A Valentine Blog

 

       This February 14th morning, my Valentine and I planted new shrubs in our garden that edges the patio.  Stitch and Lily, our cats, sat on the patio critiquing all that we did.
       Yes, your right.  I know I should be working on a rewrite of my next children's
picture book, Ira Scrump, but promoting my children's picture book, Oliver's Wish. and trying to establish an author platform, not to mention the computer crash and broken links in my gardengossipart.com website, has consumed much of my time.  But, for me, today is a special day...a day to spend with my Valentine.
      My Valentine has not missed sending me a card on this day, in all the years we have been married. (and I also send him a card) We top the day off with a fine dinner at a favorite restaurant  while savoring a fine wine. A valentine tradition we established many years ago.
 

 A SPECIAL VALENTINE TREAT

click on joyeux-saint-valentine. 

 

     My next Children's picture book, titled. Ira Scrump, is about a Looper geometrid inch worm and the disappointments and fears he must conquer as he learns to round his 'loop' in order to measure through the garden.

     Oliver's Wish: A Tale from the Garden may be viewed and purchased at www.talesfromthegarden.org or purchased from your favorite on-line book dear - Amazon, Barns & Noble, etc.

Oxymora

   "Reserved Enthusiasm" - todays post on the "Todays Oxymoron" sign.  I see this sign,  which is placed quite near the roadway and can't be missed, each time I drive to and from town.
 
  I glance quickly as I speed by and hope the oxymoron has been deposited into my brain bank.  Today was different.  It wouldn't be deposited and rolled around my mind painting a picture of one who approaches life cautiously. 
   
      Same Difference,  Living Dead,  Passive Aggressive,  Sharp Curve, Nothing much,  are only a few of the many oxymora I have seen posted.
    
 Oxymora, I have read, can be used for a variety of purposes.  It can be used to create some sort of drama for the reader or listener.  It can be used to make the person stop and think, whether it's to laugh or to ponder.   "The oxymoron in literature," The Wise Geek tells us, "creates humor or additional meaning by using two contradictory terms together."  "It evokes new ideas in the reader’s mind by suggesting that the contradictory ideas are in fact linked." 
    
 According to Richard Ledera "the word oxymoron is itself oxymoronic because it is formed from two Greek roots of opposite meaning, oxys "sharp, keen," and moros "foolish," the same root that gives us the word moron
     To purposely use oxymora as suggested above does not come easily to me, yet I feel akin to Clearly Confused.   Drawing a Blank is  no stranger.  And Good Grief'! How many of us feel were Going Nowhere? 
      
      Oxymora appears, without thought, in most of our conversations and appears with careful thought in many of our writings.   Though I am not adept at consciously using the oxymoron as a rhetorical device to create humor or alarm or give a clue to a character's persona, my favorite oxymoron, Jumbo Shrimp,  continually evokes the image of that Wickedly Good dry martini that goes so well with that Awfully Good Jumbo Shrimp cocktail.