Shadow Tree

Shadow Tree

The most beautiful thing I saw today.
The scene: a building along the west of a busy mall parkway in south Seattle, with a drive through and plantings along the roadside. The headlights from westbound traffic in the right-hand turn lane across the street, are intercepted by this low, trimmed tree and then play across this wall as the cars turn to go northward.
 
The combination of elements is enchanting!

Buon Anno! Happy New Year!

Buon Anno! Happy New Year!

Buon Anno! Happy New Year!

Buon Anno. Tanti Auguri.
Happy New Year. Many Good Wishes.

L’anno duemilleundici.
The year two thousand eleven.

Vi auguro buona salute, curiositá e contentezza nel anno nuovo!
Un abbraccio affettuoso a tutti i miei amici.

I wish you good health, curiosity and contentment in the New Year!
A warm hug to all my friends.

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Some would think, “Wow, you found that written on some old paper somewhere in Italy?!” No. It’s a Photoshop collage of close to 100 different pieces. The individual letters and elements were scanned, selected and imported from correspondence, meeting notes and report cards from Italy in the 1940s. While there, I became enamored of the old and very distinctive Italian handwriting and collected penmanship manuals and old journals.

The embossed seal is from a child’s report card. It says “Regno d’Italia“, the “Kingdom of Italy”. Italy was unified in 1861 and on June 2, 1946, it became a republic.