Sweltering

After the coolest spring since 1917 it is now sweltering. We are on day 2 of above 80° temps. I have never been so happy to see my feet swell up. I am sweaty and sluggish and thirsty for cold bubbling beverages in tons of ice. I love feeling hot.

The heat does wonderful things to common people. Yesterday in Vancouver I saw countless women in thin sun dresses strolling, pale skin and curves a plenty and lovely every one. We saw naked infants in their parents arms cooling off in the street, small limbs enveloped in warmth. Today the kids in the complex are running wild with their super soakers and penny whistles.

For the record I refuse to complain about the newly arrived temperature. I am embracing it like life. Gotta keep my core temp up while I can.

From the Radio

I heard this on the radio yesterday, I think it sums up many things

It's the birthday of poet Frank O'Hara, (books by this author)born in Baltimore, Maryland (1926). He wanted to be a pianist when he was growing up, but while he was a student at Harvard, he met the poets John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch, and they persuaded him to write poetry too. He moved to New York City in 1951. He got a job selling post cards at the Museum of Modern Art, and he slowly worked his way up to become one of the curators.

He fell in love with the abstract art of the 1950s, and he believed that poems should be improvisational, like action paintings. At the height of his career, he wrote constantly and stuffed his poems into his desk drawers, often forgetting about them.

Frank O'Hara wrote, "oh god it's wonderful/ to get out of bed/ and drink too much coffee/ and smoke too many cigarettes/ and love you so much."

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Solstice

Just coming down from an intense jag of work which was happily punctuated Saturday night with a nice solstice party here at Rancho Relaxo. As mayor of Rowanville I am always striving to offer my guests a totally pleasurable visit to the country (seriously). Luckily the weather was fine and we all sat outside around the bonds of fire. Mark launched a few bottle rockets, freaking out Eddy and the dog, but delighting everyone else.

It feels like we have successfully coaxed summer into gracing us once again. Maybe it does work–to invite your friends over–to call summer on all together, let it be known that it is missed, like a cherished friend. It felt good to do what our ancestors did and to really feel the desire for the sun. And the sun arrived like a neat package, up at 4 and no questions asked the next morning. I feel like an ad for the power of prayer.

It's no wonder I feel so darn happy.


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Hemp-O-Rific

This is my friend and client Betsy Cassell of Intertwined Designs. We met many years ago on the Farmers Market board and she lived at my place for about year. She was a great tenant and is a good friend. I have watched her business grow over the years through her hard work and dedication to creating a life she wants live. Needless to say I have a ton of her clothes.

Before I had a kid I wore clothes that needed ironing. Nowadays if I can wear a shirt non stop for 3 days (this includes sleeping too) I feel like I am really ahead of the game. Hemp Jersey is a great fabric it gets softer as you wear it and I am pretty sure it doesn't smell (too badly) when you sweat. The other day I was going for a walk and I had on one Betsy's Kriss cross tops with 3/4 sleeves, I was a bit cool so I threw on my new Racer. I realized this was ridiculous and whipped them both off and chose the racer on it's own. It was cozy enough and I looked super fast.

Today I am clad in a rust Scooper, long sleeves of course due to the cool summer we are having, with jeans and slip on keens. It's a great look and suits my rural, stay-at-home, DIY lifestyle. The best thing about Betsy and her clothes is how they embody her kick-ass lifestyle of hard work and playing hard too.

No subject

It's been a few days since I have had a coherent thought to blog about.

The first 3 days of school vacation went well. I was relaxed fully in mom mode, making plans for what we can do this summer while I juggle working 5 hours per day. I think it's going to be fine.

I am at Mark's currently I just had to snap this photo of our precious German engineered hound who follows me around a little too faithfully. Above her is a recently rescued painting I did in art school (400 hundred yrs ago). We got a call or an email perhaps a few months back from my step mother asking that I or Mark stop by to collect the residue of my early art school days. I was vaguely horrified at seeing all that stuff again but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Mark picked this blue faced guy to put on the wall in the spare room where I work and I sort of like him. My natural tendency is to hate or be highly critical of anything I made during the 80s but this sort of fits in here and reminds me of the painting class where I produced it. We met in an annex building down the street from my college in downtown Los Angeles and we did a new painting every class. It was really fun, we went through tons of canvases. Maybe for a summer activity Pearl and I can take turns painting one another.

How much would you pay for a higher education?

This was in my email today and I love it. I realize it's a mistake but what a wonderful one, it offers a whole new way to read and you feel challenged while you are doing it and so you are obviously worthy of the fake degree. It feels like a wonderful meaningful college typography exercise, a non-poem. The new word groupings are fantastic, makes it impossible to scan and read quickly so instead you notice the shapes of the letters and the lines and groupings they make and it becomes a whole picture instead of a paragraph. I love when I can notice my brain switching from verbal to visual.

That's what I saw, what does the internet see?


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My friend Brian sent this

What is up with us redheads?




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Wonder Drug

I am pretty sure the vitamin D therapy is working. I took 50,000IU twice a week for 4 weeks and while I hate to go all religious on y'all I truly feel like something vaguely miraculous has occurred. My low level gnawing depression seems to be subsiding.

