the truth you need to know

"far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. i may not reach them but i can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow them."
- louisa may alcott

these last four weeks - work and play in delectable balance - have made my days frantic and my nights fitful.
but i decided, and i did, and now i'm done.
for now.

my lessons well

the great wall negatives are plump squares, with soft, sweet edges.
the minolta autocord negatives trail pretty triangular tails in their lower right-
hand corners.
the bronica negatives slide, in two sprightly half moons, off the celluloid; the yashica mat negatives dangle, from diffident, delicate threads.
*
i have learned many things from this month of six-by-six's. most concern my limited self-discipline and my diminished ability to deal with deadlines....
but i have also learned to identify my exposed film in a single glance.
*
i am pleased.

just around the bend

"life is like riding a bicycle: you don't fall off unless you stop pedaling."
- claude pepper

i'm almost there...
in more ways than one.

they linger in the twilight

between his work, and my work, and this-old-house-which-needs-so-much-work, there has been little time for sunday drives lately, little time for strolls along windy dikes, for my beloved old cameras, for sunny-sixteen.
there has been no time at all - either - for late-afternoon glasses of wine and broodjes kroket at the oude taveerne in durgerdam.
*
memories must make do, for now.

if it were but caught

they couldn't be more different, these two signs, and - undoubtedly - these two venues: like perch and plaice, like trout and tarbot.

one is sublimely up-market, and the other...but, i wonder, is "down-market" an actual word?
i consult the online thesaurus.
"no results found for down-market" it informs me, and then asks, "do you mean denim jacket?"
*
hmmm.
*
you know what i mean, i'm sure.

on an old golden rule

"most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in our own sunshine"
- henry ward beecher (liberal u.s. congregational minister, 1813-1887)

i wonder, sometimes - doesn't everyone? - what it's all about, and i wonder it more - doesn't everyone? - during complicated days like today, when life flounders more than
it floats.
*
a thought, a pretty picture: it's all i can muster, for now.

to offer or proffer

some words stroke my soul. say "caress", say "exquisite", say "tender": i see stars.
i sigh.
i smile sentimentally.
"hmpf", says my sensible friend."i rather think this refers to 'an auxiliary ship employed to attend one or more other ships, as for supplying provisions'".
*
i like my version better.

this crazy business

"insanity is hereditary. you get it from your children."
-anonymous

my mother - bless her 81-year-old heart - sought some kind of creative outlet a while back, and the next-door-neighbours-father-in-law set her up with a weblog.
this may sound rather wrong-way-round, but i am very proud of her.
*
she writes so well.
and oh my: her beef teriyaki is to swoon for.

if it's tuesday, it must be...

"they want to do 'tourist stuff' today," said my daughter, dismissively, to her
roommate.
perhaps she sneered slightly, perhaps not: i was too preoccupied - perusing our guide to the province and anticipating, finally, a day caressed by sun - to notice.
lunenberg was lovely, but blue rocks, our afterthought, was the nova scotia i had
hoped to see.

even in paradise

all these travelling souls - phil to crete, daisies to victoria, b.c., amanda to boston,
rachel to ghent (which is just down the road, but i've never been there, so it's exotic to me.) - oh, my:
my feet itch.
so i book my october flight to london stansted (i love easyjet) and suddenly norfolk, and incomparable landscapes like this, and the company of my favourite friend, are within reach.
*
i promised peter at least one lopsided horizon. this qualifies.