Author Archives: beth

Unknown's avatar

About beth

Ann Arbor-ite writes about enjoying life with all of its ironies and surprises.

trash.

Standard

trash1

when science and art meet trash.

—

“everybody’s talking trash these days, so why not keep quiet?”

-dennis rodman

—

credits:  new yorker magazine, molly young, teddy blanks

 

dog.

Standard

img_0430

tell me about your picture.

it’s my dog. 

he has

4 legs

and

a tail

and

some spots

and 

a face.

and where is the rest of him?

right there.

he’s white.

don’t you see him?

yes, i do now.

—
“in complex trains of thought signs are indispensable.”

-george henry lewes

leaf chaps.

Standard

img_6981-1

img_6981-2

with fall comes the ultimate scourge of lawn work: raking leaves. all of those gorgeous, oxygen-giving trees in your backyard become instruments of torture, littering their leafy bounty all over the lawn and sidewalk.

according to the inventor of the the leaf pants, the leaves aren’t the problem. it’s the rake – that pronged nightmare that strains backs, blisters hands, and poses a real threat if left lying in the grass. but a leaf-blower isn’t the answer either.  instead, the inventor insists, what humanity needs is a method that is “compatible with the natural body movement of a person.”

enter the ‘leaf chaps’, a pair of zip-on, flexible tubes that slip over pant legs with a net fastened between the two so you can gather leaves as you stroll. the net corrals the leaves and collects them in front of you, so with just a few extra steps, you’re forming piles that are easily picked up later. 

not merely convenient, the chaps also promise to make you more productive. rather than struggle with bulky tools, do something you’d be doing anyway (walking around your lawn), while getting work done! sure, that walk is more like a waddle, but that’s the price you pay for innovation. 

—

“if you’re not prepared to be wrong,

you’ll never come up with anything original.”

– sir ken robinson

—

credits: mental floss magazine

worms.

Standard

img_6980

of course it is a worm family birthday party.

—

“the poet makes silk dresses out of worms.”

-wallace stevens

pickaxe.

Standard

img_6940

quote-a-rocky-vineyard-does-not-need-a-prayer-but-a-pick-axe-proverbs-336071-1

—

proud to have worked really hard

with my colleagues

on this chilly fall morning

to help to make the shelter

a better place for those who need it

by helping

put their garden

to bed this fall

and

by planting

new possibilities there

for them to awaken to next spring.

two in half a million.

Standard

14650547_10154257000528096_2899874035518603994_n

a woodstock moment – 40+ years later

—

on a whim, a young duo went to the legendary festival

only to be captured in a memorable image

bobbi-kelly-and-nick-ercoline-woodstock-1969-631-jpg__800x600_q85_crop

two in half a million:

bobbi kelly and nick ercoline greet the dawn

on august 17, 1969.

—
“this is the way to hear music, i think,

surrounded by rolling hills and farmlands, under a big sky.”

― uwe michael lang, The Road to Woodstock

—

credits: burk uzzle (photo), life magazine, tim dumas, smithsonian magazine

 

good things come.

Standard

img_0429

first time ever

on a school bus

on a field trip

looking at the world 

passing by

and 

full of wonder. 

—

“good things come, and i’m not just referring to riding the buses.”

-lionel blue

flyting.

Standard

13411793_10154220182097365_6497571248983301018_o-1

i’d prefer this to the debates. at least it would be witty.

—

credit:mentalfloss

cups runneth over.

Standard

img_6894

lots of cups and lots of ideas

img_6884

—

“building art is a synthesis of life in materialised form.

we should try to bring in under the same hat not a splintered way of thinking,

but all in harmony together.”

-alvar aalto