If you see the aurora borealis tonight, here are two iPhone settings that will dramatically enhance your photos: exposure and duration. Saw a vid on TikTok by @toddgross  explaining these, and I'm passing them along to you. I hope you get to see them tonight! 

And covering the lenses is only to practice the steps -- at night the camera will offer those settings. 

(And sorry my intro and episode are loud, still figuring that out.)

First off, it's a nut, not a bolt. I've always mixed up those two words, and only get it right once here. (1) I've been falling to silence, in light of world strife and tragedy. It's been hard to speak on lightness of being when there's so much darkness in the world right now. Not meant as disrespect, indifference, or ignorance, we have to have light. In spite of darkness. In addition to it. Because of it. 

2) Sorting out which direction to take this podcast, my attention is turning toward finishing the remodel of my home. Putting all the pretty on. Cabinets, tile, baseboards, window casings. I've been writing a blog for years about the remodel, shared with friends and family, so let's experiment with that here, since it's certainly a big way to play. Did you play house when you were young? Setting up the Barbie dream home? Or as I once did, rolling around on the ground to flatten mustard plants to create rooms, and play house out the field with my friend Carol. I'm playing house now, unpacking (finally) from the big move into my dream home. As soon as I get the NUT unstuck on the table saw, will be adding rabbet cuts so I can put kitchen cabinets together. Look for accompanying pics on IG @kimberlyplayoflight. Thank you for listening as this podcast shakes out and finds its footing. :)

Trying an experiment of a preroll, an old clip, and a postroll. 
Added a little music in between, lemme know if that worked or was distracting. 

 Play requires a sense of safety.
When we play, we move into flow state, without editing or critique.
We are vulnerable. Safety is required to play. 

 Callisi kitty, a white Turkish angora, arrived fall of 2021, and this episode features a clip I recorded then, watching her immediately begin playing the moment she felt fully secure, fully sovereign, in her ability to control her vulnerability. In that open space of safety, she became playful, goofy, curious, and much more willing to explore her world. 

Emotionally, in your world, where do you have safety to be vulnerable?

Next episode: how did you play as a kid? How do you play now? 
Are you doing the same kinds of things, or is it vastly different? 

 Come find me on IG @kimberlyplayoflight. I’m just figuring out how to use it, bear with me. It’ll become the Show for the podcast’s Tell. 

As a kid, cataloging my collections was half the fun. I collected glass animals. 
Made lists, rearranged them, carefully attending to how each was beautiful in its own way. In the garden, choosing cultivars is just one of each, like bon bons in a chocolate box.

 Part of the joy is cataloguing them. Each Japanese maple has its own piece of Garden Jewelry, its name on glass, wrapped in wire and beads. [will post pic on IG]

 I’m finally replanting my grandmother’s garden.
In 1996, living in 2nd floor apt, my only option was to line the outdoor staircase with pots. My neighbor was passionate about bonsai, already adept at being careful around wee potted things. [will post pic on IG]

 Drenched the entire staircase and balcony in flowers.
Between the stairs and the bldg. there was a 10x20’ spot in full, dry shade.
By golly, I researched my fool head off, and put in a spectacular shade garden.
That’s where I fell in love with sweet woodruff. It flourished, and was beautiful. 
I now realize dry shade is one of the hardest gardens to create. 
It showed me I can create beautiful spaces.

Oh, wanted to tell you how to make the tags! Tempered glass, diamond cutting blade to notch the four corners so the wire sits in the groove as it winds around the edge. At the top, twist the wire 3x, like a bread tie. Tighten with jewelry pliers, near the top of the twist – it will snap off if you grab the twists at the bottom. Use a diamond ball dremel tip, to write the name on the glass.

[Callisi purr] Such a lovely girl. All white, long-haired Turkish angora kitty cat. She’s stunningly beautiful. She has a gorgeous ruff, pink ears and nose. Not albino, has colored eyes, but skin is pale, and ears can get sunburned. 

[Derailed myself, was explaining how to make Garden Tags. Will revisit this later, because they’re really cool. I’ll post pics on IG.]

 Oh, that banging you hear? My neighbor is getting siding put up. 
[more purring]
Her name is spelled Callisi. Last year I traveled to Santorini, and bought a long, yellow Grecian gown from a dressmaker whose label is Callisi. Softer, fits her better. She was tense when she got here, and didn’t need any more warrior energy from the GoT spelling. 

 With cat fencing, they have about half an acre to ramble. I love having a house in the middle of the fencing, not at the edge. At my old house, the back was fenced, but the front door was the barrier to the world. Always shutting the door quickly gets old. Now they wander with me thru the house, the yard, garages, woodshed, and greenhouse. It’s so much gentler to have the house in the middle. 

As a Master Gardener, I used to write the descriptions for the Garden Tours. I’d visit in May so the owner could tell me about them. They’d drift into telling stories of gardens, of childhood memories. Such a joy to witness them lose themselves in storytelling, speaking the beauty they created. Their gardens showed how garden rooms bring magic, vignettes, a place to sit. My plain lawn will soon be a glade of Japanese maples. I like to hire handypeople based on what they really enjoy doing. I ask what task they like most, then hire them for that. There’s a fellow I found who says he’s happiest just digging holes, and I’m happy to let him make homes for the maples.  

Recorded May 7, 2023 on the Magic Porch

Cat fencing: Purrfect Fence is arched at the top, and bathtubbed at the bottom, they can’t get over and they can’t get under. I made my own version, based on their design, and bought their sleek kit for areas visible to others. No kitty as ever gotten out. Reach out on IG if you’d like more info. @kimberlyplayoflight, just learning, bear with me. 

 AMSR of lake life
This episode is an experiment! 

A slow, gentle, AMSR-infused sample of what a warm day sounds like by a lake. Rather than the usual sound editing to minimize background noise, I left it all in.

Please listen with headphones. Sit back with your favorite beverage, and close your eyes. You’ll hear music, laughter, a ski boat, waves lapping on shore, a riding lawn mower, and lots of purring and some meows from Callisi kitty. 

When I speak, I tried to adjust the volume not to blast you, hopefully the volume levels will work for both the quiet bits and me talking. 

Let me know what you think of this AMSR-type episode! You can find me on IG @kimberlyplayoflight. I’m still just learning my way around Insta, bear with me. 

Episode:

This is the first hot day of the year, it got to 92º, righteously hot. It was hot today. And the water’s still so cold, only 65º. 
     [ski boat goes by]
I just wanted to give you the chance to listen to what a warm summer day sounds like, on a lake. 
     [music, laughter, riding lawn mower, laughter, waves]

Do you hear the waves slamming to the left? 
     [Callisi meows] “Hi baby, do you want to say something?” [meow.]
     [waves rolling onshore, kids playing at the boat launch]

 On the weekends in summertime, it’s like a beach party. 
Like I have a front row seat to beach party, every warm Friday - Sunday.
Most of the time, it’s fun, there’s a lot of laughter, playing, 
     hooting and hollering, having fun.
I like watching skiers. There’s kayakers, paddle boarders, jet skis.
Once in a while too much, somebody comes out with a stack boat, “raaar!” fortunately that’s rare. 

 Do you hear the sound of the waves? Oops, wind noise may be blowing this out!

 In winter, you don’t get these rhythmic waves, just sloshing against the shore.
There’s nothing to create that ripple in the water, to make a wave, like a boat does.
That’s a distinctly – that’s human season.
There’s wildlife season and human season, and we’re just opening up human season.

Callisi, my white Turkish angora kitty cat – she has her own fan club!
These people go by in their slow boat, a ‘portable porch’ I call it.
Every time this one couple comes by, “kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty! Kitty, kitty! Hi kitty
       kitty!”
They call her! And she comes!

She has her own fan club! She’s very striking, long-haired white cat, against the green foliage, so she really stands out. “Kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty!”

