Feed the Meter

We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.  ~ Herman Melville

Your pocket change helps the homeless, because the street is no place to live.

Gifts from your pockets.

Keeping Up With the Mushroom Factor

Volunteering has been a wonderful experience and I won’t ever stop, I’d miss the people too much. My gardens and home would like to have a robot come take up residence. The weeds think they’ve found heaven and the dust bunnies are multiplying almost as fast as those in nature. The many hours needed for the garden and the house have been used in hospice work and some art museum projects. No objections from me, just the house and garden.

Today is the first day of Spring (!) and the sun is warm, the breeze calming and the pollen is falling. The yellow green pollen dust on the outside furniture was enough to write your name and leave ridges around the letters. It was time to clean the porch, wash the furniture and be ready to sit outside without dying the clothes a putrid shade of yellow.

Warm temperatures and sunshine. No other excuse needed to get out the hose and get busy washing top to bottom. Initially, the pollen washing off the walls was as yellow as the house but soon it was obvious, there was a healthy layer of dust underneath. The hose sprayer needed a new gasket to keep me semi-dry. Ah yes, the mushroom factor. One project leads to another, to another and yet another until you are trying to figure out how to get them all done.

The mushroom factor exploded when I went to look for a gasket in the garage. Yep, you guessed it, the garage is calling for a cleaning. That will be another day since there are two porches in disarray, porch chairs grimy with yellow pollen and dust and the houseplants that need hosing off. The garage can wait for the next rainy day. Since that’s what I’ve said throughout the last two months of milder weather, I guess it might come due before long.

So, what to do in the face of the mushroom factor? Get the gasket, spray the hose and get drenched. When all is wet and dripping (including yourself), decide you need soap and a bucket. Scrub down the furniture, set in the sun. Keep your eyes averted from the garden overrun with weeds. Get the porches clean. Grab a chair that is now clean and dry and contemplate how lovely it would be to visit your patient and volunteer. Staying home is too much work.

Symphony City

Reblogged from Design of the Picture Book:

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by Amy Martin

I highly, HIGHLY recommend clicking over to Amy’s website. She has beautiful work everywhere you look, including some wordless spreads from Symphony City. Her style commands attention while still being sweet and subtle. {I particularly enjoy the Alphabet of Los Angeles. Taco Truck!} And I’m eyeballing one of her prints for my teeny corner of the house.

Read more… 310 more words

Compassion

If we would see others as they see themselves, our shyness would soon become compassion.  ~ Robert Brault

Creative Life

Coloring outside the lines is a fine art.  ~Kim Nance

Friendship

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  ~ Elisabeth Foley

Enough

Thankfully I’m learning everyday.

There is ALWAYS enough.

Blessings, love, laughter, magic and passion.

Start the New Year Right Now

Right now, begin. Take the first step toward the best year of your life.

Isn’t that the focus of your resolution?

“I will have the best year ever.”

So begin, now. Today.

You’ll have a new chance every day

because every day is

a new beginning.

Happy New Year!

Today.

Hopeful Future

“We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise if we have waited in the darkness.”

Believe

Some things have to be believed to be seen.  ~ Ralph Hodgson