Month: August 2014

BROKEN MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO’S THE FAIREST OF US ALL?

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/31/2014 • ( 17 )

The Mirror Crack’d – You wake up one morning to a world without mirrors. How does your life — from your everyday routines to your perception of yourself — change? No mirrors? How about a shiny car bumper or the… Read More ›

HOSTA – THE GARDEN’S LAST BLOOMS

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/31/2014 • ( 10 )

All the other flowers are finished. The day lilies are just a memory. A few straggler roses cling to the bushes, but their time has past. The hosta are in blooming, though. Not known for their flowers, hosta are the… Read More ›

HURT SO BAD

By Rich Paschall on 08/31/2014 • ( 16 )

The silencing of Linda Ronstadt, Rich Paschall, Sunday Night Blog All through the 1970s, you could not leave your transistor radio on for long without hearing the distinctive voice of Linda Ronstadt. She emerged from her early time with The… Read More ›

WE’LL ALL HAVE TEA

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/31/2014 • ( 12 )

Polly put the kettle on, Polly put the kettle on, Polly put the kettle on, We’ll all have tea. — Sukey take it off again, Sukey take it off again, Sukey take it off again, They’ve all gone away.

PAIN AND GAIN? NO SUBSTITUTE FOR USING YOUR BRAIN

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/30/2014 • ( 41 )

Rabbi Ben Hei says, “According to the pain is the gain.” — Pirkei Avot 5:21 (second century) NO PAINS, NO GAINS. If little labour, little are our gains: Man’s fate is according to his pains. — Hesperides 752 (1650) Industry… Read More ›

THE FARM AND THE HOUSE

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/30/2014 • ( 3 )

The cows are happy. The chickens are happy. The corn is growing, joyously absorbing sunshine and rain. Three generations live on the farm … and the land has been in the family as long as anyone can remember. The work… Read More ›

DAY IS DONE. ME TOO

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/30/2014 • ( 13 )

It was one of Those Days. Started out normal. We had to get up a bit early because I had a doctor appointment and even though we left plenty of time, we got out of the house a bit late. Time slipped… Read More ›

UP FOR THE SUNRISE

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/29/2014 • ( 35 )

Getting up for the dawn … really getting up … not just getting out of bed, going to the bathroom, then huddling back under the covers … means I’m going to take pictures. At home, the eastern sky is blocked… Read More ›

REVISITING OLD NUMBER TWO – DIALOGUE

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/29/2014 • ( 15 )

DIALOGUE – WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – OLD NUMBER TWO Views of my favorite old fire engine. I know, on one level, that he is an inanimate object. A truck. Metal and glass and rubber. An engine that ceased running years… Read More ›

BELLWETHERS AMONG US – WHERE THEY GO, WE FOLLOW

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/29/2014 • ( 16 )

I read Bellwether again. Finished it the other day. Each time I read it — this is the 4th or 5th time — I learn something new. Bellwether grabbed me from page one … from sentence one. Not merely was I… Read More ›

SHARING MY WORLD, WEEK 34

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/28/2014 • ( 12 )

Thank you Cee for another fun round as we explore the inner secrets of This Blogger’s Life. Chapter 34. What is your favorite smell? What memory does it remind you of? Bread baking. Actually, anything baking. Coffee. They all remind me… Read More ›

THAT POPULAR TOUCH

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/28/2014 • ( 21 )

We bloggers are endlessly in search of answers. All kinds of answers. I am, in particular, forever seeking an answer to the ultimate blogger query: What makes people follow me … and why are some posts popular while others (often,… Read More ›

SUMMER LIES HEAVY IN THE DEEP GREEN LEAVES

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/27/2014 • ( 22 )

Today the man who sets the prompts in motion, wants me — us — to talk about the end of summer. The start of school, the end of long, warm, sunny days. How I feel about that. I feel a… Read More ›

WHEREVER THE ROADS GO

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/27/2014 • ( 11 )

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Roads From the city to the country and back again, this is a nation of roads. Americans are wedded to their wheels, their trucks and cars. We can’t imagine a world without a road to get from… Read More ›

CAMPFIRE WITH LBJ IN VIETNAM, 1967 – GARRY ARMSTRONG

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/27/2014 • ( 18 )

Location: A campfire in Vietnam near Saigon. Year: 1967. 1967 and 1968 were very intense years for me. I had jumped directly from college and small time commercial radio, to ABC Network News. The time was right and the opportunity was there, but I… Read More ›

THANK YOU, I THINK

By Marilyn Armstrong on 08/26/2014 • ( 47 )

It can be difficult to tell compliments from insults. You’d think it would be easy and obvious, but it isn’t. As a child, my mother comforted me with her classic line. Somewhere in my head, I can still hear her. A lonely (probably weird)… Read More ›