The X-factor for ABC Wedesday

Pheno gave us so many examples of X's, I felt unable to find any more and then this video came along from a friend.  This is the Australian version of American Idol or Eurovision.  I wish us all the courage of Emmanuel Kelly in the coming year and the peace John Lennon dreamed of.

Willow in the winter

Earlier this month Willow waited to hear  my wishes on which way to go, the lower pond path or the upper.  That was a wonderful snowy morning, but today is woefully without snow as we wend our way to Christmas.  We are witnessing fog and rain and temperatures quite above normal.  So the lyrics of the Wassail Song are very appropriate to our winter weather:

Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a-wand'ring
So fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.

Whoops, I got ahead of myself.  Let Good King Wenceslas and me wish you a very Merry Christmas, first with Robert Shaw Chorale

and then wigging out with Mannheim Steamroller.  Happy Holidays to all!

Many more holiday wishes await you at ABC Wednesday!

Victuals on ABC Wednesday

A vintage kind of word for this week's ABC Wednesday: victuals.  Defined as food fit for human consumption, three of its synonyms also start with v: viand or vittles or vivers.  

Never quite certain what vibes or little voices in my head cause me to visit a particular word to visually share with you.  But this vitamin-filled breakfast omelet (spinach, mushrooms, yellow peppers, one real egg and 1/2 cup egg substitute) with homemade whole wheat artisan bread (also with a butter substitute) inspired me to find the camera when Gene served it up several weeks ago.  And by the way, that is V-8 juice in the glass.  I know I didn't have ABC Wednesday in mind, it just look so delicious -- and it was.  Gene could be a very successful victualier.  Best be voracious when approaching a breakfast creation by Gene!

As some of you know, many weeks I share with you my wanderings through references to the word that is my "victim" of the week, finding amazingly that I am never really alone in using even unusual words.  For example, go to the Vintage Victuals,  a blog by Ellie to share old-fashioned and family recipes.   Or just explore good foods and their photos at Brooke's Victuals & Libations blog.  If you want someone else to good bread for you and you live in Berkeley,  California, try Vital Vittles,  an organic mill and bakery.

To read the fascinating history of the airlift of food to Berlin during 1948-49, called Operation Vittles, check out this excellent Wikipedia article on the background of a divided Berlin, the Soviet Blockade, and the US and British response.  Keep reading and don't miss the story of Colonel Gail Halvorsen who dropped candy to the children of Berlin (they called them "raisin bombs"), an idea adopted by all the Allied pilots and called Operation Little Vittles.


I must admit to being a victim of verbomania......  Vive la verbose!!!  And please visit more purveyors of vivacious V words at ABC Wednesday.

The Used Book Room

Hanging among many others, this sign is from the Long Lake Food and Book Shop and one more in my series in homage to the shop's utterly unique owner, Joanne Holden.   The new owner will start another store, but it could never be the same unusual place that Joanne made it.  Many will miss it!

More U blogs are under construction at this week's ABC Wednesday.  Utilize your time well by going there!

Once a sundog....

Until I had my camera in hand, there was a sundog in the middle of this cloud fragment.  Yesterday was only the second time I have seen a sundog and the first was also afternoon of a cold day.  I think of them as miniature rainbows, perhaps a better description would be a section of a rainbow.  The sundog, or parhelion, is ice crystals reflecting the sun. 

I recommend these Wikipedia articles: Sundog and Atmospheric Optics.  And for a great novel, please read Jim Harrison's Sundog

November goes out like a .....

This is what walked in early yesterday morning.  If March can go out like a lion, this November went out like, well, a polar bear!  There are still three weeks until winter officially comes and all the signs point to a snowy one.