This is the 10th or fifteenth Wish List I’ve done with Art Teacher Sue Silverstein, my dear friend, a living Saint, and a brilliant teacher at Bishop Gibbons Catholic School in Schenectady, N.Y. This is a sneak preview. The list is officially going up tomorrow, but you can get it … | Continue reading
I’m fascinated by exploring fresh, more intimate, and emotional flowers. This often leads me to capture images of flowers beyond the literal and standard ones we’re all accustomed to. I’ve been told that my flowers are different, and that’s precisely what I strive for to present … | Continue reading
Merricat has ignored Zip ever since he arrived. He’s figured out how to make friends with the sheep; he stands outside the fence – he knows exactly how to use a wall – and sniffs noses until they know his smell. Smell is how sheep tell each other apart and know one another. Now M … | Continue reading
When I became serious about flower photos, I became serious about Georgia O’Keeffe. Her fame was not associated with hot new art styles and trends but with her different visions of nature and flower photography. She wanted to make art that brought people back to looking closely. … | Continue reading
Today is a multi-holiday day for the souls: Labor Day, and soon, All Saints Day and All Souls Day—great days to help others. I can’t think of a better way to honor the souls, lift our souls, or respect and honor the dead. As colder weather approaches and school starts, the pressu … | Continue reading
Is it always respectful to mourn death so intensely? Or, put another way, is it sometimes disrespectful to mourn them rather than celebrate their lives? To many, this is heresy, but to other cultures, it is a matter of respect, not contempt. This came to mind when I saw and looke … | Continue reading
The big news for me this Labor Day is the Flower Bomb, something new I’m trying in my flower photographer. I’ll post some of the first Flower Bomb Photos in my Flower Art Post this afternoon. This is a new experiment for me, and an exciting one. Check it out; I hope you like it. … | Continue reading
I’m still sick, and we have another heat wave, so I’m confined to the farmhouse. Okay, I can’t go out to take photos, but I can put up some of the ones I’ve taken recently that I like. Color is color, after all. I expect to be fully operational tomorrow and follow Maria’s advice … | Continue reading
In 2,000, I left the familiar behind, including my family, and set off on a Hero Journey that was frightening, challenging, and full of danger. It was a difficult thing to do, an awful thing to do in many ways, and it led to my life now, but today, looking back. With the benefit … | Continue reading
Sarah selects the items on the Wish List for us to purchase. This holiday weekend, she’s requested three inexpensive things and the chance to make our own choices. We can significantly impact many people with just a few pennies (or a little more if we feel generous – Tide is alwa … | Continue reading
Good morning, and happy holiday. I got pretty sick yesterday but recovered overnight, and I went outside with Maria to take some pictures this morning and test my health. I’m much better. I have never been good at resting, and sometimes, my body takes the issue out of my hands. I … | Continue reading
I’m trying something new with my new (used) lens: simple portraits of especially beautiful flowers I come across. I can’t say more now; I got sick today and am heading to be. I’m using the 50-millimeter. Hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great weekend. | Continue reading
I’ll take most of Sunday off, so I need to rest my eyes, body, and soul. Blessings to you all. In the above photo, Zip continued his search for Alvin, the chipmunk. He got nowhere today, either. | Continue reading
Sarah made two choices for Army of Good Cambridge Pantry food support: canned potatoes and chocolate chip muffins – getting ready for school to open again. I added two more because I know Sarah is out of them and because they are so popular: spaghetti, meatballs, and tie-quid det … | Continue reading
I wish you all a peaceful and meaningful Holiday Weekend. Thanks for your support and generosity. I will be pushing for food pantry support all through the weekend, and I will be blogging and taking some photos at a slightly reduced level. I’m hoping to sleep more as well. I know … | Continue reading
I went out for a few minutes to take some flower photos – I am resting more, but I couldn’t help it. Zip is my photography assistant. These Days, when I show up with a camera on the porch, he curls up underneath and pops his head out periodically just to let me know he […] | Continue reading
