I like people but

I like people but I need my space, without it, without my space, I drain because people often drain me after a while. Not the select few who give and don’t take but the many who take and don’t give because they don’t know how, they’re  exhausting.

...but remember to laugh

            

Your dreams

Your dreams, your hopes, your ambitions are your business. They are your possessions.  Don’t share them with the world, don’t lower yourself and explain your hopes and dreams to the world. You don’t have to do that and the world doesn’t understand such things anyway. 

Useful Things

“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.” T.S. Eliot

Photos I forgot I had

 My dog Bart and an Irish Valentine 

Photos I forgot I had

My back porch every October 

 

 

Enjoy

 “Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh never mind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You’re not as fat as you imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing everyday that scares you. Sing. Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss. Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind, the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, and tell me how. Keep your old love letters; throw away your old bank statements. Stretch. Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, and maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own. Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it, but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents; you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.” —         Baz Luhrmann, Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

What I did today

First, I went to Lake Fairfax, not far from my house, to take some photos

 

I got a few good shots of this cub scout rolling down a hill for the fun of it

I took Bart along of course and he found something to roll in, I don't even even want to know

Took the metro downtown to go to the horse show and came across these three young ladies at the station on their way to Georgetown for the night (Three blind mice)

At the show I came across this guy, Brian Tooehy (left) who sells ladies belts. We have as ociety of people named Tuohy and he's going to join us

And this was the horse show,

Some people

“Some people are artists. Some, themselves, are art.”

William Wordsworth

“Books! tis a dull and endless strife:

Come, hear the woodland linnet,

How sweet his music! on my life,

There’s more of wisdom in it.”

—  William Wordsworth

No writing is wasted.

  “No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can’t put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better.” —  Erin Bow

We drove deep down in to southwestern Virginia

We drove deep down in to southwestern Virginia today to attend a cook out. That ridge in the background is part of the Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It runs 105 miles, north to south. We’ve camped up there several times. It isn’t rough; the park has paved roads and four full service, white table cloth restaurants, although once when we were up there a hoodlum bear in search of food tried to break into our car. We took these shots from the car as we ...passed through the town of Shenandoah, just like the (states) song which had been "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny"but that was dropped because it was considered racist. Nobody knows where the name Shenandoah comes from or what it means, some say it came from the Iroquo word “Schin-han-dowi” (River through the Spruces) or perhaps from an Iroquoian chief named Sherando. The song is supposed to be about him and his daughter Sally, who is courted for seven years by a white river trader.

The Ballantyne resort in North Carolina where we stayed for few days last week

Where from here?

 “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

“I don’t much care where –”

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

—         Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland