Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Blue Moon, Books, Mail Art

Blue Moon Eclipse
About 5:00 this morning, the blue moon was still bright and full, and I watched until it gradually dropped in the sky and the house behind us blocked the view.  My husband was about to leave for work and offered to drive me (still in pj's) to where we could see it from the boulevard.  We watched part of the eclipse from there.  We stayed for a while, watching the shadow cover the huge moon, but he had to leave so he brought me home before it was finished.  I was satisfied.  I didn't even have to get dressed.  :)

Books/Reading

I started reading the essays in Ursula Le Guin's No Time to Spare about ten days before she died.  Then I stopped for several days.  Too close.  Too personal.  I was about half way through the book, and although I knew she was in her late 80's, the news that she had died while I was reading her essays took me aback.  

After several days, I started reading again.  The essays vary in length and in import.  The anecdotes about her new kitten Pard are short, observant, and personal.  Le Guin was a cat person of long-standing.  The essays about social topics--about aging, about men and women, about writing and books, about her disdain for the "inner child" trope, about her personal vision of America --are longer, and (for me, at least) require more than one reading in many cases.  I have to think about some of these essays (originally, blog posts), how they mesh with my own thoughts or how her opinions sometimes open a new avenue of thinking.  I will finish reading all of the essays and then return to the ones I've been thinking about and read them again.

Le Guin's writing has earned so many awards over the years (Newbury, Hugo, Nebula, National Book, Locus), but she may be best known for her Earthsea series.

Mail Art
I am still moving in short surges on replying to correspondence.  I'll be all about it for a day or two, writing a letter, decorating an envelope--then take an unintentional break.  But I am almost caught up now.
Yep, still drawing little cartoons on watercolor backgrounds,
cutting them out, and pasting them on envelopes and postcards.
OK, I love all of Jacki Long's junk mail angels.
Here is a link to one of her step-by-step posts.
Of course, I wanted to try this...
Jacki's junk mail characters are such fun, 
and I'm going to make more.  :)

The junk mail characters remind me 
If you haven't seen them, you should visit!

6 comments:

  1. Hello! You know I always love your mail art. Love the stamps too. I hope you are warmer in your neck of the woods than us!

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    1. Thanks, Debra! Definitely warmer--we are going to drop down to the 50's tomorrow, but the last two days have been in the high 60's, low 70's. Felt like Spring!

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  2. I've heard so much about Ursula Le Guin since she died, and barely anything before. I can see an orgy of reading ahead of me later in the year...

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    1. :) Le Guin influenced so many fantasy and science fiction writers. She really was an icon.

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  3. I would now like to pick up Le Guin's book, despite the bittersweet nature of it because she passed while you read it. I'll be 60 soon and I always like to get other people's take on aging. Of course as a part-time fantasy reader I've heard many good things about her books over the years. Just don't which one to jump in with.

    I wish I'd seen the moon :( I just forgot about it and now I regret missing it.

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    1. I'm glad a got to see a portion of the eclipse! And no need for special eye wear like this summer's solar eclipse. Le Guin's essays are thought-provoking. I will agree, and agree, and then go...Hmmm, don't know what I think about that. Those "hmmm" moments make my lazy brain re-examine both Le Guin's passages and my own thoughts. :)

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