CARE

Tea Tag

~*~

Haircut
With the always caring and talented Helen Chen
Mondays only
 Haircutters International
320 East 14th Street
Between 1st and 2nd Avenues
Manhattan NY 

I have a Troll called Anonymous
Marked she/he as 'spam' of course, recognizing a faulty sentence construction and inappropriate comment, but unlike my g-mail spam, blogger doesn't remember and automatically throw she/he into spam the next time she/he appears. Blogger has no Spam memory so I'm offered the comment each time for decision. I set myself up for this somehow and tend to think that all anonymous visitors are trolls so will automatically not publish. I've got 'approval' set so I'll always have the option to accept or reject, but it bothers me that someone is out there reading me and trying to join in. Foolish notion, but true. Before they appeared, I felt safe talking here. Another foolish notion I suppose.

Spring Weather continues it's roller coaster stops and starts from warm to cold and sunny to overcast.
One more factor of life on earth that can not be controlled, like the inevitable deterioration of light-bulbs and plumbing, enamel and electrical appliances and the proliferation  of dust, rust and mold.

 (Hot-dog rolls left too long in Warmth)

~*~

Gifts and Accumulations
(Meet the bears and Bunnies sans 'Teddy" who'se being washed)

I think about having an Art Gallery and a Second-hand Store. I'll name the first "OthersArt" where I'll display only the art given to or purchased by me over the years-because what will happen to it when I'm gone? The latter, "The Used to Be" where I'll offer all the items of clothing, jewelry, Cds videos and books that occupy space here but are never used and there will be a suggested price on each item in both venues, but I will accept any reasonable payment or no payment at all if anyone wants the item terribly. Now I know that the leftovers of fifty years occupancy in these rooms is a responsibility hard to bear, I think I'll do well in both shops. Yes, though not smart, I think I've got to take care of their future and since the rules for disposal in place for Manhattan tenants about how and where they may relieve themselves of their stuff are complex and inconvenient to the max. I'm older and wiser, but no longer as able to do the work it would take to accomplish disbursal correctly. Three flights down the stairs and another to the street have become taxing. I do no financial transactions on the web so no sales on line are possible.
Just saying.
I'm resigned to the possibility that the lords of land will have to rent one of those big dumpster containers and clear the remnants themselves.
(Opera Thrift Window)

It can't just be my imagination that the tragedies of our world seem to multiply by the millisecond. and that the horrible outweighs the lovely. Perhaps I just know too much thanks to the Internet and broadcast news. No wonder Zen practice is so useful. Occasionally one reaches that desired silence when what yogis call the 'monkey-mind', swinging wildly from branch to branch and story to story, stops.
(gift from Patricia Wallace Jones)

~*~

Tuesday
9 a.m. Looking East

Bright blue, clear and mildly cold day

Still devouring M.S Merwin who died recently-wishing I'd known him.
Written on September 17, 2001 and published in The New Yorker,
October 8, 2001

To The Words

When it happens you are not there

O you beyond numbers
beyond recollection
passed on from breath to breath
given again
from day to day from age
to age
charged with knowledge
knowing nothing

indifferent elders
indispensable and sleepless

keepers of our names
before ever we came
to be called by them

you that were
formed to begin with
you that were cried out
you that were spoken
to begin with
to say what could not be said

ancient precious
and helpless ones

say it
~*~


LINKS

W.S Merwin reads "Rain light"
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/w-s-merwin-reads-rain-light

The Merwin Conservancy
  https://merwinconservancy.org/

Rememberences
https://merwinconservancy.org/2019/03/remembering-william-stanley-merwin-1927-2019/

CHRISTMAS 1944-2018

1944

2018
My dear friend Nayra knitted this for me

Christmas Morning in Manhattan

This was at my apartment door from long time neighbors Jenny, Sami-rose and Talbot

Afternoon
I was unwell so spent a few hours in bed...

Short Walk in the evening to Epiphany Church
Baby Jesus has Arrived


*

 ~*~

December 26th
Boxing Day
It was started in the UK about 800 years ago, during the Middle Ages. It was the day when the alms box, collection boxes for the poor often kept in churches, were traditionally opened so that the contents could be distributed to poor people.
.
As It happens, I am unwell, likely due to eating too many chocolate gifts from neighbors, plus other generally wastrel ways. So, soup and herbal teas for me, no box today, but a comfortable bed in a room of my own, for the which I am most grateful.
~*~

I'm still unwell at 8PM.
Taking Homeopathics, tea and toast.
Another day in bed.

11PM
I'm pretty sure its the flu...though no temperature.
 I was exposed and I've been feeling aches, exhaustion and the rest for several days. Also spoke to a neighbor who has it and said 'Tamiflu' helps reduce symptoms and sometimes one gets better faster. My pharmacy has it but it was 9PM when I phoned and I need an Rx. So, more sleep, liquids, homeopathic and tomorrow I'll try to get hold of my Doctor.

