Announcing the winner of Bitter, Sweet!

We have confirmation of our winner of a copy of Bitter, Sweet by Laura Best! Yaaaay!!

Thank you to all who visited my blog and left comments at https://lynnadavidson.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/interview-with-laura-best-book-giveaway/

Shortly after 9:00 PM February 14 my husband pulled a name out of the basket holding the names of thirty-two entrants. I am pleased to say — CONGRATULATIONS TO CHRISTI CRAIG! Your book will be in the mail this week. 🙂

In replying to my email informing her of her win, Christi said, “Thanks so much (to you and your husband), I’m thrilled! … I’m looking forward to reading Laura’s book.”

So, again, thanks everyone. This was fun and a great learning experience for me. I plan to do more reviews and interviews, and book giveaways when I can. Please stay tuned. 🙂

Thanks for reading and participating, and .. Creative Musings! 🙂

We have a winner!

Tonight is the night we all have been waiting for .. those of us who want to know who won a copy of Bitter, Sweet by Laura Best, that is. You have been entered into the contest if you left a comment on this post: https://lynnadavidson.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/interview-with-laura-best-book-giveaway/

Tonight at 9:00, that’s 8:00 EST, my dear husband drew a name out of the basket and I have sent the winner an email requesting her mailing address. When she has replied then I will post her name so that everyone knows who won. If she does not reply by Thursday (Feb. 17) I will send another email. If I have not heard from the winner by February 21 then I will have my husband draw out another name.
So, check your emails, everyone! Is it you?

Thanks for participating, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Is the handwritten letter disappearing?

I love getting mail.

Mail that our mail driver has to deliver to our metal mailbox that stands by the road. Mail that I have to hold in my hand to open. Mail that I have to pull out of an envelope and unfold to read its contents, perhaps finding a surprise tuck-in to add to the delight. Or cards to open and enjoy. Real mail.

Not the junk that a variety of companies send en masse. Not inky flyers that rave on about the sales and specials their retailers are offering, spreads that are designed to seduce would-be buyers by their promise of ‘better than the other guy’s’. Not political printouts of some kind to remind constituents of another representative covetous of support and praise and claiming bragging rights. No, none of all that.

I like real mail. Letters from friends. Deliveries of items I have ordered. Magazines to which I subscribe. Letters from friends …

Letters from friends .. so few now that the Internet has taken over. So few now that I don’t write letters nearly as much as I used to do. In fact, if not for the publication that I publish I would receive hardly any handwritten mail at all. My mailbox used to be a very busy spot. At one time I was receiving an average of ten letters a day – can you imagine that? But, that was back in the early 90’s when my publication – operated on donations then – was going worldwide and I had over five hundred members. Not now. Now I send only within Canada and the USA – postage is too high to justify subscription fees to mail beyond. And that is sad. I miss my readers in Australia, the UK, India, Korea, South Africa, and other countries.

Email is nice, but there is nothing like a handwritten letter (or even typed and mailed.) My script is not as good as it used to be, perhaps because I don’t write often enough to keep it nice – or maybe because I think faster than I can neatly write those thoughts. There is that problem. 🙂

Another thing is real postage stamps. Sticking them onto the corner of that envelope, artistically created colourful, commemorative, meaningful, real stamps. And that can lead us into another whole topic – of collecting – which I do. But for now …

I love getting mail, real mail.

How about you? Do you like to receive handwritten letters? Do you enjoy writing them?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Do you enjoy the quiet … or are you afraid of it?

Today has been very quiet here. Because my husband had to work all weekend – not his usual – and I had no way to church today, I sat at home and read my Bible for four hours in a quiet house. No radio, no TV, no music playing — only quiet. Delectable! 🙂

It is my habit to have the radio turned on most of the day – to listen to interviews and such once in a while, but mostly I listen to teachings and music on the Christian station. Once today I turned it on, but only for a few minutes while I cooked and ate my breakfast, then off it went again. And no TV at all today. Not even set on a music station for ‘background’. I didn’t even turn on my computer until the afternoon! Now that is a biggie!

