"Pictures" from The Lacuna by Kingsolver

" . . . in the first hour of dawn, just as the hem of the sky began to whiten." p.1

"In front of the flat stone breast of the church . . . " p.10

"The heat made a necklace of black pearls on each white tortilla as it cooked." p. 20

"Three long-legged girls in dresses straddling one grey mare, their legs hanging down like a giant insect." p. 37

"Married couples come at a clip, the children like rafts towed on ropes behind the ship." p.396

And on page 319 the following, which is very interesting to me because of where I come from and because I make an extra syllable of the past tense.

Her words seem scripted by Chaucer. She says "strip-ed" and "learn-ed", making an extra syllable of the past tense. A sack is a "poke." Surveying the piles of letters she declared, "Mr. Shepherd, you get mail by the passel." She says "nought" and "nary a one," and the garden greens she brought me were "sallets," the word Shakespeare used. She says "queasy" to mean worried, as did King Lear.

Jaime for Luck!

It's been a rough year. I'm hopeful that things will get better. We started out in February with a bathroom remodeling job that just didn't quit. Gary's good friend, Dewey, went into hospice care and died within months. Then Aunt Mary (Gary's) died almost simultaneously with our nephew Brian, who was only 40 and in a car wreck. At the same time our niece and her husband decided to call it quits. Soooooo, it hasn't been a pretty site. I'm hopeful the only way is up from here.

I took a figure painting class with Carla O'Conner and am hooked. Again. I've been heading this way for a while, but wouldn't admit it. Jaime is partially finished and I've included her in this post.