Morning shadows
Click on photo to enlarge.
This still life isn't a perfect composition. But I couldn't resist the morning shadows on the wall, so I took it as is, dust and all.
The little girl in the photo is my mother, Barbara, born June 26, 1916, passed away March 29, 1997. The photo sits on Lesley's piano, which is still in our house until she gets her own more permanent place. I'm glad because Lesley plays when she comes home. Barbara was a pianist too, among other things.
Above all she was enthusiastic. Do you know the root of "enthusiasm"?
dictionary.com says (my bold):
possession by a god (énthous, var. of éntheos having a god within, -theos god-possessing)
Mom was enthusiastically full of God! (I think everyone is full of God, but that's another subject.)
Brown bottles and brownfields
I noticed these beer bottles and cans as I headed up the parking ramp this morning. I don’t think I can reach them, but I wish I could recycle them. They can be used in new container, brick and ceramic manufacture. Or, I could just give them to one of two friends who make homemade beer. (I actually find it rather sweet that the drinkers bothered to place them so carefully above their heads, rather than leave them on the parking ramp floor where they'd probably break and then be harder to dispose of. Or, maybe they forgot them, having intended to remove them, but after a few too many, well, you know.)
Speaking of brown things and cleaning up, have you heard of brownfields? I hadn’t until reading about them this morning on our University’s home page. I’ve heard of neighborhoods cleaning up empty lots and turning them into parks, but this is more. Apparently I’m a little slow on the uptake, because according to wiki, the term has been around since 1992 and the first EPA funded project was in 1994.
According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), “Brownfields are real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties takes development pressures off of undeveloped, open land, and both improves and protects the environment.”
Here at MSU, our Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, in partnership with DaimlerChrysler, is looking into ways brownfields can grow crops for biofuels. They’re looking into growing oilseed crops like soybeans, sunflower and canola, and other crops such as corn and switchgrass on abandoned industrial sites for use in ethanol or biodiesel fuel production. Many other organizations have been cleaning up brownfields for a while.
I am excited to hear about ways researchers, businesses and communities are cooperating to work smarter to care for our poor abused mother earth.
New growth
Today I'm bringing all the houseplants inside from the porch where they summered. I have quite a collection of these Christmas cacti, since I propogated them over the winter.
You know, I think summer is great, but it's in autumn when you reap the benefits of all that sunshine and warmth. You eat the harvested fruits and vegetables, and you see the new growth that sprouted in the warmth and light.
I've been reading in Tolle about space consciousness, and it comes well timed, because I've been overwhelmed with information overload. I need to be more conscious of empty space, and how it's needed to observe life and also for creativity. I need more stillness.
So all that grey space in the photo is for Life to expand.
I hardly ever read novels (I know, I was an English major, what's up with that?)
I wrote about Jonathan Swift in July from Dublin after visiting St. Patrick’s Cathedral where he was Dean. Also, he attended Trinity College where we stayed. I was taken with him and his revolutionary ways.
But I never read a word he wrote in all my years as an English major, or in high school, or as a child.
So this evening I scanned the bookshelf for a novel I haven't read and came across this combined edition of Gulliver's Travels and Baron Munchausen. Having just posted a photo of myself under a mushroom, I thought it must be time to go to Lilliput. I have no idea where this copy came from. My dad? A rummage sale? This edition has no date in it, but I think it's from the 1880's or 1890's.
In 1726 Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels, a satire on the relations between Great Britain and Ireland. Authorshop of Baron Munchausen is not certain, which you can read about if you click on Baron Manchausen in the previous paragraph, but it's sometimes called "Gulliver Revived." I don't know the story, but it was made into a film in 1988.
One reason I love old books is the beautiful embossed relief binding. Don't you think we've lost something, looking at the stack of books below? I'm sure the old methods of bookbinding must be too costly to be practical these days.
But I never read a word he wrote in all my years as an English major, or in high school, or as a child.
So this evening I scanned the bookshelf for a novel I haven't read and came across this combined edition of Gulliver's Travels and Baron Munchausen. Having just posted a photo of myself under a mushroom, I thought it must be time to go to Lilliput. I have no idea where this copy came from. My dad? A rummage sale? This edition has no date in it, but I think it's from the 1880's or 1890's.
In 1726 Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels, a satire on the relations between Great Britain and Ireland. Authorshop of Baron Munchausen is not certain, which you can read about if you click on Baron Manchausen in the previous paragraph, but it's sometimes called "Gulliver Revived." I don't know the story, but it was made into a film in 1988.
One reason I love old books is the beautiful embossed relief binding. Don't you think we've lost something, looking at the stack of books below? I'm sure the old methods of bookbinding must be too costly to be practical these days.
If you want to read about the "history of the book" (not this specific book, but books in general), which I think is fascinating, go here for the wiki piece.
The Island
I have a new post at Paris Deconstructed, about the island in the Seine where the Notre Dame sits. Bridges, bridges and more bridges.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MRS. M!
