i'll meet you there.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.

-Rumi

i go to portland and spend most of my time in the party store/ my friends are pigs

for a day like today

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

by William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

common in mixed forests

spotted towhee

chickadee dee dee

female golden crowned kinglet: tricky little feet, a flash of feather

what it looks like here of late

today jordan and i went to scudder pond/ whatcom falls to look at birds. which would have been great if there were not any people around. we did see some goodies and i tried to take photos of some with my little camera, which is hard because they are so darn fast and my camera is nothing fancy. we saw others too: common mergansers and buffleheads on the pond. many black eyed juncos. brown creeper. red winged black birds. winter wren. eagle. song sparrow. kinglets and the likes. it has been warm and wet lately and the branches are bare except for moss. i like this look: you can see through things. to a fawn watching us through the understory. and jordan will pick me up and carry me over the puddles when i forget my galoshes. and it feels even hopeful, of spring, of newness, of the birds to come.

D.I.Y. recycled book journal

this is one of my favorite ways to recycle an old book into a journal. with the new year i thought it was a good time to start a new journal, and also kick off my participation in project restyle. enjoy!

my love affair with Lykke Li

on grad school applications and planning for the future : a futile task

mackenzie: "are you having a quarter life crisis in my car right now?"

me: "probably. every year this time i freak out about the next year. i want to make decisions when i am ready to make them, not 9 months ahead of time."

i know what i want. i know when i want.

I have an image of desire:

driving through the Palouse after being

east a while. The barren landscape

and the flawless hills like the curve of hips.

This land between east and west,

ponderosa and hemlock.

Dry air and a blue expanse—

the shade of my childhood bedroom.

All those afternoons spent staring

at walls. I never saw the color as “sky”

until the Palouse. This region between

love and unlove. I know what I want.

I know when I want something I cannot have

I am merely missing you.

soul mates : festive photos

part one: many lazy christmas days spent cuddling with these two

and hanging out with these lovely ladies in fancy wear

(she only comes back from paris once in a while)

part two: driving to idaho for new years at the crack of dawn

to take it eeezzz :)

and enjoy the scene in all it's glitz and glam

and scout for gyrfalcon

and tromp through the snowy meadow until my feet froze!

part 3: back at home, back at work, tired to the bones. but so very worth it.