Thursday, December 29, 2016



"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die."


Carrie Fisher

Sunday, December 18, 2016


"Now who art thou, that on the bench wouldst sit
In judgment at a thousand miles away,
With the short vision of a single span?"

Dante Alighieri, Paradiso
Canto XIX, lines 79–81 (tr. Longfellow).


S.Michele in Isola, Venice. 
dedicated to Saint Michael
the holder of the scales on 
Judgement Day.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Venetian Boats

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing 
- absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply 
messing about in boats.” 

Ratty


Still cold here.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Fog in Venice


"it is bitter earnestness
That makes beauty; the mind
Knows, grown adult.
A sudden fog-drift muffled the ocean,
A throbbing of engines moved in it,
At length, a stone's throw out, between the rocks and the vapor,
One by one moved shadows
Out of the mystery, shadows, fishing-boats"

from Boats in a Fog
by Robinson Jeffers


Saturday, December 10, 2016

" The Yachts
contend in a sea which the land partly encloses
shielding them from the two-heavy blows
of an ungoverned ocean"

from The Yachts
by William Carlos Williams


Monday, December 5, 2016



"The army all saluted
As they marched along the road.
Was it the King? Or Kitchener?
No. It was Mr. Toad."

This morning on a visit to the blog "Beyond The Fields We Know", 
I was taken with the photo for the Yule season. I decided to arrange
a bit of seasonal cheer myself and brought out the Nutcrackers. 
All I can say is the collection started innocently enough with one.