From July 2008, a year or so after moving to our quirky neighborhood:
I suppose I have to start walking with a camera. I see all kinds of arty, interesting, kooky, surprising things whenever I walk around our neighborhood. I was coming down Emerson, the dirt-road-in-the-city blocks and had just returned to asphalt. There on the corner between NE 29th and NE 30th sat a small tin bucket filled with narrow fabric straps. A painted wooden Buddha at the base of a tree on the hell strip. And a sign covered in plastic saying that this is, indeed, a wishing tree. And to take one of the pieces of fabric or bring your own, make a wish, and tie it to the tree. When the wind blows and the rains fall, the sign continues, your wish will sail off into the world to where it needs to be. I picked a shiny red strip and tied my wish to a fairly low branch. Then, on my way back from the grocery, I see a couple in front of me stop, read the sign, pick up a fabric strip, and tie a wish to the branch, too.
The public domain photograph above is of a wishing tree on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
- Wishing Tree - November 4, 2024
- Making It to Semi-Finalist: “Your Going Away Party at the Hotel Dread” - October 31, 2024
- Publication News: “Lamentation: A Cento” - October 25, 2024
