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Music:  Starry, Starry Night

Whispers - Home
Old New Orleans
Nancy's Journal
Quiet Time
The inspiration for the page's title came from a quote by Katrina Mayer:
"Winter reminds us that everyone and everything needs some quiet time."

That's undoubtedly true.  But I'd rather have my quiet time with the thermometer sitting somewhere
around 85 degrees.  I was born on the first day of Summer and that pretty much set my internal
thermostat for life.  Luckily for me, when I made my appearance, it was in a subtropical zone and I've
been very happy to stay there.

The only disappointing thing about my geographical situation is that we rarely get snow in this part
of the world.  And snow seems quite magical when you only see it once every 8-10 years or so.  
When it does happen, it's cause for celebration almost on the scale of a Mardi Gras parade day.  
The schools close and there are hourly bulletins on TV telling us how close we are to accumulating
an actual inch or two.  There's rarely enough snow to make a respectable snowman, but we all build
itty bitty snowmen in our front yards and happily take pictures of our creations.

After it's been awhile since the last snowfall, I find myself looking longingly at pictures of snow
online.  And that's how this page came to be.  There are lots of snow places to choose from but,
with only one exception (from Scotland), the rest of the photos are all from England.

I usually like to fill my pages with a lot of color, but I decided to transform most of these pictures into
black and white and mute the color in the rest.  (That was mostly because I had such fun
color-spotting the red phone booths and post boxes.)

But, even though it was fun making the page, after sifting through so many cold, icy winter pictures,
I've decided that I may not be so anxious for a snowfall after all.  All things considered, the
subtropics are not a bad place to be in February!

-- Nancy
A Place I Used to Go

There was a place
I used to go
when I was very young;
when there was no world quite as real
as the world of books
and make-believe.
Across a meadow,
beneath the trees
that lined a sparkling stream
there was a magic land
where I was king
and others came
by invitation only.
Tom Sawyer used to drop around,
and Huck and Becky Thatcher;
and I remember
one time Tarzan came
and swam up and down the river.
Rupert Brooke and Robert Burns
would come and sit
and write poems
about wars and flowers.
But mostly, I was there alone,
watching the world around me;
and wondering things like
why the sky is blue
and how much a grain of sand
would weigh
if I were an ant.
I wish I could find
that place again;
but I've lost it,
somewhere in the noise
and hurry of my life.

-- Jim Metcalf
Go placidly among the noise and haste,
Remember what peace there may be in silence.
-- Max Ehrmann, from "The Desiderata"
Take time to be quiet.
-- Zig Ziglar
Allow yourself to rest.  Your soul speaks to you in
the quiet moments between your thoughts.
-- Unknown
Fog settles over the evening and offers a place to sit,
To rest for a quiet moment that the day will not permit.
-- Ella Forbes