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HT: Carmon
Friday, April 13, 2007
What form of poetry are you?
HT: Carmon
HT: Carmon
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Hats
Over at Favorite Apron talk has turned to hats for men, and it inspired me to set off again in search of information on the proper wearing of hats, no easy task.
After wearing a hat to work every day for nearly twenty-two years in the Air Force, Mike wanted me to get him something to wear to the office where he works as a civilian in his retirement (hah!) and of course he needs something on when working out in the sun around here.
This latter was easy enough to find - we bought this leather one, which is especially nice for cool damp weather, at the local feed store.
And this one that he wears in warmer weather, was practically a no-brainer:
Notice that neither of these hats is a cowboy hat, which would have been by far the easiest thing to find. They are everywhere - the feed store, the Tractor Supply Store, Wal-Mart, gas stations, the mall... everywhere. But Mike doesn't own a single pair of cowboy boots, and since we own neither cows nor horses it's not likely that he'll ever own a pair. It's my opinion that man's hat (well, probably a woman's too for that matter, but we're talking about men's hats here) ought to go with his shoes, and his shoes ought to be appropriate to the activity at hand. Mike usually does his farm work in the rubber boots you see here, or in a pair of leather military issue boots, and the straw farm and leather outback hats seemed to be more fitting than anything else I've seen.
A harder task was finding something for him to wear to the office, and this is where I first started trying to find out what the etiquette is for what kind of hat to wear where. There's some information on proper behavior when wearing a hat - taking it off in church, for instance - but precious little about different kinds of hats and when and where it's appropriate to wear them.
My 1950s copy of Emily Post's Blue Book of Social Usage is not very helpful since not only is our lifestyle not formal, but we don't even live in a formal era. I'm not opposed to moving slightly in the direction of more formality, hoisting the culture up so to speak, but I certainly don't want my husband to look ridiculous - like he's in a costume or something. He doesn't even own a suit, so whatever hat I chose for him needed to be dressier than his farm hat, but still informal.
I don't have a photo of the first "office" hat I bought for him, but it was a straw hat along the lines of the one above, but smaller in scale - a narrower brim and such. For the fall, I finally hit upon this wool tweed driving cap:
Nice, isn't it?
His office "suit" is usually an oxford-cloth shirt (sometimes flannel as you see above), trousers, and burgundy oxfords or brown loafers, with a sweater (pullover or cardigan) in cool weather. Casualish, but nice.
But now it's spring again and I was still dissatisfied with his old warm-weather office hat, not to mention the fact that it was falling apart, being a pretty cheap thing, so I've been looking around again, asking the questions, What is the right style? and What is the right material?
My daddy never wore hats, but I remembered something he told me about my grandfather. Granddaddy was an engineer (that is, he drove a train) and a farmer, so he usually wore his pinstriped overalls and engineers cap, and boots, but he was also the mayor his small town for many years, and of course, the men of that generation always wore a suit to church. Daddy told me that Granddaddy had four dress hats: two felt ones (a black and a grey) for winter, and two straw ones (a black and an ivory) for summer.
So, armed with this informatin, I set off hunting for some kind of dress hat in straw. My mental image was of Bogart - a fedora of some sort. It took a lot of googling around, but I finally found something I really like - a Panama.
I chose this putty color over either black or ivory, thinking that those colors would be too formal.
Well. Another time, maybe I'll discuss actual hat etiquette - from an historical perspective, at least. There seem to be only about three rules for wearing hats nowadays, but I'm in favor of moving in a slightly more formal direction, and there's no reason to reinvent the wheel, now is there?
After wearing a hat to work every day for nearly twenty-two years in the Air Force, Mike wanted me to get him something to wear to the office where he works as a civilian in his retirement (hah!) and of course he needs something on when working out in the sun around here.
This latter was easy enough to find - we bought this leather one, which is especially nice for cool damp weather, at the local feed store.
And this one that he wears in warmer weather, was practically a no-brainer:
Notice that neither of these hats is a cowboy hat, which would have been by far the easiest thing to find. They are everywhere - the feed store, the Tractor Supply Store, Wal-Mart, gas stations, the mall... everywhere. But Mike doesn't own a single pair of cowboy boots, and since we own neither cows nor horses it's not likely that he'll ever own a pair. It's my opinion that man's hat (well, probably a woman's too for that matter, but we're talking about men's hats here) ought to go with his shoes, and his shoes ought to be appropriate to the activity at hand. Mike usually does his farm work in the rubber boots you see here, or in a pair of leather military issue boots, and the straw farm and leather outback hats seemed to be more fitting than anything else I've seen.
A harder task was finding something for him to wear to the office, and this is where I first started trying to find out what the etiquette is for what kind of hat to wear where. There's some information on proper behavior when wearing a hat - taking it off in church, for instance - but precious little about different kinds of hats and when and where it's appropriate to wear them.
My 1950s copy of Emily Post's Blue Book of Social Usage is not very helpful since not only is our lifestyle not formal, but we don't even live in a formal era. I'm not opposed to moving slightly in the direction of more formality, hoisting the culture up so to speak, but I certainly don't want my husband to look ridiculous - like he's in a costume or something. He doesn't even own a suit, so whatever hat I chose for him needed to be dressier than his farm hat, but still informal.
I don't have a photo of the first "office" hat I bought for him, but it was a straw hat along the lines of the one above, but smaller in scale - a narrower brim and such. For the fall, I finally hit upon this wool tweed driving cap:
Nice, isn't it?
His office "suit" is usually an oxford-cloth shirt (sometimes flannel as you see above), trousers, and burgundy oxfords or brown loafers, with a sweater (pullover or cardigan) in cool weather. Casualish, but nice.
But now it's spring again and I was still dissatisfied with his old warm-weather office hat, not to mention the fact that it was falling apart, being a pretty cheap thing, so I've been looking around again, asking the questions, What is the right style? and What is the right material?
My daddy never wore hats, but I remembered something he told me about my grandfather. Granddaddy was an engineer (that is, he drove a train) and a farmer, so he usually wore his pinstriped overalls and engineers cap, and boots, but he was also the mayor his small town for many years, and of course, the men of that generation always wore a suit to church. Daddy told me that Granddaddy had four dress hats: two felt ones (a black and a grey) for winter, and two straw ones (a black and an ivory) for summer.
So, armed with this informatin, I set off hunting for some kind of dress hat in straw. My mental image was of Bogart - a fedora of some sort. It took a lot of googling around, but I finally found something I really like - a Panama.
I chose this putty color over either black or ivory, thinking that those colors would be too formal.
Well. Another time, maybe I'll discuss actual hat etiquette - from an historical perspective, at least. There seem to be only about three rules for wearing hats nowadays, but I'm in favor of moving in a slightly more formal direction, and there's no reason to reinvent the wheel, now is there?
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
"On the Resurrection of Christ"
William Dunbar
Done is a battell on the dragon blak,
Our campioun Chryst confountit hes his force;
The gettis of Hell ar brokin with a crak,
The signe triumphall rasit is of the Croce,
The divillis trymmillis with hiddous voce,
The saulis ar borrowit and to the blis can go,
Chryst with His blud our ransonis dois indoce:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
Dungin is the deidly dragon Lucifer,
The crewall serpent with the mortall stang,
The auld kene tegir with his teith on char,
Quhilk in a wait hes lyne for us so lang,
Thinking to grip us in his clowis strang;
The merciful Lord wald nocht that it wer so,
He maid him for to felye of that fang:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
He for our saik that sufferit to be slane,
And lyk a lamb in sacrifice wes dicht,
Is lyk a lyone rissin up agane,
And as a gyane raxit Him on hicht;
Sprungin is Aurora, radius and bricht,
On loft is gone the glorius Appollo,
The blisfull day depairtit fro the nycht:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
The grit Victour agane is rissin on hicht
That for our querrell to the deth wes woundit;
The sone that wox all paill now schynis bricht,
And dirknes clerit, our fayth is now refoundit.
