Patterns

Work in Progress

Well, I have started something else, although I am not sure just what. When a Christmas tree I planted some 25 years ago died (because of drought, I think) and was cut down, I saved a section to take to the sawmill. After racking and air-drying for two years, it is ready to be worked. It could be a coffee table, or a buffet/side table, or perhaps two end tables. Whatever it turns into, I hope it will stay in the family because of its sentimental history. Surface area shown here is about 60" x 21" x 1" thick.
The boards have a nice buttery color and numerous knots. Several also show some grey/blue spalting as seen on the left side here.

Partly Sunny, Partly Cloudy, Spring Day

Little Mouths To Feed

Baby red birds (Cardinals) Day Two

Baby Red Birds, Day one

As with the robins, these tiny new-born fluff-balls will triple in size, grow feathers, and fly away in about two weeks time!

Escape to Nowhere

A fourth photo/collage piece which Scriber has entitled "Escape to Nowhere", a suitable title. The composition is the most minimal of the four we have done. I don't know where nowhere is, but I'm sure it is a minimal kind of place! To see Escape to Nowhere click here.

More Babies!

Well, the baby robins left the nest yesterday, and today two red birds were born! Mommy is tending them in her nest above the window. It is going to be hard to get shots because the nest is positioned so close to the roof overhang that I can't get the camera far enough above them for much focus.
I stuck the camera up next to the roof and snapped this. Too bad I don't have a macro-capability. There are two babies. When they are big enough to get their heads above the nest maybe I will be able to get better shots.

Work In Progress

I am nearly finished with this piece. It is intended as a record cabinet for some one who collects vintage and newly released vinyl LPs. The body is of cabinet birch, and the top is a special piece of tiger-stripe Maple. Once I apply a satin polyurethane and a finish polish, it will be completed.
Edge of top being shaped to mimic a classic Heywood Wakefield edge. The next step on this edge is to round it down to a graceful taper.
Finished edge.
"Tiger stripes" some times occur in Maple wood. It is highly valued to make veneer furniture, and is also prized for forming the front and back of guitars, fiddles., and other such instruments.
Spalting is the result of a fungus within wood that creates interesting black lines and patterns. Spalting can also be blue in some cases.

How long is a life?

"One wild bird lived to be almost 14 years old, though most American robins in the wild will live about 2 years. Only about one quarter of all young American robins will survive the summer in which they were born." (Sallabanks and James, 1999)

Alex In Wonderland 3

Another in the series of collages by Scriber and me. In this one, I added 'paint blobs'! Check it out.

Off To See The World.......................

It was just after 6AM, just after dawn, when I went out onto the porch to check on the birds. To my surprise one was missing! And then I saw mommy and daddy robin in a nearby tree squawking up a storm. So I walked out into the yard toward the tree to see if I could spot their baby. But no sign. So I went back to the nest to get a pic of the two remaining babies, and just as I got there, one popped up and flew out of the nest! It was a short flight of about 12 feet to a soft landing in a cluster of leaves. I took a quick shot of the one remaining in the nest.



I then walked out to the yard to where I had seen the other bird land, and took this quick shot and then left it alone. Mommy and Dady birds were really hopping around in the tree top and fussing at me!


Stepping back up to the porch, I went to the nest to get another shot of the remaining baby, and discovered she had already disappeared!


So, 13 days after hatching, they are off to see the world! Meanwhile mommy red bird is still sitting on her eggs, and I think they will surely hatch very soon! So stay tuned for two little red birds!

Alex In Wonderland 2

A second collage by Scriber and Mythopolis (me). Click here to see it!

It Won't Be Long Now!

Day 12 These little birdies are about to outgrow the nest! (If you scroll down four frames to Day 10, you notice how much they have grown in the last two days!)

Pinwheel

Lost in Thought

A Wonderful Collaboration!

