stuff from ellen's head

the workshop at Helios

2012-02-02T16:25:00.000-06:00

We'rehome, back from our week long workshop in Austin. We pulled into thedriveway shortly after 9 PM to find Emma the cat waiting by the door. This is the longest we have ever left her alone having previouslyparked her with our daughter when we went out of town to teach thoughmy sister came over every day to make sure she had food and water andlove on her some.

Tosay that she was glad to see us would be a bit of an understatement. Purr, purr, purr, pet me, pet me, pet me. She wanted to go outside,having been house bound for five days, but would run back in everyfive minutes or so to make sure we were still here. Eventually shedid go out for the night and was waiting by the door this morningwhen Marc let her in at which point she insisted I get up.

Ithought we probably wouldn't see her much for a couple of days exceptfor meal times but she hasn't left my side, as much as she is ever bymy side, her idea of being affectionate is sitting in the same roomas you, and she is currently camped out in the old worn out reclinerin my workroom.

Weleft last Friday early afternoon less than an hour past our targettime and only had to return to the house once to get something I hadforgotten. Fortunately we hadn't gone very far when we had to turnback.

leavingthe coastal plains for the hill country

NearingAustin we got to see the devastation of the Bastrop County wildfirethat consumed nearly 1400 homes last summer. The air still smelledlike old soot and ashes. They are slowly cutting down the burned anddead trees revealing slab foundations, the only thing left to tellyou a home once stood there.

milesand miles of this

Wearrived at Helios Kiln Glass Studio in Austin late afternoon withtime enough to unload the stuff we brought for the class, check intothe motel, and return for the Friday Night Fusing session where Marcgave a talk about the the history of pate de verre and then we showedsome slides and talked about our own work a bit.

Thenext day, Saturday, was the first day of five with 8 students, threeof whom are working artists with studios of their own; a multi-mediasculptor, a mosaic artist, and a fused glass artist. Most were localto the Austin area although we had one student from San Francisco(the sculptor) and one from San Antonio.

hardat work on their models

Theyhad one day to make their models, one day to make both parts of theirmold and steam it out, and one day to fill it and get it in the kiln.

Wecovered reproduction molds and made waxes on the fourth day and thelast day was the big reveal.

Sinceall three of my sample cups didn't have enough glass to completelyfill the molds, I had the students add extra to theirs to make sure,you can always grind excess glass off but you can't add any, and allthe finished cups had excess glass. Though I demonstrated myfinishing techniques, the only coldwork the students did was grindoff the excess from the rims (or mostly) on Paul's wonderful bigloose grit flat lap.

Inthe photos below, the camera was tilted, the cups were level. I justdidn't PS them beyond cropping and sizing. As usual, my studentsamazed, impressed, and delighted me with their work.

Inthe florescent light of the studio, this one looked blue because sheused a glass that shifts from blue to lavender depending on thelight. In the front of the studio where the windows were and wherethese pictures were taken, the natural light turned it purple.

Unfortunately,this is the only slightly out of focus pre-coldwork picture we haveof this cup as before we could get it photographed, it slipped out ofher hands and broke.

dawn, teaching, and a birthday

2012-01-26T08:21:00.000-06:00

I'mup early this morning, woke at 5 AM when the cat wanted out. Howdoes she do that? It's always around 5 AM when she wants out. Usually I can go back to sleep but not this morning. I laid in bedfor nearly an hour and then just got up. That may not seem veryearly to many of you but I don't normally wake up til around 7 or7:30 and sometimes sleep til 8 AM.

Thenice thing about getting up when it's still dark is seeing thesunrise. Sitting here I am facing east looking out the windows and Ihave a nice view across the yard and the agricultural field. The notso nice thing is that I'm facing east and once the sun pops up thistime of year, it shines right in my face over the top of my computer. The big tallow in the little back yard will block it out but I haveto constantly shift my position as the sun rises past one big branchor another. Once the trees leaf out it's not so much of a problem.

Todayis the last full day before we leave to drive to Austin for a 5 dayworkshop. We're teaching at Helios Kiln Glass Studio and will have 8students. We like teaching there. It's a small place but Paul andKaren are such wonderful hosts and good friends and it's been acouple of years since we have seen them. Our students will be making asmall decorated cup in the pate de verre lost wax casting technique. If you want to know more about that process you can read about ithere.

Emmathe cat is going to be left behind, housebound for the week, with mysister coming over every day to check on her. We always took her toour daughter's house before but in the two years since we went out oftown to teach, they acquired a dog and two cats of their own.

Imade two new cups (4" x 4" x 2") to go with the two I already had to show asexamples for the students. I intended to document the process toshow them in pictures what they would be doing before I just turnedthem loose but that was only partially successful. I tend to getabsorbed in what I am doing so there are some gaps in the photos. Ohwell. It will be better than nothing.

Ialso wanted to mention that it rained yesterday! A lot of rain for along time. Lightning and thunder kind of rain. After it passedthrough there was water in the ditch and standing in low spots in theyard and on our way in to the city yesterday we passed the littlecreek that had gone dry over the summer and it has water in it again. I don't know how this affects the drought. We've been getting somefairly regular rain but they are still predicting drought conditionsfor this year. I guess we'll see how the summer goes.

Well,the male cardinals are singing their love songs and the females arechirping back at them and the wren is screeching at the cat and it'sfull blown day and the sun is shining in my eyes.

Oh,and today is my third blog birthday.

come out, come out, wherever you are

2012-01-23T09:32:00.000-06:00

Who,me?

Ihave been lost in the land of Westeros, the fictional land of TheSong Of Ice And Fire books by George R. R. Martin.

Ihave been in the city for two days doing two very small jobs afterspending two days on art work.

Ihave been trying to get a picture of the loud mouth wren whoscreeches at the cat almost every evening.

Ihave been model making and filling molds in preparation for theworkshop we are teaching at the end of the month.

Ihave been enjoying some lovely sunsets.

Ihave not been walking.

Ihave received a request for pricing for a large and complex project, 2 - 20' long walls, which involves no art work on my part, just fabrication andmanagement. I vacillate back and forth this weekend on whether topass or to go ahead and make the attempt. The panels are large, 4' x8'6”, 34 sq ft, 163 - 221 lbs ea. depending on if it's 3/8” or1/2” glass. If we pursue it, we will have to buy and install asling for moving heavy glass. If we pursue it, it would solve ourimmediate financial problems.

We'vebeen thinking about our future, the work we do, have done and if it'sstill going to be a viable course. We've made several bad judgementcalls about the direction we wanted to go as far as income isconcerned over the years. The last time we were at the point wherewe had to get a loan and a big place to continue with the very bigjobs we had been getting is when the bottom fell out of our personallives so we back pedaled. When we finally started again, we eschewedthose very big jobs and also the very small, the logos and stripesand squares, and carved out a niche for ourselves...high endresidential and smaller scale corporate art. High end residentialwas not the ultra-rich but the upper middle class, lower upper class. Unfortunately that niche does not currently exist and the otherniches already have long standing relationships with other companies. Whether our niche returns as the economy improves remains to beseen. I've had two new (for me) designers contact me recently whoare excited about our work so maybe my newsletter attempts atmarketing are beginning to show some fruit, if not actualwork.

Inthe meantime, we are trying to diversify...teaching more, my littlepart time job, crafting small items and perhaps getting an etsystore, still working on my gallery pieces with an eye to trying somenew galleries, and most importantly, trying to remain positive andpro-active.

harbinger

2012-01-17T16:18:00.000-06:00

Accordingto Wikipedia: acranefly is an insectin the familyTipulidae. Adults are very slender, long-legged flies that may varyin length from 2–60 millimetres (0.079–2.4 in) though tropicalspecies may exceed to 100 millimetres or 3.9 inches.

Inappearance crane flies seem long and gangly, with very long legs, anda long slender abdomen. The wings are often held out when at rest,making the large haltereseasily visible. Unlike most flies,crane flies are weak and poor fliers with a tendency to "wobble"in unpredictable patterns during flight, and they can be caughtwithout much effort.

Adultcrane flies feed on nectaror they do not feed at all. Once they become adults, most crane flyspecies exist as adults only to mate and die.

I was verysurprised to find this dead crane fly or, more commonlycalled, mosquito hawk, next to my keyboard this morning.

The mosquitohawk has always been my personal harbinger of spring but I believethis little guy has been misled as it is still January albeit a verytemperate January. Currently it is mid-70s. It's supposed to becooler tomorrow but the next several days also in the mid-70s.

Although we havehad a few nights down to 30˚ and several weeks of highs in the 50s,we are having a very temperate winter so far and while I do have onblue jeans and a long sleeve shirt, I am also sitting here barefootwith the door open.

We had been having mild winters before the last bittercold two reminded us whatwinter was about with snow and ice and wind and temps hovering in the20s for weeks and coming too soon and reluctant to leave. But we hadbeen spoiled. Tropical plants got put in the ground and never diedback.

Our wintersusually consisted of 4 - 6 weeks of continuously cold weather, acouple of three freezes that never lasted more than a night or twopreceded by and followed by several weeks of changeable temps andthen spring.

It wasn't alwaysthis way. I remember having a winter coat as a kid, a heavy coat. And back before we could wear pants to school (not til I was out ofschool), I was cold all the time. I think I've still got a wintercoat tucked back in the back of the closet somewhere but I can'tremember when it was I last wore it. Silk long johns, a jacket, anda hat do me fine mostly. Or I just don't go out.

But back to themosquito hawk and spring. I hope that this little guy was justconfused. I haven't seen any others and I don't really want it to bespring yet even if it means several weeks of consistently coldweather ahead. Not in January, too soon in January. Or evenFebruary, unless it's late February. March is good though. It canbe spring in March.

Early March.

In the meantimethis has not been a bad pattern.

A few days ofcold, a few days of warm.

backyards

2012-01-15T13:33:00.000-06:00

If you havechickens in your backyard you might live in the country.

If you havehorses in your backyard you probably live in the country.

If you have cows

and emus in yourbackyard,

you definitely live in the country.

here today, gone tomorrow

2012-01-11T15:45:00.000-06:00

Itook the pictures of this old long abandoned and overgrown barn lastSunday.

Yesterday,Tuesday, as I left the house around quarter to six and turned onto theroad across which is the plowed field, I caught sight of dying fireand smoke out of the corner of my eye and turned to see what wasburning.

Theyburned the barn.

This is all that remains.

Whatused to be this...

isnow this...

Whatreally surprises me though is how much of the overgrown vines andstuff around the edges didn't burn.

the plowed field

2012-01-09T08:27:00.000-06:00

Idecided to strike off into the plowed dormant field again yesterdaywhen I took my walk.

Thisone house sits on about a half acre carved out of the field. Not thefarmer's house though.

Thereare two long abandoned structures out there.

Thesmall shed, perhaps used to house a tractor at one time.

Thelarger barn beside which the tractors rest.

Oneend of the fallen down and decaying structure.

Thebarn turned to brush pile.

Henbitsprouting all over the field.

Itwill be plowed under soon.

Aweathered mat of cotton left over from last year's harvest lays at theend of some furrows.

Acrossthe road from the field is this tree with it's seed pods.

a Saturday

2012-01-07T17:57:00.000-06:00

Weare not early risers, usually rolling out of bed around 7:30, so Irarely ever see the sunrise, not since I quit the riverguide gig. But I do see the early morning skies, at least this timeof year.

Thismorning it was foggy on the ground but just above it was a blue sky. Now about 8:30 AM, it's become more overcast but it's 59˚ and thebirds are very chirpy.

Icould hear the geese long before they came into view. I've seen manymore geese this year than ever before. This group was flying north.

Thefirst week of the new year has passed and I've caught up with thelittle bit of business left over from last year and have spent thelast three days updating my website, still have one more page to gothough. And beyond that I want to re-do my gallery pages but I'mgoing to need a lot of help with that as I don't really know how towrite code. I can manipulate code already written, at least the oldstuff, but I can't really create code. Especially the new languages. I look at the source code of pages I like on other people's sitesand I don't recognize anything.

Well,today turned out to be just too nice of a day with temps in themid-70s and a clear sky to spend indoors. Besides, Marc ranme out because he volunteered to mop all the linoleum floors, thebiggest one being the room where my computer and work stuff is, so Isat outside and finished my book.

AndI went for a walk, which I've been trying to do every day since thefirst, a sort of unspoken resolution, and on my way back to the houseI decided to strike off into the plowed field. There's a shallowgully that runs through it diagonally and that's what I followed. Iwalked out to the finger of tree line that juts into it and thenturned around and came back. Someone riding a horse had done thesame thing I saw as I followed the hoof prints in the soft dirt onlythey had come from the other direction.

It'sstill pretty dry here despite the week of rain we had after thesolstice so I watered the front yard and then deep watered around themagnolia which has lost far too many leaves, pounding a piece ofrebar about 16” into the ground a dozen or so times under thecanopy and then sticking the hose end into the holes and turning the waterfull on and let it churn and gurgle for a minute or two.

Well,the sun has set now and there is a pink glow on the horizon.

Iguess I'll go de-bone that chicken that's left over from last night.

promises

2012-01-04T20:23:00.000-06:00

Itoccurs to me that I have been remiss in showing off. So backing up abit, here's the three little leaf sculptures, small, no bigger than4” in any direction, and one of the wind chimes that I madefor the December open house and sale at our friends' glass blowingstudio.

Nowmoving forward...I'm spending this week trying to pick up all thedropped threads of what passes for my life, trying to convince myselfthat I still have a business, following up on proposals and requestsfor pricing from the last 6 weeks, trying to get my website updatedand jump start my meagre marketing efforts. Actually, 2 of the 6proposals are going forward, both small jobs but welcome all thesame. We've also been spending some time cleaning and organizing theshop, getting ready for a 5 day workshop in Austin the end of thismonth, and working on scheduling some new workshops for the comingmonths and blah blah blah.

I'ma busy girl.

Weseem to be having a more usual winter this year so far. No endlessdays of extreme cold like the last two...so far. I probablyshouldn't have said that. It's never a good idea to invoke the gods.

Thenext few days promise to be sunny and warm. I was poking around outthere today and saw some promises, the beginnings to next spring'sflowers.

bluebonnets

daffodils

eveningprimrose

rocketlarkspur

easterlilies

at the beginning again

2012-01-01T13:23:00.000-06:00

imagevia: http://theopendoorcommunity.com/Images/mgj-out-open-door.jpg

It'sa beautiful day here for the first day of the new year, a day that isreally like any other day, like the one before it and the one afterit and yet we imbue this day with so much optimism and possibility,this arbitrary choice to end one cycle and begin another. It wouldmake more sense for the winter solstice to be the new year, the endof the long night and the beginning of the long day.

We'rehaving our traditional breakfast, a young tradition, yes, somethingthat we have started doing since we took up permanent residence hereat the country house...mimosas, bacon, eggs, sweet rolls. The foodis not always the same but the mimosas, the big breakfast are.

Latertoday I will be accompanying my sister to a New Year's Day openhouse. It is at the house of a friend of hers from high school, agirl who came from a broken home and life with her mother was suchthat she spent a great deal of her time at our house and my ownopinion of life at my house was not all that great. How much worsewas her's that she thought our house was so much better. I was 15then.

Iremember when my sister got married, the bridesmaids had her'spinster' party at this woman's apartment. I was 16 when my sistermarried, was at the party and got drunk and didn't want to go home. We all slept over though someone was supposed to bring me home. Myparents were furious with me the next day and with everyone else fornot bringing me home. Oh, I was so hung over. I think back andwonder, as I did then, what was the big deal? It's not like I hadnever slept over at a friend's house before. But I guess that eventhough 19 year old girls could have their own apartments, jobs, getmarried and get pregnant, they weren't considered adults. At leastnot by my parents.

ButI digress.

Ifear the coming year is going to be even more contentious than thislast one. Our population has become so polarized that middle groundno longer exists. The full court press by the opposing party to makeour president a one termer by obstructing everything that could beconstrued as good by even the most extreme portions of our populationwill continue until the general election this coming fall, somethingthat I don't really understand considering he has caved oneverything, including his most recent attack on our civil rights. Inow find myself in the position of not having anyone to vote for.

Idon't see conditions improving much this year but I could be wrong,really want to be wrong. It may be that people are so tired of thedepressed state of things, so tired of the fear that our politicianscontinue to whip up because a fearful population is easier tocontrol, that they will continue to gather and march in larger andlarger groups.

Ihad just about decided that we were, in fact, a nation of sheep,overfed on fear as well as food. I wondered why the people didn'trise up and say 'enough'. And then they did.

Idon't know what the future, this year, holds for us, if we will seemore work coming our way. Sometimes I think maybe this career is atan end, that when people finally have some disposable income, becauseit's never been the rich that were our client base but the middleclass, that we and what we do will have faded from memory.

Regardless,we will continue to create, to make if only for our own enjoyment.

Well,the door is open, welcoming whatever comes, whatever this new yearbrings.

reflecting

2011-12-31T10:11:00.000-06:00

imageviahttp://www.highwallpapers.com/wallpaper/reflection-lake-washington-3169.html

Likejust about everyone else I'm reflecting on the year that is ending. My first immediate response was...good; good riddance, glad for thisone to be done, just like the last one.

Butthen, upon further reflection I remembered that although the state ofthe economy and this nation is still depressed and struggling, thatdespite the extremism that has taken hold of congress and theircontempt for the people they are supposed to represent and the powersthat be that continue to stomp on our civil rights, that even though wecontinue to personally struggle to keep afloat in a climate where artisn't even on the list of things for people to buy because the systemitself helps the rich get richer while everybody else loses theirjobs and their savings and their homes and their health and finallytheir lives, that although we suffered through the worst heat and drought onrecord resulting in the deaths of millions of trees; that even thoughall those things and more, a lot of good things happened too andthere was a lot of joy in my life in the last 12 months.

Like...

Watching thebirds at the birdbath.

Picking food outof the garden that I grew myself.

Rain.

Wearing my wovenplaid western style flannel shirts with the pearl snaps.

My grandkidsvisiting and face timing me when they don't.

My anti-socialcat climbing in my lap for a short while when it is late and just thetwo of us are up.

The small jobsand sales, the part time job that came along just in time.

Seeing my sisterbegin to emerge from her cocoon of grief.

The smiles andfriendliness of small town life.

Seeing thefinished work of my students.

Waking up in themorning with my husband next to me.

The love andsupport of my family and friends whether virtual or otherwise.

For all that andmore I am grateful.

Happy New Yearto all.

May the coming12 months be bountiful.

white wing doves

2011-12-30T14:26:00.000-06:00

Wokeup to fog this morning and two hours later it is still foggy, maybeeven less bright than it was earlier though it is supposed to burnoff.

