I tried to comment on this entry before and as I was, my electricity went out. *groans* All I wanted to say was...
I love those tiles! Gorgeous! Although, I don't know if I would ever use them, but they remind me of my paintings back in college, except, mine were much more colorful. But I love them nonetheless.
Ah, marble tiles. Reminds me that this is another passion of mine - photographing marble in religious places. There were many beautiful floors in Perugia last May. I still have done nothing with those photos. Still too much of a secret garden for me to share completely.
I love dark eyes! The gentleman in the fourth photo reminds me of a foreign exchange student from Spain that I lusted over several years ago...Alfonso Hetado de Mendoza. *sigh*
My time at Enga mellom Fjella is coming to a hiatus, an intermission, a semi-closing. It was started in September 2007 as I was leaving Kansas to visit my sister in Washington and stopping in Missoula for the first time on September 22nd.
Two years later I have been living in Missoula for over a year. But... on the 22nd I will be visiting Costa Rica to consider the possibility of spending part of the year (maybe two months) there.
This week has been a testimony of why I moved here, why I like the people, why I stay here in Montana in spite of still not being at peace with the landscape.
I may write entries here occasionally but I am re-opening my first blog, "L'aura del Campo" and that's where you'll find me... perhaps for a year... we'll see.
I am also pursuing the idea of writing under a pseudonym in Spanish. But not here... I will need to find someplace like this that caters to folks who read and write in Spanish. I'll feel like all the folks for whom English is not their first language. It's one of many ways to improve. I already presented the idea to Rodolfo and Mario who really liked the name I chose.
My blog entries change a bit from time-to-time, as my loyal readership can attest to. We'll see what happens when I return to my beloved first blog.
Montana: 75º and clear at 8 p.m.
17,908 views after two years.
Some of my most fluid writing comes when I comment in various blogs.
Today StephB 38K for NaNoWriMo asked whether her readers use flowers in their writings (she loves lilacs but uses other flowers). I responded:
"I use flowers in my writing all the time. My grandparents had lilacs. I associate nasturtiums, portulaca, cosmos, snow-on-the-mountain and blue morning glories with my grandmother; corn, beets, tomatoes, hollyhocks and cardinals (the bird, not the flower) with my grandfather. My other grandmother loved violets.
We didn't have many lilacs (wet clay soils in a 'new' suburb... ... the Sydoriaks did though) we were lucky that anything bloomed. My sister still lives there and the daylilies (which like damp wet clay) I planted over 30 years ago thrive and turn the place orange every summer.
My grandfather kindly dropped dead in May when I was 11. The lilacs were in bloom.
Anyea is baaaack. "Breaker - Breaker - Come on Back Now ya Hear?" She told me... and I quote... "He who clicks before jumping is using the backside of a fork to eat soup with!" because I tried to comment before she had her entry opened for us peons.
Rainbowapple is dealing with illness. I wrote: "My sister and I were ill all the time when we were 5,6,7. My mother was hospitalized and deathly ill when I was 5. How much I knew then I do not remember. We were a house of illness. Lying under the quilt made for my grandmother on her deathbed was the norm."
Asymmetrical mentioned a few days ago how Pagans had to fight the Bush administration to allow a pagan soldier, Sgt. Patrick Stewart, be buried with the pentacle (since okayed). This is Celia's song "Symbol":
Celia will be in Indiana, Vermont and Massachusetts in October... by-the way: http://www.celiaonline.com
ME?
I went to the Spanish Circle to say adios until I get back on October 7th; they meet the 8th. I told Walter that I'd try to have "something" ready by end of October (he's off to Honduras with Missoula Medical Aid); poor Trish is overwhelmed by the over 2,000 photos she has to sort through to get something together. I only have 300 maybe. I downloaded a bunch here in "Eeeeeee is for everything Kodak digital" but have only added notes to a few so far.
I bought my football ticket for the game Saturday at 1 p.m. against Portland State. Time is of the essence because my plane leaves with or without me at 6:20 p.m.
So, I went wandering over to the UC. I saw a display of woolens... from Bolivia... like the one I saw every year in Kansas... so I asked... SAME PEOPLE! Of course, I mentioned Gastón (from La Paz) who we all know and then called him in DC (he answered) and handed the phone over to Rodolfo and Mario. I think it was a case of smiles all around. I bought an alpaca sweater too.
