Gloves and other stuff

The change of seasons. Trees paint, then lose their leaves; flowers dry and turn brown. Days become shorter as shadows of winter approach. Cool in the mornings, warm in the afternoons. Possibility of frost at night.

Summer is over, and it’s that shift from freefall days to sitting in class and homework; from casual office days to the conferences, meetings, projects of Fall.

People pack up their things and move. Or lug boxes into their new digs and unpack. Some clean out attics. Some clean garages. And some their cupboards.

Seems to be a time of putting on the gloves and getting down to whatever the season brings.

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The cat with gloves catches no mice.
-Navjot Singh Sidhu

When archaeologists discover the missing arms of Venus de Milo, they will find she was wearing boxing gloves.
-John Barrymore

Gloves = las guantes

Imagination and the moon

After being away a couple of days, I’m back at the BBC Spanish course. This set is about food and meeting people. You first learn how to order food and drink, then how to use the friendly line: Quieres tomar algo? Which, since this is the BBC, means: "Fancy a drink?"

According to the cultural guide, you can dance the night away at the many discotechs (in the larger cities), then have un chocolate con churros or perhaps un café solo at dawn to start the new day.

As I looked through my photos, I see I have none of food, nor of disco dancing. So, imagination, daydreams, and a crescent moon (la luna) will have to do…

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He was my cream, and I was his coffee - and when you poured us together, it was something.

~Josephine Baker

Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another.
~Author Unknown

Starting another journey...

Hola!

Began taking basic Spanish online through the BBC language website. Tonight, I learned how to give directions to a cab driver, get my hotel room (habitación), order food and drink (un bocadillo el queso, y una Cervaza, por favor), and ask for directions to local sites (Dónde está la parque Camel’s Back?) Sounds like a breath-taking trip already…

The BBC language site is very well done; interactive, fun, features several languages, also provides extra tips and historical and cultural info. It’s well worth the "journey".

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Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Change your language and you change your thoughts.
-Karl Albrecht

Language is wine upon the lips.
-Virginia Woolf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages

Eye on the sky

A change of weather, rain, cool enough for jackets, leaves beginning to turn, golden slips fluttering from branches.

Halloween costumes, candy already out in the stores; we’ll probably see a Thanksgiving turkey before the end of September.

But for now, we’ll keep an eye on the sky…

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We'd never know how high we are,
til we are called to rise;
and then, if we are true to plan,
our statures touch the sky
-Emily Dickinson

A sky as pure as water bathed the stars and brought them out.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Hopscotch

A sample of "sidewalk art" we came across during one of our walks.

I remember playing serious hopscotch during recess on our school’s main sidewalk. It was wide and smooth; great for a big hopscotch board. Only girls. The boys didn’t want to play. They were more into leaping from the top of the slide or bashing each other while playing dodge ball.

But hopscotch was first created by men for men. Did you know hopscotch began as a military training exercise for Roman soldiers? It was supposed to help improve their agility so they could go out and conquer more land for the Caesars. Apparently, children imitated what they saw the soldiers doing and created a new game for themselves.

Hopscotch is played all over the world. According to a website by Dagonell the Juggler:
"The game is called "Marelles" in France, "Templehupfen" in Germany, "Hinkelbaan" in the Netherlands, "Ekaria Dukaria" in India, "Pico" in Vietnam and "Rayuela" in Argentina."

And the word, "hopscotch" is a combination of English and French.

Check out this site for more information and diagrams of hopscotch boards:
http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~salley/Articles/hopscotch.html

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Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules.
-Ashleigh Brilliant

You give 100 percent in the first half of the game, and if that isn't enough in the second half you give what's left.
-Yogi Berra

The score never interested me, only the game.
-Mae West

Don't it go to show ya never know...

A rich weekend with the local Hyde Park Fair and seeing Little Shop of Horrors (the musical) at the outdoor theatre. As we watched Audrey 2 grow larger and more demanding, a storm blew in. Dust, leaves, grit, but no rain. The storm in rhythm with Seymour and crew singing about getting richer, the sadistic dentist sucking gas, and Audrey 2 shouting, "Feed me!"

A weekend of smoke and fire and music; coffee, chocolate, wine. Flames and glass; stories and encounter. A little hope here, a little luck there, working for something good, something nourishing.

(And not plant food…:-)

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One day you're slinging hash

Feeling so rejected

Lightning flash, you get resurrected

Make a splash-now you rate the big

Bravissimo

And with a thunderclash-

Crash kerplunk, bam kerboom,

Zang kazunk, zam kazoom

Zowee powee holy cow he

Ordered up a rainbow to go

Wow! Pow! Look out below!

Don't it go to show ya never know?
-Howard Ashman

chimes.wav

C pointed out the shadow play of the "Victorian gable trim" on this house. I learned the "proper" name and more info on the Cumberland Woodcraft Company website. They have a feature called a "Porch Builder," where you can design your own Victorian-style porch through their site. They also have other informational tools, like "How to measure roof pitch." Everything you need for decorating your home, inside and out, the old-fashioned way.

