rainy day delights

As today brought the more typical autumnal weather for this region, seemed an auspicious day to prowl indoors.  Was pleased to discover that not only does the Frye Art Museum have free parking, it has free admittance.  Interesting place.  Very tiny on one hand, but rather large when you realize that this was a single person's art collection.  (Hard to see, but the sign is actually a fountain with water dripping down over the words.)

Very funny painting The Botanists.

After all that art, sustenance in the form of carrot cupcake and salted caramel.  Yes, why limit the choice to one flavor?  

My Americano to go with the sugar.  I leave you with a  pithy quote by Grant Wood, American artist:

 

"I had to go to Paris to discover Iowa."

wandertag

Bogart in his new aerie.

tinges of red

flowers right on the curb

cottage on the edge of the Arboretum

gorgeous autumn hydrangeas

how do cars prowl?

steps to nowhere

stylish drinking fountain

hard to see but there was a tree with circular branches, framing the large cedar (?) behind it

oranges and yellows

rescued chair--before

and after.  (note to the wise, spray painting inside is a mistake.  No matter how much newspaper you spread around.)

words

heard an interesting concept today; it is sometimes healthier when we are confronted as opposed to being comforted (wisdom from Henri Nouwen).  This was said in reference to church attendance, but thought it could apply to other moments in life as well.

gorgeous, gorgeous weather, bringing nourishment, consolation and inspiration.

cycle of life

Went to donate a bag of clothes at a clothing drop on my block and on my return walk, found this chair.  I'm going to scrub, sand and paint it.  I have my first piece of Seattle furniture!

blurry lines

Lines

by Martha Collins

Draw a line. Write a line. There.
Stay in line, hold the line, a glance
between the lines is fine but don't
turn corners, cross, cut in, go over
or out, between two points of no
return's a line of flight, between
two points of view's a line of vision.
But a line of thought is rarely
straight, an open line's no party
line, however fine your point.
A line of fire communicates, but drop
your weapons and drop your line,
consider the shortest distance from x
to y, let x be me, let y be you.


(did you find today's penny in the photo??)

oh, yah mon

I play de steeeeel drum tonight.  No, not an actual drum, but one of the sounds on the keyboard.  Still conjured up enough of a beachy scene, that we all wanted something with coconut and/or pineapple by the end of the tune.

home-less pennies

alas, the only pennies I found today were the ones that the homeless men left strewn about my choir room.  (Our church is hosting the homeless during the month of September.  The men are fed dinner and allowed to sleep all over in the basement rooms and then they're showered and sent out with a sack breakfast in the morning.)  Therefore, I left the pennies where I found them.

autumnal s/cents

After a hefty hike around these lovely grounds, I treated myself to a clove votive to kick off my favorite season.  Wish blogs came with a scratch/sniff option.  It's divine!  And yes, another penny was found on the way back up the hill.

$1.01

Despite the eerily warm weather, was unpacking my winter things and was pleased to find a dollar in a coat pocket.  That, plus the penny found on my most recent wandertag, is good for the coffers.  That and we're less than twenty-four hours away from AUTUMN!!!!!!!!!!!  Not sure why there are red leaves as it is in the 70s today, but am happy to see them appear.

Bi-tonal

This morning did not have an auspicious start with the fire alarm going off.   At least it was a sunny morn to stand on the sidewalk in one's pjs.  However, I was late to work because of it.  And all the phone numbers that I needed to call people were upstairs.

Dashed to Starbucks to grab breakfast because I didn't have time to fix anything.  Thankfully, I had a gift card to use.  As I clickedty-clacked my way through the flannel Sunday morning crowd, some guy said good morning.  I ignored him as I usually do because I never assume they're talking to me.

Turns out he was.  Turns out he's a Seattle native and a musician who also lived in Boston and Berkeley.  Had a quick chat about jazz and then I jetted off to work.

Came home after a rather bi-tonal anthem--must figure out how to deal gracefully with aging singers who are going deaf, to be enticed by the gorgeous weather and view of Lake Washington.  And true to my new trend, I found a penny on my walk!

It is a perfect day.  Sun. Breeze.  Feel of autumn in the air.