Scriber (in Texas) and I (Tennessee), just wrapped up a cool collaboration in which she sent me four of her wonderful photos (snail mail) and I cut them up in various ways to create collages. I loosely played with a dozen compositions. We had a number of friends e-mail us their favorite pics among them. The idea was to narrow the field to three, which we would then submit to a gallery for a collage show. I completed the top 4 and have sent them back to Scriber. She just posted the first of these on her blog site. To see what we came up with click Alex In Wonderland 1.

Staten Island, New York.....A Long Time Ago

1944 , to be exact. My mother at 19, sitting on a park bench. I am about a month old in this picture. That would make it mid-August. Do you think I am bundled up enough for a hot summer day? : )

Day Ten

Feathers are filling on out. Next week, they may take to the tree tops. On the average, robins, are ready to fly about 12-14 days after hatching! Uh oh! You know what that means? Empty Nest Syndrome! I better make an appointment with my shrink! Or, maybe not, since mommy red bird should hatch her babies out pretty soon. : )

Getting the Garden Started

Making a garden makes a mess! The worst part was getting all the weeds out. I'll let them dry on the patio a couple of days, and then burn them off in the fire pit. Mommy robin was quite unhappy that I have been working so near her nest of babies and fussed at me a lot. I think she is happy now though, since I have provided her with freshly turned soil making it quite easy to find grubs and worms to feed her babies!
The two terraces next to the patio. The lower ones hold "Early Girl", "Cherry", and "Lemon Boy" tomatoes; the latter being yellow tomatoes. Also, loose-leaf lettuce, radishes, yellow sweet onions, several varieties of bell peppers, and poblano pepper. The upper tiers hold giant sunflowers and corn. I doubt if I will have much success with the corn, since the plot is small and thus, chances of cross-pollination are not good. But, it will be fun watching it grow, , and maybe I'll get a few tasty ears out of it!
The tire tread I picked up off the highway is now filled with good soil and a bamboo tipi. Pole beans and morning Glorys have sprouted and will soon climb the poles. Around the perimeter, radishes and some marigolds, and the center will hold a mix of loose-leaf lettuce.
I made this clay pot some 30 years ago in Texas. From time to time it has held plants, veggies, or sometimes ice to keep beer cold at a cook-out. This year it is home to basil and dill, chives and also some bachelor's button flowers for color.

Wah! Wahh!! Wahhhh!!! Feed Me!

Day Seven: And then there were three.......?

I think one little robin is missing. I see only three. Its possible one died and mommy removed it from the nest, or it is remotely possible that the fourth robin is underneath these three. Stay tuned.

About an Hour's Work..............

This morning I stopped to look at a stretch of highway not too far from my house. I pass this place all the time and I like to glance over at the rocky bluff. But of course, I can't help but see the litter tossed to the bottom of it.

A closer look..............

Partial inventory: Plastic cups, styro cups, potato chip and other snack bags, McDonald's food bags, beer cans, beer bottles, and whiskey bottles too. ETC.......



It looks a little better now.............

Things to do today.....................

1. Contemplate how little the earth needs us.
2. Consider how we can dig it up, blow it up, burn it up, trash it, poison it.
3. Think about how it is not the planet that is endangered, it is our survival on the planet, that is at risk.
4. Imagine humankind taking its place on the long list of endangered species.
5. Imagine our own extinction.
6.Imagine the earth still spinning and circling the sun the same way it did before we ever arrived on the scene.
7. Imagine the earth still spinning and circling long after we,as a kind, have turned to dust.

The earth does not need us. It is we, who need the earth. A good day to think about our vulnerability in the big scheme of things. A good day to look at the world around us with humility, and consider how we are pulling the very rug we live on, out from under ourselves.
((Poster by Dion Laurent. Later today, I will pick up some trash along the roadside and consider how much better it looks....and wonder how long it will take before it is trashed all over again.)
Rescued Irises
Two years ago, along a nearby road side I noticed a wooded area being leveled by a team of bulldozers. The local quarry had acquired the land and was preparing to dig and dynamite it and create another big hole in the countryside. So, on a Sunday morning, when they were not working, I took a long winding walk through a maze of fallen trees Huge trees pushed over by heavy machines, with their roots ripped up from the ground. I found numerous small and old bottles and remains of rusty cans. Someone had lived here long ago. And I came across these Irises. Perhaps not wild Irises. Perhaps planted by someone now long gone. I dug a clump of them up and transplanted them in my back yard. Last year, they grew but didn't flower. This year, they look like this!

