Random thoughts on a bloodshot Friday in Boulder

"You have red spots in your eyes," Cece said to me this morning when we were cleaning our teeth. I taught her the word 'bloodshot.'

Some noo-nah whose number I don't recognise woke me up at 11.30 p.m. last night by trying to Facetime me. I couldn't get back to sleep and at 2 a.m. I gave up and went downstairs to make a cuppa and do the Flatirons jigsaw that Isaac and Wendy and I have been working on in random moments since Saturday.

It's made by Liberty Puzzles in Boulder. I and W have several. Every piece is unique. They are the hardest jigsaws I've ever done. It was very soothing.

I was also soothed by a message from a talented photographer friend I've met through Twitter. She responded to my sad post of yesterday by sending me a helpful article by the ex photo editor of The Times in which he says:

Photography for me is purely about connecting with my subject, not just recording it, or trying to please other people. I’ve ceased trying to be other photographers and visiting those well-known places where the tripod feet have left bare patches in the soil. I shoot purely for myself. Some might say it’s self-indulgent, but if spending time alone in the places that resonate with me is self-indulgent, then yes, I am. And I love it.

You can read the entire article here.

And later in my Twitter feed I came across this:

At breakfast time this morning we saw a fox in the garden. The list of wild animals spotted in the garden here now looks like this:

fox
rabbit
squirrel
deer
raccoon
bobcat
mountain lion
bear

This morning as I walked the girls to catch the school bus, I was trying to recall the words of that A A Milne verse Lines and Squares:

Whenever I walk in a London street,
I'm ever so careful to watch my feet;
And I keep in the squares,
And the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who tread on the lines of the street
Go back to their lairs,
And I say to them, "Bears,
Just look how I'm walking in all the squares!

...and then realised it's probably not an appropriate verse to recite to a 6 year old Boulder girl for whom bears are a reality.

Here's a photo I took after the bus had come. No bears, no foxes. Just me and the leaves and the blue sky.