October 30, 2009

El Dia de Los Muertos







For the third year my library has an artscape (different each year) for the Day of the Dead created by a local and unbelievably talented family. (I loved the great pride of the sons when they told me that their parents were the artists). This holiday resonates with me for a number of reasons, and I imagine the celebrations in Mexico must be amazing, mythic and frightening and yet festive and vibrant with life. It's good to be reminded that we are in the wheel, turning, turning.

October 29, 2009

Like I haven't heard that before



Like his brother and sister before him - and no doubt yours truly, the ten year old looked out the window this morning at the yard, the one he spent quite a bit of time raking on Saturday, and announced he didn't think we should rake anymore until every last leaf is off the trees...I will wait until mid-winter to hear the same sentiment applied to snowflakes, I am sure.

October 27, 2009

flotsam thoughts







More from our walk at Sands Point. It really killed me to leave all this beautiful flotsamy wood there and not drag it home and make stuff - but it was heavy, too far from the car, and I have learned the hard way that I do not actually make anything from such finds, I just make plans to make driftwood picture frames and the like. I do make a nice cup of tea, however. The important stuff :)

October 25, 2009

Sunday Quote



“The bond with a true dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth will ever be.”

- Konrad Lorenz

October 23, 2009

Gothic beauties







A stroll through Sands Point this week, first time there, lovely moody atmospheric and the most perfect guide.

October 21, 2009

Wild Things



A few spoilers, stop reading if you haven't seen Wild Things yet. Coming out from seeing Where the Wild Things Are my ten year old remarks that the parts that were good were great and other parts could have been a lot better. It has a mythic power to it at moments that will have staying power in the mind long after many other films have been forgotten. A random remark about a dog made us both wish for more of that, the wonderful random, and less (slow) angst. The dirt war put me right back in my childhood running through yards with the Flynn and Gotte kids. Unfortunately, at other moments the film feels like the school social worker was busy taking notes about anger issues. But praise for not making these beasts cuddly nothings, but like the best things you love, uncertainty and difficulty makes love and growing up the brave, hard things they are. The child actor playing Max is superb, the scenes at home strong and true, and, hey, it's the Wild Things. I have hearted the Wild Things for decades.(Still own the copy a college roomie gave me for consolation after I accidentally burned down half our dorm room) I do wish Judith Wild Thing had taken a moment to step off the screen and eat the two toddlers and their unspeakably indulgent parents in the front row. That would have been something to really hoot and howl at with wild glee. Crunch crunch Yum.

October 18, 2009

Sunday Quote



I hate being good.

-Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers.

October 13, 2009

Pensiving which is a word I just made up



Tell me....love this song. Here in the inbetween, sky pulls away the skin of summer and the wind whips towards the bones...there is something so alive about October and November even if it is a dying time. Maybe that's the whole of it, the mystery we're supposed to get every year.
And enough of this pensive pensiving! What do you call a haunted chicken?
Ready?
You sure?
A Poultrygeist!
Gotcha!

October 11, 2009

Sunday Quote

We pray for children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes,"
who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for children who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents die,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.
We pray for children who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed, and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those whose nightmarkes come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.
We pray for children who want to be carried and those who must,
for those we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother...and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

-Ina J. Hughs

October 8, 2009

I'll be seeing you...



Thinking about things in a shade of October....I remember singing this song for many years - we actually were that family who sang around the piano...this song is October melancholy all wrapped up - and Miss Holiday sings it like no one else can.

October 6, 2009

Teaser Tuesday

I'll play! Nan directed me to this blog for a book teaser meme (not quite sure what a meme is but I'm game)...

"I don't know," said Oscar, "I wrote the one about the king and queen awhile ago, not long after I found The Book of Story Beginnings in the attic. I wrote another one about orphans for Lavonne. She was always wishing she was an orphan. I wrote the story about the boy in the boat on that night, of course. The night it all began."

"What is it?" said Lucy, terrified because she thought that at last she did know."

page 99. The Book of Story Beginnings by Kristin Kladstrup. (My ten year old son and I are taking turns reading a chapter every night).

Need a new Camera - suggestions?






Some older shots from my store-stalking days a few months back - my bff (Iam so 12)just reminded how fabulous Anthropoligie is (a favorite store) as her husband came through with most wonderful gifts from there. I need a new camera - the one purchased to replace the one that died has weird color and a flatness I dislike. Any suggestions of beloved cameras out there?

October 4, 2009

Sunday Quote



Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

-Neale Donald Walsch

October 2, 2009

To opine or not to opine, that is the question.



I liked this shot out the taxi window last time I was in the city. Wondering why I feel compelled to enter the fray of Roman Polanski arguments on Facebook. I think I need to take a vacation from opinions including my own.