Thereis a huge flock of white wing doves that has been hanging out aroundhere. They are big clumsy birds and noisy fliers.

Thismorning about two dozen of them were crowding around the turtle pondgetting drinks and taking turns bathing.

Theyentertained me for about 20 minutes this morning while I tookpictures through the window and screen.

Itmay look like they are walking on water, but they are actuallystanding on the turtle's sunning stone which is submerged from allthe rain we had last week.

Theones flying in for the submerged stone would sometimes miss theirmark and land in the water instead or get pushed off the edge if toomany birds were trying to occupy it at the same time.

Theysit on the edge of the pond and lean way over for a drink, sometimeslosing their balance in the process.

Othersare perched on the fence rail or the branches above waiting for anopportunity to barge in.

the winter garden and other stories

2011-12-29T18:27:00.000-06:00

Theweather has been outstanding the last three days. With the solsticecame a thunderstorm, rain, overcast skies, and cold. My blood hasslowed and thickened, my brain incapable of processing the higherfunctions. A couch, a blanket and a book have been about all I'vebeen about.

Thislast week of the year, coming as it does between christmas andJanuary is a lost week. People are drained from the expectations andactivities of the holiday season. It's just as well no one reallyexpects anything to get done during this time because nothing isgoing to get done. Around here the cold days and overcast skieswere like a hand holding me down.

Itcleared up Tuesday though and started a warming trend. Tuesday all Icould do was admire it. Wednesday I thought of a lot of things Iought to be doing. Today I finally shrugged off my lethargy andactually got a few things accomplished, puttering around outsidesoaking up the sun.

mustardgreens, kholrabi, cauliflower, cabbage, turnips, mustard greens,broccoli

Myneighbor Frank of the bountiful garden, whose wife recently died,doesn't seem to remember that he must harvest his produce. The chainhas been broken and he has no one to bring the harvest to. I've beenchecking on his garden now and then and I noticed that beans had goneunpicked, broccoli is flowering. His son Alan comes over regularlyand today he gave us a broccoli and a cauliflower and a couple ofkholrabis.

Here'sa picture of the food he gave us.

Iput the quarter there to give you some idea of the size but itdoesn't really convey how big they are.

SoI put my hand in there.

LaterI picked a big bowl of spinach and lettuce from my garden. Andharvested my first carrot. According to the package I should be ableto harvest my carrots.

SoI did a test.

It'stiny.

Perhapsthey will be spring carrots.

from one 'mas' to another

2011-12-26T18:24:00.000-06:00

Yay! That's over for another year.

Thereis one reason why I do like christmas day though. Not the christmasseason, not the two months of having a holiday I don't celebratecrammed down my throat everywhere I go, not the attendant hypocrisyof good will and gift giving and good deed doing by people who everyother day of the year can't be bothered with those things, but theactual day.

Christmasday is one of the few days of the year when you can be a completeslug, spend the whole day on the couch with a good book doingnothing, accomplishing nothing and no one will think ill of you fordoing so.

Iknow the madness isn't really over yet, not for a few more days whileeveryone takes back those gifts that were lovingly or thoughtlesslyselected, those gifts they really don't want and exchanges them forsomething else. It sort of cheapens the whole thing to me, thiswanting the value of the gift but not the gift.

Sohere we are now on the other side of the winter solstice, theshortest day and the longest night. The days are now gettingincrementally longer, the light is increasing but with it also comesthe coldest days of the year. Now, winter sets in for real. Thesolstice here was ushered in with a thunderstorm and it's been cold,overcast, and rainy, ever since.

Iam glad of the rain. We've had more rain this week than in all oflast year I think. There are still some puddles here and therearound town. The ground has been so dry that puddles have been arare sight. I heard last week that they think Texas lost a half abillion trees from the drought. Five hundred million trees died ofthirst.

Well,the only thing left to do before the end of the year is Marcmas. That's tomorrow. It's the special 60^th anniversary thisyear. We think we might drive down to Aransas Pass and see thewhooping cranes to celebrate. Maybe. Marc already got a present...

sniffsniff sneeze

on the eve

2011-12-24T08:55:00.000-06:00

Thegrandkids are gone back home and the house is quiet again. Andcold. Those four additional bodies added a lot of heat to thehouse. And noise. And energy. And germs. Thetwins were sick and now I am getting it. I can't remember thelast time I was sick. One of the benefits of being a hermit.

Sundaynight all four of the grandkids arrived for the week. On Wednesdaymorning my sister brought over the little dogs. She has gone tohave Christmas with her elder daughter and her family. Whichmeans that I am working for her at the store while she is gone. Iworked Wednesday and Thursday and the kids were retrieved on Friday.

Andthe little dogs are very sad. We don't play with them like the kidsdo.

Whenmy daughter and I were making plans for the kids to come, I told herthat I would be working at the store those days.

"AndDad's OK with that?" she said.

"Well,he didn't say 'No, hell no'", I answered.

Later,telling Marc about my conversation, he said he didn't think he had achoice.

"Youdon't."

----------

So,this is sort of entertaining, working at the store. All sortsof people come in. That is when people come in. So far,I've had enough people come in on my days to break up the hours butmy sister has had many days when not a single person has come in.

Thursdayan older lady came in and looked around the store and as she was leaving shetold me that we had two paintings in the other room that she had done many years ago and had sold them in a garage sale.

“Isaw them the last time I was here and was wondering if anyone hadbought them” she said. “They're the ones of the boats with houses behind them.”

“Well,you already got rid of them once” I told her when she mused aboutwhether she should buy them.

Aftershe left I was curious and went around the shop to see which onesthey were.

Theywere 'paint by number' pictures.

----------

Well,it's christmas eve for those of you who celebrate this holiday. I'llbe working at the store today handing out germs to anyone whoventures in. I don't really expect to see anyone though as it iscold and rainy.

Iimagine everyone in this small town has already done all theirshopping and they will be snug in their warm dry houses cooking andwrapping presents. As well they should be.

Iwish them all a happy time and me a speedy recovery.

sniff,sniff, sneeze

the answers

2011-12-18T09:37:00.000-06:00

Thankyou everyone for participating. This was fun for me and the resultswere very interesting. Everyone managed to identify most but the two that were consistentlymissed were #2 and #4 although Vickie at Nature's Details and Butternut Squash from goddessoftheconfluence did correctly see theclouds in #4. No one saw the prickly pear cactus flower buds in #2. That really surprised me. But then, as I told Hilary of The Smitten Image,I think one of theproblems with it, besides not knowing what prickly pear cactus budslook like is that in the picture above it, the white is the positivepart of the image whereas in the next one, the black is the positivepart of the image. I think after seeing the first one, thebrain is primed to see the white as the positive. Once I pointedthat out to her, she could see the image. Steve at Out On The Prairie was closest with his guess of asparagus.

Theones I thought would be hard to discern were the boulders, the clouds, the canoes(which just about everybody saw as some type of boat) and thelandscape of the river and canyon wall which most people also saw assome type of landscape involving cliffs and water.

Myother thought about these pictures was that if they could not berecognized it would somehow diminish the piece but I've changed mymind about that after all the wonderful comments about the vaguenessof some of the images. Memories do get fuzzy.

Andthe images themselves. Besides my daughter's baby shoe, which hasalways been one of my most favorite pictures (both shoes are in theactual photograph), all the images are nature oriented, well, exceptmaybe the one with the canoes. So I wonder if the picture of theshoe really fits in with the others. When I was preparing the images(and I had 15 in all), I wasn't really trying to represent anyparticular memories, well except for maybe the one with the canoesand the one of the river, because I didn't necessarily want the pieceto be specific to me, but obviously my love of nature came through.

The10 of the 15 that I actually printed up and fired that day had mostlyto do with selecting the ones I thought would translate best and myfavorites. If I hadn't run out of time, if my morning hadn't been soincompetent, I would have done all 15. Alas, that didn't happen.

I'mstill not settled on a title. I always had it in mind to be areliquary but I've thought of it as 'reliquary for a life' or'reliquary of memories'. Perhaps 'reliquary for a planet'. I sortof like that since most of the images are nature oriented but I thinkI'd have to take out the shoe and maybe the one of the canoes whichmeans I'd probably want to do some more images for the box. I do have all thesupplies and materials I need here and I feel a little more competentin the technique.

Sofor those of you who don't allow email response to your comments andfor those of you who didn't guess at all but loved it anyway, hereare the answers.

1. boulders ina lake

2. prickly pear cactus buds (two of them side by side)

3. canoes pulled up on a river bank

4. clouds

5. eggs in a nest

6. oxalis flowers

7. tallow leaf

8. moth

9. landscape view of river and canyon wall

10. toddler shoe

guessing game

2011-12-16T12:40:00.000-06:00

Someof you may remember that I have, over the months, been working onseveral cast glass boxes, one of which I have referred to as theMemory Box. This piece has been in my head for years and thisparticular effort is the second one. The first try had some problemsin the way it cast but, more importantly, the colors, the design justdidn't work for me and I never finished it. So now I finally havethe container, the box which I like very much, and I have beenstruggling with the images that were to go inside.

Itook a workshop a couple of months ago at Hot Glass Houston withCarrie Iverson who teaches a lithography method for printing on glassusing ink and glass powders and I left with the means to try it on myown but never did actually dive in.

Idid, however, spend a quite a few hours on some images and got themprinted with the proper ink, and cut and pre-fired the glass blanksfor the images.

