Holiday Pictures to Prompt Your Poems

Maybe you're tired of festive pictures; in that case, scroll to the end of this post, to see the kind of migratory birds who visited our tropical backyard yesterday. Or scroll through, looking for the quirky holiday pictures I've embedded below.

My friend from grad school sent me this picture she took and turned into a Christmas card. She said "We have palm trees too--but ours get covered in snow!!" She lives in Eastbourne England.

Our tree top angel below came from a student many years ago. When I taught at my first full-time job at a community college in the Charleston, SC area, a student in my basic English class gave it to me. As state employees, we weren't supposed to accept gifts from anyone; the previous summer, several legislators had been indicted for taking bribes for votes (puny bribes too!), and tough ethics laws had been enacted. But I simply couldn't give her gift back: all those hours of crocheting work. I decided to accept her gift and hope for the best.

If you want to see more angel photos, migrate over to my theology blog posting.

Elizabeth,one of my friends from graduate school, creates gorgeous counted cross stitch ornaments of her own design; one year, I was lucky enough to receive one.

I love the metalwork below.

We do our own kind of creche around here. I made the dragon on the right side of the picture (medium: clay) and my spouse made the headless figure on the left. One of my talented artist friends from grad school made the two heads out of clay (the woman in the bonnet, the man in the hat).

I also like the books from my childhood on the shelf below, a cool juxtaposition, but I must confess I didn't plan it. If you look closely, you'll see the Little House on the Prairie series, a few Trixie Belden mysteries (much better than Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys!), some books by Madeleine L'Engle, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and a few Narnia books. You'll also notice the shift to adolescence: Judy Blume's Forever, the movie tie-in Fame, and Go Ask Alice.

Below, my first large counted cross stitch piece. I counted cross stitched my way through grad school. Once I had the pattern, I made smaller pieces for all my relatives one year, with different groupings of 4 squares each.

And for those of you tired of Christmas, enjoy this picture of a majestic vulture, taken by my spouse (as is the other vulture picture).

We arrived home from errand running yesterday to find at least twenty vultures flying over our yard. Some of them landed on our shed. I love the picture below as it shows the hugeness of the birds and the tropical jungle of our backyard.

If you enjoyed the pictures of the crafted holiday ornaments, come back tomorrow. I'm planning a tribute to my grandmother's crafting skills.