“Is it snowing where you are? All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as pop-corns. It’s late afternoon-the sun is just setting (a cold yellow colour) behind some colder violet hills, and I am up in my window-seat using the last light to write to you.”-Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs
Urban Snowscape, Colour
“Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation.”-Sinclair Lewis
Urban Snowscape, B & W
Going home for a few days gave me a welcome sense of clarity and renewed my creative determination. I’ve returned South happier, calmer, and aesthetically and intellectually richer. Until next time, Columbus. Until next time.
“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
My mom works and lives downtown. She takes different routes to and from her job, depending on weather, inclination, and schedule. She’s lucky to see the city from such an intimate angle. Being on foot allows her to stop and actually look at things, to take them in with consideration and deep thought. Columbus is a city awash with public art. It’s everywhere you turn: bold, unique, subtle, provocative, demanding attention, always evolving. Boredom is turned away; it has no place there. I accompanied my mom on her Wednesday commute. I am a writer, but the profound human experience conjured by urban surroundings-gritty, beautiful, humorous- is one of the things that fuels my creativity. These images represent a handful of the aesthetic wonders we saw that rainy day, that she sees several times a week as a matter of routine. Lucky lady.
“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”-Pablo Picasso
“A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.”-Oscar Wilde
“Miracles occur,
If you dare to call those spasmodic
Tricks of radiance miracles. The wait’s
begun again,
The long wait for the angel,
For that rare, random descent.”-Sylvia Plath
Ghostly Church
I’ve loved this sign since I was a child. When I see it, I know I’m home.
“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”-George Augustus Moore
Whatever you want to call it, I’m on one. I’ll re-cap our amazing Burns Night Supper after I return home in a few days. Until then, you can expect some odds and ends posts, like this optical-illusion filled view from my mom’s apartment. Enjoy!
Partial Columbus Skyline
“I have lived in the East nearly thirty years now, but many of my books prove that I am never very far away from Ohio in my thoughts, and that the clocks that strike in my dreams are often the clocks of Columbus.”-James Thurber
“Columbus is a town in which almost anything is likely to happen, and in which almost everything has.”-James Thurber
“The snow doesn’t give a soft white damn whom it touches.”-E.E. Cummings
Stilettos in the Snow 1
Stilettos in the Snow 2
Stilettos in the Snow 3
I was sick for two weeks. After a couple of days of gingerly poking my head out of the gopher hole to check on the state of the real world (was it as I remembered, or had it been transformed into an alien other?), my best friend yanked me into the sunshine of this beautiful, sunshiny January day. We were, for a few glorious hours, carefree Ladies Who Lunch. And shop. And laugh. It was blissful. Here’s Nikki, looking lovely.
The drinks were not as large as they seem.
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”-Marcel Proust
The Chef is feeling a bit under the weather today, too. He’s my love, that man. His solution for the aches and pains? Sleeping under a big pile of couch cushions. I’ll let you know how well that works out.
The Sleeping Chef. Instagram.
“Perfect love is the most beautiful of all frustrations because it is more than one can express.”-Charles Chaplin
I’m still sick, still struggling to find energy, still spending my days curled up on the couch. Fortunately, I have great, wet-nosed company.
Napping Crosley. Instagram. “Happiness is a warm puppy.”-Charles M. Schulz
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 