Stay N Save

A little neighbourhood market with a great name.  Kind of makes you want to just move in and stock up on the bargains.

free-range rainbows

How is it that there is amazing beauty in pollution in a paved parking lot?  The iridescent petroleum film on a rain puddle this afternoon captured my eye. Just look at the lovely colours!  I still prefer the rainbows in the sky - they are less toxic.  Support organic, free-range rainbows!

potpurri

Moss on the Garage Roof

I pass these windows daily

See! Blue Sky - we can wear shorts

Master of the Digital Universe? - Not me!

 

A long Easter weekend and I am signing off for the weekend. I am not sure what I think about the caption on this Yahoo page, but  I am leaving the computer off for the weekend.  I plan to take joy in what I can do without being plugged in, tuned in or connected. We are all connected, but I doubt that it has much to do with the internet.  This stuff is fun and interesting, but what is real, who loves you, and what can you do to make the world a better place?  

Happy Easter

Raindrops Resting on a Lupine Leaf

The pleasure of stopping and looking at these few raindrops on a lupine leaf could have been missed if I didn't take the time to stop for a second look.  

Could I have survived without noticing? Certainly.

Was it worth stopping? Certainly. 

 

Contentment

Contentment

Every time I enter the mall

I have an expectant sense

That there might be

Something here that I need.

Something there,

If I looked carefully

Or searched long enough

Or asked the right question,

Would improve my lot in life.

For all my shopping,

The only thing

I can never find at the mall

Is contentment.

Jim May

July 11, 2010

Technology improves over time

 

If technology improves over time, why can I still make calls on a phone my grandmother had, yet most cellphones don't make it to their 3rd birthday? And why does a $25 dollar 10-year old dishwasher from Craigs' list only need a 35 dollar part to get it going again, while my new dishwasher, purchased last May, hasn't washed a dish since February, despite numerous phone calls (many of them on my rotary phone) and visits from the tech guy including replacing and shorting out two circuit boards??? makes you wonder.

Dreaming of Lilacs

Over this last week, something has told the lilac bushes that it will soon be their time to shine.  I take these buds as evidence that Spring is really, really in the works.

Both white and, well, lilac lilacs are showing their buds. These purple buds remind me of miniature grapes.

The scent of hyacinth

Taking out the garbage has been an un-favorite pastime of mine for around 45 years.  One evening this week when my son and I were going out to the lane with garbage and recycling,  I was treated to the intoxicating aroma of hyacinths in bloom: unmistakable, delightful, unexpected.  Although they were unseen in the darkness, they made their presence known-- one of the unexpected joys of the chores of daily life.

A Perspective on Stained Glass on a Rainy Day

Through Stained Glass Darkly


On a gloomy day
looking through
stained glass
darkly,
at darkness
still yields colour

Not the vibrant colours
of brilliant winter sunlight
blazing, streaming through
making your eyes ache

Not the rich warmth
of candle-lit church
reaching out into the
frosty midnight
beckoning, inviting
with strains of music
and curious holy words

On this rainy spring afternoon
I see not the light
given colour as it is
passing through the
stained glass
but I see the dull subtle
impurities that make the colours
and I see my own reflection
in the light rebounding
from fragments of coloured glass


Jim May, April 5, 2011

Forsythia

Walking on a cool, grey morning, I was delighted by cheerful forsythia peeking over a fence in a back lane. What a pleasant contrast between the sombre weather and this spring flower.  Even in a neglected corner of a back lane, beauty abounds.

Public Access

 

There are things which are accessible to us, such as daffodils, which just make me want to smile.  they can keep the closed parking garage.  I don't want it. I'd much rather be outside.

I want to go back there someday

 My daughter has just returned from Spain - Lucky!

Now I am thinking of trips I have taken.  One of the most amazing places I have been is Iona, Scotland.  -  a deep sense of history and spirituality coupled with austere beauty.

In the immortal words of Gonzo from a song in the Muppet Movie:

This looks familiar, vaguely familiar,
Almost unreal, yet, it's too soon to feel yet.
Close to my soul, and yet so far away.
I'm going to go back there someday.