The Fortress' Gate

These were taken for you, even if it's not exactly a knocker, and there is a wish attached to them: may all the locks unlock and all the gates of fortresses open for you and yours.

From my window

On the second day of Christmas...The last one is a day older- all the snow has melted, but more might come. I'd like that!

Christmas morning

Getting to bed the last one allows you the possibility of gathering the last lights, the last sounds, the last smells from the family meeting.

and getting up the first one in Christmas Day allows you to see all the presents waiting for their owners and anticipating the smiles, the surprise, the laughter.

Christmas morning

Yesterday's sunset and today's morning views. Have a sunny day! Hugs.

friday, 2010

I wish the three of you Merry Christmas. A warm night, wonderful views in the morning and lots of smiles. Hugs

I hope your home is warm and all your loved ones have arrived and are gathered around you.

Cristian

Sending you a message of tranquility.
And my best thoughts.

5 X 14 = 25

We had a big class Xmas party today with my 5 graders (10-11 yrs. old). They are a nice and childish bunch, so we had lots of things to do: we played games and read stories on "Santa's website", then I had some presents for them that they drew from a broomstick, blindfolded, then we played a game called "Storm on the sea" (a kind of Musical Chairs, combined with storytelling), then we danced (just a bit- they had brought 2 players but just one CD!), then we sang carols (they had brought the notebooks just for me, I had asked for this favour)...and we ate continuously.

But the funniest moment was a trick I had never expected to work. I told them I had heard in the news that new rules had been given in Maths and 25 divided by 5 will make 14 from now on- and I "proved" it like this. There was a moment of silence, then a boy asked desperately: "Do you mean I have to learn the multiplication table all over again???" Then they started arguing on weather Math can be changed by new rules. Finally some started to suspect it was a trick and they noticed where exactly the "proofs" were false.

Only after they all left I realized I had been so busy I had forgotten about taking pictures. I'm quite upset about that.
I have no idea why I'm writing all this here. Maybe just to share a smile with you.

Reckoning

I was looking for something else and found this poem.

The Reckoning by Marin Sorescu (1936-1996)

There comes a time
When we have to draw a line under us
A black line
To do the summing up.

The few moments when you are about to be happy,
The few moments when we were nearly beautiful,
The few moments we were almost a genius,
Occasionally we've met
Mountains, trees, water
(What happened to them? Do they still exist?)
Each adds up to a brilliant future--which we've lived.

A woman we've loved,
Plus the same woman who didn't love us
Equals zero.

A quarter of year of studies
Makes several million fodder words
Whose wisdom we have gradually eliminated.

And finally, a fate
Plus another fate (Now where does that come from?)
Equals two (Write one, carry one,
Perhaps, who knows, there is a life hereafter)

Music

The annual folk music festival was the kind of event I would be willing to attend even if I had to crawl to get there. Just to see, hear, and feel. Hear and see the singers (one less each year), see the audience get up and applaud as one, or just stand quietly when the screens were showing the artists who will no longer be perform for us, hear 4000 people sing along in a whisper or in a frenzy.
Here is an old song from my youth, it says: I'm clean in my body, clean in my soul, I want to understand and to love; it does not matter how long my hair is- the important matter is how and how much I think.


And here is one we whispered: nobody will know I'm gone, they will just see I'm not there; the sky is high, the world is wide, good thing the wood's in leaf...I am swinging below the flowers...and then the same verses shuffled. Sweet, naive songs of our youth- how long can we still cling to them?

Fog

In an empty park

autumn lights

This photo album made with Smilebox

Nature can surprise us any time. After a cold sunless morning we've got one of these rare evenings with a talking sky.

A goodbye

A whisker left on the carpet after the cat is gone can bring so many thoughts on how much an animal is able offer in its lifetime and how little we, perfect and reasonable human beings, are capable of appreciating it.

"Another kind of book"

There is an old Math teacher (actually, a whole family of teachers) who makes the best known exercise book for Secondary School Maths. The book is unofficially called "The Chicken"because it has a duckling on the cover, regardless of the level of the class, year after year. It's a good book: revised and adapted each year, no errors, costless, easy to handle, diversified. They bring it directly to schools and they are nice and reliable.
Well, this old teacher brought us a gift. He published, on his own expense, a book dedicated to teachers that has the same cover with the duckling and the title of the post. Inside there are poems, short real stories, epigrams related to teaching. Each one has a motto in Latin (a dictum) and the same final line: "The rest? The rest is silence."
He offered a book, with a few handwritten lines, to each teacher he has collaborated with.
Only a confirmed and incurable idealistic person can teach for a lifetime.
The rest is silence.

SVAW

Team work can also be a family affair. Doing things together is a way to make links stronger. Hand, labelling and photo are ours, the message is public.

Traditional food fair

Slow food, you may call it, traditional food from Northern Moldavia in a fair in the park. We got smoked trout, cheese, mushroom salad, ham....

nature and scenes

There has not been a final golden wutumn yet. Green fights for survival, but the low temperatures will finish with it.

Each one tries to shelter from these cold mornings, like these men and women wearing the traditional Castillian cloak. I knew there was a special day for these garments. It was Saturday morning. As a matter of fact, they can wear it whenever they want, but it is not common to see the group together.

The ancient survivors to storms, rain, snow, wind remain silent as always. just watching life pass in front of them.

some mornings

yesterday morning, when I was coming down to school, I faced this grey un-light. It was like a smoky blanket between the sky and the mountains. It felt cold and mysterious. I wouldn't say beautiful but appealing, like a whisper calling you to enter and forget. Less than foggy but more than cloudy, that area seemed to be dwelling a different world. Then, it was the lessons and the wonder disappeared.

Unwords

I may have posted this before, but since we have been talking of trees, here it is.

Unwords
by Nichta Stanescu

He offered me a leaf like a hand with fingers.
I offered him a hand like a leaf with teeth.
He offered me a branch like an arm.
I offered him my arm like a branch.
He tipped his trunk towards me
like a shoulder.
I tipped my shoulder to him
like a knotted trunk.
I could hear his sap quicken, beating
like blood.
He could hear my blood slacken like rising sap.
I passed through him.
He passed through me.
I remained a solitary tree.
He-a solitary man.