Sunday Sunday

Oh, it's a nice day in Florida! Last night we got a great rain storm and I think this brought us some clear (read lacking in humidity) air, a great breeze (another novelty), and some lower temps(whoopee!). So, I opened the windows and listened to the rain last night, left them open all night and haven't closed them yet.

This has not happened for many many days, many months actually. I'm sitting out on my porch right now and the wind chimes are gently blowing. Indigo, our bird, is outside in his cage hanging from the chain I installed so he can hang off of the eaves outside of our garage. The door to the kitchen is opened and the breeze is blowing through the kitchen, from windows out back to kitchen door/garage out front and back again. Not only that but I can see outside.

Usually, during times of air conditioning, long long times of air conditioning, the kitchen door remains closed, the windows are all closed. I can't hear any outside noises, no birds, no breeze through the trees, no wind chimes, or kids or anything. I find the times of summer where I'm entrenched within my house, succumbing to the guilty pleasure of the chill, to be like my dark winters from up north in regards to being shut off. It's where I come closest to a feeling of cabin fever. Today, having the first full week of Autumn under our belts, feels almost like a northern spring to me where the melting of the snow encouraged venturing outside. Ah, muffins in the morning, breezy coolness and parts of me coming alive. I love the first teases of a cooler calendar.

I read this article by Naomi Shihab Nye in Organica Magazine. It's a freebie magazine of arts and activism that is so interesting to read. Go there and read it if you can. It speaks of education and inspiration and learning and life and kids and freedom and life lessons. I loved the poem at the end, and I loved the poem created by the children on spoons. I totally loved the part when Naomi talks about the testing of children in the schools and how it's what the teachers have to spend so much time doing with children, priming and practicing. She then goes on to say how she flunked the questions about her own essay that were included on the Texas state test two years ago because six of the eight of the questions appeared to her to have more than one right answer. How very tricky that was. God, I loved that part!

I hadn't seen the magazine before, but I'll be looking for it again.

Here's a little blog I love going to when I can. It inspires me so. Two women, 3191 miles apart, taking one picture of each of their own mornings, posting them side by side and oh, it's so lovely. I like noticing how they can seem to shoot the same theme, or color, or shape on the same day, without even having any contact with each other about what they're going to shoot. I keep imagining an exhibit with the photos side by side, 365 days worth and how lovely that would be.

Yummy!

Alright, I better get to work or I'll spend all day in my pj's, sitting on the porch, playing with the dog, eating muffins!

Hmmm, I guess worse things could happen.

Photo above was shot by Jordan (with Torin standing behind her, see?) in Burnsville North Carolina. It's the door to a shop. September 2007