Bits and pieces

Some favorites from the week:

Going outside for the very first time.

I loved Maine and Commencement, both by J. Courtney Sullivan, so now I'm reading The Engagements, and yes, it's a good one.

Some thoughts on age and beauty.

A nanny's love.

And a reminder that it's never too late to start.

I hope you have a happy and fun long weekend, with lots of down time and good things to eat.

(Photo by Jessie Webster for Smitten Studio.)

February days

February 13: big snow, again; much shoveling (and wondering if someday we might invest in a snow blower); one stuck car (mine, trying to back out the driveway); children out early from school; dog so happy to go out one door and come back in another, around and around; two walks through the woods, in an effort to tire out said dog; snow turning to icy rain; and a mad dash past bedtime by the only one of us left who gives out Valentine's Day cards to 21 children in her class. We were happy, Clementine included, to sleep.

February 14: wishing you calm weather, a very happy Valentine's Day, and if, like us, school's out next week, a little break from your everyday February routine. xoxo

Dog

In the introduction to Maddie on Things, author and photographer Theron Humphrey (Maddie's owner) says he woke up one morning with this idea: "I would go into the world, traverse all 50 states in 365 days, and meet one person a day, every day."

But the best part of the story, Humphrey says, "is about the dog that came along for the ride." After quitting his corporate job, Humphrey adopted Maddie from a local animal shelter. She jumped in the front seat of his truck, and that was that. "One morning I figured I needed a photograph to remember how we traveled together," he writes. "So I picked up Maddie and put her on the roof. She just stood there and smiled at me. Good things seem to start that way. You know, small."

I bought Maddie on Things at the same time as Mary Oliver's Dog Songs. Clearly, I was in a dog mood. I love Oliver's poems about the many canine companions she's had over the years, and I love Humphrey's photographs of his patient, athletic, very sweet Coonhound. You can see more of Maddie on Humphrey's blog maddieonthings.com.

Percy, Waiting for Ricky
by Mary Oliver

Your friend is coming, I say
to Percy and name a name

and he runs to the door, his
wide mouth in its laugh-shape

and waves, since he has one, his tail.
Emerson, I am trying to live,

as you said we must, the examined life.
But there are days I wish

there was less in my head to examine,
not to speak of the busy heart. How

would it be to be Percy, no
thinking, not weighing anything, just running forward.

(All photographs from maddieonthings.com)