Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art
Hundreds of rock cairns were built on Mansion Beach on Block Island, a few of which are photographed here. We made one ourselves. Many sides of me loved this – the fun-loving childlike side, the structural engineering side, the creative side… Which one is your favorite? Which one did we do?
Block Island, being on a migratory pattern, was layered with diverse birdsong. It both woke us up and put us to sleep, and we heard the birds more than saw them. Here are the creatures we did see and some of them were surprises! We especially enjoyed these teenaged seagulls. And why does the chicken … Read more
Vaill Beach was our other favorite beach on Block Island. Also on the Atlantic side, it is wild and picturesque. We loved the way the rocks made melodic tricking sounds every time a wave receded. We wish we had a recording of that! Depending where you stood, the tone was different based on the size … Read more
These are New Pond Farm’s sheep and spring lambs. I have knit with their wool… and have many skeins left to do. Gotta love those lambs!
I was drawn outside because I noticed that our driveway and the street were purple. (See photos below. They really were purple!) We had just completed yet another thunderstorm and the light was peculiar… intense sunset colors were forming in the east. The longer I watched, the deeper the eastern sky got until a few … Read more
It has been raining around here for over a month, almost literally every day. There has been so much rain there has been talk of arc building! Yesterday, on the way to take my oldest daughter to the airport (she’s going for 10 days to London as a homeschooling graduation present from her aunt that … Read more
This is the painting I started in my pastel class. It is the largest pastel I’ve ever done. It has been sitting on my mantel for over a month awaiting completion! I had a great time finishing it. This was done from a photo of mine taken on the Schoodic Peninsula in Acadia National Park, … 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
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
My 12th grade daughter was honored yesterday by her homeschooling community. It was a wonderful thing and has put me in a reflective mood today.
On Earth Day Often we think of earth’s jaggedly impassable, impressive mountain precipices, or a raging volcano’s seething lava, surging mercilessly down hill, or the intensely glaring heat waves shrouding remote, windswept deserts, or hulking blue ice sheets crashing precipitously into chill Arctic oceans, or the devastating … Read more
There is a bonanza of daffodils right now here in Connecticut. We have a lot of them because they are one of the few bulbs that the deer won’t eat. They are always welcome since they are so cheerful and vivid, as well as one of our first signs that spring is on its way … Read more
The Palo Duro Club is where several of my husband’s relatives have cabins. It is about twenty minutes out of Amarillo near Canyon, Texas. While we were out there it hailed, which accounts for the strange light. We were pleased to tease my husband about the size of the hail since it was exactly the … Read more
A couple days ago I posted pictures of the Palo Duro Canyon (see here), and I wanted to share some close-ups of the same areas today. All the different colors of earth are striking.
The above picture is how the whole area surrounding Amarillo looks. This augments why the Palo Duro Canyon is so amazing, for a half a mile further on, all of a sudden and without warning, you will have all the spectacular scenery shown below. In addition, we had unexpected, great weather for our day in … Read more
Here are some close-up photos of spring splashing forth. Gushing, gurgling, trickling, spewing, rippling, murmuring, sloshing, moving in March. Enjoy!