Youmay also remember that I took a one day refresher with Carrie at HGHtwo weeks ago expecting to print out all my pre-fired pieces and thensome and then had the most frustrating day while all my expectationswere trashed. I did finally, by the time I had to leave (early), getthe 10 pre-fired pieces printed and dusted with powder and ready tobe fired.

Well,one of the things I did whilst in the city this week was to go pickup those pictures. I'm delightfully surprised. They came out muchbetter than I thought they would, though some of the images might bea little hard to discern if you don't already know what they are.

SoI have prepared a little quiz for you all. Below I have posted allten images and sized them, hopefully, so that they appear on yourscreen close to their actual size which is 3 1/2” x 3 1/8”.

Hereyou can see how small and thin they are.

Theyactually have some texture and a little sparkle that does not show upin the pictures here (and they aren't actually quite as dark as in the images here) except for this one that I took with the flash.

Sohere are the images, numbered 1 – 10. Let me know if you know whatthey are but please don't look at anyone else's answers first. Iwant uninfluenced first impressions.

#10

Andone last pic of the box displaying one of the memories.

enough cold for color

2011-12-15T19:20:00.000-06:00

WhileI didn't take any pictures of the very colorful trees in the city, Idid take some of the ones in our yard when we got home. These treesall turned during the three days we have been gone, well except forthe tallows which were giving us some brightly mottled red, orange,and green colored leaves. Now, though, they've all gone mostlyyellow.

atallow on the edge of the driveway

oneof the three big pecans in the big backyard

themaple

theoak by the garage

anothertallow with the oak behind it

city life too

2011-12-14T22:30:00.001-06:00

Itappears those two consecutive nights last week where the temperaturesdipped to 30 just before dawn were enough to trigger some color inour deciduous trees. The city is yellow and burnt orange forthe most part except for when it is brown from the dead ones. Thetallows, the ornamental pears and the sweet gum throw some red andbright orange into the mix but its mostly a yellow and brownlandscape. The cypress are a mystery to me because they rightlyturn brown and the needles fall. But they also love water so Iguess we won't really know if the cypress survived the drought untilspring.

Thatlittle frost also took my pole beans even though I covered them. Andit nipped my zucchini, which I also covered, but didn't kill it. It's in a big pot so I'm prepared to bring it in next time. Get me a little grow light.

We'rein town to do two small jobs. One we finished up today and theother tomorrow. But this long hot summer and lack of userequired a half day of equipment repair.

Comingback into the city is always interesting. While I was livingthere, changes were a little bit more gradual but not entirely. Eventhen new construction would spring up whole and leave you trying toremember what had used to be there.

Thecity is finally repaving the two main arteries, the eastern andwestern boundaries, our N/S corridors. In other words, Itraveled on those two streets for practically everywhere I wanted togo. Those were the two closest bridges over Buffalo Bayou, theonly natural bayou left in the city (there are 4 major bayous passingthrough the city and I can name 8 in the larger metropolitan area).

Theyhave been needing to be repaved for many years but only now that thepopulation density and per capita income in this part of town haveboth increased considerably has the city finally got around to it.

Ihad occasion to go to a mall today, a very large mall, one that Ihaven't been to for a good many years. It's a little fartherthan I ever wanted to go and it's also quite larger than it was lasttime I went. I was taking my twin grandgirls to get their haircut at the place of their choice but this isn't really about that.

It'sabout all the stuff that is for sale, everyone vying for thosedollars. As if the number of stores itself wasn't overwhelmingenough, all the corridors were filled with carts and kiosks and theyare all selling stuff! I couldn't even look at it. Somuch totally useless stuff when you really stop to think about it,whose sole purpose in being is to generate the transfer of cash fromone pocket to another.

AlthoughI did see a very cool remote control helicopter that flew and hovered and the operator had it fly right to his hand where he pluckedit out of the air. I kept walking. We were on a mission,not to be delayed or sidetracked.

Thetwins got their haircuts, had ice cream and a pretzel, we browsedClaire's, and made it back to the truck in an hour and a half. Notbad.

Tomorrowwe go home. The cat will be glad. She was starting todisbelieve in the existence of the dog and was wanting out. We wouldn't let herout and a little while ago her faith was restored when the dogstarted barking and making his presence known.

T is for...

2011-12-12T13:34:00.000-06:00

T is for...treehouses

I think we movedfrom the house I was born in to the house I grew up in when I wasabout 6 or 7. Well, I wasn't actually born in the house butit was the house my parents lived in when I was born in the hospitallike all good modern babies were.

We moved from apost-war housing neighborhood to a custom built home on one acre in aneighborhood carved out of a pine forest across Buffalo Bayou fromthe heavily wooded and mostly undeveloped (then) forest of MemorialPark. We didn't actually live on the bayou but it was a short walkdown the street and through the yard of a house that did back ontothe bayou.

A couple ofyears after we moved, my father built us kids a tree house. Heselected three large pines on the wooded side of our acre so that ourtree house was triangular in shape and built maybe 10' off theground, perhaps 6' x 10' on two of the three sides. The only pictureI have of it is the one in my head so I'm guessing at any and alldimensions. It had a board ladder nailed to the trunk of one of thesupporting pines, low walls probably 3' high and was roofed and sidedwith cedar shakes.

Well, probablyhe built the tree house for my brother, but I spent many an hour upthere.

Like all kids inall neighborhoods we would, every so often, divide up into factionsand war on each other. Every year after christmas, we would make andraid each other's christmas tree forts but what I really rememberwere the pine cone wars. Not for the meek were they. They wouldalways start in someone's yard, pine cones were plentiful and hurtlike the devil if one of the missiles hit their mark, but once weretreated to the tree house, we were unbeatable. We had not only theadvantage of high ground but we also kept a stockpile of the closedhard prickly pine cones up there.

Eventually, aswe all grew older, the tree house was abandoned and after we were allgrown, my parents sold the house. A high rise stands now where ourhouse and the tree house once stood. The woods and fields we playedin are also gone.

I've never lostmy love of tree houses, gained though watching many a Tarzan movie,and I sometimes wish we had moved out to the country sooner. Any oneof the three large pecans in the big back yard or even the tallow inthe little back yard would hold a small tree house. I fear the grandkidsare already too old though for one to hold much mystery for them.

While the one wehad as kids was quite simple, I could easily live in one of these.

If you wouldlike to catch up on the rest of my alphabet posts, click on the linkon my side bar. It's up there near the top under 'stuff about me'.

the gift exchange

2011-12-11T10:03:00.001-06:00

TheGarden Club christmas party was last Friday night and they do a giftexchange. If you want to participate you bring a wrapped gift, valuenot to exceed $10 and put it under the tree. I'm really terribleabout going out and shopping so a few days before the party I made alittle mobile out of colored glass strips, beads and fishing tackle,found a little box and wrapped it up. I didn't have any wrappingpaper on hand but I do have a large roll of white bond paper for thefull size drawings I do for the etched glass so I used that and thendrew holly leaves and berries on it with the markers I keep on handfor the grandkids.

Everyonebrings some sort of food item as well and after everyone had eaten weall drew numbers and one by one we selected an anonymous gift fromunder the tree. In past years they have played the game where youcan select a new unopened gift or take one from someone else who thengets to pick a new unopened gift. The club has grown quite a bit inthe last year or two so this year we didn't do that, just selecting agift and getting to keep it.

Weoohed and awwed over things like pruning shears, a watering can, acouple of birdhouses, garden plaques, note cards and journal, anamaryllis, and other garden and not garden related things as theywere opened.

Therehad been only three actual wrapped packages, mine being one of them,everyone else opting for gift bags (that's a rant for another day). I had drawn a very high number,there were about 30 of us participating, so when my turn came, Ichose one of the wrapped packages. Under the paper was a box ofCelestial Seasonings herbal tea which I was very pleased to havepicked as I was just about out of the ones I had at home andshowed it around to all the ladies sitting near me.

Afterall the gifts had been opened and we were tidying up, one of themembers sidled up next to me and said very quietly, “It's notreally a box of tea.”

Ithad never occurred to me to open the box to see what was in it eventhough the lack of cellophane should have tipped me off.

SoI opened the box and inside was a sweet little ceramic bird.

Ican be such a dolt sometimes.

holiday parade

2011-12-09T08:20:00.001-06:00

I live in asmall town now, less than 10,000 people, so small town entertainmentis what I have available to me. I'm OK with that since I didn'tavail myself of the city entertainment when I lived there. Alwaystoo much traffic, too many people, too much money.

This year I wentto the christmas parade around the square which they held the Tuesdaynight before Thanksgiving. It was my first time to go and I wentwith my sister. She's been living here longer than me and has evenbeen in the christmas parade back when she and her husbandwere part of the farmer's market, back when he was still alive.

Anyway.

I remember whenmy kids were little. My best friend lived down at the other end ofthe block and she had two boys that roughly equaled the ages of mygirl and boy so we spent a lot of time together and everyThanksgiving, we would get up early and bundle up the kids and takethem downtown to see the Thanksgiving Day parade. I guess we didthat about four years in a row until the kids stopped wanting to go. I knew a back way in to town and where to park so the walk wasrelatively short. Houston always had their Thanksgiving parade inthe morning and it was always windy and cold downtown.

Anyway.

It was windy andcold here too so all my pictures are out of focus. All of them. Iblame it on the fact that everything was moving when I snapped thepictures except the things that weren't. Even the things that werestopped in front of me, the pictures are out of focus. I think thewind was blowing the lights around or I was shivering, one or theother or maybe both.

