It must have been about 30 years ago that I wrote the following haiku-like thought in my journal as I watched the snow come down:
“Snowfall. Silent action.”
Unless the snow is icy and verging on sleet, it is quite silent as it falls, thus my observation. Over this weekend, all of us in this Puget Sound region have had the opportunity to contemplate the silence of snow fall. And from the news going ’round, we’ll have that opportunity for the next couple of days as they forecast up to 15 inches of snow!
My first image here was as the snow was silently falling, obscuring any view of Puget Sound, Vashon Islands and certainly the Olympic Mountains. As the snow ceased, the sky cleared and became more dramatic above the snowy landscape.
Everyone should have a centenarian in their life. Today, January 4, 2012, Gladys celebrated her 106th birthday. What a delight and honor to spend some of her day with her.
Gladys is bright and sharp and quick. She loves rich, engaging conversation… a back-and-forth rally of sharing stories and following them where they will. Most of all, she loves beauty. She loves to SEE, more than anyone I know. A swatch of color or pattern. An architectural detail. Fabric or a fork. What may seem insignificant will stop her in her tracks: “That just floors me!”
These hands of hers have known both beauty and hard work.
In the three or four years that I’ve known Gladys, she’s allowed me to make photos of her and she’s gotten just a little bit comfortable when my camera’s out.
Gladys and I went to the local pub for lunch one day in 2011. The cutlery there is rolled up in a cloth napkin. When Gladys unrolled her silverware, she held up her fork and said, “Will you just LOOK at that fork! Isn’t that just beautiful!?”
This portrait of Gladys at 105 looks like she’s seeing the unseen… like she’s pondering something quizzical. It suits her. (Her late husband made her necklace using fine opals that he put into the cheap setting she had bought; he grumbled about working with it.)
Gladys loves the flowers and shrubs in her yard. One day in 2011 she sent me home with a bouquet of daisies, fresh-picked.
Here’s Gladys in her living room at 104, surrounded by lush pattern and adornment, much of it decorative arts that she has created in her long lifetime.
There are a special few that have received a hand-sewn Raggedy Ann doll from Gladys. She’s done every stitch with her hands and her machine. At 103, she had this doll nearly ready for the next lucky recipient.
How can anyone resist a woman (whether 103 or any age) in that classic and always-outrageous color combination of hot pink, orange and red?!
How many years has she fed family and friends through this combination of flour, egg and oil? When I came across this video of Elia Neri making pasta dough for homemade tagliatelle, I watched, marveling as her hands worked, so knowing from the years.
The slow pace of this video is like following a Tuscan countryside road on a hot day: you’ll want to hurry to its end, or even leave it unfinished. But watch! Realize that she’s rolling her dough on a small, cubic meter-sized square board. Tell me you aren’t awestruck when you see her unfurl her sheet of pasta onto a table the full length of the room! And then watch as she rolls the pasta sheet, cuts the tagliatelle and again unfurls those ribbons of pasta and lays them on her table.
Elia is my pasta heroine!
(Even though the video is in Italian, you’ll certainly understand the work of her hands.
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Forty-one people showed up under unusually warm, blue skies for the Walk-n-Talk on New Year’s Day! Wow! Rainier was out. It was like a springtime day as people gathered on Town Square’s grassy knoll, having come from near and far to bask in a seasonal glow and chat with their neighbors. Wow. Forty-one people, young and old, plus three pups and many new faces in the crowd. (This was our largest group yet for our monthly walks.)
We started hoofing from Burien Town Square at 2:15, right on schedule, and walked through Gregory Heights’ neighborhoods that were quintessential, classic, and oh-so-retro! The four, patterned cement block homes on 10th garnered much conversation (adjacent to the site of the old water tower).
Everyone walked at the level of their own abilities, so the 3.3 mile route was ribboned with a stream of walkers, some faster, some slower. Back at Town Square at 3:45, Charlene, Amanda and Rosalie, plus little poodle Toby, stopped for a moment to flash peace signs.
“Peace, man, in 2012!”
Happy New Year!
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