Tag: compound

Looking back


He smiles because it’s raining. Even the sun likes variety.

A little over a year ago (July 17, to be precise), I asked you what you wanted me to blog about. I went back and checked the list to see how I’m doing:

Dog pictures–check
Tim and Hanley–check
Hot weather–check
Pictures of things that are my favorite color–I could do more of this.
Guinness and Margot pictures–check
Houston photos and stories–check
Bike tour with photos–I’ll have to work on that one. I learned early that my neighborhood is not friendly to my three-wheeler. But I can probably take it and my camera to a better location.
Who would I cast in a Three Fortunes movie–That will take some thought. It’s more fun for me to know who you’d cast.
Photos of my bookshelves–There’ve been a few, usually as backdrops. I could do more.
Tales and photos of Craft Night–check (Even an appearance by Puterbaugh! And a spontaneous Lila Craft Night.)

I’d say my average so far is pretty good. I’m always open to new suggestions.

Thank you, gray skies


Do you see this? Do you know what you’re seeing? Yes, it’s a daisy, but that’s not what I mean. It’s a daisy with RAIN on it. Real rain. From the sky. The sky that has been giving us gentle rains off and on for hours. After months of almost no rainfall–and when it did rain, it’d almost always be a short blast that went away quickly and turned the environment into a sauna–this persistent light rain is so welcome. Except to Rex and Margot.

Speaking of Margot… Writer ‘Nathan Burgoine is having a contest. If you photograph your animal with any book by an author with whom ‘Nathan appears in an anthology and give him the link to the photo on your blog, FB, Twitter, whatever, you’ll be eligible to win a FREE BOOK. He explains it all better than I do in the contest link I provided above. I’m disqualifying myself from winning Fool For Love (I seem to have several copies already), but as examples, I give you:

Margot hiding from the rain by staying in bed with Felice Picano’s wonderful Like People in History. Felice’s short story in Fool For Love is “Gratitude.”


Guinness is not hiding from the rain, she’s always this lazy, and who wouldn’t want to curl up with Paul Lisicky’s Lawnboy? Paul’s story in Fool For Love is “Two Tales.”

‘Nathan’s story in Fool For Love is “Heart.”

Tuesday Compound

It actually rained earlier. It was after I’d already watered the front yard, but I’ll still consider it a win. Jim always brings the rain when he visits, which is odd, since he’s from Southern California and we all know it never rains in California. I guess the rain prompted my desire to bake. Either that or Tim’s wish last night that we could have cake even though it’s no one’s birthday. So…


Mini cupcakes, cupcakes, and a cake that Jim says is Tim’s because he’s the one who asked for cake.


And since the oven was already on, I made sausage and cheese balls.

The Dogs of Green Acres are visiting. Here’s Paco with Guinness and Margot reenacting what Rex, Pixie, Penny, and Minute are doing with Jim in the living room.

So you won’t think it’s all food, dog love, and naps around here, I should confess that I plan to force Jim to watch Eclipse later. After all, last year, he saw Twilight and New Moon while he was here. I don’t want to deny him more opportunities of seeing Taylor Lautner without a shirt. I’m a giver that way.

Magnetic Poetry 365:192

Before dinner Monday night, I took apart all the words from the new Haiku kit and laid them out on my desk. I was playing with the first two lines, then we sat down to eat and talk. Did I mention that Jim (of Timothy James Beck) is at The Compound for a visit? After dinner, he, Tim, and I went to the grocery store, and when we returned, Jim picked out the words for the last line. So see, the TJB writers do still collaborate.

Bye

Last night, I found out one of my paintings sold from Té House of Tea. I went and peeked into the windows (Té was closed at the time) to see if I could determine which one. If I’m right, it was the one that used to hang in my living room. I’ll miss it, but I’m grateful to whoever bought it, because I believe art finds its right home.

Moments

We can’t get a break from the heat. We did get two days of rain but desperately need more. Still, inside and outside, I’ve captured some images to share.


