July 2012 – Better Living Through Literature

Tuesday Project Roundup: Something Small

July 31, 2012 By Karen in knitting, Tuesday Project Roundup

To get back into knitting, I started a little project while waiting for the yarn for Skyler’s sweater to arrive.

This used up some leftover yarn and is going to be a “fake sock top” to stick out of boots, thusly:

I made up my own pattern, but you can find the one in the picture above here.

For Monday

July 30, 2012 By Karen in quotes

Albert Einstein’s three rules for work:

1. Out of clutter, find simplicity

2. From discord, find harmony

3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity

Friday Unrelated Information

July 27, 2012 By Karen in Friday Unrelated Information, space

1. Summer, where are you going? I realized Labor Day is six weeks away. Sigh.

2. APOD posted a picture of the Tulip Nebula this week. Space is pretty.

More Zen

July 26, 2012 By Karen in quotes

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself,

and all the while

a great wind is bearing me across the sky.

Ojibawa saying

(Today’s zen is from this book, which I’ve pulled out and put on the nightstand along with this one.)

Tuesday Pending Project: Hobbit Child

July 24, 2012 By Karen in knitting, Tuesday Project Roundup

The yarn I ordered for Skyler’s sweater arrived this week. Between the color and the pattern I decided on, I think he’s going to look like a little hobbit when it’s done. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course.

This

+ this

= this:

Getting My Zen Back

July 23, 2012 By Karen in nature

19.
Once at Cold Mountain [or Mount Aire], troubles cease –
No more tangled, hung up mind.
I idly scribble poems on the rock cliff,
Taking whatever comes, like a drifting boat.

(From Han Shan, the Cold Mountain Poems, translated by Gary Snyder)

Peace out, nature.

Friday Unrelated Information

July 20, 2012 By Karen in Friday Unrelated Information 1 Comment

1. Happy birthday to my favorite novelist of tragedy and despair and horses, Cormac McCarthy.

2. From my friend Jason’s blog, here’s a picture of Papa Hemingway at home in Cuba in 1947. Nice slippers, Hem.

Frodo Lives

July 19, 2012 By Karen in Uncategorized

The Writer’s Almanac tells me that it’s the anniversary of the 1954 publishing of The Fellowship of the Ring. The trilogy started as a sequel to The Hobbit, took 17 years to write, was interrupted by WWII, and ended up over half a million words long.

Then some people made it into movies, which gave us the source of this gif.

What Elizabeth Bishop Thinks

July 18, 2012 By Karen in Elizabeth Bishop, quotes

“We write for the same reason we read or look at paintings…for the total immersion of the experience, the narrowing and intensification of focus to the right here, right now, the deep joy of bringing the entire soul to bear upon a single act of concentration.”