I went into this weekend with the intent of making my blog 20% prettier. Instead, I made the site a helluva lot prettier. I’m happy with my design.

But… trees — why the hell would I pick trees? To be honest, I did a google search for wordpress themes and then I was browsing through some things and I saw a nice, spacious one with trees and fog in the background. It spurred me to search through a free stock photography site for different types of pictures. After much experimentation, I settled for the picture you see here (and made the picture a little greener). I decided I liked green (blue is so overdone). Then, when I figured there was too much green, I tried something that matched and came up with that nice yellow. I added the clip art leaf to the post headings because the plain black heading was hella bugging me, not because I love leaves. So it would appear that my aims were purely aesthetic.

Yet as any E.E. Cummings fan can tell you, multiple thoughts can inhabit your mind simultaneously. I did have something symbolic in mind. When I was looking through the stock photos, I also decided to take some photos of my own. They were all of my backyard. The photo I liked the best and actually tried to make work captured the view and the small table and chairs on my deck. I sit out there sometimes, in the sun, to think and write. I wanted the weblog to reflect that quiet and solitude. Unfortunately, the picture wasn’t working with the translucent boxes (you couldn’t see the right stuff) and I dumped it. But the symbolism stuck.

I am not normally a nature-person, but there is a certain allure to separating yourself from society and putting yourself entirely in the company of the wild. There’s a peace of mind you can get sitting on a rock in the middle of a lazy river that you can’t get anywhere else. I’ve staked out my own small plot in cyberspace to just sit and ponder. During the periods of time where I update this weblog almost everyday, the daily writing becomes ritualized. The writing tends to be late at night, when everyone else is quiet, and I can be alone and let my thoughts out. Even though this weblog is public, I like my initial process of writing to be very private; I
can’t write with someone reading over my shoulder. Despite the road and fence in the background photo, the trees are still enough to evoke a certain calm. Pavlov’s peace, if you will.