violets on a mountaintop

furry violets in Joseph Allen Skinner State Park, on Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts

Kestrel on the line, kestrel lifeless on the hard rock highway, kestrel in the sky, Canada goose in a still pond,
no leaves only reddish buds, crumbly, swollen streams and rivers, skeins of goose bodies dot the leaden greys,
sole redwinged black bird on every tiny tree top, nuthatch hops, tufted mouse tits in the hemlocks, jayblues swoop and jump, chickadees, crows everywhere, new trailing arbutus leaves but no buds
Picking out 2 fields edged with strong pine scarfs, wrapping and clutching -- what is the pine hold? is it because the first visions came then and it was a time of hope ("Lordy mercy if there comes a time...')
The Desire for Wood.

My brave forsythia looks so promising; found 2 bird nests in the neighbors ancient forsythia hedge.
Gravel snow and river, snow on the high hills, Caution water not drinkable signs posted at Slocum springs,
SawMill burger sign spins, at the Harley shop in the forest "Support the Troops, End the War" ("Sally go round the roses, the roses, they can't hurt you") Why doesnt Obama or Hillary talk about class unequalities instead of focusing on the colour of our skins? Mike Moore sure talks about the income gap but does not call it class; I'm not sure about Nader although he does talk about eco inequality,
Listening to the computerized weather voice for part of an hour, coffee-trucks: truck-coffees. Fluff of a dead skunk across from the Catholic church on the hill, parishioner steps into the road for the Good Friday service and steps back out of the way of the incoming car, (squeal of the stove door heralds warmth of wood, the firery furnace), writer strings together spring, resurrection and vampires' undead-ness, and 2 shows deal with techincal descriptions of death by crucifixtion -- what's the fixation? I like my hotsauce closet very much flaming endorphines of the state, on the sidewalk in the rain a wide wide Bandaid wet but never wide enough to cover all the valleys and wooded hills, with snow, ice and discovery.
Another copper thief starts a fire, it's cold, then it's warm who's got the cat?

late talk with the northern man out of his watershed, strung out on sere edges, the barren, the stark, slashing, and burning up with art, whirly-gigging a werld (whirled) (world) dance, poring over words on a page in the long quiet

bring this

On the red spool table bring:
Dylan Thomas book
Ken Rexroth paper poetry stapled two
book Beat Reader, 2 guys on the cover
envelope rejection slip
tan corduroy hanging in closet patches on elbows
2 shoes

snow for to ski

X-country skiing in the McDonald woods mud trails, snow was deep and a red-tailed hawk overhead.

winter's hard slumber

Tree. Rock. Cold. Cat. Wood. Fire.
That sums up the past 3 months of winter. Every night we look at the neatly-made bed as a place to go and drink a cup of sleep -- it is there, we can see it, the unshaped deep dark softness -- but every late early am it isn't there, it all goes sifting through my fingers, sleep

Here is a string from the comics page one day:
"here ya go Bently, ok ok Johnny what is it, when our coffee is all gone, what is it andy what have you found, a bowl of corn flakes and a bottle of beer, but something is mighty fishy with this heist, betrayed by tuna, my whole world is upside-down, sigh weeks of fretting over Ben all for nothing, it's vital I study the geyser of steam at once, I wonder if this dress needs washing, Betty and I are going shopping for clothes! you can join us!"

syncro I used to own

I used to own this 1991 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro Minivan!
view more photos here

223,426 miles

• I was the original owner (and the legendary "little ol lady", having babied it and rarely took it over 61 mph!) I never had reason to take it "off-roading" -- except for the dirt roads that can be seen in some of the photos. Often went on state forest dirt roads for TrailCares (hiking trail maintenance).
• 4 + L speed Manual transmission, Baulk-synchronized with additional compound Low-speed traction gear
• water-cooled gasoline engine, 2.1 L fuel-injected engine, digifant engine management system
• Syncro 4-wheel-drive, ("all wheel drive"), manually-operated locking rear differential (what is this?)
• 14-inch steel wheels,
• high ground clearance, skidplates underneath
• Folding rear bench seat/bed combination *,
• 2 rear-facing removable seats **,
grey cloth interior, rear compartment heater, 18.5 gallon fuel tank.
spent hundreds of nights outdoors in the van just parked in the driveway!
** Seats and bed are easy to fold up & down and/or take in or out-- see photos...
• Power rack & pinion steering, power front disc/rear drum brakes, independent front suspension, coil springs & telescopic shock absorbers, front & rear, double-jointed drive shafts

