Following the Lines

| Flower Roberts

These books are supposed to be for coloring mindfuly and de-stressing. I have tried that. It does not work for me. I would rather draw or paint than color between the lines.
I have these books bevause of their lines. While I was an artist, I used these lines as inspiration to make templates to cut stained glass. I made brooches, hanging ornaments, stepping stones and mosaics. The work was hard on my hands, but I loved it. I still have most of my equipment. Maybe I will make some small things now that there are fewer plants in my workshop…or not.


I will share a page from each book, so you can enjoy the lovely lines of the drawings.

Books with beautiful lines.

American Wild Flowers by Paul E. Kennedy has good clean lines and accurate illistration. There are colored pictures of each so the correct colors can be used.

Enviroscapes by MindWare has beautifully arranged groupings. The use of symmetry is amazing. The drawings are large, so not hard to color.

Lilypads and waterlily blooms from EnviroScapes

Haeckel’s book of diatoms will be loved by any biologist. The first time I saw one under a microscope, the world stopped. Some pictures are colored. All have the scientific names. There is a ClipArt cd included. This is a treasure.

Euchitonia species

Ruth Heller is one of my FAVORITE illustrators. The children’s books she has done are wonderful. Look her up for more of her artwork. There are also coloring books by her of Ornaments. Sea.Life, Shapes and Spring Has Sprung. Oh dear! I must look those up.

Various leaves in many sizes.

Winged Wonders by Color Creatives has many different styles of art. Some resemble mandalas and mosaics. This is a nicely mixed set of illustrations for someone who intends to color the pictures.

Animal Kingdom by Millie Marotta is amazing just to look at. The drawings are complex so do not frustrate a little person with this book. She encourages coloring in patterns. Gorgeous drawings without color.

Wow!!!

Nature, Coloring for Mindfulness has pages full of repeated patterns. It is intricate.

The last one is Secret Garden An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book by Johanna Basford. I consider this the most magical of all of these. Each page is a surprise. THIS is my favorite. Looking through these pages is like touring a wonderland.

If you know of someone who colors, draws or does stained glass art, one of these books would make a great gift.

I hope all are still in print. I have had some of these for decades.

FLOWER

Zoo in a Box

| Flower Roberts

Inside this little box is an entire zoology course.

Zoo in a box

The cards are arranged by the common names of animal phyla in order of complexity: fish, mollusks, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Sixty postcards of rare book illustrations

The pictures are copies of paintings from the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. There is information in the front of the box about the history of the museum and the processes used to make the original prints. I would call this ‘Museum in a Box’ but that title will come in a later post about another box.

Fascinating information about museum, books and printing methods

Each postcard has information on the back about the subject, artist, and location of the animal’s habitat. I love reading the descriptions because many of the animals are strange to me.

I will be at my desk on cold days perusing the zoo.

FLOW

My Paper Plants

| Flower Roberts

The green is gone here on the mountain. My other home is never this brown in November. The wind and cold have kept me inside more than I am used to. These conditions are causing what I call “green anemia.”

Plant people know what I am referring to. I do have a few special plants here, but they cannot compare to my indoor jungle back home.

Two clivias, a cereus and an epiphyllum

To address my need for green, I have a large selection of paper plants. I have put these out on the Zebra so I can walk by and get a plant buzz. I will take you on a tour of my paper conservatory.

Mary Delay Notecards

Here is the back of the box. If you have never seen her work made of cut colored paper, stop reading and look her up. I have several books about her life. You need to know her.

The Passion flower on the right is my favorite.

My sis ordered an antique book about her for me as a gift. It is one of my treasures.

THIS book has artwork from Kew Royal Botanical Gardens. It has groupings so you can pick your fix for the day.

Botanicum curated by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis

Almost every page is frameworthy.  I consider this another treasure.

Ornamental shrubs

Wildflowers

I got this WALL COLLAGE set with two sided cards and sticky circles. You can make your own diplay of plants, animals, fungi, planets… If you have a little scientist or artist, they should have something similar to play with. Cards could be sorted or copied. I can imagine a lot of thoughtful quiet-time with this.

Wall collage kit

The last book I will share is a sticker book.

Unbelievable artwork

I have not removed a single sticker. It is too precious to dismantle.

Desert plants section
Rainforest section

I will share more in another post. This is how I plan to survive my first winter on the mountain. If you know someone who suffers from “green anemia” you may want to get them a survival kit of paper plants.

FLOWER

Pure Gold Pauses

| Flower Roberts

When I was teaching college biology I used to pause before an important point and alert my students that a gold nugget of knowledge was forthcoming. If I had been my student taking notes, I would have drawn an asterix in the margin, maybe skipped a line for the pause and breathed in.

