There are these strange people called cousins, strange and  familiar at once, whose blood, nay, whose noses - exert a powerful claim on our duty and who, in their numbers and their crazy variety and their blissful being-themselves, place you within a community whether you like it or not and remind you that you are not the most important person in the world.

Anthony Esolen
English Professor

In one short week we will be gathering at Callaway Gardens for our annual family reunion.  There will be no fewer that fifty-five people at our opening barbeque.  AND we're missing at least a dozen cousins   Here's a link to a recap of last year's festivities.

Here's the link to this interesting article by Esolen in which he describes that wonderful bond between cousins and how "we learn from them who have to like us, even when they dont."  It was originally published in Touchstone Magazine in 2006.

While I have *only* seven first cousins, I am tickled beyond measure that my children have 28.  My father had over 60! 

How many first cousins do you have?

Do you know them?

Tell me a story about one of them

Or if s/he had a favorite color.

Ann Arbor Opera is performing Lucia di Lammermoor this weekend and I'd love to see it.  DD#1 is singing in the chorus and she's dancing in this photo ~ exactly in the center, looking out, smiling big.  The director chose a 1940s' setting for this production.

Only problem is that I'm 800 miles away.

That means I'll be researching the storyline from home.  I understand that it's based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor.  Interestingly enough, this DD has also been researching her family tree and discovered our true Scottish heritage.  No evidence of feuding lines, thank goodness!  Here's a link to some recent revelations.

Now to locate a CD and/or DVD.

What concerts, musicals, operas, or whatnot are adding culture to your summer?

Better late than never works as an adage when headlining Jan Karon's latest Mitford book, Home to Holly Springs.  It's the first in the Father Tim series and since the second in the series in scheduled to be released this Fall, it was time for me to finish reading it.

Relationships between family members, especially fathers and sons, drive the storyline and make Home to Holly Springs especially appropriate for June reading.  Father Tim continues to live up to his charming and brave self even as he drives off (into the sunset?) in search of answers.  Red mustang and Irish wolfhound to boot!

After not visiting his hometown for thirty years, Father Tim responds to an unexpected and anonymous request to appear.  Author Karon weaves a believable plot introducing a host of characters (most intriguing was Peggy) and a cadre of sensitive issues (mixed race and stem cell transplants) that will all need at least one follow-up novel to flesh out.

The cover art doesnt really do justice to the story which reads more like a mystery novel. I'm thinking Barnabas and that red mustang should be featured!  Fathers, cars, and dogs oh my!!  In short, dont judge this book by its dust jacket. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Home to Holly Springs, identifying with the genealogic hunt and appreciating the Christian approach to problem solving.  My favorite quote falls at the end (pg 333) as Cynthia is declaring her loyalty to husband, Father Tim, who is still in the hospital after donating stem cells to his half-brother.

"I'm happy with you," she said, "We could be happy always if we always trusted God."

"There's the rub," Tim replied, "Remember the quote from Elizabeth Goudge that stayed pinned over your drawing board for an eon?"

She had long accepted the fact that happiness is like swallows in spring.  It may come and nest under your eaves or it may not.  You cannot command it.  When you expect to be happy, you are not and when you don't expect to be happy, there is suddenly Easter in your soul, though it be mid-winter. 

In the end, our dependable rector successfully navigated some turbulent water that had been bubbling beneath the surface of his peacful existence for many years.   I was impressed with his courage in both addressing and responding to life's unexpected events.  Father Tim is happy because he trusts God.

Better late than never.

It's good advice.

"The way to a man's heart is his stomach," said the inimitable Samuel Johnson.

"Similarly, the way to a man's theology is the setting of his table at the various seasonal celebrations," from Harold Tannenbaum's English Masters.

For a number of years, I have owned this beautiful compilation, reading it often, but never preparing one of the actual recipes.  This omission is not negative.  I love re-reading the Introduction by George Grant.  What he says about theology and worldview is worth the price of the book.

I ponder the prayers (by various authors) to say before meals, like The Selkirk Grace:

Some hae meat, and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat--
And sae the Lord be thank it.

by Robert Burns

And I imitate the premise, which is obviously the highest compliment.  Here's the link to this Sunday's flattery.  Or click on the *menus* tag.

What gave you pause this Lord's Day?

He is not drowning His sheep when He washeth them,

nor killing them when He is shearing them.

But by this He showeth that they are His own;

and the new shorn sheep do most visibly bear His name or mark,

when it is almost worn out and scarce discernible on them that have the longest fleece.  

Richard Baxter
1615 - 1691

Johann Baptist Hofner's 1866 Shepherdess seems like a perfect illustration for the comforting words of English Puritan Baxter, who left us many fine sermons to read and ponder.

Last Sunday our minister preached on Psalm 74, introducing to me the concept of *divine desertion.*  Thankfully, I've not experienced this to a deep degree, but I'm using this entry to hold a spot for applicable links, comments, and illustrations.  I'm thinking that I should read and store this information now, so that it is readily retrieved during that unexpected trial.

Here's a link to Joel Beeke's sermon Puritans Living in Relationship to Affliction, Desertion, and Sin.

It's not all gloom and doom though.

Samuel Rutherford's perspective is essential ~

When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines!

Afterall, the Lord's vineyards are the best!!

Post Script:

Many years ago, I think I was five years old, we visited a sheep farm, where I watched the clipping, shearing, and otherwise pruning of a herd of sheep.  As I recall, the scene was messy, muddy, and loud, but not chaotic.  I'm disclosing this because I recognize that my Hofner and Bouguereau paintings romanticize my persepctive.

What is absolutely the best cookie you’ve ever had?

The only way to answer this question is by establishing a time frame.  So, in the past year, what's the best cookie I had? 

