Category Archives: postaday

July 8, 2013

July Creative Challenge, Day 8: Gardening

By ritalovestowrite

THE JOYS OF GARDENING

Tell me … how does YOUR garden grow? Mine grows rather wildly. A lot of sweat equity brings forth some lovely blooms and a few edibles but I’d have to say that guilt (over the un-weeded bits) and a sore back (when I tend to the weeded bits) generally out weigh the pretty flowers. I should be out there pulling and hoeing right now — before it gets too hot — instead I  write this blog. My words are my garden today.

I’m waiting for the Black Eyed Susans to come into full bloom. Their spidery petals have escaped their buds in the last day or two but they haven’t filled out yet. Soon, I tell myself… soon. And the Day Lilies are just about blossom too. Orange and black and yellow will soon fill my landscape.

Here’s a little acrostic poem witnessing my yin/yang relationship with my garden…

FLOWER ACROSTIC

I know that the garden is always better tended on the other side of the fence… so tell me… what are you growing — flowers or frustration?

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in July Challenge, postaday, Thought of the Day, Writing

July 7, 2013

July Creative Challenge Day 7: Courage

By ritalovestowrite

Harry Potter courage

“There are all kinds of courage,” said Dumbledore, smiling. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom.”
–Harry Potter and the Sorer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling

It comes in all shapes and sizes. Certainly we can find it in literature and pop culture. Who didn’t think of The Cowardly Lion or Courage the Cowardly Dog or Dumbledore’s speech on Courage when they read the prompt?  But it is found just as easily on the pages of history books and newspapers. And, of course it is found in every day moments that will never make a newscast and will hardly be remembered beyond the small circle of people who experienced it.

Journalism

THE BIG STORIES:

I talked to some people before writing this blog entry and asked them what Courage meant to them…what moments of courage could they point to. I got Big Story moments:

  • Martin Luther King crossing a bridge
  • Gandhi walking to the sea to make salt
  • Soldiers battling for freedom on D-Day
  • Nelson Mandela fighting apartheid
  • Edward R. Murrow taking down Joe McCarthy
  • Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the alien surface of the Moon.
  • St. Joan, The Maid of Orléans, paying the ultimate price for leading the French army in the Hundred Years War.

fountain Pen

The Little Stories that made Big News:

Then there were acts of courage by every day people who made a big impact:

  • Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders during the Civil Rights movement in the US
  • The unknown man standing in front of a row of tanks in Tiananmen Square
  • Irena Sendler, the Polish social worker who helped save 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto by smuggling them out.
  • Passengers on Flight 93 storming the terrorist in the cockpit so the plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania and not into the Capital Building in DC.
  • Malala Yousafzai, the teenaged girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban because she spoke out in favor of educating girls in Pakistan.
  • Edie Windsor, the plaintiff  in the recent Supreme Court ruling on DOMA who sued the government when the IRS  denied her refund for the federal estate taxes she paid after her spouse, Thea Spyer, died in 2009.

Schoolhouse 2

Standing up in front of the Class Room:

Several people noted the special courage teachers have shown in protecting the children in their charge. Reader Mary L. wrote in to remind us of the following acts of courage in the classroom:

  • Sandy Hook Elementary School. Principle Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherlach,  and teachers Victoria Soto and Anne Marie Murphy died confronting the gunman or shielding children that horrible day. Teachers  Maryrose Kristopik and Kaitlin Roig courageously hurried their wards into a closet or bathroom and barred the door so the gunman couldn’t get in.
  • Teachers in Moore, Oklahoma herded students into interior hall ways, closets and bathrooms and used their own bodies as shields as a recent tornado ripped Plaza Towers and  Briarwood Elementary schools apart. …