Love to you all.

DAWN to DUSK

Dark Morning Dawning
Star like a Seagull 

*
Every Year The Same Decorations

National Arts Club

East 20th Street

Gramercy Park

Third Avenue Irish Bar

 *
These Windows are Changed Monthly
Vintage Thrift
286 3rd Ave, New York, NY
Sewing Collectibles

  Revisit Childhood

*
Another Morning
Buttermilk Sky

*
Surprises in the Mail
This dish towel will be the brightest thing in my kitchen for the Holidays. From Leone Scanlon, one of my Massachusetts friends and it's so pretty I may just pin it to my vest and wear it to a party.

Painting from Patricia Wallace Jones I admired
"Something About the Moon"
Her golden hair and compassionate smile warms my heart.

*
Another Dawn
Looking East
 
*
Pale Friday beginning
 
*
Friday Night

 *
 More Holiday Cards
My Right hand has developed a quiver, having to do with that arthritic thumb joint. Hence, these tend to go rogue and certainly one of a kind.
.
Saturday I went up to little India to get incense for gifts...

Santa Con
was in evidence. Young folks start drinking early, gather with friends following text messages and spend the whole day getting drunk,
 
 searching for lost friends,
 
Cold and Lost.
 
I heard many a "Where the hell are you?" yelled as I made my way back home through careening bodies.

Sunday will be for their hangovers, my gratitude at not having been one of them and continued work on
Holiday Projects

More card candidates
 
~*~

PALM SUNDAY and JUST MONDAY

Constitutional

In the sunlight, round Gramercy park, down Irving Place, across 17th Street to union Square, visited Gandhi, then purchased another file box at Staples, headed East on 14th Street and stopped to photograph George before continuing back home.

Tea and a Movie
"Waiting for the Light"
A former vaudevillian magician (Shirley MacLaine) moves her straight-laced niece (Terri Garr) and her two mischievous children to a small town. When the two kids get in trouble with a neighbor for stealing vegetables from his garden, the aunt concocts an illusion of ghosts in revenge. Only trouble is the whole town believes it is real and soon the press is swarming the town and a major magic trick is required for everyone to save face.
(Two minute Trailer)

https://youtu.be/srfCty4NCKg

Monday
At the computer early, simple breakfast, hot bath
10:00AM and climbing into the Seventies!

 Off to Library, Post, and then across town bus to the Hudson River with my long time neighbor Ron Sherbet. We saw a flotilla of contented ducks in murky water.

 The carousel Ducks and Horses and more.

 Spent a lovely hour in the bright sunshine over there and took the bus back home where a very thoughtful gift from Dee Mallon awaited me.  Because of the plethora of kindnesses that have come my way since I've been ill, each new arrival tears me up a little. Funny how kindness can make one feel both sad and glad at the same time.  Sad I suppose because I'm reminded of my limitation and glad because it feels good when folks care.

 And

This wonderful old video was gleaned for .99 recently so I'll spend some time resting and watching before supper.

 (A three minute clip which may seem like a spoiler, but take my word for it, the film leading up to this ending needs to be seen in it's totality. It's a charmer.)

https://youtu.be/xNo1HcYZ8cg

 LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Curiosity_Shop
~*~

GIFTED

Gifts
by Ms

Perhaps I'd made a wish or two.

You, you, you and, you

caught the thought,  The word

 unspoken, yet you heard.

So, swift across that blue,

blue highway, straight through

aether, earth, and time
gifts  flew.

Deb Lactiva sent a tidy package

of colorful material she's hand dyed.

I'd only asked for a scrap of her gold cloth.

Deirdre Mallon, another cloth-art friend,

 sent lovely material scraps

 plus

this fabulous square of embroidered bees

Next, my film school friend,

the photographer. Theresa LoSciavo,

sent "Gay Purree" to delight me

I'd admired it when she posted a clip, that's all.

It contains a bonus Annie Lennox concert.

What a treat!

Another morning--another gift:

Two young pigeons took shelter from torrential rain on the back window sill.  Huddling close to the screen, they were practically on top of one another.

Awwwww.............

When Rose Kelleher's exquisite book of poems.

"Native Species" 

appeared in the mail, without a note,  I thought:

Who sent this?

Gotta love a mystery, and

the poems are just so fine!

Saturday night at Flushing Town Hall

 my yogi friend and neighbor, Wendy Daly,

treated us to a swell Jazz Concert

Jimmy Heath at eighty seven

is still chock full of good energy

Sunday the sky cleared

Sun shone upon the little church garden I tend

where field daises were budding

False indigo popping hundreds of purple blooms.

Sunday Night

Though not free, freedom feelings flowed, and I was a  happy dancing fool in a great crowd at the

Loft Party

Big Fun Is Good For The Spirit

Many generous events lodged in my mind and heart.

Each gesture of good will lifted me.

Thanks