900. looking back….

everything changes

and that’s okay, i’ll be back

 in the saddle again

“Looking Back” - 12 x 9” - Gouache

In the customary tradition of haiku poets, here’s a farewell poem. It’s not my first and maybe not my last. Looking back, it’s been a great ride: pains and pleasures, wins and losses, tears and much laughter. No complaints, only gratitudes for it all. The inscription on my painting reads:

country singer

in a rock ‘n’ roll band

that was my dream.

i didn’t make it

and that’s ok….maybe

next time around.

i confess

i can’t sing for beans, but

so what, i can dream.

899. down by the river

at the water’s edge

keeping his own company

a great blue heron

*

facing east 

not a feather out of place

like a zen monk

*

self-composed

the great blue heron sits 

like a poet monk

In this world of hustle and bustle, a glimpse of stillness is captivating.

898. art crawl

art crawl—

after a certain point, he

stops looking

*

no one to talk to—

not even old-man broom

is listening

Art crawls are fun—going from gallery to gallery, looking at all kinds of art. But after a certain point, I can’t look anymore. But then, that night, something unexpected….

What a scene—and it’s not photoshopped—it was really there, just like you see it in the picture. Just goes to show you, you never know what might show up right in front of your eyes 👀 if you just keep looking!

897. just sit down

a shoutout

to the ladies who sit

and knit

 

There is a ladies club that meets, rain or shine, in the local library, where I have been going week after week to sit and knit or crochet in the company of good women. Yesterday I arrived feeling a little blah—it was just one of those days—and by the time I left, after much talking and laughing and sharing interesting ideas and assorted chocolates, I was back in good spirits. 

This feels like a good picture for this post about sitting. It’s a charcoal drawing by Gloria, done in 2000 as I sat for the artists who had come to practice their art as they did week after week at the local drawing studio. While those artists have long gone their separate ways, Gloria and I have remained good friends through the years. 

896. march madness

hey look, up in the tree—

is that a big hawk or starling?

no—it’s a Spalding!

*

after the game

basketball tossed in the air 

looking deflated

 

Dinner out yesterday at our favorite restaurant, sitting at the bar and watching a basketball game of the March Madness semifinals. San Diego over Creighton, 57-56 and ending on a free-throw with mere seconds to go. What a win….what a loss! Faces of the game players said it all—one team elated….the other deflated. 

I took this picture on the one day that it snowed earlier in March. It’s another ‘walk around the neighborhood’ shot, a fun one that I was saving for the right occasion. My early thought was the first haiku but then yesterday’s March Madness game gave me the second haiku. Perfect!😆

895. buttercups

butter cups

along the side of the road

running wild!

These little yellow flowers make me smile. They appear to grow everywhere and every Spring they take me back to childhood when I would always bring some flowers home, look in the mirror and hold them under my chin to see the yellow color glowing my skin like tiny little suns, warming me and making me light up in a smile. 

894. plymouth rocks

three fat hens

black & white beauties 

feasting

 

Out on a walk around the neighborhood, I spotted these black and white birds. Their colors stopped me. I couldn’t help but wonder what they were and where they belonged; there was no fence and no coop in sight. They were just ‘free as a bird!’ When I got home, I looked them up here’s what I found: 

This is a Plymouth Rock hen. These chickens are family-friendly, good with children and pets. They’re calm and relatively quiet, and they’re capable of laying 4-5 eggs every week. They don’t fly well and are trusted, and with enough time and practice they can become lap chickens, if you so desire!

893. all alone

what is that?

lying bear on the asphalt

abandoned

*

in the noonday sun

a tiniest slice of orange

left behind, all alone

On my own on a walk around the neighborhood, a speck of bright color ahead caught my attention. It was a slice of mandarin orange there, so tiny and so alone, laying there in the street. I felt it’s aloneness.

 

892. 2 + 2 + 2 = zero

take a look:

two men, two snake plants, two lamps

no socks!!

*

feeling the heat

she strips off her socks

in a flash

 

I don’t get it. What’s the deal with no socks? In a hurry, forgot to put on the socks? Forgot to wash the socks? Too many holes in the socks? Too cheap to buy socks? Too hot to wear the socks? 

