Jun26

gracie’s great adventure.

Posted on by
Standard

( not gracie, but a cute giraffe modeling being in a similar situation)

A 3-year-old giraffe named Gracie escaped from her enclosure at a Texas Hill Country ranch nearly two weeks ago and remains missing despite helicopter searches, reported sightings, and a $5,000 reward. Ranch owner Vic Jones believes she wandered through rugged terrain and exited through the wrong side of a gate. Authorities say Gracie poses little danger to people because she is in a remote, heavily wooded area with abundant vegetation and will have no problem finding food. Local officials and residents continue searching, though leads have often arrived days after she moved on, making recovery difficult.

how do you lose a giraffe?

can you not see her?

she’s on the lam

she’s very tall

she’s clever

she’s quick

i’m on team gracie

hope she finds a great place to live and be free

go, gracie, go!

 

—

‘sometimes the best hiding place is one that’s in plain sight.’

-stephanie meyer

 

 

—

source credits: a. parnas, abc news

Jun25

look for the whole person.

Posted on by
Standard

The Sun (Solen) by Edvard Munch, 1911

—

“If you write, fix pipes, grade papers, lay bricks or drive a taxi – do it with a sense of pride.

And do it the best you know how.

Be cognizant and sympathetic to the guy alongside, because he wants a place in the sun, too.

And always…always look past his color, his creed, his religion and the shape of his ears.

Look for the whole person.

Judge him as the whole person.”

-rod serling

 

—

 The Sun is a departure from Munch’s darker themes, focusing instead on themes of light, life force, and energy through intense, radiating colors.

It is a monumental work, measuring approximately 4.5 meters high by 7.8 meters wide, originally created for the Oslo University assembly hall.

 

Jun24

nature laughed.

Posted on by
Standard

walking a path between the corn in saginaw forest

on a beautiful morning

we even found our way out

—

‘a light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine.’

-anne bronte

 

 —

saginaw forest, ann arbor, michigan, usa

summer 2026

Jun23

cut to order.

Posted on by
Standard

fresh herbs

cut to order

five dollars

a bunch

bumper crop

farmer wins

kitchen wins

—

 

‘For those dependent on their gardens for fresh food,

it was often a case of feast or famine..

One settler wrote: ‘Strawberries were now so plentiful that… I made 287 lbs of jam…’

*Bee Dawson, Author, ‘A History of Gardening in New Zealand.’

 

*Bee Dawson is a social historian from New Zealand who enjoys researching and writing books on the history of people, places and gardens. The wide range of topics she has written about includes women painters, the air force, New Zealand gardens, freight transportation, Hobsonville air base, the Child Cancer Foundation, and Puketiti Station. Her writing captures the unpredictable reality of early colonial gardens, where fluctuating seasonal cycles meant settlers either faced severe scarcity or overwhelming, sudden bounties.

Jun22

zag.

Posted on by
Standard

FOR THOSE WHO ZAG

Here’s to the ones who still write things down.

The analog ones.
The handwritten ones.
The slow ones.
The kind ones.
The ones who believe a short walk can fix more than an app.
The ones who know dogs need little pats on the head and sunsets deserve an audience.

They’re not fond of shortcuts and they’re suspicious of templates.
They have respect for empty spaces
and complicated feelings about noise.

You can quote them. You can disagree with them. Scroll past them.
But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they notice.

They notice birds.
And clouds.
And tired teachers.
And lonely cashiers.
And the person who just simply needs a minute.

They’re the ones who wave in traffic.
Who let people merge.
Who listen to kids like they’re great philosophers.

These are the ones who believe in smiling with their whole face
and handwritten thank you notes
and personalized cakes
and remembering there’s other real humans out there living
real human lives who deserve to be looked directly in the eyes
and told how much they matter.

You see, while some people are busy optimizing life, there are others busy living it.

They see things differently.
They see gentleness as strength.
Kindness as courage.
Attention as rebellion.

Many might be trying to disrupt the world, but these folks are trying to repair it.

While the world keeps refreshing, they’ll keep remembering.
Some may call them outdated,
but time will reveal them as wise
and essential.

Because the people who are gentle enough
to think they can change the world …
are usually the ones who do.

—

Brad Montague, The Enthusiast

 

 

 

—

image credit: leafy trees

Jun21

we exist together.

Posted on by
Standard

summer solstice 

 longest day

 shortest night

tomorrow

 begins

its slow reversal

enjoy every minute

of today

 

—

“humans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun; we exist together in a sacred field of meaning.”

