Another detail from a recently completed project. More to follow.
Tag: Pen&Ink
Ride to the nursery
Another detail from a recently completed project. More to follow.
Carol
Green leaves
Some of you are aware that I have been very busy with work this spring and summer, and especially with one project in particular, which is now complete. Here is a detail from its pages. More to follow.
Phyllis
Ben
Path to glory
The approach to the swimming pool where we try to squeeze in a few honorable laps each day is a zig-zag path lined with marigolds, coreopsis, and roses. Were there no pool at the end of the path, the magical walk between and beneath the cascading flowers would be glorious enough in itself. To contradict Jean de La Fontaine. Happy Labor Day, everyone!
Aucun chemin de fleurs ne conduit à la gloire. —Jean de La Fontaine
Doug & Krissy
Rob Covey
Song at the End of Summer
Song 1
A second crop of hay lies cut and turned. Five gleaming crows search and peck between the rows. They make a low, companionable squawk, and like midwives and undertakers possess a weird authority.Crickets leap from the stubble, parting before me like the Red Sea. The garden sprawls and spoils.
Across the lake the campers have learned to water ski. They have, or they haven’t. Sounds of the instructor’s megaphone suffuse the hazy air. “Relax! Relax!”
Cloud shadows rush over drying hay, fences, dusty lane, and railroad ravine. The first yellowing fronds of goldenrod brighten the margins of the woods.
Schoolbooks, carpools, pleated skirts; water, silver-still, and a vee of geese.
—Jane Kenyon
from Three Songs at the End of Summer
Elizabeth
The Road to Riches
If you did not hear the news story that inspired today’s post, please see Rick Perry Suggests Global Warming is a Hoax.
(Click twice to see it full-size)
Jenny Sayre
Ida
Reptile Camp
After delivering my daughter to Zoo Camp one morning I sat in for a few minutes. I love the National Zoo, but I sensed an overemphasis on safety. Perhaps one summer a camper was swallowed by the boa constrictor.
Lucy
Rainmakers’ Vacation
The rainmakers have undeniably taken an extended holiday this summer, and the sparkling fountain surrounded by grapevine-shaded tables tucked behind Firehook Bakery offers a welcome retreat from hot city sidewalks.
Drops
in rain language
have not yet begun to stutter
in the cloud throat.
The thunder mouth is toothless
and lighting has not yet flicked
the spotlights on in the pupil
of the eye.
Until the stoves are lit,
sleeves will be rolled up on the arms of the sun,
another demonstration will erupt
in the clandestine curves of the girl
who in a Trieste piazza has wet
her lips with wine
and the summer will send gangsters
to repulse autumn’s gunmen
from the border of its waves.
—Ronny Someck
Ann and Saul
The Art of Cooking
Julia McWilliams Child (1912-2004) would probably be horrified at the departure from classic cuisine depicted herein, but I post it in a spirit of unequivocal admiration for her blend of the classic and the unconventional that made her both compelling and beloved.
Today is the birthday of the woman who probably did more than any other individual to open the eyes and broaden the palates of American cooks. I recall my mother and her best friend watching reruns of The French Chef and using their families as guinea pigs for meals drawn from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. For which we were not entirely grateful at the time—children being creatures of habit—but which inevitably expanded and uplifted our tastes. Happy Birthday Julia, and merci mille fois.
Today is also the Feast of the Assumption, one of the the many holy days which the French honor in sacred traditional fashion: that is, taking off from work and heading out of town for some R&R (if they are not already there, it being, after all, the month of August). For a comic, please see Assumption.
Jenny
Pikes Peak or Bust
On this day in 1858, Julia Archibold Holmes became the first woman to reach the top of Pikes Peak. For a sketch and a story, please see Mountain Woman.