Monday 24th Image

Earthly treasures in favourite colours

Sunday's Picture

A winter madarin.

Saturday's Picture

Basil, Parsley and Chives from the Farmers Markets - now on my window sill.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

I'm not sure if I agree with that, however I do understand that there is a unique something in the form of communication, that is photogrpahy.

I have decided to post a Picture a day from my world....which at the moment feels very limited. No doubt as I look with different eyes I will see many things - I have heretofor missed. Or at the very least overlooked.

The Lingerng Effects

I am through the worst now but the lingering tiredness is hard to cope with.

I cannot hold my energy and what little I gather burns away very quickly from very little
activity.

If I do too much the cough returns.

Wars and Rumours of Wars

The Middle East is again at war, perhaps not a declared one but none the less with all the trappings. Rockets, explosions, military deaths and innocent victims.

Citizens of many nations are trapped desperatly attempting to leave Lebanon either by sea or on danger ridden roads through Syria. Hungry tired afraid women men and children struggle for survival as they await rescue.

Meanwhile Indonesia has experienced another Tsunami and now another earthquake.

An Eva drawing & a last few words about Eva...

Eva was a complex person, painfully shy, vulnerable to criticism and subject to seasonal depressions, yet opinionated and stubborn, unyielding in her personal values and artistic principles. She loved solitude, bicycling, movies and Cheetos, hated high school, dresses, aggressive drivers and the exploitation of women in advertising and television. She was obsessive about her art projects, painting, drawing, sculpting, designing jewelry, decorating furniture and clock faces. Extremely self-conscious, she had little interest in pursuing a professional career in art or music, preferring to surround herself with supportive friends who served as her advocates. She had few possessions and modest goals, sometimes she spoke of wanting to live in a cottage by the ocean, and no sense of money. She didn't have a checking account until she was 30, and worried that material success would threaten her identity. Battling the melanoma that took her life at 33, she told her mother "All I want to do when I get well is sing and travel around with my music"

Who was Eva Cassidy?

Toward the end of July 1996, Eva Cassidy started showing up for gigs with a cane. Hip pain, she said. She'd been doing murals for three days. Must have pulled something.
The pain didn't stop. X-rays. The hip was fractured. Hip replacement surgery was set for Aug. 21. A precautionary X-ray before the operation found cancer in a lung. Tests at Johns Hopkins then found that her bones were filled with cancer.
All of a sudden, she was being told that she had three months to live. She started chemotherapy immediately, though it seemed little more than rage against the storm of sickness.
By mid-October, many in Washington's music community were aware of Cassidy's illness, though few knew its severity. Because she had no insurance, a benefit was scheduled at the Bayou, with dozens of bands and individual musicians volunteering their services.
"Eva cared enough about it to try to get herself pumped up to get there," Dale says. Effects of the still-spreading cancer and the harsh side effects of chemotherapy had made Cassidy so ill that she decided to forgo chemo on the two days before the show. When she arrived at the club -- moving slowly with a walker, a sprightly beret masking the loss of hair -- Cassidy looked frail but golden.
"Eva had such a sparkle that night -- she said, `This is like my big birthday party.' It may have been the one time in her life that she came to terms with the idea that people really do like her and think that she's a terrific talent. It filled her to know people appreciated and loved her."
Late that evening, Cassidy slowly moved down the Bayou stage steps with her walker and approached the microphone. Typically, she first thanked everyone. And then, with a fragile beauty that belied her pain, she sang "What a Wonderful World," a vision of moments and places and people that will never again seem quite as wonderful as they were that night.
Eva Cassidy's eyes may have been the only dry ones in the Bayou at that moment.
"I think that was the best day she had after she got real sick," Biondo says. "But she came home and threw up that night, she was in a lot of pain. The arm that she used to strum her guitar had cancer in it . . . "
Hours later, Cassidy was back at Johns Hopkins for chemo.

Eva's young life was cut short on November 2, 1996

* * * * *

It seems we didn't have her long - but she was an exceptional talent and a special spirit. With exemplary courage.

Eva Cassidy's Anniversary Song.

Today has been a special day
An anniversary, a request
That you play your piano
As the evening lights slowly fade

I never knew I’d get this old dear
Never had a reason to live so long
And the Lord’s been like my shadow
Ever since I was grown
No I never knew it would turn out this way

A birthday with apologies
For all the tears and regrets
And I’ve always saved your poetry
For all the years when we forget

So sing with me softly
As the day turns to night
And let us wonder in paradise with you
I love you and good night

Progress

I am moving through the process of this illness - taking care to rest and use wisdom
that when I am through I will not be returning.

I am reading a great deal.

Thoughts on being a patient patient

I find that to endure the term of an illness, indeed, in order to assist the illness to make a hasty departure (this being a relative term) one must be patient.

In the first few days - even a week- it is rather difficult to do this; but as the days tick by, and there is only a continued decline; it is best to resign oneself.

Not to become negative and depressed. Rather to accept what is, and allow the illness to take its course. To ease one's mind and body so that all energy might be focused upon battling the particular illness.

Of extraordinary size; gigantic; enormous.

The venture capital business has a size problem. A monstrous, staggering, stupefying one. Brobdingnagian even.-- Russ Mitchell, "Too Much Ventured Nothing Gained", Fortune, November 11, 2002
Any savvy dealer . . . will try to talk you up to one of the latest behemoths, which have bloated to such Brobdingnagian dimensions as to have entered the realm of the absurd.-- Jack Hitt, "The Hidden Life of SUVs", Mother Jones, July/August 1999

The Return of Pain

Though I am alone in my double bed
somehow it has become crowded these last few days, and nights -
certainly the blue and white doona is strewn with books, and tissue
boxes; my mobile phone
empty cups and an emptier journal.
Under the covers, where I am - there is little room to move;
even less inclination. Pain and I have become bedfellows again

Computer Skillls

Although I ought to have learnt a long time ago, I have finally managed to make my first music list on windows media.

Soon I will be adding DVD hardware and look forward to being able to make video clips etc and creating DVD/CDs for family & friends members to keep precious memories. .

I find it exciting to be able to continue to learn how to use my computer and internet to achieve my various goals in communication.

Pneumonia

I have been diagnosed with pneumonia.It is far more painful than I expected.
I come and sit at my computer every few hours, as it is actually the most physically comfortable place to be.

I spend a lot of time in bed asleep. The coughing makes me very tired.

I am being very good, and following my Doctor's orders as I do not want to go to hospital.