I joked about this last week but perhaps there is some truth to it. I am descendant from Northern people, people who have suffered since time immemorial from a lack of light. When I was a kid living in Northern B.C. winter days were pretty short, we spent a lot of time looking forward to spring break-up. A month ago I considered taking anti-depressants almost as a last resort. I am a really positive person but my ass was seriously dragging no matter what uplifting messages I gave myself.

Last summer when I needed my D July was shit. We had 21 days without sun. That's not summer that's some sort of climate change apocalypse. The depression took hold then and has remained, ebbing and flowing until a few days ago when I realized the tide was receding on the grayness I was feeling. I actually feel good despite the cool and crappy weather we have been having. So needless to say I am going to be eating vitamin D like Hot Tamales, and enjoying my fabulous life as much as is legally possible.

Sort of Kinky

This came to me today. Sounds pretty hedonistic, an interesting approach to going green.

Whether you’re new to the field or a seasoned “green professional,” now is the time to learn and network with your peers. Come join us poolside at the Flamingo Resort in California Wine Country as we discover how saving the planet is the greatest business opportunity an idealistic entrepeneur (their typo not mine) will ever have. Check out more at www.prospercorporation.com.

Yowser right? Am I right?








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Living With Dial-Up

The book is finished, for now. I had to FTP the three fairly huge PDF files to the client today. As the internet knows (because it sees my computer like an x-ray machine) I am on dial-up here at Rowanville. This is a topic of great discussion for me and anybody I encounter who has any understanding of what I do for a living, or anyone who lives near me and suffers the same digital disadvantage. Living with dial-up is like living with impotence, only they have Viagra. I have nothing, no options, just resignation that anytime I need to send a few large files or receive the same, I have to pack up my laptop and hit the road. I can handle things under about 10megs but it still takes forever. If the files are under 50megs I go to Pearl's school and sit in the library on small chairs. If the files are larger like 100megs, I have discovered the library in my town of Everson is best.

So off I went to the library after dropping Pearl at school. I arrived at 9:07am to discover that the library didn't open until 10:00. I sent a few emails from the car and then went over to the coffee place which is owned by one of the moms from school. While I was inside I ran into a woman who used to babysit Pearl now and then. She works in one of the local bank branches, the same one that DoubleMRanch did work for a few years back. We had an enlightening discussion, it was good to see her looking so well. I got my Tea and headed back to the library. I let the dog out for a quick pee in the empty lot next to the library. Two dogs barked at us while Luna sniffed at their fence, hackles up. I strolled around the lot a bit and looked at the bushes by the library. There was some sweet looking rhody I might have to ask my friend Binda about.

At 10:00am they opened the library doors and in I went along with several other people who had been slowly gathering in the parking lot. I picked my spot, back of the library but facing forward, enabling me to key an eye on everything. Happily I had conversations with several people I know from my community. My neighbor who is a retired art teacher and I discussed the problems we have on the road with unlicensed 4 wheelers ridden by high school boys, and... wait for it...dial-up!. I also spoke to a couple of the women who work at the library, both artists. Another photographer friend stopped over and told me about a show of his work in Bellingham. I spoke with 3 strangers briefly. I ended up working for about 3 hours on the final section of the book while the first two sent. I downloaded some other job materials and finally sent the last book files.

To some the inconvenience of not having hi-speed is daunting, an annoyance, something that must be fixed. It is almost a point of shame and embarrassment to me at times. But today, it felt like an irresistible opportunity for enrichment and connection with my community.

Rainy Monday

Well the weekend was reasonably dry but today the deluge returned. After a good day of work in the office we are all (me, Eddy, Mark, Pearl, Iggy, Luna) hunkered down in the house. Mark has lit the fire and we are about to eat some pork burritos with strawberry rhubarb crumble for dessert. Then we are going to curl up in a ball en mass and hope that tomorrow is a better day.

One of the Things I Designed this Week

This is for Sustainable Connections Home and Landscape Tour later this month.

The Week That Was

The juggle is not over yet. I am halfway through the book I am toiling over. It is coming together but with all activities that involve organizing information in a visual framework, anomalies arise and have to be dealt with. Blocks that must be stumbled over and righted. Thank heaven for these long days on my own when I can focus on little else than the project at hand.

Have not been to the farm for days, have not spoken to Nancy. Will try and get down there over the weekend to finish what I started in the greenhouse. All the starts need to be planted out in the field, the pumpkins, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, the kale. God save the kale. At least all this shitty rain we have been having is good for my beet seeds because that watering by hand was really sucking. I have a whole new respect for CSA programs at the moment.

Had to light the wood stove tonight, the house was freezing. I refuse to burn anymore propane in there, it's June for pete's sake. The sun did come out late in the afternoon and I went out and let it shine right on me. Mike and Val stopped by with the kids and I gave them some of the surplus eggs. Ever since they moved off the property I have really had to work to give all the eggs away. My new tenant is allergic, dang!


Look at the time, it's time to lay this redhead down. Have a good sleep internet, oh right, you never sleep. Poor thing.

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Bloggy Hell

I want to blog. I should blog but I have 2 major projects I am working on, and several more in the wings. I must be attentive to my process because it is during this time of total work detail saturation that many problems get solved. I am not the type who can sit down and force myself to solve a problem, solutions for me drop from trees somewhere in my creative brain. I don't know why and I never know when it will happen. So for now there will be no blogging.