This will be my fourth opportunity to cross our wonderful country. The first three times were pretty harried and hurried – the first a true unknown adventure full of break downs and roadside kindnesses in a dilapidated van (I didn’t know it at the time of purchase, but it had a blown head gasket!) which…
When you read the words of great writers, you realize that what you offer when you sit down at a keyboard is paltry; perhaps not even worth typing. After spending the morning with the words of Rachel Carson, Emily Dickinson, M.C. Escher, Thoreau, Oliver Sacks and the like, you wonder what in the world makes…
Today on a break I sat outside, away from computers and phones, and practiced just being. Why is this so darn hard?? Thoughts came floating in and I let them float by. I looked at the ground. I looked at the sky. I looked at the golden air where sun streamed between tree limbs. Here…
Shabbat is always good for a lazy, reflective, do-nothing-much day. Today it has rained on and off. So I fired up some wax tarts (Cinnamon Roll and Orange Spice), took out the sketch book (if you can call what I do at this stage ‘sketching’ lol), and connected the phone to the laptop. Yes. I…
Trees are such an amazing part of our world. They provide shelter, shade, food, heat and suck up all of that carbon we’re emitting! These two caught my eye, appearing to be a long-time partnered couple, supporting each other through thick and thin. Or maybe he’s goosing her…knots? 🙂 Instead of the more sentimental limb…
Today’s trip to the lake was simply sublime, and a perfect post- work unwind. I love woods and water, especially the rocky shoreline type. So I was primed for some zen rock sitting, watching the water do its thing. I got so, so much more! First off, there is nothing like occupying a waterside picnic…
Some days are just made for observing. Today was one of those days. The above is looking out my doors a bit after sunrise. It takes a while to become fully sunlit due to the mountains and trees. It is usually very quiet, enough so that I can hear the hummingbirds while inside. I love…
Today was a pretty good measure of what a non- work bus day looks like. Sleep in (I get up around 0430 on weekdays), coffee, read the digital newspaper, start puttering. The bus is energy independent in most situations, as I have 750 watts of solar on top, plus another 400 watts on stand alone…
At the same time I am embarking on poking my writing muse, I am also doing an art journal…finally. I follow an artist whose books I own, and I’ve been watching little clips for probably close to a year now, contemplating doing one. What held me back? I sketch like a kindergartener, lol. Plus, you…
In order to reinvigorate my writing activities, I thought I’d once again attempt a post a day. I did this once, several years ago and it led to both good and bad. Good, because I was thinking like a writer again, and bad, because I got burned out. This time I start with a 30…
Ah, I can remember when sixty was a distant thing, and how wise and patient I’d grow to be by that age – if indeed I’d live that long. Now that it’s here, what is it really like? Am I wiser? A life of ashes and rebuilding teaches one a great deal. Things like: Nothing…
And, it’s been a while since I wrote anything. I’ve been busy traveling, trying my hand at other forms of expression like watercolor (long way to go on that media!), Junk collage mixed media, alcohol inks, bone art, photography, and practicing looking at things differently. Today the real chill of fall is in the air,…
Alight
It has been a stretch of interesting days.  I’m not certain how my life always seems to amble along like a comedy, but it does most of the time. It could be that I am just silly 🙂 I ran up against a wall this week that I’ve not encountered ever I don’t think, since…
Just like going to the Doctor for a check up is not intimate when compared with the touch of one who knows you, neither is having professional movers wrangle your stuff from one place to another. But to have people who know me trail their fingers through my things is something quite different for me. It is…
I feel like I’ve joined the ‘writer’s abstinence club’ of sorts lately. I think of great things to write, but I’m busily doing something else, and then I have tasks to tackle or familial bonds to reinforce with listening, advice, interventions or the like, and a dog to walk and a job, and well, then…
I’ve been on sensory overload lately – not sure why. In this post are tidbits of thought, internal and external conversations, sights and smells, a photo or two and the requisite songs that have been running through my mind lately. Best read while drinking hot tea and listening to Jackie Greene’s “Travelin’ Song” Don’t have…
When you begin to consider carrying all that you need on your back for a few months, the contents of your home begin to loom in the mind as well. The idea of ‘comfort’, ‘luxury’ or ‘morale’ items becomes a topic of thought. We really don’t think about these things day to day, just like…
I remember the times when January 1st was a bleary-eyed sleeping in day.  A day that didn’t require going to work, woohoo!  Those days seem to be long behind me, although if I had television I might still be tempted to watch the ball drop in Times Square. This year my goal was to go to…
…and other unusual things said to me lately. Scent has always played a huge role in my life. As such, I own probably an inordinate amount of scented things, personal and home. I picked up a new perfume on a trip. Â It is very green, woodsy with a mossy undertone at dry down. Â It reminds…
So I am on site in the midst of the great Polar Vortex caper (hmmm, didn’t I mention flailing in the vortex a few posts ago…prescient of me eh?) I like to camp. Â A lot. So in order to give the new widow some personal space I brought my camping gear since there is acreage…
Delicious Fall has fallen upon us for a brief spell and I am relishing it! Doors and sliders thrown open, fans positioned to bring all of that fresh, low humidity air in has really boosted my spirits. It makes working out an invigorating thing rather than a flirtation with heat stroke and misery. Â I wrote…
Okay, so there isn’t really a vortex in my life, but there are times as I stand beside my life and look at it that I could swear I can feel the sucking sounds at my feet and hear the power of the strength of the pull away from those things I desire to accomplish or…
Leave-taking is always bittersweet when it is a long-time friend who is often more family than actual family. I’ve spent a lovely nine days in the Midwest in marvelous company, been fed delicious food, gone out and about, and now am sitting in the airport waiting to return home via Chicago. The trip in was…
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Quoting Berry from Word and Flesh: “The religion and the environmentalism of the highly industrialized countries are at bottom a sham, because they make it their business to fight against something that they do not really want to destroy. We all live by robbing nature, but our standard of living demands that the robbery shall…
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Another week has flown by in our lives. Â What did you do differently this week than last week? What did you see, smell, hear, or say – that made a difference? Â I know, it’s annoying these questions. It’s Friday and you just want the damn week over, and some entertainment to help with that. I…
Nikon D100 – Alley – 7.2014
~SE
Remember how just a few days ago I mentioned that I was divesting myself of 50% of what I own, except of course, in the realm of books. Â I also mentioned that my bookcases had a bit of room in them. Ahem. Â Wellll, I went to the library on lunch break this week, and lo…
I’m rambling today, with thoughts flowing in and out of my mind as I sit in the briefly temperate morning out of the sun, watching the comings and goings of wildlife (used broadly) on the patio of the micro-haus. Â Dividing the thoughts up into bits and bobs – penny for your thoughts? From the Observatory…
Poetry for me is not something that I can force. Â It rushes out, tethered by a phrase or imagery in the moment and must be grasped and quickly captured before its elusiveness causes a slip through the fingers. Deux Estrangers Familiers I want to redolently float through your inner landscape, Collecting an…
The pace and intensity of work lately has left me primed more than usual for pulling out the memories of this year’s earlier camping trip. Â It isn’t that I mind working (although independent wealth would be cool too, lol!). Â It is just that often it seems that there is nothing really productive about my days…
While I have always enjoyed photography, what I am liking about macro work is what it reveals to me that I normally overlook, or am too far away to notice (or…rushing past!)  Lately, I am struck by the flowers within flowers 🙂 A few jewel tones for today.  Two different colors of bougainvillea, white bracts…
My weekend is hectic for a change, with social stuff.  Plans made with my daughters and their children yesterday, plus a gardening supply activity and then a trip to a Speed show with my oldest for her birthday.  These kinds of events don’t really pique my interest, but it is important to her so I’m giving…
As you know, I live in the city, in a studio smaller than most people’s garages, filled with boxes and containers from my farm. Â It was small before I brought anything in, it is much smaller in navigable space now, lol! Â So open space, I love it. Â It ain’t happenin’ here on a day to…
First off, I hadn’t hiked properly in a coon’s age. Â Actually, I’m not sure I ever hiked ‘properly’ as in official, hiking-trail, backpacking type activities. Â Hiking was usually a spontaneous activity that occurred when we went somewhere that had hiking trails. Â We never set out and said “Let’s go hiking!” Â But hike we did, in…
It is almost time. Â My apartment looks worse than usual (tiny thing that it is) because of all of the camping gear staged around. Â Tarps. Sleeping bag. Sleeping mat. Food bags. Hiking boots. Â Portable generators. Â Chargers. And so it goes. Â Looking at all of the ‘stuff’, I thought that possibly ‘primitive camping trip’ might perhaps…
I am le drowned. It has rained every day now for over seven days here. My micro-haus has flooded twice. Thankfully the landlord has engaged someone to come by and take a look-see at the place to see what the problem is. But yesterday and today were glorious even though it rained in the evenings.…
Sunflower Solace Farm 