Friday Flickr Favorites: Shades of Gray

1. Untitled, 2. Untitled, 3. an enchanted place, 4. {January 14} view from the curry house, 5. Untitled, 6. A Gaggle of Birds, 7. Untitled, 8. Stones, 9. Untitled, 10. simple setting of grays and whites, 11. en mémoire, 12. urchins

Inspired: mav from port2port, an incredibly talented artist, has a tradition on her blog. Friday Flickr Favorites. What I love so much is seeing images clinging to each other, the way they work in concert with one another. Think: 3191, noticing project, six one way. I am in love with mornings, with everyday life, with quiet beauty. With subtleness, with the stark majesty of the ordinary.

And these images above, oh how much I love them together. I'm enjoying playing with flickr, even a little too addicted maybe, but Florida will distract me--the beaches, the poetry, the hotel linen.

But before there is Florida, there is snow. Temperatures are supposed to plummet this weekend, which happens to also be the weekend the Urtels are making the trek from Winona to the Twin Cities. Oh, how cold it will be!

I remember when I first moved to the Midwest (from Chattanooga)... I remember the sprinkling of snow in October, the shock of slipping on the ice, wearing snow boots to school. I remember that one day in December, I was a freshmen at the University of Minnesota, and I had to drop off a paper--that's all--and how it took me so long to get off campus, how I had to stop in the old pillared buildings to thaw before I could move on, how I couldn't imagine waiting for a bus, but I also couldn't imagine the walk home either. I remember there was a time when I'd wear long underwear through the whole winter, not miss a day, how it was a period of something like five months.

How I haven't worn long underwear in years, so sturdy I've become, so used to this town and the way the wind whips as we walk the dogs. But you can be certain I will wear everything possible, will layer myself to Michelin-man status, will roll myself along with the furniture, the boxes of books.

I'm so grateful the Urtels aren't hoarders, like us. :)

Currently:

- trying not to feel shame at my low vocabulary while donating rice
- discovering this fun home site
- switching over to 100% wind energy