Sittin'

“I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time”
From Dock of the Bay
Otis Redding 1941-1967 and Steve Cropper 1941-

Another day flames out on the San Francisco Bay.

Do Not Copy

“Do not copy nature too much. Art is an abstraction.”
Paul Gauguin 1848-1903

My bark is worse than my bite. But not as bad as my puns.
This is a tree in front of a building that had corrugated aluminum siding.

Craftiness

“Craftiness must have clothes, but truth loves to go naked”
English Proverb

Halfway there.

Photorealism

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
Albert Einstein 1879-1955

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? A dreamer or a realist? Is the glass half empty or half full? Assuming there is an atmosphere, the glass is completely full. Half of the contents is liquid; the other half is gas. Or is that just another illusion?

Fjord Fondness

“Nature never did betray / The heart that loved her.”
William Wordsworth 1770-1850

It’s hard not to love this place. It’s the Geiranger fjord in Norway.

To the Clouds

“To see far is one thing, going there is another.”
Constantin Brancusi 1876-1957

It does seem like you can walk to the clouds from here. It may be farther than it looks.

The Quilted Hills

“We find the Works of Nature still more pleasant, the more they resemble those of art.”
Joseph Addison 1672-1719

My wife is a quilter. This weekend, she showed a couple of her quilts at an amazing quilt show called Voices in Cloth 2012, "Extraordinary Quilts by the Bay" put on by East Bay Heritage Quilters. Now my whole world looked like a quilt. These are the hills just outside Livermore, California.

The Greatest Love

“But the greatest love -- the love above all loves,
Even greater than that of a mother...
Is the tender, passionate, undying love,
Of one beer drunken slob for another.”
Irish ballad

One of the best places to practice the greatest love is Doolin, a small village in County Clare, Ireland. The three pubs in Doolin- McDermott's, McGann's and O'Connor's- are renowned worldwide for their traditional Irish music.

May you have a warm and not too fuzzy St. Patrick’s Day.

Outside the Box

“You must empty a box before you fill it again”
Irish proverb

It can get cold along the coast of Ireland, especially in winter. If you are a food stand owner catering to a summer clientele you won’t be faulted for wanting to head south.

Holding Wonder

"Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up,
Holding wonder like a cup."
Sara Teasdale 1884–1933 (from Barter)

It was a beautiful day when we visited the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare Ireland. That speck on top of the cliff is O'Brien's Tower. However, it can get a bit windy in these parts. Conan O’Brien had a typical Irish experience when he stopped by.

Heart's Core

“I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore. . . .
I hear it in the deep heart's core.”
William Butler Yeats 1865-1939

St. Paddy’s Day is approaching! A good time for a digital stroll by the shores of Lower Lake in Killarney National Park, Ireland

Moon over Molokai

“I got the sun in the mornin' and the moon at night.”
Irving Berlin 1888-1989

I’m a lucky guy. This is the house we were guests in when we were in Hawaii last year. And the kayaks we paddled around in (porpoises popped up!). The adorable dog was also part of the package.

Part of the Art

“Art is both creation and recreation.”
Lin Yutang 1895-1976

This is a small detail of a wall mural painted by Beth Clevenstine.
It was waiting for me in an ally leading to the beach in Capitola, CA.

Whoa

“Then it's merrily, merrily, merrily, whoa! To the old gray church they come and go, Some to be married and some to be buried And Old Robin has gone for the mail”
Robert Benchley 1889-1945

This is part two of my extensive (2) stop sign collection. I’m not sure I can stop.

Finish the Moment

“To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road,
to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom”
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882

Winter Love

“Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.”
Pietro Aretino 1492-1596

This is the gilded bronze monument of Johann Strauss II after a Viennese snowstorm . In his lifetime, Strauss was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.

Pietro Aretino, on the other hand, was an Italian author and poet, well known for his erotic literature. He is rumored to have died of suffocation from "laughing too much."