I’ve been seeing colors differently since my cataract surgery; I was at Bernards Farm down the road from us, saw this beautiful lineup of tomatoes, and took this photo. Maria and I lead lives of change and exploration; we are always eager to explore something new; it’s exciting. … | Continue reading
Maria is deep into her newest creation, a quilt titled “We’re Not Going Back.” She does not argue politics or even like to talk about them much; she uses her art to show her feelings and support her causes. I’m excited about this new quilt; it is just getting started. It is timel … | Continue reading
Sarah has found a special Amazon offering that allows us to buy two of the healthiest and most popular vegetables for less than one dollar each. This is a golden opportunity to get these items for pennies and have enough to stock them for a while. (Photo: Thanks for the salad dre … | Continue reading
Zip is a ham. He loves to be in every photo we take. The camera loves him back. Manure spread. It is heavy The Prince examines his kingdom My Garden Bed Apples for Lulu Autumn Leaves. I miss the color but I love Autumn light. More apples for the lucky donkeys and […] | Continue reading
“Well — I made you take time to look at what I saw, and when you took time to really notice my flower, you hung all your associations with flowers on my flower, and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower — and […] | Continue reading
Maria has begun work on a new quilt called “We Won’t Go Back,” using vintage quilts and her artistry. She just started work on it yesterday, and I wanted to share that with you; it looks exciting already. You can follow it on her blog, fullmoonfiberart.com I’m excited to see it. … | Continue reading
Today, we urgently seek your assistance in focusing on a crucial food item for the pantry patrons: rice. (Maria took the photo above, which was only for Sara. And thanks for your support for Soup And Salad Day; it was successful. ) Rice is a perfect meal supplement that can al … | Continue reading
Author Philis Rose wrote this piece about Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny and their powerful and inspiring marriage. Maria and I were both touched by it and saw something of us in what Rose wrote about them. We are not the same in some ways but similar in others. We re … | Continue reading
Another beautiful day, another walk around the farm with Maria early in the morning. The peaceable kingdom was all around us. Zip taunted Maria to play, and donkeys royally waited for their brushing and apples, chewing cud. Zip got to insert himself in the photo above. I was … | Continue reading
Maria likes sketching her surroundings while waiting for me on book tours, at doctor’s offices, and in hospitals during surgeries. She started this sketch in 2011 while waiting for me while I was giving a book talk. She never finished it but decided to take it to the cataract sur … | Continue reading
“Primarily recognized for her paintings of flowers, Georgia O’Keeffe is a pioneer of American art. Her flower paintings were a crucial step in the evolution of her work as a modernist painter. Ever since their inception, they have garnered both praise and disdain from critics who … | Continue reading
Our Earliest Ancestor Appeared Soon After Earth Formed by Paul Gilster | Aug 28, 2024 | Astrobiology and SETI | 51 comments Until we learn whether or not life exists on other planets, we extrapolate on the basis of our single living world. Just how long it took life to develop is … | Continue reading
I see it’s beginning to show some October Light, the photographer’s best light. The light is getting shorter, the mornings are darker, and the leaves are starting to decay and fall. Autumn makes me sad. It was a holdover from returning to school, which I exceedingly hated. Here, … | Continue reading
“So I said to myself, I’ll paint what I see what the flower is to me, but I’ll paint it big, and they will be surprised into taking the time to look at it – I will make even New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers...” – Georgia O’Keeffe. If I were to study flower art, … | Continue reading
It was intriguing to hear three political pundits on cable news today assert that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have overcome the easy part and are now facing the tough stuff. If I’m not mad, they seem to have dealt with the tough stuff and are already moving straight to better stuf … | Continue reading
I’ve got a used 50 mm lens to try out for 30 days (with a trade-in). I like the soft feeling of it. It will help with flower photography and also with acene shots like these below. I want my photography to keep going and getting better. This lens takes photos I can’t take with my … | Continue reading
