Before Dashing Away

[Busking Santa, Newbury and Dartmouth Streets, Boston; 12/18/10]

This weekend, we'd still not had any snow, as you can see from the scene in Boston on Saturday. However, there's a light coating of white out there now, just in time for the solstice tonight and lunar eclipse in the wee morning hours (I'll not be up for it). I'm packing tonight, working tomorrow, going to the hair salon immediately after work, and then dashing off with D to celebrate our own early Christmas Eve tomorrow evening before I fly out to visit my dad for a few days. (BTW, Universal Hub -- our excellent local community new and info site that culls from local blogs, tweets, Flickr, etc -- picked up my photo today under the heading, "How Santa pays for all those toys").

We stayed out in the burbs at my place last weekend, but popped back into town to do a little book shopping as I'd finished my last one and needed something new, in paperback for easy transport, to take with me while traveling. I picked up Tinkers, but it's so tiny I thought that even as a slow reader I might need something else, so I also bought Alice Munro's latest(?) collection, Too Much Happiness. It was also fun just to be in the city with everyone out shopping, the sound of street musicians busking even in the dead of winter, and artists still outside painting in the cold.

Turns out there was an official Newbury Street Holiday Stroll going on, which I guess explains why some nice young woman handed us free cookies out on the sidewalk. We didn't figure it out until we dropped into the Martin Lawrence gallery, which was going one better by serving free wine. The Martin Lawrence has galleries around the country, and the one in Boston has a lot of Picasso and Chagall prints as well as a few contemporary artists, including currently featured Russian-born artist, Liudmila Kondakova. They also have a fun collection of prints by Robert Deyber, who does these little word puzzles (like "Hare Cut"). We had to ask about one that was missing a title and featured a horse smoking a marijuana cigarette -"High Horse". Of course.

Wishing you all a peaceful solstice and happy and safe holidays.

[Winter Street and Tremont, Boston; 12/5/10]

Comments

[marja-leena]

Safe travels and Happy Christmas, Leslee!

[Em]

Happy holidays! Enjoy!

[Jean]

Have a good Christmas holiday, Leslee. Warmest best wishes! I love the photo of Santa at the keyboard.

[Lorianne]

Safe travel, and happy holidays to you & D!

[capricorn]

well leslee, you got snow and holiday, winter weather with a vengeance. hope everyone had a great christmas. here's looking forward to a health, happy and prosperous new year.