First Fall

The very first leaf of fall.
I love how each glows from behind,
Though they are all the same first leaf.

A little halo, grounded by it's gentle journey.

Digesting New Words

 Just discovered some new-to-me words that I am still digesting. They are so wonderfully filling!

So delicate each leaf
So mighty your bough
Branches bend humbly
Yet strength be your vow
Waters in libation
Winds in embrace
Under your majesty
Beneath I in place
Seasons of change
Sun, moon a distant star
Listen I to all the secrets
Whispers near and far.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Wee Hours

 I find the wee hours of the night to be my cup of tea. It's quiet. Walden Pond kind of quiet. You can think, and the only thing that stirs are the thoughts inside your own head.
On the contrary, the early hours of the day always catch up with me undesirably, unfortunately. They come too soon, and I always greet them with the annoyance of one who should know better, since she's squandered sleep to the wee ones.
Yet this cycle goes on, over and over, night after night. And dreadful morning after morning. I seek out the luxury and discipline of a good night's sleep with good intentions. Somehow, it rarely finds me.

Look Up

 There is one last amazing frontier remaining, where new discoveries emerge constantly. It's not the tundra, and it's not the deep. Just look up, it's right there. Last night a dark dragon stood in the evening sky. Today a wide patch of blue forms a bluefish from the white, parting clouds. Tomorrow it will look very different. There might be colors on the horizon, or streaks of gray. The paintbrush will be dipped and refreshed with new paints and textures, constantly, -- layers of them. Leaving discoveries wide open to anyone who cares to trek the adventure. I almost hope for streaks of gray that just say September. Embrace September.

Some Glad Morning

I admit that I love music just a little bit more than I love books. My intent is not to combine the two together on this blog, for the most part, but with this CD by Cindy Morgan re-releasing and becoming available at Target, I wanted to re-post a review of the CD that I did for my music website when it originally released awhile back. It's a really great collection of songs and this new version also has songs on it not on the version I reviewed.

If you shop at Target, just go to their little music kiosk and you should be able to hear song samples there.

 "All this fear it binds me up and ties me to the floor

I wish I wouldn't answer when it's knocking on the door
There's not a sparrow falls to the ground
You don't turn your head to the sound
Pick it up so sweetly in your hand"
~~"Worry" by Cindy Morgan

Regency Roads

I'd give almost anything right now for "50 miles of good road." With all the road construction going on lately, you realize you sometimes take good roads for granted, ...whether they are Regency roads, or not.

When the roads get put back together, I'll be grateful. For now, I'll trod them carefully, and with just a little angst that mine are not Regency ones with country paths for stretching with rests from the travel between Regency miles. Once again, born in the wrong era!

"It must be very agreeable 

for her to be settled within 

so easy a distance of 

her own family and friends."

"An easy distance, do you call it? 

It is nearly fifty miles."

"And what is fifty miles of good road? 

Little more than half a day's journey. 

Yes, I call it a very easy distance."

~~Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 32

Every Girl Wants to Be the Fairy Tale

Every girl wants to be the fairy tale. I remember seeing these Vogue photos by Annie Leibovitz on other sites before, and just being stunned by the sheer beauty. First published in 2005, they show the story of, "Beauty and the Beast."

 Layer upon layer of decandent photography, for lack of a better term.

The 1995 "Pride and Prejudice," with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle had the same kind of decadence, 

if you know what I mean.

Want more? There's also one for Alice in Wonderland.
Click here for an older post. 

And more at this site. And don't forget Shalott.

I Left It There

My heart is in the trees.

I think I left it there as I walked

Beneath their branches,

Heavy with leaves and nests,

Tall and stretching to heaven.

Rooted strong and thick,

Shimmering in sunlight. 

They had me at hello.
~~Bookishkind

"Why are there trees I never walk under
But large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?"
~Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1892

To the Hollyhock

I got to walk in Hollyhocks today. So lovely. It's like stepping back 100 years ago. I'm not sure why Hollyhocks seem such an old fashioned flower, but they do, and they are.

To the Hollyhock -

Sweet and pink, long and tall,

Surrounding like a fortress wall,

One hundred and some years ago,

Quaint and lovely, just as now.

~~Bookishkind

Surrender

Google images

The faucet is on full blast right now.
Spilling out so fast, I can hardly contain the overflow. Easily it pours out, a welcome flood.
Let the flood come and wash me in it's path.
I surrender.

Already Flowers Here

Tomorrow, I am going back to the grove I visited exactly one year ago last summer, where there were paths and paths of gorgeous flowers. But there are already flowers here.

'Tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes!'
~William Wordsworth, 

"Lines Written in Early Spring," Lyrical Ballads, 1798

August Fundraiser

I am kicking off an August Fundraiser in the bookshop to help raise research money for my great-niece who has a motor neuron disease. During August, all of the proceeds from books will be donated for research into her disease. If you like books, and this is something you'd be interested in, feel free to shop the bookstore. Thanks so much!

Walden Cottage

I have named the little cabin, "Walden Cottage."

 It will never be mine, but I do get to drive past it all of the time. Truly the summer of Thoreau.

"Most of the luxuries 

and many of the so-called 

comforts of life are not only 

not indispensable, but positive 

hindrances to the elevation 

of mankind." - Walden

Wanderers

 

I don't understand these youth who come straight out of the pocket,

And know right where they are heading.

I only know how to obey the call of the wanderers, 

Who don't even know they've been wandering, 

And have only now reached the shore.

Their story is deeper, though harder, stronger, though longer. 

It weaves and strays onto paths that take years to untangle from, 

Still, it has them where they are today. 

They have bloomed, though lately.

~Copyright 2011, Bookish Kind

Photo by John William Waterhouse - "Ophelia" 1889

Everything Told of the Sea

"Having come so fresh to the sea, I have got but little salted."
"As I looked over the water, I saw the isles rapidly wasting away , the sea nibbling voraciously at the continent."
"Every landscape which is dreary enough has a certain beauty to my eyes, and in this instance its permanent qualities were enhanced by the weather."
"Everything told of the sea...sometimes the rib of a whale was woven into the fence by the roadside."
 "The owner of these trees invariably used the personal pronoun in speaking of them ; as, "I got him out of the woods, but he doesn't bear."
"Such spots can be beautiful only to the returning native, not to him who has just come out of the woods."

But he did find it beautiful, after all.

This was never intended to be the summer of Thoreau, but you move with the tides, so to speak. I just bought this old copy of his book, "Cape Cod," after discovering a paperback version of it which I am currently reading. I am only on page 42, and already have several favorite quotes. What "Walden," is to woods, "Cape Cod," is to the sea. You can read it online here.

"We do not associate the idea of antiquity with the ocean, nor wonder how it looked a thousand years ago, as we do of the land, for it was equally wild and unfathomable always."
"On the whole, we were glad of the storm, which would show us the ocean in its angriest mood."