thankful thursday

i’m thankful for…

1.  good friends.

2.  new pillows!

3.  fireflies.

4.  the cheerful sounds of the bird.

5.  a good, solid run.

6.  fresh picked berries for my cereal.

ruby

out of all the characters that we come across in cold mountain, ruby is, by far, my favorite.  the girl has got gumption.  nothing fancy about her, physically…but her matter-of-fact attitude and strong work ethics make up for all of that.  if there’s a job that needs done, ruby can do it. 

the only redeeming quality of the movie, in my opinion, was ruby.  renee zellweger did an excellent job bringing ruby to life and is still one of my most favorite roles played by her.  she definitely deserved the academy award she received for that role.

“the girl came up to the porch and without asking leave sat in a rocker next to ada and hooked her heels on the chair rungs.  her hair was black and coarse as a horse’s tail.  she went shoeless, but her feet were clean.  the girl’s name, ada soon discovered, was ruby, and though the look of her was not confidence-inspiring, she convincingly depicted herself as capable of any and all farm tasks.  ada’s deep impression was that she had a willing heart.  and though ruby had not spent a day of her life in school and could not read a word nor write even her name, ada thought she saw in her a spark as bright and hard as one struck with steel and flint.”

happy 4th

may we never forget the sacrifices made.

thankful thursday

i’m thankful for….

1.  a safe trip to and from doctor’s today.

2.  ummm…a full well thanks to all of the rain this year (but it can stop already!)

3.  a good report from my doctor.

4.  the quietness of home.

5.  good books.

verbs…all of them tiring

the second block for my cold mountain quilt (no official name as of yet) is one that many can certainly relate to.  ada was raised to be a ‘proper’ woman of the 1860’s.  her time was spent playing piano, writing poems and reading fine literature…until her father died and left her with a large farm to try and run.  things didn’t go well for her for several months, until ruby shows up at her doorstep, cuts a deal with her and puts her to work.

“to ada, ruby’s monolgues seemed composed mainly of verbs, all of them tiring.  plow, plant, hoe, cut, can, feed, kill.  when ada remarked that at least they could rest when winter came, ruby said, ‘oh, when winter comes we’ll mend fence and piece quilts and fix what’s broken around here, which is a lot.’  simply living had never struck ada as such tiresome business.”