Monday, October 29

Just When You Think You Know Someone...



Ted Kooser's poetry in comic form is surprising and wonderful. You can find the whole comic on the Poetry Foundation website. I just love those blue morning glories--they're some of our last hangers-on here! And the original poem? It goes a little something like this:


The Giant Slide

Beside the highway, the Giant Slide
with its rusty undulations lifts
out of the weeds. It hasn’t been used
for a generation. The ticket booth
tilts to that side where the nickels shifted
over the years. A chain link fence keeps out
the children and drunks. Blue morning glories
climb halfway up the stairs, bright clusters
of laughter. Call it a passing fancy,
this slide that nobody slides down now.
Those screams have all gone east
on a wind that will never stop blowing
down from the Rockies and over the plains,
where things catch on for a little while,
bright leaves in a fence, and then are gone.

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Friday, October 19

Sweet Find: Polish Straw Ornaments



Maybe it's a little too early to bring up the holidays.... But I did want to mention these Polish straw ornaments I've fallen in love with again. I'm not completely surprised something so beautiful could be made from something so simple, so plain, so brittle (I've seen my grandmother work her wonders!) but these continue to amaze me. (They can be found at Polart.)

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Thursday, October 18

Gratitudes: End of Season



The last cloud of annuals before the rain came today. All that magenta and pink--I need to reread Eleanor Perenyi's "Blue" essay and find some new flowers! If you haven't read her gardening book, it's full of wonderful short essays and, my favorite part, the titles are arranged alphabetically. Each page lights up with the style and substance of having edited Mademoiselle and Harper's for years. Needless to say, I still have a thing or two to learn!

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Wednesday, October 17

Sweet Find: L-O-V-E Broadside



Check out the Virginia Arts of the Book Center's newest abcedarian broadside from Jeanette Marie Sayers. My favorite stanzas:

B.
Love is one person
in two bodies.

C.
Not quite a ring—
more like a Cracker Jack prize
or meeting the parents.

I.
All brain, feet,
and business—
no time to be a poet
or lover.

P.
Formerly B,
now a poet.

Z.
N, with feigned left feet,
half dancing, half falling
towards bed.

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Monday, October 15

Sweet Find: Postage Due





It's so interesting what researching for poetry writing can bring up (keywords: Italian stamp 1927?). I was looking primarily for informational purposes but I imagine these envelopes could make for beautiful wall art. (Check out Mayo Postal History.)

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Friday, October 12

Into the Kitchen: Pumpkin Time



Pumpkin season is here! I can't think of anything better, tastier, healthier, easier than making your own pumpkin puree and then you've got the stuff for pie, bread, soup, ravioli, etc. Plus, doing the baking part at night leaves the house all toasty and filled with that spongey earthy scent.

(Illustration from the Library of the Montréal Botanical Garden.
Cucurbita pepo. Flowers and leaves of the pumpkin. Illustration from: Chaumeton et al, 1828. Flore médicale, t.3, pl.123.)

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Thursday, October 11

Gratitudes: Cold Spell



We turned our heat on for the first time last night...and one of us--our little, perpetually melancholy mutt, Mickey--is particularly happy about it and the good lounging that needed to be done.

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Monday, October 8

Great Book: In Your Garden



Every garden-maker should be an artist along his own lines. I'm reading and rereading Vita's work, getting my fill of liveliness in preparation for autumn. If you love Virginia Woolf, you must read Sackville-West alongside. What a life.

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Sunday, October 7

Gratitudes: Turning Trees



I took this photo on our evening walk: first signs of fall leaves in our neighborhood--how they look like paper, so thin!

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