There's Remarkable, and Then There's *Remarkable*

I  This Is Remarkable

Without ever thinking about them since putting the bulbs in the ground, I nearly tripped on my sidewalk when I saw these.

I usually kill anything I plant. But by some miracle not this time.

Now I just need a list of plants that take care of themselves.

II  Now This Is REMARKABLE!

Insects are remarkable and Levon Bliss equally so. Just watch. 

Microsculpture from Levon Biss on Vimeo.

It's one thing to be an insect, another to see one, and still another on an entirely plane of existence to design a way to photograph one in every intimate detail.

If only I were in Oxford, where I could see these in person.

If I Could Live Anywhere

Oxford would suit me just fine.



hyperlapse created by Brendan Riley

I Confess: I Am Old Fashioned

Among the many things about contemporary American religion I do not understand is the mega-church phenomenon, built on the model of the big box store, I suppose -- something for everyone, but not folks like me.

In this respect I am a fuddy-duddy: I may not believe but I do love sacred spaces for ritual (and don't even get me started on "praise and worship songs").

These two spaces will do for me.

Sewanee's All Saints' Chapel

Exeter College Chapel, Oxford

The Subtle Joy of Tea

Ten years ago, I spent a month in Oxford, England, attending a summer program on a scholarship from the English-Speaking Union. At Exeter College on The Turl, I learned many things, not the least of which is the pleasure of tea. Humble, everyday, nothing-fancy PG Tips. I drank it for breakfast with white toast, which I despised at first but grew to love. I drank it after lunch in The Junior Common Room. I drank it in the late afternoon in The Undercroft. I drank it after supper, again in the JCR.

Since then, I have been a tea fanatic.

Although I have tried fancy blends from the Boston-based Upton Tea Company, which friends here in Sewanee recommended, and although I love African Dew blend from New York's Alice's Teacup, and although I have tried other popular British brands including Typhoo, I'm partial to PG Tips and the signature pyramid-style bag.

First thing in the morning and last thing at night, I drink my black tea lightened with milk. Sometimes I have it with a snack, like this blueberry turnover made by the Cumberland Street Bakery in Cowan. Mostly, though, I just drink the tea, savoring the taste of soil and leaf, holding it on my tongue. It is a welcome tonic.

(A word about the objects in this photo, which I also love. I made the cup in 1973 or 1974 in one of two summer-long courses I took in wheel-throwing at Newcomb in New Orleans. The plate was made by Brown's Pottery of Arden, NC, a family-owned business famous for its practical line of dinnerware and its whimsical face jogs. All contributed to the happiness I felt before and after I took this picture.)