Machine

While visiting my parents, my dad, who is retired, showed me his latest project. He likes to fix up old, vintage tractors. Oliver tractors, to be specific. I really like looking at the inner workings of a machine, a real machine with parts that make sense and work together, and don't require a computer hook-up to diagnose problems. To see more pictures from my dad's shop, go here.

Winter in Vermont

Hi folks, I hope you've all had a magical Christmas with family, or friends, or both. I'm back from  a truly beautiful Christmas with my family in the Northeast Kingdom, and in case you haven't heard, they've gotten a little snow. But Vermonters are used to it, which is why you'll find their pantries well-stocked and shovels ready. While it makes driving a challenge, it has a nice way of slowing everyone down a little and sheds a peaceful calm over everything.

I have a lot of neat things to share over the next few days; among them a new collaborative blogging project that you'll hear more about later and that I hope inspires you!

Stay warm!

Shchedryk

In America, we know this song as 'Carol of The Bells,' which is sung as a Christmas song, but it was originally a pre-christian Ukranian folk song sung on New Year's Eve on the Julian calendar (January 13th) and was known to have magical properties.

In 1921, it was adapted as a Christmas Carol, and was played at Carnegie Hall with the new English lyrics.

According to the original lyrics, it is about a swallow that flies into a house and sings about the bounty of the coming year.

If you'd like to hear an edgier, more contemporary version with really nice cinematography, go here.

May your holidays have the warmth of friends and family, and your new year be filled with bounty!

102310 Holiday Shoot in B&W

Today was my first day of vacation, spent drinking too much coffee, and having a splendid holiday lunch with some designer friends in the Short North. Oh, and followed up with a serving of Jeni's Bangkok Peanut ice cream (should I have had the Wildberry Lavender instead? Oh, decisions!).

Today is also the day the 102310 Project group is uploading their ten B&W pictures to Facebook, and I have to confess, as I sit here scrolling through the early entries; I am one rich girl. More than once, I've muttered under my breath, "I wish I'd taken that one." Happy envy is, I think, the sign of true appreciation. Once again, my own entries lacked the sort of planning I wish I'd put into the project, but I can still sit back and look at the collective contributions as they continue to come in ... and nod. This is collaboration at its best.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Annie Lennox

It's nice when some old favorites come out with some new music reviving some old holiday classics. I remember singing this when my sisters and I went carolling in our neighborhood on Christmas Eve. Yes, I'm that old ... happy weekend, everyone!

102310 Holiday Shoot

My friends in the Facebook 102310 Group are gearing up for another shoot, this time it will be the holidays in black & white. We're pretty excited to see what will come out of it, as we have people from all across the country, each with very different styles. I'll share what I get out of the day, but meanwhile perhaps you'll enjoy a few shots I took last year. Oh, and I really want this book. Can someone tell Santa I've been super- good this year?

Cognitive Dissonance

I was thinking today of a Rilke poem from his Sonnets to Orpheus;
Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were
behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.
For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter
that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive.

Winter has indeed come to Central Ohio with a rather fierce grip. We adjust our daily patterns to include layers, and moving the alarm clock up so we can chip away at our cars and allow for a longer drive time. And we try not to fantasize too much about those summer nights on the back patio ... they'll be back, and we'll welcome them with open arms.

Cantara - Dead Can Dance

It was the mid-nineties when my friend Leann and I drove to a small high school auditorium in Cleveland to see DCD. It seemed an odd juxtaposition to us at the time; such an incredible band playing in such an obscure place. But they were full of of such anomalies. I remember being transfixed by how Lisa Girard would remain almost motionless while singing amidst such a swirl of sound. I believe their music was found in the 'world music' section of the store, but that always seemed a trifle inadequate. Not only does their music elude a specific country, it eludes time. If Homer's Iliad needed a soundtrack, this would be it. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Helen of Troy, whose face launched a thousand ships, looked strikingly familiar ...



Happy weekend, friends!

10 Things to Do in December

As I look back on 2010, it was filled with all sorts of highs and lows, but it's certainly helped me focus on the important things. Hence, my list of things I want to do in December:

1. Celebrate.
2. Spend some quality time with my sisters and friends.
3. Sing Christmas carols with Pink Martini.
4. Wrap my gifts with Pantone's Color of the Year 2011.
5. Wander aimlessly. With my camera.
6. Shoot for the 102310 Holidays in B&W project.
7. Give more to the Kidney Foundation.
8. Finish Proust's Swann's Way.
9. Look into that ballet class I promised myself when I finished with classes.
10. Gear up for mysterious developments in 2011.

What are you doing this month?