Along with theparade there was (I hesitate to call it) a craft fair. Maybe a dozenor more vendors offering 'goods' and some other food vendors and acouple of guys walking around with those chemically colored lightsticks of different shapes and sizes. The square was all decked outin its lights. But it was night and most people didn't havelighting. So all my pictures are dark as well as out of focus.

We sat on theedge of the sidewalk in front of Miss Hattie's which was about twosteps higher than the street.

If you have everwondered what a small town christmas parade is like, I can tell you. It's truck after truck with it's goose neck trailer and semi aftersemi with it's flat bed trailer filled with hay bales and kids andchristmas lights and fire engines from every little town in thevicinity. Come along with me and see some of the over 70 entrants. I'm surprised there was anybody left to watch it.

approaching thesquare

vendors

the courthousesquare

light wands andcotton candy

the first ofmany fire engines

a few angels

drummersdrumming

some christmas cheer

teens with bikeswith lights

a boat...wait, aboat?

kids on horses(can't very well have a parade in the country without kids on horses)

this was myfavorite though

those blurrylights resolved into this when it stopped

pageant royalty

finally Santa inthe back of the fire department pick up truck

and I hope youenjoyed the parade.

fall reads

2011-12-05T09:04:00.003-06:00

A shorter list than usual, I didn't have as much time for reading this quarter. That or there were some long ones in there.

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner - Four women, strangers all involved in the conception and gestation, are brought together over the birth of a baby.

Mortal Fear by Robin Cook – a doctor whose patients suddenly start dying after passing a complete physical is contacted by a researcher who says he made an important discovery, that it's already being used and that someone wants to kill him and then the guy starts hemorrhaging right in front of the doctor and dies. The doctor sets out to discover what that important discovery was and in the process learns what is killing his patients.

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory - back to the Tudors. This is the next book in the series after The Other Boleyn Girl so I've read it out of sequence. It's told in the first person by three different women, Anne of Cleves (Henry's fourth wife), Jane Boleyn (sister-in-law to Queen Anne Boleyn and lady in waiting), and 15 year old Katherine Howard who becomes Henry's fifth wife. It covers his marriages to Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard.

The Ruins by Scott Smith – this is a sort of horror tale. I guess that's how you'd classify it. Four young adults go to Cancun between college and graduate school. They meet other young adults from Germany and Greece and get involved in a search for one German's brother who has gone off in search of a woman he met at a bar who is on an archeological dig in the Mayan jungle. Instead they become the inadvertent victims of an age old 'horror' kept contained by a tribe of Mayans.

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card – a little sci-fi tale. Have I mentioned I'm a big sci-fi fan? We've read most of what Orson Scott Card has written. He's a very good storyteller and his books tend to run in series. The first book of his that I read was Ender's Game. Afterwards I gave it to my son, who was about 12-14 at the time, and it, along with More Than Humanby Theodore Sturgeon helped hook him into the world of reading. Anyway, back to the story. A modern tale of ancient 'gods'. The gods throughout the history of Earth have actually been from a different planet where the people have talents and powers working with the elements of nature, one of which was the power to open gates between the worlds capable of transporting you instantaneously from planet to planet that heals all wounds and illnesses and strengthens powers. About 900 years ago, the gates between worlds were closed stranding the 'families' on Earth or Westin and gate mages are not allowed to live. Now a new gate mage has been born on earth and gone undiscovered til he was 14 and forced to flee his family. As the gate mage learns his way in the world outside the family compound and learns how to use his power he discovers there is someone on the Westin end determined to keep all gates closed. This is the first of a series of novels about this character and this concept of the sister worlds.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See – another by the author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which I enjoyed a lot. Two sisters living in Shanghai come of age in the late 1930s China. Being the modern girls they are in a 'cosmopolitan' city, they model for artists that illustrate calendars. Their family is wealthy enough for them to be unconcerned and spoiled and then their lives change dramatically when their father tells them he has gambled away their fortune and he has offered them as brides in exchange for his debt. He has, in otherwords, arranged their marriages. This event coincides with the invasion from Japan and their world changes as they make their way to Los Angeles and start new lives. It's a very good read not only about the historical and political times but also about the close sister relationship and the strength of women.

Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich –The continuing adventures of Stephanie Plumb, bounty hunter. I guess it's been long enough since I read one because the last one didn't make me laugh so much, maybe because I don't think her car got demolished. What's up with that, right? This one though, made me laugh several times. And I hear they are making a movie and it's the first book, which I never actually read. I met Stephanie in the second book and kept going. But I'm not too pleased about the cast selections.

Dreams Of Joy by Lisa See – the sequel to Shanghai Girls or, rather, the continuation as this one takes up where the other left off. Joy, the daughter of the sisters, learns the true tale of her parentage and family in the US at the end of the previous book. She runs away to China, enamored of Mao's Revolution, to find her birth father and help build a China for the people. She finds herself trapped in a small village where the ugly side of the cultural revolution slowly reveals itself.

Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin – fantasy fiction, the first of four books (though my sister tells me there is a fifth one coming out). Iron age feudal system alternate world. Most of the action takes place on two continents joined by a narrow section of land but some of the story and characters are on a third, separate continent. Summer lasts for years as does winter and the story unfolds as summer is coming to an end. The seven kingdoms had been united 300 years or so previous by a king and his army, a refugee from some disaster on the other continent and that royal line was overthrown some 40 years previous to the beginning of this story. This book is about palace intrigues between the 'great' houses (families) in the south and the coming of winter in the north with mysterious things happening beyond the Wall, the northernmost point of the kingdom, where a group of men patrol to protect the world from the 'Others'. The tale is told from the point of view of different characters, adults and children, males and females. Although there are a lot of strong female characters, it is still a world where women are subservient and, for the most part, powerless with the exception of one 14 year old woman on the other continent. Its a good story with good characters and I don't want to give too much of it away. It would be nice, though, if, for once, a man could conceive of a world where women are not subservient and powerless but equal to men. When I finished this one I immediately picked up the next.

city livin'

2011-12-03T22:08:00.004-06:00

If I needed a reminder about why I moved out of the city, I certainly got one this trip...rude drivers who will happily let you change lanes as long as you do it behind them, road construction that narrows busy three lane roads with merging traffic down to one lane, and huge helicopters that hover over the house at night with searchlights while sirens blare from who knows how many cop cars while they conduct their manhunt.

Made me think of several apocalyptic sci-fi books and movies. We all laughed when 1984 came and went but the joke's on us. Big Brother is watching and there is no escape. They were probably after some little 6 yr. old boy for playing doctor with his 5 yr. old girl playmate while the real crooks and criminals get off scott free.

Well, good things are here too...getting to spend time with friends I don't see very often now, lots of choices for places to eat out, stores that have what you need without having to drive 25 - 50 miles, my daughter and grandkids.

Driving in past Memorial Park you could see that they have been cutting down the dead trees. Whole stands of trees in undeveloped acreages across the city have died and many in residential areas as well. Over 6 million. That's 6,000,000. My four here at the city house are still living and I am amazed since we are not here to water them. One of them, the magnolia, we planted.

post holiday or holiday post

2011-11-28T11:30:00.001-06:00

I'vestarted several posts since my last, the 'S' post, but didn't getfarther than a paragraph or two with either of them.

Isee I've gained a dozen or so new 'followers' in the last severalweeks and I want to welcome them. If they are still here, that is. After my last two posts they might have backpedaled. But that's whatyou get with me. Nothing is too sacred or embarrassing for me toprattle on about.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It'sthe day after three long days of wax model making, one long day ofmold filling and cooking, another day of cooking and sharing a feaston Thanksgiving and from then through the weekend the house is filledwith grandkids and the refrigerator is filled with food enough that Ishouldn't have to fix anything else all day. And that's sayingsomething because they can eat a lot.

I'mtaking the day off, not doing any kind of work. I'm hanging out withmy g'kids, teens now except for the youngest who is nearly 11. Thistime though the three oldest came equipped with laptops and iPodTouchs. We've sprinkled poppy seeds liberally around the yard,they've covered the concrete apron with rainbow drawings, the g'boyhas been getting target practice with the BB gun and cans, new muralsare taped up over the windows in my workroom, the weather has beennear perfect.

Continuingon with my first attempt, I was really very surprised (and delightedas well) to see that Hilary of The Smitten Image chose my 'S' post toinclude in her feature Posts Of The Week last Wednesday, Nov. 23. Thanks, Hilary. There was another one I haven't acknowledged yetlast August 24, my post 'Lessons'. So double thanks. If you don'tknow Hilary, go visit her place, she takes the most amazing photos.

Continuingwith my second attempt, well, I guess there isn't really acontinuation. We woke up to rain on Saturday morning and it rainedoff and on til about 1 PM. We're still very behind on our rainfallbut at least we are starting to get some now. After it cleared up wewent to the little re-sale shop the kids love, visited my sister, andtried unsuccessfully to fly a kite since it was gusty and not windy.

Havingthe g'kids here is all consuming. They didn't monopolize my computerthis time since they have all their own devices now but they didmonopolize my time. It's still my favorite song...Granny, Granny,Granny. So. I am woefully behind not only in my reading of manywonderful posts but also in my own posting. This month will be thefewest times I have posted since I started but this month has beenvery busy.

