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September 23, 2008

Charlotte Eleanor!

She's here!!! A little sooner than expected- and weighing in at 3.5 pounds! So I am Aunt Pippy for the 2nd time!!
Big congratulations to Thomas, Lorie, and big sister Lucy!
(Pictures to come, you know it!)

Posted by pippypippy at 08:29 AM | Comments (1)

September 22, 2008

end of summer picture post

On Saturday Oso and I went to the farmer's market-

I thought these were outstanding.
Monster maters!!! As big as your head!!

You have to love the colors.
There were flowers too and in the interest of remembering summer when it is February and everything is sleeping (as Oso says diplomatically- I say everything is dead but I am inclined towards melancholy) I give you-

Later we went to what is now one of my favorite places on earth-
Waters School Community Garden. Its surrounded by big old oak trees, and prairie plants, and smells like Ragdale prairie. At this point the plants are all overgrown and it is a big crazy tangle of living things. It hums, rustles, whispers, and clicks. If you go at night and you don't have a flashlight, the thing to do is rub the leaves and smell them and you will find- mint, basil, oregano, rosemary, dill.
Here is what I love-

These gnarly sticks that have been made into markers for garden plots.

The photos don't really do them any justice at all!
Then also I made a friend because I was less scary than the squirrels, who are entirely frenzied from the abundance of acorns and green tomatoes.

This bun was caught between me and a squirrel and didn't know which way to go. Poor bun.
Eventually the squirrel ran off and the bun went on her way.

We saw some of the last gasps of strawberries-

And these really nice morning glories-

I'm not sure what these were but I thought they were pretty-

Around the perimeter everything is engulfed in purple and yellow flowers.

And happy, happy wildflowers.

Posted by pippypippy at 03:55 PM | Comments (1)

September 15, 2008

The sad news.

"Think for a second -- what if all the infinitely dense and shifting worlds of stuff inside you every moment of your life turned out now to be somehow fully open and expressible afterward, after what you think of as you has died, because what if afterward now each moment itself is an infinite sea or span or passage of time in which to express it or convey it, and you don't even need organized English, you can as they say open the door and be in anyone else's room in all your own multiform forms and ideas and facets?"

-From David Foster Wallace's story "Good Old Neon".

Posted by pippypippy at 09:32 AM | Comments (1)

September 13, 2008

Community. Creativity. Chipmunks.

Here is where I have been for at least 10 days of my bloggy silence- at Ragdale-

(thanks, Nora for letting me use your beautiful photos!)

You know you live a charmed life when this is the backyard-

And plus there are the prairie, the woods, and many little magic places in between. I worked in the new and improved Barn Studio- oh, how to describe it? A smallish barn, with white walls, skylights, an old and aesthetically challenged but entirely functional rocking chair for knitting and reading in, magic drawers and cabinets for stowing one's extra tools, and one's secret stash of emergency cookies- for low blood sugar purposes!- and also finding one or two interesting and helpful things that have been left behind by previous residents. How great is it for holing up on a rainy day? Well. If you have tea, and lots of pencils, and some good music (or not, you can listen to the raindrops on the skylights) then you can suspend yourself in time and so many things will come to you. Its true!

Here are some things about the prairie in early September-
The plants are tall and tangled and they sigh and hum, crackle and buzz and breathe. There are swarms of dragonflies, hundreds of goldfinches that land on plant stalks, bumblebees on big fuzzy thistles, green-gold irridescent beetles, butterflies and moths in every size and color, and furry caterpillars. There is wild asparagus (-who knew?)! And millions of yellow flowers!
Oh! The living things!!
And around the houses, and in the crevices of the many stone walls and under the shrubbery- jillions of chipmunks who gave me this message-
"its our world. You just live in it. We won't be fooled by any schemes involving cashews either." They will look you in the eye very sternly if you block their doorway to the Chipmunk Underground, too. So look out cause they're serious!)
And the dead things- which are feeding and working their way towards transmogrifying back into living things- I became fascinated with the preponderance of fungus, lichen, and moss on all the fallen trees and decaying plant matter in the woods. Some of which is working its way into my work.
There is so much more to tell!
Like how indebted I am to all the nice people who I met whose energy inspired me to new levels- what was it Alexis had on her studio wall? Ah, yes! "The work comes from the work! Keep experimenting!" Thanks so much for the timely reminder!

Still much more to tell! I'm sure I will get to it- including some new work I started and some I finished. Now I am
off to re-assimilate some more!

Oh, p.s.I saw a hummingbird in our garden here at home yesterday. Perhaps it knew I needed a reminder that beauty is something that thrives everywhere, we just have to look and see it.

Posted by pippypippy at 09:12 AM | Comments (3)