I like this gable trim; it reminds me of musical notes or small chimes that might ring when the wind blows. Maybe if we listen hard enough on a breezy night…

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We have heard the chimes at midnight.
-William Shakespeare

Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect.

-Paul Muldoon

The command line entry looks like this. > sounder.exe chimes.wav ...
-kmeleon.sourceforge.net

The worth of a picayune

Yes, real estate sales have been down this summer. IMHO, prices became way over-inflated during the housing boom. Even though they’ve come down a little, they are still too high in some areas of town. A small bungalow in Boise is not worth $300,000+. This is not the Bay Area or Seattle.

But what do I know? We rent…

Every so often I read the New Orleans Times Picayune website to see what’s going on in the Crescent City. It occurred to me that I was hazy on what "picayune" actually means:
Picayune: Of little value or importance, trivial. Petty or mean. It also was the name of an old Spanish coin that was worth about the same as a U.S. nickel.

A Spanish-American version of the coin was used in the U.S. South during the 1800s, but they stopped minting it in 1873. Thus, the saying, "not worth a picayune," which is similar to "not worth a plug nickel."

Of course, the opposite of picayune would be words like: value, importance, worth, significance, appreciate, cherish.

Let’s take Value. It’s slippery because the value of something, like a house, is subjective to whoever is doing the appraisal—and what conditions they are operating under, such as the "marketplace." And each person values certain things differently than others; hence "one man’s trash is another’s treasure."

This brings up questions, such as: Why is gold more valuable than silver? "Designer" clothing more valuable than non-designer clothing? Why are thrift stores so popular? And "dollar stores"? Why was it that Van Gogh lived in poverty because no one would buy his paintings, but now they sell for millions of dollars?

And what would a picayune from 1803 be worth today?

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs.
-Gloria Steinem

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
-Ayn Rand

Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values -- and witnesses.
-Franklin P. Jones

A card for you...

These gift cards were placed on objects along the street. They were stuck to trees, fences, and cars parked in driveways, like strategically placed bread crumbs leading to a destination of questions.

One never knows what will be found during a walk through the neighborhood.

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Wisdom at times is found in folly.
– Horace

Every exit is an entry somewhere else.
--Tom Stoppard

Yard art

The Wired Ones nestle in the bushes. Perhaps at night, they take turns rolling the dice to see who gets to roll out on the town.

Whoever lives here has created several of these beings in various sizes. The ones sitting at the curb look like large dry shrubs, at a glance. But upon closer inspection, you find they are made of twisted wire hangers (like the ones from the dry cleaners).

Many people like to do "yard art." Although some is more conspicuous than others, and can cause problems with the neighbors. For example, a man in the Midwest created a "tropical golf vacation" in his yard, complete with putting greens, gazebo, a running stream, and palm trees. Another man from a different town displays his seven vintage Rolls-Royces around his front yard, and has his back yard filled with statues of partially-clad women. Then, there’s the woman who built a giant nest in her back yard, complete with eggs, to work through her "empty nest syndrome" when her son left for college.

In these cases, city officials were called and compromises had to be made, usually in favor of the neighbors who complained.

The Wired Ones have been there for a while; this neighborhood is usually more tolerant of yard art than those that have neighborhood covenants. And we have the 6th Street Dude, who has had giant puppets, a dragon, and a flying tie machine in his front yard.

Yard art is a good thing; it brings soul, humor, and a little spice. Lord knows we have enough "beige" neighborhoods throughout America, where all the houses and yards look the same.

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If Jack Kerouac had set out to find a real bookstore in the suburbs, he would still be on the road, Phileas Fogg would still be in the air, the Ancient Mariner wouldn't have had time to tell anyone his story.
-Michael Winerip

The artist's task is to become a successful eccentric, a strange but wise duck able to venture out of solitary confinement and mingle among society.
-Eric Maisel

Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
-Cecil Beaton

Gone to the birds

Some bird names sound like songs:

Finches, blackbirds, crows, tanagers, Stellar Jays, Magpies, hummingbirds, larks, swallows, chickadees, sparrows, wrens, thrushes, waxwings, grosbeaks, starlings, nuthatches, pipits, kinglets, gnatcatchers, pelicans, herons, loons, swans, geese, pheasants, falcon.

The peregrine falcon is on the back of the new Idaho quarter. The design features a large falcon looming over a tiny Idaho, along with the State motto, Esto Perpetua (Let it be perpetual).

This could be interpreted in more than one way…

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.
-Henry David Thoreau

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is a very simple and effective one: be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.
-Elbert Hubbard

A wise falcon hides his talons.
-Proverb

Wise cats and fools

Seems that Senator Larry just can’t make up his mind whether or not to resign; even though he already said he was going to resign so he can fight to overturn the guilty plea he already made. Today, one of his PR guys said that it was "very, very likely" that Craig would resign, but that he wanted to "leave the door a little bit ajar." (Where’s a decent picture of a weasel when you need one?)

However, tonight, Rep. Mike Simpson finally publicly called on Craig to "make it clear he will leave his seat by Sept. 30th." Yay for Mike!

The cat in this photo looks like a judge, don’t you think? He probably doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Perhaps he could assist the Senate Ethics Committee or the Minnesota legal system…

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Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.
-Plato

The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.
-Mark Twain

The gift of a storm

A storm, we had a storm with rain today, badly needed rain. And more than just a few dusty drops. C and I stood out on our tiny stoop for a bit, just to listen to the rain and breathe in its wonderful aroma.

As a little kid, I was terrified by the powerful thunderstorms during summer nights in the Midwest. When a storm came, I’d bury myself in my bed, hiding under the pillow and blankets until it passed.

But later, I began watching the storms. If it were during the day, my brother and I would run out into the front yard and watch the storm roll in, the wind beating our faces, blowing our hair straight back. We’d stay out there until the rain began, then run back into the house, laughing, totally soaked. If it were night, I’d gaze out my bedroom window, counting the seconds between lightning flash and thunder rolls, fascinated how eerie and magical everything looked in the brief burst of a lightning flash. And I began to understand it as weather, instead of the end of the world.

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I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
-Louisa May Alcott

Good luck has its storms.
-George Lucas

You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.
-Bertolt Brecht

Mushrooms and more

Mushrooms like these have suddenly popped up in various places throughout the neighborhood. Not being a mushroom expert, I don’t know what kind these are, but they probably aren’t edible.

Unlike the delicious portabella slices we had on baguettes tonight, expertly prepared by C, my favorite chef...

I recall "magic mushrooms" from years ago, when the group I used to run with occasionally went on ‘shroom hunts in the morning, then prepared spaghetti with "mushroom sauce" for dinner. This provided entertainment well into the early morning hours.

But none of us ever overdid it. Not like the kid I saw a few years later when I worked in ER. He was 13. He’d ingested enough ‘shrooms that he was no longer in our reality. He kept leaping about, trying to catch something only he could see, all while calling out numbers. "Seven, seven, thirteen, eleven, nine, three." He eventually returned to this reality as the night wore on, and was sent home with his chagrined parents. Perhaps he later became an accountant, an engineer, or a professional sports broadcaster…

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Mushrooms are commercially produced in nearly every state. Pennsylvania, however, still accounts for over 55% of total U.S. production. (National Agricultural Statistics Service)

One portabella mushroom has more potassium than a banana. White and crimini mushrooms are also good sources of potassium. Potassium helps the human body maintain normal heart rhythm, fluid balance, and muscle and nerve function. (USDA)

The Critique

He hands the story back to her. It had been a short story, now made longer by the remarks scribbled throughout the margins.

She reads through it in silence, sets it on the table when her hands begin to shake too much.

Opening is weak; where’s the hook? Whose story is it? Who is the main character? Why should I care about her? Cliché, cliché, cliché. Show me; don’t tell me about it. Be more specific; you’re too vague here. Metaphor doesn’t work. Use of symbolism here seems clunky. Writing style is too stilted throughout; let your own voice come through. Events don’t seem plausible. The ending is too predictable; I knew what was going to happen.

When she finally looks up, he is watching her. "You’ve got a good start," he says, "with a little more work—"

"There is no start. There is nothing. You’ve left me with nothing."

He gazes at her. "Oscar Wilde said, ‘Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.’ Sometimes nothing is the start."

Harmony and equilibrium...

Nature is as arousing as a lover, as caring as a mother. She shows that beauty is everywhere and in everything. She is just as beautiful at dawn, at noon and in the evening because she incarnates harmony and equilibrium, in one word, she is life.
~ Auguste Rodin

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Today’s photo on Eric Tenin’s Paris Daily Photo blog features the Rodin Museum in Paris.

It brought to mind the Maryhill Museum, which has many of Rodin’s works as part of their permanent collection, including a small statue of "The Thinker". The Maryhill Museum is in a chateau sitting on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River in Washington state. It was built by wealthy entrepreneur Samuel Hill in 1914 and named after his daughter, Mary. Through his friendship with Parisian Loie Fuller, a dancer with the Folies Bergere, he acquired original works by Rodin. He later added a group of Russian icon paintings, and personal articles belonging to Queen Marie of Romania, who visited Hill at the mansion. Just down the road from the museum is a replica of Stonehenge, which Hill built as a memorial to local soldiers killed during World War I.

The museum is not in a town or city; it sits there alone, like a crown atop the bluff. Unusual to find such a fine house in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps this coined the phrase, "What in Sam Hill is that?" :-)

http://www.parisdailyphoto.blogspot.com/

http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/

Knowing when to bloom

Well, with Larry Craig’s escapades, we have more than fires burning in Idaho. A "cloud over Idaho" indeed…

At least firefighters are making progress with some of the big burns, including the Castle Rock Fire that’s been threatening Ketchum. Because of the number of million-dollar + homes in the Ketchum area, at least one insurance company sent a private firefighting force to protect the property of their customers (and their own bottom line). So far, no person has been injured or killed, and no structures have burned. Some of those folks are serious art collectors; Gail Severn, one of the local gallery owners, has been assisting people with moving their expensive art collections out of harm’s way. Artwork by such artists as Picasso, Renoir, and Georgia O’Keeffe. One homeowner she was working with has a $10 million collection.