 On the lake, there’s two kinds of people: there’s wavers, and non-wavers.
I’m a waver. I don’t wave every time, but when I do, and they wave back -- even though we don’t know each other face to face, we know we’re part of the same community.

 It’s fascinating how sound travels across the water. 
I am downwind, 99% of the time, and in the evening, when the lake gets really still, and a light gentle breeze carries voices across the water to me, I literally can hear word for
      word conversations a mile away. It’s astonishing.
Certain people, their voices carry so boldly; other people, it’s just a murmur.

 Kinda tricked my best friend.
When I was a kid, and we’d come up here on vacation, from Los Angeles, come to visit this beautiful fairyland that was my grandparents’, I got to bring one of my girlfriends,
      so I had my best friend with me.
The year that Maryanne came up, ohmigod we had so much fun! 
We were 17, we were giggly, we were silly, we were playful -- it was so easy. So much fun.  We had such a good time!

We stayed in the bunkhouse -- and I will get to how I tricked her in a moment -- we stayed in a bunkhouse my grandp

Well this was unexpected! I recorded this episode quite awhile back, and was gifted with a huge wave of Soul Laughter -- a rare unicorn of mirth that bubbles up from my very soul. Roll on the ground, knee-slapping, haw haw laughter. Better than sex, I tell ya. I'd just sold my house, and the relief and freedom washed through me. 

Recorded on the Magic Porch with my iPhone, there's lots of ambient sound. Please excuse the leaf blower. Enjoy the crow and my mom's ceramic chimes. And sorry for the post-laughter sniffles! There's a couple chunky linkages, thank you for celebrating with me that I'm a total noob at this.

Painting 2600 LF of pine boards for my ceiling could have been drudgery, but instead, we danced. (If I can find the video, will post as a Reel on IG @kimberlyplayoflight.)  It was a great collaboration, my ceiling is insanely beautiful. People walk in, their heads tip back, and they gasp.  Blue Flash paint over soft white wash -- absolutely yummy. 

Thank you so much for reading this! Give the episode a listen, come laugh with me. 

Had a luscious dream that water was dripping in. Oh no! But the ceiling was different, so I knew it was a dream. Woke up and told someone about the leak, knowing it wasn't a problem, because it was a dream, then I woke up. It's time. The fallow season is over, and it's time to play, to create, to feel awe, witness beauty, experience delight and whimsy, and the wisdom of play. When you learn what lights you up, and how to keep your focus on it -- that becomes your experience. It's a teachable skill. 

When you're an artist, everything looks like material. Anything you see is a question, a  possibility, a place to leap off into creative imagination. Reuse, repurpose, recycle is so satisfying, a way to reinvent something, make it beautiful. And creating is a collaboration with the material, dancing together, listening and responding to each other. What fun! What a beautiful way to live. Come join in. 

Welcome to the Attitude of Play -- the mindset of being open to the possibility of delight in any moment. We are innately wired to play, yet we learn to put it off -- til recess, til the weekend, til vacation, til the kids are grown. We lose permission to play. This podcast is about reconnecting to your sense of play and creativity, to find what lights you up, and then cultivate the habit of expecting it, looking for it, and keeping your focus on things that bring you delight. It's all about the Attitude of Play! 

Welcome to the attitude of play. :)
 
 You're listening to the sound of rain dripping off a metal roof onto wine bottles nestled in the grass. Differently shaped, all the bottles are blue; gifted by friends for a project. Except the Bombay gin. I drank that one.
 
I've been noodling this idea for a long time: handpan tone fields? Chimes? Bells? Meanwhile, the bottles had been sitting on the porch, getting in the way. Suddenly I saw them, "wait a minute, let's try those!" Isn't it funny how when an idea suddenly bursts open, it feels magical and wonderful, with a dose of "well DUH."

With each shower, the rain pushes the bottles this way and that; I retune them by nestling them back under the drips when a new shower begins to fall. Such a beautifully easy way to make the rain sing. What does it remind you of?
 
IG: @kimberlyplayoflight
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