You Can't Build a House Without a Foundation!

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

~ Henry David Thoreau ~

Photo by [martin]

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Some people say man is the most dangerous animal on the planet. Obviously those people have never met an angry cat.

~ Lillian Johnson ~

Photo by haxed

Good Books Make Good Neighbors

A book may be compared to your neighbor: if it be good, it cannot last too long; if bad, you cannot get rid of it too early.

~ Rupert Brooke ~

Poetry Friday

One flower is beautiful, a surfeit of flowers is vulgar.

~ Albert Einstein ~

Photo by thebestbradley

Happy Thanksgiving!

One of life's gifts is that each of us, no matter how tired and downtrodden, finds reasons for thankfulness: for the crops carried in from the fields and the grapes from the vineyard.

~ J. Robert Moskin ~

Fortunate, Indeed!

Fortunately there is no one who actually has only feeling or only thinking properties. They intermingle like the colors of the rainbow and cannot be sharply divided.

~ M.C. Escher ~

High-Wire Poet

If I have to make a self-portrait, I would put poetry and rebellion on the list. To be able to walk on a wire, to be able to juggle six hoops, you need focus, another word for tenacity, which is passion. When I talk about my life, I use the word "fighting" very often. There is my intention to create and the world is against it.

~ Philippe Petit ~


Cover illustration from The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordecai Gerstein

Does That Include Pumpkin Whoopie Pies?

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.

~ Jim Davis ~

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie photos from Delicious Dishings (recipe included).

Sunday's Kat Kwote

The phrase "domestic cat" is an oxymoron.

~ George Will ~

The Dawn Has Come

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

~ Rabindranath Tagore ~

In loving memory of Francis J. Dengler, 1925-2009

Photo by James Jordan

Poetry Friday

From religious ceremonies to children's games, poetry holds a central place in human communities, though some may take it for granted.

~ Bill Moyers ~

Gifts

Photo by Jen Chan

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.

~ Ruth Ann Schabacker ~

The Mantis

The mantis seizes the locust but does not see the yellow bird behind him.

~ Chinese proverb ~


Photo by Y.K.Tarabagani

Football Players

Football players, like prostitutes, are in the business of ruining their bodies for the pleasure of strangers.

~ Merle Kessler ~

Do-It-Yourself

Photo by House of Sims
It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

~ Napoleon Hill ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

To bathe a cat takes brute force, perseverance, courage of conviction and a cat. The last ingredient is usually hardest to come by.

~ Stephen Baker ~

Photo by (michelle)

The Moon and the Sea

The moon is distant from the sea,
And yet with amber hands
She leads him, docile as a boy.
Along appointed sands.

~ Emily Dickinson ~


Photo by garden beth

Poetry Friday

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

~ Abraham Maslow ~

Congratulations Taylor Swift

People haven't always been there for me but music always has.

~ Taylor Swift ~

Swift won four Country Music Awards last night and at 19 is the youngest-ever musician to win "Entertainer of the Year."

On Veteran's Day

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy ~

Photo by wallyg

Fine Advice!

Image courtesy CafePress

In Other Words, Don't Over Think It

To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Photo by shutupyourface
There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles, from the desperate to the sheepish; but there is one order of beauty which seems made to turn the heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of women. It is a beauty like that of kittens...

~ George Eliot from Adam Bede ~

I Almost Forgot to Post a Quote Today!

Through memory we travel against time, through forgetfulness we follow its course.

~ Joseph Joubert ~

Poetry Friday

Photo by Augapfel
...my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.

~ Pablo Neruda ~

An Interesting Solution

The only way to solve the traffic problems of the country is to pass a law that only paid-for cars are allowed to use the highways. That would make traffic so scarce, we could use our boulevards for children's playgrounds.

~ Will Rogers ~



Photo by UberJ

Seeing is Believing

All is not well. Science tells us that if we do not take the right action now, climate change will bring havoc, even within our lifetime...

~ Kofi Annan ~

A World Without War?

There is no doubt in his mind that the ability to pass through objects will one day be a common tool in the intelligence-gathering arsenal. And when that happens, well, is it too naive to believe it would herald the dawning of a world without war? Who would want to screw around with an army that could do that?

~ Jon Ronson from The Men Who Stare at Goats ~

Craft

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.

~ Jean de la Bruyere ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Those who dislike cats will be carried to the cemetery in the rain.

~ Dutch proverb ~



Photo by dsb nola

Happy Halloween!

Mute shadows creeping slow
Mark how the hours go.
Every stone is mouldering slow.

~ Walter De La Mare from "The Empty House" ~




Image courtesy The Graphics Fairy

Poetry Friday

...I love to work in form. I think the challenges of form elicit extraordinary responses. You don't know what's going to come.

~ Maxine Kumin ~

Vampires Out, Angels In

I'm tired of the idea that the devil is the interesting one. That's not true. The devil is boring and he's lost. And I want to be on the side of the angels this time.

~ Anne Rice ~


Image courtesy chicks57

We're Still Waiting...

Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right--not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world.

~ John F. Kennedy ~

Bugs!

An open mind, like an open window, should be screened to keep the bugs out.

~ Virginia Hutchinson ~




Photo by flypig

The Important Thing Is to Try

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

~ Amelia Earhart ~






Photo by Kevin

Sunday's Kat Kwote

If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.

~ Alfred North Whitehead ~

Autumn Luster

Photo by la prosperite
There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley ~

Poetry Friday

Poets are masters of us ordinary men, in knowledge of the mind,
because they drink at streams which we have not yet made accessible to science.

~ Sigmund Freud ~

Let the Sun Shine!

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow them.

~ Louisa May Alcott ~

Artistry

The fact is that it takes more than ingredients and technique to cook a good meal. A good cook puts something of himself into the preparation--he cooks with enjoyment, anticipation, spontaneity, and he is willing to experiment.

~ Pearl Bailey ~

Today is National Day on Writing

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.

~ Anais Nin ~

One Smart Guy

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

~ Leonardo da Vinci ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Little robin redbreast sat upon a tree,
Up went pussy cat and down went he.

~ Traditional Nursery Rhyme ~








Photo by Sangudo

Shut Up and Start Singing!

Photo by iirraa

Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.

~ Jimi Hendrix ~

Poetry Friday

I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in
singing, especially when singing is not necessarily
prescribed.

~ Mary Oliver from "Evidence" ~

A Ghostly Idea

An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.

~ Charles Dickens ~

The Cure for the Blues

I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It's amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor.

~ D.H. Lawrence ~


Photo by Shadowfoot

No Dogma, Please

What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer.

~ Bertrand Russell ~

Columbus Day

Thursday, 11 October. Steered west-southwest; and encountered a heavier sea than they had met with before in the whole voyage. Saw pardelas and a green rush near the vessel. The crew of the Pinta saw a cane and a log; they also picked up a stick which appeared to have been carved with an iron tool, a piece of cane, a plant which grows on land, and a board. The crew of the Nina saw other signs of land, and a stalk loaded with rose berries. These signs encouraged them, and they all grew cheerful. Sailed this day till sunset, twenty-seven leagues.

~ Christopher Columbus ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause most inconvenience.

~ Pam Brown ~

Talk

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

~ Oscar Wilde ~

Poetry Friday

Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own.

~ Salvatore Quasimodo ~





Photo by Lamerie

Fate Is a Rat?

Fate is not an eagle, it creeps like a rat.

~ Elizabeth Bowen ~



Photo by Infrogmation

She Needs A Sense of Humor to Deal with a Man

You see, dear, it is not true that woman was made from man's rib; she was really made from his funny bone.

~ James M. Barrie ~