ridin' the coaster on rollers

What a week!

My friend Deborah at work had to put her dog Diva down yesterday. She was going blind, and diabetic, lots of problems. I just learned that another online friend's dog died this afternoon. So I'm having myself a bit of a tear over here. Interestingly, I did light a candle at dinner, which I haven't done for a long time, and that was before I learned about little Kerry's passing today. Oh the furry little people beings of the planet! We should all be so unconditionally cool, huh?

Last night I climbed the fig tree outside, right there - over there, practically within arm's reach of me on my back deck. I really love fresh figs. And, I love fig trees. The bark is smooth, the limbs are strong and supple. This tree is fairly well-established, with a few limbs I can climb up in and then sway to and fro while plucking fruit from the high-up places. The leafs are broad and shapely, like oxbows.

I ate my way through the garden,





and saw John rounding the corner stuffing his face with fresh food too - it was great! I haven't seen him in three weeks....he was called away suddenly to the east coast (death of a friend's mom). Was really good to see him - he's a warm person.

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle. For the first time in history, my computer completely froze up. Just now. (glad that Blogger now autosaves) It's the year for things to go belly-up I guess. I better take it in to the shop, before the warranty expires......which isn't until next year, but dammit!

Well so yesterday afternoon I dropped this off on Olive St. for Free Art Friday:



It's P.I.Grubb, yeh. Did I even post last week's? Nope. Here:



The third installment!

I'm realizing that as I think over the last week, most of my good memories involve food. There is so much abundance here, and growing the food is a very humbling experience. Dinner with Kendra and we're both squealing because it's all so good (I make everything from scratch too......I am SO into baked/refried beans!). Dinner with Jacque and Marsha - twice - fresh gardenstuffs. Making fresh pesto. And actually tonight my whole place smells like garlic. Earlier I was rather choked up with it. I think it's too green - it's really pungent. I put it in olive oil to soak and maybe mellow.

But really. If everyone really really REALLY GOT how interconnected we all are, and how dependent we as humans are on our ecosystems to sustain us.....I really really REALLY don't think we'd go around mucking the place up like we do.

Okay, so everything in the chain of life seems to have a purpose. Or, to contribute something to the greater good. Symbiotic relationships abound.

What do humans contribute? To the healthy functioning of any kind of physical system?

Seems like all we do is take take take.

And I'm out in the garden tonight, crooning to all the living things that will grow and feed us and I'm thinking......you all just continue to give, and give, and give. The broccoli is ready. And when I cut the head from the stalk, more broccoli florets will grow. And when I harvest the kale, more growth is encouraged. Same with just about everything in the garden, really.

It's really amazing.

Last night I:



And this morning, after a particularly disturbing dream involving a grub, did this before work:



And then I thought of a line from a Nirvana song, which goes, "I feel a comfort in feeling sad," and needed to draw something else. So I did and it goes like this:



I watched about twenty minutes of Gus Van Sant's movie tribute to Kurt Cobain called Last Days (I think). I couldn't chew my way through the whole flick, but I was very very impressed by one particular scene where the guy sinks slowly

slowly

slowly

to the ground.

You either have to be very strong and lithe to do that, or......I'm not sure, really drugged up and boneless. It was pretty fascinating. And, we all are fascinated with Kurt Cobain anyway, are we not?

You're not? Oh well then, never mind.

I'm going to look at a very pretty boy who knows he is very pretty, and mark the pictures I want to draw from. He's left me some very appreciative, honest comments at flickr about my watercolors. Which I am enjoying doing immensely.

Especially since I've started using my new ZIG Milleniums. And some Faber-Castels are on the way.

yip yip!

Tomorrow I plan on attending a composting workshop, it's free, and being held at one of the six City-sponsored community gardens. It's a three-hour tour, so to speak, of how to compost. They give you free compost tea! There's a couple of drawings, for free veggie or flower basket! For sixty bucks a year you can rent a 20 x 30 foot plot in a garden (if you're lucky enough to find a vacant spot, that is). They provide the water, wheelbarrows, some shovels....you need to haul in compost and mulch though. Isn't that COOL? I'm helping Deborah and Frank out in their garden.

They are such cool people. Next week, we're gonna mulch/compost and plant some arugula. Here, I fluffed up one of the beds I dug and sifted a couple weeks ago and Kit planted greens for the winter, and some arugula too. I put in some overwintering cabbage and broccoli...last weekend? Weekend before?

