Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

Finally after months of searching the records, I have identified the subject in the photo below. She or he is Jean-Noir. Jean has been hanging around Squiva's neighborhood since last February! Well! this evening I was looking for Squiva to say hello.  Squiva was unavailable, but guess who came out to play?                         Meet Squivita l'Noir!

I love a two-faced path, half lit by a  lamp the color of fireflies. Walking West Near 86th Street, 2010 August

I feel like somebody is pulling a burning muscle at the center of me. So I have decided on self-hypnosis. Tick, tock, tacky-A, tick tock tacky-B, Tickytockytacky-C (That’s tacky in the tactile taffy sense, not the simple tacky tacky sense.) Ok. Concentrate: Hmmm, ummm… (I wonder what ever happened to that thingamajig. You know that one over in the mall next to the carousel?) Oh, sorry, back to concentration. Ummhmmmm hmm Snap, snap--wake up! Aha! It’s gone, I Just bid it goodbye. Away like the wind. How Lucky am I. Life is fine, life is grand, life is under control. I play by the rules, I play by the role I like it! I do. It was all in my mind. No 'up' and no 'down', I’m completely aligned. I’m happy. I’m fine. The bud has been nipped. A tick and a tack and a passion’s ungripped! But wait! What’s that ponderous chimeric form? That vaporous shimmering beckoning storm? Scat! You’re not real, go away or I’ll shoot! You’re a messy mirage and a menace to boot!

During certain special atmospheric conditions, Reservoir Fountain is known to create it's own waterfall .  Rising droplets are reorganized in a whirling vortex and then cast earthward in piles of heavy spray.  This amazing feat is occurring just above the photo, outside the range of normal sight. Reservoir at Dusk, 2010 August

This brave sapling dared to take root here where it landed, to stand fast through its first winter snows and thrive for a second summer. If along your travels here to there you come across this hardy optimist, take heart and toss a blessing arrow at its courageous feet. South Reservoir Blockhouse, Eastside (2010 August)

I've hijacked a few rides in my day along the highways and truck stops, through the fields of winter wheat and sugar beets. I've hooked into the next idea to soothe a restless mind, slogging through the netherworld of iso-pragmeroticism. A new galaxy is just the trick I thought, and hitched my wagon to a star. Oh, what fresh galactic air! There is no substitute, but the time did come, as it so often does. I had a hard time by the tail then, for a year or so, but when the climate changed,  I climbed aboard a magic carpet heading East. Oh, what exhilarating, spicy clangy saffron nights among the weavy symbolism. And still I cannot resist a fetching invitation to a far off land, for look what I have found among the ticket stubs and scrapbook fodder. India:  Ramana Athreya Confirms a New  Bird Species   Liocichla Bugunorum 2006 (Reuters)

I was amazed and a little shocked to receive this original photo of GrandPapa Squiva.  He is so like his Grandchild, yet unmistakably not  Our Squiva.  As you probably know, Our Squiva comes from a long line of theatrical people.  Indeed, GrandPapa Squiva was a founding member of the National Union of The Squirrel.  This rare photo is from GrandPapa's youth, when he was still doing extra work.  It  is extracted and enlarged from a Life Magazine advertisement for Tufty FluffyTail Squirrel Educational Cartoons (or a Look advertisements for Mixed Planter's Nuts).   http://ukanimation.blogspot.com/2010/02/tufty-under-5s.html From the Archives of Ahouva Rubenstein