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When I was quite young, I was told not to touch the iron as it would burn, naturally this then became irrisistable and I spent days carrying a party seven around to cool my burned hand.. lesson learned.
Again this is another shot that I didnt get the quality of steam that I wanted, and timing was a problem too, this is steam using the turbo button... the velocity is pretty high, tips for next time, better lighting and possibly consider shooting with the iron flat down to catch lower pressure...
And again I'm sure this looks worse when flickr'ed.. levels tweaked but nothing more has been added to this image.
Macro Mondays theme : Heat
When a modelling career is over for a mannequin what comes next? They are sculptured and designed for both function and beauty, yet the anonymity of whoever created these gracious paragons of beauty remains a mystery. Overtly flirtatious, provocative and yet distant with a fixed gaze that never engages the viewer. One small mark, scratch or chip can render redundancy, at which point the body is often dismantled for storage or disposal and limbs are lost along the way. The vulnerability of these delicate works of art is exposed as a perfect form is dismantled and discarded. .#HelenDuvall #fineartphotography #darkart #darkclouds #darksouls #darkmood #21stcenturyphotography #abstractphotography #affordableart #artcollection #art #artforsale #artforsaleonline #artphotography #artonline #artsy #artprints #artcollector #artemoderna #artexhibition #artforsale #artgallery #artworkforsale #artistsoninstagram #artistic #artsy #artlife #bellearti #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhite #buy art #calledtobecreative #classicphoto #contemporaryphotography #contemporaryartgallery #creativityfound #doitfortheprocess #emergingphotographer #emergingartist #Englishgallery #fineartphotography #fineartgallery #femaleartists #explorecreate #fotografiadimoda #fotografia #fineartphotography #fineartphotograph #gallery #instaart #instaartist #instagramphotograph #instagramgallery #instagramphotography #investinart #investinphotography #investmentart #investinart #investment photography #lensculture #limitededition #livewithart #magnumphotos #modernart #mybeautifulmess #newphotographer #orginalartworkforsale #photo #photophotophoto #photobasedart #photograph #photography #photographer #photographyart #photographycollection #photography companies #photographyphotos #photographyprints #photographywebsites #photooftheday #pictureoftheday #portraitphotography #professionalphotography #portraitphotography #ScreamingAbdabsGallery #screamingabdabs #seeart #socialcommentary #UKgallery #wallart #visualsoflife #womenartists #workofart
When in Rome #28
Nice 1984 nightview card from Italy / Italia, Lazio, Rome / Roma, featuring FIAT 600 + 500 + 124 + 1100, ALFA ROMEO Giulia and more
HELENSBURGH UPPER or UPPER HELENSBURGH as it now is these days.
A sad day when it was demolished, something I don't think they would get away with these days, it was demolished purely as it was being closed as a staffed station and to avoid cost of upkeep, otherwise it was in sound condition.
It was also a sad day for me as this was where my interest in trains developed in 1977 with initially going to watch the trains, as I lived near by, and then it becoming a regular haunt as I got befriended by regular station Railman George Killen, a top bloke. This gave me full access to all parts of the station, all unauthorised of course but that was the way of the world back then, so much better to the way things are now.
Through George I got to know retired Loco inspector Davie Thornton and his wife Shona who lived in a trackside cottage halfway between Arrochar and Ardlui and who were picked up by a train stopping outside their cottage once a week to take them shopping, sadly Davie was on the track one day when no train was stopping and the 08.00 from Oban with 37011 came along and killed him.
A few years before this tragedy though Davie had used his contacts to arrange an unauthorised cab ride on the 06.00 Glasgow Queen St to Fort William to Rannoch and back on a class 25 and class 27. That was it and I got the bug and ended up driving the West Highland Line my self from 1980 to 1986.
When I arrived at the park one day, I heard some birds chirping when I got out of my van, but I didn't see anything. Upon further investigation I found a small flock of these sparrows feeding almost invisibly in the grass. The next day I went back to the same area and managed to catch one perching on a low branch. A migrating bird on its way north.
Sparrows are tough for me to ID so any confirmation or correction would be appreciated. Some info: identify.whatbird.com/obj/276/overview/Clay-colored_Sparr...
Strange behavior. I shot two rolls of Foma 400 @ 800 using the same Olympus XA3 camera, developed in the same ID11 1+1 as I used with the film before and both films came out either under exposed or under developed. However, I quite like the results. Foma film is a bit gritty but on the right subjects it works.
海貓鳴泣之時 Umineko うみねこのなく頃に 海貓悲鳴時 When the Seagulls Cry 煉獄七姐妹 煉獄の七姉妹 Cosplay
I am a cosplay photographer from Hong Kong.
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More information on my facebook page :
When it Rains by The Dag Savage ft. Aloe Blacc | vimeo.com/57703599
Cooperativa de Habitação Económica 11 de Outubro | São João da Madeira
When the longing for the streets of New York gets to hard, I'm really glad I took those flat boring streetviews.
When I was a teenager, there was a short-lived trend among my friends to ask each other if we believed in (approved of) "premarital interdigitation."
The plan was to take the bike to the National Park and from there take a longish Thursday Walk around one of the lakes at Tyresta. A flat tire just a few kilometers from home put a stop to that idea. Instead, I opted for my usual walk at Välsta, although it's not much fun walking with a bike, but there you go.
When stuck for something to photograph you can always go for a mug of tea...or grab the nearest musical instrument!
This is a guitar that I really wish I could play, but I just love them as beautiful objects.
If you look carefully, you might even see that there is a tiny postage stamped size area of the photograph that is actually in focus!
Karoonda Pioneer Park.
It is located in what was once the encircling parklands of Karoonda. These parklands, however we resurveyed for building blocks in 1928 but did not sell. It was reinstituted as parklands in 1982 and the Pioneer Park was started. The museum/park concentrates on pioneer farming techniques from 1910 to 1950 and the era when the railway was paramount in the Mallee. Old buildings in the Park include the Wynarka Methodist Church (1913), Bolt’s Bush Shed and Stables (1944), Westover’s Horse Shaft chaff cutter (1920s), Kunlara Post Office (about 1914), the first Hood family farmhouse (1913), and Brown’s blacksmith works (1914.) Structures from the railway era are quite prolific and include: railcar stock- sheep wagons, goods van, louvred van, Y truck for mallee roots, a 75 class railcar; Yurgo Railway Station; a railway siding; Mindarie Railway Pump House (1917); a pull trike; and an American made Brill(Barwell Bull) Railcar from Philadelphia which entered service in 1924. The Philadelphia Company provided chassis and the Islington Railway workshops built the body of the carriage. An improved version entered the service of South Australian Railways in 1927. The petrol running Brill cars were retired from service in 1971 after serving on almost all SAR country rail lines for nearly 50 years. (Henry Barwell was Premier of South Australia from 1920-1924 when the Brill cars first entered service and he was the man who authorised the erection of the current Adelaide Railway station. He also appointed William Webb from Colorado as the Chief Commissioner of the Railways in 1923. It was Webb who modernised SAR, expanded railway operations in Murray Bridge and Tailem Bend and introduced large, faster and heavier railway engines which necessitated rebuilding much of the railway line from Adelaide to Mount Lofty and elsewhere in SA. Webb returned to the USA in 1930 leaving SAR in debt but with good infrastructure which proved to be invaluable with troop and equipment movement during World War Two.
Karoonda.
Karoonda is the government town for the Hundred of Marmon-Jabuk which like the Hundred of Hooper was opened for sale in 1911.The town itself is right on the edge of the hundred because of the Brown’s Well railway line alignment which veered to this point because of a deep government well (220 feet) located here. Steam trains always needed good water supplies and so wells and bores were sunk across the Murray Mallee. There are excellent quality water supplies across the region which is why Lameroo and Pinnaroo have become major irrigation areas for vegetables. Beyond Karoonda the next deep government bore for water for steam trains was located at Alawoona. Regular passenger and freight trains started arriving at Karoonda from early 1913 but by then the government had already released plans for more railways in the Murray Mallee to Peebinga( the so-called railway to nowhere) and to Waikerie on the upper Murray.
Thus Karoonda was destined to be a major railway junction point from its inception with railway engines and cars and railway employees based in the future town. In fact the refreshment rooms were erected in 1914 as trains stopped in Karoonda for 10 minutes. Major work was done on the railway station in 1916 and from its inception the rail yards always had piles of mallee roots destined for the winter fires of Adelaide. Roots were obtained for the process of clearing the dense mallee and provided farmers with an additional source of income. Karoonda was the base for rail cars used on services to Peebinga, Waikerie, Barmera and Loxton. The rail services were a boon for Karoonda businessmen as Karoonda bakery sent items to stations most of the way to Loxton ; the blacksmith sent metal parts and repairs to sidings etc.
