Under a Red Roof ·

Touched

June 5, 2014 in Quoting by Colleen | Permalink

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.

It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.

Ray Bradbury

Tags: Quoting

Miniature

June 4, 2014 in Admiring, Exploring, Friendship by Colleen | Permalink

How handsome is my favorite tennis player? After three years of letting the rackets gather dust in the basement, he’s back at it (I am, too – birds of a feather). It’s been fun and a little bit strange, our bodies sore in places out of practice. Kind of nice, too. I watched him last night, something I had never done, save when I am on the opposite side of the net. There was much glorious sunshine and a match well played. And though he did not win, he was clearly content, smiling, hustling, doing and being his best.

A lovely morning at the Saint John’s bridge with Lori because, gasp, she had never been. Blasphemy! I think she had an okay time. Maybe.

When I was a kid, I had an obsession with miniatures, a desire to hold the world in the palm of my hand. I wrote stories about miniatures gone missing. I collected miniatures and built a house to hold them. I wanted to be a Borrower, to discover tiny places, to somehow manage to hop on Mister Roger’s Trolley and LIVE in the town. So, what a delight it was when I discovered my camera could render the world into my childhood dreams. Oh, happy day!

p.s.

Still having fun with the Willamette Week Street photography. This week, my photos start with the guy in the glasses and denim jacket. Hello Ray! And the week before? I took all but the young woman in the sunglasses and hat. So much fun!

Sun and Moon

May 29, 2014 in Quoting by Colleen | Permalink

There is no dusk to be,
There is no dawn that was,
Only there’s now, and now,
And the wind in the grass.

Archibald MacLeish

…

Happy Twenty-First Wedding Anniversary to me and the hubster!

XOXO

Tags: Quoting

Yes All Women

May 28, 2014 in Uncategorized by Colleen | Permalink

Because a “friend” in high school forced me into bathroom with him and told me, “You know you want it.”

Because straight men find it offensive to be objectified by gay men but see no problem doing the same to women.

Because, while standing in a crosswalk, a man leaned out his car window to squeeze my breast.

Because, when the hubster and I were approached by a homeless man begging change, and I answered no first, the man said, “NO bitch, it’s the man who decides!”

Because male “friends” in college heard a woman being raped and did NOTHING.

Because, while walking home, a man leaned over on his bicycle to grope me.

Because, while reading a book on a park bench, I was told, “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to get picked up.”

Because, after calling the cops on a guy for beating a woman, he did not apologize to her, but said, “Haven’t you ever been frustrated?”

Because, while standing on a crowded bus, a man fondled me and shoved his hard penis against me.

Because the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq: 6,614. Number of women, in the same period, killed as the result of domestic violence in the US: 11,766. Source: Soraya Chemaly

Because, in a court of law, women have to prove they weren’t asking for it.

So, YES ALL WOMEN, including me.

Tags: #YesAllWomen

Vignettes

May 26, 2014 in Admiring, Exploring, Gardening + Nature by Colleen | Permalink

Holy cats!

Pictured at top has got to be among the top five best bathroom wall decorations of all time (though it is much brighter in person). If you do not know where it is, I am not going to tell you (save in North Portland), not because I am one to keep secrets like that, but because my delight upon first laying eyes on it was so spectacular and mirthful that I would rather you not expect it in hopes that you experience the same moment of wonder.

And Paris, bundled tightly post bath. My little sausage. “Let me out!”

Out snapping the peonies. Sadly, the season is winding down. And how about that last shot? Some sort of bee-mimic. We shared a magical, I see you, moment, inches apart and eye to eye. Wish I could have captured that one!