Day Six in Bird Land

Not too much to say about little baby robins today. They seem the same sleepy babies they were yesterday. But I did get a glimpse of mommy red bird sitting in her nest. She is much shyer than Robin mom. She flies away in a flash, when I come out the back door. Its not much of a picture, I know. But I shot it blind, just sticking my hand with cam out the door and snapping. If you enlarge you can see her red beak and up-turned tail feathers. A National Geographic photographer, I am not! So you have to take my word for it, she is sitting on her eggs. : )

Tiny Speck Talking Trash

Thats me. A tiny speck in a vast universe. Never mind, it is so arrogant to think I am that big. If my neighbor drove a mile down the road, and looked back, I would be a tiny speck. So on a universal scale, it is presumptuous to claim the status of a tiny speck. I am more like a very microscopic organism on the back of a tiny mite on the leg of a little flea hopping around on a tiny speck in a vast universe. Ummm, No. I am not even that big. I am so complicated in my own mind, and yet, not even as substantial as my own breath. As a kid I thought how cool it would be to be invisible. Now, I realize, in some ways, I am!

Having said all that, and not knowing what it means, Earth Day is tomorrow. And I am determined to go to an area of highway I chose months back. And pick up trash. I have already started my garden. It is more of a ritual of participation and renewal than the creation of some sustainable food source. I put tiny specks in the ground and they turn into things I can eat! What a concept! I don't know really whether to fear for those beyond my time, or wish I was one of them. It seems like a flip of a coin. Maybe we will figure this out, or maybe its too late already. Meanwhile, I try not to be some short-lived meaningless fluke of the universe. I won't know how this drama plays out. If we can survive the ecological crisis, we may stand a chance at world peace. At this time, to me, it seems 300 years away. Make your little speck bigger on Earth Day and do something. I will be doing it with you, in my miniscule corner of the world.

When I was just a toddler, and bumbling around, and falling down, and bumping my head or knee on one thing after another....trying to figure out, in some simple childish way, how to negotiate life, my grandmother would dust me off, and say, "Get up and try it again!" And this is what I do each day. I get up, and I try it again! : )

Free Roxanna Saberi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day Five: Here's lookin' at ya, Kid!

Today, is the first day that at least one of the babies has opened his/her eyes!

What's Wrong With This Picture?!!

Well, its a birdhouse for the local blue birds, and for the past two years they have nested there. But this year...no blue birds. The problem is that it is not the cushy little place it used to be. Before, it was nestled in among the over-hanging branches of my neighbor's long needle pine tree. But now, there are no branches.
Here's a severed pine branch place to suggest the way the tree and birdhouse were situated. It seems that what has happened is that the absentee landlord of the house next door has decided, between tenants, to do some yard work. Basically he stripped the pine tree of all its branches for about 20 feet up, leaving about 6 feet of branches at the top.
So this is what the lovely long-needle pine tree with its draping and low hanging branches looks like now! I am still in a state of shock every time I look at it. And the blue birds obviously don't like it either. No wonderful dense branches to hop around on. It is said, that 'good fences, make good neighbors', but obviously, it isn't necessarily so!

Uh Ohhh!!!!!

You may remember that several months ago, I began talking about taking my run-away bamboo grove out....permanently. Have I done this yet? No! And so, this morning, I go out to look it over and several dozen new shoots have sprung up over night!! The photo above shows at least a dozen spikes coming up. This is a single days growth! Yikes! And it is marching steadily toward my neighbor's yard. The back fence is just out of frame..less than three feet away! I have created a monster! Within a few years, the entire community of Pottsville may be lost in a dense bamboo forest.! I must assemble an emergency task force immediately to plan a course of action! And I must appeal to the President to declare my back yard a federal disaster area, so we can get some funds to purchase shovels, and picks, and axes, and chain saws, (Oh, My....!) and dynamite, a couple of bulldozers, and maybe a helicopter so we can view this rampaging threat from above. What else? A couple of hostage negotiators, night vision goggles, and maybe some sand bags.............

