HAPPY HALLOWEEN

It's Official!!!

Two and one half years after loosing our beloved Fr. Bernie to heart failure we have a new priest! Father Jozef! I'll update occasionally on parish life with a Polish priest. The first thing he wants to do is start 1st Friday devotions. He has been working in our combined 5 parish area for a year now and has started a Youth choir, and Bible study classes. He also took 20 kids to Australia (where this picture is from)for World Youth Day. We are all delighted!

Historical Ponderings

The Bookworm has been pondering why people are drawn to particular periods of history and issued an invitation to join her! How could I resist? I love history and like the Bookworm I can find something interesting in every period. But particular interests have changed over time. When I was a teenager and enthralled with Gone With the Wind (it took years for me to reconcile Vivien Leigh as Scarlett)I was also enthralled with the "Old South" and the romance of the Civil War. As I got older I turned to Europe and all those Kings and Queens of the Middle Ages for romance. Who doesn't thrill to the thought of Bare-Breasted Eleanor of Aquitaine riding to the Crusades? After being steeped in the history of the United States I discovered British history and I haven't looked back. Pick any time and the British were up to something interesting even Picts dyeing themselves blue. Even now when Britain is leading the way in showing us the new multi-nationality Nation. But my particular interest of the moment is the Napoleonic Wars. Especially the sea battles! There were giants in those days! I am not alone in this as there is much interest in Horatio Hornblower and Captain Jack Aubrey (but you know I would have fallen hard for Dr. Maturin). I tend towards literature rather than pure history (Which would A History of the English Speaking Peoples be I wonder?)
I discovered this time period through the reading of my children. First the girls who devoured Jane Austen and then my oldest son who became a Hornblower fan. This was during a period when I was having trouble finishing any book I started. I couldn't read Jane as the dialog is too hard to follow with a house full of young boys galloping around but I couldn't put down Midshipman Hornblower! Or Master and Commander either. Vanity Fair is a pretty ripping read also. For diversional reading in these troubled times I am in the middle of Post Captain. Aubrey is bankrupt, his lady is engaged to another and peace has been declared with the French! And he was forced to sell his best hunting horse!!! Could things look blacker?? No, but soon he will be out in the fresh sea breezes chasing after prizes and adventure (and I'm pretty sure he gets the girl in the end).

Chesterton

I read a lot of Chesterton and I read blogs that quote him, comment on him, praise him and emulate him. I subscribe to Gilbert magazine. In my world Chesterton looms large. He's everywhere! So I checked my library system's on-line catalog for the Chesterton biography written by Maisie Ward. Nothing. I check the catalog of the neighboring county--one copy in my hometown library. Multi-tasking a visit with my mother to a trip to the library I find this treasure! I'm the first person to checkout this book since 1955!! Although prior to that it was pretty popular. Kudos to the Corry Public Library for keeping Chesterton faithfully on the shelves all these many years!

Bree!

I've made it 135 miles on my walk to Rivendell and am finally at the Inn of the Prancing Pony!!!

Wrapping up the weekend

On Sunday, after Mass of course, we went to the beach again. A different beach this time. Lake Erie has many sandy beaches natural and otherwise but much of it's shoreline is bluffs and rocks. We also took the dog. And the future engineer who built a bridge to nowhere...okay really it was to a rock.

On Monday, we stayed home and did yard work!

Columbus Day Weekend

On Saturday morning the boys made a really big easel with their dad and also...
On Saturday we went to Rimrock in the Allegeheny National Forest.
On Friday we went to the beach.

Saint Hubert

It was a little early as St. Hubert's day isn't until November but the American Hunting Horn Society performed a Saint Hubert's Mass at a local church Sunday and it was amazing! Made us want to take out the hounds and ride! I was very sorry that we didn't make it to the Requiem the night before.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

We celebrated my mom's 91st birthday yesterday. Many happy returns of the day, Mom!