Happy Tartan Day and San Jacinto Day!

Confederate

Bluebonnet

Cecelia I

Cecelia II

Happy Tartan Day!

Happy San Jacinto Day!

If you have a tartan, I hope you are wearing it today. If you don't have one, you can have some fun and design one of your own using the Tartan Designer in my sidebar.

The site has changed since I used it previously a year or so ago, but you can still use the free demo to make up your own tartan.

There are other sites where you can look up your surnames and see if there are tartans. I have links to some of those, also in my sidebar.

I didn't find one for my Scottish surnames. However, there was an Arnot clan, at one time. It is no more because the last heir didn't have anyone to carry on as chief. So, without a chief, there is no clan. The family became a sept of something else, but I'm not sure what, since it depends on which area my ancestors came from. I've only found back as far as one ancestor whose parents or grandparents are the ones who came from Scotland. Can't go back across the pond, so far.

So, I thought it would be fun to design a taran. I like purple, so that's what I came out with. The bottom two designs are my creations, using the Tartan Designer online. I did 3 more, just for fun. They all look pretty dark, until they are enlarged.

You can use that site to actually design a pattern that can be made up, and made into kilts, scarves, etc. You can even register your own tartan design.

I always feel like I should make these things myself, although I don't have the patience.

The top tartan design is one that you can actually buy. This is called the Confederate pattern. The other pattern is something that a lot of Texans, especially, like. This is called a Bluebonnet design. There are many others that include designs for organizations, states, cities, etc.

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Today is also San Jacinto Day. There are activities at the San Jacinto Monument that you might like to participate in, if you are in that area.

Last night, I did get to see part of one of the Alamo movies, "13 Days To Glory", I believe it was. It was in the wee hours of the morning.

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I didnt' make it to the Brazos Valley Art League meeting today. The flu seems to be going around at our house. Ashton was sick all weekend and had to come home from school this morning. TAKS tests for Math are tomorrow, so he needs to be well by then! And I woke up, with a tummy ache and sneezing, which is how his flu, or whatever it is, started. I guess we are going to pass this around. Just so I am well by Saturday for Sketch Crawl!

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Brandy in Tennessee sent me a photo of the eaves of her house, showing a vent cover, similar to the one that I asked about on the house in Calvert yesterday. She said that her's is iron painted white, and is a decorative covering.

I think that the ones in Calvert are white wood. They look like they might have even had hands on them. We thought that they might be covering a vent, or a hole where there was a stove pipe at one time. But we also thought that the theme of clocks around the house must have some significance.

Possibly, it might help to look up records to see when that house was built and who built it. I feel sure that the Pierce family lived there in the 1930s and probably earlier. That is an older house, but I don't know the dates on it. Or original owners. If it was built there or moved from somewhere else.

Wouldn't it be neat, if those do actually have clock works behind them, to restore them so that they are working clocks! That certainly would be different.

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You can enjoy the old houses in Calvert, and the atmosphere, along with activities there, Saturday April 25 when they have the homes tour, Showcase Calvert 2009. Looks like they are planning a lot of activities. Should be a nice day. And there is a two day quilt show along with the tour. See yesterday's post and my sidebar for links.

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Looks like we are having a day of soup, crackers, Jello, and hot tea while the temperature drops outside.

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Cecelia III

Design for a Tartan

Vision-Eye Test

Eye Test 8" x 12 " watercolors

"Eye Test" was done on 140 # Strathmore watercolor paper using Winsor Newton watercolors.

A few days passed after the injection in my eye, and my eye looked some better. It still sagged and drooped, watered, and was a little pink looking. But, my birthday had passed and my drivers license had expired. My daughter took me to get the license renewed. I felt confident because two doctors had told me in the last two weeks that my vision was good enough to pass this eye exam.

What a disappointment it was. I took in my old license, the renewal notice, and my fee, ready to keep my license. I had braved all that the doctor's office had thrown at me, so I felt ready.

I was directed to look into what looked like a wooden box. All I could see was the edges of the box around my face, a wavey, black background with squiggley green lines on it. I tried closing one eye, I blinked, I squinted and it didn't change. The clerk took me to another machine and it was no better.

"Time to see an eye doctor," she advised.

"I've been to two eye doctors in the past two weeks, and I could read their charts", I told her. "I do have sinus trouble today from the wind, and I'm getting over a little eye infection."

She told me that I had two years, and to come back and try again when my eye was better.

I didn't want to tell her that my eye may not get any better, but only worse. Still, I should have been able to see something. I didn't know what was wrong.

"Just don't get caught driving with an expired license," she advised as we left.

I was dejected, to think that I couldn't drive anymore. I got my license when I was 12, and had started driving when I was 8, although that was a bit reluctantly. Daddy insisted that I try to drive the war surplus Jeep he had bought. Scared both of us silly when I drove up a little hill and into a neighbor's yard when I tried to carefully turn a corner! So, he made me drive the tractor out in the pasture, to learn how to drive better. As long as I could remember, I either sat in someone's lap while they drove, or stood on the seat beside them. I guess my driving career might be over. Good thing I liked to ride around in the back seat and talk to the grandsons , or look for pictures to draw, while someone else drives. Still, riding in a car is not that fun anymore, with all the distortion and strange things I see. I hadn't been driving since I didn't have to go to work anymore, and, even then, I preferred to have my daughter drop me off at work. And, when my knees started bothering me, I quit driving. Still, not having a license is not a good feeling-just in case I should need to drive and my eyes were better. Maybe, if the eyes and knees get worked on, I can drive again.

It was like one more thing had been taken away from me. One more stone in the path to the end of life. I tried to stay as cheerful as I could reminding myself that it was better to let someone else do the work while I enjoyed looking for pictures, taking photos, drawing, talking to the kids. Still, I knew that, if I just wanted to take myself for a ride, or I needed to go somewhere, I had to wait until other people could, or would, take me. Sometimes it's easier to just stay at home.

I hope that this one goes through. I've had trouble "publishing" or posting the last three posts. I finally got the first one to work. I gave up on the one I was going to send today, about Saturday nights, and will try that some other Saturday. I had to delete what I wrote about for this one, and I'm rewriting it shorter. I think the problem comes when my internet can't find the server, or something of that sort. Computers are a mystery to me. I did print and save the original story, so I have them to keep with my pictures.

The painting today looks like some sort of Egyptian design rather than an eye chart. But, that's how it appeared to me.

Today, I heard an interesting program on tv with an author who has a book out on a man who was blind since age 3. The blind man has had surgery which restored his vision somewhat. Colors and patterns were fascinating to him, but he didn't have the depth that he needed. So, he was having trouble with 3-dimensional things, like faces. I am putting a link to the author on my page in the Authors and Artists section.

Enjoy, and pass my address on to anyone who you think might be interested.