Day Four : Sleeping Babies

Woman at Dusk

First Iris... Opening

Spring Fever!

Day Three: Hungry Babies!

Of Weeds and Flowers

The poor, misunderstood Dandelion. While considered by many as a nuisance weed, it produces a pretty yellow flower, and then sends up a long stem with a 'puff ball' full of tufted parachutes ready to fly away. The seed carried by each tuft carries the exact identity of the flower. The Dandelion is asexual, and essentially clones itself. Children (and adults too!) like to pluck the puffball and blow on it, sending the seeds far and wide. Petals of the Dandelion flower can be used to make wine, or a healthy herbal tea of medicinal value. The sap of the stem can be applied directly to the skin to ease the pain of sores and bee stings. As for the roots, once roasted and ground, they can be used to make a non-caffeinated coffee, also of medicinal value.
Azaleas are showing off right now. "Tugyonju" , or 'Azalea wine' can be made from these blossoms. Hopefully, your dog does not chew on Azalea shrubs, since it is highly toxic to them!

More Bird News!

The red bird that seemed to have abandoned her nest building for several days, has returned and finished the job. So, she and mommy Robin are back porch neighbors!
So far, she has laid two speckled eggs!

Babies on the Back Porch!

Yesterday Mommy Robin gave birth to four babies in her nest on the back porch banister! I will post more photos soon. Here, they are but a few hours old! : )

Sea and Sand and Paradise Lost

Looking down into the clear surf at the edge of this beach you see dozens of little seashells...a collector's paradise.
The sun shimmers on the surface of the pristine coastal waters.
I was so lucky to get this rare shot of two very tiny "Obsidian Snails", which you may know, are on the endangered species list.
This really irks me! What appears at first to be a lovely shell half buried in the sand just beneath the water, turns out to be a big blob of butter! Its a growing problem along our coastal shores when the many cruise ships dump their kitchen waste into the sea!


Another blob of butter! And unfortunately, it looks as though someone has stepped on this one. When the butter gets between the toes of the beachcomber, it inevitably begins to attract flies, and sand fleas. Local clinics are reporting a higher incidence of insect bites on the feet of tourists.

I actually turned this photo over to the authorities. A spoon and a blob of butter! The engraving on the spoon is clearly the logo of Carnival Cruise cutlery! I felt it was my civic duty to report this disregard for the beauty of our coasts and coastal waters.


(This post was inspired by Scriber, without whose encouragement to explore marine photography, I would not have gotten these shots! )

Examining Felt Wounds

Life's Highway, The Short Version

Chicago going home in a sea of traffic in the rain.
The lights of Albuquerque just before dawn after driving all night long.
Following two ruts in the dirt into the woods on a moonless night.
White knuckling my way on the L.A. freeway
In the setting sun, of course.
Racing with the moon on a certain midnight run.
A man with a bloody bone sticking out of his arm
Waving me down with a flashlight frantically,
His car wheels still spinning upside down in a ditch.
Telling me deliriously he needed
To get his record albums
Out of the trunk.
A desert highway in Mexico where I drove for hours not seeing anyone.
Except a solitary peasant holding up a cage with a bird
In hopes I would stop and buy it.
Driving down from British Columbia and across the border
Stoned out of my mind.
Falling asleep at the wheel and waking up in a cornfield.
Hallucinating on a motorcycle trying to make Amarillo before dawn
After an all night ride from Little Rock.
Hitch hiking with a trucker who hadn't slept in three days
And talked non-stop while popping Black Beauties
And West Coast Turn-Arounds.
Ditching my car in a snow bank in a Virginia blizzard
Trudging three miles to a motel
But there was no one there to give me a room.
A woman crying at a gas station outside of Vegas.
Having gambled her ticket home.
Blowing a head gasket in the middle of the Mojave desert.
Stuck between two trees off-road on a hillside
And having to chainsaw my way out.
Driving north of Fairbanks, Alaska until the road ended.
Stuck in Wisconsin with a blown motor.
Hitchhiking home with two dudes from Detroit who handed me a gun
And told me to hide it when a cop was following us.
Opening the back door and feeling glad to be home.

