Voir Dire

THE MAG

"A fox should not be on the jury at a goose's trial." - Thomas Fuller

Photo by Tess Kincaid

THE JURY
(based on a true story)

She wasn't sequestered
yet held captive
for the duration
of her civic service.
Newspapers vanished
no tainting of minds allowed.
Dutiful justice prevails.

So it's totally understandable
that she'd take to drawing on the windows
audaciously, upon recess.
Her heartfelt thoughts 
a comfort for any nervous notions
 surging full steam in steady drones
of speculation-
beguiling her senses.

Only facts
served on a platter of evidence
 is acceptable.
Bias and prejudices not admitted.
Best you-
Ignore the intricate clockworks of our humanness 
as riveting and imaginative as they may be.
Always accept facts as fact.



"Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes."
Jawaharlal Nehru

Mystery Bird is Resident Critter

"Remember the quiet wonders. 
The world has more need of them
 than it has for warriors."
Charles de Lint

Good morning fellow Saturday Critter friends.

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

For as long as I've been going to Centennial Lakes in Edina, Minnesota on every visit I've been privileged to observe this one lovely lone white bird.  Seriously.  

In all the excitement of capturing him again, (not to mention finding a baby turtle underfoot and caught in a dangerous situation) I finally asked the art exhibitor that was watching me shoot pictures, "Do you know this bird's story?" grinning he replied, "Oh he's just the resident bird here."

Just? Really?!

So, evidently other folks have been just as curious and a pressing bird identification ensued!

 Apparently Ryan Gauthier has been mystified as well, read here.

Isn't it marvelous when a community comes storming to the rescue over one stunning bird?

Another cool shot.

I'm excited to reveal the one and only Great Egret, resident of Centennial Lakes here.


It just goes to show that sometimes while you're occupied with one thing

waiting just around the corner is something else worth noticing.

"The few wonders of the world only exist
while there are those with the sight to see them."

Charles de Lint

Be happy in all that you do this weekend,  Enjoy.

Have You Seen This Sign

How about some more signs for Carmi's Thematic Photographic

and joining them with Wednesday's Words on a Friday?
(12 Italic words)

Let's begin from the healthy mix of flowers and a few herbs growing like garlic and thyme automatically watered mostly by rain gutters.

Apparently trespassers have obeyed this sign. A search around the perimeter reveals not one violator shot.

But I have to wonder if it's a bit of a red flag posting such a sign? Or, are they  trying to reduce their amount of customers?

How inspiring to place motivating words and thoughts for your deck, gardens or windows!

"I do believe in an everyday sort of magic-
the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience

(If you're wondering that's my reflection in the windows.)

With places, people and works of art and the like;

the eerie appropriateness

of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice the hidden presence,

when we think we're alone." - Charles de Lint

Poems read out loud always play like a musical for all that will listen.

Now how about joining me at Cafe by the Bay for a glass of delicious, good old fashion lemonade?

Good Fences From Sunday

Good morning to all! Together in sunshine and shade let's celebrate Good Fences again!

GOOD FENCES

A lovely setting for any art fair!

Follow along with me,

From Centennial Lakes in Edina, Minnesota where I found some lovely fences.

It begins just around this corner-

past all the colorful paddle-boats,

"See! The good lies so near.
 Only learn to seize good fortune,
 for good fortune's always here. " - Goethe 

How so very often the simplest, 
most seemingly insignificant something, 
turns into something so pleasantly significant!

There's always something waiting every time you look outside.

Thanks for sharing a glimpse into a few fences along Sunday's art fair! Now, I'm excited to see your Good Fences!

Signs

"We love the imperfect shapes in nature and in the works of art, look for an international error as a sign of the golden key,and sincerity found in true mastery." - Dejan Stojanovic

THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC

Signs speak, silently.

Carmi has issued 

SIGNS

for our theme this week.

This is one of those signs that at first you think, really like someone would jump from here? Until a few minutes later and this boat with about 5 vigorous children (calling out to friends on shore) came gliding through.  Then this sign made perfect sense.


So why not bring your own sign or signs over to Carmi's Thematic Photographic and share it with us too!

Ah, The Good Ol' Days

If I were to write a story-
from the days of my youth
every line 
would be filled with things 
I still treasure today.

Like-

Point Iroquois Lighthouse

I admit I'm not really a winter person, but how can you not admire a gorgeous winter view?

SEPIA SATURDAY

Alan has offered clotheslines, pegs, or laundry hung out to dry,
 and etc. as our theme this week.

Photo taken sometime in August of 1937 in Winton, Mn.

While a post about clotheslines could prove refreshing, our subject stirs emotions from my childhood so, I'm opting for scenes from a distant yesterday.

I'm the child in the mixed plaid ensemble while my sister and father are still wearing their pajamas. The place, a friend's cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and my daddy's smiling even though moments before this I used up the only loaf of bread to feed the ducks.  Oops.


They say we are what we eat, well I like to think we create what we see.

Photo information here.

Or maybe not, since I've yet to draw nude pictures.  But wouldn't you agree that this poster from sometime around 1936 appears more like something we'd see today? 

I've concluded my love for art arrived by mixed channels growing up.


Loving animals came from an early age.

Mickey, my beloved first dog!

Animals were a major part of my childhood, and many of my relatives drove around town with a bumper sticker that read, Drink Milk.




Growing up in Michigan is where my love for automobiles and other means of transportation began.

Michigan was known for their auto-industry, but also,

father and son pictured here with a creation from their two man plant that they operated in Bay City, Michigan.  They were pioneers in the auto trailers using yacht construction methods.  Messrs, Kaunetz in Bay City, Michigan.

"The intelligent have plans; the wise have principles."
Raheel Farooq


Growing up in a small town rarely did we meet a stranger walking down the street, and folks always stopped to chat.

This photo above was taken well before I was born, but it's a perfect example of my first hometown of Mason, Michigan.  Funny thing Mason still looks pretty much like that today. 

Mason, Michigan seen here, my first library and love for courthouse buildings, and the town as it is today viewed here.


Of course, there's my love for water and lighthouses too.

"This couldn't be just a lake. No real water was ever blue like that. A light breeze stirred the pin-cherry tree beside the window ruffled the feathers of a fat sea gull promenading the pink rocks below. The breeze was full of evergreen spice." - Dorothy Maywood Bird

(Yes, just as I remember it.)

"Big Red" South Pierhead Lighthouse, Holland Harbor Michigan.

Eagle Harbor, Lighthouse.

"You are the spiritual entity
 that emerges out of the material networks 
in your head."
David Brooks



I can't forget those trusty tugboats.

Tugboat Edna G. Two Harbors, Minnesota

As a little girl admiring and learning all about Lake Superior, I had no idea that I'd one day I'd make my home in Minnesota.




Not everything or every place is picturesque in Michigan today.

Abandoned and quietly sitting in Rural Michigan

It's always a treat for me to come across old service stations no matter where I am.

Moving Up

THE MAG

EMBOURGEOISEMENT

On a preliminary quest for higher-living-
through diffi-cult-to-define and anxi-ety-ridden days
his striving 
 definitely and wholeheartedly 
finally moved-him-on-up.

From self-pity to self-realization,

his self-esteem flourished unselfishly out-of-control.

His life went from impossible

to I'm Possible!

From nowhere to now-here.

Took a whole lot of trying

just to get up that hill-

Seldom-understood and always tongue-tied,

he dumped his soon-to-be-forgotten 
rust-bucket, Beetle-Bugster at the end-of-the-road
defying all modern-art jargon
of twisting and sledge-hammering 
his metal in exchange for his very own
abode!

Moving on up and up-

So departing this ever-mysterious court-yard-garden of lost
metal-art

he bought his first

Mass-produced metal-house
that long-ago was all-the-rage
and well-being for those 
of a younger-tender-age
and called it his

Dream-House!

One man's rusty metal is another man's trusty steed of a house.

and yet-

"What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got
 a tolerable planet to put it on?"- Henry David Thoreau

Timeless Drifters

WEDNESDAY'S WORDS

12 italic words

and

SIX WORD FRIDAYS

Green is Adrienne's theme.

and 

Saturday's Critters

with Eileen

Timeless Drifters, not lonely, remarkably free.

From Minnesota 9-11 Tribute Never Forget

"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth stone, all over this broad land" - as quoted in The River of Winged Dreams by Abraham Lincoln

Please join my classified tour of

 drifters, a perfect Saturday morning view.

To places where honored awards don't go unnoticed and discover those who have planted seeds baked in honest to goodness gourmet tenderness of caring for others.

(read more about Ralph's story here)

Drifter's paradise, oddities on a stick.

Fresh Walleye at the Campfire Grill.

 Notice our reflection on the hood?

Throw down your crossword puzzles and 

and observe Wild Mustangs bound for

  a climate of southern beds instead

of  the frozen tundra arriving soon.

With the anticipation of winter arriving
soon, our dreams drop as quickly 
as the temperature and adding layers
 to our body doesn't change this 
one thing gnawing at our toes-

Being tapped by one recurring idea

It's never too cold for ice-cream!


and take lots of summer pictures
and share those heartstrings forever tattooed 
deep within us by the fire
where dreams of springtime are made.

"If the doors of perception were 
cleansed, every thing would appear to
 man as it is, Infinite. For
man has closed himself up, till 
he sees all things thro' narrow
chinks of his cavern." -William Blake

Each time we open our hearts,

you'll experience true fulfillment every time.

Inspired by a boy named Ralph.

One last Saturday's Critters for Eileen.

Look a message in a bottle!

All That Shines

"In the morning, celebrate the beauty and warmth of sunlight.

In the evening, celebrate the song of silence and love of night."

Debasish Mridha

Time spent at the lake

is never wasted.

GOOD FENCES

I'm lucky to have found places where it's hard knowing which side of the tracks is prettier.  

"We can never be born enough." 
E. E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings begged

"Go sailing away and away sailing into a keen city which nobody's ever visited."

I agree... and just be free.

"The snow doesn't give a soft white damn about whom it touches."

E. E. Cummings

... and so because of that one simple act of old man winter

it's days like this we Minnesotans soak up as many summer rays as possible.

In a short while, these boats will be,
sailing their dreams away.

Just a few blocks away,this poor little, lonely restaurant sits empty without a soul in sight,


 and it was so used to the laughter of people
 that once gathered here.

"wholly to be a fool
while spring is in the world"
E. E. Cummings

The spring of immensely bigger and colossally better establishments, tear down, rebuild and haul back the folks, that's always been the mind set around these suburbs. Quite sad, for those of us peacefully enjoying quaint little bits of history.

and this is/was the rear entrance.

From the other side of the tracks,

said the one flower to the other

"I will take the sun in my mouth 

and leap into the ripe air

Alive

with closed eyes

to dash against darkness."

E. E. Cummings

Sounds lovely, don't you think?