New Year's Resolutions and Stuff Like That

It feels like these last months of 2016 have left a bitter taste and I for one am ready to leave the old year behind. 

Here's to 2017!

I believe a brand new year merits some appropriate forethought and planning.  I've been pondering for a few days and came up with a couple "resolutions" for 2017.

 

 Mason is pondering .... not sure what!  

What is a 3-year old with a 

blanket over his head

thinking about?

I have no clue!

The thing most on my mind going into the new year is the damage the new president who will take office in a few days will do to my country, he who has vowed to take away so much I hold dear.  Will my Social Security check disappear or be cut so severely I can't live?  Will my Medicare insurance be taken away or go up so much in cost I can no longer afford health care?  

What will happen to issues I care so deeply about like immigration and a peaceful multicultural society?  protecting public lands from oil drilling, mining, and other greedy and shortsighted purposes that will destroy them?  gutting social programs for the poor, the elderly, the disabled?  civility, kindness, and honesty?  destruction of the environment my grandsons will live in?

I go crazy, lose sleep, thinking about these things I feel helpless to change politically.  

Which does no one any good.

Ghandi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." That helps bring the overwhelming down to a level I can affect. 

So, my plan for 2017:

New Years Resolution #1:  

Step up my own efforts to leave the natural world a livable and beautiful place 

for my grandsons to inherit.  

 

 #1a. Personal War on Plastic

 

This is a raft of plastic waste floating in the Pacific Ocean. 

 It covers 8.1% of the Pacific Ocean!  Mind boggling, isn't it?  

It's full of toxic chemicals, toxic to sea life now, how long until it is also toxic to human water and food supplies, health, etc?

 

 

 And it is here pretty much forever.

But I won't be adding to it ever again.

I will be doubling my efforts to recycle  what plastic we have and to buy as little new plastic as is humanly possible. 

#1b.  Get Environmentally Involved in my New Community.

Participate locally in cleaning up beaches and roadsides.  Search out opportunities to educate others about environmental issues.

 I haven't explored exactly how we will get involved, but we have joined the local branch of the Sierra Club and will attend our first meeting next week.  They seem to have plenty of need for volunteers in various capacities and it will be great to meet likeminded people.

#1c. Write.

Be a voice to badger politicians, stores that force people to consume plastic through packaging, and whoever else needs poking about issues.  Sign petitions.  

New Year's Resolution #2.

Write (the other kind).

Move on beyond my blog and letters and emails to politicians and put some of the stories and poems in my head on paper.  Drag out the young adult novel I started and see if it is worth giving it another go.  Edit my dad's letters from World War II and think about putting them into a book for my family.  Etc.

 

There.  

That's it, plenty to give me a purpose 

and keep me busy for a year.  

How about you?  

Happy New Year!

 

Cleaning House

Blog-wise that is.  I thought I better catch up before the new year begins, so this post should wrap things up in my photo files.  

1. The plantation house in my last post was given to the state along with the land that once 

made up the rice plantation. 

The house is empty but maintained by the park service 

and tours are available. 

 Someday they plan to furnish it inside as it once was.

2. On Christmas Day we went to the beach for a picnic and a walk.  We thought there might be no one else there but a surprising number of people were out enjoying the beautiful weather.  And the people watching was superb!  There were children in bathing suits running in and out of the water and there were other people bundled up in parkas and boots!  

 

Dog walkers, 

a man riding a Segue,

a heavily-laden shrimp trawler low in the water and 

heading home with the catch

 

Gulls hoping for a handout from our picnic basket

3. The only Christmas snow in South Carolina ...

 

4. The roses and camellias blooming in front of our house ...

 

5. Rosie's favorite Christmas present -- boxes with paper!

6. In case you haven't heard this version of the Christmas story ...

 

 

 My grandma always said that you should leave no projects unfinished 

going into the new year.  Something about you would be 

behind in your work all the next year if you left a basket of ironing or a crochet project incomplete.  

So there, 2016 on my blog is tidied up and ready for a calendar change!

A Quiet Christmas Eve

We spent most of our Christmas outside as the weather was so lovely.  On Christmas Eve we took a picnic to Hampton Plantation State Park.  

  

 

After sandwiches and fruit, we went for a hike among the giant oaks that grace the front lawn of the plantation. 

