The community gardens in Fall

 OK, new Blogger again loaded all my photos in reverse order...I honestly don't know why it sometimes decides to do that. But flowers and garden shots are ok even going backward in my walk!

Someone was working on this shed's roof.

This was a fun shot...marigold flowers poking up through a bed full of nasturtiums.

The purple morning glories were everywhere!

I wonder if the pink bud will turn purple when it opens...or if it's a different vine completely.

Dr. John Wilson Gardens, grow, educate, share.  You can enlarge to read all the details. As I walked along the path, this was the greeting as I entered the community gardens.

Today's Quote:

Where do you come from
he asked.
I never arrived,
she answered,
but I come from a thousand different places
sometimes from sorrow and hurt
sometimes from the greatest joy
other times from shame and guilt
from projections and competition
she said.

But where do you come from
he asked.
I come from a thousand different places
she answered.
I never arrived.
Sometimes I come from ignorance and blame
sometimes from darkness and despair.
I have come from happiness and communion
from disappointment and loneliness
she said.

But where do you come from
he asked.
I come from a thousand places.
I never arrived
she answered.
I came from inferiority and superiority
sometimes from equality.
I have come from thoughts and emotions
and I have called them love.
The both fell silent.

Where do you come from
he asked.
I come from silence
from love
from God
she said.
I have arrived.

Who has arrived
he asked.
I don't know
she said...


Katarina Johnsson
via - The Dawn Within

Going to the gardens via an underpass and the river

From a parking spot at the Veterans Park, the walk to John Wilson Gardens takes you through this very long tunnel, unlit, damp, and with a dirt floor, which carries I-40 over it.

Looking back at the tunnel...over to the right are pass-ways for the Swannanoa River to go.

But when the river floods this area, downed trees and branches can pile up and block the natural flow...creating a dam of sorts...so someone has moved them to the side of the main channel.

One of the sports available at Veteran's Park, and the Greenway, is Frisbee Golf, with stations all along the river and around the circumfrance of the garden plots.

Treasured Tree, Northern Red Oak - so sayeth the sign.

My path, which is paved, goes parallel to the river...where there are various spots to approach it.

A few trees have started to have fall color.

The land on the opposite shore is owned by Montreat College, I believe.

And this side of the river may be part of the greenway, or the gardens, or the Veteran's Park. The river banks on the other side of the interstate are slated to have major improvements to them after next spring's floods. This side didn't show on the map of improvements, but it sure has the same needs.

I'l show you gardens next...

Today's quote:

The universe is still and complete.  Everything that ever was, is;
everything that ever will be , is - and so on, in all possible
combinations.  Though in perceiving it we imagine that it is
in motion, and unfinished, it is quite finished and quite
astonishingly beautiful.

In the end, or rather, as things really are, any event, no matter
how small, is intimately and sensibly tied to all others.
All rivers run full to the sea; those who are apart are brought
together; the lost ones are redeemed; the dead come back to life;
the perfectly blue days that have begun and ended in golden
dimness continue, immobile and accessible; and, when all is
perceived in such a way as to obviate time, justice becomes
apparent not as something that will be, but something that is.

Mark Helprin
From: Winter's Tale

 

Last of Graveyard Fields visit

 

This was at the beginning of the steps down. (I may have posted it before, I don't remember.) We only went as far as the cascades of the river, not the whole loop of the trail.

I loved the colors and patterns of this rock...and there's a shadow of a couple of the rails of the bridge banister. But that loose rock in the wet area mimics so well the hole in the face of the rock next to it.

 

A very tall hemlock rises near the stream.

A closer look at the white space under the rock, where water was still and reflected the sky.

Looking up river...from standing on this spit of rock.

Standing on the spit of rock, there was just one flow of water cascading by...pretty fast, but narrow

I'm planning our next trip along the parkway, hoping the weather cooperates. The next time will be going to see the leaves. Yes, I'l join the throng of leaf-peepers.

Today's quote:

To Begin With, the Sweet Grass

by Mary Oliver

1.
Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat of the sweet grass?
Will the owl bite off its own wings?
Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or forget to sing?
Will the rivers run upstream?

Behold, I say–behold
the reliability and the finery and the teachings of this gritty earth gift.

2.
Eat bread and understand comfort.
Drink water, and understand delight.
Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds
who are drinking the sweetness, who are thrillingly gluttonous.

For one thing leads to another.
Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.
Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

And someone’s face, whom you love, will be as a star
both intimate and ultimate,
and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.
And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper:
oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two
beautiful bodies of your lungs.

3.
The witchery of living
is my whole conversation
with you my darlings.
All I can tell you is what I know.

Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.

