J.B. Sommerset

Living way out here in the woods, there are things that need done each year. The firewood needs to be chopped and stacked, the house needs to be weatherized, the garden space needs cleaned up, and so on. This year, for some reason, we decided to get chickens. I was unawares of "chicken-math" before the wife picked up a couple-12 <cough> chickens. Then four more... so far.  While I like chicken, especially nuggets, these are the "laying" type of chickens, meaning they are not for the smoker, the stove, the oven or any other thing that turns them into food. Besides, the wife already named them. Which apparently means they are people now.  The crappy part is that I don't like eggs unless they are in other foods. This isn't so bad, those foods include but are not limited to CAKE! And even though one of the chickens grew a penis and started yelling at the break of dawn, there are still over a dozen more chances for me to get said cake.  Now, here's the ...

"Beyond the Clouds." (c) 2024 J.B. Sommerset It's been a rough year. It's hard to watch the news these days, for a myriad of reasons, none good. Sometimes I suffer from "news fatigue", which is, apparently a very real thing. This weeks quote helps me to laugh at the news cycle, because I desperately need to. This quote was derived after I watched a rebroadcasted clip from a certain "news network" that isn't really a news network. I hope this one makes some of you chuckle. "The world is largely populated by people who use statistics in the same sentence as the word boner..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

  "Sundowner" (c) 2024 J.B. Sommerset Sometimes nature speaks in ways I can't ignore. It can paint the world better than I could. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by things I, as a writer, don't have the words to describe. A paint so ethereal it has no phonetic meaning. I am reminded in those times how small and stupid I really am, although I think I am clever at times, I am but a stupid little spec among the bristles of an artist that has been mastering the craft for millions of years. If you haven't gathered, this weeks quote is about nature. "Nature has no evils, no malice, no bad intentions. Those things are projections of mankind's own sickness. Nature has no need for those things, and in many cases it does not tolerate them ruining it's painting. It shines in spite of us." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

A 2025 Promise, J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 Following up on the last quote of the week, here another one about being alone. In todays modern world, where we are all connected every minute of every day, the value of being alone is overshadowed by an artificial type of connection. That being said, even today, even as connected as we are, a person can still be utterly alone. So here's a quote about it... "The thing about being lonely is this; it's worse when you have to go through it alone." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

  "Driveway Bear" By J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Most of the photos I post for the quote of the week are in fact photos I took from at "mountain lair". My 10 acres in the woods where I live, where I am surrounded by trees, animals, and magic. I have too many photos at this point to use in a life time of posts. I capture all kinds of wild life up here, and I do mean all kinds. I have mountain lions, bears, bobcats, elk, moose, deer, etc. This guy (in the photo above) was passing across my driveway as he moved down the mountain to a place with less secure trash cans. Sometimes it can be a little interesting and also a little dangerous, but I love being this close to nature. So, to honor that, this week I am posting an old quote about the subject at hand. “Consider all beings and where our progress puts them. Nature is not exclusive; it is inclusive with all its children, even it is chooses to eat them.” J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"The Bleeding Trees" Photo Credit J.B. Sommerset 2024 This week I was watching an old movie, in the movie all the characters are irredeemable garbage people. All of them, except for the deceased character- he was an angel, or so the the audience was led to believe. Close to the end of the show, we, the viewers learn that he was the reason the whole conflict started (through gratuitous flashback, I might add). It got me thinking about the duality of the nature of mankind. We are all a bunch of trash pandas who are capable of doing wonderous things. I said something I thought would make a good quote of the week. It popped out in conversation when I was discussing the movie with a friend. I though I'd post it, so enjoy, here it is, your quote of the day. "If you are lucky enough to be recognized as a hero, and you want to stay that way, make sure to die before all your followers find your garbage..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

  "Trillium" (Photo credit: J.B. Sommerset 2024) My last quote of the week was about how mankind fails at happiness because he destroys it to find more. Part of the reason for this is that we also have no gratitude, instead we have anger, and a lot of it. So, here's your quote of the week: "It's a shame so many people prioritize anger over gratitude, no wonder there is so much pain in the world- that's what we have made a priority..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Foggy Birch" (Photo credit: J.B. Sommerset) This time, I thought I would get all profound and philosophical with my quote of the week. For the most part I am a minimalist, and don't like a lot of extraneous detail when it comes to my writing and my art. However, occasionally I go out on a limb and post something complicated and "floral". This one is from one of my many works in progress. Hope you all like it. "Let it be said that we are all children; age is an assumption, it is relative to those who have aged. There are always older, wiser and more adult things in this world, and when we are among them, we are without the insights of maturation. In those times, we are children, no matter how old we are." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

(Photo Credit: J.B. Sommerset- All in a Winter Afternoon) As I grow older and wiser, hopefully, I have come to realize that context is far more important than people give it credit for. For years I have been answering people on social media and for a good deal of that time I always felt part of the message was missing. I think, social media, that is to say digital communication is missing all kinds of context. I wrote this in my note book a year or two ago and still feel it holds wieght, more today than ever. "Context is perhaps the single most informative part of a message, and language, more specifically, the words we choose to represent that context will sway the entire meaning of the message. If executed incorrectly, our words misrepresent that context and our message is lost..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!