Do you know how tempting it was to turn on the radio while I was doing the dishes? or later while having lunch or supper? I resisted. Why? You know, I’m not even sure why I did that today. It just was so peaceful here when I got up this morning, and since it is Sunday I decided to read for a few hours with no distractions. Well, none except the little dog needing to go outside a couple of times, and wind and hail beating on the windows – which is a wholly different distraction. Nothing major or constant, though. Then I was enjoying the tranquility so much I stuck with it. All day.
ALL DAY!

Have you ever done that? Have you ever lived in a day of ‘quiet’ by choice?

I wonder why we think we have to always have noise going on around us – music, or constant talking, or something mindless .. as if we can’t stand our own company. Are we afraid of the ‘aloneness’? Do we avoid the quiet? How does God get through to us when we aren’t allowing ourselves to listen? And what about our own thoughts? Do we even have any quality thinking time of our own?

Maybe reading is much the same thing except it is not coming at us in the form of noise from the outside. But reading expands our minds, doesn’t it? We do have to form our own images, they aren’t coming at us ready-made. Hopefully we’re choosing good things to store in our brains because I believe it all blends together in there and comes out somehow sometime. Maybe in the form of a bestseller! 😉

So, what do you think about all of the above? And do you enjoy the quiet … or are you afraid of it?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings. 🙂

PS – at the time of writing this it was still Sunday but it will be just past midnight, so into Monday at time of posting.

Just a little Foxy!

This is a quick post while waiting for the February 14th draw. (Read post of January 26.) I hope you have left a comment there to be in the running for Laura Best’s book Bitter, Sweet.

In the interim I am writing, and reading, and thinking about what I will say in my review of the book I read just last night.

Right now I want to mention something neat that happened yesterday. My husband and I were on our way home from church and dinner, and upon driving up the road to our house we slowed to turn into our driveway. But, we stopped instead because, to our surprise, there at the end of our driveway stood — a red fox! A beautiful, bright-eyed, healthy-looking fox! Unalarmed, it just stood there looking at us a few moments. Then, seeming to realize we were going to turn in, it calmly strutted out of our way and trotted up the hill by our yard. The people in front of us turned and drove back to watch this gorgeous animal, and another van also stopped when they realized we were watching something. The fox must have found an interesting little critter to its liking because not long after that it was on the side hill digging, with its back end up and head and shoulders hidden in the snow. Amusing. It mattered not to the fox who was watching.

Gotta love rural/country life! Here I have the privilege to see all kinds of wildlife, including eagles nearly every day, and also hawks, many other birds, white-tailed deer, foxes, coyotes, and other animals. Yes, I love God’s creation!

What do you like about where you live?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Interview and book-giveaway coming soon!

It is a stormy night here, snow, freezing rain, wind. Nice night to be home snuggled in where it is warm and dry.

For your information: An interview with Laura Best is in the works. Soon I will post it here for your enjoyment. Also, I will be offering a free copy of her book to someone who posts a comment on my blog in response to that interview, duplicates will not be included. I will write down all names and put all the little slips of paper into a basket, then I will have my husband draw one out. The winner will receive a copy of Bitter, Sweet – by Laura Best and donated by Nimbus Publishing. Yay!

Before the interview is posted I will fine tune the details. So stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Yesterday was a palindrome!

So, what is a palindrome you ask? A palindrome is a word, or phrase or even a number that can be read the same way in either direction .. beginning to end or end to beginning.

Examples of words: level, civic, radar, kayak

Examples of phrases: famous ones are “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!” and “Was it a rat I saw?”

Example of numbers: yesterday’s date 1102011 Do you see it? Read it both ways and you will.

These kinds of things fascinate me. It was brought to my attention again when I came across this blog today: http://gwenelle.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/palindromes-in-2011/ Gwenelle talks about interesting things on there, so you may like to read up on some of this.

I also visited Wikipedia to see what they have to say about it. Interestingly, they say January 2, 2010 (01022010) was the last one and that the next one will be November 2, 2011 (11022011) – but they completely missed January 10, 2011 (1102011)! Maybe because it is one fewer number? Dunno! You can check out the fascinating info they have here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome

Do you ever give things like this any thought? What oddities interest you?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