For tea the first step is boiling water... at times this is best reminded by listening to the wind-in-pines sound of water when it is heating under the embers of a handful of charcoal

Study of a trinity: wooden table surface; circular ceramic cup; minipulated light modulation (via exposure/angle of view)

Familiar Objects A silver fork, the stem of a glass; set at a slight angle against the wood-grain of the table.

The perfection of imperfection Japanese charred cedar drop lid Yakesugi otoshibuta 焼杉 落としぶた

The nectarine's first blossom

Thoughts on almost insignificant things: Finally got my father's bicycle lantern working again. He was born in 1901, which made me a late issue ! But back to the familiar 100 odd year old lantern, we live in such a brighter world today, but somehow I doubt it is a better one--perhaps even harsher !

Reading or hearing the words of someone else (or even our former self) allows us to temporarily be in another's mind--not necessarily as an escape from our own--it makes us listen to something other than our own prattle, no matter if we choose to agree or disagree, it is other than our own prattle.

Sunday afternoon... and it's time to listen to Duke Ellington and his Orchestra's Diminuendo in Blue

Tree Dahlia (Dahlia imperialis)... is a winter bloomer in our antipodean garden

Notes for the times… The wise person knows they do not know: They surround themselves with able helpers. The fool firmly believes they know: They surround themselves with other fools. The majority follow the fool out of insecurity: (?) They surround the fool until the lynching (¿)

Can't help but think that the only way to overcome the dark rigid ways of these days is the constant gentle wind that can dispels the dark clouds to reveal the intrigues and machinations that shun the light of day ... Awakening consciousness in the depths can only be through gentle cultural means

Momentos of Basel

怪花 strange flowers For a 怪佛 Strange Buddha

作意 yi zuo vs 意作 zuoyi In seals both readings are possible In most ancient times seals were read left to right, only later arose the now common right to left reading

Valentine's heart opens

Riverworn

Pebble, rock, or stone... By any other name...

A thought keeps me up, by its sheer weight... A keystone is much like our soul: it bears down upon us to keep up the vault of our being

Cropped to 1:1 with 3x3 grid lines

Study of a grevillea leaf in red

Sea patterned

ROMA from Letters from Rome, 2000

Nightsky

Japanese Calligraphy prize medallion from 1971 (disclaimer: bought, not awarded by either self or other ;-) front of the medallion nice 書 JP sho / CN shu

The bird sown opened overnight and already it is full of frantic bees

Memories of youth: Am I not him? Is he not me ?

Perfection... no matter how evanescent... is perfection nonetheless !

Study in yellow

Tea-scream: this can be used either a noun or a verb 😱 JP 抹茶悲鳴 Matcha himei CN >茶 ¹chá* n. tea >呼嘯 hūxiào* v. whistle; scream; whiz >茶呼嘯 cháhūxiào n./v. tea-scream

Portrait of the Buddha as a hand sequence 2

Portrait of the Buddha as a hand sequence 1

Ear encloses the thunderous sea Eye captures the starry sky Mind roams the boundless universe ob

the Murm–maids are always there.... murmuring the way...

Fragments of Tang poetry 卷803_77 《句》薛濤 Xue Tao c. 770–832 枝迎南北鳥， 葉送往來風。 Branches welcome birds from north or south Leaves accompany winds as they come and go (said to have been spoken when she was 8 y.o. much to the consternation of her father)

Fragments of Tang poetry QTS卷862_38 《句》陳蓬 Chen Peng 　　竹籬疏見浦，茅屋漏通星。（題松山） A bamboo fence so sparse you can glance the river The thatched cottage roof leaks starlight

Nice museum example of a Baluchi eating mat or soffreh collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/399297

Reading note: Cabala del cavallo pegaseo Of Giordano Bruno The Epistola dedicatoria (dedicatory epistle) is a riff-on-a-riff-of-a-riff which makes Bruno a proto-proto-rapper

Old Uzbek floating warp carpet as blanket to keep old sore bones warm through the antipodean winter night ... Dreams of strange geometric creatures...

Urbs 2000, nearly a quarter century ago... one-stroke Tiber with stanza Da foce a fonte ogni onda cont'aqua percuquote memoria d'origine perenne a slow unwinding thread...

Memini parentibus orbatus Requiem eternam dona eis dominie et lux perpetua luceat eis

3 strings... a few notes... a few lyrics... Bliss in a little book...

Laputa drifts by full of idle secrets...

Any poem, in any language, requires that "mot juste" a pivot-word that will enable the whole to swing upon itself... to turn the meaning of the whole inside-out and redefine not only what comes next, but above all what came before...

Lines written at the hinge of centuries After visiting Marcello Barberini's unassuming flagstone epitaph Twisting his "Pulvis et Umbra Sumus" to Umbra profunda sumus Shadow's deep are we... Nel chiaroscuro di vita nostra mi ritrovai... In the twilight ...

Time has its own wing-beats and mocks our mud-baked pace!

A mere leaf blowing in the wind... or a tumbleweed riding the wind... this is from category 22 Drifting Aloof 飄逸 piāoyì of the Tang dynasty poet Sikong Tu 837–908

the 1st Buddha's hand to ripen...

Shadow-garden magic

A now old review of the Renaissance rapper Teofilo #Folengo's 𝑻𝒉𝒆 #𝑩𝒂𝒍𝒅𝒖𝒔 From The Guardian 27 Dec. 2008 (by yours truly) Not the best Tr. in the world, but still the only one in English, as far as I'm aware of... www.theguardian.com/books/2008/d...

@crumbsey.bsky.social here is a more finished one In the Complete Tang Poems there is a nice fragment regarding quince by one Zhi Guzi ¿ 全唐詩 / qTs 卷 796 風吹榆莢葉，雨打木瓜花。（炙轂子《詩格》） Wind blows the elm leaves, rain pounds the quince blossoms NB Danke dir, omitted Extra ❝The❞ wind ~ ❝The❞ rain ¿👎👌👍?