Two shelves of books, just before being packed.
Books, History
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”-Marcus Tullius Cicero
Daily Diversion #134: A Few of My Pretties
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Category Archives: Photography
Daily Diversion #133: The Last Blooming
We are moving in a couple of weeks. Next year, my window tree will bloom for someone else. Nothing is permanent, but I will never forget my beautiful friend.
Window Tree Blooming
“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.”-Winston Churchill
My Green Friend
“I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.”-Willa Cather
Daily Diversion #132: Time Spent By Myself, Alone, in a Chair
If you need me today, I’ll be in this chair: legs thrown over the side, disheveled, peaceful. Reading, sipping tea, staring out open windows. Living life with the timer off. Collecting quotes, not thinking, blissfully unaware. Ruffling doggie ears, painting my toe nails, napping. Tomorrow, I’ll be back. Ready to jump into the fray. But that is in the future and today, today, is about the now.
A great place for solitude.
- “Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”-Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
- In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.”-Albert Camus, The Minotaur
- “If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.”-Jean-Paul Sartre
Thank you to the lovely Vickie Lester, for reminding me that I do not need permission or justification for taking some alone time.
Daily Diversion #131: Time Spent With a Cat*
Miss Zizi
*“Time spent with a cat is never wasted.”-Colette
Daily Diversion #130: Tea for One
“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”-Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
Tea for One.
Tea set: MoMA STORE (no longer available)
Daily Diversion #129: If You Want to Be Happy, Marry a Chef
I eat better when The Chef is home. I miss that man.
Tasty, tasty dinner.
“You can’t just eat good food. You’ve got to talk about it too. And you’ve got to talk about it to somebody who understands that kind of food.”-Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird
Daily Diversion #128: Do Not Be Angry With the Rain*
Rainy Day Window
* “Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”-Vladimir Nabokov
Daily Diversion #127: Packing My Babies
I had to do it, eventually.
I am just getting started. The books in the middle box look like they have hatched an escape plan.
I hate packing my books. Even though I am just getting started, my studio already seems bereft of a certain energy.
“A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog’s ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins.”-Charles Lamb, Last Essays of Elia, 1833.
Marilyn, waiting her turn.
Daily Diversion #126: Sometimes I Get to Do Awesome Things!
One of my writing specialties is silent cinema. It’s actually one of the great loves of my life, and so is Buster Keaton. Last night, The Chef and I had the rare treat of seeing Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) on the big screen. The show was held in the ballroom of the stunning Cincinnati Music Hall. Clark Wilson provided musical accompaniment on the Hall’s restored “The Mighty Wurlitzer”. This is my favourite Keaton production. I have watched it at least 20 times, but always in the privacy of my home. The joy of experiencing a silent movie whilst surrounded by hundreds of spontaneously laughing people seeing it for the first time is energetic and awe-inspiring. Buster, who made his film debut 96 years ago, would certainly be proud and humbled. It was a wonderful evening to be a cinema buff and writer.
“The first thing I did in the studio was to want to tear that camera to pieces. I had to know how that film got into the cutting room, what you did to it in there, how you projected it, how you finally got the picture together, how you made things match. The technical part of pictures is what interested me. Material was the last thing in the world I thought about. You only had to turn me loose on the set and I’d have material in two minutes, because I’d been doing it all my life.”-Buster Keaton
Daily Diversion #125: Here Are Some Cute Photos of My Dogs to Look at Whilst I Work Against a Deadline
Deadline. Deadline. Deadline.
Since I’m up against one, I will be playing hooky from the blog today. But,
only after I leave you with a quote and a few photos of my beloved dogs.
“The writers greed is appalling. He wants, or seems to want, everything and practically everybody, in another sense, and at the same time, he needs no one at all.”-James Baldwin
I will always need you darlings, but I have to run off to write a review. Until tomorrow, then.
This is how
my babies
really sleep.
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 