There's Nothing Like a (Great Grand) Mother's Love

"It is a wonderful thing to have somebody believe in you. This is the one great benefit of love. Love idealizes its object. It exagerates little tendencies into great virtues, possibilities into genius. Love is action and reaction. Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.

Mother-love is the great, surging, divine current that plays forever through humanity.......How much men of genius owe to their mothers will never be told in cold words, because love cannot be analyzed, nor placed under the slide. " Elbert Hubbard - The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard, page 47.

The Angel of Life and Death

From the archives. This is another tombstone from Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. While this is HDR, it isn't as heavily processed as you might think. This place is just surreal.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

What Almost Every Woman Knows Sooner or Later
Husbands are things that wives have to get used to putting up with,
And with whom they breakfast with and sup with.
They interfere with the discipline of nurseries,
And forget anniversaries,
And when they have been particularly remiss
They think they can cure everything with a great big kiss.
.....
Husbands are indeed an irritating form of life,
And yet through some quirk of Providence most of them are really deeply ensconced in the affection of their wife. - Ogden Nash (The Face is Familiar)

To my friends and loved ones, but especially my sweet wife, Happy Valenentines Day!

Reflections On Ingenuity

Here's a good rule of thumb
Too clever is dumb. - Ogden Nash - The Face is Familair

Here's to the simple things in life, my friends.

The Intent of All Art

The intent of all art is to communicate your feelings and emotions to another. Art has its rise in the need of human companionship. You feel certain thoughts and you strive to express them. You may express by music, by chiseled shapes, by painted canvas or by written words. At the last all art is one. And as you work, over against you sits another who says "Yes, yes, I understand!" - Elbert Hubbard, "The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard", page 95.

I picked up this book that I've had for the longest time but had never actually read. It turns out the author was one of the drivers of the Arts and Crafts movement in the late 1800's and early 1900's. He and his wife died on the Lusitania. I suspect you'll be seeing more quotes from him in the future.

The Warmth of Winter

One of the things I miss the most about the winter is the comfort of a wood fire -- the smell of burning hardwood......the cracking, popping, and fizzing as the remaining moisture explodes from the tough fibers. Intense warmth permeates the entire room. Memories are made around the fireplace or wood stove. As convenient as modern heating systems are, we've lost something rich, ancient, and meaningful in the process. This is one reason I like camping. Something about a fire lets you free your mind unlike anything else. Take a minute to enjoy the fire today my friends, even if it's only through this picture.