Time is going all meldy.

Time is marching on.

Time for me to brush my teefs and go to bed.

6:30 am

The spider that was living next to my bed, in the air between the nightstand that Jacque built and the ceiling, finally packed up and moved on.

I must say I am pretty proud of myself for letting it be, instead of shooing it away (or killing it). I hope it did not crawl inside my open snoring mouth last night.

Time for work!

transportation rules

Crossing the busy street this afternoon, I thoughts to mahself, all of this motormobiling should be relegated to underground. Yes there are subways, but not here. And I'm talking for EVERY noisy loud thing. Bikes and pedestrians on the surface, everything else below.

That, or convert to electric. Much cleaner and less noisy.

Meanwhile........if I only had a brain:

this lovely boy

lives in Chile - in Valpairaso, to be more precise. He said hello I like (one of my artworks on Flickr), and I looked through his pictures and found one that I really like and FINALLY sat down to draw and paint tonight. I was missing the watercolor and altered book action.



I think a vacation in Valpairaso would be a breath of fresh air.....

Wow this has been the evening to outlast all evenings. Rode to an out-of-the-way market after work and was buffeted by the wind MAN what a crazy windy day! Fixed and ate dinner, headed out to the garden and ended up digging a bed (that I'd already done a bunch of ground breaking on), amending it with some good stuff, divvied it up properly so Kit can go ahead and plant some arugula (which will grow alllll winter long! YES!). Cleaned up the kitchen. Cut up eggplant, put in dryer. Remembered that I needed to cook up those other tomatoes or they'd go bad, so I did that and cooked 'em down, and canned them. Watched the end of Dandelions. Sad and beautiful film. Draw, paint, post, browse, and it's not even 11 o'clock yet.

I better get going before it is suddenly one in the morning.

praise be

The wood has been sent to Jack in Hawai'i.

What will the goyls do now?



Well, in between a ton of gardening and harvesting, putting up food (gee I sound like a broken record), I've been doing more stencils. Here are a couple:





and some stickers

I mailed off the wood ya know, earlier today, and picked up more of those stickers (thankya, USPS). On the way in there was this skinny pink-haired dreadlocked chap wailing on his geetar, singing about this girl, he has a crush on a girl, and the girl is on her period, they get a towel.......okay too much information? I thought it was great. He wasn't being an asshole, but the times, they are a-changin'. Singing full throttle-throated about such things :)

I laughed!

Yesterday I borrowed Jacque's go-behind cart. You hook it up to your bicycle. I picked up a free space heater (and left some plums on her porch in thanks), and then hauled home a bunch of tomatoes and pears. My panniers were full of laundry.

I say hellelujah! I love The Wheel!

The weather turned a bit chill. Last week, in the 90s. This week, upper 60s, low 70s. Nipply nights. That'll turn the cabbage sweet, though. Yip!

Jacque's putting a new roof on Marsha's place (Marsha is helping best she can). That girl, she never ceased to amaze me.

The uppers at work are still *curse words and more curse words*.

I feel more at home in my co-worker/friend's garden that they've been sharing with me, than I do in this one outside my back door. Ah well, I'm staying put for awhile but I can see that I just might not want to live here a whole long time. Weird vibeys. Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt.

Meanwhile, my larder is full to overflowing and I gots my health, so hey - life's pretty damn good.

i got finished wood!

It's very very very nearly done, I only need to clean up the bottom and send it off to Jack!

Uh yeah, it's a Jack in the Box :)

I used my drawings and doodles, photocopied, then gel transfered them onto the block which I painted with gesso and gel medium. Then I layed down a wet layer of gel medium, stuck my photocopies onto, let them dry, and gently rubbed away the paper (with a bit of water). What's left are the images. Cool, eh? I think so. I love the process and seeing the images emerge.








The garden! Yes the garden! What is sleep?!

hail goiters!

we are hard at work, yup yup.

actually, the ideas are all coming together in my head, it's just finding the time to actually set to and create the darn thing :)

new world order

I picked a refresher for the flower vase yesterday, and it wasn't until I'd stuck everything inside and placed it on the table that I looked over and about choked on my mouthfull of water. I totally didn't plan this one.

