Gold and Silver

Whenever I see a different color reflected 

from the Federal Court House, I end up walking around, 

my eyes gazing upward, looking for a new angle.

It's the same ol' building I've frequently posted pictures

of over the years, but it's beauty fascinates me.

And Saturday was no different. 

Its limestone facade glowed in the gold

and silver lights reflected onto it 

by the windows of nearby office buildings.

I was smitten. and wandered around it

enthralled by its luminescence.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart?

Yes, there have been wind-chill warnings,

but it's not nearly as bad as it could be

(or probably will get).

Both ends of my commute were bright

and clear, with the morning sun peeping its

delicate pink self from behind

the downtown buildings.

Then, this afternoon, someone had loosed

a colorful array of Mylar balloons,

a flash of rainbow that reached for the sky,

then, withered from the cold, 
they huddled in a tree.

I don't like being cold. My family did not have

central heating in our home until I was

in middle school. 

During the winters, I was always cold. 

I would huddle under a quilt, tucked

around me to create a cocoon of warmth.

I did not leave it until the next morning when

I'd run, shivering, downstairs to stand by

the coal-fired stove that my father had stoked

just before my brother, sister, and I got

up to get ready for school.

Now long grown, I still don't like the winter chill, 

and wrap up on the couch under a quilt 

to watch TV, my little cat

curled into tight wad beside my head.
I negotiate with myself about what I will do -
Get up and make breakfast? Get dressed?
Take out the trash?
I'm plotting a series of drawings.
How am I going to start these drawings
without getting cold feet?
I picture myself in the process of making them,
but, dammit, I can't figure out how to do it
without getting paint on my quilt.

A Walk in the Thaw

After nearly a month of below normal temperatures,

Sunday felt as though the season was ready to permit a bit 

of spring air to enliven our spirits. And it did.

People were out everywhere I went, jogging, exploring

the city as their dogs pranced along on the ends 

of their people strings, everyone enjoying the first bit 

of sun-warmed air to waft our way in months.

I went downtown to return a couple books to the library,

then took a long walk across the IUPUI campus, then along

the Central Canal to the river, then back into

the downtown area where even the buildings 

looked glad to see a bit of sunlit sky. 

Robins and Berries

We got several inches of snow in Indy 

this past weekend. Monday afternoon, while waiting 

for the bus, I looked up in a nearby tree 

where I saw robins. They seemed almost tame, 

but I guess it was the berries and, perhaps, a mating thing, 

that kept them in the tree while I prowled underneath, 

looking for a decent shot.

Sunny on a Cold Day

The little cacti, sitting on the window sill 

of a downtown office, seemed to smile at the morning sun. 

They and their colorful pots contrasted brightly

with the bare branches and moribund 

flowers, brown in their beds just outside the window. 

Curtain Cat

There, with only the sun to know her identity, 

Taylor Wright lurks in the window.

On the other side, the tweedy curtain projects 

her disguise as Batgirl, the fluffy nemesis

of all wall-burrowing rodents.

Blocks for a Granite Quilt

I walked to a nearby business Friday morning 

to take care of a task. Of course, I had my little camera 

in my pocket, hoping to catch an interesting picture, 

something in the way of how we're finally thawing 

out from a hard winter. The exterior walls of Speedway

High School caught my eye. The pattern made from

a patchwork of granite samples and the bare, scraggly tree 

seemed to play nicely in the morning sun. 

Sunny Blue

Generally, I use a door into the parking garage on the 

east side of the Natatorium to enter the pool area.

I looked up the other day from between the two buildings 

to see this wedge of sunlit blue sky. 

Finding Myself(ie)

On a sunny afternoon last week, I walked around the Circle 

to enjoy the, for once, reasonable temperatures 

and bright colors. I always like to look at the displays 

of frames at Ossip Optometry and try to find ways to

get a picture of the array of styles offered.

This time, I noticed the inverted/converted 

reflections of the monument in the lenses and 

the glass display shelves.

Long gone are the days when "four eyes" meant

one resigned one's self to glasses that were

about as attractive as the orthopedic shoes

I wore as a child -- brown or black with thick soles. 

Now, if I could only get shoemakers to create 

stylish and pretty pumps for my short, wide feet.

And my "selfie"? I'm that black blob 

at the bottom in the yellow frames.

An Amber Wave of Decorative Grass

With the Daytona 500 under a red flag rain delay, 

I took the opportunity to walk to the store 

for some groceries. Quite a bit of the snow has melted,

revealing trash and muddy ground all around. 

Other than the bare trees, just about the only graceful 

thing standing is the decorative grass planted

in various spots. Here, backed by plowed mounds 

of dirty snow, the afternoon sun shown through

the fluffy plumes near the supermarket.

