Storm troopers, grandma, and a rainy day

The grandma in the library is on her tummy on the rug explaining to the fascinated little grandson stretched out beside her who Jabba the Hut is, who R2D2 is, and about the Ewoks and warriors and all the Star Wars people in great detail as they look through a Star Wars book...a rainy chilly day, the kind that is perfect for library visiting - and what better place to hang with the grandson? Grandma has an Annie Hall got older vibe and she knows all the details and can answer all the questions her companion asks and I think her young grandson thinks she is a rock star - I get a kick out of the boomers (of which I am one) and our strange mix of aging and forever young, our love of old school and whatever is coming down the road...

Sunday Quote

Yearn to understand first and to be understood second.

-Beca Lewis Allen

Happy Birthday, Tucker

Not the dog I would have chosen had I thought about it. Not the name I would have chosen, either. Rushing to get another dog right after our beloved Moky died of cancer, insanity, and yes, instant regret. Same coloring as Moky, that small blur of black fur running around - initially that did not comfort but just stir up the sense of loss. The old dog (ah, my Em) wanted nothing to do with him. Tucker felt likewise. Tucker, named by the ten year old who picked him out because he was so funny and silly, chose the name too because he "tucked" under his arm on the car ride home. And yet, in that mysterious and mystical way dogs have when they add you to their pack of one and create a family for themselves - he has won us all over, even the husband who was not on board with the whole dog thing is crazy about the wee dog. Thank goodness for ill-chosen hasty actions, absurd impulses, and crazy gestures - not the first time they have brought a wealth of good things into my life. Happy Birthday, sweet and funny, loving and ridiculous little dog. (Who would not stand still for his birthday portrait at all...these are the result of about twenty photographs, all a blur).

Quiet lives in the interior...

snow predicted

Dear Winter,
I have had enough.
Thank you.

Sunday Quote

Action is hope. At the end of each day, when you’ve done your work, you lie there and think, Well, I’ll be damned, I did this today. It doesn’t matter how good it is, or how bad—you did it. At the end of the week you’ll have a certain amount of accumulation. At the end of a year, you look back and say, I’ll be damned, it’s been a good year.

- Ray Bradbury

March, lion.

Sunday Quote

We cannot wait til the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
God came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!

- Madeleine L'Engle, First Coming

with hopes to be just ducky...

...soon enough. I know, dreadful photo punning. But with a mysteriously injured back and a sky full of rain, I need something cheerful - and what is more cheerful than ducks? (I would say they quack me up but that would be going just too far, hmmmm?) I do like the silly accidental photo of the duck peeking in his face in all that blue, yes?
To make up for my dreadful puns, let me share a wonderful find - just finished reading Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons. Terrific - and I think it would make a great book club read as well.

Ice Writing

Spring is in the air; the little gull warming himself in the grass may think it is not coming soon enough (I may agree with him) but the signs are all about. Crocus tips and the neighborhood geese returning, Easter baskets on the store shelves, wearing my lighter coat. Spring is coming - and even the ice writes the news.

Sunday Quote

The future is called 'perhaps', which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you.

- Tennessee Williams

My Life...and then some

"My Life is pieces of paper that I'll get back to later
I'll write you a story, how I ended up here
Why the little things make us and how long it takes us
To figure out what matters the most..."

-Lori McKenna, The Most

Been listening to the new Lori McKenna cd - no one I ever mention her to knows her work and she is so good - I love her voice and on every cd there are songs I play over and over - today's song is The Most, was so pleased to find it on Youtube so I could share it (and go get her cds, people!). Also enjoying Esperanza Spalding - I confess prior to the grammys I did not know her work - and what is strange is I never watch the grammys or any awards shows other than the Oscars (which good, bad, or indifferent I watch religiously, welcome to my quirks). Her cd is also great - and also perfect for cooking by :) Nothing like a little jazz in the kitchen. I love the way her music makes you mind take off on its own spirals and twirls.
Thank you WOL for your most complimentary award - and here, all of you somewhere out there, is a link to a blog,
The Owl Underground I visit often - as well as a link here to some creative art and poem play she has been doing - you might note the photographer in a couple of them is yours truly - love to be included in her creative sphere :)
Also over at another favorite spot - Apifera Farm - Matilda, a donkey who has had a difficult life, is now about to know kindness - if you can donate towards her well-being, here is the link to do so. I am in continual awe of the kindness and giant heart and compassion of Katherine Dunn and the Apifera Farm family, crew and friends. Her art book is available on the AF blog as well as Amazon - I thumbed through a copy at my library and had to order it immediately. Spring painting fun just around the corner. (Do you hear me, Spring? I'm waiting...)

March and the mind turns to thoughts of...

...vacay and getaways. Especially as I am on the upswing from some mystery virus and all I can think of is hot places with leaves big as elephant ears and the sun baking all my winter blues away...sadly the price of air fare is beyond daunting - the airlines aren't offering any breaks to northerners...featured is a menu from a Florida trip - how the husband and youngest passed the time at a jumping joint while waiting for their meals. What to do, where to go, that doesn't require endless driving (our last drive down and back to NC felt like forever and not in a good way). Oh for wings. Or a private jet.

Sunday Quote

Tell me the story as it lies in your head.

- Rudyard Kipling, The Finest Story in the World

Meerkats really are cute

There was some Meerkat show awhile back that was very popular - I tuned in once and the mommy meerkat was eaten or something and I thought (once again) real nature is way to rugged for me. I like fake nature like gardening books and the botanical garden and looking out the car window at anything bigger than a breadbox, especially if it has teeth.
However, to be sure, they (Meerkats) are cute. I mean top notch cute. Freaking crazy cute. They run around like our faux miniture poodle with his little bichon mix teeth sticking out, very distracted and energetic (like Tucker) cute. How they fit in to a maritime theme is anybody's guess - the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk has an African exhibit of fish - and somehow wangled a bunch of Meerkats in for the big draw (yes, way cuter than fish). To be fair they also had a pet the nurse shark exhibit which was probably a huge drag for the nurse sharks, two of them, who appeared very sulky, and was entertaining for the fact of the Maritime employee standing next to the "Nurse Sharks are Harmless" sign (I kid you not) shouting above the din "touch them only with two fingers, no, NO! NOT THERE! They don't like being touched there. NO NO NO NOT THERE EITHER! He had this ongoing list of warnings that was very entertaining - exhausting for him no doubt. This was a man bound for laryngitis going home to a nice mug of hot tea with honey and lemon. Add to that the woman from my town, a state away, who recognized me as a librarian and wanted me to pony up names of good books for her child standing a foot away. Not just a little request. A several times request and a "you can't think of anything else" after she shot down my initial off the cuff suggestions as the son was uninterested in them. "Not on my day off", I cheerily replied. Cheerily because we were stuck on the shark line and I did not want to have to stand in stony silence watching the shark employee hyperventilate "NO! DON'T TOUCH THE SHARKS THERE!". Anyway that got her to stop. Or maybe the tone of false cheer sounded a bit alarming as false cheer so often does.
So where was I? Oh, yeah. Meerkats are really cute. Even toy ones. Except the big giant balloon one hovering over the entrance to the Maritime Center. That one was just creepy.

Heaven or Hell Cake

Every year the oldest boy gets a special cake, usually with a theme that has some level of mayhem and carnage in it...there has been the Surrender Earthlings! cake, the Evolution cake (featuring earthquakes and weird critters and major chaos), the Sacrificial Virgin to the Volcano cake (a plastic hula skirted native girl faces her end on top of the volcano), the Alien giant caterpillars coming out of a head to half torso cake of said son, and the Island of Doom where a team of oceanographers escape a sea of sharks and giant squid only to encounter man-eating creatures on the desert island...there usually is a lot of red icing and strawberry pie filling carnage as you can imagine. This year's theme more philosophical as our young man considers his life options. Choose Heaven or choose Hell. Scarier than that - our son looks suspiciously like Justin Bieber and if you press the button on his tummy, he sings.

Happy Birthday to Chris

Hard to believe that the young artist who drew this tiger is a college senior turning 22 today. I am making him one of his special cakes (baking now) and resisting the urge to start singing Sunrise, Sunset.

Sunday Quote

Broken windows and empty hallways,
a pale dead moon in a sky streaked with grey.
Human kindness is overflowing,
and I think it's gonna rain today.

- Randy Newman

Shadows study

Sunday Quote

Let down, let go. The world will carry you.

- Mark Nemo, The Book of Awakening