Saturday, December 26, 2009

Happy Kwanzaa

On Christmas day, John and I took a long walk with the camera. I love walking with the camera, but I especially love walking with John. His eye opens mine. His suggestions inspire me.

We found a lot of sights to enjoy including these cement pavers embedded in the median alongside El Molino just north of Washington. Someone had decorated them with positive thoughts.

Today is the first day of Kwanzaa. The (non-religious) holiday continues until January 1st. I enjoyed reading about it on several sites. Did you know the African spelling is "Kwanza" and the additional "a" at the end reflects the African American celebration? Now you do.

Kwanzaa celebrates seven principles. One of them is depicted here. The others are just good ideas for regular days.

Happy Kwanzaa!

19 comments:

Virginia said...

Inspiration for the coming year1
V

Petrea Burchard said...

Let's hope so, V! I can use every one of these things.

Cafe Observer said...

Merry Kwanza 2 U, PDP.

I took a few shots, i.e. pics, 2day just before sundown.

John Sandel said...

From the silence in the comments, I gather that people are stunned by their holiday revels …

The Christmas spirit is
Not what you drink"

—I. Anderson, 1971

… but honestly, as synthetic as Kwanzaa may seem, is the modern tradition of unbridled capitalism, compacted to Dec 25th, any less contrived?

Citizens, rouse yourselves to public comment! No blog is so mean as to have earned the opprobrium of silence—rather heap upon this missive your most hearty encomium! Cast aside thy eggnog—watch the carpeting!—and join me in giving thanks to Missus Petrea for her photos of these carefully wrought stones.

… hello?

crickets

(—BURRP!—)

Petrea Burchard said...

Hee hee, my least popular post ever. Frankly, I like it. I really like the photos and the subject matter. But hey, that's just me.

Thanks, Cafe, for your visit. You too, J, for trying. Let's eat.

Anonymous said...

I liked it, and where did you find those stones?

We should all devote a day to one of our own blogs we most liked that others seemed to miss. (I've got one; maybe I'll just post it as if it were brand new. Why not? No one saw it.)

Today was strange in many ways. I got home and someone had cleaned up my whole front yard of all the debris from the Wednesday wind. Every bed, every walkway. Who? Pretty sweet.

Virginia said...

It's taken me a long, long time to accept my photographs/text for what they are. They are my images/ my words/ my feelings. No more, no less. I too often associate their worth with the comments of my blog friends. Petrea, you are a gifted writer, photographer,actor. Take a bow for all your talents. I stop here everyday to revel in it.
V

Virginia said...

Hiker,
HELL , I flew all the way to "dena" and cleaned up your yard and then flew ALLLL the way back to Bama.
You are so welcome. And Albert and I had a grand time throwing the tennis ball! :)
V

John Sandel said...

Virginia made me laugh!

wv: wobbiz

Petrea Burchard said...

Thanks, you guys, I'm good with it. You are the best. (I'll accept that "gifted" anyway, Virginia, and keep it close to my heart.) It's been a lovely day and I haven't a complaint in the world.

I wish I could say I'd cleaned your yard, Karin. Maybe just a good neighbor. I like your idea of re-posting those that others missed. I have a couple of very early ones that showed absolutely no promise whatsoever. Those would be fun.

The stones are just north of Washington on El Molino. Someone cleaned up a bunch of weeds beside the road and embedded these instead.

Cafe Observer said...

This is your least popular post ever, P??

This is an average day for me. 99.99% of us can't even arouse ourselves to make public comment at city council meetings!

Most blogs wood love to be so unpopular as PDP! It's relative.
I know, 4 examp, that I get a brunch more readings than comments on my blog. 4 me, I try to leave a comment with every post I read in full so the writer can have some feedback.

Like restaurants, you have your good days & your slow. Of course, if I knew no one cared enuf to a leave comment, I wood consider hanging up this old blog & look for a higher paying job.

As it is, I wanna slow this blog down in my advanced age. Which means you must continue!

Tash said...

super cool find! and thanks for the KwanzaA awareness. I like Umoja (Unity).

Tash said...

Maybe it was the LOVE...I bet HOPE or FAITH as the 1st pic would of brought more by ;)
Actually, I think everyone is just plain ol' taking it easy & not blogging.

Laurie Allee said...

This is wonderful. I want to frame that first photo and hang it on the wall.

Chuck Pefley said...

Perfect for any and all seasons. Nice find, and a nice anonymous addition as well.

Dina said...

Living over here, I almost forgot there is a Kwanzaa over there.
And I love the stones you found, full of hope.
Encomium to you, Petrea. And thanks, John, for teaching me a big word.

Petrea Burchard said...

Actually, Cafe, I've had a few with zero comments. And now folks have shown up to chat, so that statement's no longer true of this post.

I think you're right, Tash. I should have put FAITH up there first (as a clue). And I was pooed out yesterday just like everyone else.

Thanks, Laurie. I like the real black and white.

Chuck, I saw people cleaning up the building the other day but it's still empty. They looked young. I don't know what the purpose was but it always helps a neighborhood.

I had to look that up, Dina!

Eleonora Baldwin said...

Lovely images and deep messages within. I learned something new in Kwanzaa, thank you for sharing.

I know it's impertinent of me, but could I ask you a techie question point blank? How do you target your hyperlinks to open in another page and not load in the current one? I'm a dummy.

Ciao
Eleonora
Roma Every Day

Petrea Burchard said...

Hello Eleonora, and welcome. Your question is not at all impertinent! I'm happy to share. After all, that's how I learned it.

In Blogger, once you've typed in your copy and pasted your links, click on the "edit HTML" tab.

Type or paste this bit of code:

target="_blank"

AFTER the closing quote mark following the URL, and BEFORE the > bracket.

I hope that makes sense. It's an extra step but it's worth it, because it keeps your blog page open (and keeps people on your page).

Since your blog is so beautiful, I'll leave this message there as well.