General Chat

Clover, I have read your piece twice and in true Irish fashion I am tearful because of the pathos within the poem. How brave those young and old people were, what terrible conditions they left behind in order to survive. I can only tread in their footsteps and be grateful for what they
did and for their fortitude.
The heartache must have been enormous for those who left behind.

Bridget
09.25 hrs Spain

Tracy, I have just gone to the previous page and read your entries, they are great and thank you for adding them. I shall be back later today and will read them again as I shall have more time.

Please keep posting

09.30 hrs Spain

Skylarks are now, sadly, a rare sight and sound where I live, but whenever I hear or see one this verse springs easily to mind ;


Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert -
That from Heaven or near it
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.


Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest,
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.


In the golden lightning
Of the sunken sun,
O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
Thou dost float and run,
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.


The pale purple even
Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of Heaven,
In the broad daylight
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight -

'Remember, you are the only person on earth who can use your ability'.

Zig Zigler (1926 - )

Irving Thalberg of MGM said to Louis B Mayer not tko bid for the film rights for Gone with the Wind...By saying "Forget it Louis, no Civil War film ever made a nickel............how rong can you be

Clover,what a lovely poem, it really touched the heart strings, what those folk went through to get to a better life was quite unbelievable. Robin, The poem about the skylark was lovely too. When I was a child, we lived near the Berkshire Downs, and when picknicking we used to often see and hear the Skylark. I once found a Skylarks nest on the ground, which was a rare find even in those days! They seemed such happy times, the sun was ALWAYS shining, and my parents seemed happy and unhurried. It was a LONG time ago!!!!

I'd like to add this quote from Kipling which I heard this morning on the radio spoken by Aung San Suu Kyi.

I'd not give way for an Emperor,
I'd hold my road for a King -
To the triple crown I would not bow down -
But this is a different thing.
I'll not fight with the 'Powers of Air',
Sentry, pass him through!
Drawbridge let fall, 'tis the Lord of us all,
The Dreamer whose dreams come true!

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I've often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, serene.

I wish I knew the people,
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories
Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like.
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time
To tell who, what, where, when,
These faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be tossed away?

Make time to save your pictures,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.

5EXY
This really hit home as I seem to be the chief photo keeper of the family. I really do have around 1500, yes 1500 photos going back as far as my great great Grandparent and add to the list around 100 original documents such as wedding and deaths. I did start buying special acid free document folders but they are quite expensive.

I am going to give some of these photos to my children who appear to be settled in life.

Thank you everyone for keeping this thread going,

07.35 hrs Spain :-)

Abstract Art

Incoherent dabs of paint in which serious critics detect shades of Metaphysical doubt or alienation, when in fact the artist was simply suffering from the effects of undigested shepherds pie

Rick Bayan

Genes
The hand we are dealt with in the poker game of life.
Rick Ryan

13.46 hrs Spain

The Rose of Tralee.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pale moon was rising above the green mountain
The sun was declining beneath the blue sea
When I strayed with my love to the pure crystal fountain
That stands in beautiful vale of Tralee.
She was lovely and fair as the rose of the summer
Yet, 'twas not her beauty alone that won me
Oh no! 'Twas the the truth in her eye ever beaming
That made me love Mary, the Rose of Tralee.

The cool shades of evening their mantle were spreading
And Mary all smiling was listening to me
The moon through the valley her pale rays was shedding
When I won the heart of the Rose of Tralee.
Though lovely and fair as the rose of the summer
Yet, 'twas not her beauty alone that won me
Oh no! 'Twas the the truth in her eye ever beaming
That made me love Mary, the Rose of Tralee.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

William Pembroke Mulchinock (1820-1864).

Another one from 'A Shropshire Lad'

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are lain;
The rose-lipped girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
And all the craggy mountains yields.


There we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.


And I will make thee beds of roses
With a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;


A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair linèd slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;


A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.


The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.


Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.


The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.


Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.


Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.


But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.

"Oh, you three are a fine pair if ever I saw one!"

Sorry I haven't been on here for a day or two. Very busy at the moment and also our Wedding Anniversary tommorrow. Been trying to think of something to write instead of a card BUT my brain is blocked....no comments please !!!!

We have been married for 18 years and both mothers told us we would not last for 6 weeks.. Ha Ha. :-D :-D <3

Congratulations Spanish Eyes particularly as you've proved the pundits WRONG!! mind you my OH and I have been married for 47 years!!!! Surely we must deserve a medal!! My OH's birthday tomorrow and he's 71, I've known him since he was 20!! Have a happy day.

Lizlynes

Thank you for your message. Congratulations.

My eldest sister is 74 and has been married for 54 years, my younger sister has been married for 41 years and I am the only one who has bern married twice. First time for 23 years .

I do believe that marriage is for life, so felt a complete failure when the divorce went through, but surprisingly the RC Priest offered me an annulment but somehow that did not seem the right thing to do.
I hope that you have many more years together.

16.55 hrs Spain

Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone,
To all my friends a burthen grown.

No more I hear my Church’s bell,
Than if it rang out for my knell.

At thunder now no more I start,
Than at the rumbling of a cart.

Nay, what’s incredible, alack!
I hardly hear a woman’s clack.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) about his own deafness.

"Friendship does not watch clocks".