come with me

Thanksgiving, The Dallas Arboretum, 2011

i'm reminded

Of all the pictures I've taken, this may be my favorite.  It is so, not because it's the best or even a great photo, but because it reminds me of many things.  And I need sometimes to be reminded.

It reminds me of the enveloping hugs I received this year from many kind people.

It reminds me of stepping from shade into sun in the parks and along the streets of Florence on December afternoons. 

I envision an aging couple, strolling slowly, hand in hand down the middle of the path.  I know that if we are blessed, and in what will feel like the blink of my eye, Spoke and I will be that couple, shuffling along together under this canopy.  I'm reminded what a gift our love is.

I'm reminded of the magnificence of nature; these trees, willingly and gracefully bending for us.

There is a famous, uncredited photograph taken in France, of a man and a very young boy, together on a bicycle, riding down a street lined by trees much like these.  Two long baguettes are tied to the back of the bike.  There are times when I look at that picture and ache terribly to be somewhere else; somewhere I imagine the grass to be greener.  Then I am reminded of these trees, in this arboretum, where I can come and sit under their sway until I am ready to head home, stopping perhaps to pick up a couple of baguettes. 

I'm reminded that I believe there is light at the end.

respite

" I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone. "






Audrey Hepburn

i'm feeling moonstruck

a barnes and noble afternoon

The minute I stepped into Barnes and Noble at Lincoln Park, I could hear them.  Up the escalator I went and my Saturday afternoon got a whole lot better.

George was on guitar and all toes were tapping.

 




















Ray and Jon of course...

And Mark... 

Time to pull up a chair.

The Mark McKenzie Quartet; donating their Saturday afternoon 
in the bookstore, for a local church. 

I told you they're a great group of guys. 

bye-bye october

It's November!  I can barely believe it. 

I know October ended last night for there were children knocking on our door much of the evening.  Precious children and all of them polite with "Thank-You" and "Happy Halloween" shouted over their shoulders as they flew down the steps, their candy buckets and bags just a wee bit heavier.

I had as much fun watching Spoke as I did the trick-or-treaters.  As kids would knock on the door, Spoke from inside, would knock back.  Freaked out a few! 

"You like Double-Bubble?" he asked as he dished it out.  If they answered yes, he'd glare and accuse them of sticking it under their desks at school.  Caught!

It's nice the month goes out on such a happy note. 

I hope November does too but I have my doubts.  Serious doubts.  With The Holidays right around the corner, I'm feeling like such a child myself;  I want my mama!  I want my daddy!