But most of the Mallee lines radiating out from Karoonda were closed during the 1980s but the Tookayerta Railway was converted to standard gauge in 1998. It allows standard gauge trains to operate between Tailem Bend and the Viterra Grain Terminal just outside of Loxton. It has grain stops at Karoonda, Mindarie, Wanbi, Alawoona and Loxton (Tookayerta). The only other rail line in the Mallee converted to standard gauge was the Pinnaroo line which also has grain trains in season. It also branches out from Tailem Bend. The railway lines north from Karoonda to Waikerie and east to Peebinga were closed in 1990 and Karoonda is no longer a rail junction.
Karoonda grew quickly despite the misgivings some had about the viability of farming in the Mallee. The town was
proclaimed in December 1913 and town lots were sold in January 1914. All the 103 allotments were purchased with prices for blocks opposite the railway line fetching the highest prices. One allotment was set aside by the government for an institute and in September 1914 a fine stone Institute hall had opened. This hall was crucial to the early settlers in Karoonda as the town school started in the hall in January 1915 and the first Anglican, Catholic and Methodist church services were held in this building. (The school was opened in 1917 and added to in 1928.) The first purchasers of town lots included a solicitor, blacksmith, butcher, greengrocer, storekeeper, hotelkeeper, fruiterer, carpenter, saddler, baker etc. Most of the first buildings were galvanised iron or timber framed and one example was the Bank of Adelaide which opened in 1914. The Karoonda Hotel opened in 1914 as the licensee of the hotel in Parrakie near Lameroo transferred his licensee to Karoonda. By the end of 1914 Karoonda had a police station, hotel, institute, four stores, a bakery, blacksmith, saddler, boarding house and some dwellings. Many of the early stone buildings were erected in 1915. Around 1918 Male Brothers from Murray Bridge opened their carriage and blacksmith works. By 1920 it had 40 employees.
In the 1920s Karoonda continued to grow and expand. New town subdivisions (1925 and 1928) were created south of the railway line and to the west of the existing town. The stone Post Office was completed in 1925; the Karoonda Hotel was extended in 1927 and 1930 (and again in 1961); the Institute had a movie projection box added to the front; the Masonic Lodge although formed in 1925 had their Temple open in 1930; the first Council Chambers were finished in 1927( before then a wooden prefab room was used); the Methodist church opened in 1925; All Hallows Anglican Church opened in July 1926; and St. Finian of Clonard Catholic Church opened in February 1930 and St. Johns Lutheran Church was completed in 1927. Then the Great Depression hit the town and drought years exacerbated its effects. The main structure built in the thirties was a new Police Station in 1938. Since the thirties a new besser block front has been added to the old Institute building (1962), new Council Chambers opened in 1981, and a new hospital was added to the town in 1970. As mentioned before Karoonda Area School was formed in 1940 with its official opening in January 1941. Its creation meant the closing of five surrounding small schools in 1940 and a further four school closures in 1941. Karoonda Area was the first in the state. New classrooms were built for it in 1963 and 1970. Karoonda is now surviving well as higher prices for wool and lamb and a more diversified range of cereal and legume crops adapted to low winter rainfall avoids low crop yields except in severe drought years.
Karoonda has a claim to fame that no other SA town can match. On 30th November 1930 a ball of fire was seen in the sky near Karoonda. A search by Professor Kerr Grant of the University of Adelaide located the meteorite that had landed near Karoonda two weeks after the sightings. It shattered on landing and 92 fragments of the meteorite were gathered. Professor Douglas Mawson the Professor of Geology analysed and described the meteorite for a 1934 scientific publication. It was an unusual meteorite type known as chondritic asiderite.It mainly consisted of olivine with minor amounts of a range of unusual minerals. A small fragment is kept in the Council Chambers. Its chemical composition was re-analysed in America in the 1950s. The town has a small plaque about the meteorite.
..... will my little feet be as big as your BIG feet, Pops? New shoes for baby Joshua sitting alongside my old Chucks!! I missed my little muse, Lewis, for today's challenge!
Our Daily Challenge ~ When I Grow Up ....
Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... thanks to you all.
