release

oaky, okay, okay. i know you are probably pretty sick of this pink tulip. but today is march 1st. march-f’ing-1st. the day i turn in my manuscript. the day i get released from my computer. the first day of meteorological spring. and you don’t know this (perhaps i have been a little distracted) but it also the day my husband turns his manuscript into his publisher as well. my book is a STILL book, of course. his book is a family, food, and wine memoir of our families time in southern france. our original deadlines were not the same day, but my husband was granted an extension, and so our deadlines both landed on march 1st. march 1st. i’m just going to keep saying march 1st all day today. because i have been waiting for march 1st for weeks months.  anyway, this little tulip sat beside my computer monitor and kept me company this past week. the trapped leaf that finally pulls itself free feels symbolic.

pink tulip bulb opening

jazz, anyone?

these tall grass leaves look like musical notation to me. i think it’s a jazz tune. cool jazz in the background music of my house. it is music i can have on, while concentrating on other things. anything with lyrics is too attention grabbing, and anything too familiar invites me to hum along. but the syncopated rhythms of jazz are just random enough for my mind to not bother trying to grab onto. i’ve had a lot of jazz on this week while i clean up image files for delivery to my publisher. pretty much everything is reminding me of jazz right now.

tall grass leaves in winter

the days are getting longer

the days are getting longer, and the sun is brighter. can you feel it? i am spening most of my days on the computer right now…but i can feel the new intensity of the light even through the windows. so can my dog. he spends the day moving from one sunny patch to the next as the sun traverses the sky. it won’t be long now…

winter cattail stems poking out from a frozen pond

sslouching toward my deadline

bits and pieces from my stay in joshua tree, california. if i wasn’t on deadline, i would tell you all about the unique ecosystem of joshua tree–a transition zone between the colorado desert and the mojave desert. and i would talk about how interseting it is that life tends to congregate at these transition zones.  but it’s very late. and i have been staring at a screen for 12 hours. for now, i am spent.

bits and pieces from joshua tree national park

yesterday’s image, take 2

yesterday’s subject, re-imagined. (because i am t-minus-4-days to manuscript delivery).

dried and crushed red maple leaves