I headed off to see Jane Campion’s latest film, Bright Star, with my intrepid fellow film reviewer, Peg, on Friday. Yes, it was another afternoon matinée, or what we have come to call the blue hair screening. It was also a particularly packed one, so there was nowhere to go to get away from the…
Category: nature
Contrasts
So, my day started by waking up to this disturbing sight: because I had stayed at Jenise’s after celebrating her birthday with Cary Grant movies and some wine — and then a little Hennessey. Yum! Of course it was more relaxing to know I didn’t have to drive home that night and her guest room…
Fancy Meeting You
Yesterday on my morning walk I ran into this snapper at the edge of Buckingham Lake. It may be a bit difficult to gauge size, so I should mention her shell was about a foot long. Clearly not in a hurry: on my first lap around the lake, she had just got out of the…
Review: Ponyo
My pal Peg convinced me to run off for a matinee this week even though I have a million and one things to do what with the approaching semester. We saw the latest Ghibli film, Ponyo. I love Miyazai’s films, so no surprise, I really enjoyed this one, too, though it doesn’t rate with the…
Kantele TV
(check the credits at the end, too 🙂
SF Pix
The Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park — gorgeous! Among the seemingly endless “Don’t” signs at the Botanical Gardens was one demanding you not feed the squirrels; however, coming up to a huge cypress tree we were suddenly surrounded by a herd of squirrels all of whom clearly expected to be fed, but we remained…
Snow Bloom
The wee Christmas cactus (a cutting from Robert’s bigger one) is blooming big time. Here it is perched on the window sill with the wombat, the dusting of snow visible below (tried for a close-up which did not work so well). That’s all the winter we need. If only there were a steaming mug of…
October Country returns…
I will put aside for a moment the anxiety I feel that my Halloween cards are not even conceptualised, let alone ready to send (HA HA HA). Instead I will think of all the lovely fall colors beginning to appear — more slowly up here, but much further along in Connecticut. I can’t get over…
A Moment’s Inattention
I received a powerful lesson in mindfulness today. As I was out on my daily walk — my thoughts a thousand miles away — I twisted my ankle as I walked down the hill coming out of the forest by Buckingham Lake and fell down hard. The scrapes and bruises on my knees and on…
Upcoming Reading
The lovely Robyn Ringler has asked me to read at her store, East Line Books, on October 18th. I’ll be there from about 1-4 pm and reading at 2pm. If all goes well, this will be the launch of Unikirja, the long awaited (by me anyway) collection of short stories based on Finnish folklore and…