Posting gap! I lost access to this blog. Here we go again!
This is a painting of Yellow Bird by Shunda Wan!

Geodes: The Dilemma

Randall brought me these geodes yesterday.  He has had to confront 'poachers' on his land looking for these monsters. They are each about the size of a human head.

Inside each there will be a treasure cave of crystals. What to do?
1) Allow the imagination free play?
2) Break them open to reveal their hidden beauty?
Nature loves to hide.
Man loves to reveal.
Is it a virtue (reverence, respect?) to leave them be? Would we not be better off if we had not split the atom? Here is an image of an opened geode. They are not all so pretty.




"Geodes are spherical rocks encapsulating a hollow cavity that is lined with crystals. They begin as bubbles in volcanic rock or as animal burrows, tree roots or mud balls in sedimentary rock. Over time the outer shell of the sphere hardens and the interior fills with hot, mineral-rich liquids.
Over centuries the liquid evaporates and crystals form of varying shapes and colors that can only be seen when the geode is cracked open."

What to do? Open one of them? Usually they are (just) quartz. 

Lifting Mist

I woke with my life cloaked in mist. Pneumonia in its last stages of cling. I buttoned up and walked up to the lakes, huffing and puffing, hoping to watch the mist rise over the water and my mood with it. I came late - the mist had lifted. The cats asked to be caressed and Socks too. I made a figure of eight around the two ponds, consciously trying to unwind something, while also inscribing infinity. The surface of the water was already bright, and offering inverted images of the trees and sky. It felt like an image out of the same box as the prospect of lifting mist. Things are not what they may seem. This can become clear. Perhaps the truth is staring us in the face - just upside down. Thank you Plato. Thank you Hegel (verkehrte Welt).

FLOW: the film

Sarah Childress made this film at Yellow Bird last year.
Starring 'Jonathan' as the man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjr_XoaoaCU&feature=youtu.be

Hannah's Garden

Hannah came two weeks ago and left today for her next wwoofing stop, an apiary in N Carolina. She rescued the garden from my neglect, and finished planting seeds. Among other things. Here she is pressure washing the oak boards I'm cutting up into wedges to make a giant round bench for the lake firepit. On her last day she turned artist and made an installation of tiny bells in the trees in the Arch Garden.

As she was leaving this morning something strange happened. My cat Steely Dan Thoreau (deceased) was wont to get into the car through an open window, and even have lunch there, leaving the wrappers on the floor (feathers). I joked that if a cat smuggled himself in her truck Hannah would have a long way to drive back. This morning a mouse did just that, and hid in her truck lining. So she is taking him/her to N Carolina in the hope, eventually of coaxing him out of hiding. This is a mouse with no name and no special residency rights.
At the bottom, just such a mouse, inspecting the Cabin Outhouse. An outhouse mouse.

Bells in the boughs

Rainbow Dinner

This evening Yellow Bird really delivered. Everything was fresh from the garden, except the olive oil they were fried in.

Green beans
Yellow cherry tomatoes (Coyote)
Red tomatoes (Russian)
Blue potatoes (Peruvian ?)
Basil
Zucchini (half charred)

So many colors - glad I wasn't eating in the dark.
You can almost feel the anti-oxidants (e.g. anthocyanins in the blue pots) doing their good work.

More Wabi Sabi

This is a helpful article!

http://www.touchingstone.com/Wabi_Sabi.html

Tsukubai  silver-gelatin print  ©Tim Wong

A Crow's Caw  silver-gelatin print  ©Tim Wong

Mystic  silver-gelatin print  ©Tim Wong