the merry month of may

so long, April - hello, May!!! my favorite month (December comes in second) it's a month that just sounds like anything is possible: "mother, May i? yes, you certainly May - you know, i just May do that!" you see? all manner of possibilities right there, bursting at the seams!

april was always a busy month for me (lots of birthdays - grandmother, mother, father, boyfriend - also spring and easter) but May was the month when things ended so other things could begin; i suppose it was mostly dictated by school ending and summer vacation beginning - when i was young, i could look forward to going to the beach with friends, riding my horse, pool parties and sleepovers - after leaving home and entering the working world, that cycle ended forever - no more vacations that lasted an entire season, no more lazy days, no more sleeping in (or sleepovers) except maybe on weekends - but i still burned the candle at both ends - working a 40-hour week, play rehearsal after work, sunday brunch with friends... i could squeeze it all in there - these days, although i don't expect to do nearly as much stuff as i used to, i hope to somehow manage to find time to work and play, in addition to doing those things i really must do (bathe, do laundry, clear all the clutter that's holding me back - that's a tough one - create and write) so - here i go again!! i challenge myself (and anyone else) to open a new door into a world of possibility!! let's do it - have a wonderful weekend. teejay

a new blue door/photo by tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

what i see when i look down

in my book, Personal Proverbs & Hasty Haiku, i wrote: "The act of creating Art is often difficult. One must do something again & again before it becomes Art."

if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if practice makes perfect, then how do we know if and when what we are creating is beautiful and/or perfect? it seems to me that there are so many beautiful things in this world (i'm not going to address all the ugly and mean things just now) but not too much in the way of perfection - so, imperfection must be the order of the day, indeed sometimes it is all we can aspire to, insomuch as it is in the striving that we suffer and learn and create something worthwhile...

here's what i'm talking about

pink on pavement/photo by tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

a far far better thing i do

a woman wears her tears like jewelry...

tis a far far better thing i do than i have ever done before, a far far better place i go to... (ah, close enough) i can still see ronald coleman standing there, wistfully giving that speech at the end of "a tale of two cities" - never read the book, tho....

quotes are great little equalizers - kinda like spouting scripture - it shows you know how to make a point or draw a conclusion - ok enough of that

let's see, i'm posting this on my apple laptop, and i have no images saved to this hard drive, so this will have to be a pictureless post - but i did go to one of my favorite sites tonight, the NASA archives - great images of nebulas and star systems and the moons of saturn (artist-enhanced, most of them, but eye-poppingly gorgeous) and shots of the earth from space and the northern lights - incredible stuff - even google is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the hubble telescope and is hosting a "best photos from hubble" virtual tour (if you download the latest version of google earth, that is) - incredible photos, both there and on the NASA site...

it's after midnight - must be toddling off soon - going to a daffodil potluck to commemorate earth day at a place called hay house farm (not to be confused with louise hay and her hay house biz) i made a 3-bean salsa (black beans, garbanzo & pigeon peas with onion, tomatoes and some vinaigrette, with a little turmeric and mrs dash tossed in for good measure) and i bought some tortilla chips - i really wanted to make this potato tian (kind of like scalloped potatoes or au gratin) with Gruyere cheese - mmmmmm - but i'll make that another time for my next social event

so - another day, another reason to blog!

happy earth day (yesterday)

springtime/photo by tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

well, here they are, my little daffodils - pretty, aren't they? can't seem to fall asleep (it's 3 am) so i'll write a little bit

today (or, yesterday) was earth day (april 22) so it's fitting that i should post these flower photos in honor of our planet, good old Earth, the big blue marble, love it or leave it... oh, wait, can't do that, so let's love it and take care of it - i know, i know, it's not taking care of us, what with earthquakes and volcanoes and floods and tornadoes and blizzards and hurricanes and such - but that's how it is on planets with an active core of molten rock and stuff... at least it's nice the rest of the time!!

i went back to the place where i bought the cool postcards and i bought more!!! and they had put out lots of new ones that weren't there before!! oh, it was heaven! i mean, 10 cents each, how can i not splurge a little?? world war one posters and works of art by people i've never heard of, and abstract photographs... hmmm - maybe i'll scan a couple just to show you how much fun i'm having!

i'm also going to try to upload another image just as an experiment - it's from a clipart CD - just want to see if it will let me import it or not - anyway, that's it for the moment - more later

no TV today

well, here it is - day two of trying to write a daily blog post!!

found some really cool vintage post cards from pomegranate publications at ocean state job lot yesterday - 10 cents apiece!

(i bought 20) some black-and-white, a few in color - there are some interesting images (one is a rhino peering around a corner at the camera; there are two old albumen silver prints from French photographer Eugene Atget, a French farmhouse and a line of boats in a canal on a misty morning; there's a kooky one from the 1930s of a woman sitting on a table holding wooden models of elements like sodium, salt, aluminum and magnesium, etc.)

i still haven't started doing anything today - just talked to a friend on the phone, fed the cats, had coffee - but the good news is, i haven't turned on the TV! if i do that, i will sit down and never get up... i try to watch things that will improve my mind or entertain me in a good way, but then nothing else gets done!! sigh...

so - let me see if there's a nice photo i can leave you with... if not, i'll insert one later... have a great day, all!

Almost Like A Fortune Cookie

Double Amaryllis - photo by T J Googins 2008 - all rights reserved

Written on a Good Earth tea bag tag:
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 - 1882

Caution: Do not mistake me for a Tea-Bagger, or Tea Party person, or whatever they are called. Those people, however well-intentioned they may be, are dividing the country instead of uniting it by creating an inflammatory situation when we need more cohesiveness. Times are hard enough without having to listen to a lot of hostile mud-slinging and negative name-calling. We need more level-headed, compassionate people out there trying to change and fix things. More later... can you dig it?

"Ours is a redneck nation that rallies 'round the flag for profits, not for freedom." T J Googins (please don't let this be true...)

In other news, I am so happy that spring is finally here - I will try to take a photo of my daffodils (soon, maybe tomorrow) and share it in another post - in the meantime, here's another harbinger of spring

In the interim, I'm slowly clearing clutter, working on some projects and preparing to write some articles and books - I'd better get busy!!! Happy spring, everybody!