Anna Cebrat~Puppeteer & Storyteller

Anna Cebrat was known to thousands of children in East Tennessee as "Aunt Anna." She had a distinguished career as an educator and librarian; but, after retiring as librarian at Oak Ridge High School in 1975, she pursued her love of puppetry and began performing as "Aunt Anna and Her Friends."

Anna made each puppet by hand. Many are life-size, some are storybook characters she came to love as a librarian, and all reflect her true artistic sense. Prior to her death, she loaned a group of puppets to the Children's Museum for an exhibition titled "Anna Cebrat's Puppets." She visited the exhibition one week before her death and enjoyed it thoroughly.

In addition to creating puppets, she was a professional storyteller. She told her tales at the Museum, libraries throughout East Tennessee, and was a performer at the 1982 World's Fair. Ms. Cebrat was dedicated to the art of puppetry and was an active member of Puppeteers of America. While she was still able to travel, she attended puppet festivals in St. Louis, Atlanta, Tampa, Nashville and other cities. There, she became good friends with some of the top puppeteers in the world. It was not unusual for her to describe visits with the late Jim Henson of the Muppets, Vince Anthony of the Center for Puppetry Arts, Tom Tichenor of Nashville, and the famous puppeteer Bill Baird.

Anna's puppets and most of all her zest for living are part of her legacy. She passed away November 27, 1990.

New Outdoor Altar

Yesterday, the boys and I hauled stones to the fire pit area and built a new stone altar. It reminds me of the ancient stone cairns you might see in Ireland or Britain. I am really pleased with how it turned out and it is very sturdy and solid.

We will get to consecrate it this Sunday with our Mabon gathering.

Of Mirrors and Mayhem

Well...we found a fabulous framed mirror that would go perfectly in our vintage, upstairs bath. In taking down the old mirror, I attempted to get hold of the other end of the one David was holding when it broke in two, sending the piece that I was reaching for stabbing into the palm of my right hand. Seriously painful, people. I had an x ray and there didn't seem to be any glass in it. So I am left dealing with serious pain whenever the tendon is used in my arm, swelling and numbness in my hand and general pissed off-ness at not being able to function the way I am used to. I am to see an orthopedic surgeon this week to determine if there is nerve damage as the reason for the numbness. I am having a hard time not using it when it is feeling ok. Well, enough about that....pictures to come once we get the new mirror on the wall. lol

The Star is Shining

My star/pentacle is finally up! Well, actually, it's been up for several weeks and I have just now remembered to take a photo. Isn't it great! It is in the center of the front of the house. The window on the right is the temple. How sweet!

Update on life

Hi all, sorry for the silence of late. We have had much difficulty with our wireless internet. It is so sporadic, and the weather seems to knock it out, so all this rain has done that. All is well here, we are gearing up for the end of school, only 5 weeks to go. All the kids have done really well this year, considering they all transferred to a school system that requires a lot more out of their students. My kids have risen to the challenge. I am proud of them all.

We have our garden in, all but the beans and sunflowers. And we are hoping that this rain has not drowned anything, everything is up so I am hopeful. Though the corn did take a beating.

Still working on spring cleaning and doing some sewing projects for selling. We are still flea marketing, at least on those days when the weather is clear.

Last week I hosted a blessingway for a friend and that was a blessing to me as well. Every time I look at the red string around my wrist I think of her and send her love and positive energies for her impending birth.

I hope to have more garden updates up soon. David and I will be celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary tomorrow, so more on that later.

I hope you all had a fabulous Beltane.

Blessings.

Icy Artwork

Well, since going back to work, things are taking longer to get done around the house. But this week the boys and I finally got started on the leaves. And boy, what a job that is turning out to be. But the hard work had its perks, we found this lovely piece of icy art in a bucket. The leaves were frozen inside it. So pretty, we would have loved to keep it, but alas, Mother Nature's art is fleeting.

The Children's Museum~The Train Room

In the Train Room there is a pretty much full size locomotive. Well at least the front end of one, made of wood, but hey, the effect was there. Motion activated, so when you step onto it train engine sounds begin and lights blink and horns and whistles blow. On the other side there is a toy area for small children to play with toy trains.

Sophie acting engineer.

As you walk around the locomotive, there are dioramas of model railroads created and maintained by the Knoxville Area Model Railroaders. This is an amazing display. There are buttons at each 'station' to set the trains running and turn on lights and effects. The boys were entranced to say the least. There were so many tiny details to see, you honestly could look for hours and not see it all.

Local businesses who made a donation to the project had their own miniature replica of their business included in the display.

Engineer Sophie disembarking the train. What fun!

Jonathan had to add his own particular dramatic touch to the afternoon. Always heed those railway crossing signs.

The Children's Museum~Art

Some of the beautiful artwork found throughout the Children's Museum. This one is called "The Heart of the Forest". One of a hallway full of commissioned art pieces done for the Rain forest Room.

































This one I love. But I neglected to get the name of the piece.







































Artwork done in the arts & crafts classes that the museum offers to children.


























One of the lovely murals done in several places, this is the rainbow dragon in the castle room [more to come on that]. So pretty and magical.























This mural is in the Dollhouse room. Its the bridge and archway to the "big city".









Mural of jaguars in the Rain forest room.






























More animals and forest in the Rain forest room.

So pretty.


























Child created art on a bench in the train room.

