Bruce Barone ~ Journal
July 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Beauty in the Backyard. The Finch:
The Flicker:
Friday, July 30, 2010
Tomato. They are ripening:
And I made an omelet for breakfast with the cherry tomatoes.
Thursday, July 29, 2010.
A Favorite Poet. Yesterday, one of my Favorite Poets and Writers (And one of my oldest internet friends---in terms of years known! 10+) visited Susan and I, along with her husband, Reuben, and daughter, Alice. Her name is Deborah Brandon. And here is an example of her writing:
i tried to find it and could not.
the fracture. to the core.
flaking gold from the bones
i didn't have up 'til now.
...a relaxed stare.
tincture of a blush
or cheeks sanded
red by snow
and how i wished
my shoes wouldn't slide
over the warm, melty grates.
the sometimes grabbing
of a perfect stranger
to continue standing.
just for that. i used to wish
for measles, yellow fever
or malaria. i'd lie
in bed covers tented
over me and take
tiny bites. saltines.
i was a pioneer
ill in the back of the wagon
no one knew whether i'd
survive. i'm here to tell you
i survived only to slide
back under
cover, i'm looking for my
crackers, i did not find
what i came here to find.
a rooster nailed to the wall
hammering out time.
a sense of shade. a
very forgiving bush
one that is not burning.
one that is safe.
I am honored that she took time during her vacation to meet me. The meeting felt as if we were old friends and had met a long time ago, which, I suppose, we had. Here is a photo of Alice:
Wednesday, July 28
The Lower Mill Pond. Easthampton, Massachusetts.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Looking Out The Study Window on a July Evening.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Wheelbarrow with Black-Eyed Susans.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The Day Of Rest.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Floating Cosmos.
Friday, July 23, 2010
So Many Flowers Within The Zinnia.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Northern Flicker.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The Birdbath in The Garden.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Zinnia and The Butterfly.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Summer of Wonder.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
The Cosmos Bloomed.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Every Gardener Needs a Hat. According to one of my favorite gardening books, The Gardener's Bed-Book, by Richardson Wright, which was first published in 1929, and is a much beloved gardening classic by the renowned editor of House & Garden magazine in the 1920s and ’30s--each of its 365 perfectly sized little essays is meant to be read in bed at night after a long day’s work, either real or imagined, in the garden, both a charming and mischievously funny companion to curl up with:
.......I am reminded of the remark of a French philosopher to the effect that by the time a man attains fifty he is either a drunkard or a gardener.......
I am now a few years past fifty, and I am gardening "furiously." Soon after I wake and before I shower, but certainly after I brush my teeth and make a pot of coffee, I will always be found outside walking around my small garden, cup of coffee in hand (cream no sugar) admiring the beauty; the deliriously colorful zinnias, the tomatoes in abundance, though not yet red, the blooming cosmos, the fragrant arugula and sweet basil, the hot peppers rising from the earth--all such a delight. I return to the garden an hour or so later to water it and then again I admire the small patch of wonder throughout the day. And I watch it here from where I write as it is right outside my window. And today I bought a hat. Every gardener needs a hat. This is what I believe. As the garden needs sun and water, so, too, a gardener needs a hat!
Friday, July 16, 2010
The Four Seasons. Today, looking through my photographs of New York City, I came upon this photo of the brass sculpture from The Four Seasons Restaurant:
The restaurant, whose entrance is on 52nd Street, was designed by Philip Johnson, who became a regular patron. Its entrance is a large, travertine-walled and -floored lobby with coatroom and a broad staircase leading to its south dining room and bar in the south base wing of the building. The room is highlighted by a very dense brass Richard Lippold sculpture that "floats" over the bar.
When I was commuting to New York City a few days a week, selling printing, I would sometimes stop at The Four Seasons Restaurant for lunch at the bar, which was not only a good buy, but a beautiful and quiet place to relax and unwind from the long hours of my day.
I remember I am sitting next to a woman with long blonde hair at the bar at The Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City. I am sitting next to her because it was the last unoccupied bar-stool. I come here because I do not have to talk--except to James, the bartender, who will greet me by name and "Bruce, we haven't seen you in a long time. How are you?" Her phone rings and I can hear her say "fuck" and "fucking" repeatedly during the course of her ten minute conversation. Now, I am still silent, but curious, and I say, turning to face her, "What's the problem?"
"It's my fucking boyfriend," she says. "He won't divorce his wife. I mean, tell me, how much time do you need? How much time should I give him? Six months? It's already been six months. I told him one year. If he doesn't get a divorce in one year I'm out. I love him. I like all the gifts. But fuck. There's a lot of available men in New York City. Shit. I shouldn't be telling you all this. But I'm so fucking mad. He calls me ten, fifteen times a day. 'Where are you?' 'What are you doing?' 'Who are you with?' He's driving me fucking crazy. And how fucking stupid can his wife be? I mean doesn't she smell my perfume on him and his clothes? See my hair all over his clothes? I'm so fucking mad."