-joy harjo

*Joy Harjo, (1951) is an internationally renowned poet, musician, playwright, and author. She is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and made history as the first Native American to serve as the United States Poet Laureate, holding the prestigious position for three terms from 2019 to 2022.

 

 

 

—

lake superior, marquette, michigan, usa

Jun20

artsy.

Posted on by
Standard

 

glad that no one was counting on me

to be the only photographer at the graduation party

here are two of my shots documenting the fun occasion

i’d classify them as ‘artsy’

‘i came to photography by accident. ‘

– eve arnold

 

 *Eve Arnold,( 1912–2012) was an acclaimed American photojournalist and the first female member of the prestigious Mangum Photos agency. Best known for her intimate, candid portraits of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Malcolm X, she was equally celebrated for her fearless documentary work in closed-off regions like China and the Soviet Union.
Jun19

much to celebrate on Juneteenth.

Posted on by
Standard

  Barack Obama Presidential Center opens to the public on Juneteenth

Chicago, Illinois,USA

 

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. It marks the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to ensure all enslaved people were freed, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, finally enforcing the freedom of 250,000 freed enslaved Black Texans.

“Our Nation is stronger because of the generations of struggles for equal rights and social justice, and our culture is richer because of the contributions of African Americans throughout our history. This is why Juneteenth, while rooted in the history of a people, can be celebrated by all Americans.” – Barack Obama – 2010 

On the tower of the new Obama Presidential Center the message reads:

“You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there is new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed. America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We the People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes We Can.’ That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.”- Barack Obama

 

—

source credits: brittanica, history.com, the Obama Foundation, IPM, Chicago Tribune

Jun18

‘destiny is not necessarily what you get out of life, but rather, what you give.’ – cary grant

Posted on by
Standard

cary walking his siamese cat in beverly hills, ca. – 1955

—

happy birthday to cary grant

one of my favorite actors

born archibald leach in 1904

—

an amusing story from his neighbor, talent agent shep gordon, who was cary’s next door neighbor in beverly hills:

One day Shep’s cat, (not the cat above), to which he had given the name The Sensitive One, disappeared and he put “missing” posters on lampposts.

“I got a phone call from Cary Grant’s housekeeper telling me they’d found the cat,” he says.

“But after that they didn’t return my calls for a couple of weeks so finally I thought I’d go to the house. I rang the doorbell and when the door opened on a fur carpet with these two silver bowls were Cary Grant and my cat.

“I could see the cat looking at me going, ‘Don’t blow this for me please.’ So we ended up with joint custody but I only took the cat back once after that. Cary Grant later gave this amazing interview to Parade magazine where he said the cat saved his life. It brought him back to wanting to live. He was about 70 at the time and I never saw him again after that.” 

—

‘it is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy

if you are cruel you are unhappy

and if you hurt someone you will be hurt back.’

-cary grant

 

 

—

photo credit: sanford roth, getty images 1955

Jun17

bazooka.

Posted on by
Standard

when we were young

bazooka gum 

was the most popular

bubble gum

hard as a rock

we loved how sugary it was

the little comics inside

reading our fortunes

we had all summer

to play games 

think up things to do

one day

my sister, my friend and i

had a contest to see who

could get the most pieces of gum in their mouth 

bazooka was really really hard to chew

it took a lot of work 

to chew it and chew it and chew it

to make it soft

to make a bubble

 our friend won the contest

 ten pieces in her mouth 

while chewing it 

she won nothing but the glory

we all had

very, very sore teeth

very sore jaws

but what a contest

so worth it!

—

Bazooka bubble gum was first marketed shortly after World War II in the U.S. by the Topps Company of Brooklyn, New York. The gum was packaged in a red, white, and blue color scheme and originally sold for one penny. Beginning in 1953, Topps changed the packaging to include small comic strips with the gum, featuring the character “Bazooka Joe”. There are over 1,535 different “Bazooka Joe” comic-strip wrappers to collect. Also on the comic strip is an offer for a Premium and a fortune.

“if summer had a flavor, it was pink bubble gum.” — Goodreads
Random Recent Comments:

“Bazooka Joe gum: It’s like chewing a mountain that someone shot a freeze ray into.” — Reddit / 30 Rock

“I think my jaws still ache from chewing all that bubble gum when I was a kid.” — Facebook