And today was the sad anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Although there has been some progress and rebuilding, it sounds like those hard-hit Gulf Coast areas still have a long way to go. If another hurricane was on its way, I wonder if an insurance company would send a private crew down to shore up levees to protect their clients’ homes?

In other news, scientists have discovered through new-found fossil evidence that orchids existed during the days of dinosaurs. And when the dinosaurs were killed, possibly by an asteroid hit, the orchids "bloomed" and spread all across the earth. Imagine the earth after an asteroid hit; uncontrolled fires, upheaval, destruction, chaos, dense smoke. Conditions that apparently lasted for many years. And here, in the devastation, delicate orchids bloom and grow. Like the new growth that pushes through the charred ground after a forest fire. Or new life arising after a flood.

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When the emotions are strong one should paint bamboo; in a light mood one should paint the orchid.
~ Chueh Yin

Just another evening in August

It figures. What do I see in the news but that Idaho Senator Larry Craig, was arrested at the Minneapolis airport for lewd behavior in the airport bathroom. Great.

And speaking of politicians who have trouble managing their sex lives, Bill Clinton is going to appear on Oprah to promote his new book, although this one is not about his life (he already sold that story). This book is about "philanthropy and civic action," according to the article. Noble topics. Hopefully it will promote philanthropy and civic action where it is needed most.

A guard at a nuclear facility was found asleep on the job. Homeland security…

On the bright side: There will be a total lunar eclipse tomorrow night. If I were an astronomy die-hard and didn’t have to go to work the next day, I’d stay up and watch it. Or get up at 3 a.m. However, that isn’t my style, being a night person. I’ll watch for awesome photos instead.

And C has been playing Dave Brubeck’s newest CD, "Indian Summer," which is magnificent. Go out and get it. Pour a glass of wine, sit back, listen…

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Indian Summer
These are the days when birds come back,
A very few, a bird or two,
To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies put on
The old, old sophistries of June,
-A blue and gold mistake.

Oh, fraud that cannot cheat the bee,
Almost thy plausibility
Induces my belief,

Till ranks of seeds their witness bear,
And softly through the altered air
Hurries a timid leaf!

Oh, sacrament of summer days,
Oh, last communion in the haze,
Permit a child to join,

Thy sacred emblems to partake,
Thy consecrated bread to break,
Taste thine immortal wine!
~ Emily Dickinson

Thinking about secrets

This photo could be a book cover, don’t you think? With a title of something like "A Time of Secrets", or "Dark is the Secret", or "What Remains Hidden". Perhaps you can think of more titles…

Thinking about secrets, family secrets, how many stories we are told that are different than what we remember taking place. The stories that have gaping holes with no information. Incidents that came about, yet we were warned not to tell, or to forget they ever occurred. What happens when people are driven to find out "what really happened," and if that’s ever possible. Stories that birth novels. Story within story within story.

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We dance round in a ring and suppose,
While the secret sits in the middle and knows.
-Robert Frost

No one keeps a secret so well as a child.
-Victor Hugo

Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.
-Elbert Hubbard

A woman can keep one secret - the secret of her age.
-Voltaire

A lovely mystery

Is this a lily? Is it a type of spider lily? Is it part of the amaryllidaceae family?

It sat on a deck at a botanical garden amid many other plants, very near the carnivorous plants. Is it carnivorous?

Looked through many photos of lilies and carnivorous plants, but did not find any that looked exactly like this plant.

So, for now, it’s a mystery. But a lovely one.

Perhaps it is one of the 800 species belonging to the amaryllidaceae family. They have names that could become a story: Belladonna lily, Naked Lady, Amazon lily, Snowdrop, Rain lily, Christmas Amaryllis, Spider lily, Snowflake, Hurricane flower, Narcissus, Sea Daffodil, Jacobean lily, Zephyr lily.

A painter’s blossom, a writer’s flower, a dancer’s stage…


Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
~ Matthew 6:28-29

Bird of light

Bird of paradise
Bird of light,

image bright
perching free
reminds me
how easily
one can fly

Brushstrokes

Brushstrokes of clouds across the sky
a vigorous canvas of imagination

It has cooled here in the City of Trees, at least for a bit. Windy, stormy, yet little rain. Lightning strikes ignite new fires in the forests and rangeland. Ketchum is under fire watch, with a huge blaze west of town.

Strange weather of this summer. Extreme drought and fires in the West. Too much rain, flooding in Texas. Temps in the Midwest have been over 100 degrees. A massive hurricane is churning its way to Mexico and Belize. Is it global warming? Naturally-occurring climatic change? Or a mix of both?

A scientist in New Mexico has suggested an idea to help cool the earth. Oliver Wingenter proposes to fertilize oceans so that more plankton will grow. Plankton gives off certain chemicals that creates cloud formation, thus more clouds, the more sunlight reflected back into space.

