I spent yesterday bicycling along Lake Champlain in glorious tee shirt weather. “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,” for today we’re right back to winter. Fortunately, our apple tree (shown here) is yet to blossom.

“Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.” Samuel Butler

I wouldn’t say that the self is an illusion (otherwise, who is this mysterious “I” ?). Rightly or wrongly, the self is only what we take ourselves to be…or more accurately: to become, because to be is only to become. And nothing changes a self more quickly than the process of self-examination.

It irks me when the camera-person all too often fixates on a particularly attractive member (typically female) of an ensemble. I had to laugh watching this as just about every performer might want to consider modeling as a backup career. Set of dance tunes by Peter Warlock; beautifully performed.

The Blue Shirt by Jim Holland

David Tennant as scientist Arthur Eddington in the 2008 BBC2 film "Einstein and Eddington" Happy #BicycleBirthday, David Tennant! Born April 18, 1971

L'empire des lumières (1954) by René Magritte

The Room (2024) by Lyndsey Jameson

New moose tracks on the woodland path that I walk most everyday. I followed these tracks for most of a mile.

“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting…while on the banks…people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs and write poetry. The story of civilization is what happened on the banks.“ Will Durant

John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893), Moonlight on the Lake, Roundhay Park, Leeds.

#AlphabetChallenge (#WeekOForOld) Der alte Kirschbaum im Abendlicht. The old cherry tree in the evening light.

This is so good. Good information. Good advice. I especially perked up when I heard him say, “Silence is a nutrient.” It’s also a comfort to hear that periods of doing nothing save gaze in silence at the sky, or the trees, the ocean, etc., is necessary for our mental well-being.

"Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca “Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium” c. 65AD (Moral letters to [his friend] Lucilius)

“Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of our language.” Wittgenstein, “Philosophical Investigations” One pitfall of mapping the world of ideas with language is the ever-present danger of mistaking our map for the terrain. Ineluctable vagueness is another ⬇️

That looks Grimm.

“Daydream” by the Ukrainian artist, Andrii Kateryniuk Oil on Linen

Edward Dufner (1872 – 1957) Morning Sunshine

I like to remind myself when looking at the blue sky, that without the thin wisp of what we call atmosphere our sky would be black, save for the Sun’s bright spotlight, as on the Moon, or Mars, or… Our sky is very special. And especially beautiful. But then, I’m biased to love my home. 💙

Pablo Casals (1876-1973)... #Etching, ‘Pablo Casals, Cello,’ by Ferdinand Schmutzer, c. 1920.

Oh the beauty of this:

“Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.” Saul Bellow, “Mr. Sammler’s Planet” 1970

The Anatomy of Melancholy by Laura Makabresku

Synthesis/Analysis "There are two conflicting primal impulses of the human mind - one is to simplify a thing to its essentials, the other is to see through the essentials to the greater implications." Robert Laughlin, 'A Different Universe'

The true measure of a man is not his intelligence or how high he rises in this freak establishment. No, the true measure of a man is this: how quickly can he respond to the needs of others and how much of himself he can give. — Philip K. Dick

“For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” — Carl Sagan Be kind. Be gentle. These are the basics. G

"Time is how you spend your love,” is the opening line in Zadie Smith's novel, "On Beauty" (2005) In a sense, time is the currency of love. It’s a currency that can’t be saved, only lost; as if we had a hole in our pocket. Only, the more that spills out the richer we are for it.

“Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.” Arundhati Roy, “War Talk”

Es folgen nicht alle Netanjahus Politik...

Forgot to silence my phone so here I am at 4AM. My brother sent me just this one photo to let me know that he arrived safely in Copenhagen. It goes back to our youth. We’d been hiking the Long Trail and ran out of food. Reaching Middlebury Gap we flipped a coin. He hitched to town, I stayed with ⬇️

Good night, all. Sweet dreams.

Maxfield Parrish - At Close of Day (1941)

My three favorite Henry’s: Thoreau, Beston and Howe. The last was my dear friend and neighbor. All three spoke to my heart. Walking the beaches of Cape Cod I think often of Beston. Walking the hills of Vermont I think of Thoreau. Walking by a house up the road I think of Howe.

Ain’t it just?

Frederic Leighton (English, 1830-1896) - Solitude

“[Emotion] is a transformation of the world.” Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939 “Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions” "Dancing in the Rain" by Romualdas Rakauskas (1941)

Antoon van Welie - La Douleur 1895 "Amongst my favorite chalk drawings. You can almost feel the 20th century’s arrival with this."

Night, or Star of Heaven by Edward Robert Hughes English, c. 1900 watercolor, pencil, bodycolor, and gold

Andrii Kateryniuk. Artista ucraniano, nacido en 1994. Ventana. 2025 Óleo sobre lino.

“The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology.” E. O. Wilson I’d argue that only a subset of our Paleolithic emotions are problematic. I’m onboard otherwise.

Maxxing this, maxxing that...wouldn’t it be great if the online brosphere eventually found its way to “Gentlemanmaxxing?”

by Jensen & Skovdin

Sun’s up. Morning everyone

A friend gifted me 2 (compatible variety) Boreal Haskap plants last summer. Of my 12 tender cuttings, 7 rooted. This winter’s snow and ice stripped most of last summer’s shoots but every cutting is already putting out new shoots from below. They’re back under snow today but I’m thrilled.

Blindly following illegal or immoral orders does not make someone a bad person. I believe it’s far worse. Once you relinquish your moral agency you cease being a person altogether. You become instead a human automaton. I make a distinction between humans and persons. Personhood is an achievement.

I take issue with Christ’s supposed command that we love our neighbors. Love is an emotion. We don’t love on command or out of an overarching desire to be obedient. At best we might act as though we loved; which is commendable but it’s not love. Love is itself an end, not a means to an end.

La lecture (1921) by Léon Kamir Kaufmann

Someone that I care about is flying to Denmark with a breaking heart to attend a funeral. “To be grown up is to sit at the table with people who have died, who neither listen nor speak…” Edna St. Vincent Millay “Childhood is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies” Eivør is from the Faroe Isles