Winter Walk

Seeds: Waiting

A Yard Spirit that Allen made.

On the trail leading to the barn.

The Airstream: Writing place

Sweet Pea (Left); Buddha (Right)

Keeping the Light On

I know most people my age remember that Motel 6 commercial about keeping the light on. I took this photo yesterday evening after sunset. I was struck by how small our house looked from the field. It just doesn't take much distance to make your life seem like an insignificant speck, but the light made my own life seem welcoming.

It's also nice to be able to walk the back field and know that although I'm far from home, I'm not lost. There's a light to get me there.

Today when I walked out to the Airstream to do some writing, I was moved to take this picture. I don't know when I've seen a prettier Ohio sky. The ritual of walking out to the trailer and spending time alone there, writing, is working. The pages are piling up.

The Writing Place III

Good things are happening in The Writing Place. I've written the equilivant of 25 typed pages in the Airstream since we pulled it back into the field. Top secret, what I'm working on.

A Writing Place

The writing place, nestled between firs we planted when we first moved here, ten years ago.

Inside the Airstream, my new writing place. Sandals kicked off.

I've missed being out West and in nature. So Allen pulled our old Airstream trailer back into the field so I could use it to get away, be alone, and hear nature sounds. I take a paper journal with me, and I do find it easier to write there. It was cool today. I left the door open, and closed the screen only when I needed to keep the cats out. It makes for a neat little hideaway and a very good alternative to going camping. I'm going to chronical my treks out to my trailer in photographs. Here are the first ones.

A New Poetry

I have bought a new camera with all kinds of capability (the question: am I capable?) I want to use the camera lens to make a new (for me) kind of poetry. I am just a beginner and expect to make lots of bad pictures. As soon as I have some decent examples I'll begin posting them.

I also want to cut some photographs for use in collages. I'll use others as a reference for drawings.

It feels good to be thinking about visual art. Hopefully this will not distract me from my writing but keep my mind alive for writing.

FYI: It is a Canon 50D. It is a digital SLR camera. In design it bears some resemblance to Allen's old 35 mm Nikon.

I used the Nikon a little bit years ago, but film and developing were expensive for us and I didn't feel like I had much opportunity for experimentation or even learning. Now when I make a horrible picture, I can just delete it.

A great place to sit along one of the trails at Arches National Park.

You can barely see me sitting on the rock at the foot of the Arch at Arches National Park.

Between a rock and a hard place at Arches National Park.

Buddha, Sweetpea, and me at the D. H. Memorial and Shrine, San Cristobal, NM.

This is the first time I've had access to the Internet. We've been traveling the Southwest like a lightening bolt--not quickly but in a zig-zag fashion that I like. I don't have much time but wanted to post some photos. I have been soaking it all in and doing much writing and thinking.

19/50

Looking at the World from between the Ears of a Dog

(taken just a few moments ago: me 'n Sweet Pea)

It's good to laugh

This photograph of Buddha

makes me laugh. It's good to laugh.

My Wild Yellow Cat

Lady of the Lake

It was chilly out on the lake and I loved that.

The Big Splash

Allen and Buddha get splashed by Lake Erie.

After Working into the Wee Hours on a New Story

After working into the wee hours on a new story and then having a restless sleep, I was treated out to a picnic at Marblehead, on Lake Erie. I did take some books and notebooks and scratched a few notes. I'm now keeping three separate notebooks, a green one for Ohio River work, a red one for creative non-fiction, and a black one for meditations.

Sterling Pond, at the top of a steep mountain trail, near Stowe, Vermont. A tough climb, but worth it.

In the lean-to at our campsite, near Stowe, Vermont.