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I have done the wind, trees, the moon, rivers, and roads, but not the stars.   Of course, there are so many kinds of stars...blazing suns in the skies, people who have shone in their lives in every field, stars as destiny or fate.  

Star Poems are here:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/...

Falling Stars
by Rainer Maria Rilke

Do you remember still the falling stars
that like swift horses through the heavens raced
and suddenly leaped across the hurdles
of our wishes--do you recall? And we
did make so many! For there were countless numbers
of stars: each time we looked above we were
astounded by the swiftness of their daring play,
while in our hearts we felt safe and secure
watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate,
knowing somehow we had survived their fall.

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It is spring and so our thoughts turn to love.  

Love is a many splendored thing
It's the April rose that only grows in the early spring
Love is nature's way of giving a reason to be living
The golden crown that makes a man a king
Once on a high and windy hill
In the morning mist two lovers kissed and the world stood still
Then your fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing
Yes, true love's a many splendored thing

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

It is love of all kinds that has made us human and that has given us the courage to be the best we can be.  What would we be like without love and companionship from partners, parents, children, or pets?

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Despite all the books that list Atlantis as having been found in places all over the world and as much as that does fascinate me, it is not important to me to know if it really existed or not.  There is something deeper inside me, as with the King Arthur legends, that just needs to have an Atlantis to dream about, to imagine, to walk the streets of...thus the title...

There are many places that have been invented by authors as allegories and as classic stories that also grab my imagination.  I would like to hear about the ones that grab yours.

So what do you think about Atlantis?  Allegory, Legend, or Fact?

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I have been watching and rewatching series one and two of Lovejoy with Ian McShane which I understand represents a lighter version of Lovejoy’s character than the one in the books by Gash that I have not read.

wiki says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...

Lovejoy is a series of picaresque novels by John Grant (under the pen name Jonathan Gash) about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer based in East Anglia whose scruples are not always the highest.

The definition for a rogue is here and Lovejoy perhaps would be number 3, for the most part, at least in the TV series.

http://onlinedictionary.datasegment....

3. One who is pleasantly mischievous or frolicsome; hence, often used as a term of endearment.

       1913 Webster

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As spring teases us with its approach, I am half asleep and half dreaming, and my mind wanders along strange paths.  I think of green, of the environment, of getting older, of love and death.  

It also has been raining and geese are honking while the sand hill cranes sound like rusty gates opening.  Somehow all these thoughts lead to humor and stories that make me laugh out loud.  Follow the yellow brick road below until you reach humor and then tell us what makes you laugh.

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    This quote was in a recent diary that made me think about books with families as a main ingredient of the story.  

"When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale." -

Heretics, CW, I, p.143
G K Chesterton quoted by Belvedere Come Here Boy

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    "Who knows what evil lurks in the minds of men?  The Shadow knows!"  When I was a child, I listened faithfully to this radio program.  It was thrilling and I could imagine all the things they talked about without seeing any of it.  Could the Shadow be translated to TV and would it be as chilling, today?

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    I have been reading some good mysteries by Steven Hamilton that are set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and there are times in the stories when the characters have everything in hand and it is "showtime" which leads to lots of danger or trouble.   I also watched the film Madagascar with my grandbaby and there it was again...Alex comes through the evil predators to grab up his friends and says, "Showtime!"  

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I finished reading Mama Day by Gloria Naylor and I have continued to think about it for several days.  The writing was wonderful and I loved the book, but I knew that something bad was coming all through the story and I had to take time out from reading it every once in a while.  

The reason I knew trouble was coming was because of many clues that warned me... foreshadowing.  The characters find their peace with what happened, but I have not, yet.  I am not made for quick or easy acceptance though I will come around in time.  I never am able to say, "Oh, it is only a story."  

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The quest, tonight, if you choose to accept it, is to think about Narrators and Shakespeare.

 Who is the narrator in the film The Seventh Seal...the Knight or Death?  Do you like Tom, the narrator in Glass Menagerie?  

Who is the narrator of Sonnet 73?  Shakespeare?  If so, who else of all the other men who are proposed to have written the plays instead ever reached this elder age?  When I read the sonnet, I feel the author truly understood old age.

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It has snowed several times since last week when I wrote Bookflurries so Magnifico suggested the theme of books with snow and ice.  He mentions the children’s book by Ezra Keats, The Snowy Day which is also a favorite of mine, and the mystery Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg.  

A big hat tip to him for this idea since I found lots of books that I love, too, that have snow and winter as the setting.  Since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and most of my winter book choices have a good deal of loving in them, it seemed the thing to do to add that into the title.  

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What exactly makes a character colorful?  Is it because the person marches to a different drummer as Thoreau said?  Is it their way of doing big, courageous, and interesting things?  

Is it the sheer flare and flair of their personality...their energy and creativity and fearlessness?  Are they larger than life?  Do they do things that no one else would do?  

Who would you nominate as your favorite colorful character who really lived?  Here are some of my favorites.

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Many, many weeks ago (44 to be exact), I had a diary about the moon, but I couldn’t resist doing another one since something was working in my mind and I had to let it out in the poem in the comments below.  There are many wonderful poems and quotes about the moon and I would love to have you share them with us.

wiki has a page for the story of the Bakunawa
http://en.wikipedia.org/...

Tales about the Bakunawa say that it is the cause of eclipses. During ancient times, Filipinos believe that there are seven moons created by Bathala to light up the sky. The Bakunawa, amazed by their beauty, would rise from the ocean and swallow the moons whole, angering Bathala and causing them to be mortal enemies.

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    My mind gets curious about things that are floating around in my head and I go looking on the net for more information and it is interesting to see how one thing leads to another.

    Last week while visiting with algebrateacher, the song came into my mind that defined much of who I was in the past in the 60’s and who I am now.

Those Were The Days, My Friend

http://www.lyricsbox.com/...

The chorus:

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we'd choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way

last stanza

Through the door, there came familiar laughter.
I saw your face and heard you call my name.
Oh my friend, we're older but no wiser,
For in our hearts, the dreams are still the same.

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First sentences are doors to worlds.
-- Ursula K. Le Guin

One of the things that gives a big payoff to a dedicated reader is that moment when one sentence grabs hold and changes your way of thinking about something.  It is a delight and forever after you are changed.  Not only that, but it makes you go looking for more such quotations.  This happened the other night to me when I was reading Passenger to Teheran by Vita Sackville-West who traveled there in 1926.

"But, for my part, I would not forgo the memory of an Egyptian dawn, and the flight of herons across the morning moon."*

Ah, sheer poetry and it reminds me of all the moons I have seen in the daytime and did not know what to call them.  Now, I do.  Of course there are noon moons and afternoon tea moons, but that moon that lingers in the paleness of dawn...exquisite.  I am glad I read the book for that lovely image alone.

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    Tonight’s theme of Mind Touching Mind may reoccur from time to time here at Bookflurries.  When we touch a mind such as Madeleine L’Engle’s in her Wrinkle in Time fiction series or in her autobiographical books, we are awed by the writer’s honesty, her willingness to share and her bright spirit. There are many writers who have reached out to us through the ages.  We feel as if we know them, personally.

    Tonight, I want to briefly explore the life of Sojourner Truth whose mind still touches mine after all these years.  Because she spent many years of her life living near and in Battle Creek, Michigan, I will include some photos of this lovely town, also.

Sojourner Truth is still there in the form of a tall statue.