hometown.

{budding poplar in the field near my old elementary school}

{dried-up rose hips in red willow park, by the river}

{half-frozen shopping carts abandoned in the river. somehow a sad summation of suburbia}

{self-portrait, red willow park. along the bike path where the trees grow over in flickery archways in the summer long & straight all the way to sturgeon road}

Some photos taken on a walk Friday afternoon, from the bus exchange to my parents' house, my old house. Not yet spring. That's all.

* * *

Also, The Mountain Goats. John Darnielle writes the simplest, most oddly compelling lyrics. & the way he sings them, he can get away with saying things like 'our love is like the border between Greece and Albania' & it sounds so very apt. & very true. & his words, they etch themselves on the tip of my brain -- 'new found rich brown deep wet ground' has been floating around in my mind & off my tongue since I first heard 'Going to Scotland'. Other times, his phrases are much more unassuming like 'wild sage growing in the weeds' or 'a tricky young southerly wind' yet they are are also evocative. & they all sound like they were created in a single moments, like the songs sprang fully formed into life, dropped onto his head like pinecones, little seed-note spilling out. Like they floated around until, shadowing him like birds soaring, then descended suddenly & overtook him & he simply had to pick up a guitar, press record & sing before they flew away again.

The Mountain Goats -- International Small Arms Traffic Blues [mp3] (from the album 'Tallahassee')
TMG -- Whole Wide World [mp3] (from 'Sweden')
TMG -- Going to Scotland [mp3] (from 'Nothing for Juice')