Blue Monday: Little Roadie

Good Morning and welcome! Happy Blue Monday to everyone! Speaking of which, very recently I was driving down the road with Mr. Magpie, minding our own business, when suddenly we spotted: something shiny, something new, something pretty, something B-L-U-E!

Screeeeeeeeeeeech! The tires ground to a halt as I leapt from our one horse open sleigh [aka the MagpieMobile] quicker than you can say, "Blue Scooter!" For indeed it was a blue scooter, the very blue scooter pictured here...

Then I spotted something else: something little, something red, something stringy, made of thread. "Hey, wait a minute... it couldn't be! Annie! Is that YOU?"



And indeed it was. Annie was there in all of her glory, admiring her red hair in the motorcycle's shiny chrome!



And just as I got her name out of my mouth, Mr. Grump [who shall remain headless] appeared. He was so dazzled by Annie's beauty that he didn't watch what he was doing, and with one jerk of his chain, pulled all the scooters [except Annie's] over!



"Pssssssssst, Annie! This way! Hurry! Quick!"



I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of the scooters on the ground, but we were back in the MagpieMobile [it morphed from a sleigh back into a getaway car] before Mr. Grump could catch us. Annie drove as Mr. Magpie and I crouched on the floor of the backseat...



More about that later. ;-)

If you'd like to see other Blue Monday offerings, please visit our hostess, Smiling Sally at her blog of the same name. You may reach her blog by clicking on the link below:

http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Happy Blue Monday! :-)


Still on the run,


Mrs. Magpie (Sheila)


Disclaimer: No blue scooters or rag dolls or even grumpy old men were harmed in the making of this documentary.

Blue Monday + Blog Love

Did you notice it's snowing on my blog today??? That's the closest we're going to get here in Florida, so I'm happy with cyber snow!!! :-) :-) :-)

[Notice to Bloggers: The snow plow came through and pushed all the snow off the blog! Floridians simply can't see during blizzards, and the visibility was Zero. So we're now inside a Tiffany blue box! ;-)]

My post today is designed to do double duty. In addition to its nod to Blue Monday, I recently received a very exciting message from my new friend Lorrie at The View From My Door. Lorrie awarded me with the I'm Lovin' Your Blog Award for which I'm very grateful. :-) If you haven't met Lorrie and even if you have, please pop by and see her over at her blog. She's a very special lady with a great sense of humor. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite Trash to Treasure posts last week was hers. In the post, Lorrie introduced us to Wanda and her love for bicycling. Please note that Wanda also loves blue as witnessed by her choice of footwear in the photo below.


And this photo was only the tip of the iceberg. Wanda goes on to have many more adventures, and they are captured for us in hilarious detail by Lorrie. For the rest of Wanda’s story, here’s the link to Lorrie’s blog… http://theviewfrommydoor.blogspot.com/2008/11/trash-to-treasure.html

With this award, I have to list five things I love. Rather than start with the obvious like my family, friends, and God (which goes without saying for me), I'm starting with the color blue (that being my favorite and yours and with this being Blue Monday and all) and working from there. Having rifled through my cyber picture drawer, here's what I found with a hint of blue...


"I Love The Color Blue"
by Mrs. Magpie

I love: blue satin ribbons on fancy white bonnets on the beautiful heads of eighty-year old ladies who love to do lunch and celebrate birthdays with friends of all ages who like to laugh long and like to laugh often while enjoying the ladies who are in their eighties and are aging with grace and growing in charm while remaining forever young in their hearts... [Just in case you're wondering, I'm not eighty, but I want to be Audrey when I grow up!]

I love: blue and white stripes on my grandmother’s chairs that have held, in addition to family and friends, a silly black kitty in her merry red dress from a friend I love dearly and smile when I see...



I love: blue scraps in quilts behind little black doggies in foofed feather boas whose "bad" canine owners are shown here contented in the lap I love most...



I love: the lovely blue water in the beautiful blue pool of a house in New England that lives near the ocean that’s loved by my cousin who bought the neat house that appeared in a magazine before it was sold by the cousin I love whose picture I’ve taken along with the house’s to share on my blog with the people who view it and love real neat houses that live in New England by the lovely blue water of ocean and pool...



