you can't fool me!

and i most certainly will not pose for a picture with you.

sheesh.

{a photo project honoring radiance, one of my words for 2012 :: 52 photos that represent radiance, 52 photos that represent luminosity.}

today, i offer up a thought on radiance from my journal.

i wonder what it would feel like to radiate the essence of me and of love for me/others. mmmmmm. there is a sense of a sweet steady grounded happiness.

today, i am thinking about noticing.

i am thinking about how, when your eyes are more softly focused, you do notice things that are important. in addition, you see those things in relation to the whole, instead of in isolation.

this feels important somehow.

at the moment, i have two favorite coffee places: the dragonfly coffee house (in the alphabet district, on thurman and 24th) and barista (on alberta, between 17th and 18th).

i was driving to the dragonfly on saturday to meet a friend. traffic was slow around and through the tunnel so, to amuse myself, i decided to look at the license plates to see if they held a sign for me.

the car next to me had the letters DAT. the car in front of that car had the letters BUY. when i read them back to myself, i realized they said BUY DAT.

we were planning to visit anthropologie after coffee, so you can imagine my delight at my sign!

happy monday! i do love mondays. they're such a nice fresh clean slate sort of day. even though i have let go of most of my "i'll start on monday" patterns, i still love the newness of monday. i suspect that will never change.

do you remember when i introduced the secret garden? something (or somethings) you love plus a year of happy surprise, delight, and gleeful anticipation? there are still a few spots left and, in case you are thinking about it, i want to remind you that registration will close on march 15th. that's this thursday. (it's also atlas' birthday!) i just got the photos that i am using to make the card set for {the circle of aqua} and i cannot stop looking at them and smiling. they are magical.

this past week was very full of sunshine. on a walk on thursday and a hike on friday, i did not even need to wear a jacket! i am the sort of person who is still wearing a jacket when the rest of portland is wandering about in shorts and a t-shirt, so clearly it was warm. i celebrated with gelato.

i hope your monday includes birdsong and unexpected magic.

(title courtesy of adele)

look what atlas found on our hike in forest park yesterday! a stone house!

this year, i am really noticing the first signs of spring. they appear so much earlier than i ever expect them. i was noticing them already in early february, and now they are starting to appear everywhere.

what are the first signs of spring in your neighborhood?

{a photo project honoring radiance, one of my words for 2012 :: 52 photos that represent radiance, 52 photos that represent luminosity.}

the other day, while out on a walk, i realized something.

the sun is always shining.

always.

even when i cannot see it because it is obscured by clouds or fog or the night sky.

for some reason, i find this enormously encouraging and inspiring.

so this is a pictorial depiction of me, bouncing in my seat with glee.

did you know that this marvelous drink existed? a vanilla steamer is basically a latte, sans espresso. in other words, steamed milk plus syrup.

i feel so virtuous. i am drinking milk. i feel like i should have at least one a day, if not two or three.

i am drinking one right now. it is probably the fourth or fifth one i've had since i discovered them last week and i am just as delighted with this one as i was with the very first one. possibly i have even beamed with happiness while drinking each and every one.

i don't know why cafes don't list steamers on the menu. don't they know about people who love cafes and don't love coffee and are always trying to find the perfect coffeeless coffee drink? think how many of these i could have drunk in my cafe-going lifetime!

(i must apologize to my prior coffeeless coffee love, hot chocolate, because i fear our brief but happy affair is over.)

do you remember when i told you about the picklewich? now i want to open a cafe next door. it will be a cafe for people who love cafes and don't love coffee. i think i will call it the purist, because it will be for people who like their drinks to be simple, not complicated and diluted and doctored up with espresso.

the simple pleasure of warm steamed milk. who would have thought of it. (wait a second. i have thought of it! i used to warm milk on the stove and add a little sugar and cinnamon when i wasn't in the mood for hot chocolate! sometimes i think my brain is a little slow on the uptake.)

"Joy drinks pure water."

"Beauty will dance with anyone who is brave enough to ask her."

– from The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler