Watermark

Niki's shop is open!

Niki's Etsy shop is up, and has several gorgeous things to choose from. Niki and I have been friends for more years than either of us probably want to recall; she has been steadfast through many difficult times for me.

So I am delighted to see her 'go public' with her skills and talents. She has a wonderful eye for color, and the perseverance to master one craft after another. Mosaics is her most recent obsession (and I mean that in a good way.)

She has done, and doubtless will do, many other kinds of art. Keep your eye on her shop, and her blog.

Winter White

This lovely winter scene is by Catnapping, another Montana blogger. A perfect holiday greeting, posted here with her permission.

May we continue to be blessed with beauty and generosity, and may peace come to, and from, us all.

Winter Branches

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

DICK CHENEY IS WATCHING YOU

Made with fd's flickr toys.

He's become an archetype, hasn't he? Or inhabited one.

I found the original on the sidewalk in downtown Missoula. It made me shudder, and laugh, at once.

Snapshot Poem 16 August 02006

Poet on a Mountain Top from Classic Chinese Paintings

I Send Out This Paper Boat

August now, and three years --
four? -- since I've touched
your arm, heard that river-
bed voice. I grow old,

my hair lengthens and thins
at once, gray at the temples.
My body declines in every
sense. Our lives so far

apart, this sea too wide
for even dreams to bridge.
Both our beaches littered
with shards, lovers left

and leaving, broken shells
of expectations and demands.
There are wars between us;
storm and flood and deadly

drought; a long, desolate
peace. Our lives thin down
to this: one or two tenacious
friends, deep-rooted against

time, against wind and loneliness.
A few sparse lines in a Chinese
painting: one tree clings to the cliff,
branches stunted and bent; sea-

battered, salt-worn, but still
it holds. It holds.