the stuff of nightmares

Life lesson 142, never, never, ever under any circumstance hold anger and hurt inside. You might just dream of drunken sister in laws getting married just because, cremated dogs in jars, old burned out haunted houses or worse grape jelly and demons who thrive on fear and diembowling people...

we went to hear the Lewis Brothers at the DogWood festival. walking around in the rain I wonder if I didn't absorb some of the bad from the people there and thats part of my bad dreams. That may sound crazy but Carnie people in particular the game and side show vendors exude negative energy, bad buju whatever you call it. they are the "greeps" that I read about in the series of books I read last week.
A greep was a human that was broken inside...


in keeping my eyes open I did manage to see some very interesting patterns in a wood pile. Like a river of interest flowing through the mundane. I thought it was osage orange but darren says since its lobed and furry that its probably cedar...its beautiful non the less...

on the way...

Lots of little things to keep a person busy. Good news I qualify for the unemployment extension with little delay in funds, a relief for sure.

Trimmed 3 pots today the larger bowl being the first piece of a larger sculpture called "hurricane soup" Hung 6 pieces of art in the community room at the Library for the business after hours tomorrow. 3 of mine and 3 of Darrens, maybe someone will buy one...we can always hope huh?

The river was exquisite this evening beautifuly deep and glassy. Im wearing my new favorite shirt today (pictured) its a cheapy walmart shirt but I really dig telephone booths so, and its super soft... The girl in the library said it made her think of Dr Who and I took a little memory trip back to the PBS series, ya know it kinda wigged me out most of the time, I think they were smoking way too much and perhaps hitting the Psilocybin a wee to often and Im betting that Pink Floyd was somewhere in the mix... Ive always loved the idea of time travel, funny the next poem in the que is about it...

so, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
blue skys from pain
can you tell a green field
from a cold steel rail
a smile from a veil...

long time coming...

"and it appears to be a long time gone..."
So more than a year this time, I promise it won't be so few and far between again... for the first time in a while I feel on track moving along into a new phase of creating. I would like for those of you who want to, follow along with me. Shooting for a post a day, an update, a sky photo, new work progress reports and much more. So for now Im adding several sky photos from this past week, theres not much progress to report except Ive been throwing pots and getting back in the "swing" of it... So stay tuned and hopefully theres a lot more to come!

Been down so long it looks like up

Its hard to relay just how busy its been these last few months, and with the approach of Christmas I see no end in sight until January. September was the month of birthdays, Virgos abound like bunnies in the spring in our family I believe there are 11 of us with birthdays between the 31st of August and the 24th of September. October was fundraiser time for the Art Guild and Wy's b-day, chili cook off and campain time. November is shaping up to be just as nuts if not the most nuts of all! Every single weekend there is an event that we have to attend or Im hosting. My kids arn't going to recognize me...But on a good note this is the big finalie before the leveling out.

I haven't had much time to post so I thought I would put one sweeping post out there and try to let you in on all that has been happening and all that We've been creating. Photos are in order from September to now, after that a few of my notes form the road. I will be reading some of my writing at an event that John Victor is putting on at Schlegles Coffee house, like the hibernation event this past summer. When I get the information Ill post it... Im pretty excited about that... So on with the show...

Photos In order:
My birthday
New windows
Gwens Birthday
Hirsch's Fruit Farm
@ Glady's Picking apples
Hooples Fruit farm
(Yes we ate alot of apples)
Jumping in leaves
Janis Mars Wunderlicks Workshop
Wyeth's Birthday

Writings
Notes from the road
just a few...

Ramble on...

These are a few of my favorite things…

Roll away from him
His smell, slight mildew, soured milk,
bitter biscuits and sweet vinegary skin
to the unmistakable scent of you-
between your shoulder blades and the scruff of your neck
Playing the notes in order
Scratch that-reverse it
Base - dust and hot vinyl of an old car on a sunny day
Mid - Hay bales heavy with rain
Top - satin lining of my grandpa’s fedora
bury my face in your back
it sticks with Augusts heat

slowly I drift
dream of a country road
Im laying in the back seat of a green Ford Galaxy
grandpas hat over my face
We’re heading back from the orchard
Ripe apples mingle with the scent of his hat
My legs keep sticking to the printed vinyl
leaving geometric flowers on my thighs
In the distance I can hear the train across the river
Not long till we round the big curve and just a few miles home…
It blows its whistle over and over
Slowly I realize its my alarm
Short night, long memories

Behind the Red Umbrella

waking up, a warm sweaty baby curled against my side
his hot little feet rest on my thigh, his skin feels like satin
I move and he pinches me with his tiny toes like a baby opossum
out the window the darkness will not recede from this rainy August morning
gently I slide out from between the two men in my life
quietly lower myself to the floor, its cool smooth surface greets my bare feet
carefully I move through the house avoiding the strategically placed toy mines
to the other bedroom, sleeping moths are wrapped in flannel sheet cocoons
I stand in the dark and listen to their breathing
soft and steady like the rain drops in the trees
time passes, responsibility beckons…
A note scrawled in a tired hand reads:
Meet me tomorrow, same time and place
Behind the red umbrella
P.S. Bring a kiss



Waking Up

Foggy morning,
dew clings to the dry grass of summer
as if it could raise the dead
Crickets have begun their swan songs
All along the river Chartreuse dragons
perch in the dark of the tree tops
Laurelin's gold, sycamores inner light shines
As they sing, small leaves let go and float
Tiny ocher boats on an olive river
My carnelian sun smiling warmly
As if to say “Good morning child”
August yawns, September rolls over
“Come on honey, its time to get up”…

Happy Anniversary baby, got you on my mind!

One year ago this past Sunday, we were in ash cave saying "I do". One year later we are sitting on the dining deck at Murphin Ridge Inn eating some of the most fantastic food we have ever had and getting ready to go sit by the fire pit and watch the sunset...I don't suppose that one day per year is too much to splurge on yourself??? Our meals consisted of the following:

Soup: Heirloom tomato and sweet corn chowder, tastey with small pieces of potato and shallots to round out the flavors.

Salad: Baby greens tossed with a Balsamic-Blackberry dressing topped with crumbled asiago and toasted almonds.

Bread: Fresh Sour dough with a honeyed butter crust.

My main course: Strip steak, Pan seared 8 oz Prime Black Angus Strip Steak, Smoked Paprika-coffee rubbed, topped with smoked shallots, and accented with a Heirloom tomato-mint verde sauce, Gouda grits and lightly sauted baby spinich with crispy bacon and garlic.

Darren's: Shrimp Remoulade, Olive oil roasted Jumbo Prawns, Caper and horseradish aioli, Sweet corn, celery and fennel salad, and “Old Bay” Butter, Gouda grits and lightly sauted baby spinich with crispy bacon and garlic.

We split a dessert: Apple Tart with Graters vanilla bean ice cream. The apples were picked about 50 feet from where we were setting. The crust was beautiful and buttery.

Coffee the best as always...

Below are some images from that night and the next mornings breakfast.
Beautiful just beautiful...Ill post the drawings I did while we were there as soon as I get them rendered...

Cabin
Center view
Bathroom
Sunset
Breakfast 1st course
main course
Us

Dream a little dream...

So last night, no the night before I had one of my crazy dreams.
I used to have them all the time but now that Wy is here and taking up 1/3 of my bed and sleep time I don't get there as often. I'm not going to attempt to explain it all but one part was interesting, while I was siting in a large museum a mobile display rolled past me and I was intrigued it had 5 ceramic sculptures in it. One of these was a tree about 10" high and very primitive with 10 stars perched on the leaves like fruit...It was beautiful so I decided to draw it...here it is...

The remainder of the dream had me trying to save the museum and everyone in it from destruction. Some one was trying to open the jar that held St. Peters bones and the museum was booby trapped so that if that ever happened all the doors sealed and the gallery filled up with water and drown everyone in it. I saved the day by figuring out the riddle and using pebbles to open secret doors which held more stones and those stones were for placing in the nooks and crannies in this giant stack of ancient books. How I determined where the stones went was by moving a stone over the various cracks and when water sprung out, bingo...I had to fill all the cracks...the rocks were beautiful too, malachite, leopard jasper, smooth sandstone, marble... Darren said I have read too many Dan Brown novels...

I found this searching on the web...at this blogspot:
http://oldhokey.blogspot.com/