A Blog for 2025

July 31, 2025 It's growing bigger and bigger.   The temperature was in the 60s all day, 30 degrees less than the past 3 days.  It's amazing how cold that felt.  I turned off the a.c. and opened up windows and put the trash out on the porch to air the house out.  I think there will be several tolerable days in a row which I am looking forward to.   The news is so interesting to navigate at the moment because it is so untrustworthy.  I want to get the real news about the earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. (And meteors heading towards the earth that may actually be alien spacecraft, so says a Harvard scientist.)  There was a long article in the town paper today that summarized the last few days seismic activity, but I didn't learn much from it.  So I went to work,  I was at LAVA 8 hours today.  We had a few more pieces to hang and the Indigenous women show ended so we have 2 more walls to use in August. We designed a col...

July 30, 2025 Too hot to cook Just want to write you a love letter making sure you know you make my life better. I just want you to know that I notice and I process all the little things you do for me, the flowers and the messages and the later night texts.    I just want you to know that when you cook for me, it is always special for me and makes me smile broadly. I want you to know that sometimes I think of you, a time together, something you said, or something you shared and it gives me pleasure again. I want you to know your friendship is what's most important to me, your support undeniably irreplaceable, your sweetness food.   I just want you to know I love you deeply, daily, whether I see you or not. I want you to know I know, too. Took EJ to work again and stopped at the Northfield farm stand and bought cukes and blueberries.  Put them in my salad.  Oh they are so good.    Wednesdays are self care days.  This one was rejuvenating even ...

July 29, 2025 5 days later.  They are still beautiful I got up early and tried to make it to the rookery before it got hot, but I didn't succeed.  I kept bumping into another have to before I could head up.  I got there about 9:30 and it was already in the mid 80's and too hot to just sit and write.  But I found it quite beautiful.  No big birds and not a whole lot of audio input, but the lily pads and the underwater plants are beginning to be green on top of the mud.  The sky was pretty clear and I didn't actually notice the haze until I was driving back down the hill and could look over Greenfield.  That was hazy.   But the humidity did not rise nearly as high as yesterday and the air quality was a little better. I went on home with the intention of getting undone household projects up and running again. Stayed on track for most of the day.   When you pay no attention to your yard for two months the most amazing things occur....

July 28, 2025 Happy Birthday, Jean!!! This guy has been putting up with my picture taking for their entire life. No one could have a better Godchild, they are my bestest.   I don't think I've introduced you all to Gilgamesh, yet.  I think I wrote about his coming to live with EJ, but I think these are my first photos of the boy.   He's terribly pretty.  He's getting less skittish but isn't letting EJ pick him up really.  But he's safe from raccoon. Picked EJ up from the Y and we went over to Stop and Shop.  They bought food and we went to Northfield where they cooked a great dinner for me and Diane.  I feel so taken care of.  It was delicious and we all hung out while they cooked and had fun.  The animals all hung out, too.  Such a wonderful lot.  Roxy pushes kitchen limits, but she's basically a good girl.  And she loves EJ so much.   The worse part about EJ going back to Bard, besides Diane losing her gour...

July 27, 2025 A nice calm rainy day alone.  Woke up to nice gentle rain.  I sleep better without the a.c. when its cool enough.  Rain did wake me up, but it sounded so gentle this morning.  Unfortunately, the air quality is so bad my eyes are pretty swollen, but basically, the rainy cooler weather has been relaxing. My yard has become a huge field of Queen Anne's lace.   The back yard is covered in it.   I need to go back there and see how the roses are.  It's been weeks. Went up to the rookery around 5:30.  It was 71 and rainy.  There were geese and kingfishers and a black bird high up in the trees.  The red winged black birds were silent.   Very little sound up there, not even the rain was making sound.  The haze is thick. I've been missing people who are gone today.  I wanted to talk to Mike and I spent time thinking about Mom.  But who I thought most about today was my old friend, Mike Dockwiller....

July 26, 2025 The hanging of week 4: 9 pieces of visual art and 17 pieces of writing at the end of today.  I woke up a little early this morning and I went to meditate at the rookery before 8.   It was 67 and hazy, I couldn't tell if it was all humidity or some smoke from the wildfires in Canada.   There were several geese hanging out and a heron was across the pond.  Not having a camera really cuts down on my bird watching.  I could not tell what was across the way. When I first got there I felt as though it was very silent, I could only hear the red winged black birds, but I could see some motion.  I know what the kingfisher's movements look like, so I knew they were there.  I turned on Merlin and within seconds 12 birds were recorded.  After a few minutes I started hearing the sparrows talking to each other.  And I finally heard the Yellowthroat vireo.  I drove to the beaver pond and it looked even lusher than it did when Pa...

July 25, 2025 Comedy Revue at LAVA tonight.   Came out of the house this afternoon to go to work,  it was 101, a little breezy and not as stifling as it could have been.  I was quite glad to be going to work in the a.c.    Art Walk provided some nice visits.   Tomorrow I'm going to try and write down some of the comments about the wall.    We had 2 people ask about participating tonight.   In another few days the second gallery wall will be freed for us to use in August.   It's the end of the 4th week and there is more writing on the wall than visual art.   The Revue was very well attended.  People laughed, that's important Clara and I locked up and walked out on to Main St. just before 9 and it was clear the sunset had been wonderful    

July 24, 2025 T. brought me flowers today from his garden.  Really nice morning. Went to work today for the first time in two weeks.  The gallery wall is growing.  More writers are responding than visual artists.  Decided it was easier for writers to respond to visual prompts than the other way round.  The other observation is that people are having a hard time responding to a single prompt.  On Saturday we have 5 more pieces of writing to hand and between 3 and 6 pieces of visual art.   Tomorrow evening between 5 and 7 we will be a part of Art Walk and I'm hosting.  I'm very interested in seeing peoples' reactions.     Patrick and I got together after work and went to the rookery.  There was a heron and a group of geese hanging out on the freshly growing grasses. Then we went on up to the beaver dam.  Didn't see any beavers today, but a lot of cattails and reeds are growing in the water's edge.  Very pretty scen...