In Which I Discover a Treasure from Christian Culture

 I am surprised I spotted them.

And even then I hesitated, leaning forward to peer into the yellowed plastic before gingerly plucking them from amongst all the other knick-knacks on the dimly-lit thrift store shelf.

Carefully, carefully I pried open the sides of the brittle package.

Oh, my goodness! No yellowing here! 

The gorgeous dancing couple dressed in vibrantly-hued traditional European costumes delighted my eye and blessed my soul.

I marveled at the details. 

Her flower wreath and long blond braid. His cap with the multi-colored tassels on one side. The netting overlay on her skirt and the jaunty belt cinching his long vest.

I looked for the price tag: $10

Confident that I had already received $10 worth of value from the charming pair, I purchased it and hurried home.

I looked forward to removing them from the ugly packaging and examining them closer. It was only when I tried to free them that I realized the dancers' feet were permanently attached to the base. I turned it upside down and for the first time noticed that it had a label.

And it was in Polish.

I had no idea what it said. 

Nevertheless, a thrill of joy leapt through me as I thought how perfectly the couple would look displayed in my hutch with all my Polish pottery. I hurried over and found them a spot, center stage, my daily reminder that life is beautiful.

Men in Morning: A Happy Alternative to Men's Daytime Formal Dress

I really like this "morning dress" look!

With Emma's encouragement, I am beginning to learn about the options for men's formal dress.  Unless your wedding is in the evening, the appropriate dress for the groom and groomsmen is not a tuxedo--in the UK anyway.  We Americans have pretty much abandoned such rules, but it's good to know there are some elegant alternatives to the standard tux.

The most interesting thing I learned is that a morning suit (where the coat, pants, and vest are all from the same fabric) is considered more casual than the morning dress "ensemble".  I thought it would be the opposite.   

Now what do you do with this information?  Are there "morning dress" rental shops?  I searched the websites of the two tuxedo rental firms that we saw at the Houston Bridal Extravaganza.  Al's Formal Wear listed a "cutaway" coat as a tuxedo option.  I couldn't find any morning coat/suit options at Men's Wearhouse.   I'll report back if I turn up some other options.

In the meantime, if you're interested in learning more, you might start with blacktieguide.com:

Like most formalwear etiquette, the proscription against donning evening wear during the day is not simply an arbitrary custom but a matter of aesthetic logic.  The tuxedo and tailcoat take their black color from their after-dark surroundings and in this context they imbue their wearer with elegance, power and even an air of mystery.  When worn in broad daylight, however, black suits look dull and lifeless and tend to make (Caucasian) men’s faces appear ashen which is what makes them so appropriate for traditional funeral director attire. 

Conversely, while formal day coats are also usually black they are typically the only occurrence of ebony in morning dress (the traditional term for formal day wear).  Their somberness is offset by non-matching gray trousers – which are themselves enlivened with striped or checked patterns – and by the addition of tastefully colored ties, waistcoats and even shirts.  The end result is an ensemble immensely more suitable for daylight and delightfully more open to personalization than a tuxedo is, yet at the same time significantly more formal than a regular suit.  It is no wonder this genteel tradition remains commonplace in Britain and at the same time perplexing that it became highjacked in America. 

Read the entire blacktieguide.com article HERE

Enjoy Some Spanish Culture on the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar

Picnic Pals

Emma and her friend Angela picnicked in a park Thursday and had so much fun that I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the pictures they took of themselves. For both of them to be in the picture, they each contributed their "outboard" hand to holding the camera.
The picture above is from a series of shots just after they finished eating. Upon enlarging it, Emma and I discovered that both girls had strawberry lodged in their teeth--one of the humorous hazards of picnic photography.


As with every occasion, Emma tried to dress appropriately. She thought red gingham would be perfect for a picnic costume. She has a red gingham jumper. She talked to Angela the day before and found out that she had a red gingham skirt. Done.

For Christmas I had given Emma a cooler with a built-in picnic "basket". She packed it with tuna fish sandwiches and two bowls of chopped apples seasoned with cinnamon, drenched in fresh raw cream, and topped with strawberries. She generally only drinks milk and water, so she packed a quart of each.







Then it was off to the car with picnic basket in tow for the drive down to Clear Lake to pick up Angela from work.

Here's a picture from the Picnic World website of all the supplies that come with Emma's cooler, The Avalanche model.

Components:
4 Plates, melamine 9"
4 Napkins, cotton 14" x 14"
4 Tumblers, acrylic
1 Tablecloth, cotton 45" x 45"
4 Ea. knives, forks & spoons (stainless steel)
1 Set of salt/pepper shakers
1 Corkscrew, waiter style (stainless steel)
1 Cutting board, wood 6" x 6"
1 Cheese knife, stainless steel w/wood handle
1 Ornate bottle stopper

Angela brought sandwiches and apple juice. I think they should have invited two more girls.

