Most Friday mornings, we walk the few blocks into town for breakfast at the diner. Old trees, mostly ragged Silver Maples, fill the tree lawns that front the even older homes in the historic district. Enroute, we stop to pet the aging yellow lab sunning herself in someone’s front yard — she starts wagging her […]
Category Archives: happiness
Hot town, summer in the city Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty Been down, isn’t it a pity Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city All around, people looking half dead Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head ~The Lovin’ Spoonful “… in cities … one seems to lose […]
“We cannot step outside life’s songs. This music made us; it is our nature.” ~ David Haskell quoted by Maria Popova In the opening scene of the movie, “Taps,” Gregory Hines, deep in the silence of night in a prison cell, hears drops of water on metal. The rhythmic plops make a beat that ultimately moves […]
“Heaven sends us good meat, but the Devil sends cooks.” ~ David Garrick Preparing dinner that night was complicated. Among the two extended families present we had vegetarians, a vegan, and people that were gluten- and lactose-intolerant. The three different pans of lasagna, salad and bread got everyone something to eat. Dessert was […]
“I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt Babe’s tail went up like a flag in the brush ahead. “Point,” my dad commanded, then, “Hold steady … hold.” The warning was more to my brother and […]
“No food can afford a more decisive proof of its nourishing quality, or of its being peculiarly suitable to the health of the human constitution.” ~ Adam Smith We sat in a circle holding our fists in front of us and she circled us singing, “one potato, two potato,” etc. and bumping our fists with […]
What do St. Nicolaus and St. Patrick have in common? They’re both Catholic saints and have Holy Days named in their honor. However, their Holy Days are also holidays that are not observed solely as religious, but assume huge cultural significance, as well. St. Nick is a fat, white-haired, jolly old man in a red […]
In 1735, when Carl Linnaeus organized all the species in the world into one vast taxonomy, he included a section on “Animalia Paradoxa”: creatures, common in folklore and myth or attested to by far-flung explorers, that he felt compelled to itemize yet deemed unlikely to exist. ~ Kathryn Schulz “I hate that noise,” she said, […]
“Climate change will increase the risks and hazards facing urban populations in numerous ways, from increasing heat waves to more intense rainfall to rising sea levels. For some of these risks, trees and other natural features can be a way to reduce the threat, in effect serving as part of the climate adaptation strategy of […]
All good solutions are beautiful. They have proportion, balance and harmony – all parts fit with one another, and the solutions fit rightly into the bigger picture. ~ Boast and Martin, Masters of Change If you’re doing transit-oriented development without adding transit, then what’s the point? ~ Peter Moskowitz My adult son groans when I […]
Writes of Nature 