Changes

I haven't done a good job of updating this blog this year. What with warmer winds and sun-filled days and birds coming home again, spring is (sort of) upon us. The future always looks bright heading into my favorite season, but this year it's especially bright. Next month brings changes I've long been anticipating: a birthday, a move, different work, and a new chapter in my life.

One of the ways I know spring is coming? Last week saw my first dinner hour outside at work. Cold--but nothing a coat, a cup of tea, and maple leaf cookies couldn't handle.

Dinosaurs

In college I met a weird kid named Vinod who, knowing I'd been born in the Soviet Union, would interrogate me endlessly about all of the Russian writers I hadn't read and the Russian composers I'd never listened to. I've read lots of Russian writers since, but of course I've lost touch with Vinod and can't give him my opinions now.

Over the weekend I was going through some things, and I found this fantastic box of dinosaurs he gave me when he graduated.

There was a time when all you had to do was mention Vinod's name to get a good conversation going about his many marvelous oddities. Now, only a few far-flung friends remember him, and I never hear his name. All I have left of him are these dinosaurs and the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, which I either borrowed or stole from him. I don't remember. Henceforth I will refer to these dinosaurs as Vinod's Legacy.

One year

New Year, New Monster

My first sketchbook page of the year. (Earliest prototype seen here.)

Winter nostalgia

I'm four in this picture; my sister Yana is five. Along with our brother, we spent our earliest years on our grandparents' farm in the Ukraine. Long winters found us digging underground snow tunnels and making igloos nearly every day. I usually don't long for the past, and I know nothing remains the same--not even in our memories. But when I look at this picture some twenty years later, I wish I could return to that time.

Happy onions

This month has had its ups and downs, escalator-style. Wonderful long ups and a few terribly slow downs. Today: an equilibrium of sorts. To celebrate I sliced onions (one of the pleasantest cooking rituals I know) and put them into an improvised curry so delicious and spicy that it made me breathe funny for a while after I'd eaten it. Things are looking up!

I hope my wonderful readers are having a good last few days of the old year before ringing in the new one.

Huzzah!

 

My friend whose love for lemons is nearly pathological has found someone to wed: a woman who eats deep fried garlic mashed potatoes for breakfast.

Paper cat

Life has been a whirlwind lately. I haven't managed to fit in time for photographs or drawing, but here's a picture of my newest friend--a clever paper lamp acquired during a white elephant gift exchange today.

November birds

Sunday

Today's a day for being lazy and doing small things and wishing--just a bit--for summer.