Photo Essay Part the Third

The quote below is from the book A Pigeon and A Boy, by Meir Shalev. It is a love story, essentially, about a boy and a girl who raise and train homing pigeons. It’s been a while since I read it but this quote has stayed with me:

" [He] dared to speak up in order to point out that the participants were projecting a human perception of maps and directions and compass roses onto pigeons. But perhaps, he said, she is unfamiliar with all of these, understanding one direction only, and its name is 'homeward,' unaware that humans give this direction other names - sometimes 'southward' and sometimes 'eastward' and sometimes 'north-by-northwestward.' "

People move around now a lot more than they used to. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if we still lived in a time when it was common to live our whole lives in one place.

Here’s a picture of a creek in the woods in one of the places I think of as home.

Blue is my favorite color, but I’ve always loved the specific color of sunlight filtered through green leaves.

After we lived in the town with the woods and the creek, my family moved to California. I’m not a big fan of palm trees, but the last time I was back there, I took a walk with a friend from high school; we went down to the pier, and there were all these pelicans. They were just sitting around, not dive-bombing for fish, but they’re pretty cool-looking anyway. I never noticed them when I lived there.

Chicago again; the view through the window on the El. The red line, I think, near Evanston.

This is the reflection of that window in the other window.

My roommate’s aunt and uncle have a little place out on Fire Island. I’ve been there twice, and both times it felt so far away from New York. And we lucked out and avoided the jellyfish both times!

 Here’s some guacamole I made the other day. And here’s the recipe: avocado, garlic, lemon, salt, pepper, onion, tomato – all to taste! (Okay, that’s lazy. I’m sorry. I will post a more recipe-like recipe soon.) I have heard, though, and it does seem to hold true, that if you keep one of the avocado pits in the guacamole, it keeps it all from turning brown. Somehow.