This is Sunday, and the question arises, what’ll I start tomorrow? ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Loki. March 29, 2021
Short answer: trouble
quotes
Kindred spirits
“Not much goes on in the mind of a squirrel.
Huge portions of what is loosely termed “the squirrel brain” are given over to one thought: food.
The average squirrel cogitation goes something like this: I wonder what there is to eat.”
―
Walking that fine line
Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels
You have to believe in yourself. But you know what? There’s a fine line between believing in yourself and being delusional. ~ Mick Foley
Lately, the nasty voice in my head is firmly on the side of “delusional” and it’s getting harder and harder to believe in myself.
Wonder if it’s too late to pivot toward professional wrestling.
Literary inspiration
American White Pelican. May 27, 2021
Without the emotion of the beautiful,
the sublime,
the mysterious,
there is no art,
no religion,
no literature.
~ John Burroughs
Natural refuge
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
~John Burroughs
Canada Goose on nest at Sawhill Ponds. May 6, 2021
It feels as if there’s been an acceleration of the cruelty and inhumanity happening in the world and while I feel the need to bear witness to the suffering (notably that which is sponsored by my government to the tune of $10 million/day which allows Israel to commit genocide against Palestinian people), it wears me down. Nature helps me keep going. Nature is my refuge.
As always, I am exceedingly grateful for its many splendors.
High-wire act
Nothing is more revealing than movement. ~ Martha Graham
May 8, 2021
Taking the risk
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~ Elizabeth Appell
April 8, 2021
This feels like a universal quote that applies to all of us, possibly on multiple levels. Here’s hoping we all blossom in one way or another this week. Remember, spring is the season of new growth. (And yes, I’m also speaking to myself here.)
Riding the wind
If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it. ~ Toni Morrison
American White Pelican. Barr Lake State Park. April 8, 2021
Two infinities
April 8, 2021
The sky is one whole, the water another;
and between those two infinities the soul of man is in loneliness.
~ Henryk Sienkiewicz
Colorful noise
Black-billed Magpie. Aug 22, 2020
If you’re quiet,
you’re not living.
You’ve got to be noisy
and colorful
and lively.
~ Mel Brooks
Shadow painting
Shadow is a colour as light is, but less brilliant;
light and shadow are only the relation of two tones.
~ Paul Cezanne
April 3, 2021
I was bustling about the home today, tending to neglected domestic chores, when this lovely shadow painting appeared. I had the good sense to stop what I was doing and grab the camera. I’ve lived in this house for nearly 24 years and have never seen such a thing.
Maple tree branches, the window frame, and a hanging light fixture turn out to be a compelling composition. Who would’ve guessed?
All the colors
The whole point is to live life and be – to use all the colors in the crayon box. ~ RuPaul
Northern Cardinal, Columbus OH. August 23, 2019
Hidey-hole
April 27, 2020
Writing is an amazing place to hide, to go into the rabbit hole, and pull the trap door down over your head. ~ Ann Patchett
Note: I didn’t have any rabbit hole photos so opted for this hole in the neighbor’s crab apple tree that hosted a pair of chickadees last spring. (Photos by Zippy)
Here comes trouble
Basically, if you go looking for trouble, it’ll come find you. ~ Estelle
February 25, 2021
This squirrel and I had multiple face-offs the other day over the peanut feeder that keeps the chickadees, nuthatches, and bushtits happy. I don’t mind squirrels snacking on the bird food now and again, but I do object to them eating ALL the peanuts.
Scat! The squirrel food’s hanging on the back fence, yo.
Mysterious world
American Robin. February 12, 2021
Birds are the most popular group in the animal kingdom. We feed them and tame them and think we know them. And yet they inhabit a world which is really rather mysterious. ~ David Attenborough
Life-giving snow
We love the sight of the brown and ruddy earth;
it is the color of life, while a snow-covered plain is the face of death.
Yet snow is but the mask of the life-giving rain; it, too, is the friend of man,
the tender, sculpturesque, immaculate, warming, fertilizing snow.
~ John Burroughs
Out my window, February 25, 2021
Today I’m grateful for the foot of snow we received during the night. Colorado is experiencing extreme drought and wildfires are definitely in our near future, but right now I’m embracing this gift from the skies. And because this is a climate emergency, I don’t care if this sounds greedy: “More, please.”
Reverie
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few. ~ Emily Dickinson
July 18, 2019
While this photo is of a bee and lavender (not clover) in my yard (rather than the prairie), the image still induces a reverie.
#Caturday: claws & indecision
Marcel. September 14, 2019
Indecision and reveries are the anesthetics of constructive action. ~ Sylvia Plath
Nuthatch vs. Thatcher
I decided to bless this Monday with a wee Pygmy Nuthatch and went in search of a quote to accompany my photo. Alas, brainyquote.com interpreted my “nuthatch” request as a search for Margaret Thatcher quotes. NOOOOOOOOO!
I remember gagging when the valedictorian in Zebu’s high school class (a young man I like very much), referenced Thatcher in a positive light in his graduation day speech. And more recently, I could barely watch season four of THE CROWN because it included the Iron Lady, a politician whose every mention makes me feel stabby. Gillian Anderson did an amazing job portraying that horrible woman and the heartless policies she championed, but my entire body felt like a mass of raw nerves whenever she was on screen. (Okay, I can’t resist giving a sample of Thatcher’s philosophy: “A world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us.”) Spoken like a true colonizer, Maggie.
Anyway, getting back to the original intent. Here’s a sweet little bird that recently visited our yard:
January 10, 2021
Happy Monday to all. Stay well and I wish everyone a good week.
Creating a merrier world
American Goldfinch out my window, October 1, 2019.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien
This goldfinch seems to embrace that philosophy, as do I.
Solidarity with workers
Everything is produced by the workers, and the minute they try to get something by their unions they meet all the opposition that can be mustered by those who now get what they produce. ~ Harry Bridges
The Senate is currently conducting a farcical SCOTUS confirmation hearing (during a pandemic, while several Senators are COVID-positive) for a woman who will do the bidding of the powerful elite: crush the working class. The Republicans are seeing the culmination of their decades-long plan to stack the courts with anti-worker judges who will forever change the face of this country. The Dem party pretends to resist but they are equally comfortable with this outcome because they aren’t either jobless or working 2-3 jobs to scrape by, nor are the Dem elites starving, facing eviction, saddled with astronomical medical debt, or living in frontline communities as the climate crisis worsens. This latest SCOTUS judge will consolidate their wealth and power. All’s well.
It’s way past time we rise up.
In it together
Mourning Dove. September 19, 2020
Mother Earth needs us to keep our covenant. We will [. . .] commit to our descendants to work hard to protect this land and water for them. Whether you have feet, wings, fins, or roots, we are all in it together. ~ Winona LaDuke
Never happen in the U.S.?
Before the military coup in Chile, we had the idea that military coups happen in Banana Republics, somewhere in Central America. It would never happen in Chile. Chile was such a solid democracy. And when it happened, it had brutal characteristics. ~ Isabel Allende
We’re so confused now, focused on “is he/isn’t he” which gives them time and room to maneuver. They wouldn’t even need the military because there’s an army of white supremacists on standby.
I realize this makes me sound like a conspiracy theorist, a paranoid crackpot. But this isn’t a solid democracy, not by a long shot.
#Caturday point of view
In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view. The image may not be literally what’s going on, but it’s representative. ~ Annie Leibovitz
Marcel. September 14, 2020
Winning combination
Mourning dove. August 29, 2019
We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
