Whan that Aprille ....

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye,
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages...

- from The Canterbury Tales...
and check out this lively bit!

Sunday Quote - in memory

We shall find peace,
we shall hear angels,
we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

-Anton Chekhov

In memory of Judith Sundloff, valiant, loving, brave.

Lights, heat, power, bliss.

Everything came back at about ten last night... four days and three nights is more than enough deprivation - it was quite miserable and certainly affords one empathy towards those who do not have warmth and shelter and light. It struck all of us that it was just so hard to rally, to sally forth into the day with any kind of spirit, and I cannot imagine how it must be to live in a car or on the street or be in situations that are long term like Katrina survivors or Haitians post Earthquake. It is not just a matter of discomfort, it wears you down, the cold, damp, darkness. But the lights are back, the heat came in at the same time as the sun, the house is being cleaned up and bleached (ugh flooding) and we are just so grateful that our home did not get the damage so many others had. Thank you all for your good thoughts and kind words.

blog break due to storm

A quick update from the library - the "hurricane without a name" as it's being called, hit hard on Saturday and pretty much devastated the area. No power (boy, do I miss heat and lights)and closed roads, a lot of damage everywhere to a rather astonishing degree throughout Westchester County,NY, neighboring Long Island, parts of Ct and NJ as well...
Could have been worse - but they are saying we may be in this boat until the weekend, not so great. Hopefully I will be back sooner than that with better news.

A sure and strange sign it's Spring

Every year for what seems a decade, two geese return to this strange vee of land that would seem absolutely undesirable. It's close to water - about a block away, but it seems fraught with peril - open to prowlers and growlers, no cover, and of course, very little charm. But they return to it every year, and every year when I drive by and see them, my heart sings a little.

Sunday Quote

Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition.

- Rumi

the last of the crazy cakes

This year - doom for the three young men on vacation, boat sunk, stuck on a sugar cookie raft, the only land turns out to be a monstrous kraken and her ravenous babies...ah, yes, they always involve some sort of carnage or mayhem: invading martians, robots with world rule on their agenda, islands of oversized crabs, erupting parasitic critters, volcanos, superheroes, it's been a ride. He's 21 now and the cakes are done, crazier than the themes were the mess of a noncook, nonbaker with a dozen boxes of cake mix, food dye, and canned frosting galore. Happy Birthday, Chris.

Sunday Quote

They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

- Andy Warhol

Shoebox clean-up

This site because an article said something about a happy farmer kitchen composter kit and I am already thinking spring and gardening (I want a really kickass salad garden this year to make up for last year's pathetic tomatoes). Just one of the torn out scraps of paper for things to look up that over-occupy my time. This book recommended by a library patron (just that it had Hullabaloo in it sounded good). A note from an artist's booth at a summer fair where I bought some gorgeous and unusual earrings. This from a bundling your interests online article...some info I came across while trying to locate Anthony Phillips music (since all our ancient beloved cassette tapes barely play any longer). A note that says women should have a 32" waist for optimum health (toss that in the bin, feh!). Scribble of Johnny Mercer's name since cbs Sunday morning did a piece on him (and Moon River is one of my favorite songs). and notes from a Sunday morning (again!) news show - this one on creativity - where Dr. Nancy Andreasen said creative people "not just curious about what they do, they're curious about all kinds of things, they're adventuresome, they push the envelope, they're rebellious, they tend to have a sense of humor>". She also said on the show that creative people have the same kind of brain structure, different patterns of activity with highly developed abilities to see relationships and develop associations. So much more, I despair. I am a paper packrat.

Snow Day!

I like my job but nothing beats that early am phone call - very rare - that the library has been closed. Schools closed, too and even my daughter's job - so everyone is home, the oldest busing through the white stuff to celebrate his birthday, the wee one out with neighborhood kids doing snowy things, the husband preparing beef stew, and me sifting through a backlog of papers at the computer with a cup of tea. Domestic bliss!

blah

Lots of little and medium gripes, its the February gremlins laying traps and roadblocks. Frustrations and irritants. Sigh.
Tonight we started part one of the cake and things felt better. Cake is a happy smell.

Sunday Quote

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

-Thomas Merton

Ice, Sky

Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey

A wonderful winter treat - two galpals and I went to dinner and then a concert:
Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey at the Emelin Theatre on Saturday night - a great time. (and for the Youtube comment - I happen to like the driving intro to Bo's video - always one for the car-road trip - themed tie-in).

Prez Day, whassup?

The whiteboard in the kitchen sets the tone for the day - usually schedules outlined and a drawing to enhance whatever might be coming - a cake or fireworks imagery for a birthday or special day, an umbrella and a stormy cloud, - a lot of snowflakes lately, I really enjoy seeing what the husband has come up with each day. I especially enjoy the snarky comments people add on through the day, a erasable marker peanut gallery. Today's board was a particular delight with the youngest son and his Dad collaborating.

Sunday Quote

That love is all there is,
is all we know of love.

- Emily Dickinson

Goose ponderings

Driving back to work after lunch (yes, I'm a lucky duck, speaking of water fowl, two days a week I am at the little library a few miles from my house) and there were a group of geese (gaggle of, yes?) nearing a stream. The bank inclining towards the stream was slippery with ice and steep and the geese in the back were giving each other openly doubtful looks as if to say "well, this is a bad idea". They were following several geese intent on making the icy stream. Mind you there is an enormous lake they could go muck around in also without a steep incline...so what was being said in goose talk? And who got to decide who leads and who follows? It really has been that kind of day. Seeing my youngest staring intently out the window this morning, I asked him his thoughts...he said he was wondering how long it would take him to eat a mountain of corned beef hash and he thought an hour. He said this in a longing dreamy fashion, no doubt trying to overcome the disappointment of cereal. Of course, I could not criticize having just been entertaining such a lofty thought as - if I were the Emily Blunt character in the Werewolf movie (which I have only seen in a commercial), would I be brave and true enough with my beloved to run out in the dark woods and try to save my werewolf boyfriend? Well, for the late great WZ or my beloved dh, maybe. You?
(art credit - swiped from this bank street teacher, artist and performer site, check it out).

Snow Angels

the snow bed soft and the sound of snow falling is quiet upon quiet.

Snowonderful

tye-dyed snowmen, Emmy wearing two coats - her sixteenth winter, a stroll up a snowy street.

Sunday Quote

Inaction, contrary to its reputation for being a refuge, is neither safe nor comfortable.

- Madeline Kunin, U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland