Monday, January 26, 2009

I'll follow the sun

Early morning sun trying to get into the neighbors attic.


As far as I know, my neighbors only use their attic for storage. Their very large house is in the morning sun's path, and often my first glimpse of light when I put up the curtain is this fire in their attic. This picture doesn't do it justice, but I have no upstairs windows facing that direction. I imagine an artist and model up there taking advantage of the chiaroscuro!



I moved these globes to a safe spot while I was organizing the girls' room yesterday.
The sunlight found them here.



I love all the seasons. Yes, winter, too. I love snow and snow activities. It is true, though, that in winter I seek the sun as often as I seek shade in summer. Maybe more, because sunlight in winter, and its play upon snow, is so beautiful.


This tree, so lovely bare in winter, is also our shade in summer.


The sun is shining this morning. I hope it's warm enough to thaw the frozen bathroom tap. This is the one thing that has been hard about this winter for me, trying to keep this hole in the ground heated.


At least I got some new copper bling...






Peace.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Writing it down.

The 6yo has begun to write. And such a lovely start.




25 Random Things About Me

(This meme is going around facebook, and I got tagged. I wrote a list of 25 things, and now I find myself editing it endlessly.)


1. I like to make pie. Pear-blueberry is my current favorite.
2. I wish I had some pie right now.
3. My tub drain is still frozen and the words "standing water" enter my head when I go in the bathroom.
4. Worse than the tub drain being frozen ('cause I can bail it & it's not that bad taking a shower standing in inches of icy water), the washer is frozen and I can't go this long without doing laundry, so it looks like the 'mat for me.
5. I grew up in southern California. My mom still lives in my childhood home.
6. Growing up, I preferred the beach at night, and spent many hours up on lifeguard station M watching the moonlight on the water.
7. When I visit my family now, I want to spend as many daylight hours in the ocean as I can.
8. Whenever I float in the ocean, Atlantic and Pacific are the two that I've tried, I like to close my eyes and picture a map of the coastline and water. I imagine a little dot in the water representing me. What?
9. I started a girls flag football league for my school district in elementary school. Yes, I played center. And yes, there is a great photo in my yearbook of a kick off with the ball long flying away and my finger still in holding pose.
10. In high school, a friend in MGM with me decided he would make up awards for each of us in the group so that we would all have something to add to the awards section on our college applications. I received the Paul Klee Humanitarian Award, and was quite proud of it.
11. I am an artist. I have sometimes thought that discovering at a young age that I share a birthday with Picasso had something to do with it. Recently, clicking around the 'net, I read on someone's blog (I don't even remember whose), that she had a similar thought. Now I wonder how many of us there are.
12. I loved it when Brian O'Doherty, a professor of mine in college at the end of the last century, remarked that in the near future Picasso would be referred to as "that 20th century artist."
13. Dancing to live music is one of the top five physical pleasure in life for me.
14. I thought one of the top five physical pleasures in life was the same for everybody. However, when I was in a mother's group with eight other women, all of them married to men, I was shocked by how few of them put sex in the top five. One woman even asked if reading counts as a physical pleasure.
15. I've never been married, but...
16. I *do* love to read. I'm embarrassed to say that most of my reading these days is online.
17. I miss books. Curling up in bed with a laptop just isn't the same. Yes, I know what you're thinking -- I miss that, too.
18. Legend has it that, as a child, I walked through the neighborhood singing, and all the neighborhood kids followed me around.
19. I am still amazed that I started a band (as a woman over forty with two young children), that a bunch of stellar professional musicians volunteered to be in it, and that we got to play at the Iron Horse. We opened for Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys the first time and the Wilders the second time.
20. I am also amazed that my first out-of-town gig, and biggest crowd ever, was playing solo at EschaCon08, in Philadelphia. Thank you, NYMary.
21. I am enjoying seeing all the photos on facebook.
22. I don't think you're supposed to edit these lists, but I'm doin' it anyway.
23. I would like to invent, if it hasn't been invented already, a family-size all-season pedal car that stores energy as you pedal and taps that energy to help you motor up big hills.
24. I have a fantasy of closing the highways to cars one day a week and folks enjoying vacations that take them slowly across country by bicycle.
25. Insomnia does kinda mess with me, but I do love these quiet hours.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Renewing America's Promise


A brand new day.



(who's surprised that I'm not the first person to think of this song in this context?)












Peace.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Feed the birds

Our friend Jacy is putting some old bread and clementine slices on the tree.
(while I wait in the cozy house!)




Of course, it snowed again after she did this, but hopefully the birds will still be able to find their treats...





Peace.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Yesterday's Lunch



Yogurt with banana slices, oats, and cinnamon (the marks on the wall look like the bowl is smokin'!), cranberry juice/water cocktail, ubiquitous clementine. Yum.

What will it be today?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Mug Shot



It's ten degrees outside. Tea with milk and whiskey, in my favorite mug, is a very good thing.