Catherine Eaton

cloud coverage turning to heavy blots and swirls and trailing off towards the dim light of sunset.

The clouds were telling their own story this early evening.

I imagine there must be. They've planted lots of new trees in the city during the last few years.

“Poetry is ultimately mythology, the telling of the soul’s passage through the valley of this life, its adventure in time, in history.”

—Stanley Kunitz in conversation with Bill Moyers

Even then it can still be hard. Like when they cut down the ashes even though they were all dead. That's still hard to think about.

Thanks, Dorian. Some will likely be replanted but still damnit

Thanks, Valarie. It truly does feel like that. Grateful that I got to enjoy them for many years.

Purple Violet blooming amongst the fallen leaves

A strange hopeful spring visitor: I don't think I've ever seen a violet blooming in November. Either they're confused or rushing

Narrow country road in Chiba. Two houses and a deep red maple

Red Shift

I love book pairings. 💛 I’ve been wondering where to start with McBride so this is excellent.

an expansive lawn just beginning to turn green, magnolia trees blooming white and pink off in the distance. great sullen sky hanging over all.

Spring coming into its own in April of this year.

Now to try and remember if I bought Lili is Crying and where I might have put it

It really is! They started yesterday and I was hoping some would be spared but nope. All gone. Needed but such a shame.

My city is redoing the main street that runs near my house. It's a huge project that's much needed and will take a few years to complete. Today they cut down all the trees lining the road. This included the gingkos, one of more charming parts of living here. Modernity is ruthless.

A vignette; frosted boughs in a misty forest.

NOVEMBER 20 Wild wind and coursing cloud; feeble gleams of pale sky. John Ruskin, 1875 (Oxford)

What I dream of all summer long

My short story course is filling up nicely! Still places available if you'd like to do some deep reading and thinking about a short story each week at the start of next year - and write your own, of course. Early bird discount (10%, so £225 instead of £250) applies until 30th Nov. #ShortStories ✒️📚

News article header: A monkey on the loose: Odd animal sightings in Chicago Animal control is used to dealing with stray cats and dogs. But what happens when there's a peacock strutting down the alley?

Ahhhhh I was hoping they would mention mothman but no

Fewer ICE officers abducting daycare workers, more mini-goats grazing in front of BLM yard signs.

Siamese Dream is my go-to when listening to them. still so good

only ten days left

Mercury in Retrograde has been amazingly petty this time around. I shouldn't complain as it's all been small incessant problems (rather than large) but enough

I didn't get my hands on a copy until college years but I remember listening to it on loop (a friend and I exchanging the two discs back and forth) from Ashland, OR to San Franscisco. Dozing on and off, views of the incredible coast, and that lush rock flowing through all of it--impossible to forget

‘Mellon Collie’ with a mezzo-soprano: How the Smashing Pumpkins’ ’90s rock album became an opera New York composer and conductor James Lowe worked closely with Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan to adapt the 30-year-old album for a show that’s more Mozart than rock.

Ha, yes! I wondered if anyone was going to notice that.
The stage designer mentioned in an interview that said it's going to be all in art deco and I think that'll fit well.

"at the crescent moon
the silence
enters the heart"
― Chiyo-ni (trans. Donegan & Ishibashi)

(image: Mikiko Noji)

I didn't expect it but while listening to the first part, I fell in love with Cupid de Locke and Porcelina of the Vast Oceans.

It's such a special book. Whenever I read it and look at his illustrations, life feels better, more magical, more endurable.

Carpet of vibrant yellow leaves on the ground and lining the empty picnic benches. Trees are now bare.

Now that the leaves have mostly fallen, the park was completely empty at noon. I listened to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and pondered how Corgan's opera version will sound next week.

Though I have The Blind Owl, I have not read it yet! I’ll keep this in mind

You loved it! Oh good. I talked my book club into reading it and have been so happy to find it wonderful so far. I’ve read from his Illustrated Notebooks (Memories of Distant Mountains) and I can hear notes of his voice in My Name is Red too—so comforting somehow.

George Steiner! How delightful ❤️