Having trouble getting your own way?

Whether it is some difficulty at home, or in the workplace, you need not worry about differences of opinion anymore. Just a splash or two of this miracle lotion will send all such dissenters to other rooms cowering in fear and trembling. Have it your way today!

Sitting Ducks

If you were a fisherman along the Somali coast some time ago, you would have found it quite discouraging that the world did not notice or seem to care about the practice of illegal commercial fishing enterprises in Somali waters. They were robbing you of your living, but no one seemed to care. Not even your own government....and in this case there was no government, just competing warlords. Nor did anyone seem to notice that deals struck between several foreign countries and whatever warlords were in control at the time, allowed these countries to dump their toxic waste in Somali waters at bargain prices. Radioactive waste...heavy metals and the like, complicated the fisherman's life even more. And high seas hitting the coast, not to mention the Tsunami of 2004, resulted, not surprisingly, in a high incidence of unusual diseases and afflictions in coastal communities.
So what was a fisherman to do? Organize. Get pro-active. Take to the waters in numbers, and try to turn away these invasive vessels from far away places. So, that is what they did. Of course, the warlords took note of this activism. And it dawned on them that big money could be had by not deterring foreign vessels, but hijacking them and holding them for ransom. Hence, the birth of the Somali pirate. And its been a booming business ever since. As for the fishermen, they either joined the pirate ranks, or sat along the shore beside their dry-docked ships.

(This is based on an article I read recently about the Somali coast. Perhaps, I have over-simplified the situation, but this was the picture I got.)

Window in the Mud Room

Back Yard News

First of all...about the birds. The nest on the wind mill (above) seems to be a lost cause. While the robin had begun sitting on her eggs, it seems she has been missing for two days. Yesterday, while walking in that part of the yard, I noticed quite a few small feathers in the grass...the small fluffy little feathers you would typically find on a bird's breast. I suspect either a cat or an owl. If it had been my dog, I would have found the body, since once she kills something, she just drops it and leaves it.
Meanwhile, the cardinals seem to have given up on their nest building project. I don't know why...it was made of dried pine needles and perched in the rose vine. Perhaps a wren will take it over. It would be typical of a wren to use somebody else's nest, although sometimes they build their own.
So, the only on-going bird story is the robin nesting on the banister of the back porch. Despite my coming and going, and gardening in the back yard, she is still sitting on her nest of four eggs. I think she is happy I am gardening, since when I go in the house and look out, she has left her nest to poke around in the newly turned soil. Lots of yummy bugs and worms for the soon-to-arrive babies! : )

Meanwhile, rain, rain, and more rain! Mostly pleasant spring rains except for a couple of days ago. That was when the torrential rain/hail/tornado "event" occurred. The closest touchdown was about 30 miles away. It did a lot of damage and killed two people. I kept looking out the window at the robin on the porch rail. She was really getting it. She had her wings spread out over her nest determined to protect her eggs. I was worried she might get knocked out by the hail, some of which was the size of your average marble!

Not much to look at, I know. But, lots of potential. One of three garden patches. Two, are terraced like this. The other is the truck tire garden. In this one shown, the top tier is sowed with giant sunflowers, which will hopefully be tall enough to shelter and shadow the lower tier when the summer sun gets rough. Aside from one tomato plant, the lower tier is sowed with various loose-leaf lettuces. The other terraced garden is still a weed patch. But it will be planted with another tomato, and five varieties of bell peppers...none of which are green(Big Red, Chardonnay, Purple Beauty, and Diamond..a yellow/green) The tire tread garden is now staked out with a bamboo pole tipi over it for pole beans and morning glories. Under the tipi will be more lettuces, radishes, some flowers. Hopefully, I will have something to show besides dirt next month!