“At Briarwood Elementary, the students also went into the halls. But a third-grade teacher didn’t think it looked safe, so she herded some of the children into a closet, said David Wheeler, one of the fathers who tried to rush to the school after the tornado hit….The teacher shielded Wheeler’s 8-year-old son, Gabriel, with her arms and held him down as the tornado collapsed the school roof and starting lifting students upward with a pull so strong that it literally sucked glasses off kids’ faces, Wheeler said.” [Pennlive.com]

  • This year, on the first day of school, Robert Gladden brought a disassembled shotgun into Perry Hall High School near Baltimore and shot Daniel Borowy, a 17 year old student with Downs Syndrome.  Jesse Wasmer, a guidance councelor, and other faculty members risked getting shot themselves when they quickly restrained Gladden and sheilded Borowy and other students.

courage1

Everyday Acts of Courage:

An act of courage = value. It doesn’t necesarrily = newsworthy.   In fact the lack of a camera or reporter has no baring on whether an act is couragous or not. The “news” part is just by-product, happenstance, a memory device.

bully

Courage is:

  • Standing up for whats right even when it isn’t popular.
  • Standing up for whats right even though some one you really love and respect doesn’t agree with you about it.
  • Standing up for whats right when YOU are the only one standing.

5 Comments   |  tags: | posted in July Challenge, postaday, Thought of the Day, Writing

July 7, 2013

July Creative Challenge, Day 6: Family Vacation

By ritalovestowrite

LIL RITA FAMILY VACATION

I’m not sure who that boy is behind me. I don’t really recognize him. But to be fair I don’t recognize too much of “me” in the me of this old picture.

Clearly we are on vacation. That’s our camel colored tent in the background.

The size of my bosom indicates that I am in the 12-14 year old range. If my mouth were open I’d be able to date the photo more accurately by amount of hardware / braces on my teeth.

The necessity of a bandana indicates that this is a Wednesday or Thursday of our holiday from running water.

My family liked to take camping trips for vacations. We hit almost every park in our state with overnight tent facilities. As my sweatshirt indicates, we had a special fondness for Elk Neck State Park on the top eastern tip of Maryland. We also liked the far western side of the state with and camped several times in the Deep Creek area.

My mom would pack our Coleman freezer (which was the same color as our tent, except the door had a snazzy faux wood panel.) with ice, solid frozen meat, blocks of home made noodle casseroles, like Beef Stroganoff and cardboard cans of frozen lemonade and punch.  As the week wore on the ice melted. By mid-week — by the time this photo was taken — the meat had thawed, the Stroganoff was gone, and drinks were reduced to lemonade made from a powder and the warm water from a communal pump.

It never failed to rain on a family camping trip. Often we’d go to sleep to the sound of the rain hitting the outside of our canvas tent and awake to find our air mattresses floating in a pond inside.

When it was hot it was REALLY hot. No air conditioning. No fans just 6 sticky, stinking,  hot,  people in a tent.

The bugs sucked. (The mosquitos literally sucked.)

On the plus side the Rangers were always great, pleasant and a little weird (in a good way). They seemed to have an endless supply of stuff-to-do-with-bored-kids up their sleeves. Like the Ranger who taught us how to find water using two sticks.  (Sure it was going to RAIN in two hours — it always did — but we had sticks just in case.) Or the wonderful Ranger who took us on a night-time walk that ended in a meadow. Just before we trail opened up to the meadow we had to turn off our flashlights and hold on to the person in front of us by the shoulder. Then we had to close our eyes as he lead us the last 100 feet or so into the meadow. SURE now it sounds like something in a horror movie, but what really happened was our eyes adjusted to the dark and as we got to the opening of the meadow and  we saw the most fantastic display of stars. We could see the Milky Way with the naked eye, and falling stars. We spent about an hour craning our necks to learn about the constellations. It was fabulous.

You also got to meet a bunch a new people every time you pitched your tent.