.

screen door

Blue ribbony day-o-way was yesterday for up the storm windows on the storm doors of the storm home we did put (for the first time in 2 years!). It was only beacause we were in need of screenage and thus kilt two birds with one cat... Little Miss Kitty (a.k.a. Frances Jr. Laptop) is not allowed to climb anything including stairs for 2 weeks so we blocked the stairs and put up the 2 storm door glasses.

cold cardinals comments

2 cardinals in the back pines in the morning, bright red blobs. So Very cold; made 2 meals of soup on the woodstove today.

I sure wish this blogger had a blog to link to but in lieu of that here are their thought-provoking commentary on society and the arts: read human stain's 2 comments here:
http://youngstownart.blogspot.com/2008/01/graffiti-pics-from-bears-den.html

wood day

Got up, fed frannie the cat, started fire in wood stove, made bowl of granola and toast & bologna sandwich and boiled water on woodstove for 2 cups instant coffee and read Farenheit 451; swept up, tested & strung up 5 strings of christmas lights, put cat out, washed dishes, made noodles and beans and beef veggie soup, watched episode of Sherlock Holmes, brought in wood from garage, found cat, put out cat, worked on dozen webpages of my site, read Funny Times newspaper, listened to some of A Christmas Carol. Wind blowing, boiled water on woodstove, listened to Prairie Home Companion 2 times, cat at the window, let cat in, work more on webpages, cat sleeping in front of fire, fed fire all day

travelling

Noisy freezing snow & sneet, cat on the carpet, red wool plaid, breaking up wood, "wandering thirteen valleys crying out, it coulda been me". Two nites ago warmer than it had been, cottontail bunny hopping around in headlights, 2 dogs run in front of the truck, one dark right before the model railroad church ( Uncommon Carriers), man running across street with coca cola. Kitty ignores her water bowl and drinks out of the giant green plastic watering can

cold hard dark

Peals of thunder and large leaves falling fast.
A lot of raining, little kitty makes itself at home half under a sleeping bag, cooked squash for supper, late for the nursing home in the black cold hard dark, in the black hard rain

No War No More for you and me

No War No More book is now available here: click to view at authorhouse.com

click here to preview only

Description:
These are poems, essays, artwork and photos for the cause of peace. We take a stand for peace, independently and collectively, artistically and politically. In these times it is imperative not to let slip through one's hands the opportunity to say again and again, with whatever means possible, creative and peaceful, that war is wrong, that love is the only path to peace, justice and freedom, and that we will not stray from this path no matter the consequences. This idea fed this project and I hope will feed the minds and hearts of those who share in our efforts by reading this book. A.F.Jenkins is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism & a peace activist. Her photojournalism can be seen at www.allreelimages.com Greenwood/Blue Lotus Press and No War No More grew out of the ideas and hopes of a few activists in the Mahoning Valley in Ohio. The philosophy of our press is rooted in a Buddhist, environmentalist and social consciousness.

Product Details:
Printed: 92 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, black and white interior ink
ISBN: 9781434309839
Publisher: Greenwood Blue Lotus Press
Copyright: © 2007 Standard Copyright License
Language: English
Country: United States

preview only here:

http://www.lulu.com/content/791399

purchase here (authorhouse.com)

purchase through Amazon.com

too warm

Kids screaming in the too warm early dark; too warm the spider ponders the bounty of tiny gnat snacks filling its web; lights are on and the pool balls click: snickery dickery
Too warm, perspiring on the photo-maker, on the photo-taker, sun fries and our skin crawls, earth has a fever and us is viral
All we can envision is cupcakes, sweetcakes, wooden rocking chairs and a harmonica that gives you pnuemonia

"we're bringing in the sheaves" john-barley-corn, squirrels arguing in the oak leaves, and chipmunks under the wood pile, squealing

The heart-shaped pink-coloured catfood is gone but who ate it? Doug says, "meadow brother," coughs and pushes in another Stargate
All the Leaves Are Green and autumn will come with a shattering crash...little do we know.

chaos smells bad

"'The chaos smells very bad,'... p.352
Watch out for art, Crake used to say. As soon as they start doing art we're in trouble. Symbolic thinking in any kind would signal downfall, in Crake's view. Next they'd be inventing idols, and funerals, and graven goods, and the afterlife, and sin, ...and kings, and then slavery and war. "p.361
Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (New York: Doubleday, 2003) , p. 352, p. 361.