"I stood there like a mountain, resolute that nothing could ever move me. I shrugged off the taunts, did not care if I were considered stubborn." KE
Tennessee Williams stated that: "The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks." I need to include that in a poem (a nice alexandrine...). In a game of paper-scissors-rock, the violets reduce the rock to soil... in time.
"But, you decided to give me a hug, wear down each layer with the water of love."
Today, Mary Travis (1936-2009) of Peter, Paul and Mary died. This clip is from 1966:
Songs of the precariously employed
1
Cut in pay,
lost a day.
Gimme a guiding river task
and I'll get all wet for cash.
2
High on sweet-grass growing in a prairie pasture;
I'll sing like a meadowlark as long as it lasts.
3.
How you'll cook your supper without a floor,
I do not know.
How I'll pay the bills surfing as a heli-guide,
I do not know.
Based on comments in the newspaper when asked about job security: 1. Mark Dota (post office), 2. Scott Laird (land conservancy), 3. Paul Bird (flooring).
Watt's Gnus:
This is an interesting 'sermon' using Tennessee Williams quote "The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks." to make the point that change has come to how we define relationships. That the magazine is out of Clark Fork, Idaho (think Sand Point, think Palin) I find amusing.
Breathe in, breathe out. It's a matter of me making lists and just doing what I can. It has been suggested that I visit the pawn shops to get a camera. Not my first choice, but I can walk to a pawn shop instead of getting a ride to Walmart. So I went to one. Only two cameras and both over $100.
Had a nice talk with Akhilesh last night. He mentioned the Society Islands (think Tahiti). He was also wearing orange as usual and, of course, I noticed his celtic-knot Om designs earlier yesterday as well. Guess I'll just have to weave him a poem. His birthday is Monday the 21st.
I'm downloading more Costa Rica pics. Made a copy of my journal pages from last visit... take the copies, leave the journal at home?
Anyone want a postcard from Costa Rica? They don't cost much (stamps are ₡135 = less than 25¢), but I will need your address. Email it to me. I so lose addresses... so don't assume I already have it (...or know where I wrote it down).
Travel:
I mention to Catherine that Costa Rica is not noted for art. There are exceptions and the above picture, showing the entry to the rooms at Montaña Linda is a cheerful one.
Montana: 75° and pleasant in Missoula at 9 p.m. after a record high of 91°.
"Somewhere folks were celebrating freedom from the yoke of overlords. Somewhere the wheels of the world were whirring. In their new found joy, the seasons turned, turned, turned." KE
Today that celebration would be in Costa Rica: Juan Santamaría Day. Independence from Spain didn't mean totally free of course. They were still part of Guatemala. But, better a local yoke than a distant one. Costa Rica was a back-water of farmers, farmers with oxen carts and more farmers. After fending off an invasion or two, after the diminishing power of United Fruit, they built a safe, stable and reasonably happy place... only to face an ugly future: becoming owned by tourists. Ah... those tourists...
"And somewhere that yoke was being placed around their necks again, the wagons loaded until they could bear no more. Thus the wheels of this world churned, still grinding stone to dust."
I got some of the pictures I took in Costa Rica in July downloaded to my computer and a few are now here. Maybe I'll get more on-line before I return there on Sunday.
The above is looking across the Plaza de Cultura. The Museum of Gold is beneath the pigeons. This is smack downtown in San José. The capital city is not pretty, but it's quite vibrant and interesting.
This slope of land
On the street where we live
now 200 years
what remains if not the slope of land,
a grove of trees,
and how long these...
before the cut, the fallen trunks;
the land will grieve
when it receives our bones as well.
And 200 years beyond that grateful day
on this street
where we'll still live
what will remain
if not this slope of land.
Just spoke to Ingrid who was showing pictures of Norway to a friend. Her family hails from the Hardanger region. We got to chat about gjetost. Her grandmother ran an authentic Norwegian restaurant in Dillon, Montana for years.
I also saw an old friend, Ella Bella, earlier on Pine Street. She was as friendly as I remember her. I first met her tortie-shell-siamese sweetness in November, 2007 when I visited Missoula. She was living on West 3rd back then...