The knell of mercy fra the hevin is soundit,
The Cristin ar deliverit of thair wo,
The Jowis and thair errour ar confoundit:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
The fo is chasit, the battell is done ceis,
The presone brokin, the jevellouris fleit and flemit;
The weir is gon, confermit is the peis,
The fetteris lowsit and the dungeoun temit,
The ransoun maid, the presoneris redemit,
The feild is win, ourcumin is the fo,
Dispulit of the tresur that he yemit:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
(Click here if you need translation or notes.)
"On the Resurrection of Christ"
William Dunbar
Done is a battell on the dragon blak,
Our campioun Chryst confountit hes his force;
The gettis of Hell ar brokin with a crak,
The signe triumphall rasit is of the Croce,
The divillis trymmillis with hiddous voce,
The saulis ar borrowit and to the blis can go,
Chryst with His blud our ransonis dois indoce:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
Dungin is the deidly dragon Lucifer,
The crewall serpent with the mortall stang,
The auld kene tegir with his teith on char,
Quhilk in a wait hes lyne for us so lang,
Thinking to grip us in his clowis strang;
The merciful Lord wald nocht that it wer so,
He maid him for to felye of that fang:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
He for our saik that sufferit to be slane,
And lyk a lamb in sacrifice wes dicht,
Is lyk a lyone rissin up agane,
And as a gyane raxit Him on hicht;
Sprungin is Aurora, radius and bricht,
On loft is gone the glorius Appollo,
The blisfull day depairtit fro the nycht:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
The grit Victour agane is rissin on hicht
That for our querrell to the deth wes woundit;
The sone that wox all paill now schynis bricht,
And dirknes clerit, our fayth is now refoundit.
The knell of mercy fra the hevin is soundit,
The Cristin ar deliverit of thair wo,
The Jowis and thair errour ar confoundit:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
The fo is chasit, the battell is done ceis,
The presone brokin, the jevellouris fleit and flemit;
The weir is gon, confermit is the peis,
The fetteris lowsit and the dungeoun temit,
The ransoun maid, the presoneris redemit,
The feild is win, ourcumin is the fo,
Dispulit of the tresur that he yemit:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
(Click here if you need translation or notes.)
Sunday, March 18, 2007
The pleasure of a grown daughter
Last fall my baby sister, who is single and lives alone, was diagnosed with cancer. She began chemotherapy almost immediately and because she lives in Arkansas, there was nothing I could do beyond praying for her and trying to encourage her. How I longed to be able to cook for her and do things for her!
I couldn't go to her, but my seventeen year old daughter could. We spent the end of 2006 reading up on cancer and nutrition, and planning meals, and then she rode back to Arkansas with my parents when they went home from their Christmas visit with us. She took her books with her, and has been writing me about her studies, in addition to regular food reports.
It's been hard for all of us having her gone for so long, but this is one thing we've been raising our daughters to be able to do - to serve those in need - and I'm so glad she's been able to do it. I'm also incredibly thankful that we've homeschooled all our children from the very beginning. If she were in a traditional school of any sort, it would have been impossible for her to go without dropping out of her senior year. As it is, she has been able to continue her studies, though they've taken a different path from what we had planned at the beginning of the school year.
I don't expect that when she returns things will back to the way they were before - she will have changed, and so will we. But I do look forward to reading and discussing things with her again face to face, continuing to train her to be a godly wife and mother, and simply enjoying her companionship. I also expect that the years between now and her eventual (Lord willing!) marriage will be similar to this one.
Bittersweet.
I couldn't go to her, but my seventeen year old daughter could. We spent the end of 2006 reading up on cancer and nutrition, and planning meals, and then she rode back to Arkansas with my parents when they went home from their Christmas visit with us. She took her books with her, and has been writing me about her studies, in addition to regular food reports.