I know, I know—these are likely a couple of trendy guys, looking cool, wearing “no-shows” for the naked-ankles look!  I was just having a little fun. What I will say, though, speaking for myself when things get a little too hot, one of the first things I do is: pull off my socks!😉

891. snowman ☃️

hey, look—

up the telephone pole

30 feet of snow!

Just imagine: 30 feet of snow!  What a snowman! ☃️ 

890. hiding out

i wanted to run

and didn’t….i just sat down

and closed my eyes

pretending that i was fine

like an old-man Buddha

Fake it till you make it! That’s what they say. Meditation comes in handy.

 

889. got junk?

there’s junk

fifteen feet up in the air—

i chuckle

Riding along in the passenger seat of the car, I glance out the window and 15 feet up in the air, trapped in the tangled brush, there’s a sign: GOT JUNK? I chuckle.

It made me think of trash day in the township when the wind is blowing hard and all the garbage cans and trash buckets are all lined up neat and tidy on the sidewalks quietly waiting their turn to be picked up and emptied as the dump truck rolls by, but then the wind begins to blow and it blows and blows and the trash is tumbling and flying ….everywhere. 

Reminds me again, who’s in charge. Just when you think everything’s under control, the wind comes along and blows you away! I chuckle. 

893. celebrating

cheer & laughter 

great people, great food, great fun

a night to remember 

 

Celebrating Dan’s art in Art in The Storefront in Ambler March 17 - May 17!

892. Wissahickon Wonders

under the lights

wissahickon wonders 

that’s art

 

Some things are too important not to share. Art is one of them. “Wissahickon Wonders” contains 30 and more paintings and ceramics by Dan Ravasio. It opened last night at the Art in the Storefront Exhibition in Ambler. It will be there through May 17. Don’t miss it! 

I love the Wissahickon Woods, the fields and meadows, the grasses and trees, the miles and miles of trails, the many animals, and all that sky. I’ve been missing them. I want to go back and keep going back, and I will. In the meantime, I can be there with Dan’s Art. 

(Zoom in to this picture for a closer look.)

891. free as a bird

across the sky,

the sky full of feathers—

just playing 

I am always amazed at the precision of birds—flying in tight formation, turning, twisting, swooping, sailing along all together, as one big ocean wave in the sky and I always say to myself—how do they do that?!! On this windy day in March, as I was out walking, holding onto my hat, I looked up and saw the sky filled with birds, just playing with the wind. I thought of John Lennon’s song, “Free As a Bird.”

890. backyard beans

yes, i’ll have

a double espresso, please….

seeing double!!

*

sometimes 

it takes just one to see two

of everything!!

Backyard Beans—a 5-minute walk from the train station in Ambler, the best coffee shop around.  Hot brew, cold brew, the best eats around….and the 2nd cup is on the house! Stop in sometime—you won’t be disappointed!👍🏻
 

889. seekers

“i’m going out

i don’t care if it’s snowing”

shaking hands

“I don’t care if it’s snowing. I’m going out,” she told me. And that’s just what earlier I’d told myself. It was like a handshake. Yesterday morning I went out to feel the fresh air, and the cold, and the wind, and the snow blowing on my skin. She was out there down by the little creek searching for stones. The two of us smiling, like kindred souls. 

888. compost

unable to sleep—

turn over, turn on the light,

write it down

 

When things aren’t going your way, you know what they say….whatever shows up—don’t fight it, go with it, turn it, use it!

887. on the way to lunch

outside in

a turtle and two apples

deliberating

Yesterday on the way to lunch….standing there in front of the store front, pausing—didn’t know if he was texting or taking a picture—and then catching a glimpse of the window reflecting back on us, inside and out. Cool scene! I grabbed my phone and clicked. This reminds me of the saying, ‘It’s the journey that brings happiness, not the destination.’ Sometimes it’s both—lunch was delicious! 