The house sits on a small rise and in front of it stretches the great lawn where the Horrys used to hold horse races between the oaks on Sundays.  A fine view it must have been of the proceedings from seats on the front porch.

The house was built in the 1735, with additions in 1757 and the porch and portico in 1790.

 

 

Nearest the plantation is the Washington Oak, which has a story behind it.  In 1791, President George Washington visited the Horry family when the tree was just about to be cut down.  Eliza, mistress of the plantation, complained that the tree blocked the view and thought it should be removed.  Washington said the tree should  be spared, it was, and still stands today.

  

The Washington Oak is historic but it's not the most beautiful tree left on the front lawn.  Look at these!

  

An old tree is known as an Angel Oak when its branches become so heavy 

that they begin to grow along the ground.   I sat on this branch for awhile and soaked in the peace and tried to feel the spirit of this old behemoth.  If I closed my eyes and concentrated, I could hear the thunder of the racing horses and smell the hot sand and grass they kicked up so long ago.

 

 

A whole ecosystem grows on the branches, including resurrection ferns, moss, lichens, fungi.

 

I love all the textures in the old bark. 

We finished our hike before sundown and came home to a quiet Christmas Eve dinner, a movie, and some FaceTime on the iPad with my family back in Minnesota.

A Different Christmas

It's Christmas Eve day and normally I would be shoveling the snow from the driveway and getting ready for a houseful of family.  Things would be whipping and rolling and baking in the kitchen for tonight's smorgasbord of Norwegian treats and my mom would be asking if I want to go pick us up a "Caribou", the Minnesota equivalent of a Starbucks coffee.  "My treat!" she always says.

   

Not this year.  

This is my first Christmas ever away from my daughters and my grandsons.  My first year of Christmas in a warm climate.  

Things change, the last chapter of a loved book always ends.  The memories are ours to keep forever, but if we don't open another book and enter it with an open heart, we will always live in the past and never enjoy a new adventure.

So, we are making some new traditions, blended in with the tried and true.  

Instead of jule kage (Norwegian Christmas bread with candied fruit) we are having The Writer's family nut bread.  

Instead of by reindeer and sleigh, Christmas presents came via the mailman.  

Instead of the excitement and exuberance of four little boys, we will have soft

 Christmas music and a leisurely pace.  

 

I have The Writer, The Writer has me.  

And it will be Christmas 

and it will be good!

Fondest Wishes to you and yours

for a 

Very Merry Christmas! 

🎁🎁🎁

(The wooden ornaments pictured were carved by my dad from beach wood)

Beautiful Things

Beautiful Thing #1

Small Boy Decorating Christmas Cookies

in his superhero Halloween costume

 

Beautiful Thing #2

Raindrops on a Perfect Winter Camelia Blossom

 

 

Come By and See My Christmas Decorations

I've been enjoying seeing other folks' Christmas decorations on their blogs so thought I'd share a few of mine.  I haven't added any new one for many years.  In fact, the Writer gave away all his and I gave away at least 50 percent of my Christmas decorations when we moved. 

 

It has been fun finding just the right spot for each of them in our new house and I have a feeling they are not all in the right spot yet!  

My dad made the wooden  Swedish Christmas tree and the ornaments are from the 1930s and '40s.  Some were my great aunt's.

 

I have several Santas, this being the smallest one.  I bought him myself when The Writer and I had our first home and he is made of fabric and pipe cleaners.

The reindeer is from the 1950s, back when plastic was new and called celluloid.  He is the only one left of a team held together with red ribbon and pulling a sleigh.

 

Three hand-carved tall Santas sit on the fireplace mantle on the right ... 

 

and this one on the left.

 

The celluloid Santa on the right has a light inside.  I think my parents bought him in the late 1940s for their first home. 

 I have eight of the small figures on the left, made of paper and pipe cleaners.

 

The rest of the gang -- made in Japan in the early '50s and purchased at Woolworths Dime Store for 10 cents.  I just looked them up on EBay and they are going for $16.50 to 19.00. Nice to know, if I'm ever hard up enough to sell them! 

(Don't ask me why the stocking stuffer second from the left has a bulbous red nose!  I've always wondered myself.) 

I have a few more to show you, but I'll save them until next time.

🎄🎄I hope you are enjoying your weekend!🎄🎄