Lovely Photo Wednesday

I am so excited to participate for the first time in Hannah's Lovely Photo Wednesday! Here is my entry:

Land bound and wishful

*Stay tuned; tomorrow I will post my photo for Hannah's B&W photo challenge!*

Music for when

Music is so incredible! It has the ability to influence a person's mood in a big way. I am constantly listening to it, but I am very picky about what I am listening to at a certain time. I went through my CD stash and here is the list I came up with:

Bach, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Vivaldi, Copeland- I am a classical music junkie! Sure, some of it may be 'boring', but it's all really pretty if you listen. Whenever I encounter someone who screams at the mention of classical, I direct them to The Four Seasons and put their name on my convert list. Just kidding about that last part. :) But anyway, now that you know that I love classical, I will tell you when I like it best. It's very good for school, especially Bach. The last four guys are really good for reading to. Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherzade is adventure in musical form. A good semi-classical composer is John Rutter. His Requiem is wonderful.

Celtic Woman- This is good all-purpose music. I clean my room to it, as it's fun to sing along with, I do school to it, as it's interesting enough to take my mind off the insanely boring subject I am doing, yet I can still concentrate. The best part of these Irish ladies is their variety- they do old folk tunes to movie music , and they make it all sound good!

Phil Keaggy- Here is someone who is a bit more obscure. He's a guitarist that has been recording since the 80's. His music is so relaxing and beautiful- this is one of those CD's I have to be careful I don't over-listen to and tire of! I listen to it when I am tired and don't want to sleep quite yet, among other times.

Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas- This is the best pairing of musician's ever. Alasdair Fraser can fiddle like a banshee and Natalie Haas can back him up with the coolest cello techniques. The music is modern yet classic and completely amazing. Truly.

Enya- Where do I begin? "Enya makes good music" is a shameful understatement. I am somewhat new to the ranks of Enya fans, but I am already devoted. Her music has a wide range, bur ethereal is the dominating theme. And there's so much of it! She has been around for a long time and has recorded enough to keep me happy for a long time! I listen to Enya at lot of various times, but writing is my favorite time to. I can even give her lovely song Only Time some credit for helping me out a most annoyingly severe writers block. :)

Movie soundtracks- Haha, these are great! The ones I have been listening to lately are The Fellowship of the Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean, Phantom of the Opera, and The War: A Ken Burns Film. I write mostly write when I listen to them, except Phantom; it's too dramatic. :) It's another very good school CD, though! Fellowship is my favorite. This is kind of funny:

Last night, I was writing with this music in the background. I hadn't meant to listen to it at that point; my sister just wanted music and I was not going to listen to Phantom of the Opera at 10 PM! I started writing unexpectedly, but I was very glad to, so if course I kept at it. Well, I got to a part in the piece I was working on and the weirdest thing happened. The emotions the current song was conveying was exactly what was going on in my story! And it wasn't the music affecting me- I had things already planned out in my head before the music came. It was really cool. :)

George Winston- More writing music! This is my favorite stuff to write to. George Winston's piano solo's are very... feeling. Sad, a lot of the time. It's easy to get depressed if you listen to him too much, but in rationed amounts it's simply beautiful.

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Well there you have it! That's my music, or most of it. :) What's yours?

Oh, and a big thank you to Nela, my newest follower!

~Margaret Rowena

Have you voted on my poll yet? I would love it if you would!

A quick post...

Here is a very well-known Bible verse I have taken for granted for a long time:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. -Philippians 4:4

I often forget about the remarkable gift God has given me in salvation. I can only see straight ahead, looking only for the mundanely annoying things in life's many imperfections. It is really easy to become bitter.

But the verse above says to praise God all the time, not only when life is good, because it has been bad and often will be! I was not promised a perfect when I became a Christian, but I have been promised God's eternal love. I have been given everything in it; how can I not be happy?

Image credit

What's up?

My brother left for his freshmen year of college a couple weeks ago. I was watching him pack up the car on the morning of departure. He lifted into the car a bin full of assorted essentials that used to be filled with toys- building blocks, to be exact. The tag was still on it. He ripped it off saying, "Well, I won't need this anymore." A few minutes later, I hugged him hard and watched him drive away.

That really struck me- the tag you see above had been on that Rubbermaid that held our childhood toys for a long over a decade. Now the bin is filled with the stuff someone needs for life in a college dorm room, not passing the playtime hours. Things really can change.
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Credit

Being the dedicated (yeah right!) fan that I am, it took me a few months after its release to get Celtic Woman's newest CD! But I did get it, and I think it's fantastic. If you are not familiar with these singers, I will say that their performance style is not exactly my favorite (big and showy), but the music is wonderful. I was amazed at how much Celtic Woman has changed since their original CD from 2004; Chloe especially, but I still like her a lot. And I am delighted with Lynn and Alex, the two girls that I hadn't 'met' until this week.
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Check this out: my roommate [sister] and I got new coverlets! Simple pleasures, right? :)

The tree one is mine. I love trees! Sister has one with colorful hills on it. She loves it, as you can see below:
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I turned fifteen! My birthday was very nice, thanks to my wonderful family.

Aren't pictures that are so obviously taken my the subject great? :)

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Okay, I have caught IBS (Insecure Blogger Syndrome) and have a request to make of you: I would love it if you could tell me your opinion of this blog, and suggestions for it if you have any. I have allowed anonymous comments if you don't want me to know who you are, but you can still be as nice as normal when you comment. I also have a poll up, so please vote.
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Thanks so very much!
~Margaret R.

Of candles and a cat

I was all set up with two of my favorite writing accessories-my candles and cat-but my camera looked more appealing than my pencils, so I took these pictures.


These are (obviously) two of my candles. You could say that my love of candles is definitely one of my quirks; I love candles. The green one is rosemary-cedar wood in its scent. That would be my all-time favorite scent for a candle. The orange one is tropical fruit scented, also very good.

The glow is so appealing in the evening light!


Here is my another favorite of mine. My precious, darling, cat. His name is Kiwi.

I was kind of bummed that his ear met the frame of my window in this one, ruining the silhouette, but again, I am liking that light. (Margaret? Liking the light in a photo? What a surprise. *sarcasm*)

Here are some better shots at his lovely outline:




See those pretty eyes? They are kiwi green. Here's a picture from another day to show you:

Yes, I am fond of animals, especially the ones that I live with.
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Thanks for looking and reading,
Margaret Rowena