Isn’t this just the darlingest little video? The other evening we bought some red wine which turned out to be quite lackluster in taste to say the least, bitter almost actually. So we simply cut up a handful of ripe rosy plums and plunked them into a glass jar with the wine and some fresh squeezed lime and popped it into the fridge to chill for an hour or so. Add a spin of beautiful 45′s played on the front porch and the wine became an elixir for the gods ~ and those wine drenched plums were plumlicous to spoon into your mouth afterwards as a little extra treat.
Last night I arrived home after being away and was greeted with sooo much love I practically cried for all my blessing in my life. My daughter and her best friend baked me a platter of angel food cupcakes decorated most magically, my son had cleaned the fish tank and stacked firewood for autumnal evening backyard fires and my dog ran around me in excited circles until I leaned down for her wet cuddly kisses.
Today I am so enthused to tackle a zillion things ~ shopping for fresh vegetables for green smoothies, cleaning out the little red cabinet in the kitchen for a fresh improvisational decorating and even popping over to the local thrift shop to see if I can find that very special ‘something’ I have ‘always wanted’.
My studio is calling to me ~ I am tired of the pictures on it’s wall and all are coming down today ~ going to leave it bare like a blank canvas until some new magic presents itself. Oh and I can feel a tiny tingle of ‘fall’ in the air today in the sparkling sunshine promising cozy strolls along the beach with snuggly sweaters and fingerless mittens (so I can take pictures of course)
My heart is very full ~ filled with pure offerings I am longing to share and my creative nature is feeling utterly improvisational these days. I am thinking I will peruse Emily Carr’s schedule for a creative class in something completely new to delve into this fall ~ perhaps a glass blowing class or silversmithing as I have been sketching ideas for rings I would love to make.
The pendulum of spring welcomes azure skies today. A lovely Sunday to spend at Aphrodite’s Pie shop for breakfast on West 4th followed by an hour or so getting lost in my favorite book shop which is just across the street ~ ‘Banyen books‘ (where I buy all my bumper stickers for my car, the most recent being ‘make love not war’ in bold happy graphics) and thennnnnnnn poking about Zulu records where there will be lots of back and forthness trying to decide which records to buy I am sure. (I am also looking for a new turntable so who knows that may be a topic of consideration today as well)
I seriously don’t think I could be any happier ~ it’s Sunday after all, a perfect day for coffee and people watching. My beautifully talented friend Meredith has opened an etsy shop ~ I am so in love with this delightful print ~ go see!
Darlene took this photo in my studio the other day and i quite love it ~ it makes me smile for the light and twinkles and nifty yellow warmth. Today I cleaned up said studio as it was getting awfully messy with piles of books and records stacked on the table, floor and chairs. Not to mention all the crumpled up papers under my desk and various scattered mugs of coffee and tea consumed at odd hours of the night when smitten with my writing fits. It felt so good to clean my studio since I put on music and brought up a tray of chocolate biscuits and set about returning the room to a pleasing sense of order (all ready to be messed up again sooner rather than later but nevermind)
However I am not in my studio now. I am in my livingroom with a cozy fire and cup of homemade chai listening to the rain pattering outside in my garden. And thinking. Thinking once again of my grade seven’s I am teaching a photography class to. Oh, you will love this. This week we talked about love and beauty. I asked which they wished to discuss fist and they all shouted ‘LOVE!!!” We chatted about how deeply personal love was, so abstract and complex and difficult to define, we talked about romantic love, platonic love and spiritual love and how you will find it everywhere in art, music, dance, photography etc. We discussed deep tenderness and emotional closeness and how love makes you feel so great by the happiness of another. And then. A very sweet boy put up his hand and said ‘And there is self love too.’ “Self love” I responded “Oh yes, and why is this important?” And he said “Because if you don’t love yourself how can you really love anyone else?” And then another boy put up his hand and chimed in….”You know when I do things that make me happy for myself then suddenly I am all filled up with joy and I want to go share that with everyone ~ it makes me feel like I have more love to share and I am just bursting with it.”
