Postcard Friendship Friday - Outsource Your Vacation!

postcard courtesy of http://www.cardcow.com/

Taj Mahal

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With the economy as it is, and our jobs being outsourced faster than you can say "Rosetta Stone", it occurred to me that you might want to think about a brand new concept; vacation outsourcing! Think of it! You certainly can't afford to go on vacation. Are you nuts? You're having enough trouble keeping gas in the guzzler in case you should happen to get one, just one measly call for a frigging job interview.

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Consider this: the same folks who took your job have more than enough time and money to take your vacation for you! And, for a few rupees more they'll send you a postcard and take a few pictures of the sights.

Here's an example right here! The card reads:

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Dear Wally and Madge

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Having a fabulous time. Wish you were here. Spent the day at Taj Mahal and plan to bathe in the Ganges for you tomorrow (weather and bacterial counts permitting). We are relaxing and sleeping late and enjoying the sultry, subtle and sedate sounds and smells of India.

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If there is anything in particular you would like to do, or see or eat, just contact us through your agent at GotYourJobAndVacationToo.com.

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BTW, your precious son Wally Jr called the agent yesterday and asked if we could have a king cobra spit in our eyes. Keep Little Wally off the Internet.

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Best Wishes,

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Sanjay and Prahdutma Kapoormatgandimahatma

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Well, girls, today I'm vacationing for Zeke and Paloma Kingsnapper in Vermont and tomorrow it's back to the ole help desk.

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If I have to come back to the Taj Mahal one more time this week I shall jump from the parapets!

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Thanks to Marie at Voila! Vintage Postcards for another Postcard Friendship Friday!

2nd Annual Indian Summer Picnic! Come in!

Welcome! Welcome!

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It's Bloggville's 2nd Annual Indian Summer Picnic!

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We're so glad you could make it!

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The hay wagon is here to pick you up. Grab your picnic basket and hop on.

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Nice view!
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And here we are - plenty of picnic tables for everyone, and a large field for fun and games.
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The old cider mill is over there by the stream

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Fresh cold cider for everyone
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Food?

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That's what picnics are all about!

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We're taking all the delicious treats out of our picnic baskets. I see we have everything from carrot soup to nuts

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Oops - maybe not nuts. The squirrels have been very busy.

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Mmm! I see an autumn appetizer! Wild mushrooms on french bread. We have more main courses than we'll know what to do with! What did you bring?
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Uh oh! I think we've all brought desserts! Mmm spiced plums!

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And apple crisp with vanilla creme!
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Baked apples!

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And a beautiful carrot cake - well, that's almost a vegetable, isn't it? Enjoy!

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After lunch and games, we'll build a bonfire, and we've set up a large stage for square dancing.

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Your square dance dress is perfect!

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Our special guests today are the famous dance callers, Slim Flickens and Pearl Patootie.

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We've brought along a few great dancers. Here's the handsome Mr. Pock. Wait a minute! You were supposed to call Mr. P-E-C-K - Big difference. Big.

Can he at least dance?

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Enjoy this bountiful party! The perfect way to spend the first day of Autumn!

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If you have an Indian Summer post today, please leave a comment to let us know and we'll stop by to visit. If not, just stay and enjoy!

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2nd Annual Indian Summer Picnic! You're Invited!

Many of my dear bloggy friends and I enjoyed an Indian Summer Picnic (click here to check it out!) on the first day of Autumn last year! It was one of many virtual events in which we've participated - and had an uproarious time despite a few ...uhm...slight misadventures:

. gunpowder in the bonfire (Stevie swears it wasn't her, but she was wearing that powder horn with her Davy Crockett outfit)

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. singed eyebrows (note to self - move all poets (Kat specifically) away from the fire and/or bring eyebrow pencil)

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. burnt marshmallows (I know you only use a microwave, Janeen, but they don't work well with marshmallows)

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lost in the woods....oh wait that was Sparky with the Park Ranger...or was it Lavinia.....

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.Fell in the pond (Debby - don't ice skate until there is ice. The operative word is ICE)

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Still, we travelled the entire blogworld and enjoyed Indian Summer with bloggy friends everywhere!

The plan is simple: decide what you would like to picture on your blog for the picnic on Tuesday, September 22. Use your imagination - It can be anything you would like to prepare, bring or do at your picnic.

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You may want to take a picture of picnic places, picnic things you have, the wonderful foods you will prepare, birds that might visit us, something you might wear, a pet you would like to bring with you, flowers, games to play, books to read, poems to share, anything at all. Anything.

Take a picture or two that expresses your Indian Summer Picnic. Post it along with whatever you would like to say about your contribution on your post. This is an all day event that transcends time zones.

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Extend this invitation to all of your readers! Everyone is invited.

If you would like to attend:

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1. RSVP in comments on this post.

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2. Copy the invitation and the link to this post and paste them in the margin of your blog.

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I'll post the links to each of you on the 22nd so we can travel about to see what each of us has brought to the picnic.

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I would love to see all of you, and all of your friends, on September 22nd. Please come! I know this will be lots of fun!

A Celebration of Life on 9/11

My nephew Patrick, my Aunt, Sister Marcella LaKoske, OP (age 91!) and I all have something in common. We were all born on September 11. While trying to make sense of how one can celebrate anything on 9/11, I wrote a poem. This poem is for everyone born this day:

Conversations with God and the Baker

For Patrick, Sr. Marcy and Me

Part I: Conversation with God
Please, Sir, may I change my date of birth?
No, not the years
I’ve earned them every one, for what it’s worth
Just the date
Formerly unobtrusive
Typed anonymously into the 254th square of my DayMinder ® calendar
No Magna Charta signed
No pilgrim landed
No mention in the dusty tomes of history
Just the beginning of three familial lives
Brought forth in consecutive generations
By couples seeking warmth and love on a late December night

But now
It does not seem right to celebrate a day
When towers burned like candles on a cake
And sacred ashes frosted the streets and
Seared the lungs and disbelieving eyes
Of those who prayed
That they could make a wish
And blow out those candles
And stop the fall of concrete, beams and glass
That wrapped those unexpected gifts to God

I understand
You must not undo what has been done
And anyway
To change a date
Is not the healing answer to the question

Instead we will stand strong and resilient
And celebrate life
On a day so tragically marred by senseless destruction

Part II: Conversation with the Baker

“What colors shall I frost this cake for you?”
“Please Sir, make it red, and white and blue.”

Cynthia Ann Conciatu © 09/11/02 
2003 Award -National Pen Women of America/Clearwater Branch

Note: I originally posted this in 2008. In June, 2009, my dear Aunt, Sister Marcy passed away at age 91.

Postcard Friendship Friday - More Shades of Blue

Postcard copied here with the kind permission of CardCow.com

Postcard Friendship Friday is here again! Today's card shows the beautiful twin spires of St. John's Cathedral, Savannah, Georgia. The French Gothic revival Catholic church was built on Lafayette Square in 1876

The card was mailed December 19, 1949 is addressed to Maurice and Wilbur Rykert, Williamston Michigan. The boys were about 14 and 16 years old respectively. It reads:

Dear Folks

Well, we are here at Savannah having a seafood supper, 7:30. Cannot tell how many miles as I forgot to look before leaving car. S. Carolina sure is a desolate country. Hope everything is okay at home. Love, Mother and Dad.

Desolate?

On one hand, I suppose it is, but on the other? Breathtaking!

The Mercer House

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Once in Savannah, however, there is much to do and see. The stately Savannah squares are surrounded by beautiful homes just as James Edward Oglethorpe envisioned when he laid plans for the city in 1733.

The Mercer house was built in 1871. The Mercers never actually occupied the house. General Mercer went off to fight in the Civil War and sold the unfinished house upon his return. It's later inhabitants, Jim Williams and Danny Hansford were the central characters of John Berendt's wonderful Southern Gothic "must read" book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.


The title alludes to the hoodoo notion of "midnight"; the period between the time for good magic and the time for evil magic; in "the garden of good and evil," which refers principally to Bonaventure Cemetery.

Which brings us to another shade of blue; Haint Blue (Alice Blue was discussed last Friday)

This particular shade of blue is often painted on South Carolina shutters, porch ceilings, posts, and sometimes the whole house. The haint blue creates a never ending sky which confuses haints (haunts, evil spirits, ghosts, etc.) and keeps them out of the house. It is also said to keep bugs, such as wasps, from making their homes on the porch ceilings. A wasp won't build a nest in the sky.

Savannah is the home of Paula Dean's restaurant, Lady and Sons.

The food is magnificent. The Mister and I will attest to that! The delicious meal made the 2 hour wait for seating well worth the effort.

But back to that postcard! What is the deal here?? Mother and Dad are on their way to Florida. Their itinerary, according to 2 other postcards they sent, includes Jacksonville and St. Augustine. Did you notice the date? December 19? They ditched the kiddies to vacation in Florida for the Holidays? Will they be sending some Salt-Water Taffy home for the boy's Christmas stockings? Some of those bubble gum oranges in the cute little wooden crates?

At least the boys can amuse themselves by singing the latest Christmas song. Spike Jones' "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" was recorded in time for the holiday season.

I'm sure all 2.5 square miles of Williamston Michigan was a happenin' place during the holidays.

The town was a popular stop on the Grand River trail (that later became a plank road) from Detroit to Lansing in the 19th century. That trail is now Grand River Avenue (M-43) which runs through downtown Williamston. Because the primary means of transportation at that time was the horse and buggy and because the trip from Detroit to Lansing took more than one day, Williamston became a convenient overnight stop.

Here's another opportunity to use your hand as a Michigan map to locate Williamston. Hold out your left hand, palm away from you. put your finger in the middle of your hand about 2 inches above your wrist. That's Williamston. Good job.

Thank you Marie, of Voila! Vintage Postcards for another Postcard Friendship Friday!

Mystery Objects Identified!

Cast-Iron Plant

My dear bloggyfriend, Leilani, of The Green Grass Grows All Around identified the mystery plant that grows in my yard! It is commonly called the cast-iron plant because it will grow in the most difficult of conditions. The Aspidistra loves shade and has, what are described as, insignificant blooms at ground level. This one may be the Aspidistra Attenuata. It either hitched a ride with another plant, or more likely, a seed from another plant fell in my garden via bird, animal or wind.

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The reason it looks so familiar, is I had one during the nature loving flower power 70's when house plants again became popular. Thank you Lelani! I'll keep an eye on the aspidistra and get some photos of its "insignificant" flowers.

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Tricia of Thought Threads came pretty close to guessing the other mystery object when she commented "As for the little coral looking piece it could be a blossom or one of my dog's old chews."

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Agatized Coral - Florida State Stone

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Forty million years ago, Florida was under water, covered by a salty sea.

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(My fellow geography challenged Americans: this is not a map of Australia with Italy attached to it)

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The shallow limestone shelf, that can be seen as an outline on the picture above, provided a place for corals to grow. This was the Cenozoic era of corals and boney fish, flowering trees including the magnolia. Grazing animals, marsupials and songbirds abounded!

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Things were not all peaceful and quiet as the beauty implies. There were rifts and volcanoes which caused the building of mountains including the Himalayas, and the opening up of oceans, including the Atlantic.

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The Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland was created from the outpouring of basalt lava. Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner.

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Over the millions of years that followed, silt, glaciers, and more silt covered the corals that once thrived on the Florida shelf. Over time (lots of time) the limestone coral was dissolved, and the mold that was left behind was filled with concentrated minerals and salts that eventually hardened into the beautiful quartz chalcedony formations that are known as agatized coral. These are in the form of geodes, that when broken apart reveal bright drusy ( quartz crystals) and botryoidal (grape-like) growths that come in many stunning hues and colors. mine contains no drusy but has wonderful botryoidal growths.

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These are becoming increasingly rare, but are still found along the northern Withalacoochee River.

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I found my beautiful specimen at Lisa Monk's Creekside Gems & Minerals in New Port Richey. I happened upon Lisa's amazing shop via an advertisement on a bus stop bench. All I have to do is see the word ROCK and I'm there. Her shop is filled with amazing rocks, fossils crystals and gemstones. A God made delight to the eye and soul. Lisa was placing just-found specimens of the Florida State stone on the shelves when I arrived. It was difficult to choose among them - each was so unique in size, color and shape. This is the one that "spoke" to me.