09 April 2011

john perkins said it right.

Hello friends! How's your Saturday been?

 photo credit scenic glory.

Mine's been lovely. I woke up to pouring rain, promptly ran outside, shorts and everything, to mail a letter off to New York. Not only did we have a morning of heavy rain, this afternoon was beautiful. Bright, sunny blue skies. 70+ degrees. Vibrant green grass. Absolutely beautiful.


I wandered down to the woods late-afternoonish to take a few photos, read a few books, and write a few letters. Only the first two ended up happening, because I happened to forget a pencil. *hits self on head.* It was as beautiful down there as it was up at the house. Granted, it smelled a little more swampy, but the house and meadow don't have the sound of creek moving over rocks.

Our woods used to be my favorite place in the world. We would go down there all the time. Four years ago, Anna and I may or may not have snuck out at night to run down there for a few minutes. Last November we jumped into the creek, jeans, sweatshirts, and all, finishing it up by geocaching.


I used to spend all my time down there, and part of me misses the me who would have tried to catch the snake, instead of tentatively poking it with a stick until it uncurled itself and slithered down its hole. Part of me misses the girl who sat curled up on the tree bent over the creek, writing in a journal even when the snow started falling.

I think part of me misses that me, while the rest of me looks forward to the me that's coming up.

As I wrote last week, I'm going to France this summer. Besides being incredibly excited about the trip itself, it's looking like Mimi is going to be in France/Switzerland/Germany around the same time I'm in Europe. It adds about 600 times more anticipation to my growing excitement for this summer.


My dear penpal Bleah called today (actually, after I called her three times) and, because Camp Rock 2 was playing downstairs and neither her nor I had anything better to do, we talked for over an hour. I'm not sure that you could fit any more Tangled references into a one hour space than we did.

At one point we caught ourselves in the middle of another rant about how it's not fair that Eugene is not a real person, and I remarked, "Look at us, we're talking about boys," to which Bleah responded, "How typical and predictable of us."
  "At lunch, we sat outside. In typical teen-girl fashion, we talked. But we talked about untypical things. About how Snowball and Napoleon are Lenin and Trotsky, about how there was bokeh dancing on the blades of grass, about how English teachers should love words. We spoke of the stolen clay knife, why freckles were cute, and the sheer beauty of books narrated by unusual characters. And all this whilst plaiting grass and weaving daisy chains." Libby from Catching the Stars.
That is why I love this Libby quote: because most of the time, we don't talk about typical things. Many of my conversations lately with my best friends have centered around the things I used to eat. (For the curious, the list is as follows: carnations, pansies, Christmas trees, books, stinging nettle tea, and grass.) I love this quote because I love to talk about classic lit. I'm working my way through Les Mis right now, while Anna reads Pride and Prejudice. I love hearing what she thinks about Darcy, what she thinks about the story. I love this quote because we use photography terms all the time, and bokeh is my favorite. I love this quote because "the sheer beauty of books narrated by unusual characters" makes me flash back to the Book Thief.


If you're in the mood for a list, the other happy things about today: the sunlight hitting the mist after it rained - black pomegranate tea - drawing rainbow rectangles - Prismacolour colourless blender - sending Bleah a few Justin Bieber posters, because we all know how much she loves him - singing random lines of the Tangled soundtrack over the phone with Bleah - piles of clean laundry - floral print boots, scarf, and dress - Switchfoot songs playing on repeat in my head.

Hope you have a lovely Sunday.

22 comments:

  1. Oh, hey guess who inspired me tonight? :)

    I love so many different aspects of this post; I love the fact that you talk of a woods where you read books and take photographs, I love the quote because talking about unusual things just makes me..well, want to talk about unusual things haha, I love the pictures and everything they represent and I love how you used to eat things that should or should not have been eaten (:
    So, yes. You inspired me!

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  2. Oh. I LOVE this post. :D
    I totally agree with what you guys said about Eugene. Sadness. :P

    Okay. I love love love the pictures. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! x)
    That snake is waaay too cool. lol
    elisa45.blogspot.com
    ~Elisa:)

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  3. when i saw this:"the sheer beauty of books narrated by unusual characters," I automatical thought of Book Thief. *sigh... such a good book.

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  4. Holy cheese!! This post was AWESOME!! I'm so jealous of those pictures, girl!! How cool is that?! What an awesome awesome holy cheesitude cupcake lovely-happy post! This totally just made my day. No joke.
    -Jocee <3
    P.S. "My day" meaning today, and yesterday. (Saturday) I'm asking myself why I'm awake...lol, okay I'll end my super long comment now :P

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  5. Lovely post! My Saturday was okay...I had lots of schoolwork to catch up on, but instead spent most of my day on Goodreads and Blogger and slipping in chapters of the book I'm reading. So now I have to finish everything up this afternoon. I've become a terrible procrastinator!

    Anyway, it sounds like you had a much more productive Saturday than I did. :)

    ~Kristin

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  6. WOw, you have beautiful pictures! lovely blog!

