Thursday, May 30, 2002

Back on the "topic" of musical frogs again, I just had to post this little guy, especially for your amusement.



Also, On Q is learning "Are you lonesome tonight", so I have to post this as well:


Tuesday, May 28, 2002

We went to (through?) a town that had a kite festival. Although I dont think the festival was happening then we did see some large fantastic kites in the air. And also saw some for sale in a store. They were all very brightly colored and of many different shapes, animals, geometric, boats, balloons etc. The light house was wonderful. It was the first time I had seen ice plant.It looked so lush, it was as if it were a flower from a different planet. Also the garlic town and driving around and around looking for a restaurant in the small canyons near there.
Tentative or not, daily or weekly, it's always nice to read something from you here on your own blog! :-)

I remember going up to the river with you and Kali, but don't remember flying kites! What I remember most about that trip is staying at the lighthouse down the coast, and walking along the beach with you both. And how Kali was listening to The Rolling Stones a lot, and dressing in all black.
I started blogging tentatively, with urging from Bob, but with the caveat that I wasn't a prolific writer and my contribultions would certainly not be quotidian. So ... I have been very busy... but also not inspired to blog anything in particular. It is a beautiful day and would be a great day to chase kites around the park.I remember the kites up in the Russian River valley years ago when Kali and I came to visit. You took us on a wonderful trip and hike amoung the redwoods. I still have a rock that I picked up that day. It is round, about as big as a softball, dark green and white with an unusual crystalline structure. PS: You can't be off topic, cause there is no topic. Thanks for the pics of your dinning area. Love the fruit labels!!

Monday, May 27, 2002

Perhaps we scared Meredith off of her own blog by going too far off topic, which seemed to be gardens and outer space and so forth. Smokey and the Foomobile were too suddenly quotidian? Well, on the topic of gardens, I have gotten some work done out there this weekend, but never as much as I plan to do. Yesterday, instead of gardening, we went hiking near Orinda in a park I'd never been to. There, on an open hilltop, we flew kites. Two weekends in a row, now, this new hobby - stunt kite flying! it is very fun and more energetic than you might think... the kite comes down a lot (since we are beginners) and there is a lot of running to and fro to realign the double strings and launch it again.
Meredith seems to have taken a little break from posting. That's O.K., we don't want to be a slave to this thing, but I hope she is just lurking, writing some more meaningful and thought provoking things off-line to spring upon us at the opportune moment. Or maybe she actually has a life and things to do. We really have to be able to post more mundane things in this blog as well as clever things in the hopes that some brilliance might pop out, but not have to be the norm. I will start by saying that I stepped on a winged ant this morning in my bare feet. Pretty much did him in. I didn't even know it, because my right foot is numb from this stupid injury. How's that for mundane?

Tuesday, May 21, 2002


You little sneak you. How did you post that Smokey picture so quickly and appropriately? I forgot that it is tenant of cultural literacy. I always thought that the "They'll do it every time" comic strip, with the feature "Tip o' the Hat" to some ordinary contributor was almost a definition of one kind of American humor. All of us are constantly looking for ironic contributions to that strip, it seems. "I go by there every day on the way to work, but the one day I didn't, they handed out prizes to everybody" or "I always pick the wrong checkout line. As soon as I get in it, it stops moving." or "The one day I forget my coat, it rains" etc. etc. Nothing far out, it just that we have to report on these day-to-day indignities and complaints. We point them out to total strangers. Many people just invent them, because after all, we need to have something to grouse about. It seems people feel clever if they are the one to see the humor.



Notary Sojak
<>------<> <>--------------------------<>

Monday, May 20, 2002

The writing is beautiful!! I was transported to the garden and the moment.


Sunday, May 19, 2002

I could not have asked for a more thoughtful and deeply felt response than I got from Bob.It makes the taking the risk of exposing myself by writing worth it. I copied in to my blog this short prose piece I had written two years ago. Since I had chosen sunrisemoment for my name to log into blogging, I thought it would be good to explain. I posted the piece and then reread it. It was begging for some editing and rewriting. I finished that and then looked at the title. An interesting word 'crepuscule' came to me. I knew it meant twilight but after looking it up in the dictionary, I decided it would do, and added it to the title. Its like thowing a pebble into the pool and watching the ripples. I think Bob was right when he said blogging is boreing and useless if it is not a conversation with others.

Saturday, May 18, 2002

Be kind and tender to the Frog.
And do not call him names,
As "slimy-skin" or "Polly-wog"
Or likewise, "Ugly James."
Or "Gape-a-grin" or "Toad-gone-wrong"
Or "BIlly Brandy-knees"
The frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.

