FIELD NOTES: Heart transplant...

My daughter got married in Seattle today...

FIELD NOTES: A day for watching...

(Super Bowl Sunday: Patriots v. Giants – not that I follow football - just making historical note for all TRUE New Englanders.)

...the CBS Sunday Morning show and wanting to find things to write about…A Typewriter Renaissance added a little ‘sweet’ to Sunday coffee and muffin making…and a little ‘bitter’ because my late father one day decided to get rid of the classic 1940’s Royal typewriter that had predominated his desk like a pipe organ since he had closed his furniture store…I had typed my school papers on a more ‘modern’ version of the manual - a Smith-Corona - out in the backyard…on the picnic table in the Mays and Junes of the 1970’s…then moved on to feeling quite elite when one of my first jobs landed me at the keyboard of an IBM Selectric with changeable type balls and white correcting tape on the ribbon…just in the brief shadow of the Wang on which I learned the magic of word processing…what a pain it had been to have to cover up ones mistakes on paper…who wants to see where our fingers and thoughts had gone off key?…funny thing, I want that Royal typewriter…and if I want another one, it will now cost me to acquire one from some stranger…maybe human beings need to leave dimensional marks and brush strokes on paper…at craft fairs, they make jewelry out of old industry…at a flea market in Seattle, I found myself pawing through boxes of keys…of question marks and exclamation points and capital letters… keys that had been pulled off their type-bars with needle-nose pliers…I found D…brought it home, fused it to a bezel, hung in on a chain and took a picture of it around my neck…like baby teeth in a tooth fairy jar…I seemed to feel some strange and innocent magic…

FIELD NOTES: These boots are made for walkin'?

...I figured I could take a couple of loops around Harrybrooke after tutoring today without having to stop home to change…I have “Saturday-wear” on …skinny jeans, cotton sweater, down vest, ponytail…I even have sunglasses and my Klean Kanteen of water…however,I forgot to throw my walking shoes into the car…but my gray suede boots are flat…they should be okay… we have been experiencing a Seattle-ish winter so I have a good amount of company in the park…quiet company, contented company, nature’s company…I start at the Sri Chinmoy sign as usual and breathe in the softened Februrary air…as incorrect as butter left out on the counter too long, yet somehow delicious …two-thirds in, I notice my thin dress socks are sliding around a bit in my boots…uh-oh…friction is not good on the sole…perhaps I should only do one mile today…but it’s like flossing my teeth…I won’t feel right if I don’t complete the routine, so I go again…at the point of no return, the bottoms of my feet are burning…as a proud walker, I am taken by surprise as I gain new appreciation for athletic socks and shoes…in hoping to avoid blisters, I think to walk off-road, as the words of Nancy Sinatra follow me from a long-ago 45 on my little record-player…”These boots are made for walkin’, and that’s just what they’ll do, and one of these days these boots are gonna’ walk all over you”…dum-dum-dum….back then, I had no relationship to that song other than payback for one of my three older brothers or the pre-teen pecking order of fifth grade girls…I give up trying to keep my standard pace of a fourteen minute mile and just try to tip-toe my way to the car, thinking about aloe…these boots aren’t made for walkin’...but they did make me think…

FIELD NOTES: Coming soon...

Seattle: Part II and lots of other stuff....

FIELD NOTES: The heron has flown back...

Some of Marissa's photo shoots

FIELD NOTES: It’s the morning after Halloween, yet I hear…

Through the window

…the clatter of little bicycle wheels in the circle…and sweetened giggles. Last night, even though it was oddly seventy degrees, the trick-or-treaters came early to beat the pouring rain and swelling wind. The lights went out prematurely. The weather forecast for the coming week classically mirrors my daughter’s in Seattle: partly cloudy, fifty…and then more rain for the weekend, so…it’s official: the leaves will prevail and overwinter on my lawn. So be it. Some gentle folks are beginning to mourn the season’s passing but, by my (Polish) nature, I gravitate toward the bittersweet, towards its mysteries and challenges. Even when I set out to be gloomy - because like Eeyore it is pleasantly self-indulgent to be so - inevitable sleep, or…a mug of coffee, or…a cup of tea, or…antics out the window, or…something…rallies me…which can be annoying if you’ve just gotten yourself into a good funk…and there is plenty to be funky about! As I write, a new wind - like a sharp-nailed witch’s hand - has just yanked the jack-o-lantern flag hanging out by the front door…and then…disappeared, as if to snidely remind me that it is not all honey in The Hundred Acre Wood, there are Heffalumps…and Woozles…and it is time to walk the plank…to bravely find deeply hidden beauty…

“In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus, 1913-1960, French novelist, author and philosopher, 1957 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature

Optimism and Pessimism Quotes and Quotations

My Seattle Bento Box

Title inspired by a New York Times article

FIELD NOTES: A little something for friends & family...

Seattle Synopsis

Unless you know me personally, have been to Seattle, or are planning a trip out west... you may find the above link...well, boring. Let's face it, nothing brings out squirming and forced smiles more than the words "Let me show you my vacation photos!" I take photos of odd things and am still working on presenting the images I find artistically interesting - they'll probably turn up in my blog somewhere along the way. The PDF document above does have lots of interesting links to all things Seattle, so you can always skip my notes and go directly to those...my favorites are Gas Works Park, the Fremont ones, and the bicycles.

FIELD NOTES: The shape of things took form as I drove through our New England hills…

Labor Day

...to my childhood home to keep my mother company on her first Labor Day without Dad. I took ‘the shady way’ via Woodbury instead of Litchfield because I had been driving 202 all week for staff development. It’s my favorite kind of driving: old fashioned highways with trees, places to pull over and room to think. Yesterday’s worm and last Friday’s behavior workshop came to mind, as well as tomorrow’s puzzlingly controversial Presidential school speech. I’ve also been thinking about the landscapes we grow up in since last March when I saw my first mountain west of the Mississippi. Landscapes shape us. The worm, with no eyes, legs or arms, saw me in a way I never will. In the behavior class, we discovered that we are all difficult to somebody. On the coasts, I look out to the ends of the earth and to the depths of the ocean; in the east, I see Boston Common, in the west, Pioneer Square. In the mid-sections, I kept looking up with awe to heights I could never imagine reaching or, looking ahead to focus on driving through the flatland that seemed to spread out forever before me. In the south, I see only paradise in palm trees and perpetual sun. In Maine, I look for trees and lobsters and the Way Life Should Be slogan. The landscapes we grow up in shape us…how we eat, work, worship, recreate and opinionate. The next time I vote or offer an opinion, I will have something new to consider: what if I had been born into a different landscape?

FIELD NOTES: Preparing for the west coast...

Real summer life has kept me from virtual life...not much posting, browsing and commenting...and I won't be very active the next two weeks because I'm finally visiting my daughter in Seattle. Haven't taken a vacation in years...hope to have quality items for Show and Tell upon my return. Meanwhile, I've left a July album and added a new guestbook for the enjoyment of anyone who stumbles here...and while you're at it, check out my older posts...this is a journal blog rather than one that contains time-sensitive material...

Good thoughts!
Diane