And well, I have to tell you it didn’t stop there. Discussing beauty later we chatted about inside beauty and outside beauty, feelings of inferiority through perceptual experience of attractiveness ~ I showed them this film and then asked them if they could give examples of inside beauty. A boy put up his hand and said “Have you seen the film Forest Gump? Well, he really wasn’t that good looking of a man but he was SOOOO kind and soooo gentle and funny and inside he was a very special attractive person. Everyone responded to him even the beautiful girl in the film.”
And then it really hit me ~ children KNOW ~ children are born KNOWING and who am I to believe I am teaching what was seeded in their soul’s from the beginning? I am not here to teach ….just to remind…to keep the faith and and hope alive in our world that it is true and beautiful and worth trusting and illuminating in self expression. Children always have their arms wide open….they remind me how easy it is to connect with one another and how far we are capable of reaching out to each other.
I am so so so SO grateful for every moment I get to share with these kids!
It’s ‘roid week! In amidst setting up a studio in my new home, getting my garden spruced up, and writing a blurb for a featured contributor column in an upcoming Skirt magazine issue, I managed to snap some polaroid shots. I really love this one as I have been trying to find a way to photograph my polaroids so they resemble paintings or sketches. The brilliant yellow background is actually my living room wall which is a burnished sun tint and I cannnot tell you how remarkable it is ~ entirely uplifting. I ended up repainting my studio a buttery sunlit sand yellow as well and will share photo’s with you on the weekend. My new home was actually designed by a painter and has such glorious light ~ no opportunity for light is overlooked and as the sun glints across the sky, it finds it’s way through my welcoming windows.
Color is my theme this autumn as I revel in colors …cadmium yellow, scarlet lake, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, potters pink, burnt umber…the startling allure of the red maple tree. On my daily walks to the beach with my dog I rarely make it home without leaves tumbling into my hair while the vintage jam jar on my kitchen table holds stems of crimson branches from my garden.
This morning my favorite things are blustery storms, old movie theaters, the warm afternoon sun as I collect fallen apples from my tree, and handwritten letters. What are a few of your favorite things?
My happy hour post (a day late as I was traveling on the ferry back very very early yesterday from visiting my Mom) was spent going through hundreds of love letters my father wrote to my Mother from 1958 ~1963 when he was studying at Oxford. They met at a dance in London, England and both insist it was love at first sight. You can see some of the letters here and I thought you might like to read a few lines of this letter which was the third letter my Dad wrote to my Mom ~ he wrote so many because she didn’t have a phone:)
I haven’t got the slightest excuse for writing you so I guess I’ll just have admit that I’ve had you on my mind most of the day. In fact my big problem is going to be to get you off my mind long enough to do my essay, which is Literal Contracts in Roman Law.
(… ) I notice all of the college punts have been reserved for Sunday but I think we can rent one direct from the boathouse or possibly a canoe. The canoe has the advantage that you are much more likely to get dumped into the water and in this way I can get back at you for keeping me from starting my essay on literal contracts.
I love this letter because I really can ‘hear’ my Dad in it ~ he always had such a funny sense of humor:)
I am quite happy today because I received my gorgeous Stampington calendars in the mail and was honored to have one of my photo’s included in the Inspired Living calender. They are simply breathtaking with vivid colors and beautiful paper, design and layout. So many talented artists were featured and you can order them here:)
Well I have been thinking it would be lovely to start a Wednesday series called “the happy hour.” Sharing a photo and a few lines from a happy hour spent curiously meandering about my day. The ‘happy hour photo’ today celebrates the thrill of public art ~ the unexpected pleasure the canvas of a brick wall can bring to a neighborhood from the vision of an inspired artist.
Funny thing is, today I was determined to not take photo’s ~ live in the moment of the experience rather. Well, you can see how well I did with that, as I simply could not resist this cheery mural. I particularly loved the ‘toilet’ popping up into the photo as well:)
