Monthly Archives: August 2012

Explanation for mysterious photos flooding your inboxes

Posted on August 30, 2012 by stillalife

Dear Subscribers to Still Life: You may have noticed a few irrelevant photos arriving in your inboxes lately.  I’ve practiced blogging on my iPad for the past few days and you’ll be relieved to know that I now understand not … Continue reading →

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Pasta + sangria = winning combination

Posted on August 30, 2012 by stillalife

Buddhists call it dukkha, or the state of mind that makes us cling to our possessions and want more when we quickly grow dissatisfied with what we have, or always wish our circumstances were different from what they are. Psychologists … Continue reading →

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Sighing for more summer

Posted on August 29, 2012 by stillalife

My activities for the month of August can be summed up in two words:  eating tomatoes and hiking.  This time last year I posted a blog with a photo of my crop, which consisted of one tiny red tomato nestled in … Continue reading →

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No more back-to-school blues

Posted on August 27, 2012 by stillalife

Everyone else’s year may start in January and end in December, but mine begins in September and ends in August.  I still run on the school calendar, which is why I am now reflecting on the past year and planning … Continue reading →

Posted in changes after retirement, exercise, memories, personal reflections, writing | Tagged | 3 Comments

Making connections with the past

Posted on August 26, 2012 by stillalife

Why does history matter, especially local history if you are living in a relatively young community, i.e., one less than a hundred years old, with few visible artifacts from the past?  And why am I bothering to ask this question? … Continue reading →

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Happiness and success

Posted on August 21, 2012 by stillalife

Hooray for a friend who recommended The Happiness Advantage, a book by Shawn Achor about the connection between happiness and success.  Achor, who became interested in the topic when he worked as a teaching assistant for a Harvard course called … Continue reading →

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Greens dispel the blues

Posted on August 16, 2012 by stillalife

The best places to exercise may not be gyms, but rather the forests and fields. Science Daily reports the results of a study of eight hundred thirty-three adults in the U.K., saying, “compared with exercising indoors, exercising in natural environments was … Continue reading →

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Daily surprises

Posted on August 13, 2012 by stillalife

Do you like surprises? Are you more cautious about answering yes to this question as an adult than you were as a child? These questions came to mind on Saturday while I was returning to Seattle from Bainbridge Island via … Continue reading →

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Quilts: links to art and family

Posted on August 10, 2012 by stillalife

You can see the shapes of Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian and the colors of Franz Marc in the Bellevue Arts Museum’s African American Quilt Show, “Bold Expressions.” The quilts on the museum walls are predominately from the American South … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and crafts, friends and family, memories | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

From sea to peaks: summer in Western Washington

Posted on August 7, 2012 by stillalife

While those of us who live in Western Washington express our frustration loudly when we can count the total number of real summer days on two hands, we can’t complain about the opportunities we have for entertainment when those days … Continue reading →

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