When you drive into the Natural Park Uccellina, near Grosseto, Tuscany, you will find foxes at the sides of the road, getting so close to the cars. They'll look at you in your eyes, just as much as you'd look in theirs... And their expression is deeply sad
Gli occhi di una volpe triste
Guidando nel parco dell'Uccellina, sulla Maremma, si possono vedere molte volpi al lato della strada, avvicinandosi moltissimo alle macchine. Quelle volpi sosterranno il tuo sguardo più di quanto tu non possa immaginare. E la loro tristezza è pesante e profonda.
This is the old Stone & Thomas department store in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. The streamlined, multi-story building was constructed around 1948 and was open for more than 40 years.
The store closed in the 1990s when Stone & Thomas bolted for a small, not-quite-an-anchor spot in the Charleston Town Center Mall. The chain itself met its unfortunate demise a few years later, with most locations going to Elder-Beerman of Ohio. This building has stood empty ever since, though, and has been listed as an endangered site as time marches on around it.
=>Please click on the image to view at the largest size<=
One of our grandsons has really liked penguins from when he was very young. I liked them too...but I must admit to liking them even more after our trip to Antarctica. I especially loved seeing them *porpoise* like the one in this image but I never got the chance to photograph them doing so from water level. This shot was taken from the balcony of our room on level 6 of the ship...but one can easily see how exciting it is to see one or more penguins porpoising along the surface on their way to shore.
The Trip - (01/01/23 to 01/21/23)
On the first day of 2023, my wife and I flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in preparation for a cruise to Antarctica, via The Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island. We’d never visited Antarctica and, in fact, felt a little unprepared for this trip since we’d only been on one cruise previously...and that was many years ago when we went on a cruise to Alaska…and that one trip to Alaska was enough to let my wife know that she was very prone to seasickness. Consequently, she was very concerned about this much longer trip because of the potential for rough weather.
We spent several days in Buenos Aires before we finally boarded the ship on 01/06/23 and headed off towards the Falkland Islands. The ship we were on was very nice…clean and comfortable room, friendly staff, incredibly interesting folks for lectures: A former astronaut, a former college professor with a doctorate in Ornithology and a geologist.
The photos:
Until we made landfall in the Falklands, the only wildlife we would see were the many pelagic birds that occasionally accompanied our ship. The larger birds, albatross, giant petrels, etc. managed to effortlessly soar over the swells, seemingly without ever flapping their wings. The smaller birds like the prions, also appeared to not waste much energy flapping their wings and were fun to watch as they maneuvered back and forth alongside our ship. Most of the photos I took from the ship were taken from our balcony on deck six. The balcony was a great location for landscape shots when we were near shore…but the height above the water made it difficult to photograph birds that were close to the water’s surface. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it. :-)
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From Wikipedia: The gentoo penguin (/ˈdʒɛntuː/ JEN-too) (Pygoscelis papua) is a penguin species (or possibly a species complex) in the genus Pygoscelis, most closely related to the Adélie penguin (P. adeliae) and the chinstrap penguin (P. antarcticus). The earliest scientific description was made in 1781 by Johann Reinhold Forster with a type locality in the Falkland Islands. The species calls in a variety of ways, but the most frequently heard is a loud trumpeting, which the bird emits with its head thrown back.
Names:
The application of "gentoo" to the penguin is unclear. Gentoo was an Anglo-Indian term to distinguish Hindus from Muslims. The English term may have originated from the Portuguese gentio ("pagan, gentile"). Some speculate that the white patch on the bird's head was thought to resemble a turban.
Taxonomy
The gentoo penguin is one of three species in the genus Pygoscelis. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA evidence suggests the genus split from other penguins around 38 million years ago (Mya), about 2 million years after the ancestors of the genus Aptenodytes. In turn, the Adélie penguins split off from the other members of the genus around 19 Mya and the chinstrap and gentoo finally diverged around 14 Mya.
Description: The gentoo penguin is easily recognised by the wide, white stripe extending like a bonnet across the top of its head and its bright orange-red bill. It has pale whitish-pink, webbed feet and a fairly long tail – the most prominent tail of all penguin species. Chicks have grey backs with white fronts. As the gentoo penguin waddles along on land, its tail sticks out behind, sweeping from side to side, hence the scientific name Pygoscelis, which means "rump-tailed".
Gentoo penguins can reach a length of 70 to 90 cm (28 to 35 in), making them the third-largest species of penguin after the emperor penguin and the king penguin. They are the fastest underwater swimmers of all penguins, reaching speeds up to 36 km/h (22 mph). Gentoos are well adapted to extremely cold and harsh climates.
