Monday Meanderings

heiwa

'Peace' in Japanese

vintage clip Geisha courtesans, Japan

Today I went through some of my 'future blog' stuff.

I browsed through some documents, pictures...

today just seems to be a 'meandering' day, rather than any one topic!!

So, let's wander our way in -

"Put silk on a goat

and

it's still a goat."

- Irish proverb

This next clip is a fascinating piece of American History,

re-enacted very very well -

http://voxvocispublicus.homestead.com/Battle-of-Athens.html

vintage WWII recruiting poster for the Army Air Forces

Did you like that? I sure did when it was sent to me!

"...you're just as big or small

as your vision is,

and if you've a mind to work

 and make something of yourself,

you can do it."

- from The Day Breakers, by Louis L'Amour, western fiction novelist

http://www.netnewgrowth.com/

Trivia:

532

number of cars destroyed during the filming of

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

according to director Michael Bay.

Welcome to MONGOLIA

one of the recent countries to view my blog!

traditional  head dress, Mongolia

www.goodguardian.co.uk

Up next is one of my favorite beverages -

Now doesn't a tall cold glass of root beer sound wonderful?

:0)

"Kind thoughts,

Kind words,

Kind deeds -

how brightly they shine in memory."

- Mary Anderson

Trivia:

Did you know that there will be

1 MILLION

pieces of sporting equipment waiting for athletes

at the 30th Summer Olympic Games,

starting July 27th in London?

That includes:

356 pairs of boxing gloves

510 adjustable hurdles

600 basketballs

2,700 soccer balls

and

26,400 tennis balls

and just who gets to count all those tennis balls

for the requisition order?!?

vintage photo card of boxer Humery

vintage French rugby card

vintage tennis card

and now for one of my all time favorite quotes,

from Grandma Moses:

"If I hadn't started painting,

I would have raised chickens."

- Grandma Moses

Who is Grandma Moses you ask?

Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses)

at the age of 76

had to give up her embroidery career due to agonizing arthritis in her hands.

So she took up painting.

She had no formal artistic training, and her paintings remained simplisitic.

found at dopodomani.me

But

she had lots of life memories to draw on-

and she painted her memories.

Grandma Moses was the mother of five children

and 5 more that all died in childbirth.

Her paintings reflect the kind and thoughtful people that surrounded her,

the joys of simple daily life

and the natural beauty in her surrounding landscapes.

Simple.

A life disappearing in today's hurly burly life.

Grandma Moses found at www.birth-of-a-notion.blogspot.com

She was born before Lincoln took office

and died the year JFK was inaugurated.

She painted thousands of paintings,

25 of them after she turned 100 years old!

By the age of 100 her paintings were worth $10,000 -

now they go for a million or so.

"The Pond" by Grandma Moses

www.laterbloomer.com

Here is a wonderful song/singer

Jai McDowall

singing Bring me to life,

from Britain's Got Talent tv series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hut1XFy671g&feature=relmfu

Lovely voice coming from someone who seems genuine and down-to-earth.

'Bouder, Colorado Casual'

original Collage Art Doll by inkspired

http://www.collagepaperpainting.etsy.com/

Here is an artist from Armenia,

Arto Tuncboyaciyan

singing "Ararat"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL0hAnzGMd4&feature=relmfu

Mount Ararat, Armenia with the Khor Virap monastry in front

www.walksworldwide.com

 "Earth and sky, woods and fields,

lakes and rivers,

the mountain and the sea,

are excellent schoolmasters,

and teach some of us more

than we can ever learn from books."

- John Lubbock

2012 NASA www.newestimage.com photo credit: Norman Kuring

A fun coloring page from Jan Brett -

www.janbrett.com

'Orange Sherbert' original Collage Art Doll

www.collagepaperpainting.etsy.com

Well, all good things must come to an end

(who said that anyway?)

and so I must say good bye for today!

Keep Cool!

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

http://www.collagepaperpainting.etsy.com/

dominoes@myinkspired.com

Peace to Armenia and some fun History

Khaghaghutyun

(corrected spelling, thanks to a dear reader!)

'Peace'

in Armenian

The Armenian Flag at the Genocide Memorial,

Yerevan, Armenia 

I have just spent several hours learning all about the country of Armenia.

I love history!

Armenia is one of the countries that have checked out my blog.

Yippee!

An Armenian woman in traditional dress circa 1800's

www.zazzle.com

This learning expedition started when I looked at my list of languages, and how to say 'Peace' in different countries.

http://www.planetpals.com/

I wanted to say 'Peace' in a language from one of the countries that visit my blog.  That's 90 countries since I checked yesterday!

Whoohooo 

:0)

If only someone from each country would leave a comment!

That would be truly cool.

Even MORE cool if each sent a picture of their country!!

HINT HINT HINT

And yeah, you Americans, send me a picture of where you live too!

To me this is what the internet is all about.

People connecting with people all over the globe.

Dancing in traditional Armenian costumes

http://www.my.englishclub.com/

I was going to try and write this blog in the colors of the Armenian flag, but red seems too much like yelling,

and the orange doesn't really show up to read easily,

which leaves me with bright blue.

So I guess we will do this funky color.

:0)

Armenian Dance costumes,

www.parstimes.com

Today is all about Armenia.

I learned things I had no idea of!

(and a few I did know!)

Mount Ararat (Turkey) with the Khor Virap Monastery in front.

http://www.travelnationalgeographic.com/

Armenia is a land locked and earthquake ridden country

set in rugged mountains.

I guess I never realized that Mount Ararat is adjacent to Armenia.

I thought it was in Turkey, kind of vaguely....

Mount Ararat is part of the Armenian Plateaus, and can be seen,

of course, from Armenia.

Mount Ararat, seen from the Armenian side, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

For those of you who may not know, Mount Ararat is the mountain where traditional belief makes it the final resting place of the Biblical Noah's Ark.

Mrav mountain range seen from Gandzasar, Armenia

There is a large Cathedral and monastery in Gandzasar.

The foundations of the Cathedral St. Hovhannes Mkrtich (St. John the Baptist)were laid in 1216. It was completed in 1238 AD.

First records about the Gandzasar Monastery go back to the 10th century where an assembly was called in 949 AD to resolve disputes about the holy Trinity.

That's really old.

See it from the United States of America's viewpoint, it's ancient!

(Being as we are such a 'young' country of only 250 years or so).

A chorus sung in Gandzasar's Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

during a liturgical ceremony.

Interesting note:

In 301 AD, Armenia became the first Christian nation.

Today, it's official religion is 'Armenian Apostolic'.

The Gavit (or narthex) of the Gandszasar Monastery.

Gandzasar is translated as "Treasured Mountain".

The centerpiece is the Walled Abbey and the

Cathedral St. Hovhannes Mkrtich.

The Armenians believe that the Cathedral contains,

or contained in the past, a key Christian relic:

the head of St. John the Baptist.

It is also believed that there are several other body parts of well known saints either laid to rest there currently, or at one time in the past.

One of the relics is said to be the right arm of a saint.

Northern main entrance to the gavit Gandzasar

Hmmmm...I'm not really into that.

No disrespect meant to those who are. It's just that as far back as the Old Testament G-d tells us that no other graven image or god should be worshipped.

I think a person's head or arm falls into that category.

It is interesting history, however!

Father Ter-Hovhannes leading Holy Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

The Cathedral and Monastery have been sacked several times, most notably the Mongol hordes at the beginning of the 13th century, and again in the late 18th century when it was looted by Turkic gangs.

Most recently it was attacked in 1992 by Azerbaijanis.

There's LOTS of info on the Azerbaijan mass genocide program against the Armenians.

I think I just was not aware about the Huge-ness of it.

an Armenia woman who identified herself as Udin, vintage photo

Well, there's lots more great historical stuff.

Has to be with a country as old as this one!

Here are just a few more Armenia Facts -

Population: 3 million

Area: 11,484 square miles

Language: Armenian, Russian

Capital: Yerevan, with a population of 1,079,000 (1/3)

Life expectancy: 72

Currency: Dram

LITERARY: 99%

The front and back of a greeting card

traditional Armenian dress

http://www.stvartanbookstore.com/

There's lots more fun stuff, but I have a splitting headache,

and have been putting this together for more than 3 days,

so it's time to post!

As a country that has seen so little of it,

for so long,

I say

Khanaghutyun

Much of my information I gleaned from

-     National Geographic Atlas of the World 8^th edition

- http://www.gandzasar.com/nagorno-karabakh.htm

- www.armenianchurch-ed.net/eastern-dioces/the-primate/welcome/

see you soon!

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/