BirchLane.net

January 2009

Friday 30

 

Thursday 29

Bluejay.

Wednesday 28.

Cardinal.

Tuesday 27

Wedding Slide Show. Worked on a wedding slideshow today as seen below. Edited version with music is here.

Monday 26

Famous People, Famous Places. Worked on a slideshow to coincide with release of book. A test version is below and one with music is here.

Sunday 25

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Saturday 22

The Dinner Party.

Friday 23

The Nature of Nature Photography.

 

Thursday 22

Ice.

Wednesday 21

Cardinal.

Tuesday 20

Inauguration Day.

Monday 19

Martin Luther King, Jr. "I have a dream."

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. ~Excerpt. Full Text here:

Sunday 18

Snow Through the Night and this Morning.

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead. ~James Joyce. The Dead

I made Tuscan Pork Loin, a Joanne Weir recipe, for Susan's parents.

Saturday 17

Memorial.

When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measles-pox; when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness? And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility, and I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy, and as singular, and each name a comfortable music in the mouth tending as all music does, toward silence, and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth. When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it is over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world. ~Mary Oliver

Friday 16

Andrew Wyeth. I don't remember studying Andrew Wyeth in college but I own a book of Wyeth reproductions that dates back to this time. He died today.

Thursday 15

New York City. I have been reading the book my brother, Dennis, gave me for Christmas, Writing New York City.

Wednesday 14

Stuffed Chicken Breasts.

Tuesday 13

Turkey Hash and Poached Egg.

Monday 12

Highlights. I was without a monitor all last week. What follows are highlights of the week:

 

 

 

 

 

Some of my Famous People Famous Places images appeared online at gothamist. And Luc Sante agreed to write the introduction to the book. Luc's Blog.

Sunday 04

Princess Daisy. After making breakfast for Susan (Scrambled Eggs with Roasted Asparagus--the asparagus left-over from last night's dinner), I showered and shaved, dressed

Saturday 03

Dagmara and Vanessa.

Friday 02

Frosting a Cake. A little over one week ago I sat in my customer dining room

Thursday 01

In The Beginning. Cold this morning. Frigid. And wind. But sunny. And a cardinal at the bird feeder early in the morning.

Years ago I took a course in college, Manhattanville College,  in Italic Handwriting. I am reading the book from that course: "The First Writing Book, Arrighi's Operina," by John Howard Benson, Yale University Press. A goal this year is to re-learn this formation of letters. And words. A book of affirmations.

Painting: (detail) by Maggie Nowinski.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life,  and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ~John 1:1