memories

Dragons

Rae Spencer5 Comments

Like most of my enduring interests, this one started with a book.

The Dragon's Handbook

I don’t remember exactly when The Dragon’s Handbook came to me, though I have vague memories of tugging on Mother’s purse in a used book store, begging for “this one.” Because of its odd shape, the book never fit comfortably on a shelf with my other books. So I propped it against my mirror and treated it more like a piece of art than a book, making it an integral part of my room’s decor.

While The Dragon’s Handbook held some of my favorite illustrations, my favorite stories featured horses and dogs. The Black Stallion series, 101 Dalmations, and Lad: a Dog. King of the Wind, Lassie Come Home, and Where the Red Fern Grows.

Then I found The White Dragon on a library shelf. Its cover featured a much fiercer dragon than Barbara Rinkoff’s Culhane, and I was suddenly ready for fiercer stories. I read Anne McCaffrey’s entire Pern series, and, from then on, I devoured any book with a dragon in its pages.

Books 1

The horses crowded closer together and shared their shelves with dragons. Today, dragons lurk in every corner of my office.

Dragon 3

Dragon 2

Dragon 1

I suppose this might explain why my favorite flowers are snapdragons.

Snapdragon April 1

Snapdragon April 1

And why I take so many pictures of dragonflies.

New Dragonfly 4s

Halloween Pennant

It certainly explains why my first complete manuscript is a literary fantasy. There’s a dragon, of course, but there are also hounds and horses. Because I couldn’t resist combining my two loves: my younger preference for stories about animals (especially stories that made me cry) and my teenage quest for adventure and magic and peril…

Dragon Oct 24

Botanical Garden Oct 24

A Slow Start to Spring

Rae Spencer9 Comments

Pear Tree March 30

Today was finally warm enough to feel like spring. Add in an entire afternoon of bright sunshine, and it was a beautiful day in the yard.

Iris March 30

Speedwell March 30

Osprey March 30

Robins March 30

Rabbit March 30

As much as I enjoyed my afternoon in the yard, I couldn’t help comparing it to last year’s spring, which was both warmer and earlier than this year’s season. By the end of March last year, the pear tree was fully in bloom and the yard was full of bees. This year, the pear tree is only beginning to bloom and I haven’t seen a single bee.

Pear Tree March 30

Last year, all threats of frost were past. In fact, there were days that felt like summer. The tulips were blooming and spiderlings were hatching. This year I’m afraid to uncover the ginger lilies, because it seems likely we will see more frost, and the tulips are just getting started.

Tulip March 30

I wonder if our delayed spring will spill over into a delayed summer, or if summer will simply storm in right on the heels of winter.

Treasures from Home, Part One (The Moustache Cup)

Rae Spencer6 Comments

Cup Feb 2

My knowledge of antiques is limited to what I have absorbed while watching Antiques Roadshow, but I am trying to learn more. At least, I am trying to learn more about a handful of curious treasures that once belonged to my mother.

Saucer Feb 2

Cup Feb 2

I can’t say why I fell so blissfully in love with this little moustache cup, which I don’t remember seeing as a child. After Mother’s car accident in 2011, we found the cup in an unlabeled box in her house, so its history is largely unknown. We suspect it is one of the many pieces collected by a great aunt who had a fondness for porcelain.

Saucer Feb 2

Cup Feb 2

Last month, I decided to research the porcelain marks, which are clearly visible on both cup and saucer. The mark was harder to trace online than I had expected, but I eventually found a website (Porcelain Marks and More) that identified the mark as Bavarian, used between 1885 and 1902. While the date seems clear, I’m confused about the company name. Some sources say Sontag and Maisel, others Sontag and Sons. Also Royal Bayreuth. Perhaps all are correct? Or none? (Please respond, if you can help. I would love to know more about the mark, and about the cup.)

Teacup Feb 2

Now that I know something definite about them, I’m a bit overwhelmed by the cup and saucer. I’m terrified of breaking them, of being the final admirer of such lovely creations. I’ve considered finding a collector to protect and cherish them, to prevent their story ending with a crash and shatter on my worn kitchen floor. I’ve considered wrapping them as a gift for a friend, sending them to one of my more responsible sisters, or storing them in a box, where they would be more likely to survive their sojourn in my house.