Sunrise, Sunset

Still getting used to sleeping right next to a six-foot eastern window.  It's been an unusually bright Seattle summer.  This is to say, regardless of my lovely plans to slumber on my morning off, it has not happened yet.  So, I rose and hoofed it to a local nursery and stocked up on some herbs to enhance my cooking in my fabulous large kitchen!

Lots of unpacking and organising happened  between these two photos.  It's been quite the week; moving and new job.  Just realized that my entire life has changed in six days--new keys, new off/on ramps for freeway, new freeways for that matter, new street parking to scope out, and a fabulous new Trader's to which I can walk!

Why Yes, Poetry Friday is Following Me

This seems to fit with my week of energy and exuberance that is engendered by my new career direction. This poetic gem is from a collection of performance poems Clay Feet/Wire Wings by John N. McDowell. The happiest of Fridays to all.

God the Director
for M

Yes, if you can, but you're in love with impossibility.
Ismene to Antigone

My God!
It was utterly amazing, incredible.
It blew my mind!
thus God enters, arms gyrating
air to such attention that every head
turns, every eye focuses;
the room called to attention and, yes
whatever she has just learned from
whatever play, performance, person,
she has just seen or spoken to, is so incredible
it much be known: Now!

With God there is no disbelief
or lack of what can be learned.

God has boundless energy,
a flight to New York to open a show
back in a day for another rehearsal.
Always on the phone, on Facebook,
her emails peppered with phrases in capital letters.
Her language often blue as the ink
in a tattoo parlor.
She loves to eat and laugh.
She sleeps late; arms, legs, blankets tussled and tossed
as if her dreams are discarded props
for a play yet to be performed.

But no matter, God understand
how all the world's a stage
and that she must care for all entrances and exits
as well as what happens when the lights come up.
She's worked the standards:
Shakespeare, Wilder, Albee and the more
edgy moderns like Beckett and Stoppard.
and to wide acclaim did Fiddlre on the Roof,
but more and more she began to question,
(as God is want to do),
the value of such theater.

For all the applause
the lights go out.
In the world she noticed more and more
the subtle ways we enter and exit differing doors
not just on stage, but with faith and belief
and the many ways we unlock and lock.
Who is in, and who out, and why
some rooms are high and stone walled
and some bright with large windows, and so many
others dirt strewn and mud caked.
She understands more and more
that the really good questions lie
outside the gold-gilded rooms
of a fixed script.

So she began to document stories
and let her cast into the rage
of what is this all about?
as together they wrestle image and emotion
into story and performance.


God knows the truth.
Deep in all of us--even within herself--
there is always another empty stage
waiting: a house that needs to be filled.

So she seeks out the edges of cliffs
where a brisk wind howls,
and she is known for her capacity
to make her actors cry
believing as she does the words of the prophet Vonnegut
that in a fall off a cliff
one's task is to develop wings
on the way down.

It's not easy.
And she knows she asks a lot.
Everything, in fact.



So God explains again and again
her hands dizzy in their attempt
to make all in the room believe
that we are amazing, the best
she has ever worked with and every
explanation, everything she asks
every direction, every comment on staging
on script, on voice, on the way the body
must move through space--again and again
ends with an exclamation that is also a question,
her hand thrust against her forehead:
"You know what I mean?"

As if we do--whether actors or audience,
we will always answer, "Yes."
Even when we are not sure;
even when we don't honestly have a clue.
But that's all God needs: Yes.
However hesitant, however tentative, she'll run with it.
She will stage it.
It will be amazing, like grace.



That's the way God is:
"You know what I mean?"

Jack Pot

An entire pot o' gold was mine today, from my balcony.

Dime, No Dozen

Found a dime in the Safeway parking lot tonight. But the HUGE blessing was not getting my moving truck towed at the end of the move. Long story, but am too tired to type more. So happy to be in my own space. Bogart is prowling amongst all the boxes and purring and purring. Guess he smells our former life?

Ferry Dust

Found a penny whilst strolling down Main Street in Edmonds tonight, but the true blessing of the evening was the view of Seattle and Mt. Rainier. Can't wait for winter and ultra-crisp skies.

Auspicious Morn

Signed my contract and got my key for my new job....as well as finding another penny.

Seattle Cents

I thought I would find all kinds of change throughout my travels, but not a cent. Until I returned to Seattle--this morning, I already found two!

New Month, New Cent

From this morning's ramblings.