giant poplar

went out to joyce kilmer memorial forest this week to be amongst the OOOLD trees.

joyce kilmer was a poet and WWI soldier who died at age 31. he wrote the poem 'trees' - it starts: i think that i shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree.

he had the same name as my MOM - joycie!

a logging company went bankrupt in the early 1900s and prevented the area from being clearcut so there are some GIANT poplars out there. there are some giant hemlocks too, but those are dead now from the wooly adelgids.

circle

there was a baby shower/blessingway here yesterday. in the middle of the rainiest day in the past 6 months. onesies were decorated, the 4 directions were called, inspirational cards were shared, champagne was drink drank drunk, babies were fed, wigs were worn, flowers were everywhere, lemon pound cake was eaten, the strength of michelle was reinforced and celebrated.

moose humping mailbox

thank you animal planet

meditation and mantra

"may loving kindness come upon all things"

instead of screaming inside my head about things out of my control that i don't want to do, i've tried to repeat this sentence.

"may loving kindness come upon all things"

i'm not great at it, but the more i do it the better it will work.

here's another one:

'I sit down and say, and I run all my friends and relatives and enemies one by one in this, without entertaining any angers or gratitudes or anything, and I say, like 'Japhy Ryder, equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha,' then I run on, say to 'David O. Selznick, equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha' though I don't use names like David O. Selznick, just people I know because when I say the words 'equally a coming Buddha' I want to be thinking of their eyes, like you take Morley, his blue eyes behind those glasses, when you think 'equally a coming Buddha' you think of those eyes and you really do suddenly see the true secret serenity and the truth of his coming Buddhahood. Then you think of your enemy's eyes.'

dharma bums jack kerouac

with friends like these

who needs facebook?

i guess they're just kidding, but still.  taking playground teasing to a widespread public level.

camelback eli

this is turning into a dog blog, but what the hell. i love dogs!

kevin & eli have a trick where kevin squeezes the nozzle of the camelback water hose and eli opens his mouth and drinks the water. so he doesn't need a bowl while hiking. it's a great trick. nacho doesn't get it - he puts his head down and water spills all over him and he remains thirsty.

we hiked yesterday in pisgah national forest to john's rock which is a boulder outcropping on top of the world. the camelback hose wasn't spraying right so this is some next level shit.

nacho doggy

time makes you bolder, even children get older, i'm getting older too.

i've really noticed in the last month that nacho is aging. i thought he'd always look like a puppy, but now his face is getting whiter and something about his eyes are getting droopy. just when i thought he couldn't possibly look any funnier, he goes and looks even more like a nitwit dog. all 55 lbs of him will climb in anybody's lap, and when he greets strangers on the street he puts his ears way back and shakes his entire caboose. he's a good boy. i just wish he could freeze at 3 years old.

 

shrimp & grits

we had a dinner party last night & it was very much fun.

it started with 5 pounds of frozen panama bay shrimp from our good friend bob at shrimppeople.com.

kevin shrimp pierred them up.

i made jalapeno cheese grits.

audra brought fabulously fresh white hydrangeas.


lindsay and josh brought farm and sparrow seeded bread - i've never had better tasting bread.

michelle brought an amazing homecooked handpicked fall fruit crisp.


joey and paige brought the funk.


everybody brought their dogs.

got a text message this morning - "Sorry about the panties in your yard."


success!

too hot picnic table

pot holders, man.

send us money, we'll send cassettes

man's best friend

où sont les neiges d'antan?

magic hour