On a walk at the reservoir, I came upon this tree decorated in the woods hung with bird feeders and ornaments with the names of loved ones, including pets. A woman came by and I asked if she knew about the tree. She said it was the third year that people have spontaneously done this. She hung an ornament for her Mom and we stood for many moments watching little birds feeding. This is why we are on this planet. To feed each other.

 

 

Lafayette Reservoir, Lafayette CA 

NOW REPORTING FROM THE WEST COAST!

I thought it coincidental to see that one year ago today was the last time I posted! I am now "conneCTing" on new terrain...farewell CT and hello CA!

 

 

 

THROUGH THE WINDOW: Haiku

In the First Frosty Dawn I Lie

Birdsong prevails, but.....
separate (by pane and sash)
- the windows! - all shut.

FIELD NOTES: In search of good views...

...on an October day in Litchfield County...

...finding a few nuts in the woods,

getting a little tangled up on the trails...

but finding a new home,

that fits ME!

then getting back to where I still need to be...

while finding a few funny critters along the way...

and some that turn their backsides to me, too!...

while leading me back to a favorite place...

ah, nostalgic New England...and the beginning is the same as the end...

....Lover's Leap State Park.

FIELD NOTES: When you feel like walking away from everything...

...first, you buy good boots...

...and it doesn't hurt to buy matching shades to walk into the sunset...

FIELD NOTES: I needed a sanctuary....

Stone Church, Dover Plains NY

 

This is what I see above me....

...and behind me.

...

I am inside the stone church...womb-like...

FIELD NOTES: I see myself...

What Next? Haiku

I can scale walls, but
I sometimes tire looking for
the next toehold. Rest?

Good Morning, New Neighbor!

Lived here since 1993. First time I've seen a fox sitting in my backyard...

...guess it's not very interesting here.

FIELD NOTES: Give me a break....

WHAAATTT???? 
 

....snow day number seven???

FIELD NOTES: Through the Window

Listening to the wind...

...On an average Sunday morning, I might put light jazz on Pandora. Today, some might describe the wind as howling, but it is not howling. It is continuously crashing over the house like an ocean of wind, surging up the snow - bone dry from the extreme cold - like a sand storm and reminding the window frames of where their cracks are. So I need to be quiet….and write. The sun is in its usual place, but odd white clouds and snow dust wrap around it like a mummy’s cloth. It is blindfolded, beaming without the benefit of sight, using the branches on the towering locust trees like long bony fingers groping for something to hold on to. A few birds make a run at the feeder, perching on the railing, taking off like skilled fighter jets when the time is right. How are they out there? If it were me, just wearing feathers, I would die! But out there they are…and with plenty of company. The snow cover is not pristine; it is crisscrossed with a collection of tracks like Grand Central Station. There is a raccoon living on a shelf in the shed. A woodpecker flew out of a hole in the side of the house. I sometimes hear scratching in the attic from mice. I am a reluctant Dr. Doolittle. The violence of nature often draws me in, like a voyeur, but only when I know I am safe. I like to press my palm against a cold window and feel how thin it is. Right now….I see my whitened landscape as the direct opposite of desert on the other side of the world. Could I just flip it like an hourglass? I suddenly feel as dry as the desert – the furnace keeps running after escaped heat, the indoor air is static, my plants are brittle, my throat is dry, my skin is dry, my muscles cramp because in the absence of heat, we have all forgotten to drink! I listen to the wind unceremoniously taking down the things I once meticulously set up and I can’t do anything about it. I am physically apart from much of what I want, but I have sensed that the universe in general is through testing my patience and is stirring, preparing to reintegrate into something extraordinary.

FIELD NOTES: What a difference a day makes in CT...

Storm David

Friday

Saturday

FIELD NOTES: On the last Blue Moon...

...on the eve of 2010...I sorted decades of fabric leftovers into swatches, promising that perhaps I would turn the scraps into a work of art on the next Blue Moon...nice idea, but it came on Friday night...at an inconvenient convergence: the end overlapping the beginning...summer/fall/last month bills/next month bills/school/work...as difficult to sort as the last Blue Moon's bin of remnants...a lean summer equals too much month at the end of the money...head to table...and then I remembered the moon...I positioned the summer's lounge to face the blue light, scooped up the sleeping bag cast aside on the basement couch, grabbed my bed pillow and gloriously mooned until midnight...I didn't want to give in to inside slumber...why hadn't I planned a party?...the next Blue Moon won't be until 2015...plenty of notice to plan that party now...and you are invited!

Web photos from around the world.

FIELD NOTES: Terrifyingly beautiful...

A perfect 10 day...no one available...or awake!...so jumped in the car myself...went to my favorite nearby beach...Silver Sands State Park...80 degrees on sand/in surf...low tide...full sandbar out to Charles Island...treasure hunters on a Sunday afternoon...all before the opening of a new school year...teachers, coaches, grandparents surround me...a coconut-scented breeze swirls their memoirs and hopes around me...anniversary of strong woman names Katrina/Irene/Victoria(my mother's death)...the summer day I have been wanting?...and...the last?...or...full circle...

GOT A CAPTION?

FIELD NOTES: The rest of the 'tail'...

The cat that ate the birdies.

Suspect #1:

DESCRIPTION: white, gray, tail-less; last seen wearing a pink collar with fake diamonds.

NYT: How Many Computers to Identify a Cat?

FIELD NOTES: Storm Alfred's haiku...

Found: red feather, while
collecting tree arms turned to
harpoons, arrows, rams.

My Top 10 Gifts From Storm Alfred - Java

FIELD NOTES: Trick or treat...

...has pretty much been the theme of the entire year, but it is especially true after this record-breaking weekend. Our class jack-o-lantern expresses my feelings accurately enough! Throughout the afternoon and night, continual cracking and thudding kept me on alert and indoors. It was nature's battle and all we humans could do was take cover. It sounded like a snowball fight on the roof...or ammo...trees fell like soldiers being hit...one after another. I appreciate my lessons from nature...this one demonstrated the power of small things in large numbers...think of each leaf catching wet, heavy snow and multiply that by hundreds...thousands...there aren't usually leaves on the trees when we get 15" of snow (needled trees have the better design for this)...it pressed me to think further...a penny, a pushup, an Occupier on Wall Street...none represent much by themselves...neither do votes...except when you add them all up, which may be the hardest part of all...

Lucky..

...not so lucky.

FIELD NOTES: Now that it is long past, I can write about it...

…the month of August that is. It is not the Ides of March the soothsayer warns to me, but the Ides of August!...and perhaps the Kalends and the Nones of August as well. I do not approach its advent with predictions of calamity like a horoscope, omen or phase of the moon…I am naturally optimistic and hopelessly hopeful…but yet it comes. What used to be a month full of weddings, births, a summer fling squeezed out before going back to school, is now pock-marked with deaths of friends, parents, emergencies and the destruction of property from hurricanes and floods. But I cannot stay angry long at nature. It is human nature that assigns to us our curses.

FIELD NOTES: It wasn't just a day at the beach....

...I haven’t been to this sort of beach in a very long time…so, like someone who doesn’t know when they are thirsty, I begin to drink…the moment I open the door from the air-conditioned car, I smell the Sound...I smell the coconut of sun lotion…I turn my face to the Long Island breeze as if there are Sirens haunting Charles Island…and if I were not so sane and responsible, I might have just wandered off, leaving the car door agape, my bag spilling out…but my intent is to use a good summer’s day to cleverly study for my Child Development Psychology test...in relaxation...good for my concentration...motivation…I used to do this in a different age…the time travel makes me smile…reflexively…how old am I?...if you ask me, I will have to think about it…on my right a young couple spoons under an umbrella, behind me three college girls chat with immediacy, to my left a large extended family sets up: squeezing-squealing- settling down…and down in front are boys and girls and babies in the surf….each time has its beauty, each time overlaps in this one place…the beach…

See this post in poetry form: Silver Sands

PLEASE OBEY THE BEACH SIGNS!