Pepper sprouts!

Free Falling Through a Hole in my Head

I hiked a gentle wooded slope of pasture up to the tree line entered the woods, and followed a faint and winding trail until I came to a large out-cropping of weathered rock. I walked along beside it, admiring the mosses and lichen, and the small delicate ferns that clung to it, and came at last to the spring. It was a small but steady trickle of water that spilled from a crack in the rock, and splashed into a pool of water in a basin of little rounded pebbles. I filled my cupped hands and splashed it on my face, then put my mouth to the pool and drank. Refreshed, I went on climbing toward the top of the hill to where the woods gave way to an open field of tall grass. I laid down there, and stared up at small white clouds drifting slowly by. I closed my eyes and simply laid there breathing. I inhaled the little clouds and blew them out again onto their palette of blue. I gazed dreamily down the slope to the valley, and saw a slender girl walking there along a dirt path. I followed her with my eyes until she stopped briefly to look up at me, and then continued along a bend into some hidden hollow. I got up then, and waded the tall grass down to the trail. And I rounded the bend as she had. But she was not there. I continued on into the woods, and came upon an old abandoned house of glassless windows , and a door hanging so precariously on its hinges, it seemed it would come crashing down if given the slightest nudge. I walked in cautiously and quietly, as though the place might collapse on me if I made the slightest wrong move. I followed a dark hallway to an open door, and looked in. I was astonished to see a young child sitting on the side of a bed. There was a large open book of blank pages resting on the child's lap. The child looked up. I realized instantly...the child was me.

(This is a re-write of a piece I wrote about a year ago. One day I will tell it exactly right!)

To Sleep Perchance to Dream

Sleeping Magnets
The Memory Pool
The First Dream
The Second Dream

Dylan Thomas

THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

One Thing Living on Another Thing Dying

Emptiness of the Morning After

See Scenic Pottsville!

Big and Little

I had a dream last night about my grandfather. Actually it was about my grandfather's hands. He had long bony fingers with large knuckles. His fingernails were always black around the cuticles. He was a coal miner. And as a child, I remember he would take my little puffy hand and hold it palm up. Then he would lightly drum his fingers on my palm and say, "Inktum, Tanktum, Ranktum, Shanktum." I didn't know then, and I don't know now, where that phrase came from, or what - if anything - it means. But it seemed somehow hypnotic and tranquilizing. He was the neighborhood faith healer in a small rural coal-mining community. Young mothers would bring their sick babies to him, and he would perform a healing ritual. He would hold the baby on his lap, and with a loosely formed fist placed to the baby's mouth, he would blow through his fist and into the baby's mouth. It was called "thrushing". In performing this ritual, he would recite some scriptural passage that my aunt, years later, told me was from the Old Testament of the Bible. Ezekiel 16: 6...."And when I passed by thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live."

He was a gaunt man with sunken eyes. All skin and bones and taut lean muscle. And I remember tracing with my finger, the large and bulging blue veins that ran down his forearm and his wrist and branched out to each of his bony fingers. I somehow admired those veins. I wanted to have veins like that someday.

The Show Girl and the Astronaut

The Cowboy and the Dinosaur

Blob Shower!

Endless blobs of warm and wet water, all over my head, My neck. My shoulders. Wonderful blobs all over me! I sang "Cry Me A River", then I sang, "Happy, Happy, Talking Happy Talk", then I sang, "Rain Drops are Falling On My Head", then I broke out into an amazing version of "Stormy Weather ". After a brief intermission, wherein I got really soaped up with my soap on a rope, I sang, "I Gotta Be Me". After that, I stepped out into the fogged up bathroom, and wiped the mirror with a wash cloth. I broke out into, "I'm the Barber of Seville" , and only nicked myself a couple of times. After that, I got dressed and went to work.

