bits

It's cold and wet and dim outside.  I took the camera with again just in case, but only snapped a few things that were in focus because of the 'dim' part.

Esme got in trouble at school again for not doing homework - so we have added checkboxes to the calendar to try to keep track.  She isn't too happy at any cost about it - being in trouble and/or having to have it checked up on.

We looked at some of the erosion patterns  at the bus stop because I was trying to explain my 'mathematical elegance' to Esme and how it relates to math equations and patterns.  She saw what I meant - I think - and pointed out that the little rivulets the water made in the soil demonstrate what I was saying..  yes, they do.

Our stepping stones for when the water is high in the ditch and the mud would suck the shoe right off your foot.

kitchen towels and mathematical elegance

It would be hard to explain to you what I mean by 'mathematical elegance', but I see it everywhere, and when I get a moment to reflect on it, I try to capture the feeling. Being a synestheseate (senses overlap) it is like seeing music that is too complicated to be heard - deep wide music that stretches over and inside you at the same time.  You are part of the Universe with all of its patterns extending around you, rhythms and melodies and harmonies interspersed with color and light and space.  

I saw this on the way back from the school bus this morning and it played out a rhythm to me - staccato drums overlaid with a delicate pattern of bells and strings.  I love the way the colors of the sunrise came through as well, changing the timbre of the 'music' within the depths.

I was going to capture the golden grass in front of the fog, like the high tones of clarinets and other woodwinds and perhaps mid-tone violins in front of a quiet symphony of other small sounds. and then Daphne walked behind the grasses and added her own part to it.

 The fairyhouses have their own mathematical elegance, too

I liked the fog progression into the distance here, and it shows how the fairyhouses are stretched out across the landscape.

 Esme said this was a 'fairy moon' far above the fog.  I liked her description.

// other
I made myself some kitchen towels the other day - the patterns of the blue cacti fabric still clung to my mind weeks after seeing it - so I bought it and some 'Ursa Major' fabric with little stars and bears to go on the backside.  I had cut up some bright turquoise bird fabric that never became shorts (Esme just is too big for me to really make much for her now, the fabric cost to off-the-rack cost almost is the same now) and paired it with some polka dotted blue fabric I had in my collection.  I made three of the bird towels and one dishmat, and two of the loop-top kitchen towels to hang on the fridge.

 I made little loop tops on them - not extremely useful right now but it cost nothing to put them in - they might be useful later.

 They actually hang on the other side of the fridge - not in front of the door, but there is no sunlight there ;)

These are very cheerful.  Seeing their colors is like tasting crisp cherries buried in ice cream.

I did this one morning while waiting for Esme to get dressed for school.
We have a collection of coconut and pineapple things on the table to make some granola bars Mark has been wanting.. and I wanted to update the board that previously had the 'rabbits in rowboats'  She has a coconut on her head and is dancing the hula.

tomato seedlings and zen

The tomato seedlings are starting to come up.  These are the ones I planted two weeks ago as a 'make it or break it' leftovers in the bottoms of packages.  So, actually, I don't even know exactly which kinds these are.  But, they are something I would enjoy, if it got to full grown.  So, there's that.

I read an article about zen the other day - and to take it where you can find it and seek it when you have a moment, no matter what is around you or ..  There is this daffodil that showed up in our garden this year, far away from the others, and all by itself.  I was thinking about that daffodil today.   I was passing the area on the road (zenning while driving, all thoughts are good, take the paths and travel them in your mind until you reach the points that are trying to be made etc etc.) where the orange daylilies are, and the daffodil prompted in my head at the same time.  I always see the daylilies and think "I want some of those" as in.. I want some at my house.  But I didn't fully appreciate the daffodil in my garden until that moment.  I didn't ask for it - but I was given it, and I should celebrate it instead of wondering where to move it to.  And I keep 'asking' in a way for the daylilies but I DO have them..  I have them on that stretch of road every year, keeping me company on my way to and fro.  And now a daffodil has me, and my garden.

Strange little wanderings.. but still, they are there.
Feel it All by KT Tunstall is still echoing in my head in a lovely way, making me happy, even though I just watched it  the once earlier this week at work after not hearing it for years.  My memory is nice for that.  I just wish it would always repeat the good things.