Other ideas from other scientists include launching giant mirrors into space and having fleets of jets spray out aerosols, both to try and deflect the sun’s rays.

Would they work? Would they cause problems we cannot now foresee?

Geo-engineering. Humans trying to use or modify the earth’s environment to create a better habitat, a better life. Nothing new. We’ve been damming rivers and mining for ages. Changing the land. Civil engineering.

Now, researchers are looking to the sky, as thinkers, writers, and artists have done for ages. Moving beyond what we know and can readily see, staring at this canvas with brush in hand. Modern day Michelangelos reaching for the hand of God.

Tribute

Train engines circling a full moon.
Nude naturists in the trees.
A fisherman fishing on cobblestones.
The kissing waltz.
Musical butchers.
The footbridge of steam.
A woman floating amid glass paperweights.
A links jinx.

The physicist at a blackboard searching for the mistake in the equations. He soon creates the theory of wave mechanics, which combines the physics of light and matter.

It’s all a matter of light and matter…

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The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.
~ Robert Doisneau

http://www.staleywise.com/collection/doisneau/doisneau.html

Three bowls

Three bowls,
an empty trinity
waiting

earth, fire, water
man, woman, child
too hot, too cold, just right

Nature abhors a vacuum
said Aristotle
but he was proved wrong

Nature abhors a vacuum,
says Henry David Thoreau
and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.

Time travel

A weekend of purging old stuff, reconfiguring. The bright red eye of the bird through the lamp’s glow. Taste of iced coffee and chocolate. Writing out questions on yellow paper. Reading further of the story of Fos and Opal as the 1920s rush to a close, and people begin to notice the unseen effects of scientific wonders. Studying Doisneau’s photos of Paris, watching the sliver of a story surface with each one. Walking together, hand in hand, as the coolness of twilight gently settles over the neighborhood.

Moving back and forth in time, discovering or rediscovering. Planting seeds in the bed of an antique wagon.

Reflections on a Friday night

We spent Friday night supporting the local economy; going out for dinner, then shopping where we bought 2 new lamps to replace the ancient ones we’ve had. They are faux Tiffany lamps; fun to try after having boring traditional lamps for years. Adds color, warm glow, and good light.

This photo reminds me of Tiffany-style lampshades. Reflection of light through leaves, red berries. Ours have a tropical look; fruit and colorful birds. Reflection of humid places, where the forests are thick, lush, plants grow out-of-control. Heavy rainfall.

So, now each evening as the lamps come on, we’ll hear birdcalls, cicadas, frogs, and watch for lightning bugs to appear. Creating our little haven in the desert…

Swimming in circles?

A typical day--

Drove to work, checked the network, did paperwork, managed emails, phone messages, listened to Y as she vented about a family situation, did more paperwork, skimmed the local and national news, answered the phone and gave out helpful (I hope) information and phone numbers of various organizations to various callers, went to lunch with a friend, went to the other agency location to check that the backup I’d set up was working properly, fixed and adjusted a few problems on the server, fixed a minor problem on a staff computer, drove back to my office, searched for the file of a particular brochure because they need 330 by tomorrow morning and they hadn’t yet been printed, started printing the first 100 and realized I didn’t send it to the duplexer, cursed, corrected that mistake, cleared a paper jam, sorted through the first mistake to salvage paper, continued printing the brochures, turned on another computer so to speed the process only to find that the other computer didn’t have the right fonts loaded for the brochure and it was trying to send a fax for an unknown reason, tried to figure out why it was trying to send a fax but found no obvious reasons, continued printing the brochures and hoping I wouldn’t have to stay too long after 5 p.m., shut the other computer down, finished printing brochures, searched for a box to carry the brochures in, checked email one last time, shut down the computer and the office for the day, drove back home while some insipid Byrds clone band got their 15 minutes of fame on the radio, and arrived home to greet C, our cat, and talk about what happened during our day…

And ducks have their day, too, a list of their own: hunt for food, swim, rest on a platform, preen, search for food, preen, swim, fly across the pond to another location, hunt for food, hide from people coming down the path, fly to a safer location, rest on a platform, preen, nap…

And then evening comes. And some of us rest, some of us party, some of us work. Some of us nestle together and sleep. And as we drift off, the nocturnal ones arise, take up where we diurnal creatures left off…

What's left behind

Things left behind
when someone moves:
a cup, a shirt, broken fan,
some books, scratched CDs,
a cracked-back chair
now scattered on the lawn

Things left behind
on the moon:
abandoned spaceships, tools,
moon rovers, landing pads,
a dead TV camera,
U.S. flag
now scattered amid lunar dust

seems like wherever we tread
something is left behind...

Caught in a force unseen...

Reading a novel, "Evidence of Things Unseen." Weaves such a spell I didn’t blog last night. Caught up in the story of Fos and Opal, over-arching images of luminescence, the lyrical prose, the feel of the rich, humid air of Tennessee, life in the 1920s. Fos and Opal are of the era of my grandparents; many little details remind me of where I grew up and the feel of the rolling Missouri countryside dotted with farms and small towns.

I’ve been living in the West for over 30 years, yet there’s some part of that past that continues to reside inside me. Like the deep color of a shell you find on a familiar shore.

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Emptiness is nature’s strong attractor, she learned as Fos showed her how vacuums attract. She watched the fields of energy subtend between voltaic cells, she watched the way the stars fell through vast distances in patterns of attraction. She learned that attractive force resides in every form of matter, latent, waiting for the single spark to fire it with life.
~ from "Evidence of Things Unseen," by Marianne Wiggins

Listening to presences

Listen to presences inside poems,
Let them take you where they will.

Follow those private hints,
and never leave the premises.

~ Rumi

Diaphanous potpourri

Here it is, Friday night. Smoke has cleared out somewhat, so taking a walk was not such a "lung-burning" experience. And we could actually see the sky instead of haze.

We went out to a local Middle Eastern restaurant. There, we ate babaganoosh, gyro, dolma, Basmati rice, kabobs, and talked about the week. Scenes of Jordan on the wall, along with framed needlework pieces done by the owner’s mother. It was busy enough, but not too crowded. Good place for conversation. Afterwards, a short drive so I could show C a strange house being built near my office. The streets were fairly quiet; our walk also peaceful. It looks like a lot of folks left for the weekend.

It was a relief to hear that the number of deaths and serious injuries from the Minneapolis bridge collapse is much lower than they thought. Still, it should not have happened in the first place. (See my comments on last night’s blog entry).

I see in the news they have found the tomb of an ancient Aztec emperor. I wonder what they will discover as they continue excavation? Also, the Yankees beat the Royals. (My mother will not be pleased.)

In perusing the dictionary, I came across "diaper" and found it has other meanings than something odiferous an infant wears. A diaper is also a fabric with a distinctive pattern, often used for tablecloths; and refers to a pattern of small repeated geometric shapes.

I also found "diaphanous," as in "she floated down the staircase, wearing various diaphanous garments" (from a book I read long ago by an author from England.). It refers to sheer, delicate fabric which can be seen through. Think ballerina’s tutu. Diaphanous can also mean "vague, insubstantial." How my minds feels sometimes—gauzy. Like on a Friday night…

A time to repair

Not a good view from this part of the world today. We’re socked in with smoke from fires. The city in a haze, red air alert. Two small towns east of here had purple air alerts.

But this is nothing compared to the tragedy in Minneapolis. To have a busy interstate highway bridge just collapse like that—something is seriously wrong, far beyond the structural problems of the bridge. At both the State and Federal levels. Sometimes it seems like we’re so busy going after the next new thing (or conquest…) we forget about taking care of the old infrastructure systems already in place. Systems our daily lives depend upon.

I hope this forces budget-makers to divert more dollars into upgrading our bridges, levies, dams, and the like. Perhaps a start would be to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and use the "savings" to take care of what we need to fix at home…

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A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
~ John F. Kennedy

Smoky inspiration

Smoky days sometimes result in sunsets like this; as if the clouds are reflecting the flames raging throughout the West. None are raging in Boise itself, but in the surrounding range and forest lands. The hottest July on record for Idaho.

Smoke carries several meanings, double entendres. Creating a smoke screen to confuse or for escape. A smoking gun. Nothing but smoke and mirrors. That Alfa Romeo really smoked the competition. "Went upstairs and had a smoke; somebody spoke and I went into a dream…"

Ah—to have a dream that isn’t just smoke, isn’t just a beautiful sunset. Still going down the road trying to make out what’s up ahead…

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One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever comes to sit by it. Passersby see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.
~ Vincent Van Gogh

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.
~ Arthur Polotnik

My land is bare of chattering folk;
the clouds are low along the ridges,
and sweet's the air with curly smoke
from all my burning bridges.
~ Dorothy Parker

Leaf glow

The glow of inspiration warms us; it is a holy rapture.
~ Ovid

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
~ Thomas Jefferson

Something about frogs

Caught this little fellow a couple of weekends ago at the local nature center. He sat so very still, hiding in plain sight.

According to Wikipedia, frogs sing to attract mates. The males begin the song; the females sing in reply. I recall Midwestern summer nights where the frog chorus echoed across pond, the field, and the back yard. An amazing range of voices, from deep bass to high-pitched chirp. A rhythm all their own. Lying in bed, the house dark, windows open, and the frogs singing into the night. Even though they were sometimes quite loud, I found their songs reassuring. As if they were saying, "all is well."

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Never try to catch two frogs with one hand.
~ Chinese Proverb

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them.
~ Anonymous

Use other side...

The heat has remained unrelenting here, with continued forest fires, bad air. I'm ready for another vacation in a cooler, more pleasant breathable climate. Now, where that would be, I’m not sure…Maybe in Second Life…

…in which IBM now has a presence. And they have issued guidelines on how their employees are to officially conduct themselves in this virtual world. Interesting to wrap your mind around the concept…

Now, here’s some news sure to break hearts. The Weekly World News is ceasing publication the first part of August. So, where will avid readers get their latest installments on Bat Boy, aliens, amazing scientific breakthroughs, astonishing historical discoveries, and the like?