Complex Knot

Night Blobs

Blob Mythology

He was a trader of things. This for that. The relative value of these things was not too clear. To each his own, as to who got the best of the deal. But he was somehow addicted to this process of swapping one thing for another. But then, one day, an extraordinary stranger appeared with a handful of blobs. He was a smooth talker. They were "special" blobs, he said. As he examined the blobs with an exaggerated skepticism, he realized, or fantasized, that each blob seemed to contain a whole universe of its own. He traded everything he possessed to own these blobs.
His wife was furious. "We are now homeless. The house, the car, everything is gone. And all we have is a handful of blobs!" In his grief over all that had been lost, he ran hysterically out into the night and threw the blobs up into the black sky, then fell, crying hysterically to the ground. His wife sensing his anguish knelt beside him. "Look up..look up!", she said. At last , he rolled over and stared up in amazement at thousands of stars. "Look", she said, What are those?" "I have no idea" he replied, as burning lights streaked through the night sky. "And what is that?", she asked, pointing to a large creamy white sphere. Again, he shook his head, "I don't know." She hugged him as he sat up. "Let's call it the 'moon' ". He nodded wearily, "Yes, the moon."

Notable Blobs

Yes, this will be on the final exam!

#1 We all live inside of a big invisible blob. In fact , it is a blob that is big enough to contain our entire solar system. It is called the heliosphere.

#2 There is a rarely seen fish that lives deep beneath the waters off the Australian coast. and is mostly gelatinous. It is commonly referred to as the Blob Fish. People lacking an appreciation of blobs, commonly call it the ugliest fish in the sea.

#3 On the planet Mars, it is has now been confirmed that large blobs of an unknown substance were blown across the soft and dusty surface by solar winds to form what we commonly refer to as "canals".

One of these statements is false.

Understanding Blob Behavior

Blobs of automobile lacquer on paper and how they react to water.

Blobular Dynamics, Lab Session # 1

While blobs appear to be essentially all alike, they are not. Each blob is unique and is a product of the forces acting upon it. To carry out this investigation, we will apply a simple force to a blob to observe the ways in which the blob's identity is altered. To begin, you will need to retrieve a blob from the blob holding tank. It is important that you wear rubber gloves in handling the blob and take great care in carrying it to your table.
And you will need to retrieve a hammer from the hammer closet. Be sure your blob-resistant safety glasses are properly secured before attempting this experiment .
Notice how a direct blow to the blob by an irresistible force causes a rapid expansion in the form of spikes in all directions. Homework: Explain what this has to do with the creation of the universe.
Here we observe how a glancing blow to one side of the blob causes a perfect hole on the other side of the blob. Homework: Explain why.

Blobular Dynamics 102

In this course we will examine the origins of the blob. Where do blobs come from? And why? And what do they want? What do they think about? And are they capable of feeling? Only students who have successfully passed Blobular Anatomy will be admitted to this class.

Bluebird of Unhappiness

I was talking to a friend today about my crazy backyard bird situations, and she told me a funny one about bluebirds that nest every year in one of her bird houses. Bluebirds have been on the decline in this country because of diminishing habitat, as well as pesticide and herbicide issues. So it is nice to have bluebirds around and provide them with a home. I have a bird house on a fence post that bluebirds nest in every year. And so does she. However, every day of late, when going to her car, she has noticed lots of bird poop running down the panels of the front doors. As it turns out, it is the local bluebirds. Evidently, they fly to her car and perch on the door panel right there where the window begins, and look at themselves in the rear view mirrors! So she came up with the creative solution of placing plastic grocery bags over the mirrors each day upon returning home. Voila! No more bluebird poop! (I guess the bluebirds were primping, in that it is the mating season!)

Early Bloomers

Dogwood tree (not fully blossomed out)
Redbud tree (seems more like fuschia bud to me...)
Forsythia bush
Azalea bush

Crazy Bird Situation # 4 !!

On my back porch and tucked into a niche between the post and the lattice...A Robin's nest!

She has obviously been busy! Four beautiful blue eggs!

Reincarnating the Ghost Bug!