To be fair, most of the camping grounds now have shower houses and communal FLUSH toilets. However… I think if my husband suggested we take a weeklong “Vacation” in a tent with out running water — Um, no. That girl no longer exist.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , | posted in July Challenge, postaday, Thought of the Day, Writing

July 5, 2013

July Creative Challenge, Day 5: Rainbow

By ritalovestowrite

Rainbow Arch 2

Ohhh so many RAINBOW images to choose from, its hard to pick just one. They seem to be everywhere.

The other day I was in town looking for a car. A storm had just blown through, and when the downpour ended the sales man and I went out onto the lot. He kept looking distractedly over my shoulder. That seemed odd, considering he was laser focused on trying to sell me a car at all other points in our conversation. That was his job after all. Then after a few minutes he just stopped his sales pitch. He gave up talk of miles-per-gallon-highway, and automatic-transmission and rear-window-defrosters. His smile turned from sales-man professional to shy and wonder-filled. “Sorry” he said with a nod, “but there’s the most amazing rainbow behind you.” I turned around. And sure enough he was right.

I haven’t decided on the car, but I think the guy turned from “Sales man” to HUMAN in that instant. Rainbows can do that.

——–

 

I think my favorite Rainbow story happened when my daughter was little. A raucous thunderstorm came through the area and left us with a few downed branches and an awesome rainbow.

It was the biggest, closest, most vibrant rainbow I’ve ever seen.

Clear from the danger of the storm my daughter and I put on our rain boots. I took her hand  and we walked over to the edge of the neighbor’s cornfield.

The corn was hip high to me, but was just at above her head.

The edge of our known world.

A fence that divided us from else-where and other-ness.

It felt as if we two were all alone in our little Zone.

I picked her up and held her on my hip as we watched the rainbow and sang nonsense songs and talked.

I knew that the rainbow would fade as the angle of the sun adjusted, but this memory would remain brilliantly vivid thru the red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo of life.

 

Rainbow stripe

 

1 Comment   |  tags: | posted in July Challenge, postaday, Thought of the Day, Writing

July 4, 2013

July Creative Challenge Day 4: PRIDE

By ritalovestowrite

Well, it’s the Fourth of July and here in America that elicits a lot of PRIDE in our Founding Fathers. So for today’s challenge I did a word collage based on the Declaration of Independence  and the original signers.

My Declaration word collage.

My Declaration word collage.

The Declaration is an amazing document and it is worth a trip to the National Archives in Washington DC to see it in person (along with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the 1217 Magna Carta. I’d also strongly suggest a trip to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA where the Declaration was debated and adopted.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Like the Bible and the Constitution people read the Declaration in different ways, often to fit their specific needs. Indeed, when Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Livingston and Sherman put their heads together to come up with the document they had their disagreements, and before the Second Continental Congress finally adopted it copious compromises had to be accommodated. Alas, certain races and sexes had been edited out of the “all men” altogether (not that women were ever really in the mix to begin with.) Yet, despite it’s flaws and the flaws of the men who signed it, the Declaration remains one of the best treatises on the rights of individual man and of independent states ever written.

I encourage you to read it in its entirety. Here’s a full transcript of the Declaration. Or to listen to it HERE from NPR.

The Assembly Room inside Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

The Assembly Room inside Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

For more information on the signers I suggest delving into the profiles posted on The Society of The Descendants of the Signers of the declaration of Independence.   Click HERE to read about John Penn from North Carolina (who I picked at random). John Penn was instrumental in organizing the North Carolina delegates to vote for Independence. He:

  • He served in the Continental Congress for six years
  • He signed the Declaration of Independence
  • He signed the Articles of Confederation
  • He signed the Halifax Resolves (the North Carolina Constitution)
  • He was virtual dictator of North Carolina at what arguably was the turning point of the American Revolution in 1781-1782 [DSDI1776.com]
John Penn (Continental Congress)

John Penn (Continental Congress) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in American History, History, July Challenge, postaday, Thought of the Day, United States, Writing

July 3, 2013

Farm Fresh Challenge: Fava Flavor

By ritalovestowrite

Yes! Fava Beans were featured in this week’s CSA box from Calvert’s Gift Farm.  They are a little labor intensive, but the taste factor is worth it.

box shot

Bounty from the box. This today I’ll used zucchini (far left), basil (leff), fava beans (top), onion (bottom), garlic (2:00). We also got broccoli, cukes, lettuce and eggs.

