Don't drive the tractor in your dress-up clothes
The time has come. The vegetable patch has partially been cleared of tired barren plants. A bed has been prepared & ready to receive the seeds for next year’s crop of garlic. The warm summer has transitioned beautifully into a glorious autumn. The nectarine trees continue to have beautiful huge green leaves while everything around…
Read MoreI Shouldn't Have Waited so Long
Yesterday, after thinking about it for two months, I sat down to practice the techniques I learned in a sculpting lesson. I wish I had done this sooner as my carefully studied & practiced skills are now a distant blur. My fingers struggle to comply with the instructions shouted by my brain. The skills are…
Read MoreIncommunicato
I need a new cell phone, I really do. I am not a technology whore. The cell phone that I own no longer rings and even I, a hater of phone conversations, must admit that this has rendered my already antiquated unit useless. This has been going on for about a month now, so I…
Read MoreTope-Landia: Adventures in Traveling by Taxi In Oaxaca, Mexico
Have you ever hit a tope (speed bump) at 40mph in a car with NO suspension? If not, you have never taken a Taxi in Oaxaca, Mexico. Well, I can’t be sure if he was really doing 40 because I couldn’t help but notice that the speedometer was non-functional. I remembered this taxi driver from…
Read More!El Maestro!
!El Maestro! It has got to be the pinnacle of coolness to be greeted as Maestro, Spanish for teacher, master, a title of extreme respect in this case. It seems as though nobody calls famed Mexican artist Francisco Toledo by his name. He is a man of small stature but colossal presence. Toledo walks the…
Read MoreLessons in Building a Grandisimo Mosaic Tile Mural
A year ago I started working on a grand project. To create a 600 square foot mural on a garden wall at our casita in Oaxaca, Mexico (see my previous post for “before photos”). So it has been 1 yr since I began this epic journey and I thought that I might share some of…
Read Moreyou're not listening
Why do you ask, when you either don’t care or aren’t going to believe me when I tell you? People ask “how’s your pain?” and then either insinuate that you’re not in the amount of pain that you say you are OR you aren’t suffering as much as when THEY: __fill in boring but dramatic…
Read MoreEmpty Nest
I have some avian drama unfolding at my place. To be specific, there is a nesting war between ‘Lil Ms. Wren and Mr.& Mrs. House Finch…. and it’s getting ugly. There is a sweet spot on my back porch which makes a charming place to build a nest & set-up household. The thing is there…
Read MoreOh those Potter's Hands!
I have a nice group of ladies who make pots with me on Tuesdays. It’s winter & lately there has been a lot of whinging about dry hands & broken nails. My hands are in the clay far more often than these gals. Add to that, my former life as a nurse has left me…
Read MoreYou Break it, You Bought it!
There could be a few things you don’t know about… well it is possible. For example, did you know that if you smack into a telephone pole & it breaks in 1/2… you just bought yourself a brand spankin new telephone pole for the low-low everyday price of $14,000?. At least that is what mine…
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