David Schalliol's Isolated Buildings

As often happens on the internet, a search for one thing leads to another. I can't remember what I was originally looking for yesterday, but what I found was David Schalliol, "a sociologist and photographer living in Chicago."

The three photographs here are part of his Isolated Building Studies. Visit his Web site to read about that and other projects he's done in Chicago. You can follow a link there to view the entire collection on flickr.

The Green Grass of Home

It's been a month since I last posted to this blog, and all manner of excuses come to mind for that. I'll spare you those: a real writer wouldn't let a bathroom remodel or the everyday ups-and-downs most of us experience get in the way of…writing.

While I have been quiet, spring has not. Seemingly overnight the oaks are green again and filled with lively birdsong, fat bumblebees are working the rhododendrons, and everyone in the neighborhood has rediscovered their lawn mowers.

I gave up attempting to cut all the grass at one time years ago: there's simply too much of it, self-propelled or otherwise (I'd feel differently, perhaps, if the ground was flat, but it's not). Anyway, if you cut too fast you eliminate many of the tiniest flowers, tucked away in clumps of grass, clover, and the other wild-growing plants we call yard. And what would the landscape be, without a few dewdrops come morning?