Sending an unknown dark seed spirally down the drain, an oppressive sense of doom descends--a vision that heaves outward, "I can see the end and its about thirty miles from here..."

walk of golden things

cicadas begin to sing walking back from Girard-town we see a Baltimore oriole brilliant from the viaduct over the railroad and also goldenroad (or goldenrod...) blooms now

bricks and stones

bricks
Originally uploaded by qichao

just a random check of contacts' latest photos popped this into view while just happened to have WWOZ playing , thanks Samantha ( her music place ) Patti Smith just came on with a stuttering promo for "community" radio as opposed to "Public" radio (yahooie). The deejays are great...JellyRollJustice is coming up next, then it's Problem Child ("Wake up with the Problem Child in the morning and your problems will go away")...Tom Waits (singing not a DJ), other singers:"take me to the electric chair", "dig my grave with a silver spoon" and "please help my brothers in Vietnam"...
http://www.flickr.com/people/qichao/ Bricks photo is by amanda qichao who has terrific work displayed on Flickr

New York City

shooting the city on the run sticking it out the Mercedes, drop it in the digital paintbox, happy as fleas on a dog tipping over garbage cans, coffee on an aluminum table, can they get that cab going?

windstorm

raining and storming llllllllllllll.............llllllllll high wind gusts ripping the limbs off trees, sadly. A baby coon cute as a brown-eyed button scramples tippy-toed over the porch stairs while its slack-limbed owner holds its leash. A large dog watches with great interest. On the return trip a rabbit glows red-eyed at the edge of the road with a mouthful of lawn still hours before dawn.

blue-eyed beauties

Our sweet blue-eyed grass from the backyard lawn now reverted to meadow, they are positively explosive this year, I never saw such tall, thick and heavy clumps, whata lotta precious fiery blue jewels they are, blue-eyed beauties springing all about the yard singing about rain and sunshine and heat. Cardinal sits quietly on the oak branch overhead watching.
One can pick them out from all the other non-blooming (don't want to say dull!...) clumps of grasses because the grass leaves are like little thin tiny iris leaves for they are in the iris family. Here is more info: http://2bnthewild.com/plants/H192.htm They say "There are many species under the rubric Blue-eyed Grass with only slight details of their form to distinguish them. They are not grasses of course but instead related to the Irises."
Index- plants in this FamilyIridaceae / Iris

I assume it is the Eastern Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium atlanticum) but will have to measure.

Eagle's Nest flying over the land

One of the coolest and most exciting projects I ever participated in was helping to build this trail shelter (Eagle's Nest Shelter, on the Blue Mountain straddling Berks and Schyulkill counties, Pennsylvania.) In this photo (see credits below) I've circled the house we were living in at the time in Bernville. The National Guard based at Fort Indiantown Gap, used this task for practice, using their skycrane to ever-so-gently whisk our precious Swedish-styled scribed construction up to the top of the mountain in the blink of an eye. The Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club (based in Reading) led by David Crosby constructed it at Rentschler's Arboretum in Bernville. Cindy Ross and her husband Todd Glatfelter showed us the scribing method, a secure method of sculpting out the logs to hug each other.

This photo was taken by Chris Johns, for National Geographic, page 99 in Mountain Adventure: Exploring the Appalachain Trail

c. 1988 by Ron Fisher, photos by Sam Abell illustrations by Alan Singer
Special Publications Division National Geographic Society, Washington D.C.
ISBN 0-87044-668-1

http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Adventure-Exploring-Appalachian-Trail/dp/B000I1H13A/ref=sr_1_24/102-2890743-0756913?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179890243&sr=1-24