Book Review: What's Your Creative Type?

What's Your Creative Type?: Harness the Power of Your Artistic Personality by Meta Wagner
An entertaining look at what the author considers the five types of creative people - A-Lister, Artisan, Game Changer, Sensitive Soul, and Activist. The categories are rather narrow, and I suspect most of us would be found in more than one of them . Each type gets a chapter with definitions, quizzes, ideas and advice, and famous examples. This skims the surface of its subject, but is still an interesting read.


For the Birds



I miss my birds.  There is nothing that gives me so much joy as getting up in the morning and watching them at, or under, my feeders.  Goldfinches, house finches, purple finches, juncos, tufted titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, the cardinal pair, mourning doves, downy woodpeckers, the occasional rose-breasted grosbeak, and in summer the catbird.  There must be two catbirds, but I've never seen more than one at a time.
And then there are these furry grey ones.  I hadn't realized birds could have tails like that.  So greedy.  They eat me out of house and home.  They'll just plaster themselves to the feeders and stay and stay, just gobbling away.  I don't understand why the birds don't mob them and drive them away, there are many more of them than there are squirrels.  And, by the way, my supposedly squirrel-proof feeders aren't.
But why am I missing my birds right now?
We had a visitor two weeks ago.  I went outside on a Monday morning and was greeted with this sight.  I feed the birds year round, in spite of warnings, so I do know the risks.  But on the whole I've been lucky, and in the thirty years we've lived here we've only been visited by a bear three times.  We live right in town, after all, and the middle school and high school are just down the hill.  Though there was a day, back when my older son, now 31, was in high school, that a bear ambled across the upper field while he was at soccer practice.
This fellow was particularly thorough and took out all three feeders, as well as the suet feeders, in the side yard.  Fortunately he didn't go through the garden, though he, or she, left a calling card beside it.  And a much larger pile in the back yard.  The hummingbird feeder and seed feeder in the front yard were untouched, fortunately, but  I've taken in the seed feeder to be safe.  I will probably put them back out again in a few weeks as there's been no evidence (no additional piles!) of a return visit.  And I miss my birds.  There are still birds around, I hear them all the time I'm home, but the finches have all gone elsewhere.  I particularly miss the goldfinches.  Their brilliant yellow gives me such joy.

Quote of the Day
Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be.  Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet.  I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.
Groucho Marx

Book Review: Splintered Light

The view from my east window this morning made me think of the title of Verlyn Flieger's book Splintered Light.  There is actually a German word for this phenomenon of the sun shining golden through the new spring leaves, which translates as Mayshine, or May light.  Thank you to Robert Macfarlane for defining it on his blog.  He has a Word of the Day feature which I love.

And, since I mentioned it, here is my review Flieger's book:
Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World by Verlyn Flieger
An interesting look at Tolkien's use of the Word, words, language and light in the world that he created. Actually, he called himself a sub-creator, as there is only one true Creator. He believed that it was important to go back to the roots of words, even to their ancient Indo-European meanings, to understand what a word truly means, in all of its nuances. As language got more complex, as more dialects proliferated, as words were more tightly defined, he felt that it has inexorably separated us from one another and from our surroundings. The more the meaning of something is splintered in this way, the more it will be seen as Other than we are.
There are still a few tulips left in the garden, and a couple of late, double daffodils.  The creeping phlox is blooming like crazy.  In the front border the lilacs are in full bloom, though here on the east side of the house poor Miss Kim (lower right corner) seems to have expired.  She's been struggling the past few years.  I will not mourn, but view this as an opportunity to try something else.

Quote of the Day:
It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy,.  It is what you think about.
Dale Carnegie, from Everyday Happiness, ed. Emma Hill






Today from VioletThyme

A New Camera for Peony Season

The front garden.  Ox-eye daisies, peonies, and roses.                  My camera died this spring, most inconveniently during spring ...