I wanted to go back here with a Barbie or two to give you a sense of this water’s depth. A frog couldn’t swim in this. Maybe a “No Wading” sign instead? Or “No Drinking.” That would better serve the public good.


One afternoon, Hanley came for a visit. I love to hear her say “Pixie.”


Not as gratifying, on a night she came for dinner, she kept calling Guinness “Becky.”


But she did eat her chicken, dressing, salad, corn, and three helpings of crowder peas. I love it when a child is not a fussy eater.


Also good eaters, Rhonda, Kathy, Tom, and Tim at Kathy’s pork chop birthday dinner.


Of course there was cake.

I still owe Kathy a dinner for some heavy-duty landscaping work she and Tom did. Margot shows the ground before. If we ever get rain to wash the rocks, they have more color than their coating of white dust would indicate.


Tim and I both got our “Jim is visiting soon” haircuts.


One day I met Alan, Matt, and John(nie) for brunch at Té House of Tea. Yep, those are my paintings hanging there. You can see the entire “Every Moment Is A Window” series and the nine paintings of my developing “Bottle Caps and Friends” series at One Word Art. Reminder: Art makes a great gift for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, and other occasions. And if there’s ever a work you really want but aren’t sure you can afford, I do negotiate.

The night of July 4, I treated myself to this movie while other Compounders were watching the fireworks from downtown.

I really liked A Better Life. The role of the father, an undocumented Mexican worker trying to make “a better life” for his son, is played brilliantly by Demián Bichir (the sexy drug lord/corrupt mayor from Weeds). If you’re an urban dweller, particularly of the border states, many of the scenes and situations will be familiar. I always like it when characters are multi-layered, and this movie weaves them into the setting to provide a heart-troubling and thought-provoking tapestry.

Finally, I leave you with some shots from Houston Pride 2011.


See ya!

The Meerkat Cookout

One of the things I most enjoyed about participating in 30 Days of Creativity was being introduced to other artists, bloggers, and creative types. Among my favorites: Plastic Animal A Day. June may be over, but I’ll return to that site to get my daily fix of whimsical photos. Though I by no means have PAAD’s skill at staging and photographing, I wanted to pay homage to the site and send a greeting from The Compound meerkats to all the animals of Plastic Animal A Day.


Not a cloud in the sky,
Happy Fourth of July!

30 Days of Creativity 2011, Day 20

Though I’ve posted some food photos this month, I haven’t used them for my 30 Days entries. Today is different. I’m back at The Compound from a ten-day staycation at Green Acres, so I have lots of those mundane chores that take up a person’s time when she’s been out of her daily routine. Bills and paperwork and general housekeeping matters. Tom and Tim took care of things very well in my absence–especially considering that Tim had some away time of his own during those days, and that EZ came to visit, meaning that Tom occasionally had the management of four Compound dogs and beautiful foster dog Penny to attend to.

So after sleeping in–and I mean WAY in, as until noon–I decided to fortify myself with a really good brunch and some good reading before getting on with it.

Eggs with fresh spinach and mushrooms and some crumbled bacon, whole wheat toast with a dollop of strawberry jam, half an apple, and iced coffee.

I’m twenty-eight pages from finishing this leather-bound Douglas Adams omnibus I gave Tom back in June of 1991. Considering the month, I’m betting that I bought it as an anniversary present (we just had our twenty-third anniversary on June 18, which means we’re two years from silver–hardly seems possible, since I’m 35, but whatever). I never read the four books and epilogue in this collection because it got shoved into that “science fiction” room in my brain, a room that’s almost as dusty as “Textbooks for Classes You Hated With Every Fiber of Your Being, Including Biology and Educational Psychology.”

What made me start reading it? People I like and respect, including my nephew Daniel, referencing it on Twitter. And I have to say it’s been a delight. I’ve stumbled over the origin of all kinds of cultural references–for example, Babel fish–and my favorite Eeyorian android of all time, Marvin. Adams’s inventiveness is as much a part of my creative day as the breakfast. Very shortly, I’ll be telling him, “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”