No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair.
At least, so lonely people say
Who keep a frog (and, by the way,
They are extremely rare.)
-Hilaire Belloc
Crepuscular Garden

Listen carefully. I want to tell you how to find it, the exact moment between the night and the dawn. The moment in which everything before is dark and everything after is day. A moment when everything stops. A space gap between which is either nothing at all, or where everything is possible.
First you must get up at 3 AM. Go quietly through the hall to the patio door. Unlock the latch with quiet fingers and move out in to the wonderful world of night. Stand for a moment, motionless, on the edge of the lawn, in awe of the fresh, clear purity of the air. The world of man is shut up inside, asleep. There is nothing but beauty. A bright crescent moon floats in the cloudless sky giving a solemn half-light to the yard. Notice that the flowers are awake, and the cool air is saturated with scent. An owl in the woods calls now and again. Woo...woo…wooooooo. There in front of you is the garden bench, over there the rose bushes, and on the path a pansy dropped the day before, looking strange and holy, as though gods walked here and spirits watched.
Go down side of the yard toward the locust grove, brushing against some lilac branches bending down with dew. The trees rise in front of you against the now steely blue of the changing sky. Blossoms on the shrubs are bright splashes of magenta amongst greys, and faint pearly whites of the day soon to be born. Hear the trees speak through line of limb, leaf rustle, and branch scrape and squeak. Feel the rise of the morning breeze.
Wander then down the grassy path beside the row of hemlocks shedding deep black shadows. To the east. beyond the garden house, which appears now as an ancient temple, see, on the horizon, a solemn glow is burning. Sit down to wait, feet soaked with dew. Remember that day after day while you are asleep, but this happens...... every day.
Quietly watching, watching. But what is this now? A subtle change. It seems that just now is between the in-breath and the out-breath. Quiet reigns, for a moment or is it for all time? This watershed: all before is known, and all, just now, is unknown. And then, the birds begin their morning clatter and chirp.

Thursday, May 16, 2002

Meredith and Leah, both of you have quite a design and creative streak that is very pleasing to me. Keep it up please. The only contribution I can make today are three internationally acclaimed photos from my Man =/= Nature Series taken digitally (with my fingers) in my exile in Connecticut period.














Tuesday, May 14, 2002

Its Golgotha, I spelled it wrong
Easton's Dict. [golgotha] Golgotha the common name of the spot where Jesus was crucified. It is interpreted by the evangelists as meaning "the place of a skull"
This name represents in Greek letters the Aramaic word Gulgaltha, which is the Hebrew Gulgoleth meaning "a skull." It is identical with the word Calvary (q.v.). It was a little knoll rounded like a bare skull.

"Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound;
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls."
~William Shakespeare~


Matt 27:33 (KJS) And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, 34 They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted [thereof], he would not drink. 35 And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.







Pretty (im) pressive putting perfectly practical posy prints precisely placed, parley-ing pleasing personality and prosaic passion!

A picture of a poppy to praise the proud posting.

Practicing my picture posting skills
I now can blog with pictographic prose
Pretty proud


Golgatha
A drawing by Paul Reynard

Monday, May 13, 2002

My very elegant mother just served us nine pies (planets)
A red indian thought he might eat tomatoes in church (arithmetic) or
A rat in Tom's house might eat the ice cream
Dr. (and) Mrs. Vandertrampp (french verbs that use etre instead of avoir)
D devenir
R revenir
M mourir
R retourner
S sortir
V venir
A aller
N na^ntre
D descendre
E entrer
R rentrer
T tomber
R rester
A arriver
M monter
P partir
P passer
Kittens prefer cream or fish, generally speaking (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
Every good boy does fine
All cows eat grass

roy g. biv
red orange yellow green indigo violet
came over slippery deposit missed professor parsons trip just completed
cambrian ordovician silurian devonian pennsylvanian permian triassic jurassic cretaceous
my very educated mother just showed us nine planets
mercury venus earth mars jupiter uranus neptune pluto
george ellis' old granny rode a pig home yesterday
geography
neither leisured foreigner seized weird heights
When you want to post something on a blog, but your brain is still asleep - the coffee still brewing,
My advice is to post a creative quotation, if not to stall for time, simply to inspire and stimulate the next blog.

"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country."
-Anais Nin, The Diaries of Anaïs Nin

"There's never a new fashion but it's old."
-Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

new day, new blog, new moon
new york, new spaper, new haven, nue tron
new deal, new comer, new sbreak
new wave, new deal, new speak
new t, new world



extemporaneous ode to bloging