It’s more than bones.
It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It’s more than the beating of the single heart.
It’s praising.
It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life—just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another.

4.
Someday I am going to ask my friend Paulus,
the dancer, the potter,
to make me a begging bowl
which I believe
my soul needs.

And if I come to you,
to the door of your comfortable house
with unwashed clothes and unclean fingernails,
will you put something into it?

I would like to take this chance.
I would like to give you this chance.

5.
We do one thing or another; we stay the same or we change.
Congratulations if you have changed.

6.
Let me ask you this.
Do you also think that beauty exists for some fabulous reason?

And if you have not been enchanted by this adventure—your life—
what would do for you?

7.
What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself.
Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.
That was many years ago.
Since then I have gone out from my confinements, though with difficulty

I mean the ones that are thought to rule my heart.
I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.
They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment somehow or another).

And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,
I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.

Red

 I'm sorry the new blogger doesn't let me change the color of my blog title...I've tried in "advanced" which is so limited and doesn't even have a button to "Save changes" at this time...so I'll be kind of anonymous!

No the traffic wasn't backed up from a train (the tracks are just before US 70 and that Ingles semi truck. The traffic was because I-40 is having construction on one lane of traffic all weekend long, so the cars and semi's get off and come through town...backing up at each light.

I think geranium red may show more exactness than rose red.

The phone camera does fine with most shots...but the reds just have a lot of trouble with gradations.

If you know anything about the Tarot cards, the one called Justice usually just has the woman who's blindfolded holding a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. This last week we've all missed the wisdom of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. This clever card has a red background.

Neighbors over on Walker Rd.

The whole bush of roses which we've enjoyed all summer.

They were actually planted by my former neighbor, who moved away suddenly a few years ago.

Another time I took a photo close up of the beautiful red rose...which turned pink in my camera.

And no pinks appear on the geranium. I scratch my head.

There are a lot of people around my town/state, who have signs and stickers like this. We are currently a swing state.

My favorite bowl (which I made) holding some Thai peanut sauce. spinach noodles, and tofu mixed with whatever veggies were in the fridge.

I'll give you more Red photos as I take them...

Today's quote: (which incidentally I totally believe!)

Some Sepia photos I've been hanging onto

 

A famous photograph of men lunching on an I-beam (640 feet above the New York streets) while building Rockefeller Center during the depression. It was planned on September 20, 1932, on the 69th floor of the RCA Building, It appeared in the Sunday photo supplement of the New York Herald Tribune on October 2, 1932. For many years noobody knew who the photographer had been, but it was credited to Charles C. Ebbets in 2003. Incidentally, the floor below it had been finished already, so this view kind of belies the fact of only being 20 feet or so above another floor.

The rest of the story...

A movie was made of the immigrants who worked as construction iron workers...I'm not sure who the director was...probably an immigrant. There was some mention of Irish immigrants, and American Indians. Only a few of the men in the photo have been identified.

And then there's another immigrant, 

Sergio Furnari, to whom the photograph spoke...

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Sergio Furnari's "Lunchtime on a Skyscraper"

"...Decades later a poster of the photograph hung in shop window on Fifth Avenue when sculptor Sergio Furnari walked by. The Sicilian-born Furnari was new to America and the image captivated him. The faces of the workers—mostly immigrants—spoke to him. 

“ 'I know how they felt,' he later recalled to New York Times reporter Leslie Chess Feller, 'I looked at those faces and knew I had to capture them in clay. Like me, they were immigrants, poor people who worked hard.'

"Furnari started out creating a life-size version of the photograph. The figures were executed in terra cotta, cement, fiberglass and metal. One-by-one the completed statues were welded to an I-beam which Furnari attached to his truck. The work in progress was exhibited around the city, wherever the artist would park.

"As he worked on the astonishing sculpture he said 'Those men were real people. Each one has, I think, a soul. I feel it when I sculpt them, when I touch their faces and make their features come out of the clay. It’s like I keep their spirit alive.'

"Furnari called his work “Lunchtime on a Skyscraper—A Tribute to America’s Heroes.” That title would take on new significance on the morning of September 11, 2001.

"The work was nearly finished. Only one figure was left to complete. That morning Furnari and his wife, illustrator Julia Licht, watched the collapse of the World Trade Towers from their apartment window.

"Within the next few weeks working heroes would have a new meaning for Furnari and his sculpture.

photo by Alice Lum

Each figure was executed with minute detail -- photo by Tien Mao

Furnari's sculpture became a mobile piece, touring the country -- photo newyorkdailyphoto.blogspot.com



The work was completed in October. Meanwhile hundreds of workmen toiled in the still-smoldering ruins of Ground Zero. “The twin towers were made by the ironworkers, and it was the ironworkers that had to remove the whole steel out of Ground Zero,” he later related.