I do this backwards as I read. I highlight the gold nugget and put an asterisk in the margin. If I consider the point really valuable, I flip to the front book jacket and write down the page number with a brief note or symbol.

I sometimes called these pregnant pauses because various facts were about to be birthed into a bigger concept. All the pieces finally came together to be joined forever, never to be seen as separate again. Like spinning gold from words.

Pure Gold Pauses take careful consideration and viewing a concept from all sides.  It is a skill that takes one’s full attention and relentless practice.

I just finshed a book with so much gold in it that I dried up three highlighters.  It was HOW TO KNOW A PERSON by David Brooks.  I am a fast reader but this book required quiet reading and pauses before and after each section. I will read it several more times as I wander where this book trail leads, but for now I will return to the asterisks, reread the pages I noted in the front cover and then site quietly for a time with my phone on silent.

I have always admired David Brooks, but now I love him. He is on every page of this book trying to see and be seen, hear and be heard, love and be loved. He has written other things and will write other things. This may be his magnum opus.

When I look back at my notes, page 164 got a grief post-poned note, page 165 got a WOW, page 250 got a heart.

If you have ever lost a soul-mate (mine was Sandra) you must read about his friend Pete. This part was raw and honest and helped me feel less bad about not doing everything right at the end. We cannot know what we do not know until we do know when it is too late.

Make time to pause. Read this book full of pure gold. Be ready to learn about yourself.

Thank you David Brooks.

FLOW

Dropping Our Reins

| Flower Roberts

I am almost ready to cut myself loose. The staples are out. I am no longer using a walker nor trekking pole. After nineteen months of struggle, I am down to one bandaid on the part of the incision that is still smiling. I have tried to be still since the staples were removed three days ago. This cautious  pause is due to the fact my other incision on the right hip got infected last July causing swelling at the site and fever. I do not want to repeat this with my left hip.

Hip prosthetic and staples


I also fell down two days before the surgery in October and bent my left, lower leg back under my body. I think having a fake knee saved me from a break. I guess you have gathered that I am more gung ho than graceful. I make my family nervous. They are tired of the trauma, emergencies and care-giving.

I get that. I appreciate their concern. I am grateful for their help. But…

Help is the sunny side of control (Anne Lamott) Too much help leads to helplessness. I have written about this many times on my other site,

seizuremamaandrose.org

That blog is about my daughter’s thirty-plus-year struggle with epilepsy. We have spent decades fighting against fear and over-protection. I remember telling one of her elementary school teachers ” Do not hand her a handicap!” Every child deserves to be as strong and independent as he/she can possibly be.

So I have been raging against holding the reins tightly as far as Rose is concerned for decades. Now, I find myself insisting that my own reins be dropped.

It is super important that women learn to be in charge of their own well-being whether it be avoiding a dark stranger, surviving bad weather, recovering from unwise decisions, staying alert for an empty gas tank, deflecting stray sperm, controlling a medical condition or not stepping on a piece of cardboard. (twice!)

Men protecting their moms, wives and daughters from reality makes us ignorant and weak. We cannot be naive in this world. We must be savvy, smart and strong. If we fall down, let us get ourselves up or call 911…again. You, dear man, cannot hover 24/7.

Do not try to keep the women you love in a bubble of your own making, it will pop. The earlier, the better.

We all know it. Stand down.

FLOWER

Proud of the Beauty Queens

| Flower Roberts

I cried in my favorite Mexican restaurant tonight. I was trying to tell the woman working there how proud I am of Miss Mexico in the Miss Universe pageant for standing up for herself.

Her son came to translate. We both teared up and clasped hands. There we were, two mothers from two countries standing in solidarity against sexism. Will this ever end? Not if it is tolerated anytime, anywhere.

I am not a fan of beauty pageants. I did not grow up watching them. I have watched the clip of Miss Mexico rising from her seat as she was being scolded and called dumb. I witnessed the contempt of the organizer as he called for security to remove her.

I felt pride to see so many other contestants rise in support of their fellow contestant. All women should walk out on this type of disrespect.

Women do not get to choose when to stand up against it. It must be addressed every time it occurs. Zero tolerance is the only solution to such misbehavior.

The president of the strongest country in the world sees females as objects to be used and abused. The Gatsby-themed Halloween party is just the latest display of this attitude for the whole world to witness.

These Miss Universe contestants walked out wearing sashes bearing their country’s names. They chose to represent the women in their country and all women.

Pretty, sweet and kind are no protection from the bad behavior of the sexist beasts. Stand strong beauty queens. Little girls are watching.