Stars in the Detritus

Storms last night brought us another sunny day. 

The trees' bare branches reached upward,

towards puffy clouds scudding across a bright blue sky. 

Melting snow packs on the streets and sidewalks 

revealed the blackened leaves from fall. 

I tried to get a shot of gleaming of drops of water, 

but only got the starry points of sunlight -

one, two, three, four, dancing above the leaves.

Blue on Blue - and Blown

Amid the melting snow, the statues of nubile girls and boys 

on a fountain danced in the bright sun. 

The centerpiece of the fountain, a young woman

led the group with her cymbals, her green

figure set off perfectly against the blue sky.

Just over a day later, rain storms swept into the area,

making the bare trees dance in the night
 as the rain beat against the windows, 
adding their own rhythms to greet 
the approaching spring.

Woo Hoo! We're Thawing Out!

On a walk through a downtown park on Wednesday 

afternoon, I saw these leaves, newly, finally,

fallen on melting snow.

Sky Feathers and Lace

Walking home from the store, I looked up to see

feathery contrails drifting in the crisp blue sky.

The barren trees provided embroidery of sorts to accent both. 

Made up from the ten-foot high mountains of snow 

piled on both sides of our streets, a shallow fjord has developed 

in the driveway near my home.

A Little Carping

My walk Monday ended where the Central Canal 

empties into the White River. I stood for a long time,

watching a school of carp as they idled in a pool 

of sunlight at the river's bank. The fishes' slender, 

blue-gray bodies stood out against the yellow clay. 

The surface water sank to the bottom, carrying with it 

particles of soil, decomposed leaves, and other 

matter, pushing the clearer water to the top.

It's a good thing I took the opportunity to

get outside when I did because another front

bringing a heavy snowfall is working its way 

across the mid-western and eastern states.

Much of the population is suffering from an 

epidemic of seasonal affective disorder;

barely one month into the season, people are already 

thoroughly sick of the cold. You could charter

a fleet of Boeing C-130's to airlift everyone 

who wanted to go South for warmer weather.
It would be a mercy flight.

A Walk in the Winter Sun

The break in the weather gave me the opportunity 

to walk along the Central Canal, both to enjoy the sun 

and to take some pictures. At the end of the

canal, where the water enters the White River, I found

these grasses caught in a splendidly simple

arrangement on the wall, a russet leaf trapped

just so to balance the composition.

And below, at the edge of the river, a school

of carp swam in the current, fighting against it

to reach a quiet pool of water where

a meal could be had.

I could have watched those fish for hours,

their blue-gray bodies accented perfectly against 

the yellow clay mud beneath them.

Lethal Beauty

This is when I like winter, when the sun shines 

on the trees, melting globs of snow that 

then freeze into crystalline sparks of light 

on the branches.

People began to emerge from their cocoons this morning, 

to start cars that merely groaned and whined

instead of purring from the pleasure of being started.

One neighbor needs to thaw his poor car;

standing humbled and shrunken in a drift of snow

it had no shelter or barrier from the frozen air.

Why is it we expect a machine to perform

whenever asked, without realizing it, too,

needs some consideration for the way its bits

react to the elements? Shoot, I've neither seen

nor heard a bird in three days. I expect

they are perched beneath the snow-laden

branches of fir trees or building eaves,

their feathers fluffed up against the cold.

Sort of like me, except I will need to go

to the store fairly soon for some seeds 

for myself  and my little family

(my cat and my turtle).

Peppermint Fire

I had broken several slender candy canes into short pieces 

then eaten them from an old bowl as I sat at my computer.

It was then I noticed the scalloped sunlight

casting a little fire onto my note pad.

Folks in the Midwest are hunkered down

in expectation of a winter storm bringing heavy snow

and temperatures below zero degrees.

The lines at the grocery were long this afternoon

when I walked over to pick up a supply

of milk, bread and cereal. I also looked for some

post-Christmas peppermint sticks, but other 

people apparently had the same idea 

as there were no more to be had.

First Snow

While waiting for the bus this weekend at the Federal Court Building,

I happened to notice the bit of snowfall on the balustrade at the entrance. 

The ruffled bits at the top looked like the pinked edge on a pie.

The bases of the lights all have eagles at their bases,

of which the sunlit guy below was one.

December Theme Day: Looking Out

While working and swimming, the days have passed fairly quickly, 

so much so that I nearly overlooked the "looking out"

theme for December 1st. I guess though, in my attempt to miss nothing, 

I spend a lot of time looking out for stuff, including 

these back-lit grasses and flower stalks.

Photographers from the world over have posted 

their contributions for today's theme at the City Daily Photo portal.

Click the above link to see the varied interpretations,

or the CDP badge on the right-hand side of this page.