:Furnari transported the inspiring work to the site as both a tribute and an encouragement to the workmen. 'When they were down in the hole, nobody was smiling. But when they were by the statue, they were inspired, and realized their work was appreciated,' he said. The sculpture uplifted the workers for five months.

"In 2003 Furnari attached the 25-foot, one-ton sculpture onto his truck and set off on a nationwide road trip in hopes of bringing ;the American and New York spirit all over America.' He encouraged people across the country who saw the work to sign his truck. Before the end of the tour, millions of Americans had seen the sculpture.

''

"Upon its return to the city “Lunchtime on a Skyscraper” became a sort of mobile museum, appearing here and there and always attracting a great amount of attention. Unfortunately, in January 2007 it attracted the wrong type of attention.

"Thieves broke into the Furnari’s Queens facility and one of the figures was unbolted and stolen.

“I feel like they stole a part of me a part of my life,” the artist told a New York Post reporter. The 100-lb. figure was never recovered.

"The essence of the work moves the observer and in 2010 a copy was commissioned by owners of a Valparaiso, Indiana restaurant named “Industrial Revolution.” One of the owners, Mike Lesson, explained 'The restaurant is dedicated to everyday people who take risks and is a tribute to the workers who built this country.'

"Furnari still tours his sculpture around on his truck—a newer one than the one which first transported the work—providing a unexpected delight for New Yorkers an d tourists lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time."

SOURCE: Daytonian in Manhattan: The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating, by Tom Miller, HERE.

I don't know who drew this, but I firmly agree with what RBG said. What a woman. What a leader! May we all live our lives with as much dedication to our belief in democracy and freedom of all people as she did.

All alone sitting by the shore. Sepia Saturday shows this gentleman, probably taken sometime before the 1960s...I'd guess the 30's. Check out what other's have come up with as this may inspire them. And by the time Saturday comes, it will have some details of the photo, giving it credit and date (I hope.)

A more modern photo of a friend who recently visited the shore, listening to the waves in a seashell. Well, you do know about that, I hope. Try it if you haven't ever done so.

Today, and maybe tomorrow.

I enjoy reading a lot of other blogs (as you can see by my lists over in the right column. So I found some things that I like to keep track of, by sharing them on my own blog.

For today, I saw these photos of a wall in a gas station in Canada.  Here's the blog site, and here are some of the photos. I like that Jessey Pacho made art from words...much as graffiti does. He's celebrating the front-liine workers during the pandemic.

I shared them on Facebook also, in honor of my friend Teresa, and cousin, Cynthia. Thanks to Junkboat Travels blog.

*****************************

And here's an animated video that helps us consider, imagine, and perhaps have some hope for the future...

A Message from the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It is somewhat dated, but you'll get the idea.

It echoes my own fervent hopes for a brighter future after our election.

*****************************

I've started the pulmonary rehab (same gym, and classroom which we used for the Ornish cardiac rehab. But different leadership...all with a slightly fun competition.

I'm focused a bit differently in my hour of exercise, and will have a different slant on the education as well...and I must try to remember it all to tell my friends who are also interested in improving their lung function.

My first real impression is that there are an awful lot of people coming for this rehab. My group is only 5 who are called Freshmen. Then there are Seniors (and I don't know how many there are of them.) And then there are about 15-20 people that come as maintenance. And in 2 weeks there will be 30 of us. 

How does this effect the gym?

They ran out of sterile wipes today, for each piece of equipment is cleaned after each person finishes with it.

They are on order, we were told.

Today's quote:

"Bless what there is, for being." Whatever it be, bless it because it exists; you need no other reason.

BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST

water and rocks and a few people

Happy OCTOBER everyone!

Maybe my friend's shadow is on the closest rock, as we looked at the water from the bridge.

At first I inadvertently captured this young mother carrying her baby...(in the shot I posted before with the comment about the white flat water seen through the hole, HERE.) 

But then I saw the charm in her hat and her infant as she walked over the rocks toward us, then actually passed us on the bridge, with yet another child of about 5.

A view of the steps we would have to climb back up to the parking lot...the very beginning steps that is.

I like how the bridge stops and we have to walk on that big rock. I wonder how long this bridge has been this way...and if it's anchored to the rocks.

My friend, Helen liked staying on the bridge looking at the sights downstream.

Today's quote:

Thomas Merton wrote, “there is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.” There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage. 

I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.

Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock-more than a maple- a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.


—Annie Dillard
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek