Blog Restart

Ice remains on the water but buoys have already been restored for mooring.

I’ve been writing this blog for several years now, utilizing various notions and formats.  In silly moments, one dreams of such a venture becoming a commercial success, or at least a success in terms of vast readership, just as one dreams of winning a multimillion lottery.  My evolved goal became to compose a tool to sharpen local observation and appreciation.

Pensive Nicholas who can easily destroy any of my carefully scheduled plans

On my walk each day, composing photographs lets me pretend to once again be an artist sketching or painting a subject.  Each object and view becomes a special study in shadow, line, and color.  An inner author voice develops trains of thought into small paragraphs related to something noticed or heard or otherwise experienced.  That discipline enriches my life, even when never read by anyone.

This winter, that became a tedious chore.  I found myself contemplating rehashed thoughts, viewing with tired eyes, straining for fresh insights.  The task lacked zest and joy.

Having no formal obligations, I was free to pause and reevaluate.

Pilings must be driven now to prepare docks for flotillas to arrive in the coming months.

On vacation, elements of playfulness reappeared.  Last year I joined the multitudes and acquired a smart phone, but did not explore its features.  Strolls on a Florida beach and boring nights in a motel forced experimentation.  Soon a project emerged to use new technology, especially dictation, to aid my writing.    This entry is the result of formalizing outlines, documentation, procedures, storage.  I know from a career in the software industry that at any given moment I might forget exactly how I once did something no matter how trivial, so carefully writing down all the baby steps is both a critical backup and a means to organize workflow intelligently.  I am excited again.

What strange entity might emerge from these art-project eggs at the Cold Spring Harbor library?

Instead of daily entries, I will compose one essay a week.  There will be time to review and edit.  Initially, rotate themes _ Nature, Philosophy, Current Events, Wildcard.   Insert captioned pictures from daily wanderings.

Witch Hazel at the Unitarian Church extends bloom in a cold season.

For years, I have slaved into a predetermined schedule.  Cast aside now, because our lives with grandchild and other factors have become too complicated and unpredictable.  So I will work on this as possible, take pictures irregularly, dictate notions to be stashed for later development.  Add miniscule purpose to strolls.  Abandon plans to seek audience in any rational manner.  Gratefully continue a creation of love of being.

Perfect whelk shell abandoned by a clammer as commercially worthless.

Bleak late-winter wetlands near the old dock at Caumsett.