Polly Castor’s Blog an online journal of art, photography, spirituality, ideas, books, movies, food, poetry, and hope

Today’s Photos of Glass Block

Sun, 5 Feb 2012 20:20:37 -0500

Today my daughter and I sojourned to a better library than ours about a half hour away as a special treat. We were well rewarded with overflowing armloads of wonderful books and audio to take home. Enjoying being totally surrounded by good, I couldn’t help but appreciate this wall of glass block in the stairwell as well. And you wonder where ideas for abstract art come from? (Everywhere!) Fascinating window, isn’t it? It shows how important the lens is, through which we look upon things!

Movie Review: The Artist

Sat, 4 Feb 2012 23:23:20 -0500

I enjoyed this movie even though I’ll only give it three stars. Maybe I was just glad to get out, but I found the premise of a largely wordless movie entertaining. It was amazing how much more facial expression was used when one could not rely on words to convey meaning. But I also found it sad and unnatural that the main character was unwilling to progress. The movie reminded me of a Mary Baker Eddy quote: “Willingness... to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea.” It is true that love conquers and dissolves self-sabotage, regardless of how stubborn and unnecessary it always is. But how much better to be as receptive as the heroine in this film, by contrast!

Recipe: Tofu with Shrimp and Vegetables

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 17:21:19 -0500

The spices in this are subtle; if you want it more spicy add some red pepper sauce...

2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 teaspoon tahini
4 ounces organic satin tofu or Trader Joe’s organic baked marinated tofu
6 ounces small shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Thai chili paste

Heat oils in a wok or non-stick pan over medium high heat.
Add the ginger, bean sprouts and sugar snap peas and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients,stirring until shrimp turns pink.
Serve immediately.
Enjoy!

Groundhog Day Poem by Blog Reader

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 14:52:54 -0500

So Winter Passes  Deep and deeper still,  beneath the ragged elms and gnarled oaks, tangled roots as fingers lie knotted,  entwined together as in prayer in a dark, winter-night dream. Snow over ice layers upon the brooding woodland floor where tiny skulls of mice and bones of voles lie buried in a sacred grove, a holy grave.  Far below, life stirs... A drowsy waking from a season long asleep. Tiny cells, seeds, fungi... shudder, stretch and groan, beetles, nourished upon their deathly repast now grope and crawl, pushing upward to tepid warmth and low horizoned sun.  Brazen amid the monochrome,  green daggers poke forth, pregnant with blooms, waiting, impatient for spring; Not soon enough their fragile beauty to decorate soft mosses and the ice cold stones. Old winter-stiffened reeds, brown and broken,  form cruel beds for rats and wrens,  nestled there, hidden, huddled from the bitterest winds,  now will be cut down, giving way to verdant shoots, tender wands soon to sway in summer breezes. Months of near death and ice cold pain yield grudgingly in the dark earth womb.  So winter passes and spring is slowly born.

by Danny Cutting
2/2/12

My Recent Digital Artwork

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 22:30:06 -0500

Here is the digital artwork I’ve done recently...

Sixty Degrees in January?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:03:27 -0500

A year ago, we had bragging rights on 62 inches of snow in January alone. This January, the large majority of our days have had temperatures far above freezing. We were in our shirt sleeves today! As a friend of mine quipped, “I’m glad there’s no such thing as global warming; what would the weather be like if there was?” Me, I prefer the term “global weirding.” Anyway, check out some photos of our Connecticut heat wave. I almost called this post “wintergreen” but it doesn’t feel enough like winter!