Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

Bush is holding onto a few of it's most beautiful Winter Leaves, but it's not easy in 56 degree weather!

Did you feel that? That tiny nibble on the edge of things, that quiet bzzz on the very tip of an upper rib... I love these skinny days in March! I shun that awful April thaw, that happy May, those shiny days of June. I crave dull, pencil-shredded nights and sleeted mornings, frozen with muddy footprints marking off the year, those tripping ruts and deadly shallows. How dare you sting me with the sun.

The Metripolitan Museum is always steaming with beauty, but it is very rare to glimpse the manifestation of this phenomena--and to get a photo, Well!  Our hardy Fifth Avenue Photographer has captured the very essence. Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2012

Wee Winnie was a Winkle, so I hear tell with a bell and a whistle and a "What the Hell". Winnie went to Canada to see the Northern Lights, and when she Came back, she was wearing purple tights. "What difference does it make to you?" said Winnie with a toss of her new yellow curls and her new lip gloss, "I'm a Winnie and a Winkle, and I do what I choose. I run my own game, I either win it or I lose. If I hit a double seven, I'm as happy as a clam, If I lose, toss in another, 'cause I don't give a damn. 'Travel light and travel lonely' is my motto by the way, 'cause I'm a Winnie and a Winkle and a Come what May."

Ounce has learnt so much from watching traffic! Now we both must wait until the exactly correct time to cross the road.

Hop on, said the axon we'll find us a dendrite in no time. Hesitating, I climbed abroad  the whitish gluey tentacle.  Sticky it was, no need to hang on. I found myself crawling easily along the slippery center track,  toward the glittery end. I felt quite confident as I learnt to balance among the whiskery filaments. As I drew closer  to the narrow tip, I thought perhaps I ought to reconsider. I tried to slow down, and the strand began to oscillate and whip!  I held on as tightly as I could, but there was no hope.  I made a last grasp for a filament, and Thwang!  I was cast out into the sprinkling starlit space, tumbling and turning like a helpless asteroid.   My mind became a blank.  My life passed before my eyes and disappeared completely! What was happening?  The starlit sprinkles began to thin, and for a time I was suspended in a midnight vacuum blue. As though in a dream, the emptiness began to fill, one shimmer at a time....

There is nothing cheerier than a couple of happy flowers from a Safavid Empire tiled wall--Iranian, from the new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Finally, I got a message from Squiva, who is back from the Coast. Nevertheless, Squiva was unavailable to spend much time owing to a previous modeling commitment. There is not too much time when you are at the top of your profession, and running an Academy to boot. We did get to spend some time with one of one of Squiva's very close relations, who is in primary school. Meet Squiva Signorina, who was born uptown near Fifth Avenue. Signorina is showing exceptional talent as a young model. We snapped this shot during a short break from her tail lessons. Isn't she a cutie? Squiva Signorina

Above the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Shall I grab that day?  Let me think a minute. Wait!  Gone. Yanked away as though It never had been born. a Pensive Ounce Considers

Wait!  Over there on the left bank.  Is something growing there?  Is that a small green leaf poking up?   Nah. It's a simple trick of the eye.  It's too early for a small green leaf.  Nevertheless, I think we had better come back in a month or so...

Off view of double skyscraper taken from a bus.  Yes, it is two skyscrapers, I am certain!

Our poor squirrel Dusk, a close relative of Squiva, is suspended in a labyrinthian maze of directions for setting up and networking a new Mac Error--oops!!  I mean Mac Air (of course I do).  Up?  Down?  Call support?  Wait for the new Router-That-Will-Handle-Everything-Both-WPA-&-WEP? "Will it tell me the route off of this limb I'm out on?"  Oh my poor Dusk.  Hang on!  Help might arrive!  After all, didn't we pay $245 for 3 years of 24/7 help?  Help!  Where is my phone? Will  somebody please call for support?  It's getting dark soon, and I need to eat my nuts!

Shhhhhh......Danger!!! VERY, very,  Very, Very, very, v e r y, very , v e r y  THIN ICE... Water Fowl in the Harlem Meer

God Bless all creatures great and small, seen and unseen, living and non-living. May we be happy, may we be joyful, may we be peaceful, may we be free. Oona Osaka, July 29, 1991 -- February 6, 2012

Earth and water, air and fire Eat, drink, love, desire Stop and think, the stakes are dire Birth, death and a funeral pyre Everyone knows it’s a losing game Fame, fortune, it comes to the same in the end, yet most of us happily aim To seek, to love, to carry the flame.

Thank goodness I no longer smoke!  Think how many great tastes I can get right now for 1.99 a pound.  The vitamins!  The minerals!  The heightened sense of possibilities!  It's astonishing.

It's been awhile since I spent much time with Ounce, and I wondered what was happening..  Well!  It seems as though Ounce has taken up a new activity. It is winter, and therefore it is not a good time to go swimming.  "Come on ", said Ounce. "Let me show you the most fun thing to do.".  Of course I followed along as best I could, while Ounce hopped and flew from tree to tree making an effort not to let me fall too far behind.  Finally, I caught up, and there was Ounce, as happy as you please, watching traffic!  And if you have never tried it lately, it is totally fun, if you pay the correct sort of Ouncy attention. Ounce Watches Traffic