Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

Brave Sapling has enjoyed another summer!   Brave is 2 1/2 years old.   Some limbs suffered over the winter and one is broken down, but look how full the leaves are! See the new rock ferns around the roots and in the ledge?  And look at the wonderful water plants coming up to meet Brave's dappled shadows! South Reservoir Pump House, Central Park August 2011

NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art - Roman statue of Artemis and a deer Roman statue of Artemis and a deer Greek or Roman, Late Hellenistic or Early Imperial, ca. 1st century B.c. - 1st century A.D. Leon Levy and Shelby White Court (the central atrium in the new Greek and Roman Galleries).

Before.... 5pm 8/.27 After.... 10 AM 8/28 Yea!!  Only the Downhill Post is Uprooted!!

There’s a slickness in the streets, Red-stained and glowing. Sharp stings coming! There’s a pale center in the lights. Smokey-grey and closing in. Sharp pains wrenching! Traffic crouching in the shifty quiet, Sneaky warnings: Buy it! Buy it! Now. Stretchy plastic screeching! Don’t walk, not now,  stay put, It’s too late now, there is no turning! Sharp drops falling. South on Lexington Avenue from 94th Street, New York City.  August 27, 2011 South on Lexington Avenue from 94th Street, New York City.  August 27, 2011

August leaves in transparent colors Transparent Leaves of August

There is just something magical about blue flowers in the tail of summer

Click on the arrowhead on the left below to begin the sound..  Slide the little white circle on the right all the way to the left to raise the volumn by Linda Jo. I’ve a picture In my mind of an ancient room There’s a streak of red dawn through the iron window panes. I sit among the peas and string beans wanting apples. Oh for a red and yellow apple! Sweet, running with sap, running barefoot. I am not a gentle lady I am proud to say it. I could have been a morning peach amid the mourning doves. I could have been a warming bowl with cool milk and hot oats. It could have been the midday sunny harvest dust (and him). I’s green now, green with peas and roasting chickens, I have a picture though. In the attic of my mind

MONSOON! Help,  Help,         Heeelp.     Glug, glug, glug   East 94th shore of Manhattan (August 19, 2011)

Ripe stalks rise up for the late October scythe.  Widow spiders spin and weave their silky bed of coffin lilies. Entire restless oceans move with a full moon tug.                  Those fresh raindrops keep swimming down the pane, Disappearing in the window frame. A moonlit cloud, shifting its shape for two star gazing lovers, Slowly fades into black sky. Proud, proud Mother cradles her forth (of ten), While Cat seeks safer haven with her third of six. Don’t they know about the blood moon waiting in the wings? Wings! How long is the journey anyway?    A buzz and a lick and a quick goodbye?   An eon or two in the Milky Way? An August with a swallowtail butterfly? Animal-Plant in the Conserrvancy Garden, Central Park

 Now I know many people dwell in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx and even near the famous Gowanus Canal. Yes, most of them seem to live.  Nevertheless, it has been my experience that, even Without Traffic , the expedition is harrowing.  I mean, here are a few shots from one recent Outer Borough Excursion: zooming at light-speed over the Queensborough Bridge OOPS!  What was that?  Well, we missed it anyway. What an interestsing Building...Let me get a little closer! Did that building just move 180 degrees down left?   Finally we arrive at our Home Improvement Destination, and are assisted by our friendly representative from Customer Service. Friendly Customer Service Representative Demonstrates a Reducer Molding It's time to go back into the park!

I’m familiar with a certain ache,  I saw it sneak in through my heart, but  I never saw it settle in the marrow of my soul. It’s there, though, I see the signs,   A small crack in the armature of life, A tear in the quiescent center, A broken track in a dusty path, A buzzing insect behind a glass. That yellow willow crying. I knew what it was, I saw it coming.    I said hello in fact. I thought I’d have a threading hole Just in case of a homeless hopeful sliver. ########## Response to the Riddle of the Gowanus Canal:  The answer is.......... .FIVE!!  All of the above. because: The crane IS obsessively nervous. because: Both This and That are definitely juxtaposed. because: "Greenish water barely reflecting a rusty barge and a broken wall" is indeed photographically self-evident. because: There is a Gowanus Yacht Club.  Sadly, it appears to be a landlocked beer garden. Gowanus Yacht Club in Brooklyn, from http://Readymade.com