zipzipzipzipzipzipzipzoom.......

the reality of life here is driving.
I feel like I live in a gyspyjalopymobile....whizzing from one place to another....trying to take in all the sites around me....snapping images as I go....in my mind and with my camera.
woosh. The vehicle becomes the vehicle for survival, and I have become very good at maneuvering and managing in this shell of a world.

I feel very lucky to have my trusted companion Lola often by my side......
she takes in the world as we go............

Often a coffee can help make the driving calmer......yum.

Eyes open.

Wide open.

Look.

Look again.

landscapeofaweandwonder.........

flying to Tucson, Arizona.
breathtaking views from the airplane window.
snow covered peaks......undulating mountain formations....clouds that hover creating moving shadows.....
grid lines, pathways to adventure.........expansion.
gorgeous.

some samplings of oakland california

Look.
Look again.
This place called Oakland is a land of striations, tactile layers, erasures, walls with potential, green space with nested flowers and trees and raised beds raising treasures from the earth......It is a juxtaposition of old and new, expansion and contraction, quiet and soundfilled, raising and falling.......hushed and vibrating....
I seem to always be driving when I come and go from home...
So today I stopped.
Got out of the car.
And captured some of the unrecognized willing and wanting to be recognized.
Intake.
Out.
Take.

Beautiful.

greengrowthpeekingupward........

It is the beginning of February and it is strange to be here in this Western landscape, dreaming of the chill and cold and bundles in the East. I have been here 5 months now, and I am in awe by the natural beauty that surrounds me.  Our garden is opening up....our hive is active, our bulbs are rooting and spreading their green more and more each day...the daikon is rounding out in the depths of the rich black soil, and the artichokes are expanding and exploring the space we have given them with their leaves that are like pointy tentacles.  Last night we feasted on our broccoli, which was so flavorful and green when sauteed with pumpkin seeds and almonds.
Beautiful.

We have also been reading a lot of poetry - trying to listen close to the words of local poet, Rusty Morrison.  Read on and you will see the magic of her imagery.  

please advise stop

I saw the window spread its wings a white heron stop

each feather a corridor into the many-storied structure drawing itself skyward stop

the further its remove the more distinct the opening of each pinion stop

just as the past sees more exactingly than this instant in its temporal imprisonment stop

just as looking up through an oak's openwork dome is a kind of falling stop

nothing in the room need foreshorten into perspective stop

not distractions with their complicated nests of stolen fabric stop

not the beating of wings but one wash of the wing my head wrenched back stop

nothing that simply appeases will ever mean vision again to me please advise