Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

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

Look closer!  Way in among the wrinkly petals are tiny yellow star flowers.  Let me take you closer... Central Park, January Witch Hazel Miss Witch Hazel, Dressed in Ribbons

Winter  blowing--stiff, dry, rustling in the empty lot, Vacant, covered with weeds, Broken bottle scraps etched by the sandy summer rains. Caps with cork, buried and dented Mind splintering, rasped edges, frozen with footprints White owl swivels, vanishing into a naked tree-- I know it’s snowing! Don’t tell me! I’ve seen those shriveled twigs, barked by snow, white theatrics! Grey midnights, star-stuffed skies Mind shivering, sockets empty, iced with dreams I’ve tasted snow already! Stinging, melty, dusty, smelling of wire, Flakes clumping on the window screen. Yes, I see the spring shadows, hunching over the branchy tips, Curling, nipping at the buds Mind cracking, strafed by morning, sniffing after spring.

Almost tread-free New York City

Winter Garden: alive with beauty, minted in texture.

There’s tar at the edge of the new asphalt road; Cold in winter, soft and sticky in the summer sun There’s nothing like a paved road/ I guess it takes a gravel, dusty, dirt-filled one to know the difference. When I walk along my mental tar-edged road, it’s December: dark, lights bubbling in the window evergreen, me longing for a way to comprehend my aching ribcage, frantic bloody cuticles. Did I eat that other box of cookies, and what will I do for the money? Dig into the old purse, the cushions fed by drunken, snoring, singing, whining, biting, sniping parties? How I dreamed of fixing everything. I new I could! (Throat aching, fingers hurting, luminescent cookies in the closet corner.) I’ll wake up willing, armed and ready: mending broken pieces, gluing back the days of childhood.  Visiting the slant-roofed farmhouse, grass high, hollow tree, full of whiskey.  Dinner at the table with the extra piece of plywood, how I dreamed of home, carsick, staring at the fading countryside. Y

Incredible Winter Tree on 3rd Avenue Incredible Fall Tree on 3rd Avenue

This gorgeous view is from the Hill overlooking the Harlem Meer and the Conservancy Garden, Winter is setting in from the chilly tree tops to the earth below.  Harlem Meer from the Hill, December 2011 January Prediction..... Hill Overlooking Harlem Meer, view #2

They’re missing. Those green hills and grey-edged clouds, and the summer rain, shuttered away and slatted with fall, Thud.

All the Way from China (replay) I have an old toy that came from China,  Animals cut from colored cloth and cotton batting Threaded with embroidery. A bird, a frog, a dragon and a dog,  One after the other on a string. It wasn’t spring then but I was there for certain. I was there when the pomegranates sold from baskets set on blankets, When wooden carts were pulled by hand,  When bicycles packed the hard roads, When people rolled and wrapped the harvest. It was fall of course, not spring.  I was there, though, for certain.

Reservoir of Water Fowl and Ice Crossings  Central Park Reservoir in February with Ice, Birds and Grasses 

It's nearing sundown on 96th Street, and the children have escaped for the night

Beautiful Bethesda Fountain, dressed in neutrals

A wintry Buddha with a promise of a hopeful spring  ©Pat Kvill of Edmonton

The most gorgeous photo of Central Park's Bow Bridge: Fresh, snowy and lamp-touched ©Alan Schein of New York:   alanschein@nyc.rr.com

Beautiful crispy winter day in Estes Park,  2010 ©Vera, 2010

You go straight up this path 'till you get to the corner up there, and then you turn left.  You'll be on the West side in less than 15 minutes. 

These snowy remnants of a mysterious encounter are under investigation by an elite team of Central Park trackers.  The unofficial verdict is that two happy life forms found one another and had a lot of fun. Northern edge of Turtle Pond

Tell me again about the castle!  Please?  Well, it’s a far one this time, way inside the corner of the mind. You may remember travelling there, back in '17. There’s a chilly rose-pink sunset, but I guess that’s just as well, since Things are as they should be.  There’s a tall gate that guards the tree lights and a table set with candles and a roast with carrots and onions and walnuts wrapped in sugar cookies. The fire logs throb with red, the big stones warm the great hall The planked floor is spread with a soft rug and a knitted pillow. Dawn breaks with snowy craters, tatted and iced by the night.   Snow Castles

Our Magic Tree waits in the snow for the dark sparrows to feed