Let's Play Tag!

Book Tag


In the past several weeks I have been tagged by a few people with different memes. I must admit I have procrastinated on most of them, and since I'm still waiting on blooms from my garden to show you, this week is as good as any to respond to these topics. The first tag is from Cheryl of My Wildlife Sanctuary, a true lover of nature who, as her blogname suggests, is creating a sanctuary in her backyard for all forms of wildlife, especially the birds and the bees. The rules of this game are these:

1. Pick up the nearest book set in a foreign country.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence on that page.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag 5 people and acknowledge who tagged you.


Cheryl's post was very thought-provoking because she chose a book explaining the teachings of Buddha. I knew I couldn't find anything that profound, but I felt compelled to try and picked up my copy of the complete works of Shakespeare, thinking I would surely find something wonderful there. Unfortunately, p. 123 was in the middle of Henry IV, and the lines didn't make much sense taken out of context. Then I spied a copy of Wuthering Heights in my nightstand, and decided to go for it. This is what I found on p. 123:


"Mr. Linton had put on her pillow, in the morning, a handful of golden crocuses; her eye, long stranger to any gleam of pleasure, caught them in waking, and shone delighted as she gathered them eagerly together."

If you have read Wuthering Heights you might recognize this passage as occuring during the time that Catherine is very ill and Edgar is trying to nurse her back to health. I thought the lines were interesting because when I first started reading blogs a little over two months ago, most of the gardening blogs were showing their crocuses, excited at this early sign of spring. No doubt Emily Bronte was thinking much the same way when she wrote these lines.


The Bronte sisters, especially Charlotte, have always been favorite authors of mine. I first read Jane Eyre when I was 13, and after that had the romantic fantasy of living in England and becoming a governess, hoping to eventually find my own Mr. Rochester. A few years ago, I did get to spend a few days in London, but I would love to really visit the UK, this time doing a sort of literary pilgrimage, visiting Stratford-on-Avon, Canterbury, Wordsworth's Lake Country, and the moors of the Bronte sisters, among other places.

I am usually such a rule-follower, but Cheryl, if you will forgive me, I'm not going to tag anyone with this. Instead, if anyone would like to join in and share what you've found in a book, please feel free to jump in!


"I'll show you mine if you show me yours"

Last week Vegplotting had this rather provocative title, which was actually a tag asking people to show what was currently on their desktops. Now this one is pretty easy to respond to; as you can see in the photo at the right, I have a photo that I took in Sedona, Arizona back in January when I visited my daughter.

I thought this tag was a rather unusual one, perhaps even a little silly, until I thought about it a little while. Does your desktop say something about who you are? In my case, I downloaded this photo shortly after returning from Arizona because it reminded me of the wonderful time I had there and the beautiful scenery so unlike the flat prairies of central Illinois. It also reminds me every time I get on the computer of my daughter who I miss very much.

Before I had this wallpaper I alternated between other photos of nature I downloaded from other sites or my own photos of my grandchildren. Both of these do reflect parts of my personality--I used to be a very stressed-out person (before I retired), and I appreciated the scenes of the serenity of nature. And, of course, my grandchildren mean the world to me, so their photos always bring a smile to my face.

Just to prove my point, I thought about my older daughter, the animal lover, whose desktop always has a photo of her pug, Oz. And the last wallpaper I saw on my younger daughter's computer was a photo of Jessica Simpson. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about that, but trust me, it fits her.

Like VP, I'm not going to tag anyone with this one, but if you care to join in, feel free to do so.

And finally, my apologies to Suburbia and VP. I haven't forgotten the original tags both of you gave me, though, Suburbia, you may think I have, it's been so long! I plan to post a response to both of those on Wednesday, so I hope you'll check back then.