rain keeps falling
and my ears keep ringing….
chilly morning
*
standing face to face
with the stone cold Buddha….
are his ears ringing, too?
1830. do you hear cicadas?
1829. Skylar
surprise! surprise!
s - k - y - b - l - u - e
say “hello!”
Say “hello!” Well, he wouldn’t, though he’s a good talker but on his own terms! That’s Skylar, named for his sky blue color. He’s a Blue Indian Ringneck Parrot, getting his daily D’s hiking up on Andorra Meadow in the Wissahickon. What a surprise! You just never know who you’ll meet on a hike through the woods.
1828. double take
final cut
reaching out for one last big bite
sneaky snaky tree
Walking along the trail, she did a double take. That fallen tree resembled a huge serpent ready to take a deadly bite out of that other tree! He quick pulled out his camera to take a shot….she did the same!😘
1827. it’s autumn
it’s mighty cold
and all the leaves are turning red 🍂
woohoo!
It’s 38° this morning and 21 days till Halloween. Red’s my favorite color. Just sayin’! 👻
1826. kinda magical
before dawn
outside my front window
three deer
How many times I’ve looked out the front window and watched people passing by, or cars and trucks or fire engines or the morning school bus taking children to school. This morning, it was still dark as I was just about to sit down in my reading chair when I looked out the window and saw three deer under the street light standing there on the grass, leisurely feeding on the acorns fallen from the tree next door. Now and then they raised heads carefully to look around. I wished them well and said a prayer for their safe return home to the woods nearby. A few minutes later, I looked again and they were gone.
It’s kinda magical to me to be living in close proximity to the beauty in nature’s wild animals and now and again to observe deer and foxes and rabbits and herons and hawks, and Canadian geese flying high from golf club to golf club! And it’s reassuring, too.
1825. the host
autumn sprouts
clamoring to blossom and bloom
before the first frost
Taking up residence, three or four different kinds of young greens, sprouting around this tall trunk of a dead tree. Hmmm. . .it’s autumn now, not springtime. How unusual. Will they all be winter hardy? Could this be a sign of yet warmer temperatures to come? Hmmm. . .
1824. holy moly!
holy moly!
my mouth is puckering—
flying dragons!
Cold hardy, the Hardy Orange Tree. It’s also named the Flying Dragon Tree, with fruits too bitter and sour to eat but if you dare, you might live forever like the majestic, heavenly Flying Phoenix in Chinese Mythology.
1823. caution! ⚠️
october sun
illuminating the foxtails
beware!
1822. fun house
in the funhouse
posing for pictures 🐱🐭
cat and mouse
Captivating exhibition at the Michener Museum in Doylestown. “Interwoven”— Anila Quayyum Agha’s cross-cultural expressions in sculpture, embroidery, painting, and drawing. Exhibition runs now through January 11, 2026.
1821. flowers
mirror, mirror
on the wall, who’s the fairest
of them all?
*
in it together
all these flowers—
sharing secrets
Shhh… We all have our secrets, even these flowers.
1820. white snowcaps
weaseling in
on a mountain of hot pink—
white snowcaps
Popping up in anyone’s bed wherever they please, it’s cool how mushrooms don’t follow the rules,
1813. the tango
step, turn, stretch, turn,
lifting arms, ruffling feathers—
the tango
Life is magical. Over by the golf course at the edge of a little pond, I turned to see the tango of two great herons—one white, one blue—dancing to their own music in the soft light of late afternoon.
1812. cinnamon sky
cinnamon sky
a solitary bird soars high
singing for the moon
The moon is always where it is, in the sky up high, let me sing a little song.
1811. ka-ching! ka-ching!
just push a button
sit back, all eyes on the screen…
ka-ching ka-ching!
Inside the casino: glittering lights and colors and sounds at the slot machines. It’s easy. Just slide in your card or your bill, push the button, sit back and watch the 777 and BARS spin round and round. Then do it again…again…and again. They make it so easy to be a winner! and loser! What a world—Ka-ching! Ka-ching!