Teacup Feb 2

But I’m having trouble making a decision. Like all of my treasures from home, the cup and saucer resonate with nostalgia and grief. There is nothing practical or useful about them, but some days I enjoy their glitter on my mantel. (Other days I hide them in a cabinet.)

And some days, like today, I marvel that such fragile, frivolous objects have endured so long and traveled so far, moving from hand to hand and home to home until arriving here. In my home. In my hand, where they mean so much and so little. Where they cannot possibly stay forever, because I cannot stay forever.

Teacup Feb 2

What will happen to them, after I am gone? What will happen to me?

The Horses

Rae Spencer3 Comments

Horses Jan 8

Horses were the only pets forbidden on our acres. My oldest sister tested Daddy’s rule from every conceivable angle, but was no match for his resolve. Leaving the battle in her capable hands, I consoled my own longing with Breyer collectibles. My herd grew with each Christmas and birthday, multiplied between as my allowance allowed.

Horses Jan 8

I didn’t play with my horses as I played with other toys. Instead I lavished them with furniture polish and imagination, displaying them on shelves high beyond the reach of rowdy kittens and teething puppies.

Horses Jan 8

I left them behind when I moved into college, but Mother knew better. She waited until I graduated and married, until my husband and I bought a house of our own. Then she forwarded the herd to Virginia, where I welcomed them with tears and furniture polish, with new shelves beyond the reach of rowdy kittens and teething puppies.

Horses Jan 8

And last fall my oldest sister sent her horses to join the herd.

Horses Jan 8 8s

She never knew, until a chance conversation brought it up, that I had coveted her horses in our youth. As she has real horses now, and as she understands how much I treasure my plastic herd, she packed up Misty and a Clydesdale and gave them to me. So we have added two to the throng, though an unpracticed eye might never notice the newcomers.

Horses Jan 8

Crochet

Rae Spencer8 Comments

Crochet Jan 3

Mother taught me how to sew, but she never tackled crochet.

Crochet Jan 3 2s

Even if she had tried to teach me how to crochet, I’m not convinced that I could have learned. Not then.

Crochet Jan 3

I was a child of tenuous patience and headstrong temper. Our sessions at the sewing machine often deteriorated into battles of will. Mother would scowl over a poorly cut pattern or knotted seam. Start over and do it right this time. I would bristle, hurt by what felt like rejection. This is good enough for me, even if it isn’t perfect. I hurled the word “perfect” at her, a stone made of childish frustrations, and she tossed it back with the strength of a tested parent. I’m not looking for perfect, I just want you to do it again.

Lured by the unknown, and miserably bored with the exacting practice of the known, I would dig out a skein of yarn and one of her crochet needles. Teach me this. She would put them away again. I can’t remember how to do it.

Crochet Jan 3

By the time I got married, I had almost forgotten my fascination with crochet. Then I saw an afghan that my mother-in-law had made. A few years later, when my father-in-law needed heart surgery, we shared our waiting room seats with a bag of yarn and a shiny assortment of crochet needles. She taught me how to make chains and rows and squares. How to read and follow a pattern. Later, she took me shopping for yarn and helped me start my first big project. Then she laughed at my obsessive determination to make scarves for everyone I knew, plus a few afghans, all in time for Christmas.

Crochet Jan 3

I failed my Christmas quest that first year, but eventually did make scarves for nearly everyone. And afghans.

Crochet Jan 3

Like everything else, my crochet enthusiasm waxes and wanes. I’ll spend months finishing a project, then put my needles away for a year or more. Lately, in another surge of cleaning up and clearing out, I’ve been trying to use up my embarrassing mountain of yarn. (I can’t resist a yarn sale…)

Crochet Jan 3

This week I’m making an afghan, from a sackful of “Vanna’s Choice” yarn.

Crochet Jan 3

Vanna (the cat) can’t decide whether to be flattered or shocked…

Vanna