Welcome to another edition of Farm Fresh Challenge / Chopped Parkton.

[Not associated with the real Chopped, the Food Network or Tim Allen.]

[Not associated with the real Chopped, the Food Network or Ted Allen.]

FROM THE BOX:

2 lb Fava Beans

1 Large Zucchini (or 3 small Zucchini)

1 medium Onion

1 Garlic

Basil

FROM THE PANTRY:

Olive Oil

S&P

Garlic Salt

Lemon

Paper Towels

FROM THE FRIDGE:

Grated Italian Cheese

1lb Beef Cubes

Directions:

1. Fava Beans are kind of a pain to prepare, so stick with me. First bring a large pot of water to boil. Shell the outer pod of the Favas and discard the husk. Put the beans in the hot water to par boil them for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water until they are cool enough to handle.

Fava bean with par boiled shell still in place.

Fava bean with par boiled shell still in place.

You aren’t done yet. Peal off the outer shell to reveal the inner bean. This lighter green Fava Bean is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Top -- Fava good Bottom -- Fava bad (well Fava still in the outer shell, and it will TASTE bad if you eat it.)

Top — Fava good
Bottom — Fava bad (well Fava still in the outer shell, and it will TASTE bad if you eat it.)

2. Dry out the pot and add 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil. Heat to hight.

3. Dice Onion and mince Garlic. Add to the Olive Oil. When the Onions are translucent toss in the Fava Beans. Sautée for 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer all the ingredients to a bowl lined with a paper towel.

4. Mash and squeeze in the juice of a half a lemon and mix. Cover to keep in heat.

Sautéed Zucchini

1. Cut the Zucchini into strips 4″  x 1/2″ x 1/2″. Add to the already hot oil in the pan (add more oil if necessary.) Sprinkle with Salt, Pepper and Garlic Salt. Cook each side of the Zucchini Strips for 3 minutes.

zucchini sauteing

Transfer to paper towel lined plate and pat with additional paper towels to remove excess oil. Transfer to a bowl and top with Italian Cheese. Repeat with all but 1 cup of remaining Zucchini. Cover bowl to retain heat.

2. Set remaining Zucchini aside to serve uncooked.

Sautéed Beef

1. Carefully place the Beef Cubes into the hot oil. Sautée for a few minutes on each side until brown. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and pat dry to remove excess oil.

2. Plate quickly before he beef gets cold.

mealThe final dish has Zucchini two ways (Sautéed with Italian Cheese and raw), Sautéed Beef, and Fava Mash.

This was delicious, but frankly I’ll never cook Zucchini this way again. Too much trouble and too much oil for me. The Beef with the Fava Bean was fabulous.

3 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Farm Fresh Challenge, Fava Beans, postaday

July 3, 2013

July Creative Challenge Day 3: EXPLORATION

By ritalovestowrite

Welcome back to the July Creative Challenge. Today’s prompt is: EXPLORATION.

I invite you to send in your  visual or written entries.

—————————————————————————–

I knew when I came up with this prompt that I wanted to do a title graphic that evoked a  1970’s TV SciFi space exploration program, and that sent me on my own exploration of sorts. An EXPLORATION of type.

As a graphic designer I have hundreds of typefaces on my computer, and millions more are a few clicks away on the internet. Most are utilitarian stalwarts with proper serifs or a crisp no nonsense ariel-esque san serif style. And I use them day in and day out for communicating proper, no nonsense things. But I’ve got a special file with oddball typefaces like Legion and Comic Age incase Gene Roddenberry should come back from the grave and stand at my desk demanding “Damn it Rita, I need a logo for  space ship, not a newsletter!”

