holes and dying edges. It's a beautiful thing-this lone little leaf. It gives us joy in it's lovely color, sadness in knowing that Winter is around the corner, and hope for the far off coming of Spring.

At A DQ Drive-Thru

So...I was sitting in the drive-thru at our local Dairy Queen, listening to an old AC/DC tune when my eyes wandered off to the little woods across a small field next to the restraught. I noticed some of the leaves on the trees looked like the might be changing color. The sky was overcast andit was drizzling just a bit, but I had my window down (mainly because I can't stand air conditioning. I like real air.) Through it I caught the strong smell of onion rings from the DQ and gas smell from the car ahead me. I don't know what it was about the combination of the song, the smells, and the sight of the turning leaves, but I was hit with the most overwhelming sense of homesickness. Or it could of been nostalgia, something remembered by my spirit from my past. I suddenly just wanted to cry for the past, roads not taken, chances gone. It put me in a melancholy mood that I haven't quite shaken off yet.