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Satin & Sand

~ Reflections on Beauty

Satin & Sand

Tag Archives: Photography

Beautiful Winter White…

07 Wednesday Jan 2026

Posted by Satin & Sand in beautiful, Lauren DiMarco, Poetry, Reflections, Snow, Winter

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beautiful, Clarity, Lauren DiMarco, Photography, Snow, snow storm, white, Winter

©Joan Currie – My daughter, Lauren, enveloped in the snow.


In White Weather
by Joan Currie

The trail vanished.
Wind rushed past like an animal
that did not see me.
Snow came harder, then harder–
the world narrowed to breath,
to the small miracle of standing.

I lifted my hands
and they disappeared.
Nothing stayed long enough
to be named.
The storm had its own mind,
and I was inside it.

Then–listen–
something opened.
Not the sky.
Not the snow.
But the place in me
that waits for silence
before it speaks.

Ideas arrived gently,
as they do under water,
or in the shower,
clear and shining,
each one saying:
Here. This is yours.

I stayed awhile
in the great unseeing,
learning what the storm knows:
that sometimes
not being able to see
makes things more visible–
the true shape of a thought,
the calm beneath urgency,
the joy of simply being here.

When I turned back,
the lodge glowed like a promise–
lamplight, voices, heat.
I carried with me
what the white weather gave:
a rinsed mind,
a quiet heart,
and the bright understanding
that clarity does not always arrive
in light.

Where or how do you find clarity?

Beautiful Acorn (but not so beautiful squirrel)…

11 Friday Oct 2024

Posted by Satin & Sand in Animals, Garden, Mammals, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Wild animals

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acorn, Autumn, Fall, Nature, Photography, Poetry, squirrel

© Joan Currie – The squirrel has stashed his acorns all over my yard.

The Rogue of My Yard by Joan Currie

In my garden once peaceful, in days of late,
A scoundrel returns – wrecking havoc, his trait.
Not the soft squirrel of a Potter tale,
But a beastly fiend with a bushy tail.

He clambers and clatters with ill-intent,
O’er apples rotting, their skins now rent.
Like billiard balls scattered across the green,
A trickster’s delight, a demon unseen.

With acorns stuffed in each nook and crack,
He piles his plunder no thought to slack.
The feeder he topples with impish glee,
Chasing away all the birds that flee.

A tyrant of trees, this devil’s dance,
He spares no corner, no happenstance.
The gutters rattle as apples roll,
From rooftop heights, his heartless goal.

O cursed creature, why dost thou stay?
To plague my yard both night and day?
Return to your woods, you menace black,
Please, or I fear, I might set a trap!

I’m afraid it is time to catch and release this squirrel to a woods far far away.

Beautiful White Ram…

06 Saturday Jul 2024

Posted by Satin & Sand in Animals, Art, beautiful, Design, Mammals, Nature, Photography, Poetry

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beautiful, C.K. Chesterton, Federico Uribe, g-k-chesterton, Photography, Poetry, Sculpture, white ram

© Joan Currie – Detail of White Ram sculpture by Federico Uribe – 2013

The White Ram by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (an excerpt)

Once a white ram, with curly horns
and deep brown eyes,
Roamed the verdant hills beneath
the azure skies,
In fields of green, he wandered
wide and free,
A noble beast, grand as one

could see.

His coat was pure, a snowy,
gleaming white,
That shone like stars on a crisp,
clear night.
With horns that curled in a majestic
sweep,
He stood as proud as ancient lore
runs deep.

I saw this charming sculpture of a White Ram by Federico Uribe yesterday. It was created using electrical wire, conduit, and keyboard keys. Check out his latest work (2023): lion, moose, turtle, and black lion, on his website.
I started looking around my house for old ethernet cables to see what I might create, as well. Stay tuned!

© Joan Currie – White Ram sculpture by Federico Uribe – 2013
© Joan Currie – Face detail of White Ram sculpture by Federico Uribe – 2013

Beautiful Canoeing…

23 Sunday Jun 2024

Posted by Satin & Sand in beautiful, Canoeing, Nature, Photography, Reflections

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beautiful, Canoe, Northern lake, Photography, wish list

© James Currie – Northern Canoeing

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

I am in the process of creating a wish list for this summer. At the top of it – to canoe on a northern lake. In recent years, I have substituted a kayak for a canoe. But, my heart still longs to paddle a canoe at dawn with a quiet j-stroke – on the upstroke, instead of lifting the paddle blade out of the water, it stays in the water. Magical!

Beautiful Poem Lost Then Found…

08 Thursday Feb 2024

Posted by Satin & Sand in beautiful, Lauren DiMarco, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing

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beautiful, Lauren DiMarco, Photography, Poetry, Writing

© Joan Currie – Lauren DiMarco asleep in the morning light.

Poem Lost Then Found by Joan Currie

Did a poem visit me during the night?
I asked as I stirred in the morning light.

Did some verse try to rouse me from my bed,
But settled then in someone else’s head?

Some disparate words rattle in my brain,
What do they mean, will others come again?

The day unfolds and at last they are clear,
I pen my poem before they disappear.

It is fascinating to learn what creative connections occur during sleep!

Beautiful Lingering Longer…

01 Thursday Feb 2024

Posted by Satin & Sand in beautiful, Daily Life, Lauren DiMarco, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Work

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beautiful, Lauren DiMarco, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Work, Work-life balance

© Lauren DiMarco – Lauren DiMarco sleeping in the morning light.

Lingering Longer by Joan Currie

Another day awakens, sunlight gently streams,
Yet, I lie entangled in elusive dreams.
Mountains of tasks, a daunting array,
Head heavy with the weight of the pending day.

The dawn whispers of responsibilities vast,
A symphony of to-dos, shadows cast.
Bed’s comfort tempts, a refuge to stay,
But, the world outside demands its sway.

The ache in the head, the burden of thought,
Projects loom, battles to be fought.

In the warmth of the sheets, a plea is said,
To linger longer, and avoid the day ahead.

Ah! If only I could luxuriate in bed for a few more minutes!

David Bowie and Beautiful Repurposing of Ticket Stubs…

20 Monday Feb 2023

Posted by Satin & Sand in Art, David Bowie, Design, Photography, Reflections, Repurposing, Travel

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Art, beautiful, David Bowie, Photography, Repurposing, Ticket stubs, Travel

© Joan Currie – Some of my old ticket stubs.

An art book is a museum without walls. – Andre Malraux

A while back, I came across a box of old art museum, music, and attraction ticket stubs from my various travels. I am so glad that I saved them as not only do they serve as touchstones for wonderful memories but because they are quite beautiful – miniature works of art in their own right! I took them out of the box and now use them as bookmarks in my art books. I have also done the same with airplane boarding passes, tram and train tickets.

During my travels last year, scan codes were used for all the attractions and I did not come home with a single ticket stub from any of the venues I visited! Photos, postcards, and maps will have to suffice but will not be the same as ticket stubs. Now I have no tangible connection to the time and place I visited nor do I have a beautiful work of art or photograph that was the best part of the art museum and attraction tickets.

My David Bowie concert ticket stub (above) reminds me of David Bowie performing on stage in a torrential downpour in Wellington, New Zealand! A scan code on my phone would not evoke that memory the same way the ticket stub does.

Beautiful Valentine’s Day Thoughts…

14 Tuesday Feb 2023

Posted by Satin & Sand in Love, Photography, Reflections, Relationships, Valentine's Day

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Chocolate Truffles, Emil Ludwig, Love, Photography, Valentine's Day

© Joan Currie My champagne and raspberry truffles.

Both feel that this first touch of a hand in a cab, even if it was expected by the woman, means a decision of the first order; it contains, basically, all of what is to follow. There is nothing to compare with this gesture in all the living together of human beings. The man felt nothing at all like this, when he kissed that hand of the lady, at their introduction, though he was in this way very close to a strange lady; but today, the little touch of her glove means a surrender that makes both tremble.
– Emil Ludwig

Happy Valentine’s Day, especially to those who truly and unabashedly take joy in making those they love feel cherished! ❤️

Beautiful Bird Nests…

27 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by Satin & Sand in Birds, Garden, Photography, Reflections, watercolor

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Birds, Photography, Poetry, watercolor

© Joan Currie – One of the bird nests I found in my back yard.

Birds’ Nests by John Clare

How fresh the air, the birds how busy now!
In every walk if I peep I find
Nests newly made or finished all and lined
With hair and thistledown, and in the bough
Of little hawthorn, huddled up in green,
The leaves still thickening as the springs gets age,
The pink’s, quite round and snug and closely laid,
And linnet’s of materials loose and rough;
And still hedge-sparrow, moping in the shade
Near the hedge-bottom, weaves of homely stuff,
Dead grass and mosses green, an hermitage,
For secrecy and shelter rightly made;
And beautiful it is to walk beside
The lands and hedges where their homes abide.


When doing my yard work today, I discovered two enchanting nests in the garden and hedge. I love that the very inner layers are filled with small down feathers and soft grasses, and, surprisingly, small pieces of cording that I recognize as coming from my clothesline!

© Joan Currie – My garden Tree Sparrow

Beautiful Surprises From the Other Side…

08 Sunday Jan 2023

Posted by Satin & Sand in Coronavirus pandemic, Grief, Lovve, Mother, Photography, Reflections, Relationships

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Beauty, Grief, Love, Mother, Photography

© Joan Currie

Come to me in my dreams
so I can see you smile,
take me back to yesterday
even if only for a while…

I missed my mother desperately in the weeks before the holidays. She passed during Covid when I wasn’t allowed to visit her in the hospital. “Passed” isn’t the right word – more like “vanished, ” “disappeared” – “pouf” and she’s gone. Really gone.

My Mom had been the touchstone for my entire life. After she died, a deep grief, way beyond tears, burrowed into my marrow and appeared to be settling in for the duration. When suddenly, several days before Christmas, I started to find in the most unexpected places: photos of us together, her beautiful calligraphy-scripted book inscriptions, loving letters, birthday cards, and postcards from her world travels. These sweet and precious little Easter eggs were hidden away to be found when I needed her the most – when I needed the reassurance that she was not gone, departed, but very much with me still. Thank you, Mom!

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