A Few Things

I went to a friend's wedding at this church, St. Louis, on Saturday. It has recently been renovated. This is the church where I got married, but it looks completely different. There's been an interim renovation which you can see here, but I can't find what it looked like 41 years ago. I think it's a great improvement. I took the picture on the left through one of windows in the hall outside the church.

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We had the alternate readings for the Feast of the Holy Family in our parish yesterday. I was really struck by the story of Hannah and Samuel. I've read and heard this many times, but I've never really thought about before except as a precursor to Mary. We don't know how long Hannah had been waiting for a child, but she waited a long time, and prayed fervently that the Lord would send her one. Then, after Samuel is born, as soon as she is weaned, she takes him to the temple and leaves him there. How hard that must have been for her. I can't imagine. I wonder if she ever got to see him or talk to him.

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We went walking through the field again today, and this time we turned back through another path that leads through some woods. I love to go down this path because there's an old house there. I tried to get the chimney in the shot, but it's hiding behind a tree on the left.

Here's a shot through the front door, and out a back window. You can see the steps and that they are a few feet in front of the house. I looks like there may have been a porch in between.

There's still a window shade hanging on a window in a partially collapsed wall. It's still amazingly white.

And there was some kind of outbuilding across the path.

I love to look at buildings like this and think about the people who lived there and what their lives must have been like. I'm pretty sure that the family that owns the land now is the same family that owned this house. They live in a newer house (obviously newer) across the street. 

And finally, here is some sumac because I like sumac.

AMDG

Winter Walk

We took a walk this afternoon for the first time since last Saturday. I'm sure that I will know about it tomorrow. These pictures were taken in the field that's across the street from the end of our road, and on our street on the way home. Before I had a job, I used to walk in this field all the time, and I've been wanting to get back out there. Today was the first chance I've had. Unfortunately, it was too muddy (in the middle of the horrible drought) to get far, but it was pleasant while it lasted. This field was planted in cotton in the summer and the first picture shows the place where the great, big, truck-sized bale of cotton sat before they hauled it off.

I liked the pattern in the ice in this puddle. When I looked at the picture, I noticed it has a rather ghostly shape.

There were quite a few of these big, yellow berries (if they are berries) around. I don't know what they are, but they go well with Bill's hat.

As you can see, most everything is gray and brown--I like it that way--but there's still some color here and there.

Nice and Christmas-y

Evidence of conifers for Craig.

AMDG

Well, I just noticed that the thousandth comment was posted on this blog this afternoon. Unfortunately, I was the one who posted it, so I will keep the prize for myself.

AMDG

Under the Tree

Here is a very blurry, too big picture of the bottom of my Christmas tree. The reason I have posted it is down at the bottom of the picture. See that little angel barely hanging onto the tip of a branch? I remember when my kids were young, I would have the whole tree looking just the way I wanted and I'd come in the room and find most of the ornaments from the middle of the tree hanging off the bottom branches. I found it a bit annoying, but mostly funny at the time. Now I love looking at that angel because it's a sure sign that there's been a little one in the house.

AMDG

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I wanted to call this entry An Unexpected Pleasure but I googled that term and saw that several others had thought of it before I did. I was really very pleasantly surprised by the movie and would recommend it to anyone except the very pickiest of the picky. Now, I am a card-carrying member of the pickiest of the picky, and I really like the movie anyway. There were a few puerile scenes and few things one could complain about, but too few to mention when for the most part it was so enjoyable. The scenery was, of course, wonderful, and Martin Freeman was great as Bilbo Baggins. I was a bit unhappy, though, when I realized that the reason I think he really looks the part is because he so closely resembles the character in the dreadful 1977 animated movie. What he doesn't very much resemble is the picture on the left. 

I had almost decided not to see the film, but then it occurred to me that The Hobbit isn't like Lord of the Rings or The Narnia Chronicles. It doesn't have a lot of underlying meaning for a director to mess up, and it's not something to which I'm deeply emotionally attached. It's just a great story. So, I knew that unless Peter Jackson just changed the story in a way that made it completely unrecognizable, I wouldn't hate it, and as far as I can tell, he didn't change much, although he probably changed enough to irk the aforementioned pickers. Of course, it's been many years since I read The Hobbit, so maybe I would have been more irked. I don't think so, though. 

So, go see it! I'll be interested to hear what you have to say.

AMDG

Update: I meant to say this last night, but forgot. My biggest complaint about Lord of the Rings, and I had many, was the way that Aragorn was portrayed. It was almost like that false, post Vatican II image of Jesus that you come across--unaware of Who He was, self-doubting, weak.  After watching The Hobbit, one of the things I left thinking was that if Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin Oakenshield, had played Aragorn, I might not dislike Lord of the Rings so much--of course, he doesn't look like a dwarf.

The End of the Road

On Saturday, December 22, we reached our parish church and finished the Pilgrimage~this part of it anyway.

Welcome to the big city. You can see how densely populated it is.

First sign of civilization.

Finally, the business district!

A considerately placed restroom

Northwest Mississippi Community College Administration Building

Strayhorn! The street where my church lives

Across the street from the stop sign we find the water tower. It says "SENATOBIA *FIVE STAR CITY*"  I haven't been able to find out why it's the Five Star City or when or how it got that name, but in searching for the information, I found on Wikipedia that two movies that were partially filmed in Senatobia have been nominated for Academy Awards: The Client and The People vs. Larry Flynt.

I thought that when I got to this last half-mile stretch, I would be so excited that I would fly down the street. Well, I was wrong. I felt so exhausted that I told Bill that if it had been a day that wasn't the last day, I would have sat down in the middle of the sidewalk and told him to go get the car. And there were all these terrible obstacles like stairs on the sidewalks. Whoever thought of such a horrible thing? And if you look down the street, you can see that mountain rising up in the distance. 

St. Gregory the Great! Hurrah! You can see Mary off on the left.

Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and wise men and ox and ass and camel and sheep and angels (there were three) were waiting for us--and Jesus.

It's so convenient to have a key to the door of the church.

And Jesus was waiting for us! 

So that's it for now. Sometime soon we will head for Holy Spirit church in Hernando. 

AMDG