These flowers are one of the first to bloom in the early spring. they were given to us by Elaine & Ron Milito several years ago. They are pretty and continue to thrive and spread in our backyard at home in Falmouth, Virginia.
I do like to read obituaries as they are often written by well-meaning amateurs.  As I get older I sometimes think how close I am to the age of those whose obituaries are listed. But, you know how it goes, if the person is younger  you think that you are a survivor and if they are many years older you think a bit about your mortality but your day is far off.  It is when they are about the same age as you or a year or two older that your thought can get morose.  Often working with numbers I thought I’d start computing the average age of those listed in the Obituaries section of the Free Lance-Star, a newspaper in Fredericksburg, to serve as some sort of base line for me.  For October 2, 2014 the average age of death is 77.375.  That’s about 8 years older than I am now.
Close to 15 years ago our son Oliver asked if we minded if he and his friend Jamie Drake would dig in our back yard to make a mold in the earth for a statue made of concrete. Of course we didn’t mind. The piece is about 3 feet long. Over the years it had developed the look of a primitive. I don’t believe they’ve done others.
The Passion explores passion at varying levels and types. Romantic passion convoluted with physical, sexual passion; passion for gambling, danger, conquest, or possession; and the passion of devotion. The ways passion inspires, consumes, destroys, and creates.
Tagged jeanette winterson, passion, refiew, the passion
I’m not sure how we discovered Sándor Márai, but after reading his work it seems I should have known about him. His novels are what we expect from literature. A deep interpretation of the human condition expressed in a thoughtful, elegant manner with enough complexity make it extraordinary.
Jeanette Winterson again shows her prowess as a writer weaving humor, love, passion, tragedy, and storytelling in Lighthousekeeping
The Red Hook section of Brooklyn, like a good deal of Brooklyn, is undergoing changes that make it more appealing to humans and also more expensive. This is a phot of a barge that also serves as a museum on the waterfront in Red Hook.
Earlier this year Oliver had told us that it was likely that their lease on the space currently occupied by the venue Death by Audio and his pedal company – named Death By Audio before there was the venue and before they moved into their current space – would probably not be renewed. The lease is not being renewed – the inevitable gentrification in Williamsburg the primary reason – and the venue is closing. Here are several reports from various news sources. The pedal company will continue  but the location is not set.
Some links to other postings about Death by Audio are
Obituary Average Age. October 3, 2014: 64
I’ve been keeping statistics for two days now and the average reported age of death so far is 70.6875.
Tagged average age, obituary