Thank you Miss Mexico

Flower

Writing for Non-writers

| Flower Roberts

I have shared many books that I find interesting on both my blogs. This one is about writing for folks who NEED to write. It is not about form, style or getting published. Allison Fallon has a business called Find Your Voice. She helps people write their life’s important stories.

There is real power in taking your recurring thoughts that keep swirling around in your head and writing them down. This helps clarify thinking and get you out of “the maze.”

I am on a long journey of this exact type now. It has been transformational for me to finally face past trauma and unpack the roles of each person, especially me, in order to thoroughly understand what really happened and why it affected me as it did. This is what healing is about.


This book gives good advice about how to get your story on paper and why that will make a difference in your life. This is exactly the book I need to guide me as I start a small writing group.  I will not be their fearless leader, I will be writing alongside them as part of the tribe.


I posted on a community website that if anyone wanted to struggle with me, they are welcome. I am just trying to get my stories down as clearly as possible. This group will be about just getting it done. We will not be editing nor correcting.


If you have hesitated to write about an event that needs to be out of your head and onto paper,  get this marvelous book. It will inspire and encourage you to finally start.

You need to be brave…not perfect.

FLOWER

Separated from my Schlumbergera

| Flower Roberts

This is the first time that I have been away from my Schlumbergeras while they are blooming. My daughter, Rose, sent these photos today.

Prepped with weak bloom food and less light.

They are in better shape than expected, because I prepared them for my absence while I was home last month. I cleaned them up, added a weak bloom solution and some sprinkle fertilizer.

Salmon Schlumbergera

My collection is much smaller now, but I know that the houses of my friends will be full of these bright blooms.

Blooming in cool semi-dark basement room.

I will add a several links below from days gone by when I was obsessed with these plants. They burst into bloom just when that first hint of cold-weather-blues kicks in. That is why I love them.

Saved by Schlumbergeras

Blooming Again?

Beauty By the Pot

I hope I can find that GOLD one again. If you have one from me, please save me some links next spring.

To share: Twist off pieces. No scissors. Three links minimum. Harden off for 3 days, then dust with root hormone and plant in light, loose soil.

FLOW away from her flowers

New Wisdom from Old Memories

| Flower Roberts

I realize that wisdom must be waited for. Time needs to season events into lessons worth learning and a brain needs to be mature enough to receive the lessons.


I have always spent an inordinate amount of my time in watchful, thoughtful silence. I like to think of myself as invisible. I did this in a crowded room just this morning.

I have filed away mysteries and hoped that some day the missing pieces would show up. I did not expect eureka moments to dramatically present themselves at the proper time. I was just hoping to eventually have enough epiphanies so that some of those lingering questions could be laid to rest.

My job, as I have seen it, was just to pay attention. Most times I did not even bother to ask questions for clarification. I was too busy and confused. I also did not want to interrupt my observations. I figured the missing pieces would show up later.

This silence and lack of participation has come back around lately. I guess you could say now IS later, and I still feel almost as dumb and numb as the days of the confusing events.

When a new clue shows up decades later and causes neither a eureka nor an epiphany I feel a bit befuddled. Maybe the clue needs to sit a while to smolder?  OR Maybe my brain is not quite ready to fully grasp the lesson?

Now that I have circled the subject several times I am just going to come out with what I think about a saying that I keep coming across in my reading.

“You can’t go home again.”

(Book title. Thomas Wolfe sort of. I know. If I die and leave piles of notes, I hope someone will trash my ramblings instead of posthumously assuming I would want them released.)

This whole time I have thought of this title/saying as a sad way of saying your home changes and you go back and things are different and some things you really miss are not there anymore. Yes, this is true and a bit sad.

I spent eight months in 2023 and 2024 living in my childhood home and going through every itty bitty item to save or sell to pay my mama’s bills. I spent many hours sitting at our kitchen table in silence wondering what the fuck Thomas Wolfe (or his editor, or They) was/were talking about. Every damn thing was still here. I was sixty-three and hauling my Mama’s wedding dress down from the attic. Nothing ever left BUT me and my sister!

(If you scholars want to wander off with the fascism hypothesis here…go on without me. That’s NOT where I am going.)

That house was emptied and sold.  More losses … more deaths and more time. I am now spending time in another place I spent parts of my childhood in.  It’s been like haunting myself. So you could say I have gone home again and again. Same furniture, same photos, same piano.

BUT (it’s a big one)

I am not the same. I am the one who changed. I am in the same places, but no longer that person anymore.

YOU Can’t Go Home Again!

I must say, I am NOT sad about that at all. That makes so much sense. I guess I had to be sixty to season that enough to get it. So it really isn’t about HOME at all.

It’s about YOU.

This is an example of what I mean about wisdom. I was looking for one answer and something completely different showed up.

Eureka!

FLOW