A Month of Celebrations

In February we celebrate our anniversary, Ron's birthday and Valentine's Day, all (almost) within a week.  Whew!  Lots of love floating around!
We spent our anniversary weekend in Vancouver, at the little Frasier-esque apartment that is one of our very favorite getaways.  It sits high above the city with floor to ceiling windows and we love the novelty of living an ultra urban lifestyle for a few days.  We walked everywhere-- out to meals, to the grocery store, to see The King's Speech,  to the sea wall and out to Stanley Park.

The following weekend Jon and Kaci came up and we celebrated Ron's birthday with a mid-winter barbeque.

On Valentine's Day we had dinner with Nicole, Ava, Anna, Chris and his sweet new girlfriend Janelle.

But before that, I came home from my early morning walk and found this:

How sweet is that?  The cd player was set to play 'Valentine' by Martina McBride.
That's one  romantic man I married!

A Piece of Childhood Lost

A sad, sad thing happened yesterday.  The house on Coolidge Drive, where my family lived from 1967 until Mom moved in 2003, was destroyed by fire.  Such a shock to see your childhood home crumpled, charred and broken.  I've been going through old photo albums this month and sifting through pictures and childhood memories.  It's hard to believe that the house where so many of those memories were made isn't there anymore.

Currently reading

Here are the books I'm reading right now:

The Naked Now--Learning to See as the Mystics See
 by Richard Rohr  (wonderful book!)

All That Rises Must Converge by Flannery  O'Connor


Page after Page--discover the confidence and passion you need to start writing and keep writing
A good book, if a little repetitive, but I love the cover:

Professional reading:

Writing Essentials by Regie Routman and The Fluent Reader by Tim Rasinski

Partly for school, partly for fun:  The Summer of Riley by Eve Bunting

I think this may be the original version of "Baby its Cold Outside"

Spellbound by Emily Brontë The night is darkening round me, The wild winds coldly blow; But a tyrant spell has bound me And I cannot, cannot go. The giant trees are bending Their bare boughs weighed with snow. And the storm is fast descending, And yet I cannot go. Clouds beyond clouds above me, Wastes beyond wastes below; But nothing dear can move me; I will not, cannot go.

A New Point of View

Somehow it helps me to think of all the 

severe starkness as a well earned rest.

Winter Trees by William Carlos Williams All the complicated details of the attiring and the disattiring are completed! A liquid moon moves gently among the long branches. Thus having prepared their buds against a sure winter the wise trees stand sleeping in the cold.

Chilly days down at the pond...

A Fresh New Year!

 I like this haiku by Kobayashi Issa:

New Year's Day--
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.

  Admittedly it is a little subdued.  So is this one, but I like it too....a lot.

Te Deum
by Charles Reznikoff
Not because of victories I sing, having none, but for the common sunshine, the breeze, the largess of the spring. Not for victory but for the day's work done as well as I was able; not for a seat upon the dais but at the common table.