The haiku have been on hiatus (no, I couldn’t resist that line, would you have?) but now that we’re in for a long, dark time, I feel the need to write them again. So they’re back, now with photos.
Bright windless morning
Gulls cry, loud in the quiet
Sun glints on ripples
Hawk slides across moon
Circles up on rising drafts
A black speck, then gone
Patrol boat churns past
White wake rises, fades again
Glassy water shines
Sunday, Oct. 16, the Hunter’s Moon rose over NYC. The Hunter’s Moon is the full moon after the Harvest Moon, which is the one closest to the fall equinox. The Hunter’s Moon is also called the Blood Moon, and this year it rose big and red. A bunch of us, led by the indomitable Keith Michael, wanted to see it from the Brooklyn Bridge, so we did.
Strolling over the bridge in sunset.
Just taking photos.
Just taking more photos.
Cables at sunset.
Cables after sunset.
Manhattan gets pastel at dusk…
…and colorful after dark.
Finally, the Hunter’s Moon.
It rises through the cables of the Manhattan Bridge, in the distance.
The higher it goes, the more color it loses.
In the cables, it looks doubled.
Then the Man in the Moon just looks confused.
Finally, peering into other peoples’ windows through the reflections in their glass, we head off the bridge and home.
The Cedar Valley Retreat Center has rolling grounds, many outdoor spaces for sitting and thinking, hills to climb, woods to stroll through, plus of course a couple of buildings for residence, meetings and classes. The place has another mission, too, carried out in a few buildings and fields at the front of the property. Besides hosting retreats like the the Wisconsin Writers’ Association Novel-in-Progress Bookcamp, they also do horse rescue. The first year I was here a couple of retired goats were also in residence, and their climbing structure remains though they seem to be gone. But at least two horses are living out their twilight years here. One of them plodded out of the barn yesterday to post picturesquely for both a long shot and a close-up.
Cardinal on branch.
Flock of starlings invades tree.
Red blur streaks away.
Granulated frost
Dusting cars in parking lot,
Vanishing in sun.
Traffic whizzing by.
Cars’ long shadows race ahead,
Slicing through morning.
Mongolian New Year, that would be. Like anyone else, Mongolians celebrate holidays with food. I haven’t been in Mongolia for Tsaagan Sar, but we did do a lot of eating this last trip. Here’s our guide, Alma, and our drivers, Naara and Ogi, setting up the kitchen:
And here’s one of many memorable meals:
Happy Tsaagan Sar!
Best to all in this Year of the Monkey. Took this photo in Singapore, when a monkey family swung through the trees beside us as we strolled a path.
Went out this morning early, in the bright sun. Lots of dogs and photogs: the day was absolutely gorgeous.
Steps
Car waits to be dug out
Wheeling the bike back into the garage (after she flopped into the snow to flatten a path)
Another bike to come back for
Be a while before this pile melts
Down by the river (Carlos Dews, this one’s for you)
This isn’t usually a pool, it’s a small inlet with a bridge over it about three feet above the water
Scrollwork on the back of my bench
Why I couldn’t sit on my bench this morning
Car, somewhere in there
Snow on low wall, against high wall
Grace is everywhere
Went out a second time about an hour ago. Snow’s blowing harder. Walked — okay, trudged — in the other direction, not toward the river but into the neighborhood streets. Went maybe ten blocks away. Out and back took an hour. Here are the afternoon’s photos. Now I’m done, settled in, about to go back to the book I’m working on and then watch the Knicks, who apparently made it to Charlotte last night although the airports were closed by the time they were finished losing to the Clippers.
Door as I was leaving the building
Statue in the park
Green means go but so what, really?
Wall
Sidelined sidewalk cafe
Snowplow oops
I think we’ll come back tomorrow for the bike
Rather Gothic gate
We NYers will take our icicles where we can get them
Hope the 6th Precinct doesn’t need that car
Or that one (the 24-hour pharmacy, by the way, is closed)
Pipe connection
This is a traffic-ticket vehicle, so you KNOW they don’t need this one
Scrollwork
Citibikes going nowhere
Grate
Vines on the wall
Went to Red Hook last night to see the presentation of “New Town Future Film,” a video by my buddy, the photographer/videographer Ana Bilankov. We met in 2006 at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, one of my favorite places on the planet. Ana is from Zagreb, lives and works now in Berlin, and has been to NYC on artist’s residencies three times in the last few years. Among other things she’s been working on is this film, which is twenty minutes of the most stunning, noirish, dreamlike images you’ll ever see. I have no images from the film, or any of her works, to post, but when you go to her website you’ll see them, and here I offer you this shot of Ana introducing the work. It’s kind of Bilankovian in feel, itself.
For your holiday gift-giving pleasure. You don’t have to deal with Black Friday, Small Business Saturday (though it’s true I’m a Very Small Business), Cyber Monday, or Happy, Sleepy, Doc, or Bashful, either. Just order your Travel Calendar, your Flowers Calendar, or your Five Snouts of Mongolia, Plus Calendar (and where else are you gonna get THAT?) for a year of photos like these.
From 2016 Five Snouts of Mongolia, Plus
From 2016 Flowers
From 2016 Travel
Happy shopping!
