Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 184
August 6, 2012
photos, thoughts, and a question about squanderball
Grant us Lord a gracious rain.
It came yesterday, a full rain. I let it pour down on my face, and it felt drenching cool, quenching cool, restorative and generous.
This morning the Queen Anne's lace, all bent over, was strung with raindrops.
And the sun, rising, transformed the mist into glowing gauze. I didn't have my camera to catch the most magical moment, all rose and apricot-colored, but here's something from when it had climbed a little higher:
And some random thoughts:
Slippery-slope argum...
It came yesterday, a full rain. I let it pour down on my face, and it felt drenching cool, quenching cool, restorative and generous.
This morning the Queen Anne's lace, all bent over, was strung with raindrops.
And the sun, rising, transformed the mist into glowing gauze. I didn't have my camera to catch the most magical moment, all rose and apricot-colored, but here's something from when it had climbed a little higher:
And some random thoughts:
Slippery-slope argum...
The Child at Sea (but first....)
I was so happy at last to have written my review of
Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology
that I went and posted it on the weekend, when lots of people are away or busy. It's an excellent anthology and a chance to discover new voices, writing in a different context, so I want to give it as much publicity as I can, from my very minor pulpit. Anyway, the review is back here a page, so you can check it out if you have a few spare moments. (Cliff Notes version: it's great!)
But...
But...
August 4, 2012
cool of the day
It's been very hot all day, and it's stuffy indoors now, but outside it's dark and soft and cool, with a shimmering cascade of katydid and cricket sounds all around.
I think I'll walk out there and look for falling stars.
Because I can't take a picture of the night, here's a picture of a baleful sun, from two mornings ago
(Oh also? Really it's later in the evening, close to the tomorrow of the evening, but I dated this early so that it wouldn't push Lauriat from the front.)
I think I'll walk out there and look for falling stars.
Because I can't take a picture of the night, here's a picture of a baleful sun, from two mornings ago
(Oh also? Really it's later in the evening, close to the tomorrow of the evening, but I dated this early so that it wouldn't push Lauriat from the front.)
Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology
Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology
Lethe Press, 2012
Charles Tan, a Philippines-based member of the speculative fiction writing and blogging community, has brought together a wonderful buffet of spec-fic stories in this collection, the third that he’s compiled (the earlier two are The Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction 2009 and Philippine Speculative Sampler ).
This time, he’s focused on stories by Filipino-Chinese writers. As is true throughout Southeast Asia, people o...
August 2, 2012
the world by the stone wall
Where I went to pick blackberries this morning, in the world by the stone wall, fat Concord grapes are ripening. Soon the stone wall will smell like wine. I'll have to go back and pick them.
Earlier in the year, red raspberries and black ones were here. It's a paradise of wild fruits.
"You can come here'n pick, so long as you don't ever cultivate. You can't pull one weed or prune one branch of nothing."
An old guy, arms sinewy and brown as the thickest stems of grapevine. Some long loose shirt-t...
Earlier in the year, red raspberries and black ones were here. It's a paradise of wild fruits.
"You can come here'n pick, so long as you don't ever cultivate. You can't pull one weed or prune one branch of nothing."
An old guy, arms sinewy and brown as the thickest stems of grapevine. Some long loose shirt-t...
July 31, 2012
not sure
Folks, I am not sure how to blog these days.
I notice goldfinches, whole handfuls of them, the brightest lemon yellow, rising up from the meadows, and I want to tell you it's goldfinch season now, and share photos, not of goldfinches, alas; I can't catch birds, but of the morning meadow... like this
and this
--but I also want to talk about things, because pictures, pretty as they are, often amount to not much more than me going, "Ahhh!" and "See?" And I think maybe I'm a little tired of doing...
I notice goldfinches, whole handfuls of them, the brightest lemon yellow, rising up from the meadows, and I want to tell you it's goldfinch season now, and share photos, not of goldfinches, alas; I can't catch birds, but of the morning meadow... like this
and this
--but I also want to talk about things, because pictures, pretty as they are, often amount to not much more than me going, "Ahhh!" and "See?" And I think maybe I'm a little tired of doing...
July 30, 2012
more full of leaves
Come away, human child, for the world is more full of leaves than you can ever know.
Come away to where the blackberries grow
Step in, step in deeper, into shadow. There are more fruits there, hidden, sweet, and black.
Who and what were in this world?
Crows saying, autumn's coming. autumn's coming. I know that, crows. I know. I can read cool drenching dews and sharp skies too, you know. I know what blackberries mean.
Also titmice, singing one minute and raising an alarm the next. And something t...
Come away to where the blackberries grow
Step in, step in deeper, into shadow. There are more fruits there, hidden, sweet, and black.
Who and what were in this world?
Crows saying, autumn's coming. autumn's coming. I know that, crows. I know. I can read cool drenching dews and sharp skies too, you know. I know what blackberries mean.
Also titmice, singing one minute and raising an alarm the next. And something t...
July 28, 2012
Advice to bullied kids
Little Springtime discovered a column in the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shinbun in which various people offer advice to kids in Japan about how to deal with bullying. She's translated a number of the columns and reads from them and talks about them in this video. The columnists include a model who was bullied as a child and a quadriplegic elementary school teacher who was born without limbs.1
Some of the advice is similar to what we get here, but some of it is different, and I'm fascinated by it...
Some of the advice is similar to what we get here, but some of it is different, and I'm fascinated by it...
