Last night I noticed the crescent moon shining behind the bare tree limbs. A rather subtle, yet pretty, sight.
Next I saw a pink contrail going through the bluish-purple early evening sky. A decidedly dramatic sight.
Then I saw the condensation trail almost intersecting with the rising moon. This created an unusual configuration of accidental manmade beauty + intentional autumn simplicity. An unexpected sight, to say the least.
So I’m looking through a catalogue,
filled with Christmas decorations.
And I see a set of 7 letter blocks,
that you can put anywhere in your home.
To spell out the theme of the season,
which is B•E•L•I•E•V•E.
But me being me,
a different idea pops into my head.
And I immediately try to figure out,
what other words I can make from these letters.
Because who doesn’t love the idea,
of decorations that multitask?
• I took the What’s Your Architectural Personality? quiz. My results said:
You’re solid as a Ranch house!
Simple and suburban by nature, you exude a cozy warmth that lets people know you don’t mind if they leave their shoes on in the house — it’s only carpet, after all! Family and friends are important to you, and you love having them stop by. While not overly fussy or vain, you care about your looks — but honestly, you’re happiest in sweatpants. To you, life isn’t measured in the goods you’ve acquired, but in time well spent.
• My results linked to a webpage that explained that I am more than likely to be a… [mighty, mighty] brick house:
“Ranch homes tend to be easy to maintain because they’re often made of brick, which requires little fuss, and they’re sparsely adorned.”
• Oddly accurate, don’t you think? [Even more interesting when you consider that the last question on the quiz asked which dog I preferred: a basset hound or a golden retriever? I chose basset hound. If I had chosen golden retriever, then my architectural personality would have been Greek Revival— which doesn’t seem like me at all even though I like golden retrievers.]
Last week on this day I wrote about how I was happy and pleased because we had planted some true blue pansies by the sidewalk leading up to our front door. Today I am saddened to tell you, my gentle readers, that last Friday night the deer ate 70% of my special, pretty pansies.
Apparently the deer were having their very own T.G.I.F. party out in front of our house. And they didn’t even invite us. SNOBS.
This experience reminds me of a Bible verse: “Pride goeth before Destruction, and Haughtiness goeth before the Fall.”
[Don’t know where that is in the Bible, but I know it’s there. My mother used to say that every so often. While not a church lady by any stretch of the imagination, she knew all sorts of Bible quotes that she used, along with French phrases + literary quotes, to keep me on the straight and narrow. Or to confuse me, thereby slowing me down as I sauntered along the crooked and wide.]
So yesterday morning Z-D and I went to Lowe’s to buy some average, run-of-the-mill pansies. We bought one 6-pack of pansies with yellow/brown faces and one 6-pack of pansies with purple/white faces. We came home and planted them all mixed-up with the remaining true blue pansies that the deer were too full to eat.
THEN Zen-Den gave the whole mess of pansies a thorough spraying with Liquid Fence, Deer & Rabbit Repellent. Or as I call it– the deer stink stuff.
All of which means that our flowers look lovely from afar, but smell icky when you walk by them. I believe that Fernando Lamas would approve of this solution to our deer/pansy problem. In fact, I can imagine him saying that it is better to look good than it is to smell good.
Yes, my pansies: “You look MAHVELOUS!”
[There’s more to the story. Click here.]
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 