...

I recognized myself in the mirror... in that moment where I was being as weird as I could be.

I've never been able to before...

but I think I've decided my top 3 favorite movies (as yet to be made)...

>>>>>>Terrance Malick's New World


>>>>>>Gus Van Sant's Last Days


>>>>>>Steven Shainburg"s Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus


I love these movies, especially the first 2, for their silence, their peacefulness, their developing just as life would.
I love Fur for its inspiration, total wierdness, and bravery of the characters. ~Love
Watch them!

Lots of random thoughts on my way back over the mountains

From Townsend, MA to Saratoga, NY
Ashburnham
after 12:00
yellow hanging mailboxes
a little synaptic pruning
concurrent with a little growth
dragging old beliefs about what i can and can't do
to the trash
making room
to be excited
entering Rindge
and New Hampshire
blue White Mountains
in the distance
thinking about
taking care of a yurt
and a toddler
and school
and work
"He solves my family problems
JESUS CHRIST"
{{from a bumper sticker}}
house of yellow gables
splash in a green pond
a thick green snot splash
imagining
stocks of nuts and pasta
in clear glass bottle rows
on shelves
lots of warm hand knits
and silk long underwear
suzuki, gymnastics, and horseback riding
quick elevation changes
and stomache drops
corn staubbers to hold corn on the cob while you eat
and all of my other southern girl expressions
planet aid drop boxes
1:00
it's been an hour
a really strange burning smell wafting in the window
vertical piles of black eyed susans, yes it's still summer
a hawk at 500 feet
yin yangs on pale yellow squares on an old brick
factory on the far shore of the creek
following me on my left
i can see chinese workers
taking a lunch break near the water
eating bowls of rice
wooden playgrounds
and then a tin playground like from my childhood
discovered after my very first train ride
Hinsdale, NH
reassessing what's most important
and deciding to make an effort
towards those things
like keeping in touch more with my
little brother
and sewing more clothes
and planning fun outings for Pop
one of the 2 radio stations
i can pick up
is playing country music
bad country music
knitted animal pillows in the window of a Brattleboro store
knit or dye
brilliantly blonde family having a meal
motown oldies
a mobile home, a red barn, and about 30 broken down cars
all on one plot
took a side trip down a brattleboro road
lots of "dangerous intersection" roads
lots of people walking
a good sign for a prospective might-live-here-one-day town
teenagers in camouflage with hunting bows
107.7
talking heads
then some hip hop
i'm in a very oldies/classical mood
but everything is fading within moments as i zip through towns
hogback decline
2:08
the lake west of wilmington looks like
a nice swim spot
low, rocky beaches
i like being in Vermont
just driving through makes me feel good
a little wider,
more spacious
adds some square footage to my spirit
i see lots of things i'd like to buy on the sides of these roads
old RV's in pretty colors, wooded properties, a black moto
i'd give to my little brother
what's winter camping like?
a man runs all alone
up a mountain
dressed in black
with a rosary around his neck
he's old and grey but strong
a runaway truck ramp
with fresh tracks
old ride-on tools with a fresh coat of dust
separate entrances on either side of a school for "Girls" and "Boys"
a stop in Bennington 2:39
back on the road 3:50
the spinning wind sculptures
aren't moving very fast
considering all the wind
that's blowing around and in the tree tops and in my window
welcome to the Empire State
with a field of tall purple wildflowers
i picture a little house
on a plot of land
with a little pond for swimming
or a creek
and another guest tiny house or yurt or whatever
and a pony
and a westfalia for trips
hand from the sky holding hand from the earth
the yucky brown Hudson of New York
with it's PCB-lined shores
where no one should step with bare feet
and a boring, traffic-jammed 87 spurt
home
5:00

The new way to the beach

Just getting on Us 301 south in North Carolina from Rocky Mount to Topsail Beach, there are lots of deserted buildings and very few new or elaborate signs or buildings. There are plenty of signs only in Spanish, advertising frutas and such. Black-haired families sitting in parking lots in the opened trunks of 1990's era Dodge vans. But after a bit, North Carolina has added a new 4 lane highway, 795, to whisk you away from the sights of poverty to a nicer view and a more pleasant ride to the beaches. Here are fields and forests, cows and corn and tobacco. Now my first glimpse of the invasive Japanse kudzu since being in NC; it's taken over a patch of trees. Its large leaves and spindly vines seem pretty, yet people in the south "close their windows at night to keep it from growing in the house," a saying coined because it grows so fast (a foot a day). [Note: Here's a neat website that advocates kudzu: http://maxshores.com/kudzu/ ...kudzu quiche?! kudzu paper, kudzu hay bales and baskets!] A cemetary next to a Budweiser plant next to a tobacco warehouse. "Large sweet cantolope" spray painted in black on a chipboard sign. "I luv used" in a red heart painted on an off-white cement building. Pine trees, browned grass, not many wildflowers although it's almost July. It's so hot here it must have dried everything out. Today it's 99º. There are no strawberries in the strawberry pickin' fields. What does it mean if you put a white cloth out of the window of your broken down car on the side of the highway? That you need help? That you surrender? That you're in the local gang? Probably just means "this car's screwed." And now we've hooked up with I-40, the iconic east-west connector with its famous Barstow, CA 2,554 miles [a website documenting the signs along I-40 http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-040.html]. In my high school town of Wilmington, if you'd seen the opppsite sign in California (which I had by the time I was 18) that was really something to talk about. Highway 17 to Topsail Beach looks the same as it always has, nothing too noteworthy, a mix of new and refurbished old with spots of green in between. We know water is to our right somewhere, but it's hidden by green. Then over the bridge into Surf City, a dead racoon marks our entrance. Now we're in between the sound and the ocean. Just after through the main intersection we get cutoff by a white SUV with a license plate that reads "CHUNKDOG," the driver fits to a T, white, bald, and quite chunky. Welcome to Topsail Beach.

a nice thought while driving (yes, sometimes i write and drive)

i flew over the mountain
found a peaceful land
of flower and vegetable gardens and
gentle, kind creatures

when i grew old and died
my body floated up and away
and turned into a rainbow

my daughter shed tears of happiness
that turned into a crystal clear creek
all the creatures turned to drink from it

my grey hair had been cut
wispy and bright,
it was woven into jewelry
to be worn for generations


p.s. yeah i can get a little hippy dippy sometimes, but so what? it makes me feel good...

I've been getting back into playing some tunes since I bought my ukulele a couple of weeks ago, and old favorite songs have been resurfacing as I've been looking searching for tabs online...




please excuse the video, it's all i could find for this song


gal costa is amazing..



a favorite from townes...



absolutely LOVE this collab between animal collective's avey tare and mum's kria brekkan

Fooooooood!

Poppy and I have been cookin' up so much "yumyum" (as Poppy would call it) food lately!




Chocolaty Oat Muffins!

I made Mango Habanero hot sauce and stored it in an old honey bottle. Wow it was so yum! Sweet and spicy! The label reads "Jessica's Pretty Hottey Sauce"




Next we made veggire fritters out of zucchini, squash, and sweet potato! Rolled in corn meal and fried. Poppy loved them dipped in spaghetti sauce!

Then we made orzo in cottage cheese with scallions. Sounds and looked weird, but it was very good and Poppy loved it!
So if anyone wants a recipe or to come over and try our awesome cooking give me a buzz!