It's been hard for all of us having her gone for so long, but this is one thing we've been raising our daughters to be able to do - to serve those in need - and I'm so glad she's been able to do it. I'm also incredibly thankful that we've homeschooled all our children from the very beginning. If she were in a traditional school of any sort, it would have been impossible for her to go without dropping out of her senior year. As it is, she has been able to continue her studies, though they've taken a different path from what we had planned at the beginning of the school year.
I don't expect that when she returns things will back to the way they were before - she will have changed, and so will we. But I do look forward to reading and discussing things with her again face to face, continuing to train her to be a godly wife and mother, and simply enjoying her companionship. I also expect that the years between now and her eventual (Lord willing!) marriage will be similar to this one.
Bittersweet.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
It's eerily silent today
It's amazing how pleasant the sounds of happy animals are, and how much we miss them when they're gone. Normally, throughout the day we'll hear the rooster and cockerels having crowing contests, the hens clucking proudly when they lay their eggs, the guineas trilling or squawking as the group wanders the garden in search of bugs, the goats' bells ringing as they play about. Today, except for some crowing with the sunrise, the birds have been silent. There are no hens clucking. The one remaining guinea is sitting dumbly under a small shelter in the garden. Even the goats are moving so carefully their bells hardly ring.
The smell of blood is still in the air.
It's amazing how pleasant the sounds of happy animals are, and how much we miss them when they're gone. Normally, throughout the day we'll hear the rooster and cockerels having crowing contests, the hens clucking proudly when they lay their eggs, the guineas trilling or squawking as the group wanders the garden in search of bugs, the goats' bells ringing as they play about. Today, except for some crowing with the sunrise, the birds have been silent. There are no hens clucking. The one remaining guinea is sitting dumbly under a small shelter in the garden. Even the goats are moving so carefully their bells hardly ring.
The smell of blood is still in the air.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Life and death on the farm
On Valentine's Day, two of our does had kids - a pair each of the cutest little white kids you've ever seen. One doe didn't want to nurse her kids at first, but we've been holding her still so she will, and she's getting better about it. The other doe is a very good mama, and sometimes even nurses the bad mama's babies.
Last night a fox got into our chicken coop and killed nearly all our birds, taking one (one!) guinea with him. At least a dozen were dead when we found them this morning, and we had to kill another half dozen. Right now we have one guinea, one rooster, and (I think) five cockerels living, three of which might be injured too badly to survive. All the hens are dead.
The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
On Valentine's Day, two of our does had kids - a pair each of the cutest little white kids you've ever seen. One doe didn't want to nurse her kids at first, but we've been holding her still so she will, and she's getting better about it. The other doe is a very good mama, and sometimes even nurses the bad mama's babies.
Last night a fox got into our chicken coop and killed nearly all our birds, taking one (one!) guinea with him. At least a dozen were dead when we found them this morning, and we had to kill another half dozen. Right now we have one guinea, one rooster, and (I think) five cockerels living, three of which might be injured too badly to survive. All the hens are dead.
The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Restoring the Home Economy Essay Contest
Scott Terry of Homesteader Life is sponsoring an essay contest open to anyone 18 or younger on "why [a home economy is] important, what your family is doing to restore it and most important; what you plan to do to continue the restoration."
Scott is offering a $30 gift certificate to the winner, which is being matched by Pastor Thomas McConnell, aka The Missouri Rev, so that's $60 to spend at either Cumberland Books or Vision Harvest, winner's choice.
Scott Terry of Homesteader Life is sponsoring an essay contest open to anyone 18 or younger on "why [a home economy is] important, what your family is doing to restore it and most important; what you plan to do to continue the restoration."
Scott is offering a $30 gift certificate to the winner, which is being matched by Pastor Thomas McConnell, aka The Missouri Rev, so that's $60 to spend at either Cumberland Books or Vision Harvest, winner's choice.
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