Garden

Took Owen to visit this garden on his birthday, November 3, 2009.

Nanci Griffith, If These Walls Could Speak

Jimmy Web is playing at Appel Farm in December. Here's a Jimmy Web song.

Pitter Patty

Glad to hear you are up and about.

The Salad

Trying to replicate an amazing salad i tasted the other night at Tabor Road Tavern...shaved grapes, spicy almonds, watercress, mint,endive,red onion and honey vinagrette.

Owl City - Fireflies

Today is Owen's birthday and driving around with him this afternoon we discovered we both like this song (:

Late Fall Weekend

Halloween weekend was beautiful despite the rain. Delicious dinner on Friday with P and A and great trip to visit Ryan at school.

causa sui

thinking about new direction and expanding the wabi-sabi blog....hmmm

either/or

Concepts, like individuals, have their histories and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals. But in and through all this they retain a kind of homesickness for the scenes of their childhood.

-- Soren Kierkegaard

The Monkey Bar

Growing up in Kinnelon, we lived in a house that was rumored to have been a speakeasy during prohibition. Our front door was steel and had a peek-a-boo window in it. The living room floors were terrazzo and there was a domed ceiling rimmed with colored lights and centered on the back wall a large, black marble fireplace. It was easy to imagine dancing in this room -and of course there was also the Monkey Bar. A bar in a separate building with a dark mahogany bar and red bar stools, with chandeliers made from martini glasses with bent stems and people with 4 eyes. There were sound effects ( a train whistle in the bathroom) and air pumps that would blow your money off the bar. There were some rubber monkeys in there too and I remember my father saying that the bar was modeled after the Monkey Bar in ny. I looked up the Monkey Bar today and it's still around, recently refurbished and apparently all the rage - you have to know someone to get a table.

Willy Porter-Moonbeam

I love this song.

Thinking

Isn't it wondeful that life has a way of opening a new door everytime one closes?

October

black, gold
crows strut the rows

carnival the cornfields
before the snow


Nashi

On the Beach

This little bird followed me for a long walk on my last day at the beach.

Alden and Bayard

Just heard the news! Congratulations on your engagement!

Lord Franklin w Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek) and Josh Goforth

I think John Renbourn would approve.

Scott Appel covers Nick Drake far leys

The Engagement

So happy to hear the news !!! Congratulations to my little sister and Stan.

New Mural in Montclair

Dan Fenelon's newest mural - a fabulous work in progress at the Montclair Museum.

Shoulder Woes

Ryan dislocated his shoulder playing lacrosse and Owen injured his shoulder, playing hockey... sling season.

The Beach in Early October

May a slow wind work these words...

"On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life."

John O'Donohue

Last Day of Summer

"Where was the Summer?
Pears drop like drum beats
Acorns ricochet the roof."

Nashi

Dreams about Flying

Different wings each night.

Dreaming

This week, a series of dreams starring friends old and new. Last night Andy Clark made a guest appearance. In dream life, he's been in college all this time, taking one or two courses a year, volunteering at a theatre company and also learning ballet.

Another Overcast Day

September

"Situated within the shimmering golden leaves swirling on the black-inked vines of the margin are two subjects common to calendar pages for September. At right the zodiacal sign of Libra is shown as a man dressed in a blue robe and a green hat. He seems almost too small to balance the comically large scales he carries. Below, a woman cuts grapes from a vine and collects them in a basket. This is one of the labors of the months used for September, the time of year at which grapes are harvested."

Tonight

Growing Orbits

“I live my life in growing orbits
That move out over the things of this world
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
But that will be my attempt.
I am circling around God,
Around the ancient tower,
I have been circling for a thousand years
And still I do not know
If I am a falcon,
Or a storm,
Or a great song.”

R. M. Rilke.

Thistles

"Against the rubber tongues of cows and the hoeing hands of men
Thistles spike the summer air
And crackle open under a blue-black pressure.

Every one a revengeful burst
Of resurrection, a grasped fistful
Of splintered weapons and Icelandic frost thrust up

From the underground stain of a decayed Viking.
They are like pale hair and the gutterals of dialects.
Every one manages a plume of blood.

Then they grow grey like men.
Mown down, it is a feud. Their sons appear
Stiff with weapons, fighting back over the same ground."

by Ted Hughes

Cute and Cuter

A recent photograph of Red and Sox. They are too cute for words.

Thinking

"God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.”

Isak Dinesen

On the long ride back from Valley Forge on Sunday night I was so grateful for NPR's companionship. A program entitled "Hearing Voices" featured a profile of Isak Dinesen. I was surprised to learn that in addition to Out of Africa, she'd written Babette's Feast and that her life was so full yet so very difficult.

Avalon

The boys of summer.

Summer

The best part about living in the northeast and surviving the long winters is knowing that eventually late august spreads out a bounty that makes you forget everything except the summer moment you're in.

32

"The tao can't be perceived,
smaller than an electron,
it contains uncountable galaxies."

Happy Birthday

Sending out wishes for
a very Happy Birthday
to my sister, Patty
We are thinking of
you and hoping
you have a
great day !

teitur - let's go dancing

Dinner at Courtney's in Ridge, Maryland

There is no way to describe this well enough with words. You have to experience it. The food is amazing, the location sublime, the waiter is a pirate who has to earn part of his living serving yankees and wincing with the pain this sends through his central nervous system. His only solace was that i lived in louisiana for my formative years. When I mentioned Louisiana, the only other couple in the restaurant, came over to talk. Remarkably, the gentleman is the President of the Environmental school at the University of Maryland and his wife, she reeled, as I did, when we realized that both of our fathers worked at Freeport Sulphur - Freeport Minerals, Freeport McMoran. We even briefly mentioned Moa Bay.

Compare and Contrast

The first school that we visited was the University of Maryland and we walked the 90 minute tour in 90 degree weather. Our tour guide walked it backwards, talked it forward and I wondered why this tour was not reconfigured from the top of the campus down. We were amazed by the scope and expanse of the University but a few hours later when asking O for his reaction he said "antfarm".

Happenstance

We stayed at Woodlawn in Ridge, Maryland. A beautiful home from the 1600's settled on an inlet just off the Potomac, stunningly beautiful. Our host was the former lacrosse coach of Middlebury and U. Del. and his wife had just stepped down from her role as president of St. Mary's - the College that Owen and I were visiting the next day. Good for my soul to be reminded of serendipity.

The Trip to Maryland

Owen and I visited Maryland and Virginia to visit colleges recommended by his Lacrosse coach. Great destinations and lots of fun along the way. Here's a glimpse of St. Mary's of Maryland a public honors college on the lower banks of the potomac.

Nantucket Scrap Basket

Required Summer Reading

"Trottleoxing strams on a rantum scoot - some hooked in fast - others
adrift. All sails set and everything drawing - gone to crunch the diddledees of a lee day. This old coof couldn't fathom't nohow, watchin' the pass downalong!"

Nantucket Scrap Basket

August

As the earth spins away

The sun seems to rise

Making mists of dewdrops


KC

Entropy

entropy
1868, from Ger. Entropie "measure of the disorder of a system," coined 1865 (on analogy of Ger. Energie) by physicist Rudolph Clausius (1822-1888) from Gk. entropia "a turning toward," from en- "in" + trope "a turning

which brings to mind a John Hiatt song

"It's been a slow turnin'
From the inside out
A slow turnin'
But you come about"

Late Summer

Patty's last day before departure...we will all miss her.

The Bridge Cafe in Frenchtown

Most of the time it's easy to skip desert but impossible when the Bridge Cafe has freshly baked red velvet cupcakes.

One of the Reasons I love Twitter

One of the reasons I love twitter is randomly finding something from Maya Angelou there...

"I have always, dearly, pressed ideas to my heart, like letters from the blessed ancients to future children of children, saying "Okay!"

Yo-Yo Ma - Appalachian Waltz

Something for a summer night.

Wabi Sabi

"For the Japanese, it's the difference between kirei-merely "pretty"-and omoshiroi, the interestingness that kicks something into the realm of beautiful.
Suzuki described wabi-sabi as "an active aesthetical appreciation of poverty." He was referring to poverty not as we in the West interpret (and fear) it but in the more romantic sense of removing the huge weight of material concerns from our lives. "Wabi is to be satisfied with a little hut, a room of two or three tatami mats, like the log cabin of Thoreau," he wrote, "and with a dish of vegetables picked in the neighboring fields, and perhaps to be listening to the pattering of a gentle spring rainfall."

A Night at the Museum

Fun to visit the this museum again with Patty and Ellen - bonus points if you recognize Broadway Boogie Woogie,

Endeavour

Here is a photo of the Space Shuttle Endeavour docked at the international space station in front of the sun.

Where's Waldo, Red and Sox ?

Almost sunset, lower Manhattan, late July. Stunning view from 2 Gold Street.

A Day in the City

Spent the afternoon walking the little streets of lower Manhattan. Stopped in front of the Spotted Pig to take a photo.

Things that are given not won...

My new favorite song.

My Sister

My sister Patty is visiting and it's a delight to spend some time with her. Here she is pictured with the ever-friendly Red and Sox.

Lambertville

Great trip to a small town on the Delaware River. A highlight was dinner at DeAnna's Restaurant, grilled figs with gorgonzola cheese and jalapeno infused honey. Yum.

Thanks, Rick !

My brother Rick surprised and delighted me by sending two perfect t-shirts. Here is one (o: Thanks, Rick!

4th of July

Spent the holiday at Saranac Lake with family and friends.

Giving Thanks

Giving thanks tonight for answered prayers.

Shortest Poem by Muhammad Ali - Muxlim Tv

Shortest Poem by Muhammad Ali - Muxlim Tv

Shared via AddThis

Summer Solstice

Today was the longest day of the year.

A Good Day

A very good day today !

SUMMER HOURS

Enjoyed watching this movie today. Something so beautiful about watching the passing of an era.

What is that we are part of ?

Something from 1968.

A New Bracelet

Bardem In Talks To Fall For Roberts In Eat, Pray, Love

8 June 2009 12:05 PM, PDT

Javier Bardem looks set to sweep Julia Roberts off her feet - he's in talks to star as her onscreen love interest in new film Eat, Pray, Love.

Bardem is negotiating with executives at Columbia Pictures to play Felipe, the man Roberts' character falls in love with during a worldwide journey of self-discovery.

Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner are producing the screenplay, adapted from Elizabeth Gilbert's bestselling novel, through their production company Plan B, and actor Richard Jenkins has signed on to co-star.

Filming is scheduled to begin in July and will take place in New York, Rome, India and Bali, reports industry paper Daily Variety.

-------karin sent me this. her husband is an actor. she sent it because the day before, i was explaining that i bid on a bracelet at the Butterfly Project because I'd recognized it as Felipe's artistry.

S m i l e

something for everyday.

Wednesday Night

Beyond the Reach of Keewee and Modock

A birthday toast to the West for my favorite aviator. Kept wondering why all the thunder and lightening last night ? Perhaps just some fireworks to usher in your birthday remembrance.

Kenny Rankin

Passing of a beautiful voice yesterday.

Pierre Bensusan live The Alchemist

Blue suit and shoes.

Monday Night

Proofing the new guide tonight and so grateful to my sister, Patty. I have no words to express my gratitude. She goes down this road with me every spring and without complaint, creates something beautiful and amazing where there is no budget for beautiful and amazing.

Seven Lakes

Waterfall without water

Algae jaded boulders

Arid as dust

KC

Random Tao

"Without opening your door, you can open your heart to the world. Without looking out your window, you can see the essence of the Tao. The more you know, the less you understand. The master arrives without leaving, sees the light without looking, achieves without doing a thing."

Dave Eggers TED Prize 4 Minute Talk

Great idea - great person and pretty great writer too (:

Access is Power

When was this lesson unlearned ?

Frederick Law Olmsted

The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it. ~Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670
A tribute to a gardener's gardener.

Big Gusts of Wind

The wind is stirring up the trees tonight. It's loud.

Bolshoi Swan Lake - Pas de Quatre Small Swans

Saw the swans on the lake at Burnham Park this morning.

Think Different

For Patty on Mother's Day

hats off to you for nobly "operating within the life of your time"

For All My Favorite Mothers

Eva Cassidy - Time After Time

Something beautiful for Saturday.