Never fear; WWN will still remain available online. When I checked it out, I learned why Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years (based on an amazing archeological discovery), why the spirits of elephants are haunting a resort in Rwanda, and the origins of the phrase, "Hot diggity dog". And I can rest assured that I’m not that nervous after all—while on vacation, a psychologist claims to have discovered the most neurotic animal in nature.

Maybe if we went on a vacation we’d make an astounding discovery, too. Perhaps one that would bring fame and fortune, and front page headlines on the WWN.

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You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it.
-- Art Buchwald

To attract good fortune, spend a new penny on an old friend, share an old pleasure with a new friend and lift up the heart of a true friend by writing his name on the wings of a dragon.
-- Chinese Proverb

The dew of little things...

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
~ Kahil Gibran

Man's life is like a drop of dew on a leaf.
~ Socrates

"I must go seek some dew-drops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear."
~ Shakespeare

A sky to contemplate

A sky out of fire, smoke, weather.

Sunset.

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When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.
~ Mahatma Gandhi

Such stuff as dreams

Saw "The Tempest" on Sunday night at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival; taking us from high desert heat to a tropical island; from everyday life to specters of magic; from acts of revenge to magnanimity and forgiveness.

Because little is known about why Shakespeare wrote what he did, there’s always speculation, discussion over what he might have meant, what might have influenced him. And so many things are open to interpretation. But to write plays that are timeless, that portray human nature so perceptively. Such genius. And such wonderful use of language…

"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep..."

I acted in plays during high school and college. I loved it. And on Sunday night, watching the antics of Ariel, "an airy spirit", thought of how fun it would be to play that part. (The actress, Sara Bruner, was fantastic.) Fantasizing about how it would be to be invisible, yet so powerful…

Yes, magical thinking…the stuff of dreams…

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tempest

Dragons and the news

-Over the weekend 200 people were trapped in the Arch at St. Louis when the power went out. I’ve been up in the Arch a few times—if you’re on top on the observation deck, you could always use the stairs to get out. But if you are stuck in one of the pod-like elevator cars…

-In France a woman was arrested for kissing a Cy Twombly painting, leaving lipstick on the canvas. The painting is only worth about $2 million or so. Did she kiss the painting because she felt deep love for it, or was it an act of rebellion against modern art? Or was it on a dare from her lover...

-Demolition workers found mysterious symbols in an old building in Manhattan. Three triangle shapes had been built into a brick wall of this 175-year-old warehouse, which was originally owned by William Colgate, who was a deeply religious man. Community leaders and the developer have preserved the symbols, and historians are researching the building’s past owners to try and find more clues.

-And finally: We’re not the only ones in a heat wave. Parts of Europe are also baking. Three European tourists visiting Serbia dealt with the 104 degree heat by bicycling nude along the Danube River. For which they were fined by the Serbian court. So far, there have been no reports of nude bicycling along the Boise River. But all some people need is a little instigation…

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What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.
-Jane Austen

May the dragon of life only roast your hot dogs and never burn your buns.
-Anonymous

Water and words

Back to water, the river. Back to a writing project started last fall that became side-tracked. A river trip, a woman trying to get her life back together. The people she meets; who’s being real, who is hiding something? Does river have its own time outside of "real time"?

Mile after mile she watches the Mississippi flow, and rush together at confluence points, merging into an ocean of a river of the Lower Mississippi. Mile after mile, incident after incident. The story becomes like a fresh water pearl; start with an invader, a parasite, then cover it over, layer by layer of lustrous protection.

Now, to find the pearls and string them together…

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Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.
~ Norman Fitzroy Maclean

Nocturne for N and a lily

What's in a letter? N, for instance? Opening the Merriam-Webster at random, I found these suggestions:

"Nimbus," usually associated with a certain type of cloud. But it also refers to a luminous vapor around a god or goddess, or an aura of romance around a person who has madly fallen in love. And remember those statues and paintings of the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and the Saints? Usually there’s a circle around their heads with rays fanning out—that’s also called a nimbus.

We’ve all heard of the Ninja Turtles; the word "ninja" is from Japanese and means "to move stealthily," refers to a person trained to be a spy or an assassin.

"Nix" comes from German nichts and means "nothing." My grandfather was in the U.S. infantry during WWI and after the armistice was signed, his regiment was sent into Germany. Children would often mob the troops, begging for food, candy, and gum. He said they would tell them "nix gum, nix gum."

"Nitid;" not a word I’m familiar with (and neither is the MS Word spellchecker). It’s from 1619 and means "bright, lustrous".

Then there’s "nuance," which comes from French, meaning "to make shakes of color," and refers to subtle variations or delicate shadings of colors, words, feelings.

And now, being after midnight, it’s time to move into nocturnal activities, such as sleep.

