These lady ferns looked especially striking when the late-afternoon sunlight shone through their almost translucent fronds. This is the sort of scene reserved for fall, when forest trees have let go of some of their cargo, allowing for such light to finally penetrate through to the shade-loving species who now revel in the last of the seasonal glow.
This week the calendar turns the page on October, which means that the velocity with which we’re heading into the holiday season is truly frightening. More frightening than Halloween (which, when you dress like I do, is traditionally my day off). I’m afraid this year will prove no exception. Onto the recap of all that came before…
First and always foremost, the week in Hunks was represented by the bodies and faces of Rob Evans, Liam Hemsworth, Jared Allman, along with this gratuitous jockstrap preparation, in breathless anticipation of…
The Jockstrap Shots ~ Part 1 and Part 2. (And a sneak preview.)
The soundtrack to the week was provided by London Grammar, Â but there was a pair of epic Madonna posts, Part 1 and Part 2, to commemorate the 100th Madonna Timeline (coming up soon!)
But mostly the week belonged to memories of Ogunquit, including some giant pumpkin carving, a few courageous fall bloomers, a virgin trip up the mountain, a witch’s flying mishap, and a goodbye until next year.
If you were in my position…
In my family…
You would drink too.
When the focus shifts, when the sea recedes from view, sometimes it is more beautiful. The blurred space that seeps into memory, that becomes memory, more vivid in softer relief, more resonant in dream-like form – this is how to hold onto things. This is the stuff of paintings. It is how we remember.
Like the perfect shore after a gentle tide goes out, what is left is fainter, more rounded, less jagged. The wind hasn’t quite carved it into crystal-clear sharpness, the edges have been blunted into undulating mounds mirroring the water that left it all behind. It is the image that lingers when you quickly blink your eyes shut. The mind still sees.
Somehow I’ve lost track of our Ogunquit recap, so let’s resume the telling of that tale, pictorially at least, with these photos from the Marginal Way.
It was the week that Zac Efron finally got officially naked. Everything else would pale in comparison, if it didn’t mean so much to me. Like a trip to Ogunquit, or a husband’s birthday, or a big Madonna milestone. But I’m getting ahead of myself, and there are links below that deserve their own line, more important and worthy than getting lost at the tail-end of some introductory paragraph whose only purpose is to maintain a streamlined design for this display page…
Our Ogunquit recap began here, continued here, and we’re not done yet. Stay tuned…
This walk inspired many things.
We saw a performance of Over the Rhine at The Egg. They are, quite simply, amazing.
My husband celebrated his umpteenth birthday.
Yes, it’s delightfully true:Â Zac Efron got very naked right here. Many guys will start toilet planking very soon, trust me on this.
Ben Cohen got back into his briefs too. Like I said, it was a very good week. (Oops, he did it again.)
The parade of shirtless Hunks kept things warm when the sun went away, even if it was a parade of one, Eoin Macken,
A very cool Straight Ally, and a very good friend, has a blog that’s worth checking out, and he’s going to contribute something here shortly, which is good, because his writing is, quite often, better than mine.
In honor of the Boston Red Sox and their entry into the World Series, I got back in a jockstrap (with new photos to come).
Finally, we are gearing up for a very special Madonna Timeline, and the first bit of promotional hype and hoopla is right here. Don’t you want it now?
It was a pass day from work for me, so I went on a hike in Thacher Park (more on that later), and tonight we’re scheduled to see Over the Rhine at The Egg. It’s a quiet Friday in fall, the very best kind of Friday to have. Here’s the song ‘Sacred Ground’ by Over the Rhine.
A fallen leaf, mottled with red and yellow, facing up on a moss-speckled stone.
A pathway curving around the edge of a wooded, blanketed by leaves, buffered by dew.
A wooden bench, empty but for more fallen leaves,
A bit of forest, then a little clearing. Small pines making the start of their skyward journey. Fledgling oaks long before they turn mighty.
A pair of birdhouses, hung high on the trees.
The forest begins again.
My favorite show this season (and the only one I’m watching right now) is ‘American Horror Story: Coven’.
God knows I love a good witch – and a bad one is even better.
Apologies, but I’m still mentally on vacation and not quite ready to return to the daily upkeep of this blog. But some (many) of you are new here, so if I throw out a few links of where we were last year, it might be funky fresh like that. Starting with this Maine visit that got posted exactly a year ago yesterday. That and our recent trip to Mt. Agamenticus (post to come) are the inspiration for a possible hiking expedition. (Another post to come.)
Maine was also home to this little show-off, a creature after my own heart.
Last year I posted about my first retail job – a job that to this day I count as one of my favorites. It was at Structure, at their Faneuil Hall location, before it got downgraded to an Abercrombie & Retch Fitch.
Still, I miss Maine, or at least the state of mind that I seem to find only there.
Tomorrow I’ll be back on track… stay with me.
Having just returned from our annual holiday weekend in Ogunquit, Maine, I am in no mood to plunge right back into the work week, but there’s little choice when the clock already indicates it’s Tuesday. This is a big week, as we finalize kitchen plans, sign contracts, and place orders. There’s also Andy’s birthday coming up, but since he’s given no indication what he wants to do, it will likely be a small, casual affair. (And before you even think of giving me grief for not planning anything, tell me what part of any of my birthdays did he plan? Okay then.) On to the last week, before we get into the glory that was Ogunquit in the fall.
As the fall stole in through the nights, this was the sort of music to warm the cockles of the heart.
The last of our lemongrass crop was used for this variation on a Thai recipe.
Tom Ford and his Sahara Noir provided a smoky accent for fire-side nights.
A change in weather created this dramatic sky.
Keeping things hot as the weather turned cool was the usual parade of Hunks, which saw the shirtless (and sometimes naked) figures of Eric Winter, Michael Fassbender, Boris Kodjoe, Lucas Calvani, Justin Hartley and Adam Levine.
If you just want a quick gratuitously-shirtless beefcake fix, check out this pair of Hunky Hunk posts, Part 1 and Part 2.
The ’13’ Project continues its quiet and stealthy release with 10:13.
As if there were any lingering doubt, I’m a sinner and I like it that way.
Finally, the real-time pleasures were to be found in Maine, which I’ll bring up-to-date this week.
After a day of ferocious winds, pounding rain, and threats of tornadoes, a sign of forgiveness – the rainbow – appeared in a strange evening sky. The sun gave one final flash of brilliance, setting the tips of the fall-colored foliage aflame against a darkening sky, and igniting that magical band of color through the prismatic alchemy of water and light.
As a child, I remember reading a book about a rainbow and a unicorn and a frightening serpent. There was some sort of religious parable in it, I’m sure, but at the time I was only mesmerized by the purity and beauty of the unicorn, rushing past the pages of that treacherous, ugly serpent, but secretly peering at the thing, transfixed in a different way.
On the opposite end of the sky from the rainbow, was this color scheme – a rainbow unto itself, on a grander if more subtle scale.
At the moment this is scheduled to be posted, Andy and I should be en route to Ogunquit, Maine for our annual Columbus Day weekend vacation. My parents are joining us this time, which will be nice, since we seem to be seeing them less and less these days. While our fall trip is not as exciting as the opening season salvo of Memorial Day (when all is hope and the promise of summer stretches out before you) Â it usually comes with its own enchantments, like colorful mosses and leaves, gnarled gourds and perfect pumpkins, and cozy cider to take the chill off.