Youknow, I'm a working woman now with my part time job at Miss Hattie'ssince the commission work has been very sparse the last year and ahalf and we taught the workshop and I'm trying to get some thingsmade for the open house and studio sale next weekend and Thanksgivingand having the g'kids for three days and next Thursday is clean-upand set-up day at the studio and Friday I'm sitting in on a refresherday with the printing on glass instructor to finally get thesepictures done and the Memory box finished and then the open houseover the weekend and whew!

Anyway,here's a few pictures from the last several days:

Waxflower with pre-cast bee inclusion.

Thethree girls had a rainbow contest.

Later,the twins drew a giant birthday card for their dad whose 40^thwas Friday. They wouldn't let Robin help. You can see their opinionof 40 on the far left.

Mikeyshooting cans.

Theyate several of the fruits off our miniature pomegranate.

Spiedthis little grasshopper on a rose.

S is for...

2011-11-21T09:08:00.001-06:00

image via: http://sensualdanceart.com/2010/11/02/organic-sex/

S is for sex! (now you didn't really expect me to pass this up, did you?)

I'm almostafraid to post this as I already get an avalanche of search engine hits from the repressed middle east for my naughty nakedness N post.

I want to thankEurope for sending all the prudes over to the New World.

Not really.

For all the nearnudity and come hither of Madison Avenue ads, America is still oneuptight country when it comes to sex.

When I wasgrowing up sex outside of marriage was tawdry, dirty, meaningless,not to mention shameful. And many Americans still feel that waytoday.

It hasn't beenall that long ago when 'nice' people did not talk about sex.

Kids were keptin the dark as if talking about it would ensure that they went outand did it. As if keeping them ignorant about it would keep themfrom doing it. Of course all it did was make sure that teenagers gotpregnant and got married right out of high school.

There are stillbattles every couple of years in my state over sex education inschools. There are parents who still pull their children out ofthose classes. My sister-in-law was outraged that the students weregoing to be shown how to wrap that rascal with a condom and a banana. Or maybe it was a cucumber. I don't know that that was actuallygoing on in the lesson on human sexuality but she sure was rantingand raving about it. Mostly ending with 'not my daughter'.

Abstinence, theysay is the only way. But let's face it, sex is the strongestbiological imperative there is. People are going to have sex,married or not. And teens are going to have sex because their youngplump little bodies are oozing pheromones. It's why abstinencedoesn't work. Life wants to replicate. Life demands to replicate. And it's pretty damn good at breaking down resistance.

Besides that, itfeels really good, it's a great stress reliever, good for your absand cardiovascular system. When you are poor, it's one of the fewforms of entertainment available to you. There was even a time whensex was one of the ways you worshipped the gods. Many people stilldo...oh god, oh god, oh god, oh do that again!

But then womenbecame property and their vaginas were used to further familyfortunes and positions, to secure inheritance and descendents, maledescendents if you don't mind and nobody cared if we were having fun. Virginity became the only measure ofa woman's worth. Well, that and having boy babies.

So what's upwith that, btw? What is the big deal about a woman's virginity?

I abstained fromsex until I graduated from high school and let me tell you, it wasn'teasy. I had to break up with my boyfriend as our petting sessionswere getting a *little* heated. It wasn't because I wanted to savemyself for marriage, like all good girls were supposed to do when I wasa teenager, but because I simply did not want to get pregnant in highschool. I personally knew of 4 girls who got pregnant in high schooland I didn't know that many people. Living at home was hard enoughwithout throwing that into the mix.

After Igraduated though (this was in 1968), I determined to do it the nextopportunity that came along. Love had nothing to do with it, it wasjust a thing to be shed of by then and one of the best decisions Iever made concerning love and sex and believe me, I made plenty ofbad ones.

From that pointon and armored with the new birth control pills, well, let's just sayif Jimi Hendrix had asked me 'are you experienced?', I'd have to havesaid...

emphatically

Yes!

edit: oops! on my computer the 'pertinent parts' are in deep shadow. I have just been informed that that is not necessarily the case on everyone's computer. So my apologies to any who have been offended by the sight. I'd alter it or take it down or at least make it smaller but that would seem a little cowardly since it's already been up there for half a day and besides, it doesn't offend me at all.

full court press

2011-11-19T20:30:00.001-06:00

Theholiday season is barreling down upon us.

I'mnot happy about that.

Ifyou've been hanging around for a while you probably know that I don'thave much use for religions and even less for the commercial hysteriathat has become known as 'Christmas'.

SinceI don't celebrate or participate in christmas, I'm mostly immune tothe unreasonable expectations people put on themselves and theultimate event at this time of year. Even so it's hard toescape the constant ramming down your throat.

Theslow press started before Halloween, with just an off-hand referenceto christmas at the end of the ad. The days that followedHalloween saw one or two commercials referencing christmas but notfull on in your face...yet.

Andthen christmas decorations going up, a christmas movie on TV,christmas music on the radio, all the ads jing ding-a-linging. Wait. What's the date? It's the middle of November, right?

Yeah,yeah, so what. Thanksgiving, get out of the damn way.

empty

2011-11-13T14:27:00.001-06:00

Haven'tfelt much like writing the last week or so. Yes, I've been busy butit's been more than that. Just haven't thought of anything to ponder ormuse about besides the delineation of my days and no interest inwriting about that again. I haven't been reading or commenting muchon other blogs lately either.

Isee the little yellow rumped warblers that arrived last week as theycrowd into the birdbath and chitter and tweet in the trees.

Workinglate yesterday in the shop, my back to the open doors, intent onarranging the pieces on the kiln shelf, a faint call brought me outof my concentration.

Isthat geese? I turn around and see the tail end of what had been a brilliantsunset. I move out to the open lot between me and my neighbor andlook up in the darkening sky. Yes, there they are, two Vs of geesearrowing to the south, their calls drifting back to me on the wind.

Mylife seems so easy and mundane compared to some of the people whoseblogs I read. Some are facing mortality, perhaps imminently; somestruggle with depression, knowing intellectually their lives are goodand yet are unable to open themselves to it; some have been turnedupside down by unexpected divorce or repeatedly fight to keep anabuser out of their lives; some endure constant physical pain, someface grief every day at the sudden unexpected passing of a loved oneand yet none of these people have sunk into a morass of self-pity. Their voices are bright and full of love and the beauty of life andhumor. They inspire me and put to shame my puny complaints.

It'slate and we are having salad for dinner. I gather up my flashlightand a bowl of water with ice floating in it and carry it out to thesmall garden, plucking lettuce and spinach leaves by torchlight. Inoticed earlier in the day that the pole beans are starting to bloom.

Mybiggest complaint is no cash in this poor economy, my greatestchallenge in these drought days is keeping the garden watered.

Ihaven't seen the majestic red shouldered hawk lately and wonder if ithas moved on to a new territory.

Mydays are filled with making, working on one project oranother...small not so arty things, small very arty things, somelarger arty things, some small arty things that will become largerarty things; thinking, pondering, wondering what I am going to dowith all these arty things when they are done. That bothers me lessthan it should I suppose because these arty things are my income. Anopportunity to show and tell and sell is coming up the first weekendof December at the open house and studio sale at my friends theglassblowers which they host every year and so that is my mostimmediate goal.

Greenis fading from the world, green fading into yellow, spring inreverse. The dormant fields are beginning their long sleep, thetrees drawing their energy in to keep.

more fall notes

2011-11-08T11:48:00.000-06:00

Well, I guessthat little cold snap was enough to trigger some changes. Thetallows are showing more color today and the pecan in the adjacentyard is turning yellow. The ones in my yard are still green though with a few clumps of yellow. The altheas are turning yellow and droppingtheir leaves. The gingkos are still green though perhaps not quiteas green as yesterday.

It's overcastand humid today. Another cold front is supposed to move in later andbring us a 'measurable' amount of rain. So far we've only gotten anoccasional minute or two of sprinkle or drizzle. This time of yearit's a constant battle between the north and the south, the stormfronts being the field of battle between the warm gulf winds and thecold arctic air. Cold for a few days, warm for a few days. Eventually though the arctic fronts will come in closer togetheruntil they finally beat back the warm weather for good and it will bewinter.

Here's anotherpicture of the confederate rose which is not a rose at all but amallow, cousin to the hibiscus. The day I took this it had bloomedwith dark pink and light pink flowers which only last one day. I hadnever seen it do that and every day since it's just been the lightpink flowers. I wonder if the change in temperatures had somethingto do with it. There is one confederate rose in town that bloomswith pink, white, and pink and white striped flowers. Never seenthat before either.

The twobirdbaths have been doing a brisk business every morning since itwarmed up from the last cold front that moved through. Lots ofsplashing around going on. This morning when I let the cat in Inoticed some movement in a pile of leaves right next to the door upagainst the side of the house. The cat gave it a glance butshe was hungry and came on in. Being the curious sort that I am, I got a stick and poked around in it and flushed out this coral snakethat was easily 2' long. It moved along the side of the house to theinside corner where it slipped under the part of the house that is onpier and beam.

I've mentioned before about the wrens and their fascination with ourgarage-that's-not-a-garage-but-our-shop and their penchant forbuilding nests in there. This morning, one of the wrens came in,screeching just about non-stop while it investigated everything. Itpoked around in and on the table, the shelving units,the kiln, the recycling, the window sill, the top of the openautomatic door, it hopped around on the floor and checked out the oldnest on top of the motor housing for the other automatic door, prettymuch venting its spleen the whole time, totally unintimidated by myattempts to get a picture. For such little birds, they certainlymake a lot of noise.

what passes for fall

2011-11-07T10:36:00.000-06:00

For those of usliving in the south, and by that I mean south Texas, our cues thatthe wheel is turning are a little different than those experienced byour more northerly neighbors. It's more about the shortening daysand what's blooming than about cold weather and turning leaves and itcomes later in the season. I think up north it's already winter.

