Roots and leaves themselves alone are these;
Scents brought to men and women from the wild woods, and from the pond-side,
Breast-sorrel and pinks of love—fingers that wind around tighter than vines,
Gushes from the throats of birds, hid in the foliage of trees, as the sun is risen;
Breezes of land and love—breezes set from living shores out to you on the living sea—to you, O sailors!
Frost-mellow’d berries, and Third-month twigs, offer’d fresh to young persons wandering out in the fields when the winter breaks up,
Love-buds, put before you and within you, whoever you are,
Buds to be unfolded on the old terms;
If you bring the warmth of the sun to them, they will open, and bring form, color, perfume, to you;
If you become the aliment and the wet, they will become flowers, fruits, tall blanches and trees.
Walt Whitman
Image: Marielle Leenders - flower bulbs dipped in wax. When planted, new roots grow through the wax covering. Via Grijs.
roots
flying geese (II)
Elise Robison's Quilt 2007. Constructed from recycled men's collared shirts.
flying geese (I)
Sally Bennett Jones, 1944-1988. Center medallion of triangles, surrounded by multiple borders, 1966, cotton, 86 x 77 inches.
Annie E. Petttway, 1904-1971. "Flying Geese" variation, ca. 1935, cotton and wool, 86 x 71 inches.
Annie Bendolph, 1900-1981. "Thousand Pyramids" variation, ca. 1930, cotton sacking and chambray, 83 x 70 inches.
Quilts from Gee's Bend.
this weekend
Our motto for the moment (via Olly Moss' Flickr).
We've arrived and the moving van is imminent. I have been distracting myself while we wait with shiny buttons and thoughts about the various qualities of soul (1 - 2 - 3).
and we're off
The great adventure has begun. I'll be back once we get situated.
Photo by Emily Blakely.
imaginary outfit: moving day
It's here. Everything is boxed, bagged, sold or stored, and we have the things that make life livable close at hand for the days in between the pick-up and delivery of all our worldly goods. We've tried to say our goodbyes. I can be a foolish sentimental creature, so that part has been the hardest.
Times like these make me want the most comfortable, reliable things around - a cozy sweater, a familiar book, my favorite spoon (I do have an old favorite spoon that's coming with me). I've always felt best ready to tackle adventure with my trustiest things around me. It helps that trustiest thing #1 (Sean) and trustiest thing #2 (Nora) have signed up for the trip.
And so ... away we go. Hello, New York!
the gentlest bite
Lambswool by Petrina Hicks:
Hicks' immaculate works probe those dualities that are at the heart of contemporary photography - traversing the fine lines between closeness and distance, between perfection and imperfection and between truth and falseness.Images copyright of the artist.
this weekend
I'll be trying to get my head together. Distractions of note:
- the plum academy, etc.
- the starry dome
- the limits of control and mycology
- Tremont arts and cultural festival
- ramona falls
- missed connections
Image: book cover by Chermayeff & Geismar for Bertrand Russell's Common Sense and Nuclear Policy, 1959.
footsore
We've been doing some pretty serious walking the past few days. This is a snapshot of one of our walking tours of Brooklyn — it doesn't have all the winding we did up and down streets, but it is still nearly eight miles. After four days of the same, my poor shoes are about done. On the plus side, I don't feel too guilty for all the stuff we have been eating.
one i would like to find
A house built according to remembered feeling:
The daughter's recollection of the stairs in the old house being ‘another room’, finds built form in an enlarged landscape stairway offering spaces for pause. Her fond memories of the kitchen as a social space and sitting by the open fire distort the two new ‘hearths’ (one for cooking, one for fire) into non-orthogonal shapes suggesting uses yet open to appropriation. Finally the insistence of the ‘fire being the centre of the home’ is realized by the location of an industrial scaled chimney rising through the scheme at the centre of the plan, organizing the spaces throughout.
Mews House by TAKA.
imaginary outfit: looking for apartments in new york
So, this weekend the great adventure starts. We head to the wilds of New York City to try and find a little (maybe a too-little) foothold of our own. I've spent the week on the phone with brokers and bankers and helpful friends and too many hours on the internet scouring listings and discussion boards, trying to figure the whole process out. Apparently it ranks somewhere between differential calculus and global nuclear disarmament in difficulty, but I am not without hope that we will figure it out. I come from a long line of nomads with a knack for making a homes out of wherever they hang their hats, and as long as we can find a place with sunny windows that's not terribly far from a park of some kind, I know we can make it work.
I am planning on dressing for a lot of walking - a natty dress, comfortable shoes. A little blazer to throw on if the breeze gets too fresh. A big bag to hold all the documents we'll need to prove that we are indeed reliable, and a watch so that we won't be late for any of the showings.
Wish us luck!
cool mornings
Wishing I had this cozy cardigan to wrap up in on this chilly September morning.
Available at kuukukka.