The Triplets

These are photos of the 'triplets', as we have come to call them. In the early summer we first noticed these three with their mother. Though I have never known a deer to have triplets they were with only one mother. So they are either hers, or she has adopted one or more of them. Anyway, we see them every so often in the neighbor's yard and garden. This time I was able to snap some photos before they ran off, but only of two of them. Number three was in the bushes. They are just beautiful little ones.

New Fun~Dance Hoop

I got this at the thrift store. Brand new in the box, for a song! Anyway, it is amazingly fun, I enjoy it so much and it is easy to do, the hoop is so big it makes it easy even for someone who can't use a regular hula hoop. So much fun and a great workout. It comes with a DVD workout. I am having a blast! Everyone in the family has wanted to try it out. Check out the website for workout tips. Here is the website to order from and for more info, check it out. It seems to be a great addition to yoga, gets the cardio pumping.

Freeganism~At its Best

David spent another night checking out the dumpsters around our town. This is what he found. These products cover the dinner table. These were only a portion of what was thrown in the dumpster, the rest was ruined by the rain and other trash thrown on top. What a waste! Its disgusting! Most of these products, which would never go bad, due to all the preservatives, were only a few days out of date, some were still in date. We are not sure why they were thrown away. My question is.....why were these not 1. sold at a great discount. 2. given to any of the local food banks, which almost always have some things that are past their prime. 3. donated to anywhere....besides the trash??? Ugghh!!!

Spring Berries

Ahhh.....spring berries in my morning oatmeal. There is nothing like it to prove that spring is here.

Of cats and birds

Witness here, the cat Cleopatra. Climbing up four feet or more, through the inside of the Euonymus shrub beside our front porch.

And here is what she was trying to get at....four little Sparrow eggs in a darling little nest, right in the middle of said shrub. I have been witnessing the aforementioned sparrow sitting on the railing and porch over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, said sparrow did rise up out of the shrub this afternoon just as the 'perp', Cleo was dozing in the afternoon sun. Now if anyone knows of a way, short of total in house lock down, to keep a determined cat away from a newly discovered bird nest, please advise. Thanks.

Earth Day Festival!

We had a good time at the Earth Day Festival. It is our city's first year holding an event like this so it will take them awhile to get it just right. But it shows signs of being a good beginning. They tried to have a waste free event, having recycling bins for paper, plastic, aluminum, & glass, every hundred yards or so. There were many vendors of the type that held demonstrations and gave out literature on the various ways and reasons for such things as; recycling, hybrid and bio diesel cars, solar and wind power, global sustainability,several state parks, many environmental groups, ET Vegetarian society, US Green Building Council, many artists that use recycled materials, wilderness planning, plants and herbs from various areas, magic mulch;which is organic compost, there were a couple of hybrid and bio diesel vehicles and even a bus. And many more things. We learned a lot and were very happy to see such a great turnout. I look forward to next year's event being even better with a little more diversity even. Photos include; Garbage Can Band,(think STOMP), Sophie planting pumpkin seeds in a newspaper cup, Joshua at the top pf the climbing wall, & Sophie and David making side walk art. I realized of course, once I got home, that I didn't get any photos of the "eco" related items, just family shots, so I will do better at the Knoxville event. Sorry. We have another event, Earthfest, a much bigger event, in the next town, Knoxville, on the 26TH. More on Earth day then.....

This was my TGIF celebration a Creamciscle Float. Yummy! French vanilla ice cream with Sunkist orange soda. So bad..... so good.....so retro.

Those with Snake Phobias Don't Look

Here is my fearless daughter of the Earth, holding and enjoying the neighbor's Red Tail Boa. He is about 5 - 6 feet long and weighs nearly as much as Sophie does. She is still talking about it. I am so glad that she is so open to learning and has no abnormal fear of them. We have and are, teaching her about respecting wild snakes, because we found several small Garter snakes in the yard last year. So I know we will be revisiting this again. (Yes, she's wearing only her underwear, "It's warm, I don't mind, mom.")

Freeganism......huh?

There is a great post over at the Crunchy Domestic Goddess http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/. I really loved this post, because I have seen this kind of waste in my own town. David is an avid dumpster diver, has been for a long time. During some of those dives, he has found three 50 lb bags of dog food, thrown out because of a small tear in the corner, nothing missing. Many bags of chips, loaves of bread, candy, drinks, medicines, cosmetics, and untold number of odds and ends from store displays, etc. All usable and not in the least nasty or ruined. These items could have benefit ted our local animal shelter, food bank, homeless and women's shelter, and local storehouse for those who have lost their homes and or possessions due to fire, or poverty. The amount of waste in this country is disgusting. I did not see the program on Oprah that the post speaks of, but did hear of Freegans on another news show about a year or two ago. I personally, think it is a really fine idea. Although, it seems like a better, more sanitary idea to get the businesses involved with giving this surplus away to those in need. Those businesses that we have seen this kind of waste in our town include, The Home Depot, Lowe's Home Center, K-Mart, CVS Pharmacy,in case you want to think twice about shopping at these places. I think that the public has a right to know of this waste, so here it is. For more info about freeganism, here is a good old link; http://compassionate-news.blogspot.com/2007/10/freeganism-living-off-your-wits-without.html (The photo is from that website, showing a "haul" after a dumpster dive in NY city. Just amazing!)