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so pretty. see how the blueberry lady's dress matches her berries? bigger over here.(so hot over here. the clothes i washed this morning are drying {or have already dried} hanging inside the house, not even in the light. foof!)here's one of the blueberry pages from a story i wrote/painted many years ago.
since bluebells are also on that page, i thought i'd quote a passage about bluebells that i just read in wendell berry's the art of the commonplace: the agrarian essays. the first essay, "a native hill," is, among other things, a poetic tribute to berry's home. here just part of the blueberry passage.
One early morning last spring, I came and found the woods floor strewn with bluebells. In the cool sunlight and the lacy shadows of the spring woods the blueness of those flowers, their elegant shape, their delicate fresh scent kept me standing and looking. I found a delight in them that I cannot describe and that I will never forget. Though I had been familiar for years with most of the spring woods flowers, I had never seen these and had not known they were here. Looking at them, I felt a strange loss and sorrow that I had never seen them before. But I was also exultant that I saw them now—that they were here.
For me, in the thought of them will always be the sense of the joyful surprise with which I found them—the sense that came suddenly to me then that the world is blessed beyond my understanding, more abundantly than I will ever know.
his essays make me reread and think. they are written beautifully and are often somehow both complex and simple. (this particular quote doesn't really reflect the complexity, but i liked the description of his bluebell delight.)
i really like the clouds today. i like any clouds, but the cottony-blanket clouds are some of my favorites.
yesterday at dusk. this red house in my neighborhood reminds me of swedish falu röd houses. flickrs
marigolds
from fine tuning (i love her photos)
july 30 (sweet kitty)
speaking of sweet kitties, handmade romance pointed me to we say meow. been a fan of anke's illustrations for a while, but i didn't realize she had this collaborative blog.
oh yoko
i need to go see more dance performances. last week liz and i went to a hip hop dance fest benefit. i wanted to jump up and shout at the end, it was so good. all different numbers, mostly groups, including new style motherlode, but also this awesome guy, the human toy. he was so intense to see close up.
i just met this dog at the corner store on my way home, and i love him/her. so red and sweet.
i'm almost done with lisa hamilton's deeply rooted. it's a good one. here is a slideshow of the unconventional, purposeful farmers she profiles in her book.
here is the pillowcase i mentioned in my last post. you can see some more of the delicious fabric here.
being somewhat afraid of heights, i almost feel weak-kneed looking at these photos. our house looks so tall and rickety from the yard! it's not that tall, but the back steps are that rickety, if not more so.
books i have requested at the sfpl
the girl who played with fire by stieg larsson (5 of 317 holds!)
our life in gardens by joe eck and wayne winterrowd
deeply rooted: unconventional farmers in the age of agribusiness by lisa hamilton
olive kitteridge by elizabeth strout (227 of 227 holds! sigh)
i see you everywhere by julia glass i love having a long list of books i'm excited to read. i hope these don't all become available at once. (at least i know one of them will take a long time to become available.)i just finished reading molly's book, a homemade life, and i so enjoyed it. man it made me hungry.
i was feeling pretty off today until i went into the backyard to take photos of this pillowcase i had gotten my mom to buy me while she was in sweden this summer. (i sent desperate emails to her with maps of the locations of a particular chain store over there where she might find the coveted fabric. more on that in another post.)
while the pillowcase dancing a little on the line brightened my mood, even more transformative was my visit to the backyard. the yard always surprises me, both in its ability to make me happy, and in what i find there. francisco, our downstairs neighbor, has been adding little treasures to the yard (cacti, rose bushes, statues), watering, trimming and weeding. but i like how he also seems to surrender to our yard's wildness. he leaves the hose anywhere, leaves stacks of empty pots on their sides and lets the stray footballs and whiffle balls rest where they land. and then of course all the yards in the area are growing into each other at this time of the season. plants are climbing up over fences like crazy, taking over the yards next door.
it's such a little peaceful spot under our tree. the slight breeze, the dappled ground. the leaf canopy. all the colors. the neighbors make noises in their yards, hold gossip conferences on back steps, but it seems quiet under the tree. it reminds me of summers as a kid where you hear all these sounds in the background, but you and your friends are in your own world of play.
the tree is dripping with its sadly inedible fruit right now (though francisco says he's going to try to make jam out of it). there is something about fruit trees in the summer, so bursting and filled with the activity of bees, butterflies, birds and critters. thick with life. abundant for sure. i think i might need to live on an orchard soon.
as i walked around the yard i saw a honey bee rolling around in the coraly rose above and a monarch fluttering around. a piece of fallen cactus was catching water like a bowl. i'm excited that soon our backyard community garden project will take hold for real as jen and bob will be back from their summer travels, and mati and heather and i are ready!
this weekend i stopped by mati's for an exchange of keys and ears of corn. (we are neighbors, so we exchange random things like that.) every time i go over there, mati has rearranged her furniture and/or wall space. it's inspiring. she's got flair. it had been so crazy long since i had rearranged anything. so i finally got myself together and framed maditi's beautiful photograph (will share later this week after i've finished hanging some other stuff) and hung up camilla's katta. (camilla, you are right, katta is a little bossy, despite the demure paws. you can tell she's faking it by that flapping tail behind her—always a sign of trouble.)
i really used to be a dog person. i'm not sure what happened. i guess pinky leon happened. the next thing you know, i've got four softie cats lined up below katta.