We did have afair cold front move through several days ago, dipping down in the30s one night, the 40s for a couple of nights. Whether it was enoughto trigger color in the few trees we have that will color givenenough cold nights before they finally just lose faith or patienceand fall off, remains to be seen.

The tallows aresporting a few clusters of red and orange. The native persimmon inFrank's yard has turned an orangey yellow. The gingko, given theright circumstances, the right nighttime temperature will turn yellowseemingly overnight and then drop all their leaves in one fell swoop. Mine are still green though they have been dropping a few leaves thelast week or so. The little maples have already lost most of theirfoliage due to the drought.

We, here, cannotlook to the changing colors of the leaves to inform us that fall isupon us. We must look to the harvested fields, though that toohappened early due to the drought. When the pampas grass and therain trees bloom we know that cooler weather is coming.

When theconfederate rose blooms we know it is fall.

When the fallasters open their tiny blooms we know that the season has changedbecause though short days are upon us and despite the cold nightslast week, it is warm and sunny, a balmy breeze plays a tune on thewind chimes.

I sit here,doors open, looking out over the little back yard to the dormantplowed field beyond, bare foot.

It is IndianSummer.

student gallery

2011-11-06T11:14:00.000-06:00

I guess this ismy favorite part, seeing the results.

Though I mustsay they were an unruly bunch this day. One student got there earlyand went right ahead and demolded her piece (well, the proprietorsort of egged her on), one student started washing his off with waterafter getting the plaster off which is not what I have them do, andall but two or three left their notes at home so they were allguessing what colors they used during the critique.

fired moldsready to be opened

the cleanedtiles, 5.75” x 5.75” with the exception of the obviously largerpiece

work vs a job

2011-11-04T12:14:00.000-05:00

Three days in arow of working full time hours has left me little time (or energy)for anything else. In fact no time. I have done nothing else.

It's not likeworking at the store is a strenuous activity. I open the store, turnon all the lights and do all my blog reading that I didn't do in themorning because I was getting ready for work (which means havingbreakfast early, getting dressed in real clothes and making my lunch)in between greeting and chatting with whatever customers come in thatwant to chat and writing up the occasional sale.

Around 1 PM Iwould get out the little bits of glass and start gluing them onto thelarger black pieces for the next kiln load of crosses. The afternoonhours mostly didn't have anyone coming in. Then pack up all mystuff, turn out all the lights and lock up stopping by my sister'shouse to check on the cats and water the plants on my way home, whereI do my own watering, change into comfy clothes, fix a drink and thenbecome immobile on the couch with a book. Didn't even have theenergy to write up a post or an email to friends.

So actually, Iguess I did get some stuff done. 45 more of the crosses set up andready for the kiln.

I think I'vementioned how long it's been since I had a job that kept 'hours',some 37 years or so. I'm not used to having a job that commands myday and schedule. Oh, I've had plenty of days where I worked longhours in the shop and back when we were a larger going concern andhad employees and were raising kids, we kept regular hours but forthe most part I'm used to setting my own schedules. Long leisurelymornings are the norm around here, starting to get to whatever workor goal I've set for the day around 11AM, often working til around7PM with however many breaks or distractions that occur throughoutthe day.

I'm fortunatethat the store doesn't open til 10AM so I didn't have to set an alarmclock, something I turned off when my youngest graduated high schooland never turned back on again. Takes me 10, 12 minutes at the mostto go from my driveway to the store. If I had to change my routine,I suppose it's not a bad one to change to. I'd eventually make theadjustment and find time to do other things.

But I won't needto change my routine since this is just an occasional gig. UnlessI'm filling in for my sister when she travels, it will just be a fewdays a month really.

So the wholereason I did it this week is because my sister is out of town dealingwith the consequences of our aunt's death and our grown autisticallychallenged cousin (but that's a different post) which means that I alsohave the little dogs and the cat that lives here is a bit annoyed.

Here they are intheir bed under the covers.

They're underthe covers because a cold front blew in Wednesday night and itdropped down in the 30s last night. Since we're on an austeritycampaign around here we weren't turning on the heater and the housewas not that cold when we went to bed. Then I had to get up in the~~wee early morning~~ ~~about 5AM~~ before light to deal with the cat.

“If there wasany doubt about whether the house was going to be cold this morning,it is,” I said as I climbed back in bed. Some time later Marc gotup to fix the coffee. When he climbed back in bed he said,

“It's 63˚.”

Shit. That'sonly 2˚ colder than we keep it with the heater on.

workshop, day 1 and 2

2011-11-01T21:11:00.000-05:00

Iknow. Another post about my work. Sorry. I'm pretty single mindedright now.

So,you might remember we taught the first two days of a three dayworkshop this past weekend. This is the first time we have taughtthis particular class, lost wax casting pate de verre in a tileformat larger than the clay models which are 4” x 4” and we didit with 11 students. These were 6” x 6”. Marc prepared the waxblanks ahead of time and the students added the design. They had allthe first day to work on their model.

Mostof our students had never worked in wax and it's something you haveto build a skill set for, you know, practice, so by mid-day I wasfeeling a little afraid. Oh no. I've set all these people up forfailure. They'll never get these to any kind of finished level bythe end of the day. It waslooking pretty grim and I thought I was going to have a lot ofdisappointed people on my hands.

Aboutan hour later I was feeling a little more optimistic and by the endof the day I was really pleased by what they had accomplished.

Sundaythey made their molds, we steamed out the wax with a bit of mis-hap,and they got them filled and in the kiln.

NextSaturday we get to see what they made. That's always fun.

busy days

2011-10-28T21:39:00.000-05:00

Let's see. Where was I?

Or maybe the better question is, where am I?

We received acommission to make 100 fused glass crosses for a church in Houston sofor the past week or so, my friend Gene and I have been cutting upthousands of tiny pieces of glass as each one of these crosses iscomposed of 34 separate pieces that have to be assembled. While wewere in the city to do our two small etching jobs, I spent a day overat Gene's while we assembled crosses and got 35 in the kiln.

It's alwaysweeks between visits to the city since work has been so slow anddriving in this time past Memorial Park was just heartbreaking. Itlooks like nearly every single pine is dead and many oaks and othertrees as well from the drought which is still ongoing. I didn't geta picture this time, got these of the park via google, but now thereis one lone green tree surrounded by dead ones instead of theoccasional dead tree starting the middle of August. Passing by onthe West Loop maybe one in ten trees is living. Maybe. I thinkthat's optimistic.

Today was thepresentation to the Garden Club on the various glass techniques andhow they could be used architecturally or as a stand alone sculpture. They decided on the carved glass for the side lites and transomaround the double doors that enter the library. Now I need to dosketches and a formal proposal, so that went well.

Marc and I spentthe rest of the day getting stuff packed, five boxes and a stack ofbooks, for our workshop this weekend. It's basically a repeat of theone we did earlier in the year only students will make their modelsout of wax instead of clay. In the clay workshop they got to maketwo or three pieces. In this one they will make one piece but it'slarger and they will have all day to work on it doing the mold makingand mold filling on Sunday.

We're having ourcoldest weather to date since summer finally ended. It even rainedlate yesterday afternoon as the front moved in. A nice rain but itdidn't last long. It's supposed to get down to 45˚ tonight. 45˚? Really? It hasn't been that long since we were having triple digitsevery day. I'd like to have more than a month between airconditioner and heater if you weather gods don't mind.

That big cloudon the left is the backside of the storm edge of the cold frontmoving in.

So, a workingweekend ahead, one day off and then three days at Miss Hattie's Placewhile my sister is in Lubbock. Our aunt, our father's sister, diedabout a week and a half ago and my sister is the executer of herwill. She was the last living member of our parent's generationmaking my sister the oldest living person in our family. We are nowthe altacockers.

Our aunt had onechild, a son who is one day younger than I am, but he falls into theautism spectrum and although he functioned well enough day to day aslong as his mother was alive, even has a job, he has always livedwith his parents/mother and she always took care of everything so weare a little concerned about his ability to live long term on hisown. He seems to be handling the death of his mother well enough andmy sister keeps in touch.

Hopefully by theend of next week I'll have the time to look around me and think ofother things besides the task at hand or the next commitment.

I might evenfinish my post for the letter S.

many fingers in many pies

2011-10-24T14:34:00.000-05:00

I've been verybusy lately and will be for the next couple of weeks and so myreading, commenting, and posting has been a little hit or miss andwill probably continue to be for a while.

We're headinginto the city in a little while to do two small etching jobs. AlsoI've been cutting hundreds of little bitty pieces of glass for 100fused glass crosses that the church ordered (the irony is not lost onme, an unbeliever).

And I've beenworking on some sun catcher/wind chime thingeys. Not sure what I'mgoing to do with them.

Coming up, wehave a workshop this weekend and then next week, I'll be working inthe store for 3 days and then the last day of the workshop thefollowing weekend.

And this comingFriday I have a preliminary presentation to give for to the gardenclub and library here for a possible sculpture for the library giftedby the garden club.

