A gift of a London Advent calendar app came recently. A timely and not an unwelcome greeting, surely.
Tomorrow begins the first of twenty-four days of Advent, leading up to the Christmas day. Virtually speaking, I can hardly wait to open and step inside the first of the twenty-four advent calendar doors.
Great Is the Lord
-- A Psalm of Praise, of David
Psalm 145:8-13, ESV
8 The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The LORD is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
and all your saints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Talk not of sad November, when a day
Of warm, glad sunshine fills the sky of noon,
And a wind, borrowed from some morn of June,
Stirs the brown grasses and the leafless spray.
-- John Greenleaf Whittier
Yesterday was sunny with a moderate breeze. The fallen sere and crimson leaves swirled, rustled, and cart-wheeled on the roadways with gay abandon. A picture postcard moment on this autumnal day.
The first holiday greeting card hailed from Oklahoma has arrived. The Allens looked well. Certainly, Elisabeth has grown. Sorely missed are pictures of the usual suspects. The ones who chewed, gnawed, snorted, strutted, or pecked about at the ranch.
This time last year I was re-landscaping the yards and gardens. Then in December I hopped over the pond to Austria and Germany for the Christmas season; there was hardly any time spent with friends and relations here in the states.
Given I have just completed a scheduled exterior upkeep of the abode, there are no plans gallivanting to other places this year-end. I'd better get started to organize some photos, and to dash off the first seasonal letter (neither email nor ecards) to the Allens.
"Gute Souvenirs helfen, dem entgegenzuwirken, und wir sollten Anlässe schaffen, um uns zu erinnern. Meistens tragen wir das Gefühl einer Reise noch in uns, strengen uns aber nicht an, es wieder hervorzurufen, Ein Andenken macht es leicht möglich, Gefühle, Erinnerungen und Momente wieder einzufangen. Je persönlicher ein Souvenir ist, desto besser. Ich mache gern Fotos oder schreibe über Orte. Ich bin ein wortbasierter Souvenirjäger" -- Alain de Botton
It was a year ago this month the garden crew from Roger's nursery re-landscaped the yards and garden at my house. For some 60-plus years, Roger's has planted and nurtured many a garden in our town. Along the way, it also nurtured many an amateur gardener. Sadly, however, today is Roger's nursery last business day. A lamentable occasion, indeed.
In the words of de Botton, I needed a good souvenir by which to remember the Roger nursery Even though it was not a tourist spot by any stretch of the imagination, the nusery was definitely a landmark. It has imprinted its color on the fabric this community. I have a citrus tree row in my garden which include navel orange, Satsuma mandarin, Clementine mandarin, and Meyer lemon. To complement the said fruit tree theme, I bought one of two remaining Chinese Grapefruit trees at the nursery. Now, that's a memento and a conversation piece for an occasion that is hard to forget.
I have created a few custom ring-tones ready for download and installation on your iTunes and i-devices. Each ring-tone is about 30 seconds in playtime. That is the maximum time an iPhone ring-tone is allowed to be played for an incoming call.
These ring-tones are created from my collection of "old school" or "good music" . i.e. classical, standards, traditional jazz, orchestral and musicals from the 20th century.
There are no instructions given on my site for installing custom ring-tones (including the Contacts and Alarms apps). That said, below is the link - it is also found at the sidebar - to the ring-tones posted for download:
I was playing with the iPhone 4S ring-tones this evening. The thought of my hi-tech phone should ring like those in the old movies sounded inviting. It appealed to me that Harry Lime or Rick Blaine talked on the old rotary phones. Phones which had the "drrring, drrding" is a summons of the caller's despair and distress. So I selected the Old Phone sound as my new ring-tone. Surely, a femme fatale or a damsel in distress should be calling me anytime soon. With the Fedora in hand, so to speak, I was ready.
In any case, I left the phone on the desk and went about doing something else at the far end of the house. When callers tried to contact me earlier in the evening, I blissfully ignored them. I thought, the "drrring drrring" sound was emanating from a recorded film noir playing on the DVR. How ironic.
Alas, Walter Mitty I was not or could never be. Some real corrective action was needed. So I decided to make my own ring-tone.
The iPhone 4S ring-tone is now set to the custom-made "Theme from A Summer Place" as rendered by maestro Norrie Paramor and Patrica Clark (vocal). Henceforth, there can be no mistaken of incoming calls with Clark's distinct vocalise.
I will make some more new ring-tones. Surely, one likely candidate is Anton Karas' "The Third Man Theme".
November 2011 marks the 450 anniversary of the publication of The Belgic Confession. Of the thirty-seven articles of the confession, Article 26, "Christ Intercession", being the longest and pivotally gospel-centric:
"...For there is no creature, either in heaven or on earth, who loves us more than Jesus Christ;" - Article 26, The Belgic Confession
"What more can be required? since Christ Himself says: I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. To what purpose should we, then, seek another advocate, since it has pleased God to give us His own Son as our Advocate? Let us not forsake Him to take another, or rather to seek after another, without ever being able to find Him; for God well knew, when He gave Him to us, that we were sinners." - ibid
November
John Presland
(1911)
There is a gleam of sunshine on the earth
After so many weary days of rain,
A break of yellowing clouds, which offers plain
The sun's veiled disc (a very shadow-birth,
But still the sun, with sun's November worth);
The sky is of a Turner lived again,
Such colours through the misty greyness gain
They almost seem to touch with spring the earth.
How should we not be glad, when this one day
Out of the saddest of all months, appears
Suddenly beautiful? A single ray
Of sunlight strikes through cloud, and clears
The whole drear countryside of grey;
So may one word dispel a cloud of tears.
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