While it's no secret that we enjoy a nice wine, and have traveled many miles to taste the fruit of the vine, we only traveled as far as our local wine shop for this delicious Grüner Veltliner from Austria.
This food-friendly white wine from the Skeleton label is bottled, not in the standard 750ml bottle - but a full liter, and instead of the traditional cork or screw cap, as is becoming more popular, this wine had a pop top like soda bottles used to have.
We really enjoyed this, and as you can see it was quite a hit with Sophie, too.
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The late afternoon sun perfectly illuminated this ivy leaf. In thinking about this picture and the story it could tell, I remembered this little ditty from my childhood.
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey.
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
And that prompted me to look deeper into this silly song. It was written back in 1943 by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston, based on this English nursery rhyme.
Mares eat oats
And does eat oats
And little lambs eat ivy
A kid'll eat ivy, too
Wouldn't you?
It seems that Drake's daughter came home singing "Cowzy tweet and sowzy tweet and liddle sharksy doisters." Which translates to "cows eat wheat and sows eat wheat and little sharks eat oysters". This gave Drake the idea to write a silly song.
However, at that time no one wanted to publish a silly song. Finally he pitched it to his friend Al Trace, who liked it and performed it with his band the Silly Symphonists. After this, it was a huge hit for Merry Macs in this 1944 recording.
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Person who chases two rabbits catches neither. - Confucius
So who is Confucius and what is trying to say here? Confucius, 551-479 BC, was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician and philosopher. Apparently he wore a lot of hats. His life and his teachings are complex, but mostly center around virtue, moral behavior and kindness and respect of others. He followed the principle "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself", a precursor for the Golden Rule as we know it today. Now back to the rabbits. Picture trying to chase after two rabbits with each running back and forth in opposite directions. First you pursue one and he runs into the briar patch, then you turn back to the other who scurries into his hole. You go back and forth between the two, and at the end of the day you have caught neither rabbit. Now apply this thought to several projects. If you split your focus between the two, neither getting your undivided attention, you may find that at the end of the day both projects remain unfinished. Being torn between two options is like trying to get both rabbits - it often leads to neither being fruitful.
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Today is the first day of Autumn 2012. Unlike Septembers of recent years, there is a crispness to the mornings, and the daytime temperatures are more in keeping with the changing seasons. Many years, September is just an extension of summer in our neck of the woods. One year I was blowing leaves in 90 degree heat. In my mind there was something really wrong with that picture.
This year takes me back to my elementary school days, where the start of school meant sweaters in the mornings, and enjoying the warmth of the sun rather than longing for shade. With luck we'll have a long Autumn before the arrival of old man winter. What are some of your favorite Fall activities?
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Another year has rolled around. Can you believe how fast time flies when you're blogging? For some of you it was a long, hot summer (wasn't there a movie by that name?) and some of you barely saw the sun, let alone beach-worthy temperatures. Either way, Fall is just around the corner and so wraps up another year for me in the blogosphere. No year of blogging is "just another year". There are things to be learned, people to be met and new experiences to be had. One of the highlights of this year was participating in a month-long writing marathon hosted by Nicky and Mike ofWe Work for Cheese. These innovative individuals decided it would be fun to come up with 30 topics and see how many people would or could post for 30 consecutive days. I entered this challenge with doubts, only promising that I would give it a shot since I normally post 3 days a week. It was fun and most definitely a learning experience. I learned that I could take 30 random, off-the-wall topics and write a post for each one. Granted some were not the most spectacular pieces of literature ever to grace the internet, but I was pleased enough with each to post it for all to see.
After the high of writing for 30 straight days and/or nights, the summer slump hit hard, and it seemed as if much of the blogging world went on sabbatical. I'd like to end summer on a positive note, so to celebrate my third year of blogging and say "Thank You" to my readers, I am giving away a $25 Amazon gift card. One lucky reader will be chosen from a random drawing to be held on Monday, October 1. This is my first giveaway, so the rules are very simple. All you have to do is leave a comment on any post, starting with this one, through 11:59 p.m. September 30. Each comment will count as a separate entry.
The winner will be announced on October 1, following the Quote of the Week. Good luck and thanks for visiting Roses to Rainbows over the past three years.
