ESCAPE TO NOURISHMENT

Friday
Another semi-sleepless Night.
(Poor Teddy)

Sign of the Times In The Street
"A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species."

 Eeeeeeeeeek!

Escape to a free Movie at Home:

"Once Upon A Time"
(1944)
Heartwarming fantasy staring Cary Grant, a failed Broadway Producer who, upon learning of the existence of a dancing caterpillar owned by youngster Ted Donaldson, acquires the miraculous insect in order to exploit its commercial worth. When Disney offers him $100,000 for it, he knows he's onto something."

http://youtu.be/Nt0SWfyhGhM
There's transformation for all the characters, including the caterpillar, and of course, a deliciously inevitable happy ending.
~*~

Saturday
Yes, another difficult night, no dreams,
just unable to sleep more than an hour or two at a clip.

Moody, warm Weather over the Farm Market

.

Oh, delicious Goat Cheese from Stuyvesant, N.Y.  Since it was the end of the day, they kindly sold me a $10 container for just $5 because it was all I could afford to pay.

http://ardithmae.com

 The scent of Zinnia is so fresh

 Father and son Gorzyski have been trucking "better'-than-Organic vegetables here for years and years.

I got Onions, beets, zucchini and Sorrel.

AND
From Trembley Apiares  out of  Van-Etten NY
"Hon-E-Lixr"
(Pure Bee Pollen creamed with Honey)

This Long Island seller had every plant left on the table for a dollar.  He and his family are headed for Europe.  I got sage and thyme!

 AND
a lovely white Begonia-but for the color, so like the one I did this old water color of when I was studying at the Bronx Botanical Garden.

THEN
on the way home:

 Joy! Every time this little Cairn Terrier sees me, she dances, and makes my day.  Her owner is a regular neighborhood fellow and  he enjoys our interaction.  I'm just back from the farm market at 14th Street, and it turns out Marley loves Thyme and goat cheese, but NOT Sorrel.

Now there's a Casserole in the Oven, and Honey in my heart.
~*~

Very Nice

My mind can spawn disorder

before the dog can wag its tail twice.

My heart can shatter into bits

before the knife has made a single slice.

 Before the wag, before the slice,

these peaceful moments are very nice.

~*~

FOR ALL WHO NO LONGER CLING

A POEM

In retrospect, all events and turnings in one lifetime involved choice.

Choice meant something was lost I say in my aging voice.

which has lowered it's timbre a decibel

to speak-up now for the ineffable

~

THREE VISUAL PROMPTS

A screen image taken while listening to the full hour plus video of the Dalai Llama talking to teens about ethics and compassion.

An image from my current environs which shines this illuminated message to be ready for disaster at all who pass East twenty third and third.  New this year.

 A mysterious truck-'Hylan Datacom and Electrical' from Staten Island-digging up cables on East 23rd between 2nd and 3rd, Manhattan.  Never saw one in the neighborhood before.  I'm just sayin' it might be a good story.

~

ZEN

PETER MATTHIESEN
He who no longer clings

I rephotographed from the screen this astonishing

Photo by Damon Winter that accompanied the article

The New York Times Magazine published an extensive look at Matthiessen’s life entitled
'Homegoing'

I wasn't able to lift the link off The Rumpus Magazine which I get through blogger, but it's worth a search if you are a fan.

  

"Lying back against these ancient rocks of Africa, I am content."  "The great stillness in these landscapes that once made me restless seeps into me day by day, and with it the unreasonable feeling that I have found what I was searching for without ever having discovered what it was."
from
-The Tree Where Man Was Born-

"In the longing that starts one on the path is a kind of homesickness, and some way, on this journey, I have started home. Homegoing is the purpose of my practice."
from
-The Snow Leopard-
~

HOME VIDEO

~

NIGHTFALL
That's All

MONDAY TO FRIDAY

MONDAY

A short trip uptown to 'Little India' on Lexington Avenue to pick up some lovely sweets for supper company tonight.

Passed "Little Rickey's" on the way home.  They're using the Chinese year of the horse to sell product.  The dress-form is sporting a horse mask, and a pink wig.

Also noted this phone booth advertisement

"Not much"

That's my answer to the question.

TUESDAY

A horse of a completely different color, in fact, not a horse at all, but an evening of chanting a forty verse Sanscrit praise song eleven times with these Kirtan friends at the very lovely Broome Street Temple.

