Loving Lipstick

What would my world be without lipstick?? I would be colorless, bereft on the high seas of "blahdom." From the tender age of 3 when I was first aware of my lovely mother twirling up her tube of red lipstick and applying it gently to her lips each time she left the house I was dazzled by it's bright effects. The first chance I got I reached up on her dresser with my little hands and snatched up her golden tube of color. I generously applied it to my lips and then decided to use it as a crayon to write on the walls with. And, that's the first (but certainly not the last) time I heard her exclaim, "Wait until your father gets home!" Despite the spanking I got for obliterating mom's one and only tube of lipstick, I knew my love affair with the stuff had only just begun!
Supple lips and big smooches to one and all!

In a Dreamlike State of Mind

When I first saw this photo, taken by my groovy friend, Roger Pettry, I immediately wished I had taken it. Roger retired from the same place I work a couple of years ago and evolved into a nomad of sorts, travelling to Baja in the winter and making his way back to Morganton, NC, in the spring. He took this photo on an early summer morning along the Catawba River when the air is cooler than the water temperature, causing a dreamlike fog to hover over the river.  I can imagine myself sitting in one of those pink chairs, drinking a good cup of coffee, just simply enjoying the morning before the sun rises and the day becomes hot. Or, sitting in these chairs on a cool evening down by the river with good friends and good beer shooting the breeze, laughing and chatting, listening to the tree crickets and watching the fire flies taking flight from the ground into the air providing magical amber twinkling light to make the night just right. Here's to you Roger! As I write this on a chilly February day I can only say days like the one shown in your photo cannot get here soon enough!

Photo by  Roger Pettry taken in the early morning somewhere on the Catawba River in Western NC.

The Cedars

This lovely house in Morganton, NC, is known as The Cedars because of the ancient cedar trees still standing on the lawn. Samuel Tate was the first owner of this grand place (circa 1850/59). The house, which features an octagonal tower and mansard roof, is of the Greek Revival, Second Empire. It was enlarged in 1874, the same year Tate was elected to the NC State Legislature. Tate was also active in bringing both the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum (Broughton Hospital) and NC School for the Deaf to Morganton. The house, which is now Morganton Federal Savings and Loan, is listed on the Register of Historic Places.

February Sunrise

The blush of first-light sun rising low on the eastern horizon was the first and last seen of the day on a Thursday workday morning in early February. Judging by the weatherman's promise of a wicked nor'easter it lent credence to fishermen's tales of yore: "Red clouds at night sailors' delight. Red clouds in the morning sailors take warning."

Chilling!

Old man winter came to visit the foothills of Caldwell County in western North Carolina Thursday evening 1/17/13 and into the wee teensiest hours of the following Friday.

As I was stepping lightly through the courtyard to my car to leave for work Friday morning I heard some low mumbling. "I'm on the first southbound gnome mobile that comes through here. I'm freezing me giblets off I am." I turned around and spotted Mr. Pointy Head smiling stoically in the snow and ice. Perhaps I would do better by my little friend by placing him in a nice, dry spot in the potting shed until warm weather and longer days return.