Wigglewigglewiggle Wigglewigglewiggle

If this isn't what Monday needs, folks, I don't know what it does need.

Mondays Suck

So listen to Catherine Tate instead of me.

Travelling

Okay, so I'm the one travelling not you.

Well, maybe you.

If you are, best of luck to you!

In any case, here's a video for Monday: one of my absolute favorite yoga routines from Kathryn Budig and Yoga Journal.

I'd say it's fine for anyone who's an adventurous beginner or beyond; you may want to have a strap or a block (or two) handy just in case.

Photo Monday

Cat picspam!

Photo Monday

More photos, folks -- I was hoping to have a post about The Walking Dead -- the first season of which I have nearly finished -- for today in honor of the season, but I have done something truly dreadful to my lower back which results in me being unable to sit and type for more than, oh, say 10 minutes at a time.

So wish me luck at the doctor's office tomorrow and maybe, if I'm a very lucky girl, I'll be able to write the post for Wednesday.

See, I think this was once a really sweet mother-and-child
statue...but check out Mommy dearest's hand.

Little 'n large tombstones.

Guess where? Hey, it's Halloween!

Spiffy fountain again.

Photo Monday

More pictures of...things!

They killed Kenny!
Sorry, I really am sorry... This is in Mt. Auburn, btw.

I have no idea. But I bet it would be a cool hang-out on
Halloween.

Spiffy fountain.

Ditto.

A last rose.

Photo Monday: Maine and Back

This post brought to you by Anna.

This passed Saturday, Hanna and I drove up to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to visit with her mom and dad. Linda was exhibiting at the Maine Fiber Arts Showcase. It was a rainy afternoon, but luckily the fiber arts event was inside the visitor's center.

As usually happens when we visit with Hanna's parents, we drove north with things to give/return to them and they met us with more things for us to take south again ... a new sweater for Hanna, the tam that Linda knit me for Christmas and finally blocked, and what Hanna has termed "the rudest thing ever":

Kevin with the rude squash (photo by Linda)

In exchange, we finally allowed Shirley -- the stuffed sheep from Michigan that we gave Linda for her birthday in July -- to move to her forever home in Maine.

Shirley and Linda at Linda's display booth (photo by Anna)

The garden is impressive in size and scope, although we didn't get a chance to see much of it in the rain. One section is the fairy house village. I think this is where these magical creations were headed:

fairy houses in the garden library (photo by Anna)

a fairy castle? tree house? (photo by Anna)

Shirley got a bit chilled (photo by Anna)

When we got home, Geraldine was pissy because we had left her alone all Saturday -- but she was somewhat mollified by the four new rag rugs we brought home, courtesy of Linda. Rag rugs are clearly for kitties to sleep on, not for humans to place their feet.

enigmatic cat is enigmatic (photo by Hanna)

Monday again, huh?

Anne Lamott, in her great Bird by Bird once describes the first day of the week as "your mute, Slavic uncle Monday." She suggests not starting big things -- no new novels; no screen plays; no house cleaning projects -- on Mondays 'cause, dude...uncle Monday.

And so that's how Monday is personified for me a lot of the time: an out-of-proportionally big guy, in an overcoat that doesn't fit, and huge clown shoes. Except all in a kind of rusty, grungy black. Shaggy dark hair, and no use for language.

In order to give uncle Monday a little run for his money, lets look at pretty things instead, shall we?

My two favorite new Tumblr blogs are all about the pretty things. Lets give some love to "You only lose what you cling to" and brown dress with white dots. These are both primarily photo blogs; the former is colloquially known as "fuckyeah cats lesbians and buddhism" -- just so you know what you're getting into: some of it may be NSFW, but the photography is wonderful.

brown dress is my new favorite photo blog at this point; sometimes the stuff going up can seem a little...posed and slightly artificial to my eye -- my totally untrained, amateur photographer's eye, by the way -- but then there's shots like this and this and this .... oh, and this.

So go forth and look at pretty things and maybe mute old uncle Monday will come and chill out with you for a bit and think about cats rather than glooming in the corner and thinking about cockroaches.

Photo Monday

You know what I really hate about being depressed? How things I used to enjoy doing now seem like terrifying abysses of doom, humiliation, and despair. After spending most of last week dealing with a hellacious commenter on the orange blog (did you know I'm guest-blogging there for August with Minerva and Lola? I am! One of my posts is cross-posted from here, so you've seen it already, but here's the newbie!) who tried her best to hand my ass to me, writing new posts is somehow not on my Top 10 list of things to do this weekend.

And yet here I am and I have so many thoughts about The Doctor's Wife that we'll see what we can come up with by way of something Whovian for Wednesday.

Anyway, with that note on your Monday morning, enjoy some old photographs that I didn't put up at the time I took them but still really like. And I really do honestly hope you are having an awesome start to your week -- or finish to your week if you are one of those individuals who work over a weekend or night shifts or third shifts or weird stuff like that. Good on you.

The strange damage being done by something to my
beloved philodendron, Ianto.

Trees near the Saugatuck Dunes.

A panorama shot I got nearly right! (Also Saugatuck.)

Ditto. Not about the panorama bit, obviously.

Lakeshore sand.

Geraldine in what was one of her favorite napping places
last winter: the basket we kept our napkins in.

One of last winter's blizzards.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Photo Monday

Because I feel just totally inspired with text this week ---

-- here are some photos.

Me, trying to be arty with a glass of beer, a camera,
and not moving off the couch to take a photo.

Geraldine, asleep in a totally dignified fashion.

Baby ducks, posing helpfully in the Public Gardens.

Ditto, but made of cute!

The Muddy River, not being muddy.

Roses in the allotment gardens.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Can you guess? Hey, there were a ton of roses, they were
all gorgeous, it had just been raining...

Lily. Of some kind. Um. Yeah.

No points for guessing this time!

You see my point about how many there were, right?

Lots.

Photo Monday

Preparations for travelling this week, folks. Check back in on Wednesday for some Whovian fun times and, in the meantime, enjoy some photos.

The Charles in sunshine. God, this seems like a long time ago.

Yes, our kitty does enjoy reading in her spare time. She just doesn't like it
when we read in our spare time.

Still life with tea and spider plant.

Still life with...er...beer and the History Boys.

This is the kitty hiding.

Candles. And Mitchell, George, and Annie.

Further candle.