Happy Passover

Treasures from Stony Brook

Yesterday I took some time to walk along the Stony Brook, behind the Hun School.  The brook was as high as I have ever seen it, rushing along, covering all the rocks that used to protrude above its normally tranquil surface.  At one particularly rocky point, little peaking waves and rivulets were formed, with lacy ripples racing outwards, reminding me of the shore.

It was very, very muddy, and although I was at some pains to be careful, twice I ended up unexpectedly sliding down a bank on my tush, and three times I ended up having to just walk through a stream, sogging up my sneakers.  (I was in a good mood, it seems, because I remember thinking as I squished back through the woods to my starting street how companionable the sound of my soaked feet and sneakers was . . . )

The floor of the woods was covered with wildflowers - especially small white flowers with pink tinges, and small yellow flowers.  I was excited to see a very common wildflower which nonetheless I haven't seen before, a dogtooth violet - or actually, many many dogtooth violets.  They have spotted leaves and the flower is yellow, in this case with some wine tipping.

At one point on the way back, I allowed myself a brief excursion to a pebble bank, where I looked at the pebbles and stones washed up by the storm the day before.  As I was looking at a larger stone, I suddenly noticed a red pebble just a jot over an inch which appeared to have a hole in it.  I stooped down closer, picked it up, and - oh joy! - it did have a small hole all the way through.  This kind of thing is very difficult to find.  I have two stonelets about four or more times as heavy which have a hole through them - one hole quite large, one small and snaking indirectly through - but this pebble is so small and light, and so elegantly simple; it is as though it were made to be a pendant. 

I was so excited!  I felt as though the powers that be in the universe had given me a present directly, had sent me a loving message.  I found a few other nice stones, including one with small, yellowish crystals (very small, and not very clear), but this one I clutched with a tenacity ordinarily reserved for holding on to diamond jewels. 

I am wearing it now strung on a ribbon.  To me it is a real treasure, to someone else, it is just a dull red pebble.  Thank you, Hashem, for giving me eyes to see.

Pesach tonight.  I just visualized the Stony Brook as the Red Sea, splitting at G-d's command!  Even that would be so terrifying, so awe-inspiring; what mortal mind can even imagine what the Red Sea would have been like, with its towering walls of waves?

Art Shows

Well, this is a rather glum photo of one of my collages, which I believe I named something along the lines of The DayDream.  I would now want to name it something more obscure, like TheAncient Philospher's Theorem Realized - which doesn't mean anything but sounds rather impressive.  I plan to come up with a whole stock of pretentious, meaningless titles so that when I need to come up with a name for an exhibit, I can just close my eyes and pick one at random.  Suggestions?

That set me to thinking about Sherlock Holmes and Watson.  I think I remember some wordplay along these lines:
Watson:  So it was a stomach ailment all along, Holmes?
Holmes:  Alimentary, my dear Watson.

Watson:  So that rude young man did it!
Holmes:  Rudimentary, my dear Watson.

Watson:  So it was heavy metals poisoning that knocked her off!\
Holmes:  Elementary, my dear Watson . . .

And so forth.  Ah ha!  Maybe one title could be Sherlock Holme's Day Dream, with a companion piece, Sherlock Holme's Nightmare.

Quickie Post

Haven't posted in so long, just want to put something, anything, online.  So, here is a pic of a collage I did a looooong time ago.  I would post a pic of the collages that are currently in two different gallery shows. but something went wrong when I e-mailed them from my camera, and I don't have them.  I'll have to go over to the shows and photograph them again there, and keep my fingers crossed . . .

Have checked out some niftoid streams, seen a movie, done some other stuff - life keeps moving along.

Some cool dreams, too, although rather opaque in meaning.