herbiehancock

So my schedule has been pretty full of late, and I haven't been blogging as much as I'd like to.  I finally have some time to blog tonight, but I'm struggling with it a little.  The reason I am struggling is that I have a bruise the size of an orange on my right arm and my arm is swollen and stiff.   I'd show you a picture of it, but I don't have a camera right now. (You probably wouldn't want to see a picture anyway--it looks pretty ugly!)  My husband has been out of town for a couple of days and will be gone for a few more.  He took the camera with him, so I don't have one here at the moment. He is on a business trip that is going to segue into an Indians game trip over the weekend.  So this arm of mine is sore, making typing not much fun.  It's not a big deal, just a minor inconvenience.  Perhaps I should explain. I went after work to donate blood yesterday.  I passed the iron test and the blood pressure test and so forth, and they said I ...

   I had an interesting and unusual day today.  I drove to Bowling Green, Ohio for a Performers Showcase by video conference.  There were 22 different people in the showcase.  Each of these people travel around to libraries to present a program or to put on a performance of some sort.  They each gave a twelve minute snippet of their performance via video conference for us to preview.  The purpose of this conference was to give us new ideas for programs that are available for booking at our libraries.    My favorite presenter today was a man named Jeff Nicholas who is an illustrator and author.  He demonstrated how to draw one of his cartoon characters, a kangaroo, and then recited a story he had written about it while showing his accompanying illustrations.  It was quite clever and funny, and the story was written in the form of a rhyming poem that made it even more whimsical.  I really enjoyed his presentation and would  ...

Psalm 19:1-4 (New International Version)    " The heavens declare the glory of God;  the skies proclaim the work of his hands.   Day after day they pour forth speech;  night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language  where their voice is not heard.   Their voice goes out into all the earth,  their words to the ends of the world."      The skies were definitely speaking to me on my Saturday night walk.  I kept stopping to take pictures of the clouds and the sunset.  They just seemed especially beautiful to me.  I'll hush now so you can enjoy listening to what they have to say. I love this last one with the lights of the theater being the only thing you can see of the buildings; the rest just in silhouette against the magnificent blaze of that singing sky.

The leaves on our trees out front are mostly still all green, but the whirly-gigs are raining down like crazy from the maple trees, so it won't be long until the leaves on it turn yellow. Some of my neighbors have color in their trees.  This one is in the yard behind ours. This one is just a little way down the street from us. And some of my neighbors need to get busy with their rakes and leaf blowers because their leaves are on the ground already. The giant leaves in the park have already fallen too.  I put one on what is left of the stump of a tree that was cut down and also on a park bench to show how big they are. There are a few trees in the park that still have their leaves on and are still pretty though. I was walking at dusk on Saturday night and when I came around this bend in the road in the park, I thought the street light and the yellow leaves in the trees around it made the road seem almost to glow.  When I took a picture there, it looked like the street was ...

Sunset Punch Like the smoke of honeysuckle and lilacs, the sunset settles over the sky, fills it up, seeping from corner to corner, curling and whirling in the melted orange creamsicle clouds. And the heavens above  are like the raspberry sherbet that the PTA ladies swirl  on top of ginger ale or 7-Up  and,  for lack of a better name for it,  call it punch. Ladle me up another cup-- clear full. Quick before it's gone! I want to drink it up--  sunset punch. *   *   * The photos in this post were all taken on my walk in the park last night within the span of 45 minutes.  It is amazing to me how much the skies and clouds can change in such a short amount of time and when viewed from different angles and perspectives.  The sunset views seemed to change around every bend of the path, each more beautiful than the last.

 Peppermint Sunset Black tree branches streak  across the swirls of pink and white sky of the winter sunset like chocolate sauce drizzled  over ribbons of peppermint in a candy cane ice cream sundae. The cold  takes my breath away.

I thought the view of the sunset from my back door was pretty last night... and then I saw the sunrise out my front door this morning, and I couldn't decide which one I liked better. I am glad I was up early enough today to see the sunrise. I wouldn't have wanted to miss it. Lord, for the beauty in the rising and the setting sun, let me be truly grateful.

"Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning." Have you ever heard of the old adage above? This is one my parents used to say whenever there was a red sunset or sunrise. I did a little bit of research about it and found the following information at this site . "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning." Have you ever heard anyone use the proverb above? Shakespeare did. He said something similar in his play, Venus and Adonis. “Like a red morn that ever yet betokened, Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field, Sorrow to the shepherds, woe unto the birds, Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds.” In the Bible, (Matthew XVI: 2-3,) Jesus said, “When in evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: For the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today; for the sky is red and lo...