In lieu of trying to belong to any number of societies: Chesterton, Sherlock Holmes, the Inklings, and so on: I propose and establish one of my own. Don your intelligence cap at the door; dust off your logic and imagination; did you bring your inspiration and encouragement? We are shapers, my friends; lit lamps; light-bringers. Bring quotes; poetry should be uplifting and thoughtful, or witty and clever, (or both). Humor is encouraged; laughter is invited back. Pull up a chair. Anyone for tea?

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...jiggety-jig

 
Back Home Again, here in my cozy house with the family. I've decided to make a post in lists, of things I saw and did while on my trip. I missed my family, and am ever so glad to be back with them, and in my room again, where every shadow and creak is familiar. But with a bit of a fresh perspective, and I think, a deeper belief in prayer. That main-stay of all-prayer was the trustiest weapon I carried on my trip. The giant and joyful truth that He is with me wherever I go, and is pleased to work great things in little ways. That He wants to be asked, and is mighty to work and to save.

without further ado...
My bird diary list:
~ Cardinals
~ A Black Swan (for the first time ever!)
~ Brown Thrashers (quite a few, I wonder if they are migrating up)
~ Robins
~ Vultures
~ Seagulls (hooray!)
~ Cormorants
~ Pelicans
~ Sparrows
~ Grackles
~ Morning Doves
~ Yellow-Crowned Night Heron
~ Mockingbirds! (I took a while to identify this one, not having seen them since Florida.  I had to enlist Will's help to identify that happy grey bird with distinct white patches, and the sight of them sweeping about consistently made me smile.)
~ Blue-jays
~ Swallows
~ Hawks (red-tailed, I think)
~ I heard an Owl, probably great-horned.
~ Mallards
~ Pidgeons
~ Geese
~ Eastern Bluebird (Happy day! -the day before I left, too)
~ Carolina Wren (I was very pleased indeed to see the state bird, on the day I left!)


Magnolia tree
Trees (that I don't see in Minnesota):
~ Live Oak
~ Crepe Myrtle
~ Eucalyptus
~ Palm (Charleston)
~ Magnolia
~ Paulownia (NC)

I also got to see the state flower: the Yellow Jessamine, in Charleston

Books that I read during the trip:
~ The Great Divorce --C.S. Lewis
~ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone --J.K. Rowling
~ Ten Fingers for God --Dorothy Clarke Wilson
~ Strong Poison --Dorothy Sayers
~ Out of the Silent Planet --C.S. Lewis
~ A Severe Mercy --Sheldon Vanauken
~ Grimm's Ragamuffins fairytale

And... journaling every day, I nearly filled two Moleskines,
 and used up two and a half pens, keeping loose papers and
 tickets in with paperclips and bobby-pins


MacGyver-ing the cord
while we watched movies in the car
Movies I watched:
~ Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
~ Despicable Me*
~ The Lorax
~ Tintin*
~ Oz: The Great and Powerful (in theatre)
~ Thor*
~ Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2
~ The Lion King
~ Cars 2
~ The Help
*ones I had watched before


First Time Experiences:
~ flew by myself
~ went to a soccer game
~ went swing-dancing!
~ went to Chick-fil-A
~ went to Chipotle
~ painted clay pottery, at Color Clay Café
~ ate Mahi-mahi
~ learned to clean shrimp
~ ate Ceviche
~ held a tarantula (in a science center)
~ drove (or rather rode) through the Smokies
~ stayed in South Carolina, and briefly in Tennessee and Kentucky.
~ saved the life of a dragonfly (I think... fed it sugar-water until it was strong enough to fly away)
~ went to youth group
~ went to an Elyse Fitzpatrick conference
~ flew at night (flying over city-lights is quite the magical experience)
(and quite a few other things)

Yup, definitely home again:
~ wearing Ben's converse shirt
~ sore all over from the intense game of touch-football I played with the cousins yesterday
~ listening to Mac Powell's country album--oh yeah!
~ watching Psych with the brothers
~ saw three Orioles at Katie's house
~ opened a pile of letters and packages that awaited me, looking forward to answering them
~ promptly forgot that I owned a phone
~ tea out of my Auntie Karrie mug again
~ being called 'Wiffi' and (accidentally) 'Mama' by Greta and Josiah again...
together again~
So there's my little story in lists.  I won't be able to write about the whole trip, but if there's anything in particular you would like to hear about, any special story you want me to write here, let me know. A book report, pictures of something (if I've got them), backstory...
Or if you just want a post of something entirely unrelated, that's good too.

The continued adventures in SC

comforts~
Ecuadorian Ceviche
ever writing
Soccer!
watching a game with a gorgeous sunset
 
Charleston:
 
 
the Sea!
 
 
what prettier sight than that sky with the sea~
 
sights round about Charleston
 
The beach!:
promptly thought of Chincoteague and Assateague,
and of sailing in Brambly Hedge 
Gulls: they will forever remind me of numerous books, as diverse as Time of Wonder, and Rolf and the Viking Bow,
Our alternative to the sand-castle, the idea of which was all Rhomy's, as was the careful instruction as to how it should look: a replica of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains.
 
 
 
salt-water on my tongue...
 
Machu Picchu!
 
...and it's constructors
 
my catfish and salad--so delicious, especially after a good day at the beach...
 
...where I of course got a ridiculous sunburn.
(Clearly that didn't stop us from being silly--I just moved a bit more gingerly.)
 
 
 
barbequed pork and good old collards (must have the whole experience of course)
 
and a well-enjoyed tea with a gluten-free muffin in the market
 
the mighty bridge... the view from it was quite amazing as well, but harder to take pictures of (a very cool sailboat, and an aircraft carrier...)
a museum...
 
 
friends!
 
window-boxes
 
projects...
More to come my friends...
And Happy Mother's Day!