Predators:
In the sea, leopard seals, sea lions and killer whales are all predators of the gentoo. On land, no predators of full-grown, healthy gentoo penguins exist. Skuas and giant petrels regularly kill many chicks and steal eggs; petrels kill injured and sick adult gentoos. Various other seabirds, such as the kelp gull and snowy sheathbill, also snatch chicks and eggs. Skuas on King George Island have been observed attacking and injuring adult gentoo penguins in apparent territorial disputes.
Ant-0I7A8068fFlkr-2
When a spacecraft travels beyond Earth’s orbit, it travels away from the planet, instead of circling around it.
Orion is designed for deep space missions to go beyond Earth’s orbit, like going to an asteroid or Mars. The crew module is powered by solar panels and batteries, allowing an unlimited power supply. Orion’s life support system recycles water and oxygen for the crew, which allows them to travel through space for months. Orion’s heat shield and crew cabin are also designed to shield the crew from the intense radiation encountered during deep space exploration.
~by day... coming home~
.........
Well, I can’t provide for you no easy answers.
Who are you that I should have to lie?
You’ll know all about it, love.
It’ll fit you like a glove
When the night comes falling,
When the night comes falling,
When the night comes falling from the sky.
.........
Bob Dylan
When The Night Comes Falling from The Sky
When Death Comes
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
Poem by Mary Oliver
Little child dry your crying eyes, how can I explain the fear you feel inside cause you were born
into this evil world where man is killing man and no one knows just why. what we have become,
just look what we have done all that we destroyed you must build again.
When the children cry, let them know we tried cause when the children sing then the new world begins.
Little child you must show the way to a better day for all the young cause you were born
for all the world to see that we all can live with love and peace.
No more presidents and all the wars will end one united world under god.
"When the Children cry"
Lyrics and song By White lion
This little child was crying when we approach her, when we reach right in front of her. She stop crying altogether. The fumes produce by the charcoal making process is unbearable and i am tearing like crazy, I don't know how those kids survive out there. It's tough on an adult like me, i can't imagine a kid going through such condition.
who are they? to read more about Ma Ying-jeou.
to read more about LeeHom Wang:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leehom_wang
11月20日「當馬英九遇上王力宏—提昇國際新『視』力」座談會中，「中年」馬英九加上「青年」王力宏，會產生怎樣的化學變化？
時間：2007/11/20，pm19:30-21:30。
地點：台大集思會議中心 亞歷山大國際會議廳，台北市羅斯福路四段85號B1。
Taipei, Taiwan.
2007/11/20
b16068
"How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude! "
Emily Dickinson
Thank you Zuzana for the beautiful testimonial.
Today's song...
Nikon D800E Photos Blond Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess with Long, Strong Legs & 69 Black Convertible Stingray Corvette!
I had the vette for less than 24 hours and I parked it on the PCH in Malibu with the top down for a few minutes, and when I returned, a pretty blond goddess was sitting in the driver's seat! She was from Prague of all places!
She had beautiful curves--the 69 stingray corvette! And the blond too! She had her top down! As AC/DC said, "She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean, she was the best damn woman I had ever seen!" She ran a little rough, so "You shook me all night long," applied as I drove her through the canyons under the full moon.
Well, I figured I owed all my loyal flickr fans a new mode of transportation along our hero's journey for all your support. :)
More corvette adventures to come!
All the best on your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy! :)
Join Johnny Ranger McCoy's Hero's Journey Mythology Goddesses facebook! www.facebook.com/45surfHerosJourneyMythology
Subscribe to Johnny's youtube for epic goddess videos! www.youtube.com/user/bikiniswimsuitmodels
Twitter: twitter.com/45surf
Follow me on facebook! facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken
All the Best on Your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy & the HJM Goddesses! :)
Nikon D800E Photos of Pretty Blond Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess & Black Surfboard: 70-200mm VR2 Nikkor F/2.8 Zoom. Standing in front of the 45surf beach house!
A tall, thin, fit, classic California beach babe modeling the Gold 45 Revolver Gold'N'Virtue swimsuits & lingerie! Please share the exalted goddess with your friends.
With the black 45surf surfboard! It gets hot in the sand in the sun!
She was tall, thin, fit, toned, defined, and beautiful!
Nikon D800E Photographs of a Beautiful Sandy-Blonde/Brunette Swimsuit Bikini Model shot with the new Nikon D800 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens with the B W 77mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating filter. I always, always shoot with a CP filter--even on cloudy days!
Shot in both RAW & JPEG, but all these photos are RAWs finished in Lightroom 5 ! :)
May the HJM Goddesses guide, inspire, and exalt ye along yer heroic artistic journey!
Modeling the black & gold "Gold 45 Revolver" Gold'N'Virtue swimsuits with the main equation to Moving Dimensions Theory on the swimsuits: dx4/dt=ic. Yes I have a Ph.D. in physics! :) You can read more about my research and Hero's Journey Physics here:
herosjourneyphysics.wordpress.com/ MDT PROOF#2: Einstein (1912 Man. on Rel.) and Minkowski wrote x4=ict. Ergo dx4/dt=ic--the foundational equation of all time and motion which is on all the shirts and swimsuits. Every photon that hits my Nikon D800e's sensor does it by surfing the fourth expanding dimension, which is moving at c relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt=ic!
All the Best on Your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
A TOY STORY
Project 52
Week 37/52
Week 38 - Theme: A Movie
From: Catcher In My Eye :)
(Revised 11/4/13)
This has been the summer of cleaning out the attic of our home of 20 years.
For weeks this Summer and Fall, I have trashed much, given to "Good Will" lots, and stuck back the stuff I still can't part with.
We built and moved into our house in 1993.
On that moving day, years ago, when our children were still elementary school aged, we stacked new plastic tubs of holiday decorations and boxes of recent family keepsakes, in our newly built attic.
Now, that our three kids are adults and married with children, there have been times that they have come home and asked, "Do I still have my______? "
The answer has always been, "Yes."
I did save all the GOOD STUFF. It was all good to me.
And if you, like my husband, thinks, "She is one of THOSE hoarders!"
I am not a hoarder.
Not really...
I saw LIFE -left in the stuff I chose to stick-back for safe keeping.
In reflecting, that 'stuff' held future family times.
I didn't collect magazines, margarine dishes or plastic fast-food drink cups.
In fact, a few years ago, I did give away my old rock collection, my Madame Alexander doll and my ballerina jewelry box full of tiny bracelets & necklaces. My childhood trinkets were long lost. My rings and ribbons had been played with by my own two daughters.
In fact, my own childhood memories had begun to be interfused with those of my own children. I increasingly found myself trying to remember if I had worn a saved and cherished little dress or if it was my daughters.
The stuff that I had kept, had had our family's hands all over it, many times over. There were boxes of Matchbox cars and Micro-machine planes and trains. One box was heavy with canisters of Lincoln Logs & Tinker Toys, as well as a tin- cased Erector set and a taped together Milton-Bradley game box that held my old Twister game. (I half expected to find the kids old socks in that box.)
I had saved all the jig-saw puzzles that our family had worked together.
The back corner of the attic floor was stacked high with various building sets.
One dusty shelf still held a weaving loom, a flower press and a doll house full of tiny furniture.
Our kids loved building stuff with their Dad.
I still envisioned the kids and their Dad with bits & parts of building sets spread out all over the dining room table.
The kids remembered building the Radio Shack Learning Lab sets and the Hobby Lobby project kits, but it was the relationship with their Dad that was soldered and patience that was learned, that I recalled.
The boxed games, kits and puzzles represented our family time, kinda like the Jim Croce song, "Time in a Bottle" but instead it was like times remembered and sealed in game boxes.
The saved boxes held more than just cherished toys to me. Memories of raising my family were kept in each of those boxes. I could close my eyes and remember each of my children at play. I didn't want to lose those memories. Maybe that was why I was obsessive in keeping up with all the game parts and puzzle pieces. I was afraid of losing even one piece of a remembered moment.
Our attic was full of stacked boxes.
Those boxes held 35 years of memories to me.
Clearing out the kept boxes meant grasping hold tight to my memories of being a mother.
A year ago, we celebrated the birth and church dedication of a new grand daughter.
We had been blessed with three grandsons and three grand daughters, at that time.
As I prepared the house for a Sunday, Dedication brunch, and decorated the fireplace mantle with our kids old picture Bibles and story books, I remembered and searched for my son's old Jesus doll.
Jesus, was not to be found in my son's plastic lidded box of keepsakes on the top shelf of his closet. I checked the back of his old dresser drawer, where I still kept his cute, first pair of size 3, "Snoopy" boxer briefs.
