Horse in a LandSeascape

For Sunday. Because it's Sunday...and the horse was there.

Have a seductive Sunday. Do something selective.

Heavy into Light

Shelter Cove light house

 “I cannot cause light; the most I can do is try to put myself in the path of its beam. It is possible, in deep space, to sail on solar wind. Light, be it particle or wave, has force: you can rig a giant sail and go. The secret of seeing is to sail on solar wind. Hone and spread your spirit till you yourself are a sail, whetted, translucent, broadside to the merest puff”  Annie Dillard


Annie Dillard is one of the most elegant writers I know of things natural. When I first read her books, I was pretty discouraged about my own writing; we looked at the same world, experienced the same feelings, yet she wrote from this compelling microscopic viewpoint while I continued along, blithely driving my bulldozer into the word sea. I finally came to accept a world of words that contained both the room and the need for the Anna Pavlova's right next to the Mike Mulligan's with our steam shovels.

Yesterday, these were some of the sights I saw while sailing in the light.

While waiting for my turn at the gas station, this horse kept grinning at me. Really.

This might be considered more of a supercilious smirk, as if knowing I'd be telling horse grinning stories and not be believed. Even worse, Pipi was sending it to the big island yesterday, so I have no live backup of an albino, teeth-bared grinning, smirking horse. Which is why I take pictures.

Spotter fishing crew

Chiquitine and his crew, coming up to Dinghy Dock

Do we have to stay in the boat, Dad? Do we? Do we? Will we?

Fall is for the color orange! And for smiling! And, around here, for drinking beer, in shorts. No, the little one was not drinking beer.

The rain was finished, work was done (thank you, bread buyers!), some good friends from St. Thomas had sailed over, life is good in the light.

Have a shimmering Saturday! Do something to be savored.

It's Still Raining, Y'all

There is usually a bad side to every good side, she wrote profoundly. The rain we are having, as usual, proves the point. While its gentle patter fills cisterns, makes the flowers bloom and cools the air, it also keeps people from the beaches and affects outdoor style businesses.

I say this all of the time because it is such a huge factor on Culebra. Life simply doesn't go on the same way when we have a lot of rain rather than just a shower here and there lasting a few minutes, unlike places where days and months of rain are just a part of the yearly cycle. I try to imagine a life where indoors is the normal state of being...and I can't.

But it doesn't stop the bread from rising! Rye out, Rosemary Garlic in. Time's a wastin'- and I like it that way.

The thing about getting up way early to bake bread is that my coffee intake jumps exponentially to the hours I'm not asleep. Let's add trying to quit smoking into that mix. I'm saying trying because even though this is (again) Day Two, like they say in AA, I'll always be a Smoker (I'm just hoping that smoking in my dreams will be enough for a year or two or more). So if you see me later today and I appear a little jittery in body and mind, be kind.

 Have a fractious-free Friday! Do something fervently.