I'm at Butterfly Herbs recuperating from one of the diva-of-the-milkshake's concoctions. I got an almond joy (chocolate ice cream with coconut and almond); Mikki (of the band Fag Rag) got it right again! (she always does )
Barber's "Agnus Dei" (adagio for strings) is extremely moving and can evoke deep sadness like few pieces ever written. This recording was made on September 15th 8 years ago, 4 days after the Twin Towers fell in New York City. I suggest caution if you are a very sensitive person (it includes clips from that day). The music alone brings tears. (it may not show up except when you go to leave a comment; embedding has been "interesting" here at WdC )
"It is the season of the spiny buckeye balls, dangling from boughs like Steve's testicles, that new necklace he gave to Eve, like puff-fish swimming at 3,000 feet in the calm September breeze." KE
I was walking through the park along the river by the Holiday Inn and noted the ripening horse-chestnuts in their green spiny casings. Soon they will litter the lawn. Some locust leaflets are yellowing, but locust loses its leaves early. When I come back in early October will autumn have come and be gone? I hope not. This is one of my favorite times of year.
"And I'm the foolish one to plan a trip and leave."
Enough of my silliness! Go read "Adaptation" in blog of Quill NANOWRIMO' the Owl. It truly made me smile. After reading so much nonsense about the present culture wars, it is nice to see how it can all be resolved by a 4 year old and his mother.
Really... go read it before coming back here. En serio. It's short; it's cute; a guaranteed smile. Leave a smiling comment too! Then... if you have time... come back here. Go Now!
This is how we advance
for the girl at The Break Espresso
Sitting under a coconut palm,
she reigns upon her island,
azure ringed beneath an azure sky
and swings in royal hammocks
among pink frangipani petals,
counts not the hours that pass her by.
Sipping over her coconut latté,
her great-grand-daughter
sports a blouse of royal purple,
pink feathers streaked across her hair,
her laptop open, eyes now focused
she studies whatever before her appears
and barely notes the lateness of the hour,
each precious hour that passes by.
Saturday evening, a young woman (should've got her name) came in and ordered a coconut latté. She was wearing purple and had pink streaked in her hair. Too good an image to pass over IMHO.
Watt's Gnus and a quick O Pinion:
Same-sex marriage is supported by large majorities in British Columbia and Ontario, but not in Saskatchewan where civil-servants are asking for religious exemptions. I guess it sounds good...
...but may I state that I inspected bars for years even though I don't drink alcohol for religious as well as personal reasons. Could I have insisted that I not do so without losing my job? I didn't think so... Civil Servants are hired (and paid) to be 1. servants and 2. civil. Not being nice to your customers (your fellow citizens and neighbors) is neither.
ME?
If I accomplish something, some-one-tiny-tiny-thing every day, I'll be okay.
Lavinia will look after my plants when I'm gone. When I come back we'll have a serious talk about how I can record my poetry as MP3 files. (or whatever's clever) I'll be partially packed by the end of today.
I'm looking forward to a calm, slow non-exciting week. Next Monday, I should be in San Marcos, or San Pablo, or San Juan Sur (o Norte), or Santa Elana or Santa María or another one of those sainted towns that hug the mountains south of San José.
Writing
Oh... Am I supposed to be writing?
Randy Newman's "I think it's going to rain today" (if it properly embeds...)
Blogville
I checked my stats, but the recent 12k views to my old blog were listed as "unknown" source. Ah... well... I mentioned to Z today that he should do an embedded poll. Polls are one of the "sexiest" tools on site. They garner the most views by far.
Well, my 5 year old grand-niece has been diagnosed with mild-autism. How is this good news? Well... I kept telling my sister that Bella's interactions were just not 'right'. She mentioned how the child was having difficulty with motor-skills. I told her... it's not that.
So I was right. But... the good news is that they will come up with an I.E.P. that will address her needs. My poor niece, Jennifer, found out when she went into a teacher's conference and there were 10 assorted people sitting there... I would've been terrified! But... it's all for the best. Bella will get some kind of educational support now. Me!
Well, today is Suzanne Elaine's birthday. I remember her from 4th grade. Remember her every 13th of September. Haven't seen her since 1980 when she was many months pregnant. Ah, Suzanne...
Today is the German Fest, so unless I want to miss out on a sausage, I'd better vamoose. Suzanne was German-Irish Catholic... see how everything ties in? Blogville
My "old" blog, L'aura del Campo somehow received over 11,000 views in a ten day period recently... I don't know why. It now has over 44k views and sits #2 on the all-time blog list. Not fair to Nada or Tor I'll tell you! Zach's with over 20k is #19; this one with almost 18k is #23.
Wish I knew what happened. Why now? I may have to email the SM to see if he has a clue. When something 'good' happens... I wanna know the details!
Montana: warm, pleasant ... sunny.
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