Here's a fewshots from the yard:

grasses bloomingin the 13 acre field

cat whiskers

gomphrenafireworks

Miss Hattie's Place

2011-10-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

FridayI worked at the antique store and then the first three days ofNovember I will also work. I had to open the shop and handleany sales and phone calls, then close up and lock up. My sisterprepped me a couple of weeks ago when we thought I was going to worka day for her back then, but the jury call was canceled. So knowingme as she does, she had all the important info written down for me,everything I needed to know (where all the light switches are, how towrite up a sale for the different vendors, how to handle it ifsomeone wants to haggle, how to open the cash register).

Iactually made two sales and helped one move out a drum table which mysister was thrilled that it sold. One of those pieces. Youknow what I mean. And it was.

Iwas talking to my daughter last night telling her that I would beworking at the store today and getting paid.

"Wow,Mom," she says, "that's like a real job. Have youever had one of those before?"

Yes,actually I have but it's been many years. In fact I think thelast time I had a job where I had to show up and work for 8 hours aday every day was back in 1974. I've been self-employed sincethen doing the artist thing.

It'sa sign of just how bad the economy is now that I've never had to seekemployment during all that time. Never until now when I am mostgrateful for these few days in the store and hope they become fairlyregular until things improve.

Butif I have to have a 'real' job, working in the antique store is an OKone to have. I'm surrounded by lots of cool stuff and I get arare chance to interact with people.

MissHattie's Place is in one of the old buildings on the square and facesthe courthouse that has recently been restored.

Besidessome very nice furniture...

buffets,dressers, wardrobes, china and display cabinets, chairs, tables, andcouches

youcan shop for vintage costume jewelry

miniaturetea sets

tinboxes and a Goofy pez dispenser

kitchenand farm implements

quiltsand tablecloths

chinaand crystal

depressionglass

aceramic parrot and a blue glass pegasus

andjust so much stuff...

Asyou can see, there is plenty of stuff to look at.

the acceptance of aging

2011-10-19T09:45:00.000-05:00

I'vebeen looking at and evaluating my body lately. My 61 year oldbody. 61! How did that happen? I mean, I know howit happened and I prefer that to the alternative, but still, it justseemed to happen so fast.

Iliked the 40s (even though I went through menopause) and the 50s weregood years too. But my 60s, my seventh decade, is taking somegetting used to. Who is that person looking back at me in themirror? I mean, some major changes have taken place, more Ithink in the last 10 than in the previous 20 or 30.

Upuntil about a year and a half ago OK, probably closer to twoyears, I worked out at the gym for an hour and then walked on thetreadmill for another hour three times a week and yoga for an houronce a week.

Iwas very buff. Great arms, shoulders, legs, butt, stomach, even myneck, all tight, firm, toned and shapely. Even had some fauxcleavage.

Butthen we completed the move to the country house and although there isa gym here at the junior college, the hours are restricted fornon-students and I could never work out a new routine given the timesthat the gym was available to me (I don't get up early enough for themorning session and by late afternoon, I'm either working onsomething or ready for a drink). I've also got a list of otherexcuses. Fact is, I've found other ways to fill that 2 hours a daythree times a week. Keeping fit is time consuming.

Butnow, though, I feel and look slacker. All that muscle turned to fatand migrated to my stomach. I'm not fat at 5'4” and 123 poundsand yet I have a ring around my middle that bulges over the waistbandof my pants.

At50 I underwent an interior image metamorphosis. You know, thepicture you carry around in your head that reflects how you feel,think you look. Even with the dim light and the small antiquesulfur stained mirror in the bathroom, I could no longer reconcilethe image in my head with the one that looked back at me.

Ididn't expect to have to make another adjustment so soon. Thisbathroom here is brighter, less forgiving. The mirror is biggerand newer.

The50s is when the body starts breaking down. That's when gray startedcreeping into my hair though even at 61 it's still mostly dark, thegray strands only seen close up. But it's also when my thyroid wentwacky and I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. Hence all the timespent in the gym. And then towards the end of that decade mycholesterol shot up. As ailments go though, these are pretty easy tohandle.

Iguess the thing I like least about this aging process is my skin. It's no longer smooth and blemish free. Now, I have a texture. It'slike my skin stretched and it's getting crepe. Ugh. Even theword sounds icky. Every scar I ever had has come back and sun damageis showing up; scaly spots, brown spots...my own personal sun spots. This white northern european heritage of mine doesn't age well. Myfriend Phyllis from India who is in her late 70s has gorgeous skin.

Idon't mind being older. I've lived a good life and I'm still livinga good life. And I don't really mind looking older. I have nodesire to extend a youthful appearance through artificial means. Isee lots of beauty in aged faces and there's a certain freedom inhaving an aging body.

Ijust wish I could shed my skin like a snake and have it refreshed nowand then.

winter garden

2011-10-16T10:20:00.000-05:00

Iwrote this early yesterday evening. This morning, I saw that todayis Blog Action Day 2011 and the topic this year is food.

I'msitting outside. There's a nice breeze and I'm in the shade ofthe pecan trees with the sun going down behind me. Thetemperature is perfect whatever it is.

I'mkilling time actually, waiting til it is time to leave to meet mysister at the local theater. It used to be a movie theater butobviously failed at some point. Now it's being used as thelocal community theater. I've been wanting to go to one oftheir productions and so my sister and I made plans.

Sittingin the yard, I'm sort of facing the garden. Emma the cat issleeping under the pepper plants. She likes to lay in thegarden. Earlier she was laying in the space between the okraand the peas that Marc just planted, right on top of the spot wherewe are going to put carrots tomorrow.

Frank'sgarden

It'swinter garden time, time to get things in before it's too late. Ourgarden is small since we are still learning about growing food. It'svery haphazard compared to our neighbor Frank's garden. Frank'sgarden is easily three times larger than ours, neat, all rectangledup, trenched around the edges to keep the grass out, row after rowplanted.

ourgarden

Ourgarden, a narrow strip on the other side of the yard, has no rows, noorganization to it at all. There are four tomato plantstogether at one end and one at the other. We also have, still,the four okra from the spring garden as well as the two bell pepperand two jalapeño pepper and one banana pepper, also from the springgarden. New and interspersed among them are three cauliflowerand two broccoli, one swiss chard and two horseradish that got stuckin there sometime this summer. Also peas that Marc put intoday, wrapping the wire fence around the okra.

Ihave no idea what we are going to do with the horseradish besidesjust let it grow.

littlegarden

I'veplanted beans and spinach in the strawberry bed which I refer to nowas the 'small garden'. It's at the back of the property. Iput in some carrot and lettuce seeds today to fill in where thespinach didn't come up. And I planted some zucchini in a bigpot out there in an attempt to fool the squash vine borer worms whichget my squash every year.

Wedon't grow enough to entirely feed ourselves but we do grow enough tocontribute to lots of meals. Frank, on the other hand feedshimself and his kids families and still brings stuff over to ussometimes.

Weaspire to growing most of our food and not just because its fresher,tastes better, and is more nutritious but because it just seems rightand it's certainly more satisfying than going to the grocery store. It's not just the eating of the food that nourishes us but theenergy, love, and effort that we put into it. We nourish theearth and it gives back to us.

Frank'spear tree seems a little confused about what season it is.

And besides, unless the economy improves, it's that or, as Marc like to say, Chinese cat food.

small town fun

2011-10-12T12:29:00.001-05:00

Thejunior college here in this small Texas town has started its concertseries and last night was the jazz concert. 'Jazz' seems to be a looselydefined term and I think that's what they call it because the band ismade up of mostly brass...trumpets, trombones, and saxophones. Theyalso had a drum set, a keyboard, and a bass guitar. The young womanwho played bass guitar had black hair with a big shock of magentaright in front. And the drum kit had two drummers who switched off.

Whatthey play is not exactly what I think of when I think of jazz andtheir song selection was not what I would call jazz either. I mean,Stairway to Heaven?

Ikid you not.

Stairway to Heaven

Alongwith a Blues Brothers medley, a King of Pop medley, Thriller, and OldTime Rock and Roll.

OldTime Rock and Roll had all us old farts rockin' an' a boppin'.

ButStairway to Heaven? I still can't get over that one. The middlepart was fairly upbeat but the beginning and end was a dirge. Likewhat they play on their way to the funeral.

Theprogram was blessedly short, about an hour, but all in all, anenjoyable outing. The kids are all right.

rainy day

2011-10-09T19:31:00.000-05:00

I'vehad a hard time tearing myself away from the windows and doors today. You see, it was raining. Really raining. A rainy day, not just ascattered 10 minute shower on an occasional day. Not a heavy rain,not a thunderstorm, some low rumbling of thunder but no lightning. Just a steady rain.

It'smagic. It's mesmerizing. It's been so long since I have seen a rainlike this.

Iwas out earlier, before it started, trying to determine how much rainwe'd got during the night. I remember waking up and hearing thunder.

Itook my camera with me in case I saw anything noteworthy.

Myminiature pomegranate tree (shrub?) that my sister grew from seed hasput on quite a few fruit. This was not the largest or even thereddest but it was the easiest for me to photograph.

Thefield sunflowers were late to come on this year. In fact, I didn'tthink we were going to get any at all. And then they surprised me.

Iwandered over to check on the spinach and beans I planted earlier inthe week and this first bean sprout was up. Some spinach too.

Thenit started raining and I did eventually get the mold filled I wasworking on.

We've had the doors open all day. The moist air hasfelt so good and the sound of the rain all day was so soothing.

It'sstopped now and I glanced up a moment ago and looked out and the skywas all pinky purple in the southeast. This is the first greatsunset we've had in months. The unrelenting blue sky would only fade intonight.

good day, goodnight