Clematis and Friends

 

And on the Seventh Day She Rested

 

Poppies

 

From the Woodshop

The weed pots are from a fallen apple tree. Suzie and Nancy offered John some bits of it and he was pleasantly surprised at how pretty the wood is. (Ladies, we have a weed pot set aside for you uns as a thank you.)

The bowl is from a dead ash that had been lying on the ground for some time--which probably accounts for the pretty spalting.

Most of the weed pots cracked as they dried, allowing John to have some fun with his version of kintsugi.

                                                                                  

Now that the mowing/weed eating season is upon us, there won't be as much time for the shop, alas.

For those who expressed interest in buying a piece. Only the last two are currently available. (John still has applewood to work with.) Here are some better pictures showing two sides of each. I'm calling them "Squat" and "Tall."

Squat has just sold. 

SOLD

SOLD

Talking About The Tall Woman

                                                                        

THURSDAY, MAY 25, 7-8 PM Talk on The Tall Woman by Vicki Lane,  West Asheville Library - 942 Haywood Rd. - Asheville (828) 250-4750 westasheville.library@buncombecounty.org Author Event, Li     terature, Online Programs Celebrating the novels of Wilma Dykeman! This series  of 3 talks begins May 25th with best-selling novelist  Vicki Lane discussing The Tall Woman.   This is a hybrid event, with in-person option or  Zoom option. To register for Zoom event  please email: novels@wilmadykemanlegacy.org Refreshments provided!

                            

                              I'm honored to have been asked to lead a discussion

                             on this fine novel. I first read it years ago when we

                             moved to the mountains and on re-reading some forty 

                              years later, see the many congruences between Dykeman's

                             Civil War tale and its protagonist and my own Crows and

                              Judy Shelton

                              I'll say more about Dykeman's classic novel after the event.

Banned in Florida?

Such a beautiful sight! And so many cultures have read a meaning into it--beyond the scientific explanation. The Judeo-Christian traditionsees it as a sign of the deity's choosing to spare mankind (what's left of it) after the flood. African and Aboriginal Australians see/saw it as a creator goddess/snake. The Romans had Iris, goddess of the rainbow, who, along with Mercury brought messages to mankind. Norse tradition saw it as a bridge for heroes climbing to Valhalla.

Today, in the US, the rainbow has been claimed by groups promoting diversity and by LGBTQ groups and their allies. (Also, by little girls who love pink and purple and unicorns too.)

I gotta say, the first thing I think of when I see a rainbow these days is a heavenly 'Up yours,' to the increasingly and worryingly authoritarian governor of Florida. 

"Ban this, Ron!"

 

The Merry Month of May

 

Really?

A tiny, featherweight box of spot bandages (needed for a recent dermatological procedure) shipped in a much too big cardboard box--why?

 

Birthday Party

There were kids and parents and grandparents and cupcakes and hotdogs and fruit kebabs and veggie kebabs and hula hoops and bubbles and a pinata. And lots of pink and lots of presents. Josie had a fine time with her cohort of little girls.