Wednesday Hodgepodge: The Imaginative Sense of Christmas

Welcome to this week'sWednesday Hodgepodge. Click the graphic to join the rest of the Hodgepodgers at From This Side of the Pond.

1. 'Tis the season to be jolly....so are you? 

I'm working on it.

2. Do you trim a tree this time of year, and if so is yours all done? What's something in your home-closet-life that needs to be trimmed in the new year? 

We did that yesterday.

Our tree skirt is a thrifted tablecloth. Other years we've used an afghan.

3. Are you 'dreaming of a white Christmas'? Is that a possibility where you'll be celebrating?

Almost for certain.

 According to this site the top ten places in the US you can count on for a white Christmas are- North Pole Alaska, Crater Lake Oregon, Yellowstone National Park, Winthrop Washington, Aspen Colorado, Ketchum Idaho, Mt. Washington New Hampshire, Whitefish Montana, Duluth Minnesota, and the Lake Tahoe town of Truckee California

Of the snowy spots listed which would you most like to visit? 

None, thank you. I like warm weather.

4. December 8th is National Brownie Day...will you be celebrating? How do you like your brownies-chewy or cake-like, frosted or plain, nuts or no nuts, a piece from the middle or give me the corner? As a child were you a member of a brownie troop? 

Last question: yes. 'Nuff said.

I like brownies, but cinnamon rolls are good too.

5. Share a favorite line or two from a Christmas carol.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

And with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly-minded,
For with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I was reading something about how we understand poetry, especially poetry that has a lot of literary allusions or seems generally difficult or obscure. Is it enough just to say that if it sounds good, then it is good even if it's essentially meaningless, because poetry isn't supposed to have "meaning?"  In poetry, are we limited to either something like Anne Shirley's "I'd just feeeeel a prayer", or Marilla's "learn your catechism?" At Christmas, should we settle for wall decorations and throw pillows that bleat a vague "Believe?"

George S. Williamson, who wrote a book on T.S. Eliot's poetry many years ago, put a plug in for a third option, saying that "Neither an emotional nor a musical effect, if it is really such, can be founded on incoherence. This study assumes that poetry as meaning is neither plain sense nor nonsense, but a form of imaginative sense... Indeed, we can speak of the meaning of a poem as its mode of apprehension or as a synthetic principle controlling the elements in which its feelings take shape. On a lower level it is no more and no less than the metrical syntax of the poem. Without it a poem will function at random; without its consideration any discussion must be aimless, at best peripheral. Without it a poem cannot have an apprehensible being." (A Reader's Guide to T.S. Eliot, by George S. Williamson)

Poetry must certainly have meaning; just a different sort. It's not nonsense, it's imaginative sense.

Just like mystery and angels and the Incarnation don't have to be fully understood or brought down to everyday terms to be real.

Wishing you all a considered and coherent Christmas.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Thinking Ahead: Books On My Reading List for 2022

(Last updated December 30, 2021)

Some of these are carryovers that didn't get located or started or finished this past year (or the one before that). But there's always hope.

Adler, Mortimer J., How to Think about the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization 

Collingwood, R.G., The Principles of Art 

Desai, Anita, Clear Light of Day 

Dreher, Rod, Live Not by Lies 

Earley, Justin Whitmel, The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction  

Eliot, T.S., Complete Poems and Plays 

Froese, Paul, On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life 

Frye, Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism 

Frye, Northrop, The Great Code 

Frye, Northrop, Northrop Frye on Shakespeare 

Fujimura, Makoto, Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture (2009) 

Fujimura, Makoto, Art and Faith (2021) 

Gardner, Howard, Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet 

Gill, Shira, Minimalista

Guite, Malcolm, Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God 

Highet, Gilbert, The Art of Teaching 

Jacobs, Alan, Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind 

Jauss, David, Words Overflown by Stars: Creative Writing Instruction and Insight from the Vermont College MFA Program 

L'Engle, Madeleine, Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life 

Levitin, Daniel J., The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

Lewis, C.S., The Signature Classics (seven books in a bindup) 

MacDonald, Thoreau, Notebooks

Nicolson, Adam, The Making of Poetry: Coleridge, the Wordsworths and Their Year of Marvels 

Peterson, Andrew, Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making  

Peterson, Andrew, The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom 

 Peterson, Jordan B, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life 

Ramsey, Russ, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith 

Shakespeare, William, Selected plays 

Toews, Miriam, All My Puny Sorrows 

White, Dana K., Organizing for the Rest of Us

Wood, Michael, Shakespeare

Wednesday Hodgepodge: Breads, Brights, Books

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back tomorrow [click the graphic] to link answers with your friends and strangers. See you there! 

1. Three things you're grateful for this first week of November? 

1. The bread machine we thrifted recently. Our third, actually, but we haven't had one for the past few  years. So far we've made bread (duh), sub rolls, dinner rolls for Thanksgiving, burger buns (we just used the sub roll recipe), and pizza dough.

2. The colours of fall outside our back door

3. A thrifted jacket in a bright colour.

2. Is Daylight Savings Time a thing where you live? Do you think we should continue setting the clocks forward and back? Why or why not? If you could add an extra hour to your day would you want it added morning-noon-night? Do you think it likely you'd be more productive or more likely that you'd just waste more time? 

I think it just makes life more confusing.

3. Who is  your favorite author? Your favorite book by your favorite author? 

Depends on the day and the season. Pilgrim's Progress is a longtime favourite.

But this year has also been a good one for reading poetry, and I'm very happy to finally have the AmblesideOnline Poetry Anthology on our shelves. This is a project I helped with over the summer, but it took this long to get my own set of the books. (Shameless plug?)

4. It's National Sandwich Day...will you celebrate? How often do you eat a sandwich? What's your favorite? 

Years ago this area had a sandwich franchise with an artery-blowing option full of cheese and black olives. But that's long gone.

If we were having lunch out, I'd probably order a club or a grilled cheese. At home? maybe peanut butter and banana.

5. Have you started your Christmas shopping? If so when did you start? If not when will you start? Do you give more or fewer gifts than you did five years ago? 

Yes, a little, because we keep getting reminded this year that if we don't order something early, we might not get it at all.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Worst idea ever: television sets over dentists' chairs.

Linked from the Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Nuancing our way through the holidays (clothes post)

For almost a year she has admired the Sophisticated Lynx bracelets, from Fierce Lynx Designs. The Vivienne Files first described them as having "the nuances of color...deeply hidden in the stones, revealing themselves only to the attentive observer." That intrigued her so much that did her own version of the V.F. story. But she finally has her own set of bracelets, and now she's going to observe attentively and plan a mostly-thrifted early-winter wardrobe around them.

In a time when everyone is, supposedly, more focused on going out and doing things than they have been for awhile, she begins at the other end, with an oversized poncho sweater that's definitely a homebody. The big  collar is a bit overwhelming, so she prefers to wear it tucked in.

She found this red and grey cardigan at a flea market. 

It's less couch-potato than the poncho, but still very cozy.

She was going to include a grey cardigan, but with the popularity right now of shirt jackets (isn't "shacket" an ugly word?), she decides on a more structured fleece jacket.

You can read the whole page here.

Wednesday Hodgepodge: I'm Afraid I've Let This Go

 

1. Is Halloween a big deal in your neighborhood? Was it something you celebrated as a child? With your own children? Do you like candy corn? 

As a holiday, I can take or leave it. This is the third place in a row we've lived that, for various reasons, never attracts many trick-or-treaters even when the weather's good; so we buy one small just-in-case package of candy, and usually end up eating it ourselves. Watching a somewhat scary movie is about the extent of our observances.

2. Are you a scaredy cat? About what? 

About the same amount of things as Zero Mostel here.

3. Last time you were somewhere that should have been busy but felt like a 'ghost town'? 

Last weekend! Mr. Fixit and I went away overnight to a town that is always super-busy during the summer, but right now seems to be experiencing a worse-than-usual off-season. It's a place that we usually visit during the day, so we're familiar with the breakfast/lunch places but weren't sure where to go for dinner. We found a place that sounded good (and reasonable), and it was.  But here's the funny thing: while we were sitting there, it was like deja-vu: Mr. Fixit said, isn't this the place...and I said, yes, I think so. We brought The Apprentice here she was four months old, when we were still such new parents that we didn't think that adding a baby to our usual adventures should be much of a hassle, and the three of us went out to dinner, at a place I couldn't have told you where, and she screamed her head off through the whole meal, for no particular reason except that she was four months old. We had to take turns eating and walking up and down and inside and out with the baby. And that was the same restaurant where we ended up this time.

The next morning we got up, ate some free breakfast in the lobby (okay, but not great), and thought we'd check out a small farmer's market we'd read about online. We got there, and it was closed for the season (the website was wrong).

So we thought we'd drive to an antiques barn just north of town. But the door was padlocked and there was no sign of anybody.

So we thought we'd check out a gallery of photographs upstairs in the town library. The library was open, but the gallery was closed. They were very apologetic. By this time we were just laughing, it seemed like everything in town was shut down.

But we did stop into a Salvation Army store. That was open. And we found a watercolour painting by Beatrice Hogan, an artist we used to know slightly through family connections. Anyway, we just really liked the painting, and for eight dollars, it was totally worth it.

And then we went to our usual breakfast-lunch place and had some decent food before we left town.

4. Do you like chili and if so how do you like it? Beans or no beans? Meat or no meat? Beef or chicken? Spice or no spice? Favorite toppings? 

Beans, any kind of meat (or no meat), not too spicy, some cheese. I usually make a basic recipe from the Tightwad Gazette books, but sometimes we experiment with white chili.

5. Would you describe yourself as a night owl? What time of night qualifies? What are you doing while everyone else is asleep? Do you then 'sleep in'? Define 'sleeping in'. 

When I was single, I used to stay up late, but marriage to someone who had to start work early reformed me.

"Sleeping in" means getting up at 7:30 instead of 6:45.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Wednesday Hodgepodge: Always Learning

 

1. Is school back in session where you live? Is everyone in person or does your system still offer a virtual option? Are kids wearing masks? 

Classroom schools here don't open until September, but some homeschoolers I know have already started.

I don't want to go into what the classroom schools do/don't right now.

2. Something you still do 'old school'? 

Blog.

Pay cash.

Hang clothes up to air-dry. 

Wait for Mr. Fixit to unlock the passenger door, because our car doesn't have power door locks.

3. One lesson you've learned in the 'school of life'? 

Read the fine print.

4. When you were in school did you pack a lunch or buy a lunch? Your favorite thing to see on the lunch menu or inside your lunchbox back in the day? 

When we were in elementary school, most of us walked home at lunchtime unless there was choir practice or some other activity. In high school I usually packed a lunch but sometimes bought pizza in the cafeteria--the school wasn't near any place to buy other food, and we weren't supposed to leave the school anyway until that so-privileged final year.

When we did take lunches in grade school, my mother used to get creative with cream cheese and maraschino cherry sandwiches.

 

5. August is National Family Fun Month. Tell me something fun you’ve done this month. 

Invented an imaginary travel wardrobe.

Went off for a couple of planned-at-the-last-minute days out with Mr. Fixit.

Bought some Bernat Blanket yarn to make a throw for our couch. The yarn has a very newfangled cushy fleece feel to it, so I suppose you could say that's old-school crocheting with a new twist.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Reading is like an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. When you think you've cleaned your plate, you wander back up and they've added something new to try.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Monday, August 16th was National Roller Coaster Day. Are you a fan? Did you celebrate? Last place/time you rode a roller coaster? 

I used to like them. Last time was more years ago than I can count, probably at Canada's Wonderland north of Toronto.

2. Tell us about a time in your life where it felt like you were figuratively riding a roller coaster. 

Besides now?

3. Favorite treat to eat at an amusement park or state fair? 

Hot pretzels.

4. Are you easy to get along with? Elaborate. 

Wow, that's pretty hard to answer for yourself, isn't it? And it depends on who you're dealing with...spouse, friends, neighbours, business people, telemarketers?

I saw a meme recently that said you should try to be the person your dog thinks you are. I don't have a dog, but it's still good advice.

5. Something on your calendar to see-do-read-accomplish or just enjoy before month's end? 

Yes, several things, but not stuff I can get into here. Some of it involves poetry. Some of it doesn't.

OK, to read: Effortless, by Greg McKeown. It's the sequel to Essentialism. Because of the other see-do-read-accomplish, I'm finding that getting it read is a bit effortful. But I'm trying to get it finished before it disappears on my Overdrive account.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Happy National Thrift Shop Day for yesterday. I bought a one-dollar scarf to celebrate.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Inspired by Estuaries (A Fall Clothes Story)

This mostly-thrifted travel wardrobe is posted in honour of National Thrift Shop Day (August 17th),  and is inspired by similar stories on The Vivienne Files.

Their sister-in-law is an artist and designer who works in natural and hand-dyed wools on beeswax-coated board. Recently she sent them a notecard with a photograph of one of her pieces, inspired by a summer on the St. Lawrence Estuary.

www.kathywhiteart.com 

"Do we have any estuaries around here?"

"No."

"Could we go somewhere that's sort of like an estuary?"

"How about Owen Sound?"

"Oh, cool. We could go see the Tom Thomson Gallery, and do some hiking."

"I'm in."

What will she pack? She starts with this teal jersey dress. 

No, it's not a silly idea. She knows lots of different ways to wear it.

By itself with a belt and a necklace

With a long cardigan and ankle boots (and tights, of course)

(There's another way you can wear the cardigan)

Under a vintage ultrasuede coat

Tucked into a black skirt

With a denim jacket

With a blanket scarf/shawl and black jeans (leggings would work too)

Under a teal pullover, with a scarf (and tights)

With a poncho and a grey beret

Well, she can't just live in the dress, especially if they are going hiking. She already has leggings and black jeans in the pile, so she adds a black square-necked top, that can go with either the skirt or the jeans, and a long-sleeved grey t-shirt. (If they were going to stay another day or two, she would put in a blue t-shirt as well.)

 How about this tunic top? It's nice to have a different colour along.

That makes nine items of actual clothing, if you don't count ponchos and outerwear. Ten with an extra t-shirt. Nobody can accuse her of overpacking. Overdressing, maybe, but not overpacking.

She has a few other outfits in mind (besides the dress). The black top and skirt can go under her jean jacket

Or under the purple coat.

The black top and jeans can go with the long cardigan.

Or with the poncho.

And any of the t-shirts she brings can go with the jeans and her jean jacket, or under the teal pullover.

The tunic top can go with the jeans, or the leggings. Or it can get tucked into the skirt.

She is taking three pairs of shoes and boots: her new teal ankle boots, her thrifted Kate Spade snake print loafers, and her Allbirds Mizzles, bought last year, that are good for walking on trails.

Here are her coat and jean jacket. If she's smart, she'll remember to pack her warmer jacket as well.

The poncho and blanket scarf

A couple of other scarves, her beret, a purse, and a belt

She remembers to put in this other scarf (it's a bit warmer)

And some jewelry

And she is absolutely going to bring her Fierce Wisdom bracelets.

Well, that's settled, then.

Thank you, Kathy!

Fall Clothes: Kick Up Your Teals

A few years ago, I decided that I  really liked ankle boots. I found a funky pair at the thrift store, and then a couple of plainer ones from a clearance aisle. But they are all now on their last legs, so to speak. So I planned on replacing them this fall with something practical and neutral.

Then these came along.

Well, wouldn't you?

After all, this is still one of my favourite paintings:

Arthur Lismer, A September Gale, Georgian Bay (1921).

And these are, pretty much, my favourite bracelets. 

So, yes, teal it is for this fall. Varying shades of teal can be problematic: some teal is greenish, some is more blue, some is quite dark...so you can't assume that everything will just match. But let's see what's already in the closet and go from there.

Read the rest of the post here.