Had I lost Jesus doll in all of my collected clutter?
I remember thinking, that I would have never gotten rid of the action figure, Jesus. I was sure that I had tucked toy Jesus, away for safe keeping, but where?
I smiled, as I remembered a conversation I had had with our oldest daughter about, "Not hiding Jesus, our Savior, in the closet and only bringing Jesus out when it was convenient."
WHERE was that Jesus doll now, when I needed Him?
And You ask, "Why did our SON own a Jesus DOLL?"
When our son was a little boy, he wanted his "He-Man, Masters of the Universe" action-figure to have a friend.
What he really wanted was a "Skeletor," the evil action-toy, to play with for his 5th birthday.
As a parent, I had a problem with my little boy wanting to play pretend, good guy- bad guy. No evil "bad guys" were allowed to enter into our home!
That's a Mother for you! So instead of an evil dude, I had bought our son a Jesus doll action figure.
I remembered worrying that our son would be disappointed on his birthday.
But he wasn't.
Jesus doll turned out to be a pretty good action hero, as I recall. I could close my eyes and see Jesus standing next to the red bunk bed as my son slept at night and I could still picture Jesus doll sitting next to our son in the family mini-van when we traveled.
I'm pretty sure that our daughters enjoyed the Jesus doll, too. Jesus looked pretty cool, hanging out with Barbie, and her friends; Skipper & Scooter dolls, when our daughters played. Jesus' smile never faded while riding "My Pretty Ponies" or sliding down rainbow slides with the toy, "Care Bears."
This past summer, we took every single item from our 3rd floor attic. It was tough work, both physically and mentally for me.
All of the memorabilia packed away in cardboard boxes, bags of out- of- date clothes saved for costumes and much loved stuffed animals and dolls packed in plastic lidded boxes had to be gone thru before sorting.
I was in sensory overload! I'm not sure which made my eyes water more...the sadness of giving stuff away or the smell of years of dust!
Our family was flooded with memories and "remember when" stories from the past 35 years.
The grandkids loved all the old toys!
I told Hubby, our attic was not full of junk as he had thought, but instead it was heavy with treasures waiting to be re-discovered by a new generation of family!
Our attic was one, full of memories, FAMILY MEMORY BOX!
So, as we were blessed this month with another Grand boy, I went looking for some of our son's keepsakes ... I found his first cowboy boots, his first doggy stuffed animal and I still had his favorite baby blanket.
On this trip to the toy room closet, I spied a little, green canvas backpack.
I unbuckled the bag to find our son's first flannel shirt and tiny, brown corduroy pants, a wooden toy raft, an old mess kit, and my son's 'Possible Bag', a gift from my dad.
I remembered my father showing our son a small, leather pouch that looked Indian made, filled with small stones and arrowheads. The bag was forecast to hold "endless possibilities".
As I was about to put the backpack away, again, for safekeeping, I felt something in the front pocket...
I had found Jesus!
I found my son's Jesus doll!
Miraculously, Jesus still had the tiny brown sandals on his moveable bare feet and a plastic staff in his hinged hand!
In another pocket of the backpack was, "Put on the Armor of God " action figure and a story cassette.
The case-cover of the cassette was titled," Helmet of Salvation, Breast plate of Righteousness, Sword of the Spirit, Belt of Truth, Shield of Faith and Gospel of Peace."
I smiled. I remembered why I bought our son his own wooden toy sword and shield.
We had equipped our little boy with the armor of God.
At 32 years old now, that "shield of faith " had served him and our family well.
It was kinda funny to me, as I thought, I didn't find the old action toy, "He-man Master of the Universe" in our attic toys, but... I had finally found the toy, JESUS! The much loved Jesus doll had out-lived all our loved and cherished toys. Our Jesus action figure had out lived the Spiderman and Superman action figures and even the vintage Barbie dolls.
I'm happy that I kept the Son of Man action figure.
The next family get-together, our grandkids will find Jesus back on the toyroom shelf..
I'm betting that He will live on as the most cherished toy with our Grandchildren.
The doll still made me smile just as it did when I was a young Mom of three.
As I walk thru my quiet home and spot the smiling Jesus doll, I smile back and thank God, for our healthy & growing eight Grandchildren.
(And we do still enjoy some of those saved toys & games :)
I have good memories and more memories to make in my future.
I'm really happy, that I found Jesus.