1809. the morning sun
cloud filled morning
waiting for the sun to rise
walking the beach
Be happy if there’s something to be happy about! When the moment comes, don’t lose it! They say life can last a hundred years, maybe more. Maybe you’ll live a full thirty thousand days. (rephrased from “Cold Mountain, 101Chinese Poems)
1808. the chase
rolling in….rolling out
playing tag—you’re it! no, you’re it!
sandpipers and the sea
By the sea….by the sea….
1807. mandarin
mandarin
one a day, day by day
keeps the doc away
When I was a kid, they were just two kinds of oranges—navel oranges and juice oranges. Now, the choices of grown: Navel, Seville, Valencia, Tangelo, Mandarin, Tangelo, Tangerine, Clementine, Blood, Cara Cara, Lima, and likely more. I like the Mandarin—maybe it’s the Chinese in me. They’re cute and also sweet, easy to peel, and a bit chewy with good fiber!😘
1806. perfect
holding on
as the runners run by
long lost dream
Wanting to take a quick picture of two runners running by, but I was slow on the draw. Hmmm.
There was a time I wanted things to be perfect, the way they tell stories in fairy tales. Now it’s okay for some things to be clear and some things to be fuzzy. It makes life interesting and gives me something to ponder. Are crab apples, really apples? Yes. All crab apples are apples, but not all apples are crab apples. A crab apple is tiny and sour and bitter, not sweet enough like the big apples to eat raw, but they can make a tasty pie or an interesting little poem.
1805. bittersweet
intermingling
both the bitter and the sweet
making lemonade
Bittersweet. Pretty sprays of golden berries tumbling down the mountain of green leaves, waiting for wings. One thing leads to another. Bittersweet: bitter and sweet, bittersweet chocolate, lemonade, yellow berries, green leaves, gold doubloons, birds chittering. Rich.
1804. butterflies
on the road—
taking a moment to rest
and just look
Working on my latest origami composition, I don’t know yet what the final piece will look like but it will have butterflies. Rambling now… One of the things I like about making art is having things just the way I want them. Life isn’t like that. Things just seem to happen, like it or not. So I suppose, one way or another, the thing to do is just keep going, feeling my way step by step, one day at a time and in the end, if I’m lucky, things will turn out for the best, maybe even better than I thought. That’s life. You never know, just keep going.
1803. 28,854.75!
abandoned,
or is it just chilling?—
red schwinn
1802. nothing?
what’s that? nothing?
look again: two eyes and a nose
can you see?
1801. cheers!😻
chilly morning
cat on my lap, quilt on my feet
two of us purring
Happy Caturday! 😻 Cheers!
1800. kitchen window
kitchen window—
all the birds are clamoring
to come inside
Early in the morning all the birds are clamoring, clamoring to come inside my kitchen window. Be silent, just listen.
1799. life in a bowl
eyes so big 👀
like the big bad wolf
the better to see
Gazing down into the fishbowl, that’s Finny (on the left) and Tipper. They go round and round and round, every now and then kissing the air. Life in a bowl. Yay! Yay! Do goldfish see in the dark, I wonder. Is that why their eyes are so big? Did you know that goldfish can live 10 to 15 years in a properly sized, rather large, filtered aquarium or pond? In a small bowl, most goldfish live just six months, maybe more. Finny’s been living here 2 or 3 years in a 12-inch bowl. Now and then, he likes to just hang and float….sometimes belly up, sometimes tails up. He’s a happy fish. Go Finny!
1798. harrumph!
harrumph!
i have nothing to post, but
have a nice day!
No picture to post, not much to say, but have a nice day, anyway!🐶
1797. silence
before the sun
a solitary voice calls out—
is that a katydid?
1796. heart-to-heart
it’s early,
things take the time they take…
don’t worry
Two shadows having a heart-to-heart.
1795. abandoned?
what’s this?
straddling the white line
black flip flops
Sunday morning. Slept in, got up late, not much to say, so here’s a picture to scratch your head about and just wonder. What’s this? Two flip flops abandoned in the parking lot at Ft. Washington State Park. No car, no feet. How’d they get here? Who left them here? Why? Where’d the feet go? Will they be back? Hmmm…
1794. uninhibited
uninhibited
in a delicious sort of way:
yum!😋
Espresso Explosion! Coffee ice cream studded with chocolate espresso beans. Looks like this is becoming a habit. But some habits can be good for you…right!?