Well, last December ('09), I attended a Christmas Cookie Exchange with church friends, and I am still thinking about this particular coconut drop cookie.  I think it may have had a Hershey's Kiss in the center 

I really do need to get that recipe.

What is a cookie you really don’t care for?

I can pass up the no-bake chocolate oatmeal *cookie*.

What are some other cookies you are rather fond of?

Two cookies come to mind:  Molasses (link to recipe) and a Peanut Butter/Chocolate Chip Combo.  Both recipes are from a former co-worker who used to bring them warm to the office occasionally.  Her name is Sue Lucey and whenever I share the recipe, I give her credit.

Grocery-store cookies are, of course, never as good as anything that comes out of someone’s kitchen, but what’s a packaged cookie that’s still pretty good?

Oreos are by far the best packaged-cookie.  In fact, it's the only one I buy.

In general, do you think cookies should be chewy and gooey, or should they be crispy and crunchy?

Basically, I'm prefer crispy and crunchy.  But when it comes to homemade cookies, I'm not turning any down.  Which reminds me of a most dear lady who opened her home for a weekly Bible Study.  And she always had homemade cookies.  Her Snickerdoodles were the best.  Her name?  Ellie Hilleke, mother to Steve Wilkins.

What's the first cookie you ever baked?

No doubt, Nestle's Toll House Cookie.  It cant be beat.

In closing, I reflect on the Cookie Monster...... he and I have one thing in common: 

No stopping-sense.

Never say never.

That's what I learned from reading Helen Simonson's first novel, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.

Against the backdrop of resisting new construction in the village of Edgecombe St Mary, two traditionalists find themselves acting very progressively.  The story and writing remind me of a combination of James McBride's The Color of Water and Jan Karon's Mitford because touchy issues are discussed in such a charming way that one forgets prejudice.

Early in the novel the author establishes atmosphere by referencing two fine artists:  W.A. Bouguereau, a 19th century French painter and Rudyard Kipling, 20th century British author.  The former's composition entitled, Childhood Idyll, graces the foyer of the town hall; and the latter's writings serve as common ground for two very different people.

Ernest, the male protagonist, who is indeed earnest, and Jasmina, the female main character, whose aromatic personality makes everyone feel better, fall in love and overcome the odds associated with ethnic stigma.  In the same way that the two beautiful girls in Bouguereau's painting are enjoying the English countryside and each other's company, do Ernest and Jasmina forge a relationship while reading aloud verses of Kipling's Sussex.

However, beware of the storm cloud in the distance.

But do consider adding this first novel to your summer reading list.

Click on this link to read the poem and see the painting.

It's that time of year again.

The merry month of May is typically busier than December.  Between recitals, graduations, end-of-the-year parties, and the beginning-of-wedding-season events, there is nary a free weekend.   There must be a nack for negotiating all the details:  packing, parking, seating... uhmmm - *hearing!!* 

Former Attorney General Ed Meese is addressing Hillsdale College's graduates, so I'm looking for a chair close to the amplifiers.  In light of the recent announcements of Preston Smith (GA State Senator-Rome) and Charlie Crist (FL Governer) to run for state attorneys general, I think I better start paying more attention to these public officials.

Forbes Magazine this week posts a list of graduation leadership speakers. 

Here's a link to the article.

Who's addressing your graduate?

Bonus Photo ~  May 1993  ~  The Heiskell School, Atlanta, GA

Graduation requirements have changed, huh?

Twenty Harrison Cady sketches illustrate this Frances Hodgson Burnett classic of faeries saving the day.

Jane Ann Biggs, a flower seller, graces the cover of the 1992 Derrydale edition of The Spring Cleaning in which Queen Crosspatch details the efforts of The Green Workers, The Tuggers, and The Frost Imps, as the Primose Patch is coming to life in Spring.

Main character, Bunch, determines to supply Jane Ann with an endless supply of primroses in a selfless act of charity only envisioned by a youngster.

If you are charmed by the whimsical nature of the cover art, you will most certainly appreciate Cady's renditions of English village characters (faeries included).

I am an apparent late-comer to the enchantment of primroses.

Read John Donne's Primrose poem.

But it's really Queen Crosspatch's preface to the book that captures how many of us feel, especially at the end of a work week ~

It is just the hundreds and thousands of things I have to do for people like the Racketty-Packetty House dolls and Winnie and the Rooks and the Cozy Lion that makes it impossible for me to attend to my literary work.  Of course, nothing ever would get told if I didn't tell it, and how is a person to find time for stories when she works seventy-five hours a day.  You may say that there are not seventy-five hours in a day, but I know better.  I work seventy-five hours every day whether they are there or not.

Now time for a library run....

I'm checking out all their books illustrated by Harrison Cady

Cloud Study: Stormy Sunset (1821-1822)                                                            8 x 10 3/4 inches
by John Constable, British painter (1776-1837                                                  Oil on paper on canvas

Constable keeps cropping up on my landscape; and that's why his work is the topic of this week's FineArtFriday entry.  There is a host of information available to me (and you) via the internet.  That means that we dont have to lament that we missed our National Gallery of Art's Constable's Great  Landscapes:  The Six Foot Paintings. 

Last August when I visited The Frick and The Met, his Salisbury Cathedral captured my attention.  There are several renditions and this link to an Australian one is well worth the listen.  Something about the stormy clouds and impending controversy in the church.

Furthermore, there is a fine poem, Constable's Clouds, which I've highlighted today in honor of National Poetry Month.  Read more about it on my other blog.

And finally, remember playing the Cloud Game?  Just looking at the sky and seeing what you could see in the white formations?  It's not just for children

What do you see? 

Today?

In the clouds above where you are?