Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art
Irises are fascinating. Ninety-nine percent of these photographs were taken in our yard. My husband is a very good gardener and has received most of our irises as gifts. There are so many pictures of them because I find them endlessly interesting. Enjoy!
This page represents May 27, 2009 through June 7, 2009. I am most gratified that several blog readers have started their own Box-A-Day Art Journal! I know well what enormous blessings are in store for you doing this! See below for some close up photos from this page. Enjoy!
I haven’t been out to the movies in eons so this probably added to my enjoyment of this recently released romantic comedy: My Life In Ruins. We were drawn to see it because it has the same lead as My Big Fat Greek Wedding – Nia Vardalos – who is refreshingly not-Hollywood, and also because … Read more
Let it Be like Atlas carrying the world taking too much responsibility I need a vacation from introspection pressure huge expectation and crippling hope that shrivels and snivels trying to make it all right with too much effort knowing what it could be with too much intensity and too much tenacity why do only … Read more
I love poppies. The audaciously flagrant color, the bristly buds, the stark markings, and the ten armed starfish shaped velour crown on the pregnant seed pod, all strike me as potent, voluptuous and thrilling. Enjoy this year’s photos of them taken just before an untimely rain curtailed prematurely the other stages of their glory…
I read this classic book by Jean Henri-Fabre (France 1823 – 1915) to my homeschooled 6th grader as supplementary science material this year. She gives the book four stars in general, and five stars in the category of “school books.” She would often pick it out of the stack over other ongoing things. Originally published … Read more
On Monday, I was in Bedford, NY taking my 12 year old daughter to a poetry class given by a hip slam poet. The class was near a tiny chapel of a church dating from 1851 and a mill waterfall, both of which you can see below. The weather was pristine, magnificent, and sublimely … Read more
I really enjoyed painting this one in the sun on my front porch, while sitting in one of our white Adirondack chairs and smelling the newly mown grass. Below are photos of the same painting. Which orientation do you like best?
We love this dish so much we just planted a whole bunch of tomato plants to support it. Meanwhile, we already have fresh mint in our garden which is fun to use it in this. (But we also make it year round with grocery store ingredients as well!) It is a Martha Stewart recipe (see … Read more
I had dinner last night with two friends visiting from Maine, at a picturesque spot just a few feet away from the Hudson River. It was a lovely evening. The restaurant was called Half Moon, and it didn’t escape us that there was a half moon in the sky as well. The light was … Read more
Well Fertilized My friend is on the phone: “What’s going on?” “I’m hauling a lot of crap around.” “Oh dear. What’s happened?” “No, really, it’s great. I’m making several trips bringing home free horse manure for my garden.” That’s when she realized that the metaphor applies: all that awful “shit she’s been through” has … Read more
I like color and azaleas really pack a punch. My husband lived in a brown house with brown decor when I met him. It was this humble plant that made him realize these hot jazzy colors were as “natural” as anything else. I mentally thank this plant for being the catalyst for this enlightenment every … Read more
The brilliant red rose against the white viburnum grabs the wandering eye. A cacophony of satisfying thunder it hasn’t rained yet. I am sorting piles – a deleterious heap of fragments bygone. My philosophy: to realize goodness and love one another. The leaf veins branch out a modest infrastructure for collecting food. by Polly Castor
This page represents May 15, 2009 through May 26, 2009. See below for some close up photos. Enjoy!
I can’t remember when I last shelled fresh peas. It is not only fun but delicious. The photos below show the fun you miss buying frozen, but below that, you can see the terrific result we enjoyed with them in an outstanding salad. I made it in the spirit of something I read in a … Read more
Last year a church here participated in the Field of Flags project displaying 4,576 flags that represented those fallen at that time in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was very powerful and sobering to see. Check out the other photos below of this and remember what this day is chiefly about, while we enjoy the freedoms, … Read more
A photo of the full painting is below. The rest of the photos are close-up shots of details. What I liked most about this painting (besides that it was fun to do!) was all the paintings within it, so enjoy the details as well, as actual compositions in themselves.