This little creature has become quite dear to me:


This dove has built her nest in the overhanging timbers just outside of my apartment. I have affectionately named Ermengarde, a ostentatious Victorian name with cobwebs all over it.

"I've seen how the mythology of romance contradicts the reality of coupling and perpetuates a definition of love that creates dangerous expectations. This mythology doesn't allow for the ambivalence that's natural in any sustained relationship. The friction between the fantasies and the realities of relationships can lead to alienation, or violence....Sex itself is only one aspect of sexual dependency. Pleasure becomes the motivation, but the real satisfaction is romantic."

—Nan Goldin The Ballad of Sexual Dependency

Happy Valentine's Day.

These have been done for a while, but they have been hiding away from my gentle mother's eyes.


Valentines: From and Valentine: To. Again, these are teeny tiny, only six inches square, but I love them.

And I love you.

When I stumble across little golden passages, I am reminded how much I love reading. I promise to share them, starting with this:

"The one thing that astonished him now was that he should have stood for five minutes arguing with her across the room, when just touching her made everything so simple."

—Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence