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I've visited the White House. So long ago it's indecent to write the year I visited it. Unfortunately, I remember the rooms more than the gardens. At that time, I didn't know about my sister's Green Thumb. When she moved to a country setting, I saw her raise beautiful annuals and perennials like petunias, zinnias and geraniums. Still, I had my mind more on boys than on flowers. Not until I returned home did it hit me. The wonderful passion for houseplants. We didn't have a lawn in the city. I had two bedroom windows. One faced east. One faced north. Plus, there were wonderful stores especially the Five and Dime. There you could find the ordinary and the exotic indoor plants. I didn't raise outdoor flowers until marriage. I loved digging in the soil. I tried planting roses and spring bulbs. The planting in the soil was just like playing in a sandbox. I loved to watch the water spray from the garden hose. It sparkled. As they had time, my family got invol

fredasvoice.com      "When Mark glanced towards Jill a few minutes later, he was alarmed to see her absent-mindedly scratching the back of her hand until her skin looked red and raw. Still Rob didn't come, not even after the time it took for Pete and Callum to help her mother into a nearby seat. Jill's scratching became more and more frantic."

http://www.rosecityreader.blogspot.com Part One: Concerto Chapter One      "What an evening, playing to a packed house at the Down Beat. Annasophia hoped she'd given the audience what they'd come for and more. When she sat at the piano and played and sang, it wasn't as much as she performed her music as her music performed through her. The feeling, always heady, intoxicated her audience as much as it intoxicated her. Yes, mutually drunk on music."

" Find My Way Home" is the first Romance novel I've read by Michele Summers. At first, the obscene language made me upset. I quickly decided 'I'm not going to like this book.'  These four letter words mixed with the mention of a church made me really stutter and wonder. Anyway, because of the small town, Harmony, I continued to read more chapters.I loved the small place where doors didn't need a lock. I also liked the complex relationships. These relationships seemed so real. I really felt sorry for Keith. He bites his teeth because of his many problems. Poor guy, he lost his wife and the mother of Maddie in a car crash. He's a cautious and good father. However, there is the relationship with his mother. It is far from perfect. Can it even be called a relationship? Since he left home at thirteen years old, he talks about his mother like she's a stranger. Then, there is Bertie. She lives in Harmony, North Carolina too. There is a house she

This book takes place in Ghana, Africa. I was astounded at the beauty of the Flamboyant tree. Silly me, I thought the word "Flamboyant" was a misspelled word. This beautiful tree is indeed named Flamboyant. easytrackghana.com

http://www.adailyrhythm.com "What made her think he was even remotely gay when he blasted such a high voltage of testosterone it practically knocked her into the next county?"...football player?"

  The Body Under The Bridge by Paul McCusker is a church mystery far different from other church mysteries I've read in the past. In this one, Father Gilbert of Saint Mark's has a disturbing dream. In the dream, a man hangs himself. Then, in real life the same situation occurs involving Colin Doyle. His wife comes home to find her husband hanging. It is impossible to drag him down from the rope. In the dream, there is also the foot of a body found. Someone must have drowned the body or brought the body to its present place dead already. The body is two hundred years old. These mysterious incidents will connect. There is a feud of two families from the past. Anyway, the novel took me back and forth in history to the present while following a "bog body." The mention of an old relic held by Mary Aston is interesting. It is a cross and a sword engraved with flowers. It belonged to the Woodrich family. Paul McCusker gives the history of the Woodrich family and the re

So painful to read about Sweetness's feelings about a dark colored baby in God Help The Child by Toni Morrison . In the end, Sweetness wonders whether Bride's Booker will feel that way if their newborn is "blue black." Ouch. There are so many types of racism in this life. A race's own hatred of self, color of skin, is one type. Because of her negative feelings about color,  I wanted to see Sweetness grow. I felt as though Booker, Bride and Queen claimed the spotlight along with Booker's murdered brother who, of course, had to play a significant role. In the end, I didn't feel Sweetness really changed. I think she wanted to change. Bride seemed to feel that society must begin to change first. Then, she could fit her new, positive feelings into the circle of life. I was left with the feeling that once a racist always a racist. I do have to call Sweetness a dangerous racist. Her feelings enter the realms of family, our most sacred place for relationships

Empty as a lemon rind Spent from the squeeze of society Wearily they walk through an Alley. Linger in front of a bakery Lick their lips of gooey meringue Beg quarters for a Valentine's cake And chocolate cherry candy. Remember the whirr of their mother's beaters mixing vanilla cake. Then told, "say please, and you can have them."

The Body Under The Bridge by Paul McCusker  http://adailyrhythm.com/teaser-tuesday-feb-9/ "He turned to the nearest bookcase and looked over the spines of the books. He had a collection of prayers by Thomas Aquinas. There was a prayer about fighting temptation he hoped to find, quickly."

Blue bottle seashells An orange in India ink Mother's pearl necklace in a cedar chest Pink silk gloves on top of a piano A lamb in a mother goose rhyme Strawberry ice cream eaten on a Sunday afternoon Tea with a slice of lemon sprayed on fish

http://bermudaonion.net Enfeoffment Property and Ownership~ thefreedictionary.com/enfeoffed "'Then why did you inherit Kencott Manor?...There was an enfeoffment. '"

Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee. famousliteraryworks.com/donne_for_whom_the_bell_tolls   I'm afraid to try explaining this quote. After reading a few posts about quotes, I wanted to write what is one of my favorite quotes.  It is a poem by John Donne . "No man is an island" is the beginning of the poem. The ending is the lines above. I feel the quote means all of our lives are significant and intertwined with one another. If you die, I die a little bit. It doesn't matter whether I know you personally. Your death can hurt me because there is no one who hasn't brought a gift to this earth. Status has nothing to do with it.   dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/quote-me/#like-12779

Ashes to Ashes is the eighth book in a series of Medieval Mystery Novels written by Mel Starr. The main character is Hugh de Singleton. He is a surgeon. In this novel, his search for a solution to a crime begins with bones in a fire in the Midsummer on Saint John's Day. Ultimately more than one person is murdered. Hugh de Singleton goes from Bampton  township to Kencott township asking questions. At times he is looked on with suspicion. One time he is nearly beaten to death. There are quite a few scriptural lessons to learn along the way as the trail seems to become colder or stagnant rather than hotter. There is also the mystery bag. This is where problems are put. Then, later prayed upon by whoever owns the bag. I really liked reading about the mystery bag. I had never heard of such a concept. I wondered did the author think of it himself or is it owned in Medieval legends. I read the novel with ease and interest until it came to Randle Mainwaring's family tree. I felt th

"Several different groups of men split up and hurried to the hotel stairs to enter the building. Another group of men entered the electronics room to disable the phones, Internet and satellite communications systems, all when ready." http://adailyrhythm.com

The new grass rising in the hills, the cows loitering in the morning chill, a dozen or more old browns hidden in the shadows of the cottonwoods beside the streambed. I go higher to where the road gives up and there’s only a faint path strewn with lupine between the mountain oaks. I don’t ask myself what I’m looking for. I didn’t come for answers to a place like this, I came to walk on the earth, still cold, still silent. Still ungiving, I’ve said to myself, although it greets me with last year’s dead thistles and this year’s hard spines, early blooming wild onions, the curling remains of spider’s cloth. What did I bring to the dance? In my back pocket a crushed letter from a woman I’ve never met bearing bad news I can do nothing about. So I wander these woods half sightless while a west wind picks up in the trees clustered above. The pines make a music like no other, rising and falling like a distant surf at night that calms the darkness before first light. “Soughing” we call i

"I did not linger this day at the bridge over Shill Brook. When confronted with a riddle, I cannot readily turn aside from it, even to watch the water of the brook flow south to the Thames." http://fredasvoice.com "I had told my Kate for several days that St. John's Day should not be considered midsummer: Roger Bacon, the great scholar of an earlier century, and Robert Grosseteste before him, showed how the calendar has gone awry." http://rosecityreader.blogspot.com

Picture of novel below "I had told my Kate for several days that St. John's Day should not be considered midsummer. Roger Bacon, the great scholar of an earlier century, and Robert Grosseteste before him, showed how the calendar has gone awry. Bacon told all who would listen that an extra day is added to the calendar every one hundred and thirty years or so, and so in the year of our Lord 1369 we are ten days displaced. Kate Laughed." http://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com

"I had no answer. Prayers had been said for Peter Mirk. Some other man had been interred. But the Lord Christ would know for whom Father Simon prayed even if we did not."(Lion) http://adailyrhythm.com

If I think of Art, I understand this scripture a little bit better. One thing that hits me immediately is  it's beautiful and helpful promise from God. In Philippians 1:6, these words are written. " He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." While walking through the halls of a hospital, I slowed down to look at the different paintings on the wall. Obviously some people had appreciated the care given at the hospital. There way of giving thanks was to donate drawings of grapes, flowers and landscapes to the wing of the hospital. I feel none of those artists would have left their work undone. Probably, they could see its potential of giving beauty to other people. They must have drawn with more enthusiasm as they neared the end of their work. They wouldn't have left their piece of art undone. Now they could see how their work might bring joy to someone else. Looking at this example I know Jesus won't give up o