Actually, I am trying to keep torrential rain off this vehicle which is in mid-restoration. ('72 VW Super Beetle convertible!...) It sat uncared for in all kinds of weather for almost 10 years with a blown motor...so, it was in pretty rough shape. Currently all structural/mechanical work is done...including an overhaul of the chassis or under-carriage, new floor pan, new brakes all around, plus new master cylinder, and a brand new, right out-of-the crate motor from Volkswagen of Brazil, where you can still get the original motor! All that's left is body work, interior, a new top, and a cool paint job! It will take another year, but then I will have a vintage VW with zero miles....! It will be a real joy ride! When the weather dries up, I will pull off the tarps and show you some pics of what's left to be done.

This is what it should look like upon completion, but not necessarily this color:

Crazy Bird Situation # 3

First, the nest on the windmill, second, the nest in the rain gutter, and this, just in from the back porch, a nest in progress atop the rose vines. Just moments ago, I stepped out onto the porch and surprised two Cardinals who were building this nest. It was a male and female, and that is interesting, that they share the nest-building responsibility! Anyway, they have only just begun, and I hope I haven't scared them off. It would be so pretty to have some baby red birds in their nest, with pink roses blooming around them!

Somebody is in Trouble!

Not me, but some mommy-to-be bird who built this nest in my rain gutter! And right on top of the downspout! This is the second instance of birds building their nests in the wrong place in my yard....the first, being the bird who built her nest beneath the blades of my ornamental windmill. In that case, I was able to fix the windmill so it wouldn't turn in the wind and shred the nest. As for the nest in the rain gutter, I am afraid this may be a lost cause. It is about to storm, and rain is going to come pouring down my porch roof and onto this nest. There are no eggs in the nest, so hopefully she will start over somewhere else. On a side note, the greenery above the nest is where my climbing rose scaled the lattice on the side of the porch, then began making its way along the interior of the porch roof, and finally exited as shown, over the bird's nest! Another out of control situation! : )

Ghost Town Mule

New Millenial Unemployment Blues

If I had a dollar for every dime I spent
On the daily paper, every time I went
To the Want Ads trying to find myself a job...

I'd put it all down in a paper bag
And I'd tie it all around with an old grease rag,
I'd go down to the bank and talk to the president, "Bob."

I'd say, "Look here, Bob..I want a big estate,
I want crystal goblets and china plates,
And an electric knife..I'll pay you for your time."

And here's the plans for my custom car...
Its shaped just like my old guitar
With a musical glove box, that plays my favorite rhymes.

(Songs like "Tea for two, and none for you,
and you for me, and that will do..."
Sing it with me, Bob!)

And when the pool is done, you'll be one of the guests
To jump in the water and to be impressed
By the electrical fence, that keeps out the other slobs.

But I don't have a dollar for all the dimes I spent
On the daily paper every time I went
To the Want Ads trying to find myself a job.

So, I guess I'll go down to the neighborhood bank,
And talk to the officer, Mr. Frank
And beg, "Please Mr. Frank, don't repossess my shirt."

And, "Please, Mr. Frank, I need a small loan...
All that I have that I can call my own
Is yesterday's paper, and that ain't even worth dirt!"

Spring comes to the Rock Garden

Phlox

Confusion Amidst the Clutter!

I live in a personal world of clutter. I can hardly leave the house without coming back with some new worthless thing to add to my collection of junk. I don't mean something I bought. Just something I found on the street, on the sidewalk, in a field. I make U-turns in the road if I noticed some ambiguous discarded object along the roadside. I just have to know what it is! Since occasionally I make things out of found objects, just about anything has some mysterious potential in my cluttered mind! Of course, its been a good while since I made any "junk" art, but I still keep collecting!

Here are some of my recent acquisitions................


A partial inventory reveals.....
Numerous flattened and rusty bottle caps
A piece of tire tread
Broken ceramic head of a unicorn (a rare find, in deed!)
A broken oven thermometer
Etc, etc................

And oh, the large gray rectangular object I found by the railroad tracks. It is a brittle fragment of a rubber box-car bumper, and has a cute "face" on it! A real one-of-a-kind. : )