I love Lucy

These are Lucy.

Lucy, I love you.

You are smart & clever. I'm pretty sure you Boss your home and that you run a tight ship there.

Also, au naturel or chicly groomed, you're gorgeous.

PLUS!

Sparkling personality, sly sense of humor, cunning wit and underneath all that a true capacity for love & compassion, Lucy, these are among your qualities that today's entry celebrates. Lucy, I love you so much. Your pal, M²

Fifty Nine

This entry, dedicated to two favorite people for whom these photos should have special meaning.

a hint: the geographic location of the photos is significant to those people.

2nd hint: I love them very much.

3rd hint: they trod these streets in mid-January 1949 & 2008.

Do you know who they are?!

A Post Script hint: Pictured below, a relative new-comer to our mystery site (he didn't arrive 'til 1956), but he's a special favorite for (at least one of) the 2 favorite people.

Another New Year Message

Enough Light for the Next Step

[Henri Nouwen]
Often we want to be able to see into the future. We say, "How will next year be for me? Where will I be five or ten years from now?" There are no answers to these questions. Mostly we have just enough light to see the next step: what we have to do in the coming hour or the following day. The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark. When we are able to take the next step with the trust that we will have enough light for the step that follows, we can walk through life with joy and be surprised at how far we go. Let's rejoice in the little light we carry and not ask for the great beam that would take all shadows away.

Christmas Night

Here, my long promised Christmas Night blog entry. I had planned to detail the evening's events: our exchanges of gifts, Christmas crackers, appetising dinner including home-baked cake & flamed pudding with hidden six-pence, robust caroling & story-telling, seasonal toasts.

Imagine my surprise: Words Fail Me.

[caption, above: family holiday with Pam & The Girls]


[caption, below: Pam & Lily]

[caption: Saeid & Sophie]

[caption: All the Girls]

May the happiness of this Christmas Night abide in our hearts throughout the new year.

Welcome, 2008

Conscientious bloggers incessantly search for the appropriate combination of words & visuals with which to express their sentiments. Therefore, as you will imagine, the hunt for an image to precisely express my new year message began some time ago.

I was looking for something bold, an object of beauty, yet a useful thing, for something extravagant and simple.

And yet, that hunt went unrewarded until last night: New Year's Eve. Here's the story:

Mama et Papa Call It A Day everyday at the cocktail hour and late-night partying is, for them, passe. [BTW, Mama insists that "to party" is not a verb that belongs in the English language; she's so mid-20th century, pauvre Mama.] Thus, our new year's eve party was scheduled for 5PM & restricted to a highly select [eccentric?] guest list.

The drinks offered excluded champagne [not only the norm at new year's eve parties, but my favored tipple, although I occasionally indulge in an inspirational pre-blogging vodka martini] but included ginger ale and Fuze (don't ask), as well as the old standards, i.e., beer, scotch and vodka. The menu: roast pork loin, roast potatoes, steamed green beans, yogurt-wth-cucummber, garlic bread, and mixed greens with honey-truffles-mustard-oil&vinegar dressing. Cheeses, nuts and dried fruits. [The surprise featured chef: Mama]

Here's The Kicker

Was it sheer serendipity that Ruth & George brought me the most gorgeous gift I've ever received which simultaneously provided the perfect representation of my new year's message?

[caption: my new year's bone!]

[Expressed in Words:]

Dear Friends & Loyal Fans, May 2008 bring you health and happiness, prosperity and peace. And in the fulness of time, may you exprience every blessing in joyful abundance .

with love, Mercury Murphy/M²/Roushanzamir

post script: I will deliver soon on my promise to describe my Christmas dinner party. It was one of the best parties I've ever attended & certainly serves as ballast to Mama et Papa's peculiar approach to entertaining.

Christmas, Part 2: the Presents

I have been accused, by an envious few, of Being Unnecessarily Wordy. Sheer Calumny.

Still, for those fans who prefer the simplicity of visual communication, I present (get it?) this photo-essay titled:

Good Behavior Properly & Promptly Rewarded: presents from Santa

Carob cookies in pasta strainer

Hi-IQ Balls-within-a-Ball

Mind the Gap 3D t-shirt

Red Toys!

Books, amonsgt others Animals in Translation

Papa's valuable antiques (see Letter to Santa, 12-20-07)

Cheers!

Surfeited, I nap.

Christmas, Part 1: early morning

Christmas morning dawned happily, the gray sky betokening rain to come, a blessing for drought-ridden northeast Georgia (location of the Roushanzamir home).

So happily, that I'm hard put to describe it! Words & photos [almost] fail me.

One small incident exemplifies the beauty of this year's Christmas morn.

Some months ago Mama purchased for me a Christmas ruff. Red, with white trim and a bell. She expected me to wear it at various holiday functions & literally chased me 'round the house in her sad attempt to persuade me to don The Ruff. [Due to my native cunning I managed to hide it just prior to the picture-with-Santa event; see 20-December-07 entry].

The true spirit of Christmas rose with me on Christmas morning & when Mama renewed her request, I humbly, willingly and yes, Happily, wore the ruff [if only momentarily].

Here, pictured is that ruff, along with a couple of other "gifts" received-- yes, some very beautiful people actually gave me antlers & a jingle-bell collar.




Still to come, more pictures of gifts received.

Plus:

What Santa brought Mama et Papa.

How I spent Christmas night (hint: singing, eating, drinking & general merriment)