She buys me a drink. I thank her. She gets up and leaves. I can hear her cursing as she walks away.
My friend, Seth, who once worked at the bar here said:
One day a customer at lunch ordered bottle # 18. I served the wine and presented the check which made the customer angry. "The wine I ordered was $20.00 for the bottle. It was # 18." When I showed him the wine list #18 was our most expensive white burgundy, Batard- Montrachet. He apologized and then said " If I had known it was that expensive I think I would have enjoyed it more." One of my great life experiences, working at the Seasons."
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Green Manifesto. I found the following list in Alice Water's beautiful new book, In The Green Kitchen, and I would tape the list to our refrigerator door if we did in fact tape notes and photos to our fridge but we do not so I am going to put it here as I reminder; I believe the Manifesto is wise and timely.
A Green Kitchen Manifesto
~
Delicious, affordable, wholesome food is the goal of the Green Kitchen.
~
An organic pantry is an essential resource.
~
Buy food that is organic, local, and seasonal.
~
Cooking and shopping for food brings rhythm and meaning to our lives.
~
Simple cooking techniques can be learned by heart.
~
Daily cooking improves the economy of the kitchen.
~
Cooking equipment that is durable and minimal simplifies the cooking.
~
A garden brings life and beauty to the table.
~
Composting nourishes the land that feeds us.
~
Setting the table and eating together teaches essential values to our children.
Someday I would like to visit her restaurant, Chez Panisse.
Meanwhile, I made a Shepherd's Pie for dinner which had Vidalia Onion, Poplano Pepper, Corn, and Sweet Basil in it (Made with Ground Turkey and Red Mashed Potatoes):
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Kitchen Window. I greatly enjoying standing at the kitchen sink looking out the window at the backyard, the birds that flutter around the birdfeeder. One of my favorite poems, In The Home stretch, by Robert Frost, begins:
SHE stood against the kitchen sink, and looked
Over the sink out through a dusty window
At weeds the water from the sink made tall.
She wore her cape; her hat was in her hand.
Behind her was confusion in the room,
Of chairs turned upside down to sit like people
In other chairs, and something, come to look,
For every room a house has—parlor, bed-room,
And dining-room—thrown pell-mell in the kitchen.
And now and then a smudged, infernal face
Looked in a door behind her and addressed
Her back. She always answered without turning.
And speaking of birds in the backyard!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Daryl's Birthday. In honor of his birthday, today I wore the shirt he bought for me when he was in Spain.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Daisies and Gardens. Here is another photo from yesterday. Worked today on my new Blurb book, for which Elizabeth Avedon gave me a gift certificate to create. This is the book, The Gardens of Michael Trapp.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The Dance of the Daises. Of the many flowers that greet visitors to our home, I think I most love the Shasta Daisy, named after Mount Shasta in Northern California, not far from where this hybrid was developed by Luther Burbank. The word, "daisy" was originally "day's eye." An early metaphorical reference to the sun, "day's eye" was later applied to the sun-like appearance of this flower, with its central yellow disk surrounded by "rays."
Robert Burns said, "The Daisy's for simplicity and unaffected air." How true! Some flowers require constant clipping and watering, which, as gardeners, we surely don't mind, but the Shasta Daisy requires very little; a periodic watering and maybe if you have many, as we do, some stalking and twine tied gently around their waists to support their stems less they to fall to the earth. Even Geoffrey Chaucer recognized their loveliness: "That of all the floures in the mede, Thanns love I most these floures white and red, Suche as men callen daysyes in her toune."
Now, though, has come the time to prune them and perhaps if we are diligent in our chores and responsibilities and get the cutting and deadheading done in the next few days, we will blessed in the Autumn with another blooming. As an artist, I find them always beautiful: when they first burst through the earth we know Spring has arrived or surely will soon; when their leaves appear in abundance on the ground; and then how quickly they grow toward to sky, like children, and then they flower, and as the child's smile brings us great delight, so too, the Shasta Daisy.
After dinner tonight I went outside to photograph them; many still in full bloom and others near death. I find them magnificently beautiful in all stages and as I photographed a pattern seemed to appear which became quite clear as I later edited the images; they appeared in our garden as if on a stage--they appeared as ballerinas in our garden performing a scared timeless dance and I believe only the cynic and the unbeliever would doubt my vision.
Here is one image below and I will soon create a gallery for them, for these Shasta Daisies, these ballerinas dancing in the summer evening light.
The plants that are neighbors to the Shasta Daises--their names a poem:
Gerber Daisy
Purple Coneflower
Russian Sage
Globe Thistle
Gladiolus
Rose of Sharon
Rhododendron
Evergreen Candytuft
Geranium Ivy
Pinks
Cosmos
Nepeta
Zinnia
Astilbe
Salvia
Yarrow
Liatris
Clematis
Pachysandra
Periwinkle Ivy
Dwarf Spruce
Scarlet Carpet Rose
Japanese Andromeda
Meanwhile, I have checked out of the library four beautiful and fascinating books:
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Cleaning. It rained today. Heavy at times. The rain afforded me the time to clean my chest of drawers, my desk drawers and my closet. It is amazing what one finds when one has not looked too closely in places where things have been stored and then things stuffed into such storage places. A note from my dad dating from over 20 years ago. Notes from my mom's yearbook. Receipts. Notes I wrote, which now I can not read and when I can I'm not sure why the notes were written; they are scraps of paper with hieroglyphics on them, a code of sorts I can no longer understand. I turned to look out the window after hours of cleaning and then collecting things into their proper places. It had stopped raining. I walked around the yard.
My zinnias are opening in sparkling color. Here are more photographs of the yard.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Let There Be Light. From my loft window in Eastworks. There is a gallery of some of my Mt. Tom photos here.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Trusteeship.
The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
– Psalms
You and I are trustees. Nothing belongs to us personally. The resources of our planet have been entrusted to every one of us together. Like good bank trustees, we are expected not to squander these resources but to invest them wisely for our beneficiaries: the rest of life, especially the generations to come.
The trust includes not only the lives and natural resources of the planet, but our inner resources as well. This has practical implications. We can lessen our potentially exhausting impact on the earth by simplifying our desires and demands. Simplicity is the key to trusteeship.
~
Eknath Easwaran
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The Moment. Someone once said to me after looking through my portfolio, "Bruce, you are a great photographer with many great photographs, but I think you should focus on one subject matter. You can't be both a portrait and nature photography; no less those two and a documentary photographer."
I disagree.
In a 1973 interview, Richard Avedon said, "There's always been a separation between fashion and what I call my 'deeper' work. Fashion is where I make my living. ... Then there's the deeper pleasure of doing my portraits."
The painter Gerhard Richter said, "I never worked at painting as if it were a job; it was always out of interest or for fun, a desire to try something." And: "New interests came up, more attractive and more exclusively to do with painting, and these made me forgot about photography. So then came other things: Colour Charts, Grey Pictures and now Abstract Pictures."
Chagall said, "I work in whatever medium likes me at the moment."
Here are a few images of mine (Documentary, Nature, Portrait):
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Killing the Sparrow.
Five, six, seven
Crows walking
Count them
In the backyard
The caw pierces
My heart
Remembering
Three crows
Last week
Killing a sparrow
In the backyard
When I reached
Her she was still
Alive fluttering
On my shovel
Said I am
Sorry before
I turned
The shovel
Over her
I buried her
In the backyard too
And then
I cried
A tear
Over you
Monday, July 5, 2010
Vision for the Future. In the July/August issue of Unity Magazine (A Publication from Unity) in an article entitled "Vision for the Future" by Corinne McLaughlin with Gordon Davidson (Founders of The Center for Visionary Leadership), I read about how practical visionaries are developing sensible strategies to meet urgent human needs. The authors list eight important keys to spiritual growth and social change in the new world:
1. Shift from what’s dying to what’s being born: discover the New World of practical visionaries all around you.
2. Understand the big picture and the higher evolutionary plan behind everything unfolding today: find your part and get engaged.
3. Make your livelihood a social change strategy and bring spiritual values into your work: be a spiritual warrior to confront the darkness; an innovator to create a new institution; a reformer to transform the system from within; and/or an exemplar who lives the values of the New World wherever you are.
4. Invoke the magic of your soul: explore the New World within you and make friends with your subconscious.
5. Turn within to find a source of spiritual strength: develop a regular meditative practice to receive clear guidance.
6. Clarify your higher purpose and vision: create a mission and practical strategy with right timing.
7. See money as a spiritual asset: trust in the abundance of the universe—and be practical and wise.
8. Transform duality and conflict into a higher synthesis: find common ground personally and politically to change the world.
The entire article can be found here on Facebook. I think these 8 keys are wise advice for a creating a brighter future.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
A Quiet Day. After a busy day yesterday, celebrating the 4th on the 3rd, today I read and relaxed in the backyard with Nadine by my side.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Celebrating July 4th. We celebrated July 4th today with Daryl, Danielle and Mike, Susan's mom and sister-in-law. We put together a great menu and despite the grill not working and having to cook the Turkey Burgers inside, it was a great day! The BIG News being Danielle picked out her wedding dress.
Susan sets a beautiful table.
Friday, July 2, 2010
A Drive to Easthampton.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
New Gallery. In addition to the Michael Trapp Gallery, I created one today from our visit to Bunny Williams' Country Home. Here is one image:
