fare forward, voyagers
  • Willie: Evidence that God Loves Us
    Willie Nelson playing his guitar, Trigger
  • After an illness, walking the dog | Jane Kenyon
    Wet things smell stronger,
and I suppose his main regret is that
he can sniff just one at a time.
In a frenzy of delight
he runs way up the sandy road—
scored by freshets after five days
of rain. Every pebble gleams, every leaf. 

When I whistle he halts abruptly
and steps in a circle,
swings his extravagant tail.
The he rolls and rubs his muzzle
in a particular place, while the drizzle
falls without cease, and Queen Anne’s lace
and Goldenrod bend low.

The top of the logging road stands open
and light. Another day, before
hunting starts, we’ll see how far it goes,
leaving word first at home.
The footing is ambiguous.

Soaked and muddy, the dog drops,
panting, and looks up with what amounts
to a grin. It’s so good to be uphill with him,
nicely winded, and looking down on the pond.

A sound commences in my left ear
like the sound of the sea in a shell;
a downward, vertiginous drag comes with it.
Time to head home. I wait
until we’re nearly out to the main road
to put him back on the leash, and he
—the designated optimist—
imagines to the end that he is free.
  • Sunrise Valentines 📷
    3 Valentine heart decorations in a tree at sunrise
  • Orange You Grateful for Orange(s)?
    Orange slice on an orange tray
  • Elm Street, Dallas

    Vintage photo of Elm Street in Dallas at night, with neon Pegasus sign atop a building in the distance
    1942 📷

  • Ancient DNA maps migration in the Roman Empire

    Interesting.

  • Lovers 📷
    Birds on power lines against a stormy sky.
  • Here goes 🌱

    One of the benefits of gardening in the South. January 27: tomatoes are sprouting and onions are planted.

    tomato seedlings onion sets planted in a vegetable garden
  • For savory breakfast types

    Eureka! I finally discovered a good use for whey left over from yogurt-making. Add it to the pot when cooking steel-cut oatmeal. Makes for a delicious tangy breakfast. (BTW, the soft-boiled egg and s.c. oatmeal combo is dynamite.) 🍳

  • Fellowship - Christian Wiman
    Tragedy and Christianity are incommensurable,
he declared, which we’d have chalked to bluster
had he not, within the month, held a son
hot from the womb but cold to his kiss,
and over a coffin compact as a toolbox wept
in the wrecked unreachable way that most resist,
and that all of us, where we are most ourselves,
turn away from.
                              Bonded and islanded 
by the silence, we waited there,
desperate, with our own pains, to believe,
desperate, with our own pains, not to.
  • Hope Springs... You Know

    Started tomato plants by seed today in the garage. Will use grow lights when (if) they sprout, then repot, then into the ground come Spring. Never tried doing it this way before. Fingers crossed.

  • Lovely Breakfast Companion
    a pink amaryllis flower in a vase. 📷
  • from The Great Good Place by ray oldenburg
    ... the third place tavern combines drinking with conversation such that each improves the other. The talking/drinking synergism is basic to the pub, tavern, taverna, bistro, saloon, estaminet, osteria -- whatever it is called and wherever it is found... [J]ust as conversation is enhanced by the temperate use of alcohol, the artful and witty game of conversation moderates consumption of liquor. As Tibor Scitovsky remarked with respect to those who know how to use a public drinking facility, "a half-pint of beer is to talk as bed is to making love -- one can do without, but does better with.”
  • My Turf Club / Tuxedo No. 2
    • .75 oz Old Tom Gin
    • .75 oz London Dry Gin (Tanq or Beefeater)
    • 1.5 oz dry vermouth (I prefer Dolin)
    • .25 oz Luxardo liqueur (worth having around for other classic cocktails, such as the Aviation)
    • 2 dashes anise liqueur (absininthe, pernod, etc.)
    • 2 dashes orange bitters
    • 2 dashes Angostura bitters
    • lemon twist garnish (important!)
    So beautifully balanced. [chef's kiss emoji goes here.]
  • Not a bad mission statement

    “We aim to humanize those who have been objectified.”
       – Jessie Kornberg, Director, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles

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