From the author of Light and Love and Blossoms of My Desert Home comes A Gentle Breeze, a collection of poetry that celebrates romance, the seasons, and love in times gone by. Kayla Oliver illustrated A Gentle Breeze with charming flower silhouettes, creating a visual and poetic book you’ll want to gift, reread, and cherish.
This book is written using various styles of poetry, touching on the themes of love and the beauty of life. Available in hardcover & paperback.
snowy desert dreams, filmed in the American Southwest. A dusting of snow on red cliffs and the desert landscape. I also share a peek at some of my artwork and artisan jewelry. The poetry book featured is called Fire and Shadow and was written by my great-grandpa Elias Penn Smith.
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Winter Simplicity, filmed during winter in the American Southwest. Watch a full moonrise over red sandstone cliffs on a stormy night, join me in birdwatching, enjoy nature timelapses, watch light and shadow dance across the landscape, clouds drifting and swirling across the chilly sky, and glimpse some enchanting foggy days in the desert.
The December 1946 issue of Arizona Highways magazine (the magazine I read from in this video) was the first nationally circulated magazine to publish an issue all in color. They beat Nat Geo and Life Magazine!
I hope that you enjoy this video, if you do, please share it with someone you think will also enjoy it. Sharing any of my videos (or any of my other creative endeavors) really helps me out a lot! Thank you!
An Ode to Nature is a short film I created to celebrate nature. All of the footage was filmed either in my yard or pretty near to my house. The astrophotography was shot in my backyard. I deeply love the American Southwest, filming, and obviously nature haha. I hope that you enjoy this short film and that it fills your soul with peace and tranquility. If you do like this video, please share it with someone you think will also enjoy it. Sharing any of my videos (or my other creative endeavors) really helps me out a lot!
Note: The first Ralph Waldo Emerson quote in this film is from an address he delivered July 15, 1838. It can be found on page 107 of his book Nature and Selected Essays (Penguin Classics edition.) The second quote, from his essay “History” can be found in the same book on page 167.
A creative masterpiece. Nothing I can say here will do this book justice haha. Hands down it’s one of the best books ever written.
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
An enjoyable novel from 1910. The Paris Opera is an enchanting setting. Some things he wrote about are actually true, like the chandelier crashing and there really is an underground “lake” beneath the Paris Opera! I love the musical, but it’s nice to read the original story and get more depth.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
This early 19th century story about the gangly Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman is a wonderful classic and quick read.
Films
The classic films are awesome too. In the 1925 silent film Phantom of the Opera, Lon Chaney plays Erik and before the film was released they carefully kept how he looks a secret, (Lon Chaney did his own makeup in the film btw) and supposedly people fainted in the movie theaters during his unmasking scene.
The 1931 version of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi is also great. Bela Lugosi was actually buried in one of his Dracula capes when he passed away in 1956.
