Saturday Snapshot: Birthday Presents

On April 14, 2012April 13, 2012 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations, Saturday Snapshot25 Comments

With my birthday yesterday, I thought a picture of some very cool presents would be appropriate for Saturday Snapshot!

I didn’t realise until I took this photo what very British-themed gifts I got this year–I guess my family knows my interests! I’m planning a trip to London this fall, so the London guidebook, map and journal are quite appropriate. That’s a “Disappearing TARDIS” mug from Doctor Who (more on that in a moment), and a Wizard of Oz CD. You’re about to tell me that L. Frank Baum was American…and he was, but it’s Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Wizard of Oz, performed in London, with Michael Crawford in the title role.

The TARDIS is the Doctor’s time (and space) machine (it’s bigger on the inside), which appears and disappears. In this case, when you add hot water.

Disappearing TARDIS — The TARDIS disappears on one side...and appears on the other!

I had fun snapping those pictures. 🙂 And what could be more British than drinking tea in a Doctor Who mug?

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Saturday Snapshot: Visiting Mr. Lincoln

On March 31, 2012March 30, 2012 By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot22 Comments

Vacation photos this week for Saturday Snapshot, from my trip to Washington D.C. last fall. I’d never been there, and one of the things I was most excited to see was the Lincoln Memorial. I like Mr. Lincoln, but I think it was also because the Memorial comes up so often in books and movies–and because of Heinlein.

The first time I can remember being struck by the Lincoln Memorial was reading Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein, probably 12 or 15 years ago. (A good book, by the way.) It’s set in the distant future, humanity has spread across the stars, a trip from California to Washington D.C. is an easy jaunt by hovercar or something like it…but at one point, the characters visit the Lincoln Memorial. The timelessness of it struck me, that in this distant future where everything is different, the Lincoln Memorial is still there. Sure, it’s fiction written by a modern author, with modern priorities, but it made sense.

I reread Citizen of the Galaxy in the last year or two, remembering very little except the Lincoln Memorial–and I found out I hadn’t remembered that right anyway. They go to the Lincoln Memorial, but it’s a re-creation, which kind of spoils it–but maybe not, because the principle is still true. Some things, like Stonehenge and the Roman Colosseum and perhaps the Lincoln Memorial, last. Which makes visiting them like visiting a bit of history.

And at least I know that Mr. Smith was at the real one, when he went to Washington!

Saturday Snapshot: Glories of Daffodils

On March 24, 2012March 23, 2012 By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot21 Comments

You know that I love daffodils. Well, I’ve been reveling in daffodils recently! Safeway was selling daffodils in bunches of ten, three bunches for five dollars–which just seemed to me like an obvious invitation to buy 30 daffodils… It was a gloomy, rainy week and the perfect time to have some indoor sunshine in flower form.

I couldn’t quite capture the great massed golden glory of them, but here are my best attempts.

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Saturday Snapshot: Forty Bookish Shades of Green

On March 17, 2012March 22, 2012 By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot26 Comments

Just for fun for St. Patrick’s Day, forty shades of green pulled from my bookcases.

I love how eclectic the books ended up being, when I selected them by something as random as color–everything from Walden to Peanuts, Beverly Cleary to Terry Pratchett to William Shakespeare. I guess you can’t judge a book by its spine!

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