W is for Wernersville, PA and the Jesuit Center.  When I was introduced to the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises at the University of Scranton, little did I know that Stratoz be the one most touched by them.  My spiritual director, when I told her I was moving to Lansdale, had said “Wernersville.  That is where [...]

I first saw these chemistry illustrations via Maria Popova over at Brain Pickings, How Chemistry Works: Gorgeous Vintage Science Diagrams, 1854, by Edward Youmans.  My mosaic eye was immediately drawn to the modular construction of the flame in Chemistry of Combusion and Illumination. The quilt-like arrangements of Isomerism intrigued me as well.  And of course, [...]

I am playing the Friday Five at the RevGals.  This week’s question is What Makes You Smile?   1.  Listening to live jazz with Stratoz. It’s coming up on 10 years since we started enjoying jazz music, and it has brought us many smiles, especially since the musicians are usually smiling themselves.     2. [...]

Today I am playing the RevGal Friday Five: Where is its home? Tell us your favorite homes for five things, the places that you can always and reliably find them.  The idea of items having “homes” has taken awhile for me to catch onto.  In my house, it seemed only special things had homes.  The [...]

I am playing the Friday Five at RevGalBlogPals on the theme of Corner Shops.  Where I grew up in Edmonton, there were many corner stores,  and I was intrigued by the array of goods, and the possibility that I could someday buy Key-Tab notebooks(we called them “scribblers” in Canada).  When Stratoz and I moved to Southeast [...]

I am a Christmas at Sea Knitter, and sent my 2012 donation of Seafarer’s Scarves off to Port Newark, NJ.  I was saddened to hear that the Seamen’s Church Institute(SCI), which sponsors the volunteer knitting program, got flooded by Sandy, but grateful for the dedication of the SCI staff who salvaged many of the knitted [...]

Be Present at our table, Lord Be present at our table, Lord; Be here and everywhere adored; From Thine all-bounteous hand our food May we receive with gratitude. Amen. From The Hymnal and Liturgies of the Moravian Church(1969) The text was written by John Cennick(1740), to the tune of Wareham by William Knapp.  We sang [...]

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. ~ Thomas Merton Kerri Farley has been an inspiration, with her bird and nature photography(and her choice of quotes), and Stratoz was particularly taken with her Blue Jay – Sweet Soul Shining Through and he asked if he could do a glass interpretation [...]

Alas, Nita Leland’s Exploring Color: How to Use and Control Color in Your Painting is out of print, but used copies are still around.  I found a copy at the public library in 2004, and was entranced with Nita Leland’s assertion that color can be learned.  As I explored collage and other visual mediums, I [...]