Sven Loves Danger Girl

Santa Fe is one of a kind.

Seen at the local nursery. Fall must be right around the corner.

Viki helped me get a San Antonio library card and then helped me get it all set up online. My designated library is the Landa Branch, located in historic Monte Vista. The library is a beautiful old house in a park-like setting. The photo above is part of the elaborate stonework around the entrance. Beautiful!

I do have a Spring Branch library card. But the San Antonio Library system is much bigger and has so much more to offer.

I’m lucky to have a sister who is a librarian. She hooks me up with all the best library knowledge!

Seen near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, just north of Clarksville.

We happened to be in Akron when the rhododendrons were in bloom. They were spectacular!

Who writes this stuff? This is our second visit to this park. We stayed here three years ago and this sign has weighed on me ever since. I think it’s a faucet – not a jug filler!

Seen at Sterling State Park in Monroe, Michigan. In the shadow of the power plant!

Seen at the confluence of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan

Just an old tree trunk in a cemetery? Nope. On closer inspection…

There are faces carved into the wood!

Seen at Greenville Recreation area, just north of Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

The Little Book of Cheerful Thoughts

by Jeffrey Harrison

Small enough to fit  
in your shirt pocket 
so you could take it out 
in a moment of distress 
to ingest a happy  
maxim or just stare 
a while at its orange 
and yellow cover 
(so cheerful in itself 
you need go no further), 
this little booklet 
wouldn’t stop a bullet  
aimed at your heart 

and seems a flimsy  
shield against despair, 
whatever its contents. 
But there it is 
by the cash register, 
so I pick it up 
as I wait in line and 
come to a sentence 
saying there are few 
things that can’t be  
cured by a hot bath 
above the name  
Sylvia Plath. 

I rest my case, 
placing the booklet 
back by its petite 
companions Sweet Nothings
and Simple Wisdom… 
but not The Book of Sorrows, 
a multivolume set 
like the old Britannica 
that each of us receives 
in installments 
of unpredictable 
heft and frequency 
over a lifetime.