On the notion of journey

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we are all either on our journey or still on our doorstep-- but it all leads to the same place eventually: our home, wherever that may be, but I hope it is surrounded by close friends and eternal (yet always temporary) comforts.

lucky for me I am on a journey while finding a new home-- here! thank you truly to all who read my blog, I am grateful : )

On the notion of journey, let me share dear Bilbo's verse:

"The Road goes ever on and on,

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with weary feet,

Until it joins some larger way,

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say"

well said, Bilbo, well said.

also on this monday I anticipate gift giving (I always have, for some reason) and hopefully snow! and I hope that deer will return to my yard soon (they were recently replaced and displaced by houses...)

I will post about the bunting I made, Granola (soon to be made, more yummy vegan-ness, I assure you) and about the special blog award Ashley gave me !

I especially would like to post poetry of mine, but it hasn't been coming to me lately and this makes me unsettled...

this is old, perhaps it is nice to read?

it will get lost in the breeze

that strong song we sung

from the morning with dew covering the wide wild forests

to the dusk that wrapped us in calm and closeness

nothing will reach your ears

but know that we sang for you

and for all to hear.

sorry if this post is long, I also wanted to share (above) two photos that inspire me lately !

(3) if you like DIY and beautiful outfits, head to Elsie's blog!

(4) and visit Caitlin's blog, her outfits are so lovely and perfect for winter wardrobe inspiration.

Please share quotations from your favorite novels/books! I collect quotations like the sky collects stars!

thank you readers!

love!

-a.b

Yummy winter leeks for another Monday

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These are some things I found around that I enjoy... except for the picture of me (that'd be weird if I found that on the internet....)

Starbucks soy hot chocolates! I did say I was going to phase any soy out of my diet... but I find this to be very hard especially since I am trying my vegan endeavor at the same time. It will happen eventually...! (i'm sure once its not winter anymore...)

The guy second from the right it Brett McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords. Awesome, awesome band/duo from New Zealand. They are very funny, and their skit about LOTR is very humorous... You can see their humor in the first photo which actually has the actual members. I recommend their "Jenny" skit on youtube!

This girl is very cool! Her outfits are very whimsical, which is always very cool to see and her poetry is delightful to read.

I am also posting a recipe!! The picture doesn't show how good it is... Nevertheless! Its very a very yummy vegan dish that I make all of the time.

Simply add olive oil to a pan, let it heat but not too much (not making fried dough here...) Might want to put it on medium

2. Take one leek (or two, you can never have too much leek) and cut it so that it is facing you horizontally. Thinly! You will have little rings.Cut close to the green but not all the way up. You can rinse now!

3. Put the leeks into the pan and watch as they brown and sizzle (and now for the beans!)

4. Have a can of white beans nearby (drain as needed). Add them to the pan with the leeks looking yummy. Since the beans will be pre-cooked, you are only heating them up and letting them get a bit crunchy.. so wait until they are crispy looking (that's how I prefer them)

5. Yum yum!

-a.b

wonder how to wander?

did you feel it in the heart?

that sense that touches veins and snow

and all leads to a greater Start?

Stars that gallop and boats that row

lead to a sense of universe

and peeping curiosity that breaks

buttons with its gerth—

Lucy to wardrobe and edmund to cakes

Fantastical and unmitigated

breaking even the widest of dams

take a breath to see what is created

and all can be found in your hands.

another monday : )

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These are pieces of inspiration for me lately....

1. I love the idea of making little jars with christmas trees in them that I found on La Quaintrelle's blog. So going to do this since I am not going to celebrate Christmas as in the past! no tree (not very environmentally sound) and probably not doing a gift exchange. Instead, perhaps I'll make a bunch of these for the house...

2. I think these words ring very clearly.

3 + 4. I LOVE A Beautiful Mess. Its a really fantastic style/ DIY site and the bloggers are really sweet! I especially enjoy this outfit and her hair style!

5. Who doesn't love Mr. Tumnus?

6. This outfit photo is from the Delightful Dozen, which is another awesome blog-- except this one has 12 style bloggers who have created a communal blog. Its a really great idea. This is Elizabeth, from Delightfully-Tacky, one of my favorite blogs. I've been following her for two years now, its such a treat.

7 + 8. Andrew Bird is one of my favorite artists by now... His music is... somewhere between that feeling you feel when seeing a group of ravens and what a yogic moment of revelation would look like... add in some actual music. : ). my favorite song is "Oh No".

9 + 10. Mia Wasikowska was in Tum Burton's newest version of "Alice in Wonderland". She acted brilliantly, as always, and though the actual unfolding of this particular plot fell short, the costumes were beautiful. I particularly like this suit of armour she's wearing! I would love to wear something like that! (only when fighting a jabberwocky of course...)

-a.b

enjoy your monday!

"Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept mystery"

"Darkling I listen

and for many a time I have been half in love with easeful death..." thus continues John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale". His poems are energetically sweet yet oftentimes carry a mournful tone-- that is, his later poems. From the knowledge I've gathered by googling him incessantly, John's first published poetry book was Endymion, so named after a Greek myth. Endymion begins with the lines:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Ode to a Nightingale is my favorite of his; if ever I were to suggest a poem to a new Keats reader, it would be this one.

"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk..."

then becomes melancholy: "Fade away, dissolve, and quite forget

What thou among the leaves hast never known,

The weariness, the fever, and the fret

Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;

Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,

Where youth grows thin and spectre-thin and dies..."

His poetry to me is indispensable. It is so rich that if you read it without analyzing it, you can dip your mind into a rush of loveliness.

But I don't wish to bore-- I just want to show how very beautiful Keats's short life was-- life is indeed mysterious and we should almost luxuriate in out daily breathing. We are alive my friends!

John Keats's love letters to Fanny Brawne actually hold some of my favorite words from him. He writes them like poems, but here we read his ideas in full sentences, and so we might understand how he thought in fuller detail.

In one he writes,"But if you will fully love me, though there may be some fire, 'twill not be more than we can bear when

moistened and bedewed with Pleasures." (1819)

In another (July 8th, 1819) "...write the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have

been. For myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a

fairer word than fair. I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days—three such days with you I

could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain."

"Bright Star" (based off of one of his poems "Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art") is a Jane Campion film that came out a couple of years ago detailing a small portion of Keats's life where he meets and falls in love with Fanny Brawne (1800-1865). She apparently had a fierce personality and wore it well, literally. She loved fashion and music, and when she met John, mused about poetry. I posted a real picture of her.

I cannot tell you how sweet it is to listen to the soundtrack from the movie. Ben Wishaw, who plays Keats, reads poetry and some songs are simply recordings of the movie.

John Keats (1795) died in 1821 from Tuberculosis. He had doubts about Fanny's love, and expressed it in (I am quite sure) the last poem he wrote on his deathbed-- though from what we can gather, he loved her and the delicate world around him with a passion such as few can know. A true child of Romanticism.
This video is from youtube! not mine (the photos are not either)! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIEjMSsSPw0

Time for blog!

So I got to thinking about how much I adore blogging... I've been writing my college application essays and such and upon describing blogging, I can't really put into words what exactly it is for me. Its like a world within a world; but it's more. I have almost added a branch to this huge giant happy web.

I got inspiration for an outfit the other day from a blogger I love, Girl and Closet, and I was blissful the entire day... haha. I just loved being able to incorporate what I see on here into what I do out there.

Upon realizing how much I appreciate blogging, I've been trying to think of ways I could engage more. I think I will post much more often, perhaps every three days? I also wanted to start a weekly "woolgathering mondays". I know many bloggers who have a particular day where they post favorite things of the week. My logic is that taking time to blog each monday will stretch my brain capacity, since it seems slow on mondays...

So, my first Woolgathering Monday!! (Also, does anybody know how to enlarge the pictures in a post? Agh, mine are so tiny.)

Oh and thank you to my few readers... :) and to my friend who designed my blog! its Narnia inspired... love

1) Words, words, words....

I love words! My teacher told us to start a "word-wall" of sorts where we collect words we love, any words, verbs, nouns, gerunds, etc.

woolgathering: adjective- indulgence in idle fancies and in daydreaming (gotta wonder how this one originated!)

nautical: adjective- of or pertaining to sailors, ships, or navigation

maud: noun- a gray striped cloak formerly worn by shepherds in Scotland (accidentally stumbled upon this word; in love...)

2) Upcoming Pixar movie, Brave! Its like a dream come true: Pixar's animation, a girl who is adventurous and is good at archery, spirits, old Scotland (!) Unfortunately it comes out in June... but we can enjoy the music on the website until then!

Enjoy the trailer here

3) My friend got the idea to use a book as a sketchpad and she showed me her doodles today. they are incredible! and I love the idea of using the backdrop of printed words. She drew Flinn from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". I was actually texting her and went to write Flinn and my phone autocorrected it as Flibbertigibbet, which had me cracking up for a good ten minutes. (sorry the pictures are small!)

the coming rose

Lately my thoughts have been very clear and lines of poetry have been sweeping in quite crisply...

I wanted to post this just to post this, but next post (which will take more time) I will do a blog post on John Keats and perhaps something else to shake things up.

-A.B

thinking of you

oh!

what an impatient disease;

I run round myself in circles

feeling faint, and needing breeze.

you are the coming rose

that grows with summer's infinity

deep and rich soil,

so there my heart goes

you have disturbed me with a serene illness

one which no pride in vanity meets

i have flown ages since and it is our souls to impress.

i seek no withdrawl

i could continue the winding-veins throb--

it is my heart that to yours does call

and no match for me,

I simply sit by the hedge

waiting, and gazing

as I walk the lover's ledge.