I have so much writing and editing to do this weekend. My to-do list numbers in the dozens. Before I get the productivity ball rolling, I need to unwind. Today, this means Margaritas and silliness with my best friend. Check this space tomorrow for normal posts. Until then, I am unwinding.
Parrot on the shoulder, and one of my favourite wordsmiths on my chest.
“Make your interactions with people transformational, not just transactional.”-Patti Smith
Margaritas
Who needs Grumpy Cat, when this kitten is in the house?
“Meow means “woof” in cat.”-George Carlin.
The lonely tree covered with a coat of snow, a snow coat. All dressed up with nowhere to go. Still guarding my window, whilst playing host to his new friends.
“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.”-George Santayana
Home is heading to Columbus for a few days. It’s hanging out with my baby brother and making stupid faces. In public.
Being stupid with my brother is what family is all about. Family=home.
Duncan does not have literary interests like his feline sister. He prefers to run around like a cyclone, chasing shadows. He’s hard to photograph because he is rarely still. Even when caught in a moment of relaxation, he starts bouncing around as soon as he sees the glint of the phone or camera, trying to find, then kill, the light source. Thank goodness for the existence of the burst shot.
Duncan in a moment of stillness.
“Not Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Astor together could have raised money enough to buy a quarter share in my little dog.”-Ernest Thompson Seton
There lives a tree, just outside my window…
Lonely Tree, Take One
He stands watch over our urban street, nature’s guardian lost in a maze of manufacturing buildings. If he moves his branches just so, other trees come within view. Across the way, down the road. They have their own concerns; he is alone.
Lonely Tree, Take Two
Telephone poles, wires, patchy squirrels, delicate birds, and empty water bottles interact with him fleetingly, coldly. I wonder if they even speak the same language? Continue reading
Caught in the act of reading one of my favourite literary biographies.
“I dwell in possibility.”-Emily Dickinson
Pondering Dickinson
“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
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 