Chanting changes the air I breathe, the quality of light, and makes me feel more at home in the world just as it is.

WEDNESDAY

 A difficult rainy day at home with a friend's problems,
sharing tea and sympathy.

I'm glad that evening has come.
Day is done.

THURSDAY

Glorious beginning with sunshine and warmth.
I've been working on a line drawing which started as a doodle,

then I shot a photographic still life on the same theme
using a picture card, with porcelain, and wooden critters,

and lastly, just critters.

 Now the line drawing for publication with a little story called "Four Squared" in the chap book my regular writing group is producing.

Later I did a bit of shopping at Trader Joe, and had a nice visit with my yoga instructor and his wife.

 FRIDAY

Rain is the word today, gray is it's color.
It's texture's like mist,  it's text-ancient lore.

 Like a "London Fog" tea-towel shot with an 'indoor' setting, or the same tea-towel in the same location with 'night-time' set,

what I see changes according to light,
so 'lighten up' my mind thinks.
Tomorrow is a Saturday, and the secret to life
 is still spinach with honey...every day.

LAST WEEK IN PICTURES

Sunday 
2.9
This  handsome indigo flag has been waiting since Julio gave it to me last Fall.

I mounted it on a twig, attached a blue feather Nemo gave me a while back, and placed it on this wall.

Monday
2.10
I delivered another bag of good discards to housing works, and one to the another thrift nearby.  In the evening, I met with my regular writing group.

This picture by Dorothea Lang was one of the 'prompts'

Each of nine of us in attendance wrote for twenty minutes, then read aloud to each other.  All the pieces were dark, different, and quite wonderful.  Heading back uptown, this Illuminated sign at the bus stop shelter caught my attention:

"Walk Safe, Cross Smart"

I did.

Tuesday
2.11
I added some painted eyes and lines to a computer print out of this photo that will accompany my "Longing For Snow" story for the chapbook our group will publish in the Spring, made it to the post office and sent it off.

Wednesday
2.12

News reached me via the Internet that a woman I'd known during an extremely painful period of my life had a fatal heart attack Monday.  She was only fifty.   Shock.  Perhaps death is always shocking.  This one gripped me hard, sent me spinning back through the memory of those times, and then, just as suddenly, set me free as I remembered something another friend had said: "all debt dies with death"...all questions are answered, and all enmity relinquished, I thought.  What's left is compassion, for her, for myself, and for all who remain.  I turned to preparation for the storm.

Shopping at two local stores, I went into a flurry of cooking.  First, a big organic macaroni and sharp cheese casserole.  Then I steamed apple, cabbage and red onion together, and made a bread pudding sweetened with 'Stevia', dotted with 'Acai' berries, and orange flavor added from fresh squeezed ones. After it cooled. I spread chocolate icing on a piece and it was swell.  Chocolate is a definite perk for distressing times.  I lined up batteries, charged the cell phone and checked my candle supply,   Lighting one for the deceased, I climbed under the comforter plugged in to the CD player to finish my current audio book, Steve Martin's "An Object of Beauty".

Thursday
2.13

It snowed and it snowed, and it snowed again. Rock doves took refuge.  I spent the day sweeping off sills, spreading sunflower seeds, and generally wasting time.  Late in the day, I took a constitutional around Gramarcy Park.  No one was out, but snowplows on triple shift.  Outside the Arts Club, Iron boys were frozen in their fountain.

Sleety rain followed 10 inches of snow, and it snowed once more before morning.

Friday
2.14
It's 1:30  in the morning and I can't sleep.

 I did sleep eventually, and woke early to a lovely, sunny day with snow melting in rivers on every city street.  I worked on projects, and a few errands were run.  There was a full moon, but I couldn't see it through the haze of overcast skies.  Nothing was in the mail box, which included no bills; There's a bright side to everything.  The evening forecast is promising more snow.

Saturday
2.15

Scored four audio books at the library:

"The Company of Cheerful Ladies" by Alexander McCall Smith, and "A Curious Man" by Neal Thompson.

"Fantastic Mr. Fox by Ronald Dahl, and "The Cat's Table" by Michael Ondaatje.

That's plenty of choice for the long, shut-in weekend.  It's snowing again, and in two hours it will be a whole new week.