and why not turn around and create your shaving cream art while backwards?
all it takes is a fresh idea and a willingness to try a new approach.
—
“i think backwards. ‘this was beautiful,’ instead of forward.”
-alice herz-sommer
shared a kitchen and an online live cooking class
with one of my grandies today
we had
a fast-working sur la table pastry chef
equipment, ingredients, and time
we both worked hard for 2 hours
improvised along the way
scrambled to find things
as the chef added in a few surprises
like making two royal icings
of different consistencies
all while
white chocolate melted
dark chocolate melted
not burning
never mixing
coloring the icings
buttering and chilling the pan
twice
after many, many steps
we had pretty much trashed the entire kitchen
but in the end
we had created
wonderful french madelines – vanilla bean halloween style
more tiny cakes than cookies.
“cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. and cooking done with care is an act of love.”
-craig claiborne

oh, we all have those days
you start out by not having your water bottle
so you get a special halloween cup of water
it gets tipped over when you are cutting
you go to get a paper towel to dry it up
but you come back with what you can find
toilet paper
that gets wet and mushy
the extra part rolls out on the floor
your coat falls off of the back of your chair
the paper you were cutting gets soaked and chopped into little pieces
because you are really good at cutting
you can’t find the cap to your marker
because it rolled off your table
now it might dry up
all you have left are the dark color crayons
you don’t get time to finish your cheez-its
because you are trying to clean up
the ones that are left get wet and are mushy
you go out to recess and run and run and go on a pirate adventure
your teachers love you anyway and tell you it happens to them too
and it’s all okay.
—
“there’s no limit to how complicated things can get,
on account of one thing always leading to another.”
-E. B. White
today at school
we looked up
way up
on top
of the carved art pole
covered in languages
all saying one thing
‘peace’
a hopeful sign
the kinder
could not stop watching
this beautiful bird
as it flew up to the tree
and off into the sky.
—
we may be losing the ability
to understand animals who are not pets or horses.
we have less contact with them.
we don’t (most of us) tend to know even cows or pigs,
let alone bears or wolverines or red tailed hawks.
*-marge piercy
*Marge Piercy (1936) is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. Her work includes Woman on the Edge of Time; He, She and It, which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and Gone to Soldiers, a New York Times Best Seller, a sweeping historical novel set during World War II. Piercy’s work is rooted in her Jewish heritage, social and political activism, and her feminist ideals. She influenced the Women’s Movement through both her writing and her unconventional life.


drawn in by a homemade sign, a wave, a hi
to my favorite kind of store
some kids, a table, and some stuff
selling
apples, lumber, and shiny rocks
they had not sold anything
i’d love to be a customer,
but i’ve no money with me, i said
it’s okay, take some things and pay us tomorrow
we might even have juice then, too
they gave me credit!
—
“without hustle, talent will only carry you so far.”
— Gary Vaynerchuk
today is the first day back at school
i imagine the kinder calmly gliding into nature with me
all possibilities are on the table
could be more like the picture below
most likely will fall somewhere in between.
“today is a most unusual day, because we have never lived it before; we will never live it again; it is the only day we have.”
-william arthur ward
—
photo credits: vintage pinterest, gamma-keystone london