Today, we’re going back to basics: Parmesan cheese and a favorite: freshly cut diced canned potatoes. This food pantry stands out by not simply accepting what is given to it by government food banks; it tries to find out what people really want and what they miss. The government … | Continue reading
Are Interstellar Quantum Communications Possible? by Paul Gilster | Aug 21, 2024 | Astrobiology and SETI | 57 comments A favorite editor of mine long ago told me never to begin an article with a question, but do I ever listen to her? Sometimes. Today’s lead question, then, is thi … | Continue reading
I wrote all afternoon and then went to the back porch to meditate. I found I had company. Zip loves to meditate with me, and I enjoy meditating with him. We connect somehow in that way. Cats have a mystical site that I am only just beginning to understand. Zip seems somehow to re … | Continue reading
“Don’t underestimate yourself. You can wake up. You can be compassionate. You need a little bit of practice to be able to touch the best that is in you. Enlightenment, mindfulness, understanding, and compassion are in you. Very simple practices – meditative walking, mindful breat … | Continue reading
Thank you for the tremendous work and generosity you have shown the Cambridge Food Pantry. Because of you, all the foods below would not have been available to the hundreds of people who come to the food pantry and are struggling to feed themselves and their families. This is so … | Continue reading
First, a significant shift in media influence is underway. TikTok and Instagram are emerging as the most influential and powerful sources of information and cultural insights, even overshadowing the disgruntled traditional media. They are also mighty cultural and political forces … | Continue reading
The food pantry needs cleanliness and flavoring; hand soap is one of those things that people who don’t have enough money for food can’t afford to buy. They always have to make painful choices. Yet, as any family knows, hand soaps are essential. Sadly, soap is often bypassed in f … | Continue reading
As a lifelong lover of police procedures – NBC produced a bunch of them, and of British procedures – Adam Dalgleish and Vera, Morse, Lewis, and Shetland are my favorites – my all-time American favorite is “Homicide” from NBC, which debuted in 1993 and is now streaming tonight on … | Continue reading
“Nobody sees a flower, really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time...” – Georgia O’Keeffe. I’ve agreed to try out a used 50 mm lens with an L Leica mount. I’m wary of it. It’s very inexpensive and scratched up, but […] | Continue reading
As many of you know (for some, it’s more than you want to know), I have been on a spiritual path, facing my faults and troubles and trying to figure out how to become a better human being than I am or have been. One of the primary goals I seized on was to find […] | Continue reading
Sarah calls them “dark horse” items. When she ordered them, she had no idea how popular they would or wouldn’t be. Guess what? They are both wildly popular. “They disappeared immediately,” she said, and she can’t get them from the food bank, but her patrons hope for them to retur … | Continue reading
The blog is free, and so are my flower photos and the stories of Zip, Zinnia, Bud, Fate, Lulu, Fanny, the Imperious Hens, farm and landscape pictures, free e-mail blog deliveries, and the blog itself. It has never been better, focused, functional, or beautiful. People also thank … | Continue reading
For years now, Maria has started Monday mornings the same way. She gets up at sunrise, puts on her boots, grabs her iPhone, and heads out to check on the farm and its animals. This tradition has become a big deal on her blog and YouTube. I’m sharing it on Mondays now; the […] | Continue reading
See you in the morning. We are up early on Monday. Maria loves her Monday Morning Video and takes it very seriously. I’m her helper. This Flower art series was great for me, especially when the sun suddenly came out. The sun always helps. | Continue reading
This may have been the most beautiful day of the summer. I sat out with Zip, looking out at the pasture. The wind blew the clouds away, and the sun came out in the afternoon. Maria returned from her long walk in the woods and joined us for a few hours. I needed to get […] | Continue reading
Today’s request is a bigger deal than I expected. The response from the Army of Good was so strong that she took the items off the wish list today. “You guys were great on Baby’s Day,” she said. You guys are great every day, thank you. (The Size 5 Baby Diapers remain on the list … | Continue reading