1793. three bees
under the trees
hitchhiking a ride, getting d’s
three bees
There I am walking along when something tells me to stop. I get a glimpse of that something…a bee…a honeybee, not moving…is it resting or sleeping or gone? I move in close, then closer, inch by inch. I see the hind leg vibrating, buzzing…or is it hissing! I quick take a picture and go.
(Look closely into the picture and you’ll see three bees.)
1792. at peace
trees on the mountain
so many leaves, come and go
summer is ending
*
where am i?
how did i get here? how long?
who’s counting
Just standing. Just looking. This morning, I read a poem written by a T’ang poet who called himself T’ai-Shang Ying-Che (The Ancient Recluse). Here, he replies to someone who was asking him why, and how long he had been living in Chungnan Mountains.
Somehow, I ended up beneath pines…sleeping in comfort on boulders…there aren’t any calendars in the mountains…winter ends but who counts the years
1791. three birds
the birds
and their chatter overwhelm me
with cheer
Funny, how birds always have something to say. Even when I can’t know what they are saying, it doesn’t matter. I just close my eyes and listen, and follow them home.
1790. the wind
little by little
fungus redeems the earth—
life goes on
1789. double dip
a double dip cone
but first things first, i had to—
sneeze 🤧
My favorite flavor is vanilla, plain vanilla, but after a long hot walk, I wanted something a little more substantial. I was dreaming about butter pecan or maple walnut. The ice cream store didn’t have either so I asked for a taste of pistachio, then pumpkin cheesecake. I got a double dip on a sugar cone. It was seven dollars! Gone are the days of the 50 cent cone, like when I was a kid.
1788. that’s amore!
the moon hit my eye
like a big pizza pie—
wowee!
It was like this. I was sitting a good 30 or 40 feet away watching, admiring his easy skill with the dough—pizza dough that is—as he lifted and lofted it larger and larger. So of course I had to snap a few pictures with my camera.
No, he wasn’t smiling. In fact, he walked right up to me and said, “I don’t appreciate you’re taking pictures of me.” Then he turned and walked away before I could explain. Oh, well. By the way, the pizza was absolutely “amore!” Made me think of that old Dean Martin song, “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore!”😋
1787. blood moon
autumn night
the moon, the orange moon
exciting me
September 5 the waxing moon was not quite full.
Today, September 7, the Earth will pass directly between the sun and the moon creating a Blood Moon for a total lunar eclipse lasting approximately 82 minutes. It will be live-streamed and visible in its entirety from many parts of the world, but not North America. For more details Google: Blood Moon 2025.
1786. the elegant woman
fans:
one for every day of the week
and then some
*
the elegant woman
can never have too many:
fans
“The Elegant Woman” — 13-1/2 x 12” — Origami
Like a good woman, every fan has a story to tell. I love this piece. It was commissioned by a good friend who asked for something with fans. These fans are small, measuring 2” to 4” across, made from fine Japanese washi papers. Beginning with large sheets of washi, roughly 30” long by 24” across, I cut 6” strips, then six” squares. From these I cut smaller pieces, three times longer than wide. Then the folding begins. Each of these fans has been folded and unfolded then re-folded six times. The process is long, a quiet moving meditation. I thoroughly enjoyed making this piece and am happy it will go to a good home.
1785. clouds and moon
no birds chattering
now only the moon and
the blue sky
Last night’s walk. I followed the moon slipping in and out of clouds, lining them in silver. Clouds. Moon. Clouds—they don’t want to hide; they enjoy a good game, a game of peekaboo. Moon—just smiles and goes along for the ride.
1784. a good tree
until i’m old
i’ll go on turning green again….
blowin’ in the wind
Lopped-off tree left with only a trunk, not one single branch to grow new leaves, yet every year it turns green again. Can’t keep a good tree down!
1783. aging gracefully
brown into brown
a single leaf disappearing
into itself
There’s something beautiful here in this broken down leaf and the way it’s taking its time all the way to the end, aging gracefully.
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