So sorry, all--I won’t be blogging for a day or so while I get caught up on these work projects I have brewing, but I’ll be back as soon as I can be.
In the meantime, stay toasty! (We brought some of our daffodils inside to enjoy them with these below-freezing night-time temps we’re having. Brrrrr...)
Take care!
When she wrote these words, Virginia Woolf was discussing what conditions she felt were necessary for a woman to be a writer of fiction. But fiction writer or not, I’m a firm believer that all women (and men!) need some sort of quiet space in a home to call their own; a quiet retreat where they can find room for creating, or relaxing, or watching the madness go by. (below: Virginia Woolf)
I’ve personally always held dear the ability to earn money and spend it or save it as I see fit. I’ve worked hard all my life, as most of us do. Probably because I was a single parent for many years, those were hard-earned accomplishments that I cherish to this day. I've always thought it was very important to know oneself, and to be comfortable in one’s own skin before one can be happy with others. (below: Virginia Woolf's room, Monk's House)
Now, I love my friends, but even as a very young person, I always recognized that aside from a social side, I had a strong instinct for seeking out solitude. Don't you think that sometimes, "the world is too much with us?" From cell phones and blackberries, to jobs that follow us back to our homes, to families, to commitments in our personal lives, I find great solace in knowing that when life gets overwhelming, I can retreat to a quiet refuge, in efforts to find that sense of serenity and balance again. I think we all need that balance at times, but we don't all always get it. For me, that retreat to solitude helps me be happier with others again. (below: painting by Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf's sister)
I am grateful that I live at a time when women have many more choices than our ancestors had. It’s still not easy, (and in some ways, it's far more difficult today) but I still think we are fortunate to have more opportunities than women in the past.
“Life for both sexes—and I look at them, shouldering their way along the pavement—is arduous, difficult, a perpetual struggle. It calls for gigantic courage and strength. More than anything, perhaps, creatures of illusion that we are, it calls for confidence in oneself.” (-Virginia Woolf)
I’ve definitely been doing lots of reading recently,…
…but it hasn’t been books…
it’s been graduate school applications…
…lots and lots of graduate school applications.
February 1st was the deadline for our applicants, and so for the past few month, and the next month, I’ll be busy helping to read and evaluate applications of prospective students for our programs, while they continue to tumble in and stack up higher in piles…so I’m holed up, busy, and trying to get to them all…
Lots of sitting…
And lots of reading…
“The more that you read,
The more things you will know.
The more that you learn
The more places you’ll go.”
(-Dr Seuss)
This weekend, I registered for a watercolor workshop that will take place this summer. I’m so looking forward to it. For me, the notion of being able to observe immediate demonstrations, watch other artists as they're painting, and learn from doing is a thrill, but it also leaves me with some anxiety and trepidation as well.
As children, we create art with such jubilation. If you’ve ever looked at children’s drawings or paintings, they’re filled with life, whimsy, and joyous color. They don’t think about “rules” in the works they create. They just hurl the images out there with wild abandon. As we get older, we tend to “edit” ourselves, and unfortunately we often lose the freeness and freshness of our early efforts. We’re “not good enough,” or we “did a lousy job” on this piece.
If only we could play those records in our brains that we did as children! (Or maybe it's that, as children, we just didn’t play records at all!)
“Painting is very easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” (-Edgar Degas)
I claim there ain’t
another Saint
As great as Valentine.
(-
Don’t you think it's lovely that we have a tradition inviting us to commemorate hearts, love, flowers, chocolates, sweetness and frivolity?
I do.
“A baby is born with a need to be loved--and never outgrows it.” (-Frank Clark)
Have a glorious Valentine’s Day, everyone! Enjoy the whole Valentine weekend!
* (-Judith Viorst)
To Cupid
Child, with many a childish wile,
Timid look, and blushing smile,
Downy wings to steal thy way,
Gilded bow, and quiver gay,
Who in thy simple mien would trace
The tyrant of the human race?
Who is he whose flinty heart
Hath not felt the flying dart?
Who is he that from the wound
Hath not pain and pleasure found?
Who is he that hath not shed
Curse and blessing on thy head?
(-Joanna Baillie)
A
Guarded within the old red wall's embrace,
Marshalled like soldiers in gay company,
The tulips stand arrayed. Here infantry
Wheels out into the sunlight. What bold grace
Sets off their tunics, white with crimson lace!
Here are platoons of gold-frocked cavalry,
With scarlet sabres tossing in the eye
Of purple batteries, every gun in place.
