This much snow in Virginia is rare. I don't mind it for a day or two, but it's so cold snow may be on the ground for quite a while. The state didn't have much in the budget for snow removal, so VDOT may have used most of its funding for the late December storm. So far, no snow plows have come along.

The real icicles hanging outside our kitchen look identical to the ones I purchased for the season and have hanging in our entrance gallery. Amazing what they can do in China! We haven't had much snow the last few years, so I suppose we are due.

Angels over the Haitian Palace

This has nothing to do with writing except that it relates to research in some small way. Soon after I heard about the devastating earthquake in Haiti, I remembered I had created a painting of the Haitian palace a few years ago. During a trip there a week before the February 5, 1986 overturn of the government, I took photographs of the palace, all the while wondering how such a magnificent structure existed amidst the dire poverty of the Haitian people.

When I pulled the pastel painting from the flat file drawer in my art closet, I was amazed to see the angels. I had forgotten the emotion I had felt at the contrast and the evil I believed existed in that palace--so much evil that I painted six angels to change the feel of that place. That the palace crumbled in the earthquake did not surprise me. I can only hope that with the current world focus on Haiti that all the evil will vanish and Haiti will join its Caribbean neighbors in prosperity.

And I wonder, from where did the angels come?

Once in a Blue Moon

My mother used the expression "once in a blue moon" quite often. She would say that something only happens "once in a blue moon." As a child, I didn't know what she meant. Now I do.

Tonight, we will have a "blue moon" for New Year's Eve. That's a second full moon in the month and a very rare occurrence on New Year's Eve.

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions--at least ones that I'm able to keep--so my New Year's resolutions are a once in a blue moon event. Thanks to Marilyn Meredith, here are my resolutions that I intend to keep. You may want to claim some of these as well.

1. Blog more--a lot more. Not only here but on "Notes Along the Way" and other places as well. Whenever an opportunity to blog pops up, take it. As authors we need to be out there and available to our readers.

2. Write more, paint more, and promote more.

3. Complete three manuscripts and send them out.

4. Follow the book markets. Learn what the trends are and take advantage. Read what reviewers are saying and note the books drawing most attention.

5. Realize the world is changing. There is a shift in the direction of e-books. Take advantage of these changes and promote with them in mind.

The photograph at the top is a "once in a blue moon" picture (for me) taken from the window of a B-757 en route to San Jose on our recent California trip. I love photos of clouds from above and admire the Georgia O'Keeffe paintings of that subject. Regarding our "once in a blue moon" New Year's Eve, in Virginia we do not expect to see the moon through the clouds.

Happy New Year!

Monti

Happy New Year

This year my Christmas card has become my New Year's card. That's because I didn't get my painting for the card finished in time to send out for Christmas. I love angels, and every year, I try to create a new angel painting for my card. This year's painting is acrylic and mixed media on a 36 x 24-inch canvas.

Wishing all my friends a Happy New Year!

Monti
Mary Montague Sikes

Should We Save Historic Buildings?

In the little community where I live, we haven’t saved many of our old historic buildings. Some of that loss is due to turn-of-the-century fires that destroyed many of the structures in the old downtown.

Recently, we had a chance to rescue an important aged building that over the years has served a huge number of people in our little town.

But we didn’t.

Those involved said it would be far too expensive to renovate this big old brick building that in recent years has housed a medical center. They simply did not have the funds to fix it up.

Sad.

This building once served as a community center for our town. Clubs met there. Dinners and luncheons were served. Children took dancing classes. Before the days of kindergarten in the public schools, a private kindergarten was taught there. Later, when there were public school kindergartens, the community center class became a nursery school. And there was a teen club with Friday evening dances. Perhaps most memorable of all, art classes were taught on the upper floor in a flood of light beneath the skylights.

Lots of memories for lots of people.

Bulldozing equipment has wiped those memories away. Memories have been leveled for a parking lot or flattened for some other purpose.

Ours in a truly historic town. Soon after the settling of the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Captain John Smith explored our rivers—we sit on three—and our creeks. The Indian tribes were here long before that and two reservations--the Mattaponi and the Pamunkey--remain nearby.

Still, we have not learned from history. Still we have not saved our historic buildings.

Should we?

©2009 Mary Montague Sikes