Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson

The Lady of Shalott






On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

By the margin, willow veil'd,
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By slow horses; and unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?

Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the bearded barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly;
Down to tower'd Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers, " 'Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott."

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot;
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls
Pass onward from Shalott.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad
Goes by to tower'd Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two.
She hath no loyal Knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

The gemmy bridle glitter'd free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazon'd baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armor rung
Beside remote Shalott.

All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn'd like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often thro' the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, burning bright,
Moves over still Shalott.

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow'd
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
"Tirra lirra," by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining.
Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower'd Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And around about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right
The leaves upon her falling light
Thro' the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
And around the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the Knights at Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Scary History

I have been studying the Romans in my history, the most recent being the decline of the Roman empire. Do you know what the main factors where in causing the fall? Just in case you didn’t here they are.

1. Massive migrations led to overpopulation and a shortage of resources.
2. There where two different capitals and emperors, which resulted on a lack of unity in the Empire.
3. There where internal power struggles that weakened the leadership.
4. The people loved luxury.
5. They where obsessed with sensuality (look it up if needed)
6. The artists specialized in weirdness in place of creativity and originality.
7. The people expected the government to provide everything.

All but one of these are in America today. It is really quite scary when you think about it. And we wonder why we are in the shape we are in now.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

First fondant cake.




I have recently started course 3 of the Wilton cake classes. This week I had to cover my first cake in fondant. It was and adventure, and I ended up about three steps behind everyone else. First, I was kneading out the fondant to make it pliable, it seemed to be pliable enough, so I put Crisco on my rolling mat, and started rolling my fondant out. This was very difficult for three main reasons. First, I did not knead my fondant out enough so it was very hard. Second, I sprained my wrist while skating, so trying to push on the rolling pin, was painful. Third, I did not put enough Crisco on the rolling mat, so the fondant was sticking to it. When I finally got the fondant rolled out, with a little help from Mamma, and I went to put it on the cake and take off the rolling mat, when I realized that it was sticking to my mat, so I slowly pulled off the rolling mat. When I got the mat off, my fondant was rough, but it would work. I put on the decorations, and I really like the way it turned out, imperfections and all. The most important thing is that I learned from it, I’m sure I will always make sure that my fondant is kneaded out well, and that my mat has plenty of Crisco.

Monday, August 24, 2009

The Goddess of Liberty


When Mamma, Krystin and I went to Austen to get our birth certificates recently, we where able to visit the Capitol building. One of the first things that catch your eye is the HUGE statue on the very top. The Goddess of liberty.


She's not exactly pretty. She was in danger of falling to pieces once. And when Texans decided to replace her, they had such a tough time they had to call in the National Guard — from another state. But the lady with the exaggerated facial features atop the Texas Capitol is a goddess, nonetheless.


The original zinc statue was designed by Texas State Capitol architect E.E. Meyers of Detroit, probably inspired by publicity about the construction of the Statue of Liberty and by the Statue of Freedom placed on the U.S. Capitol, according to the State Preservation Board.
Nearly 16 feet tall and weighing 2,000 pounds, she was hoisted atop the Texas Capitol in four pieces in 1888. Workers put her together on top of the dome with screws. When extensive cracking was noticed nearly 100 years later, the Preservation Board decided to replace the original with an aluminum duplicate. But it was found to be easier said than done. A Texas National Guard helicopter got her down safely, although The Associated Press noted a moment of drama when a line snapped: "The harness dropped, and the spectators gasped."
Hoisting the lighter replacement back onto her anchor pole was another matter.


After repeated attempts to thread the statue's bottom opening onto , Texas called on the the pole failedMississippi National Guard for help — a story so irresistible, that the New York Times and Washington Post documented it.
The Post's story began: "This has not been the best of years in the Southwest, and in times like these, when life goes bad for awhile, people tend to look for symbols and omens."
The Mississippi National Guard, with a helicopter better suited for the accurate aim required of the mission than those available in Texas, put the new Goddess in place.
And she lived happily every after. Atleast untill she wants a facial or shower. And then I guess we will have to ask Mississippi to come and get her down for us and put her back up.... again.



Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Birthday cake.

Last weekend was our pastors birthday, so my sister and I offered to make him a cake. Since you could not be here to enjoy the process with me, I thought I would give you a picture by picture and step by step tutorial of making our cake. So here it is, from start to finish.


First we bake the cake and let it cool.


Next we have to cut the cake in half so that we can add filling. We cut the cake in half with a tool called a leveler. This tool can be used to make the cake flat on the top and bottom if needed.


Next we put a dam of icing around the top of the cake so that the filling does not ooze out of the sides.Then we add the filling. Filling can be made of Icing, pudding or jam. It not only adds flavor to the cake, it also adds height and makes it pretty once sliced.Then you want to carefully add the next layer, and start over again till all of the layer are filled.After that you must crumb coat your cake. This is a very thin layer of icing that "seals" in all of your crumbs.

Then we put it in the fridge for a few minutes so we can smooth it out with a paper towel and move on.


The next step is to ice the cake, you want to make sure that you put a thick layer of icing on so that is looks smooth and tastes great. After you ice the cake it is best to let it sit in the fridge overnight so that you can decorate it. (If you are going to be driving the cake anywhere it is best to wait to put ant extra items on the cake till you get there.)








Be sure to get a picture of the person receiving the cake!




Here are a few more cakes we have done.


Friday, August 7, 2009

Scrapbook Pages

Well as I promised, here are some of the digital scrap book pages I have done, I will add some more later. These are my favorites so far.

This is one that I did of my grandfather who fought in Vietnam.
This picture was taken on the last night of the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival with some REALLY CLOSE friends.
Kaiser

Patches

Flowers from Oregon

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Good Day!

Good day! My name is Denielle and I am 15 years old. My wonderful family and I live in Texas. I have a twin sister named Belle, a caring Mamma and a wonderful Daddy. I love books, old books to be specific. Some of my favorites are the works of Jane Austen and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I also enjoy digital scrapbooking and will be posting some of my pages on here. I have two main loves: animals and music. When it comes to animals I love just about every one of them. My family has a Great Dane who's name is Kaiser. We also have done dog rescue for about eight years. My favorite animal is the horse. I would be willing to ride all day if I could. As for music, I play the piano and violin. My piano level quite advanced while my violin level is very low. I enjoy classical music the best, and my favorite is baroque. I hope that you enjoy my blog and the God blesses you in reading it.