Sunday Quote

Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

Poetry by CM

Cleaning drawers and bins and found this poem by my oldest son. He wrote it in grade school and he is now back at school, a Junior in college. I think it's quite good, of course!

Tigers

Their fur is like little men running across the plains.
They feel of silk and they leap higher than the Olympics.
The sun, while shining, makes them seem like fiery beasts.
You can't hear or see them as they hunt their prey.
You can't see them as their dark souls run past and then
finally jump the prey and make the kill.
Tigers - King of the Plains.

Home Companion magazine

It may be shallow but I really miss this magazine. A subscriber for a long time, Home Companion was an unusual magazine, a lot of stories on artists and craftspeople, a fair amount children's illustrators, and really great relate-to things for house and lifestyle...not the fancy smancys of some mags but the kind of home I have worked to give my family - cozy, artsy, warm. I wasn't a giant fan of Mary Engelbreit, but she created a wonderful magazine. I hope it comes back some day so I can get a cup of tea and spend a relaxing hour turning the pages.

Karla Kuskin will be missed

The wonderful poet, writer, and illustrator Karla Kuskin died a week ago - I was away and did not realize it until just a day or so ago. I have always loved her work - and was pleased to have reviewed one of her lovely books. A great writer for children and a gifted poet. Here is a tribute including a lovely poem and the obituary from the Times also showing how deft and thoughtful her poetry was to read and to say aloud.

Suzie the Seal

Suzie is the oldest seal at the Maritime Center - we have been going there for nearly two decades so I feel a great fondness for her besides our shared name (Suzy was what my family called me). She was mostly napping which they said she does a lot as she is in her twenties, old for a seal. I would if I could. Especially in a pool. How cool to doze while underwater or while bobbing up and down, a look of bliss on her face. I hope her dreams are very sweet.

Sunday Quote

The air moves like a river and carries the clouds with it; just as running water carries all things that float upon it. This is proved because if the wind were to penetrate through the air and drive the clouds these clouds would be condensed between the air and the moving force and would take a lateral impress from the two opposing extremeties, just as wax does when pressed between the fingers.

- Leonardo Da Vinci, The Notebooks

Tree Bark Blues, just slightly

Really it takes so little to go from blue skies to tree bark, vacation to I need a vacation in one short stretch. (Although I do think tree bark is quite lovely on its own but not as a life condition).

Note: photos from our visit to the Eric Carle Museum in Massachusetts up on Library Mermaid.

Meanwhile, a gal pal and I went to see Julie & Julia, a movie we greatly enjoyed. I am a HUGE fan of Julia Child. I remember her early cooking shows, a dropped chicken, her passion for what she loved, her ability to overcome. "The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a 'What the hell?' attitude." As well as in a great many other things.

I also read the book the movie is titled after and thought it was terrific - Julie Powell, another gal who keeps on keeping on. My kind of people.

My ABC's

A Altered
B Blue Sky Blue Sea
C Coffee
D Doorways
E Everything (and Nothing)
F Fishes and Fins and Frogs and Fog
G Give
H Harbor
I Inward
J Jars
K Kozy Kloset Kutie's I hate C words spelled with a K
L Love
M Mercurial
O Oh, my
P Pelicans
Q Quirky
R Restless
S Same old same old same old same old sigh
T Trepidation
U U Drive me Crazy
V Vie (C'est la)
W Wanderlust
X (E)Xasperated
Y Yes
Z ( A) Zillion times, Yes.

What is your alphabet?

Sunday Quote

The original sense of the word "entertainment" is a lovely one of mutual support through intertwining, like a pair of trees grown together, interwoven, each sustaining and bearing up the other. It suggest a kind of midair transfer of strength, contact across a void, like the tangling of cable and steel between two lonely bridgeheads. I can't think of a better approximation of the relationship between writer and reader.

-Michael Chabon, Maps and Legends

Harry Potter movie

Just saw the HP movie in Imax 3-D with the youngest and dh; we thought it so odd that it is advertised 3-D in selected parts (!) which translates into the opening ten minutes and that is it even though so much more would have been terrific in 3-D. Why did they even bother. Largest ick factor - they took our glasses back at the end - and put them back in a communal basket. Ew. Plus for the money we should have had jewel embedded ones.

I have read criticism that the movie offers no back story for people who have never read any HP books or seen the other movies - but apart from the creepy weird guy who was being good at being creepy and weird and then snored loudly from mid-movie on, I imagine most other viewers are long time fans.

My oldest son said the movie was visually stunning and he was right. It is not a film for younger children, but for those who have grown up with the books (and adults who love dipping into the world of Potter) it will resonate.

Daisy tire

Sunday Quote

I WILL make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.
I will make a palace fit for you and me
Of green days in forests and blue days at sea...

...And this shall be for music when no one else is near,
The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,
Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Songs of Travel

Insomnia or what?

Can't sleep so I will add in these photos I took during one of this past week's tremendous downpours - like buckets of water being thrown from the sky. Doesn't the yard look prehistoric? I am waiting for the T-Rex to come strolling out from the back woods.

Indian Pipe plant

Practically hidden by our giant rhododendren plant, these little "corpse" plants were discovered by my husband (who took the photo) as he was taking photos of the rain's bounties - a huge variety of mushrooms in our yard...

Freed journalists

I was deeply gladdened to hear that the two female journalists jailed in North Korea have been pardoned thanks to intervention by former President Clinton and pressure from the global community. I can practically hear their families cheering and weeping with joy from my small corner of this earth.

Sunday Quote

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms or books that are written in a foreign tongue. The point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live your way some distant day into the answers.

-Rainer Maria Rilke