Next time they go, I'm going to make sure they both know how to do the Heimlich maneuver. I can't believe that Emma didn't choke on this strawberry--she was laughing so hard. Angela took a whole series of pictures to cover it, but I'll just include one more:



It appears that Angela was able to maintain her composure by looking heavenward and asking for Divine assistance.

In addition to eating and taking pictures of themselves, the girls enjoyed the scenery and the wildlife. Angela tried to get some geese to chase her so that Emma could take a picture of it, but apparently the geese would not cooperate.

It didn't get Angela down, though.

The girls had such a good time, they are already planning the next picnic. I must say that I am looking forward to it myself.

Moomorial Day

Angela and Michelle Emerson came home with us after Mass yesterday to work on two projects with Emma. They are making pies for a luncheon tomorrow honoring the teachers at Queen of Angels Academy, and they are practicing dances to perform at the end of the school year program next Sunday. So naturally they had to don their Scottish costumes as soon as they woke up this morning and wear them to milk Fiona.

A Load of Fun

Monday afternoon I started missing Aaron and Thomas Ladner. We haven't gotten to see them much lately, so I asked their mom if they could come and spend a couple of days with us. We live too far apart for short visits. She agreed, and their eldest brother, Chad, delivered them about 8:00 Tuesday morning and stayed until about 1:00--an unexpected bonus. Nathaniel got home from school in time to have lunch with us. Then the boys played pool while Emma made ice cream for dessert.

The visit started off with a lot of noise, because Emma's latest batch of chicks had started hatching about midnight. She brought the incubator in to the living room where she could keep an eye on them. Thirty-plus chicks chirped robustly all day, providing background music for every activity.

That afternoon Aaron and I practiced making individual meat pies. Emma is in love with the idea of picnicking, and I thought meat pies would be a good start for filling the basket. Aaron chopped and grated away while I ground flour and worked on the dough. I fried a couple and baked the rest. I preferred the baked ones, but I was disappointed in the crust. Emma thought more butter would have improved it. I think I will just try using white flour next time and see how that turns out. The meat filling tasted wonderful, though.

Afterward, Aaron wanted to go exploring, so he talked Emma and Thomas into crossing the 40-acre field next to us to see what was beyond the trees. Nathaniel was still recovering from an allergy attack, so he stayed home.

The explorers didn't get back until after dark. They had discovered a pond and a "glen of honeysuckle". Emma said that Aaron picked a bunch, handed it to her, and told her to make herself a crown, which she did. Aaron and Thomas got extra exercise when they had to carry her over a bramble patch because Emma was barefoot and her dress and apron kept getting caught on brambles.

Tree fairies only come out in the moonlight.

Thomas gives thanks for getting to wear the flower crown too.

Naturally, Fiona looked the best wearing it. Emma gave it to her for dessert, and that was the end of it.

Wednesday morning I cooked a big breakfast: biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, grits, and bacon. Then Nathaniel took Aaron and Thomas on a tractor ride in the front loader. I saw them go by the kitchen window, speeding between all the oak trees, and I was just praying, "Lord, please don't let their eyeballs get poked out! And don't let Nathaniel get too frisky and dump them out on the ground!"

In a few minutes Nathaniel texted me to come out and take their pictures. Of course he made up every excuse as to why he couldn't be in any of them. I got Emma in a couple.

.

After the milking was done, Emma picked mulberries before taking Fiona back to her pasture. Her hands were stained purple with juice. Fiona, who loves mulberries, licked one of Emma's hands and then. . .slurped it into her mouth and bit it. Before Emma had fully recovered from that, Fiona chomped into Emma's dress, my favorite yellow dress, and wouldn't let go. I don't know if Emma had dripped mulberry juice on it, or what. Finally the durned old cow ripped the fabric, making about a five-inch gash right about Emma's mid-thigh. Luckily Fiona didn't bite through to the chemise.

Meanwhile, Aaron and Thomas had gotten a pail and were picking more mulberries in hopes they could gather enough for Emma to make them a pie. During a short break, Thomas told me that he thought that Emma had a melancholic temperament. It had been so long since I read about the four temperament's, I went and pulled my little book off the shelf to read the descriptions and see what I thought. I agreed with the melancholic verdict. Then everyone got curious, and we spent over an hour helping Emma take the test at the back of the book. Somehow it just didn't work. The results did not seem to describe her. So it was an interesting exercise but a big waste of time.

Aaron and Thomas didn't find enough ripe mulberries for Emma to make a pie with, but they talked her into baking chocolate meringue (for Aaron) and pecan (for Thomas) pies that afternoon. She decided to make two of each. All Aaron agreed to do in exchange was tell Emma where she could find the shovel so that she could dig herself a pond. Thomas agreed to build Emma a cart. I think that he was thinking along the lines of Popsicle sticks. I don't think that he knew that Emma has seen and photographed the one that she wants.



Since Mr. and Mrs. Ladner and Chad were all going to join us that evening for supper before taking the boys back home, I was glad that Emma was making four pies. About 5:00, Aaron asked me if there was something that he could do to help. I suggested that he go get Fiona from her pasture and tie her up at the house in preparation for milking time. He agreed, and the next thing I know, I see Fiona trotting across the front yard with a wicked gleam in her eye and Aaron in hot pursuit, looking slightly panicked.

I ran out front in time to see Fiona take off across the field, lickety-split. I yelled at Aaron to follow her. Emma, in the middle of whipping egg whites, asked if I needed her, and I told her no, that I would take the car and chase Fiona down. I won't go through all the gory details, but we ended up at a house a half mile down the road with a deputy?, Aaron, Thomas, and Emma. There Emma was able to grab Fiona's halter when Fiona stopped to look at some dogs inside a fence.

When Emma turned and started leading Fiona toward the main road, I had one of those experiences where I suddenly see Emma through the world's eyes, and I realize how odd she must look. She was wearing a dress, her purple gingham Edwardian apron, and no shoes. Most of her hair was pinned into a low chignon, but she had a halo of wispy hair floating around her head, and she was leading a milk cow down a dirt road. I was not the only one who noticed. I recognized an odd expression on the deputy's face as he looked at her, but he didn't say anything.

Thomas, on the other hand, tried to find a word to describe her appearance, and he ended up telling her that she looked "homely"! Ha! He thought he was complimenting her.

Aaron was worn out, so I took him home in the car. Thomas helped Emma with Fiona. The deputy followed them in his big Dodge dually for a while. Thomas said that people passed them very slowly and stared. The passengers of one van actually rolled down their windows to get a better look. That's probably when they noticed that Thomas and Emma were singing Loch Lomond, adding to their strangeness.

After the Fiona Fiasco, it was back to the pie making. I put on some Texas swing (Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys) to give us the energy to finish preparations for supper. Emma and I danced around the kitchen together. Mr. and Mrs. Ladner and Chad arrived, bringing some of the best-tasting charcoal-grilled burgers that I have ever tasted. The evening ended with a round of enthusiastic guy hugs and back slaps in the kitchen. Nathaniel actually picked Chad up off the ground. (Chad is about 6'4".) I wish that I had had a video camera.

Yesterday we were all really tired, but by next week. . .I think we'll be ready to do it all again.

Shall We Turn Back the Clock? A Visit to the Martyn Farm Fall Festival

And yet there was a time, not long ago and not ideal like some imaginary Arcadia, when our very real grandfathers lived for something other than themselves, and life was more honest, much more hard and worth living. Shall we turn back the clock? --John Senior, The Restoration of Christian Culture

A cozy farmhouse with a wraparound porch, a Jersey cow with a voluptuous udder, dulcimer music in the air--these are just a few of the things we enjoyed Saturday at Armand Bayou Nature Center's Martyn Farm Fall Festival.

We arrived about 8:45 a.m., and Emma slipped past ladies in pretty bonnets and long flowery aprons to open the front gate and enter the farmhouse yard. It might as well have been a time machine, with the gate hinges moving the gears of time. They creaked, turned, and meshed at 1900 A.D. Emma was transported back and was immediately at home. She set up her spinning wheel on the back porch, breathing deeply and admiring the view of the bayou.

She would fain have stayed and stayed, but she had to go to another part of the park to dance. Starting at 10:00, her Scottish Country Dance group performed six dances.









In the meantime, I learned that the spinning demonstration was supposed to be in the pole barn, not the back porch, so after the dancing, we hurried back to the farmhouse and hauled everything to the new location.

There Emma contentedly demonstrated spinning on her Ashford Traveler. Two ladies were spinning with drop spindles, and two were quilting. Quilts hung on the walls, and several antique fiber arts machines lined the back of the room: a spinning wheel, a small floor loom, and a tapestry loom.

Lots of families visited. As Emma taught little girls how to spin, I remembered how an older lady at a sheep shearing taught her. I wonder if some mama got an earful of drowsy spinning wheel chatter-- interspersed with yawns--on the trip home, as I did so many years ago.

Several of the Scottish dancers came by. Luckily, the McClarens were there when Emma realized that she had lost her threading hook. Mr. McClaren and his oldest son improvised one out of a paper clip. They bent. Emma tried. After the third or fourth adjustment, they had the bend just right, and it worked. It's so nice to have a man (or two) around the pole barn!

Emma also got to help some ladies spin and enjoyed it thoroughly. One of them was so excited after she tried it, you would have thought she had just won her dream vacation. Emma told her that next she needed to go to Upstairs Studio and talk to Clarice. In the picture below, Emma helps Mrs. Dugas, who had some previous background with spinning.



