Category: Outdoors
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“Why do I have so many thoughts, they are driving me crazy.”
The latest in my series of “Little Things.” 1. I’m going to start this list with a big little thing (both physically and metaphorically) … WHALES! The most success I’ve had seeing whales was two years ago off the coast of Mendocino, and since then I’ve tried multiple times in various places but to no […]
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![Sometimes life surprises you [a poem]](https://maddysquish.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/img_7821-1-720x478.jpg)
Sometimes life surprises you [a poem]
Sometimes life surprises you Like on Saturdays when you’re sadand the sun is nowhere to be found, So you ride your bike down to the shoreline where– growing from the sand – are signs that say, “Jazz Quartet; Follow the signs or sounds.” So you follow the sign along the trails through the waterfront park […]
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Plum Tree Ponderings
When I was younger I thought of gifts only as things that were exchanged on holidays and birthdays: toys, money, anything that could be bought or sold but that I received “for free.” Now, when I think of gifts, what comes to mind are the less tangible things: time, thought, effort. The things that can’t […]
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![A Garbage Post [Happy Earth Day]](https://maddysquish.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/fullsizerender-4-1140x855.jpg)
A Garbage Post [Happy Earth Day]
Each year I celebrate Earth Day by going on a plog. For those unfamiliar with the term, know that Thomas was as well until his edification three years ago: In previous years I visited some combination of my favorite parks nearby our house in San Francisco: Buena Vista, Twin Peaks, Mount Davidson, Sutro, Glen Canyon, […]
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Little Things / March 2021
1. In a brief moment of culinary inspiration last weekend I decided I wanted to bake some scones. I’d just had my morning coffee – so the possibilities for my day were seemingly endless and I dreamt my biggest, most wild dreams – and seen an inspiring photo of local produce from Berkeley Bowl. “What […]
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I Don’t Always Cry…
…but when I do, it’s because I am out on a walk and the sun is setting on a cool fall evening and I am listening to David Gray and am overwhelmed by the beauty of the golden light caught in the tops of the trees, and the sadness hanging in the dry air, and […]
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Nowhere to Be
Nowhere to Be (a “poem” I wrote typed on my phone while on a walk) What a privilege it is to have nowhere to bethis morning, outdoors, with the cold wind on my face.I pass the construction workers on the main street nearbyas the sun risesand I yell “good morning” and they yell “good morning” […]
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Morro Bay
For how much exploring I’ve done in California, so little of it has been south of Monterey. I’ve visited some of the “heavy hitters,” if you will – Joshua Tree, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Sequoia National Forest – but my tendency is to drive north of the Bay especially for shorter weekend trips. As a […]
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Away From Me
I spent yesterday morning painting. I was trying to paint an image of where I wish I were – in the springtime-green mountains of Colorado – instead of here, inside, sweating, as smoke swirls around us. I spent yesterday evening reading Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. It has to be more than coincidence […]
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Respite in the Redwoods
Last Thursday morning I went for a bike ride. The best kind of bike ride, in my opinion: one on which I take more pictures than I ride miles. It was the first day that week the smoke had cleared enough to get outside and I can’t remember ever breathing in the morning air so […]
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Poor Planning & Pedialyte
The weather this past week has been crazy and scary (commence fire season; I woke up this morning to the smell of smoke) but also incredible. I’ve gone to sleep every night sweating on top of my bed sheets (why have I never purchased a fan?!) and got pummeled by hail at Mt. Tam on […]
