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At this time of year, I tell my daughter, you feel as if you own the lake. It feels like it’s just us, no one else around. And – well, here she is with a friend in the kayaks. At…

I’m reading this wildly interesting book on Alexander Humboldt (by Andrea Wulf) who was one of the first environmentalists. I’m early in the book and, although he’s German, he’s finally gotten funding from the Spanish king to explore the New…

So in my latest best-loved book, The Invention of Nature, von Humboldt is struggling across an endless grass landscape in South America when he encounters an occasional palm tree. It was his appreciation for the palm tree in that setting that…

thunderstorm coming Yes, I forgot. I forgot to name many who dropped by, jumped in, laid back, enjoyed the lake. All of whom I thoroughly enjoyed: Those wild adventurers, Oren (NYC/Texas), and David, the musician, who joined Samsun on days…

starting in on “dark hearts” It’s September. It’s after Labor Day. The BIG SUMMER has ended. I thought to myself: “Now I can re-enter my internet world”. As if it was a world of its own. No. The internet is…

I was intrigued by a passage in Gombrich’s book in which he was writing about seeing. He mentioned that a person who gains sight later in life has to learn to see. But even those of us who can see…

This summer I’ve been slowly digesting Gombrich’s The Story of Art. I had my fair share of art history in the classroom. But even the most inspired teachers had not got me as excited to the extent this book has…

For a couple of wonderful years, I was part of an online art group. Once a week we would talk. Between, I blogged. I was “above ground”. Seen. Communicating. Out in the world. And I loved it. This summer, we…

August 13. How did that happen? With lots and lots of away-from-the-computer time is how. With lots of time in the woods and water and boat with the dog is how. With lots of great people time is how. With…

GREEN! So much rain. So much green. (see that kind of stalk of a tree mid-distance? My mother, no longer alive, told me its name and I didn’t retain it. It’s a relic of the dinosaur times, with a triangular…