I love: blue cottage houses (and houses of all colors) that open doors widely to fine feathered friends and family of all ages and sizes and species and joyfully celebrate life there together and twitter their way into blogging together and sending out blog love for others to share! ;-)



Now, I’d like to pass this challenge on to the following bloggers. Because I had a hard time choosing with all the names being so very shiny, I picked four of the names from the birdbath on Sunday's post (and I happen to love their blogs very much). They get a reward for being in church. The fifth name was the fifth poster down from the top of my blogroll who is Penny of The Comforts of Home and who happens to be having Internet problems. So, I picked Penny AND a Miss Congeniality who is the fifth person's blog up from the bottom of my blogroll who is Debbie of Confessions of a Plate Addict because Jeanne was the fifth person and was already on there from being in the first post! This is very scientific here, you know! ;-)

In addition, I would also like to pass this award to everyone who participates in Blue Monday! You're all wonderful bloggers! So congratulations to you because I love your blogs, too, and here are the winners from the birdbath:

Jeanne of Back Yard Neighbor
Pat of Back Porch Musings
Pat of Team Mille Fiori Favoriti
Diane of A Picture is Worth A 1,000 Words
Debbie of Confessions of A Plate Addict
Penny of The Comforts of Home

Now, go forth and spread the blog love!

First, copy the I'm Lovin' Your Blog logo from the top of this post and post it on your blog!

Second, tell us on your blog about five things you love!

Third, link back to me at The Quintessential Magpie! http://thequintessentialmagpie.blogspot.com/

Fourth, tag five other posters whose blogs you love and pass the rules to them!

[Please note, you don't have to do this if you don't want to... it's Christmas, and I want you to be happy either way! It's just that I happen to think all of you are special and have great blogs! ]:-)

And if you’re here for Blue Monday, please be sure to hop on over to visit Sally at Smiling Sally's and see what all of the other fun participants are doing today with their blue posts! And Sally, thanks for hosting us!

http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much for visiting!

Quintessentially yours,


Mrs. Magpie (Sheila)... who is lovin' that blue jay in the picture above! ;-)

Blue Monday -- Casting Off In Our Little Blue Boat

This is my first Blue Monday, and I'm so excited to have found this fun day! It's hosted by Smiling Sally on her blog of the same name. Please go there to read Sally's post and to link to all of the other Blue Ones who are participating in today's festivities. If you'd like to play, feel free to join in the fun. :-) Here's a link for Sally... http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/



Blue is my very favorite color! It's the color of so many wonderful things... the blue bird of happiness, the sea, the sky, robin's eggs, chambray shirts, lapiz lazuli, Chinese porcelain, Naval uniforms, blueberries, plumbago, Paul Newman's eyes, sapphires, baby boys, little Alice blue gowns, bluebells, boxes from Tiffany's, and much, much more.

Today, I'd like to share a few blue nautical scenes with you. Boats are happy things to me and to my hero Popeye who was slated to greet you musically but was a tad too raucous for a supposededly soothing nautical post. Probably a little too much spinach. ;-) If you are just dying to hear about him, click down a litte further on my player where you can hear all about Popeye, Bluto, Wimpy, and Olive's shenanigans and take a cruise on the Love Boat as well. But that's getting sidetracked. So without further adieu, let's cast off together...

Blue and white boat moored in the light of a pale blue New England morning sky, reflected in the blue water below. According to the sign, we can even go watch for whales...



St. Augustine boat with blue dinghy onboard, drifting under the overcast blue of a spring afternoon...



Blue and white striped chair and blue pond yacht (trust me, it's blue; the leaning lamp is blocking it) in the window at blue dusk...

The light in the above picture was phenomenal. When it was taken several years ago, I had turned to look out the window from this chair where I was reading, and the sky looked like it was straight out of a Maxfield Parrish painting. Everything was bathed in a wash of inky blue light. I happened to have a camera nearby when I took this shot, and the color of the sky deepened as the sun set completely. Unfortunately, that shot is a mere memory. Sometimes I don't think a sky can be any more beautiful. Then I turn around and am amazed all over again.

When I discovered Blue Monday, I had already planned to talk about the color blue in a special post that's slated for Wednesday. So if you are a blue lover, feel free to drop back by for a double scoop of blue. Thanks so much for dropping by my birdhouse today. I look forward to visiting with you at yours. There's just never enough blue in the world for me. Apparently, you and the Lord agree! :-)

Quintessentially yours,



Mrs. Magpie (Sheila)