A quick aesthetic journey

To relieve the boredom of this nasty, hot weather, let’s take an imaginary trip to a few art exhibits:

On the rooftop garden at the NY Met, we can wander amid the sculptures of Frank Stella. Along with taking in the art, you can also see spectacular views of the city. Of course, there are many more exhibits inside…

At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we can see Japanese brushstroke and calligraphy works by Ike Taiga and his wife Tokuyama Gyokuran, famed artists who lived during the 1700s. Here is a poem that accompanies one of the painted scrolls:

A Friend Visits at Night

Beneath the eaves,

on mat in pure breeze;

Below the pines,

a cup in moonlight:

The joys of seclusion are just this way,

And even better now a friend's in sight!
--Bo Juyi

Back in NY, the Modern Museum of Art is featuring many exhibitions including a celebration of Picasso’s "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" which he created 100 years ago; "50 Years of Helvetica", the sans-serif typeface we all know and love; a retrospective of Richard Serra’s work, and more.

In Kansas City, the Nelson-Atkins is celebrating their new amazing addition to the museum, which glows like giant lanterns across the landscape at night. Featured exhibits are the beginnings of American photography and the Bloch collection of Impressionistic art.

For those who are soon going to Paris, the Louvre is featuring prints and drawings of Camille Corot, and work from Spanish artists during the Age of Enlightenment. And there are exhibits, films, concerts and more at the Centre Pompidou. One is "Airs de Paris," an exhibit of design and architecture that explores how life in today’s cities, particularly Paris, is evolving.

Ah, but now it’s getting late; I must return to the City of Trees… au revoir...

Coiling

Throughout the west, forests, rangeland is burning. Scattering of ash on my car this morning. Air quality alert. A storm this afternoon, loud thunder, brief burst of rain. And probably more fires from lightning strikes. The interagency fire center lists 38 fires currently burning in the west. 10 are in Idaho.

But this is not unusual for summers here. Cheat grass on range land provides extra fuel. Heat waves and lack of rain dry out the forests.

Last night I dreamed of Paris and cats. Today I networked computers, processed paperwork, answered phones. Tonight we walked at 9:30. It was still 92 degrees. We petted friendly cats lolling about on the sidewalks, watched the dusty orange sky grow dark. Coiling into night.

Dendrochronology: the study of tree rings. Scientists can reconstruct what the climate was in the past; cycles of wet and dry years, frequency of fires, evidence of environmental changes.
Perhaps humans are more similar to trees than we think—what stories are in the marks, wrinkles, scars on our skin? What tree rings reside in our souls?

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The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible.
~ Welsh proverb

More illusions

Here we are, another weekend gone. A weekend of popping illusions.

Surreal. Like the art of Man Ray. While in The Golden State we saw an exhibit of photos of Man Ray’s Paris studio. This weekend, we looked at a book of Man Ray’s photos and Rayograms; we watched his inventive short films featuring a starfish, giant dice, patterns of water reflections, a woman juggling fruit underwater, swirling lights of a carnival. Would have been fun to be one of the actors. Would be fun, enlivening to be in the midst of that innovation.

And so we’ll start another week, wondering what is real and what is just an illusion…

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

http://www.manraytrust.com/

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The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.
~ Oscar Wilde

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
~ Mark Twain

Water, desire, and other news

Water; what we’re wishing for right now in this heat wave. Praying for a small weather front to bring us cool, fresh air and rain. It’s turning out to be a long, hot summer--in many ways…

In other news:
Astronomers believe they’ve seen light created by galaxies 13 billion years ago. That would be before our galaxy even existed.

A rare ghost orchid has been found growing in a cypress tree in a nature preserve in Florida. I read the book, "The Orchid Thief" about avid orchid collectors, particularly John Laroche, who was arrested for stealing rare orchids in a nature preserve. Then we saw the movie, which, in my opinion, sucked. But in both the book and the movie, the ghost orchid symbolizes desire, obsession with what you can’t quite obtain.

However, if you’ve always wanted to become a famous singer without performing on stage, it is indeed attainable! Make a trip to India. A TV station there is filming "Bathroom Singer," a reality show featuring a singing contest where the contestants sing in their showers.

And that brings us back to water…

Into the blue

Swim, she said, swim to the blue up ahead.
But what if it’s not safe? What if there are alligators or piranhas or…
She shrugged. That’s a chance we’ll have to take…

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I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.
~G.K. Chesterton

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.
~Author Unknown

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
~André Gide

The light within

How the light reflects within this bloom intrigues me. A day of looking for light within. Quiet day, hot day, dusty pink-orange at twilight because of all the fires burning.

C and I looked through a book of photos by Robert Doisneau; photos of everyday life in Paris from the 1930s through the 1980s. He had a brilliant eye for design, and a unique way of capturing people. He loved strolling the streets of Paris with his camera, taking shots of the little things, humorous things. Marketplaces, musicians, school children, people with dogs or cats, someone reading as he crossed the Mirabeau Bridge.

Today was solitary, even within an office of others. Tonight we strolled the neighborhood, taking notice of what had changed, how it was more subdued than usual. Taking in the last bit of daylight, and the light within.

http://www.robertdoisneau.com/

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At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
~ Albert Schweitzer

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross