Summer Days

Today was a little chilly and now that it's dark out the air is quite cold. I'm all snuggled up in a thick, wooly sweater with a cup of hot chocolate to keep me warm. I've had such a lovely day. This morning I got a call from work saying I didn't have to come in because of the cold, so instead I went to the waterpark just for fun. I paddled around the little river on a big yellow life ring, chased waves in the pool and ate a chocolate and peanut butter sundae.



This afternoon I visited the nearby school. My family goes there often (usually when my brothers and father want to play basketball) and it's become one of the things I look forward to most each summer now, because each year the science teacher plants a little garden out behind the building. I'm always curious to see what new flowers have been planted and which old ones are returning, and I'm always on the look out for the pretty little things she hides there: glass marbles, snakeskins, windchimes, and smooth stones.


I brought my camera, and my little ship, and a pair of my favorite earrings that you've never seen. Everything was so pretty, I couldn't resist taking pictures of it all. Then when I was my camera was full of pictures and I was satisfied, I lay down on the grass and watched the clouds until it was time to go home.

The Wind in Her Sails

I found this sweet little ship a few days ago. Isn't it lovely? I don't know what I should name it, though. Any ideas?

Rock a Bye Baby

The randomest, most distant memory just came back to me this evening. I don't know what brought it to mind. I can't even recall the last time I thought about it. But today I remembered it like I was there. I remembered being a little girl, almost three years old, sitting on the edge of my bed with my mother on one side and my younger brother on the other, all three of us clustered together like little birds. I remember the softly glowing night light, and how big my mother's stomach was, and I remember how quiet it was as we all sang "Rock a Bye Baby" to the little baby growing inside her. Even years later, as a little boy, "Rock a Bye Baby" was one of his favorite songs. And even then I wondered if our singing was why.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/people/milkpockets/

The Unicorn Maiden

Although I was never one of those girls who went through a "horse stage", I've always had a special place in my heart for unicorns. I've been drawn to them for their beauty, for their fragility and rarity, but most of all for their purity. As Marianna Mayer said "the unicorn is the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful."

I watched The Last Unicorn this week. I found parts of it strange, and a bit childish, but overall it was entertaining, thought-provoking, and very beautiful. How true its moral, that in order to really live, to fully embrace the joys and wonders of life, you must also welcome sorrow and pain. You cannot love without letting yourself be hurt, but if you live your life without loving, than yours is a shallow, selfish exhistance, and not worthy of being called a life at all.

After finishing the movie, I was suddenly inspired to make a unicorn horn, or alicorn, for myself. I gathered together paper, silver trim, my glue gun and lots of glittery nail polish, and whipped one up that very evening. And here it is!

On the Water Again

I haven't written anything lately because of my new job. I'm now working at a water park not far from my home, and it's keeping me very busy. The work is hard and long and inglorious, and leaves me footsore and exhausted, but it's near the water I've been missing so much. When I walk through the park, I can see it, and hear the sound of it, and there are sea gulls here. So far I have only been able to listen and smell and watch others swimming, but hopefully on Friday I'll be able to go for a visit just for fun, since I get free entrance now that I'm employed there. I also hope that soon I'll be able to move to the cashiering job I was promised. There is a little shop at the waterpark that sells swimming equiptment and souvenirs, and this is where I really want to work. They have shelves full of beautiful little things: bottles of shells, miniature sailing ships, shiny brass spyglasses, old diving helmets, and wooden chests with heavy locks for hiding pirate treasure. What better job than whiling away the afternoon surrounded by such lovely things?

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/people/airfuly/