Meandering Thoughts that Include Snowmen, Easter Baskets, Canada Geese, Symbols, Reasonings, and My Girls

The girls and I made these little Easter Baskets using applesauce cups, cotton balls, and pipe cleaners. C made the bunny, K the chick, and I made the odd looking lamb.

Soon I will be rubber-necking whenever I pass the Canada Geese because they will have those adorable balls of fluff following them around.

We went to the park with my dear friend and her youngest son. The girls get along with M so very, very well. Don't you love this shot? They were pretending to be Indians (Native Americans).

Today I am introducing snowmen 17-19 they are all spool snowmen but I am assigning them each their own spot. I didn't do that with the previous clothesline snowman family. Why? Because they were essentially the same thing over and over. In my opinion, these snowmen are three different takes on the same material. What do you think?

When the girls were small, I was amazed at how the girls could be shown an item that they hadn't seen before and that wasn't necessarily 'realistic' and recognize what it was. For instance, I was always amazed how a living frog, and a stuffed plush frog, and a cartoon drawing of a frog, and a realistic drawing of a frog could all be seen and deciphered as frog. Don't tell me you don't find that absolutely amazing. Sometimes the cartoon frog consists of three lines and a couple of circles and dots. The plush frog is a round ball with a suggestion of legs and bulging eyes...etc.


It is a marvel of the human mind that we are able to put together symbols or patterns and recognize them to mean something in very different contexts. The symbols for a snowman are white, 2-3 circles, black 'coal eyes, carrot or button nose, a mouth (sometimes coal bits), sometimes a top hat, sometimes a stocking hat, a scarf, stick arms, or sculpted arms.

Stack three graduated circles on top of each other and people will recognize a snowman. Paint black eyes, a carrot nose, and a mouth on something white and people assume that it is a representation of a snowman...

It makes my task easy. :)

I am gifted with language patterns when it comes to seeing metaphors and symbols. I also have a knack for seeing patterns in nature. I've noticed that I see things in nature that escape everyone else around me. What symbols or patterns are you particularly good at decoding?

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