Sam, Scottish dancer and wandering fiddler, tried the spinning and quickened the atmosphere with his lively tunes. He suggested that Emma was remiss in not having completed projects to display. She obliged as best she could by switching to knitting, though she expressed disappointment that she did not have any wooden needles. (She also thought that the plastic chairs detracted from the atmosphere, but she remained cheerful.)



As the clock neared 1:00 p.m., I sent Emma to enjoy the festivities with the rest of the Scottish dancers. Here's some of what she saw:







Thomas, a Scottish dancer with a pocket knife and a sugar cane, generously sweetened Emma's afternoon!









We returned to the pole barn around 3:00 for Emma to do some more spinning. I noticed that Thomas's brother Aaron was fascinated with the rhythm of Emma's pedaling. He put his foot up to one of the pedals and thoughtfully mimicked the movement until he was actually pedaling with her. Emma said that he was right on time.



Aasron's desire to synchronize with the spinning rhythm reminded me of my longing for the Catholic agrarian lifestyle--a lifestyle dependent on the rhythm of the seasons and the liturgical year, a lifestyle that best prepares one to pedal with God.

On All Hallows Eve

Early Friday morning, Emma Jo of the East Texas prairie climbed a tree to scout for trouble. It was Halloween, after all. Finding none, she visited her grandma, fed the rabbits, and gathered the eggs. Later, when dressed to go calling on friends in town, she heard sea chanties being sung lustily nearby.

Twirling in fright, she began running for the safety of the house.

She had to stop, though, to admire her boots. At that moment an evil,

vain,

singing pirate, leaped from the bushes, grabbed her, and whisked her away in his pirate truck.

Anticipation: It's Keeping Me Waiting

Tuesday we drove to Texas A&M for Emma's participation in the state 4-H Fashion Show. She didn't place, but she had a lot of fun and made lots of new friends.

The trip took only 2 1/2 hours, so we had time for a swim in the hotel pool and a touch-up ironing session before we had to be at Rudder Tower for orientation at 7 p.m.

What a crowd! I never heard how many participants there were, but it was plenty. There were also plenty of changes to the schedule--just to keep things interesting. Thankfully our 4-H agent, Alexis Cordova, and 4-H leader/secretary, Glenda Lowe, met us there to help keep it all straight. The orientation ended with a tour of the important places the girls (and three or four boys) would need to find on Wednesday. Our guide was a lovely girl named Elizabeth from the Beaumont area of our 4-H district.

Wednesday morning Emma had to dress in her costume and interview with the judges. When we entered the dressing room, the first person we saw was a girl from Comal County named Sally Rath who was wearing a costume made from the same pattern as Emma's. Sally, bless her heart, was as surprised as we were. Both girls handled it well, though. Nathaniel and I left Emma to wait for her interview and hurried over to the Rudder theatre with Alexis and Glenda to listen to the Roundup vocal competition. We wanted to support a local girl who was competing. She sang the Patsy Cline song, I'm Always Walkin' After Midnight and did a great job.

Another young lady sang a medley of songs which included The Simple Joys of Maidenhood. I did not know this song, but I made a note of the title so that we could look it up at home.

Our favorite, though, was a duet by two brothers. They wrote a song for their dad to tease him about his New Year's resolution to lose ten pounds. The boys said that he makes the same resolution every year, so they wrote a funny song extolling the virtues of liposuction. (If they think dear old Dad needs liposuction for a mere ten extra pounds, I hesitate to imagine what they might prescribe for someone who is actually obese--chainsaw sculpting?) Their song reminded me of some of the silly songs written by Jim Stafford and Ray Stevens in the '70s. It garnered huge applause from the audience. Luckily Emma joined us in time to hear it.

After a half-hour, Emma had to leave to go to the fashion show rehearsal. Alexis went with her. By 1:00, the rehearsal and the vocal contest were over, and we eagerly joined Alexis and Glenda for lunch at Olive Garden. I left nary a noodle on my plate.

Then it was back to our hotel room for a siesta followed by more touch-up ironing. Emma has determined that her next contest entry will be made with a wrinkle-free fabric.

The nap did Nathaniel a lot of good. He "pressed his luck" teasing Emma with the iron. At last it was time to go back to A&M for the fashion show. Emma wrote in her journal. . .while Nathaniel sang "You Were Always on My Mind" with Willie Nelson on the radio.Nathaniel dropped us off in front of Rudder Tower, and I left Emma with the other contestants.

After the fashion show was over, Emma changed clothes, and we checked out the Roundup dance. Alexis showed Nathaniel and Emma some dance steps, and they enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Never underestimate your 4-H Agent's talents.



On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the grocery store and treated ourselves to a box of Nestle's Drumsticks ice cream. How incredibly wonderful mine tasted, and I am not an ice cream fan.