It's Joe Amaranth!!

hey it's been awhile

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwwww! the gardens they do grow and I, I am a harvesting, farming fool. And I love it. Plenty of canning, drying, freezing, gathering, digging, hauling, and sweating going on around here. Hard to be indoors when the weather is so warm and sunny too, so not much in the way of bloggersville for me, no. If you'd like a quick tour through the garden, you can press the play button below. Warning - it's a bit speedy and shaky so maybe take some dramamine first.

(Tried uploading through blogger and google but didn't take, so here I am back to trusty ol' YouTube......should be a go)



I heard those birds and thought it'd be nice to capture that on film/sound. They've all gone off somewhere else, now. That little camera picks up sounds quite nicely! And I realize that among my different laughs, the one here is my goofiest. Yukyukyuk.

Last night was a welcome home from German for Kendra and happy birthday for Sandy potluck - and it was PERFECT. I saw Kendra last week at work and I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy to see that girl! I know Sandy peripherally, and I used to work with Cassie who is sweeties with Sandy and now, there is a little four month old girl named Josie (sss not zzzzzz for the 's') too! Wow. I used to paint with Cassie, back in the day.

I met some very awesome folk at the potluck, the food was divine, I ate a lot and my stomach was very happy instead of groaning with fullness. I love it when that happens! The weather was warm, so even at nightfall, the air was pleasant. This is what I love love love about summer. I hope I remember it all year.

Ryan ate a lot of grapes.

Jacque and Marsha brought a superlative salad with fresh mozzarella. ah! oh!

Megan and I did variations of impromptu happy dances when we said goodbye.

The very large spider in the corner of our little dining area kept to her very pregnant self, and the amazingly large rosemary plant gave us wonderful accompanying perfume.

I rode home after dark with my lights, which I am grateful for, and my legs, which I am grateful for because they work and carry me around so goodly. My panniers were full of things like tomatoes from Deb and Frank's garden that they are so graciously sharing with me; pear chutney and plum chutney that our hostesses (Lynn and Susie) gave to me; along with several empty containers because I asked for mine back that I hauled plums, pesto, and raspberries for the potluck in, saying that they are at a premium for me since I'm running low.

Aren't people just the coolest??

Lynn showed Kendra and I pictures of 'Flat Crystal'. I can't remember who Crystal is, probably a niece, but there is a children's book by the name of Flat Stanley. Stanley becomes flat after a bookcase (? something large) falls on him and he discovers being flat ain't so bad after all (slipping under doorways and such is great fun). So kids make Flats of themselves, send them to other people, who then go on adventures with the Flats and take pictures...then send the Flat back to the original Flat Person. Lynn and Flat Crystal played poker, were served very large yummy foods at a diner, went to Salem, the capital of Oregon, rode on a motorbike (Flat Crystal even wore a helmet!)......it was great.

Okay, who wants to trade a Flat with me? Heheheheh.

So then there's some artwork I managed this week, and there is so much more I'm excited about doing!!

well here are a few, if you click on the picture you'll be directed to my flickr photos and you can browse everything there



my pal Chekk in Augsburg (germany) - he sent me some of his music (which is SO YES!!)

here's a zombie hello kitty



and another stencil - it's Jack! or it's not (more at Flickr)

pitstop

It really is big!! I was not kidding!



Another sticker, to see what works, and what doesn't. Good times!



Last night's good times included a bar-b-q with awesome homemade pastry cookies by Anne, prawns on the barbie, vegetable shish's and - well, it's summer! What more needs to be said?

On the ride home, a HUGE yellow moon was rising over the tips of the Coburg hills. The shadow lay across the surface of the moon in such a way that it seemed like the planet itself had been sliced. Very nice. And eerie.

I need to go and mulch the beets now. They're top ends are exposed and apparently this is not good. I squirted Dr. Bronner soap water on the young chard leaves this morning, and squished the aphids. I hope that rids 'em. And I dug more bed yesterday, which I plan on doing more of in a jiff. Later to the other garden where I think I'll tuck in some collards.

free art friday drop-off

this week's installment, parked at a coffee shop

holy mother of god!!

"I am going to eat YOU!!"



The zucchinis are positively goliath!!!!

I am not kidding.

you know what that means

It's that time of the month again.........




BURP IT ALREADY!!