Forward they come, with flaunting colours spread,
With torches burning, stepping out in time
To some quick, unheard march. Our ears are dead,
We cannot catch the tune. In pantomime
Parades that army. With our utmost powers
We hear the wind stream through a bed of flowers.
(-Amy Lowell)
We have noticed, and I have read, that during the winter months, the birds’ behaviors can differ quite a bit from summer months. We’re big bird feeders, and avid bird watchers, so we’ve seen all kinds of behaviors during different months of the year.
They will come to feeders more and linger longer before a big storm appears, to “stock up” for leaner times.
They’ll also leave feeders earlier in the evenings, because it’s colder, with the sun setting earlier.
They tend to eat a lot of suet, with its higher fat content, to help them keep warm in the cold months.
And they’ll draw their feet up under their feathers, to keep warm.
Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of songs from the
I take it as a good sign that spring is not far off…
Bird's Nest
Among the trees
Is a bird's nest,
And in the nest
Her three eggs rest.
And in each egg--
Hush, you'll be heard!--
There lies asleep
A tiny bird.
(-H.N. Bialik)
This morning, Joe and I decided that we’d head out to Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art, since there’s been a
It’s a gorgeous, warm, sunny day, and it seemed the perfect day for it, so we headed out early, raring to go. We got there, passing the budding daffodils all over the highway, and we both marveled that the forsythia at the Nasher is already starting to turn yellow. As we pulled up at the doors, though, there was a big sign with “CLOSED MONDAY” in bold letters. Best made plans. (Just goes to show you should always check online before heading out!)
So instead, we browsed through a favorite book store, walked along pretty streets, and headed back via Panera’s for a nice little lunch outdoors under a café umbrella.
Spring fever has hit us here in NC, for sure…the tulips in our yard are popping up, the tiny irises in cobalt blue and yellow are sending up foliage, even our azaleas and camellias are budding, and the daffodils are ready to bloom any time soon. In a month or so we'll see things in color all over here in NC.
"O wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?” (-Percy Bysshe Shelley)
“Don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn’t start a conversation.” (-Kin Hubbard)
Is there anything nicer
Than red woolly mittens
As fluffy and soft
As a blanket of kittens?
Red mittens to keep
My hands warm as toast
On cold winter days
When I skate or coast.
(-unknown)
Well, our weather here in North Carolina is supposed to turn warm, but for those of you who won't have that, Stay Warm! Happy Weekend, all!
People who know me know that I love to use pretty things.
If I set out a plate with a bunch of grapes cascading over the rim, I am the person who will have a pretty pair of silver grape shears to accompany those grapes, so you can cut off a bunch for yourself.
If I serve soft cheeses, I’ll have a pretty spreader to use for the crackers.
Hey—I have them, so I use them.
My brother Eddie always made fun of me because I used nice things, and he knew I like things to look attractive. He’d come into my kitchen and ask if I had any tea: “Do you have any tea? I don’t mean some artsy-fartsy tea, I mean… like Lipton’s?” Eddie’s a no-nonsense kind of guy.
Eddie and his wife Jenn, who live in VA, have an adorable little boy named Graham, (or, as I like to call him, “the Graham Cracker.”)
When Graham was little, he had a game he loved to play with Eddie and Jenn. He’d be visiting here in
Surgical Operation was a much-played game which involved his lying down on his back, lifting his pajama top up so his stomach was exposed, and once it was, Jenn or Ed would use their hands to pretend they were making big incisions in his stomach. Then, the other one would bring forth a shoe, hat, glove or cell phone, and say, “Oh, My! Look what was in there!? No wonder you haven’t been feeling very well!” Never failed: it resulted in peals of laughter and smiles.
Hmmmm...wonder if there were any grape shears in there?
(It could happen!)
Did your mother insist that you make your bed every day as a child?
Mine did.
I was quite young when I discovered that if I planned things very carefully, I could ease gently into the still-tucked sheets at night. I became very adept at sleeping snugly ensconced there so that I barely disturbed the covers at all. In the mornings, I could slide right back out of those sheets with the hospital corners almost completely intact if I played my cards right. It certainly made making the bed a much simpler process.
So, you can imagine that it was sheer torture for me when one morning, my father, in desperate attempts to rouse me from a deep slumber, yanked the covers off of me, towards the end of the bed. This was after three or four attempts at waking me, all to no avail. That, however, made me jolt out of that bed like a bat out of hell.
These days, of course, I make the bed every day…but I only make the bed with hospital corners at the bottom end… I leave the blankets out at the top end of the bed, and I smooth out a nice comforter over the whole thing so that it minimizes the difficulty of that morning ritual.
Life is good.
“If people were meant to pop out of bed, we’d all sleep in toasters.” (-unknown)
