Just hibernating during this very snowy winter. Another foot of snow last night had Mr O and I getting our aerobic exercise as we shoveled out…Still I can’t help but find it beautiful and it was warm enough to enjoy being outside. Later some ibuprofen and a glass of wine did wonders for sore muscles…
There is a reason that so many poems have been written about snow…It is hard to describe so well in any other way…
Snow
Billy Collins
I cannot help noticing how this slow Monk solo
seems to go somehow
with the snow
that is coming down this morning,
*
how the notes and the spaces accompany
its easy falling
on the geometry of the ground,
on the flagstone path,
the slanted roof,
and the angles of the split-rail fence
*
as if he had imagined a winter scene
as he sat at the piano
late one night at the Five Spot
playing “Ruby, My Dear.”
*
Then again, it’s the kind of song
that would go easily with rain
or a tumult of leaves,
*
and for that matter it’s a snow
that could attend
an adagio for strings,
the best of the Ronettes,
or George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
*
It falls so indifferently
into the spacious white parlor of the world,
if I were sitting here reading
*
in silence,
reading the morning paper
pr reading Being and Nothingness,
not even letting the spoon
touch the inside of the cup,
I have a feeling
the snow would even go perfectly with that.
After reading this poem I had to discover Thelonious Monk playing “Ruby, My Dear”. It is as dreamy as the falling snow…
Even though I was thoroughly overwhelmed with keeping up with Picture the Holidays I have started the next workshop called Picture Winter. Now that the holidays are over I am much more comfortable spending time on a photography project and I still like a daily prompt. Many of my Picture Winter photos will also be showing up in my other new project…
Inspired by the blogs 3191, A Year of Mornings and habit…A Collection of Days, my daughters and I started a photo blog on January 1st where we will try to contribute a photo and a short statement daily. There the focus will be embracing our daily lives and celebrating everyday beauty. I’m sure it will become hard to keep up, especially for my very busy daughters, but we are off and running and I think they are enjoying it for now. We are still working out the kinks but we can be visited at OXOXO.
Besides this I will be starting another online Kim Klassen photoshop class this month…I think a lot of this class will be a refresher for me but at my age I need all the refreshing I can get in hopes that some of sticks. So it may be cold and snowy outside but I have lots to keep me busy as I hibernate this winter.
The first day of the year here in RI was unusually warm…perfect weather for a walk on the beach. Which is exactly what we did, along with what seemed like the rest of the state’s population…
There is a lot about the exposure of these photos that I am unhappy about…but I’m happy to have started off the year with some of my family and friends at the beach.
I have never been good at making or keeping New Year’s resolutions…but the past few years I have had a focus word. Two years ago my word was “gather”. It was a year in which I needed to gather my family, my friends, and any strength I could find. Last year was my year to “restore”. I feel like I accomplished very little last year but maybe that is exactly what I needed. My word for 2011 is “Embrace”. I hope to be mindful of embracing each moment of each day…to embrace new adventures and to embrace old traditions. I hope to “take or clasp in the arms…hug” family members and friends more often. I hope to “take in with the eye and the mind” via photography every day. I hope to “receive gladly” new ideas, new sensations, new friends. I hope to “seize” each day.
To start the year off we lost our internet access for a few days and I have to admit that I found it easy to embrace having more time to read and for getting to bed earlier…but I still plan to embrace my love for photography here at Picturing the Year. Happy New Year to all who stop by!
