Thursday theme: Water

Bottled water everywhere. There seems something very wrong with these pictures, especially as they were taken in the local natural foods store.



Shouldn't we be reducing our use of plastics? And why so many brands of, well, water??



Shouldn't we be hip and happening, using these groovy contraptions??? Or maybe a boring old thermos?? We could use what is coming straight out of our own personal water sources: our taps.



These were on the "Reduced" table; does their shape mean they are damaged, or are they meant to look like that?? They contain water from Wales. How much did it take, in all senses, to get it here in the U.S. southeast to put it out for sale for a reduced price??



An outdoor cats' water bowl, refreshed every day:



The cats drink from it all the time . . .

We were

away, but now we're back. A week at folk school, fraught with mother/daughter psycho drama, plus crafting, plus . . . well, other stuff.

birds

We have two hummingbird feeders hanging out back. Two different designs. The flat one is spurned; I'm been trying to figure out how to lure them, but of course that is impossible. They will have to figure out that the sugar water in there is the same as the sugar water in the teardrop.

They also make me think of my mother and D, who misses the kinds of conversations they used to have when she was alive. Every so often, my mother would say, "You know, I have a chickadee who visits the feeder. He has only one leg. I wonder how he manages?"

D would say, "Really!?! How often do you see him?"

"Every day or so."

And this would recur verbatim, every month or so, with neither one remembering that they had had this conversation before.

Although at the time, this was very exasperating, somehow, now, it is very comforting to remember.

Thursday theme: Home

When I think of my house, I think of home. I feel lucky to have it to live in. It is comfortable, has bookshelves, a kitchen I like to cook in, a backyard that borders on woods, for the cats.

My house has a mortgage, which makes me uneasy. It makes me wonder about ownership in general.

When I think about my true home, in the sense of belonging, I think of the place I lived in when I was in high school, not necessarily the house that I lived in, but the town itself.

Scenes from New Jersey

A lovely lake, where we had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. It had rained on and off, really threatening dark skies, but the end of the day was glistening and calm.






There was a wedding at the country club down the walkway; I'm not sure if these guys were taking a break or waiting to get to work.


But I do miss New Jersey, I do . . .

looking up . . .

An aspect of Princeton University

Gargoyles are considered either to repel evil or to represent it, I've read.











The university had many many of these, all over. Who do they represent? They were on the collegiate buildings, not just the chapel (more of a cathedral, really). Princeton was founded by Presbyterians, so this kind of iconography surely wasn't a part of that spiritual background, was it? My library has no answers . . .

Away, ii

Lots of funky, creative types around where I was up, along the Hudson.



A major artery to Connecticut for me in the distance:





The New Jersey shore:



Lots of activity in a meadow near Princeton:

Thursday Theme: birthday

I never make any fuss over birthdays; I suppose I should. I wonder why this is. . . . L would like more of a to-do, I know. However, if she could, she would have a Pinkberry on her birthday, as she found an emporium convenient to her campus last week, and I think had 3 Pinkberrys during her stay. Here is a photo she took of one of them, while I was there, so she can gaze upon it whenever she feels lonely for one. Apparently, Pinkberry exists only in New York and California.

My birthdays are unremarked and unremarkable, except for my 39th, because we ate at a fast-food place outside of Atlanta, Chick-fil-A, which gave us the option of being waited on or going to the counter to order. We had never heard of this place before, coming as we did from Up North. They are all around us now, though never with the waited-on option.

reentry . . .

A very few photos, for now, of my week away.

We dropped L here, for her week of experiencing life in a dorm while taking a music class, during which she got very expert at using her subway pass. My phone would ring, and she'd be in Union Square. Then, a little while later, she'd be at the Met. I think it was a good week for her; she was sad to go.



I got to visit and walk with a very generous, kind, and interesting blogger indeed; here is one picture from an amble (one of a series, actually) she took me on along the river.




And a Fourth in the backyard, with an excellent aspect on the fireworks: