coaches, disenchanted

feels like fall.

and the first thing that i saw

dramas and traumas and cast shadows notwithstanding: there is NOTHING like a sunrise above the ij to start the day off right.

fall break

"it's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. it gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand."
madeleine l'engle (1918 - ) u.s. novelist

speaking of beaches (and carpets tugged, for that matter): although my plans for a much-anticipated weekend out and about - groningen? domburg? - at the end of the month suddenly disintegrated, i have decided to lose myself to a couple of days of much-needed r&r. i've booked a room in a charming little hotel in noordwijk, on the coast, with breakfast and dinner included; i will pack a very good book (any suggestions?) and my camera, and not a lot else. den haag is a stone's throw away. i've never spent more than three consecutive hours there (picking up my passport at the canadian embassy!) and i understand it's lovely.
all in all: things are looking, finally, a bit forward. i am, as one says, getting my act together.

a dog's life

i love dogs. i love cats too (and everyone KNOWS that i love rabbits), but they don't generally become two-muses subject-matter.
this particular canine, however, is saar, and saar is unique.
saar belongs to guus and geertje, and saar not only lives the life of riley, but she has her own website as well. (you need to be able to read dutch to wind yourselves around the delightful stories, but the photos will make you smile.)
most importantly, she is the happiest bassett i know, taken underwing when her previous owners couldn't cope any longer, and totally and absolutely adored.
she is also lazily familiar with the best café in amsterdam, but that is another story.

battement tendu

she danced this particular pas-de-deux a hundred, a thousand times.
she could have flown, sleepwalking, through its enchanting familiarity. the joy it instilled in her was boundless.
she doesn't quite understand why or how she stumbled: only that she did, and that her misstep relegated her mercilessly to the wings, to the mystifying humiliation of a descending - and final - velvet curtain.

everything has a price

amsterdam's zeedijk is slowly but surely clambering above a decade's seedy infamy. there are still sections where a steady tread and a self-assured attitude is advisable, but its stretch is nonetheless studded with little - and not so little - treasures: the casablanca vaudeville theatre, for instance, and the fo guang shan buddhist temple.
a true jewel, though, is "latei": a tiny coffee bar just off the nieuwmarkt, a bright haven piled to the eaves with fifties nostalgia. everything - EVERYTHING - on the premises can be bought, the espresso and the chocolate cake are to die for, and the colours and the textures and the friendly welcome are food for the weary soul.
*an aside: via lala*land's most recent urban texture, this: one of the most beautiful photo sites i've seen in a while. take a look...

the weight

emptiness can be deceptively heavy.
she wishes that she could simply shrug, sending all the futile hopes and dreams, all the impossible memories flying into the everlasting sky.
she suspects, though, that her foolish aching shoulders have a purpose.

snug harbour

they manoeuvre through the flotsam and the jetsam.
one fights the currents; the other surrenders.
their proximity scrapes, screeches, beseeches.
when they finally throw anchor they will not know whether they are face to face or back to back, only that they are caught between love and a hard place, that their difference lies in the fickle numerical, that they cannot move onward without mutual assent.
life is now about steerage and space; side by side has become a thing of the past.

and (maybe) mighty

(though most are excellent:)
"all men are not slimy warthogs. some men are silly giraffes, some woebegone puppies, some insecure frogs. but if one is not careful, those slimy warthogs can ruin it for all the others."
cynthia heimel, u.s. writer and humorist.

i couldn't resist...

as young as you feel

it's my birthday today.
please don't ask.