Reading, Writing, Arthmetic & Mermaids

I truly do not know the purpose of my Blog. I guess I will start out writing about the things I like, things that happened in the past and currently. If for no other purpose my Granddaughter, Mikael will want to read it someday. She likes talking with me and having me tell her things that have happened in my life.
I have always loved to read. I can remember as a little girl the first time I read "Ala Baba & the Forty Thieves". Then as now I can get so engrossed that I don't know what is going on around me. When I read Ala Baba I was somewhere between 7 - 9 years old. My Mother had taught me to read when I was 5. I was in the house alone reading Ala Baba (my Mother was at the hsopital with my younger sister and my Dad and brothers were working outside in the garden) I was deeply involved in the story when I heard a sound or something it may have been a light dimming or a creak in the house, but I heard it and jumped scared to death. I had to stop reading and go outside and stay with my Dad. It was days before I could go back and start reading the story. The only other book that really frightened me was "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King. I read it when my children were small. I stayed up reading one night then was actually scared to go to bed and when I did I dreamed all night about something being at my window. The next morning I picked the book up early to finish it, I knew I had to get to the end hours before my bedtime. I started in again reading it a few months back. I got about half through the book and had to stop. I don't think I will ever be brave enough to finish it again. Another book I read at a young age was "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". I still re read it from time to time. My best friend since we were 11 years old and I also reread "Gone with the Wind".

As maybe you can tell from my profile I seem to favor Southern authors with Pat Conroy being at the top of my list followed by Anne Rivers Sidon (although I was disappointed with her last 2 books), Dorthea Benton Frank, Sue Miller, Harper Lee and others.

I like Elizabeth Berg, Rosamunde Pilcher (my favorite being Winter Solstice, Dean Kontz, any cookbook. I own most books written about Ocracoke Island. My 3 favorite ones are Ocracoke Wild and Ocracoke Odyssey by Pat Garber and Ocracoke Portrait by Ann Ehringhaus. Ann Lindbergh's Gift From the Sea. I first read Gift from the Sea only 10 years ago, 1996. My husband and I were in Ocean City and then going on to Ocracoke. I picked it up on Ocean City's boardwalk. T.S. Eliot



I grow old … I grow old …

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

I have heard the Mermaids singing each to each
I do not think they will sing to me

I have seen them riding seaweeds on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water and back
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us and we drown