 

886. lavender hat

it’s her again—

wearing that big fancy hat

pretending she’s me

 

“Lavender Hat” - 6 x 6” - Pastel

There was a time I walked to a drawing studio, close to home. I went there to be in good company. Every week there was a live model sitting in a lively setting and everyone there was either drawing or painting. I sat there folding paper, making origami. One day, Maurice came over and handed me a small box of colored pencils and said, “Here, do something with these.” And I did. I began to draw and learned to paint. Thank you, Maurice!

I get a kick doing self-portraits. I never know who’s going to show up!

885. hat #6

leaning in close,

he gives me the needle

with a smile

Here’s hat #6.  He asked for it, ‘blue & orange,” in memory of his mom. John and I go back more than 25 years. He’s my acupuncturist—he needles me with a smile every time! 😘

884. i wish….

night lights

lighting up the night sky—

the moon is full 

*

across the sky

from one point to the next point,

goes the moon

 *

i wish

i could tuck it in my pocket 

and go for a ride

 

Just saying.

883. two women

two women

amid the orchid and cranes—

small world

 

Diane Martin is a good friend and the painter of, “Orchid” and “South for Winter.” These are Ink Brush paintings in the Chinese tradition, currently on display at The Sketch Club in Philadelphia for their juried Annual Works on Paper exhibition. We recently discovered that, unbeknownst to us, we had studied with the same painter at Penn, Ru-Lan Weng, during the 1980s. Small world. 

882. oh, well

a feeble attempt

at verisimilitude….

feeling pinched

 “Oh, well” - 6 x 6” - Ink Brush

I love that word—the feel of it on my tongue, and the sound of it—verisimilitude. I first came across it when studying Chinese painting. It means an ‘exact likeness.’  In China, practiced painters viewed verisimilitude as being somewhat crude or even rude, preferring instead to capture individual essence or quality of character when rendering a portrait. This could be a portrait of a person or an animal or a place, just about anything.  

Looks like here I did capture something, but I confess that wasn’t my intention. Maybe the brush just took over! Just goes to show me, I can’t always be in charge!😆 

881. open your eye

the moon’s beautiful

and out here alone is beautiful 

in the clouds

*

i’m here

and you’re there, the two of us

up in the sky

*

here I am 

and you, way down there

open your eye

 

Rumi says the eye is a lover….“Love is for vanishing into the sky.”

880. love poem

blue turns pink

and pink turns on blue

in a tangle

 

“Look at love and how it tangles with the one fallen in love” — Rumi

Just last night I was thinking about love, then this turned up this morning. Funny how things can work out….I guess some things are just meant to be.

879. just lookin’

i like this one— 

just another pretty face 

lookin’ back at me!

 

“The Modern Japanese Print in America” just opened at the Michener Museum in Doylestown. It’s wonderful. I’ll go back again for another look!

878. feeling blue?

blue buttons—

how could they be feeling sad?

just look at them

*

so many buttons 

each with its very own story—

just like people

When I saw these buttons, I couldn’t stop looking at them, with wonder. Each one handsome and unique with some special story to tell. “The color blue is calming and cooling, reflecting the sky and the sea….connecting us with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, inspiration, and sensitivity. It also represents depth, trust, and loyalty.”  The next time you’re feeling blue, think again.

877. wanderlust

a sailing ship

and then a motorcycle—

where to go?

Oh, the places we would go, if only….across the ocean to far away lands, cruising around to backwater places. I set my mind to roaming and whiled away the time. I remember now, how he once said to me….Lan, you and me, we have gypsy souls. I wonder where my brother is now. 

 

876. pigtail

in the studio

posing for a photograph:

two heads & a hat

 

This is another one of my hats. They all have a pigtail on top. This one’s #5 and a fave.

875. lost & found

hey!

there it is—my darn tough sock!🧦 

yay!

 

That’s just what I heard inside my head—Hey, there it is—my sock!  Boy, was I happy. There it was—tucked deep inside my squeaky-clean pajama pant leg. 

Ever lose a sock in the wash?….and wonder, where’d  it go?….did the machine eat my sock? I love my Darn Tough socks.🥰