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  7. You quoted me? Oh, I feel so special! We were, in fact, discussing The Book Thief--well, and Animal Farm. Which is a whole other rant...
    Your writing in this post is beautiful and I love that you used to eat books. And apparently stinging nettle soup is delicious, but I'll pass on that.

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  8. Haha sounds like you had a lovely day :) glad that I got to be apart of it. Love you!

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  9. You ate...Christmas trees? :o I've never tried those before...XD

    Lovely pictures! That sounds like the sort of thing I'd love to do, only there's no woods by my house. At my grandparent's cabin, though, I love to take a book out to the hammock and watch the deer. :)

    ~Kendall

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  10. Hey Bleah...if you don't like those Justin Bieber posters...send em over here!!!:D :D

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  11. Katie, first of all, the fact that you've included me on your "I think you're wonderful" page made me feel so grateful and unworthy. You are so wonderful.

    With that being said, your photography is beautiful, once again. And I'm not just saying that. I'm an art major in college, and surrounded by girls who want to/are majoring in photography. I'm always skeptical. So many people think they're great photographers. So many girls claim to "love photography!!1!!111!!"

    I'm always skeptical. But really, you have an eye. Never stop pursuing this. You're truly a natural. Granted, this is coming from an amateur, but seriously. It's lovely.

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  12. OMF! ( That means of my Flynn. Just so you don't take it the wrong way.) You're reading Les Miserables?? Will you tell me what you thought about it when you're done?

    ~ Lexi

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  13. I love all of the photos! They make me wish it wasn't raining outside right now... and they also remind me of the days when I used to spend afternoons in the woods myself... I don't even remember what I did. I guess I read books and built "fairy houses" and chased after squirrels or something, haha... Oh, the good old days of childhood!

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  14. beautiful pictures to go with a beautiful day :)

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  15. oh, and about being pen pals - awesome! crossing my fingers xx <--- seeeee? ;)

    and you got asked to prom?! that's awesome, too! hope you get to go...i mean, if you want to :) is the guy cute? haha, i had to ask.

    -anna :)

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  16. Hey..so this is the first time I've ever left a comment on your blog but I love reading your posts :)
    I actually just finished reading Les Miserables GREAT book! OH and the music from the musical AMAZING!!!

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  17. the forest looks absolutly beautiful all though the snake would make me run out of the forest from fear lol

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  18. Bokeh is one of my favorites too. I could stare at photography and film with bokeh in it. For hours.

    I pre-ordered Tangled and it came in three days after the release date. By that time I was so caught up with other things that I still haven't been able to re-watch it. I want to see all the BTS, all the making of, and see those pretty lanterns again.

    And that snake? Um, heck no. *runs screaming*

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  19. i love classic lit as well. i, unfortunately, have yet to read le mis but it's on my list as well as reading pride and prejudice one thousand more times.

    as for the snake, that would have sent me running in the opposite direction of those pretty woods! you're lucky to live near the woods though. i don't have any in my area of the world :/ unless i drive a half hour+ to the mountains {which i do} i just wish i could retreat there whenever i'd like to.

    your posts are beautiful and i couldn't love the photos more.

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  20. Jodie- you inspire me all the time, and I'm in love with your comment. :) You make me smile!

    Elisa- aww thank you! so I just realized that he's in my drawing class, so problem solved. :)

    Jana- I did too. Most definitely one of my favorite books ever.

    Jocee- hahaha. you make me laugh.

    Kristin- Oh my word, ME TOO. It's ridiculous how much I procrastinate. and thank you!

    DTL- thanks dear!

    Libby- of course I did. :) I caught the Animal Farm reference, but I wasn't completely sure that you were talking about the Book Thief. I love the irony that I used to eat books literally, and now I eat them metaphorically, as in devour them. :)

    Bleah- you're always welcome to be a part of my day. :)

    Kendall- I did...weird, right?

    Mary- hahaha...she's going to burn them. :P

    Allyson- this made me week. You are so amazing. Thank you soosososo much for the encouragement!

    Lexi- ha. I did take it the wrong way, if you wanted to know. I'll be sure to let you know what I think!

    Natalie- afternoons in the woods were the best, weren't they? :)

    Anna- you are so sweet. and oh my gosh, I'm so excited!

    Hannah- thank you so much!

    IFL- it was a very scary experience. :)

    TCG- I could too, it's so beautiful.

    Kandice- yay for Pride and Prejudice. :)

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  21. There IS a real Eugene out there somewhere...don't shatter all my dreams! ;P
    Ooh, you're reading Les Mis!!! Gaah, it's ah-MAZ-ing. Don't give up no matter how long it is...it's totally worth it. I finished it in March and then saw the spectacular Broadway musical. Have you ever heard any of the music? Anyway, the book is just about one of the most incredible pieces of literature ever written. And that's saying something.
    I'm a new follower...I found you through Bleah. I'd love it if you checked out my blog! :)))

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go ahead. make my day.