Day 330...

These are fantastic!

Day 329...

I made my first batch of holiday candy tonight. 

I love the smell of holiday baking and candy making filling my home!

Day 328...

I love a winter moon. 

I was trying to get a picture tonight, but the moon and trees were not cooperating...so I found a picture online that resembled what I was trying to capture. 

and technically, it's autumn, so I still have time to achieve the perfect winter moon through bare trees photo. 

until then...

Day 327...

My grandparents.

G'ma & G'pa Greene.

Grandma Muskie.

and my Grampie. 

The smell of pipe tobacco reminds me of My Grampie...Grandpa Graignic. I remember his house in Seattle and Christmastime surrounded by uncles, aunts and cousins, playing chutes and ladders in the living room, and my older cousin reading the lines of my palm; casting my future.

Grandma Moskovita...Gramma Muskie. I believe my love of willow trees began with her. Her home in Everett, Washington had what I remember to be the biggest, most incredible willow tree hanging its lovely weeping branches over the driveway. I always felt like the tree was welcoming me into a secret hideaway as my mother eased the car up the drive.

My Grandparents Greene...best remembered in the following poem, (written under my pen name Kerin Riley-Bishop, and which appeared in the Silver Boomer Books anthology From the Porch Swing - memories of our grandparents:

Caramels and Ginger Ale

Memory can be brutal; invasive,

or tenderly nudge its way in.

White Shoulders.

Tall trees.

Winding driveway in the woods.

Horses in green pasture.

Scent of grease and gasoline.

His perfect white flat-top,

soft and tempting to our fingers;

patting grandfather’s head as long as allowed.

Baby doll.

Old black leather trunk.

Dark paneled walls,

highboy dresser, chenille bedspread

and the end table next to the sofa;

glass bowl crowded with Kraft Caramels.

“Karen, would you like some ginger ale?”

“Yes, please, Grandma!” 

Day 326...

love this...

Day 325...

A friend of mine has this pendant...

I've loved it since the moment I first saw it...
but I've yet to find another...one for me.  

I've come close...there are very similar ones. but apparently, this one was an unduplicated original.

Day 323...

Trains.

I have been head over heels for trains since I was teeny.

I'd love to take a train from one coast to the next. and I dream of taking a train through the Alps. and from Paris to Spain.

Day 324...

I am re-reading my Alice Sebold collection. 

I started with Lucky a couple of weeks ago. 

Next is The Lovely Bones

then The Almost Moon. 

I love her tragically beautiful writing, which includes the absolute worst in human nature, and the incredible resilience of the damaged soul.

I love that writing exists that can move me like hers. 

Day 322...

I swear it really doesn't get much better than this...a tree...and stunning photography!

LOVE!

Day 321...

I would love to live in a tiny home.

save for one thing...

I love a big kitchen.

Day 320...

Albany, Texas. April 10, 2010. keg.

Day 319...

This song.

I love it so very much.

Day 318...

I stumbled across this today.

LOVE!!!

dancing and photography come together again.

I'm going to need the book. 

Day 317...

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love. ~ Washington Irving

it's better to find
your center of gravity
and have it be the place
you radiate out from. ~ Ron Padgett 

…it’s bloody challenging to write something useful about joy when sadness is holding down the fort. ~ Tanya Geisler 

You’re fucking magic... But you’re human magic. Give yourself a break.” ~ Jenny Blake

Day 316...

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once. 

~ Ashleigh Brilliant

Day 315...

Baylor University...several years ago.

such a gorgeous campus.

all photos taken November 2008. 

Day 314...

So...

This morning...driving to work...browsing through the stations...I heard a note from one of my all-time favourite-feel-good-happy songs.

Mary Chapin Carpenter. Down at the Twist and Shout.

I turned it up, started singing along, and dancing in my car.





After a few moments...

I noticed the fella in the car in front of me

looking in his rearview mirror and smiling.

and then I was blissfully happy.

because today.

I was one of those people...smiling, singing and dancing in my car. 

and making a stranger smile.

Day 313...

This is amazing

I love this so much!

Day 312...

A friend of mine is here...

Similan Islands

and I stole the picture from him...but not really, because he sent it to me...so it's mine now, too.

How I would love to be on a beach that beautiful...looking out at water that blue and clear. 

Day 311...

Allow me to direct your attention...here.

Day 310...

I've mentioned this once or twice before...

but I absolutely adore my sweet cat, Stella...

who waits by the door for me to come home from work.

who nudges me gently when she wants to snuggle.

who nibbles on my arm if I'm not petting her enough.

who sleeps by my head and snuggles against my shoulder while I sleep.

who does not observe any kind of respect for my personal bubble.

and who looks absolutely adorable when she is getting the blissful belly rub.

Day 309...

Every now and then, I treat myself to something ridiculously unhealthy.

like...

chocolate chip cookie dough.

My friend/co-worker and I were discussing the merits of chocolate chip cookie dough today.

well..merits makes it seem entirely too official.  we were simply discussing how delicious it is...and how sometimes, it's a necessity.  and the fact that I need to make a trip to the grocery and purchase a sleeve o' dough because it just sounds too good to pass up. 

Day 308...

and then...

this made me giggle my silly ass right off.

Day 307...or... "and then I was hit with a banana"

I've been a bit under the weather the last few days, so I got a bit behind on my daily love.

but today, whilst walking down the frozen food aisle at Trader Joe's, I was randomly hit by a flying banana.

it was truly a case of perfect timing. I was asking my sweetheart if we still had mushroom risotto, when mid-sentence, a banana hit me in the arm.

I laughed and simply said "I just got hit with a banana!"

The poor mama of the child who threw the banana was mildly horrified...all I could do was laugh...

flying. banana. 

Day 306...

Today is the first of November.

It is the first day of National Novel Writing Month.

and the first day of Robert Lee Brewer's November Poem a Day challenge. 

and I don't know yet if I'm participating in one

or both

or neither.

but I know that the first day of November always makes me a wee bit giddy at the prospect of being creatively brilliant for 30 straight days!