Then I could whip out that special file and present him with something like this…

Exploration 2

“Exploration” in Comic Age

Or this…

"Exploration" in Legion

“Exploration” in Legion

Of course I’d spend a lot more time on a real logo than I did these quickies, but Gene would no doubt be impressed enough to reward me with a red shirt and a one way ticket with the Away Team to Alpha Centuri Seven, or something.

When I teach Graphic Design to young people they always go for either the typeface that has the name that is closest to their own (I suspect it makes the typeface easier to remember) or the typeface that is the wildest, funkiest, and busiest. I try to assure them that if they stick with design they’ll have 4 or 5 decades to explore typefaces, and they don’t need to put every trick into this one pony.

You’ve got to fit the typeface to the project or the only thing you are communicating is that you are a bad communicator.

What message would it have given the reader if I’d ignore the obvious choice for the TUDORs yesterday (Goudy Text MT) and went with something less appropriate…

"Tudor" in Goudy Text MT and GiddyUp. King Henry is NOT amused.

“Tudor” in Goudy Text MT and GiddyUp. King Henry is NOT amused.

Sometimes when I’m in the processof picking a face I employ the guitar tuning method. I type in the word (as I would pluck the guitar string) and then I try a face I KNOW is wrong (just as I turn the tuning peg on the guitar too far so it is too flat). KNOWING it is JUST TOO WRONG helps me find the true tone (both on the guitar and in Font Book).

Want to “explore” some fun, funky typefaces (aka waste an afternoon)? Visit this site… They have 1,001 “free” fonts.

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3 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in July Challenge, postaday, Thought of the Day

July 2, 2013

July Challenge Day 2: TUDOR

By ritalovestowrite

Here’s my post followed by some early entries to the Creative Challenge, day two…

[Background image: Pembroke Castle; courtesy: Wikimedia]

[My contribution to the Creative Challenge… a logo for a BBC style documentary on the family. Background image: Pembroke Castle; courtesy: Wikimedia]

I’m not a Tudor expert. Other people with a lot more knowledge of British History have written volumes and volumes on Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and the rest. Today’s blog doesn’t come close to telling the whole story of that family. But it is the birthday of Elizabeth Tudor, Henry the VIII’s little sister, so I thought I’d tell you a little bit about her.

English: Portrait of the Royal Tudors. At left...

English: Portrait of the Royal Tudors. At left, Henry VII, with Prince Arthur behind him, then Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), and Prince Edmund, who did not survive early childhood. To the right is Elizabeth of York, with Princess Margaret, then Princess Elizabeth who didn’t survive childhood, Princess Mary, and Princess Katherine, who died shortly after her birth. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She was born in 1492, one year after Henry. Although she was just three years old when she died she was already a pawn in the marriage game the Tudors were so very “good” at playing. She was to be wed to Prince Francis. Had she lived she would have become Queen of France to his King Francis I. Alas the little girl died of atrophy in 1495.

Elizabeth spent much of her short life at the royal nursery of Eltham Palace, Kent, with her brother Prince Henry (the future King Henry VIII) and her sister Princess Margaret (later Queen of Scotland) under the guidance of a Lady Mistress, presided over by her mother. Elizabeth’s oldest brother, Prince Arthur, as heir to the throne, was brought up separately in his own household. [Find a Grave.com]

Her death, she was the first of the children to die young –Edmund and Katherine would also die in infancy — effected the family greatly. Her parents spent a lavish amount of money on her funeral and tomb. And Margaret and Henry were devastated by the loss of their little sister and play mate. (He was only 4 at the time.)

A decade later Arthur, the eldest and heir, would die too. Here is Henry with his surviving sisters Margaret and Mary.

English: Erasmus of Rotterdam visiting the chi...

English: Erasmus of Rotterdam visiting the children of Henry VII at Eltham Palace in 1499 and presenting Prince Henry (the future Henry VIII.) with a written tribute. Detail of oil painting in the Prince’s chamber in Westminster Hall. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When the Court was sure that Arthur’s widow, Katherine of Aragon, was not with child,  Henry was made Prince of Wales and the heir apparent.  He also became betrothed to Arthur’s widow Katherine of Aragon to maintain the political alliance of the marriage brought with Spain. (He was 15, she was 21).

Here's my chart showing the marriages and offspring of the Tudors

Here’s my chart showing the marriages and offspring of the Tudors.

Henry VIII is, of course the central figure in this chart — I supposed that happens when you have six wives and change the church of a nation — but there are eight other heads of states on there (not including poor Jane Grey). That’s a lot of power in one family.

His older sister, Margaret, was married off to James IV of Scotland. She was the grandmother of  Mary Queen of Scots.

English: A picture of Margaret Tudor from &quo...

English: A picture of Margaret Tudor from “Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth” Deutsch: Ein Porträt Margaret Tudors aus “Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

His younger sister, Mary, was married first to Louis XII of France, a man 30 years her senior. He died two months later and Mary married Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, in a secret ceremony, and with out Henry’s consent.  She was the grandmother of Lady Jane Grey.

Mary Tudor, Queen of France and subsequently w...

Mary Tudor, Queen of France and subsequently wife of Charles Brandon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

———————————————————————————————————-

Thanks to Bill and KL for playing along on the Creative challenge today… I like the way you think!

Please feel free to join them by commenting with your creative take on TUDOR or sending me an email.

Bill suggests a VW Beetle as our Tudor (or is it two door)…

[Image Courtesy: diecast.com]

[Image Courtesy: TheSamba.com]

KL sent in this gif for us. You have  to look closely at it to see why…

elizabethan

Liisa thought of a Tudor Rose — the rose that has red on the outside and a white center, the colors of the petals representing the joining of the York and Lancaster houses after the War of the Roses.

Tudor rose badge from the Pelican Portrait of ...

Tudor rose badge from the Pelican Portrait of Elizabeth I of England (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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3 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Elizabeth I, England, Europe, History, July Challenge, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

July 1, 2013

Muffin Monday Double Berry Muffins

By ritalovestowrite

Ohhh, I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but I DO love Muffin Mondays. We’re lucky enough to have a couple of mature blackberry bushes and a newbie blueberry bush in the yard. The berry yield for this pretties came from those obliging bushes.

IMG_5493

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cup Fresh Berries (Blackberries and Blueberries)

1 1/4 cup  Zucchini (Grated)

1/8 cup Rhubarb (Grated)

1/3 cup Sugar

I only had one stalk of rhubarb left from the other day's recipe. That came out to about a quarter cup when grated.

I only had one stalk of rhubarb left from the other day’s recipe. That came out to about a quarter cup when grated.

3 cups White Whole Wheat Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Salt

3 Eggs

1/2 cup Almond Milk

1 cup Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 stick  Butter melted

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare 18 muffin cups with liners and cooking spray.

2 .In a large bowl gently mash the berries with a spoon. Add grated Zucchini, Rhubarb and 1/3 Sugar. Mix.

Mashed berries, Zucchini and rhubarb.

Mashed berries, Zucchini and rhubarb.

3. In a second bowl combine the Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt.

4. In a third bowl (do you see a pattern here?) combine the Eggs, Milk, 1 cup of Sugar, Vanilla and Butter.

5. Add the Egg/Milk mixture to the Flour and stir until combined to form the batter.

6. Fold the Berries into the batter.

7.  Divide evenly into muffin cups. BAKE for 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out clean.

Fresh from the oven.

Fresh from the oven muffin-y goodness.

8. Let cool 5 minutes and remove from muffin cups. Enjoy with some butter.

No taster quotes today as Maggie is at work… so you’ll have to take my word for it… these muffins are yummy, light and the perfect moisture level.  My only complaint would be the number of bowls I had to employ to make them.

IMG_5492

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3 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Baking, Berries, Blueberry, Muffins, postaday