Happy!

It's raining again, long and steady and refreshing.  I can feel the trees drinking it up happily.

Yesterday was a great day to play with bronzclay with two very fine women artists, both of them are extraordinary people, talented and creative. We happily rolled and textured and talked about problems in our small world and the greater world.

I'm going to drag the kiln home to fire some of my creations, see if it works.  Bronzclay can be rather tricky, and if nothing else it takes forever (9 hours) to ramp up, hold and then cool.  There are new formulations but I haven't bothered to try them yet.

And just as I cleared my mind and heart of the dregs of sadness he came walking in, tall and bearded, forthright and honest, life is good.

This is the song of the day, it's so beautiful.

.Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen

Peace

Mental house cleaning...

I woke up this morning (after a shower and coffee) feeling fresh faced and new.  It's a grand and glorious feeling.

I got to do a post mortem on a liaison I've been involved in.  At one time I would have called it a relationship but evidently that wasn't true.  It was fun, frisky, a little bit bad and occasionally loving but it's over.  I feel good about getting a chance to really talk about how each of us felt, turns out I've got lots to learn about communication and being sensitive to feelings.

Everyone talks about getting through the walls we've built up and how difficult that is, unfortunately, that's so true.  It's a vicious circle of protecting yourself until you can no longer relate to another's feelings.  In my case it's being cavalier about other people, sort of a preemptive strike against anyone who could hurt me.

Holding others at arms length and warning them that they are expendable eventually erodes the connection between us.  But here's the not so funny part, in the meantime I get attached and then the break-up occurs and once again I'm scorched by the flames.  Yeah, ouch.

I accept that I've got things to work on.
I accept that it's worth the effort to get to know these amazing people.
I accept the good and the bad, the hurtful and the loving.
I accept that I can be a better person, that sometimes I'm all too human.

I will continue to live with strength and honor.
I will not accept less than that in the people I allow into my heart.
I will continue to look to the skies for an Eagle, avoiding the snakes and the jackals under my feet.

I will, I can.

Peace
and if not peace
then
Justice.

Funk

Major, deep blue, negative altitude, chocolate can't fix sort of funk, that's me.

Maybe it's the weather, since we've only seen a glimmer of sun here and there for the last 8 days.

This seems to be my tough time of year, the weather sucks, relationships falter and fail.  I don't have the extra energy to try to save them, I just crawl under my fluffy comforter and give up.

Shit.

I know it will get better, only a couple more months before spring hits for real.

And then I'll start again.

In the meantime the boys sleep close to me, sending their sweet love to me while they breathe.  I keep busy with studio housekeeping.  Even though my creativity is low I'm able to put together some interesting pieces.  Like this Byzantine link necklace with a stunning Nancy Tobey lampwork bead set.

Peace

Snowy Sunday

This is GREAT!

My snowy little cottage this morning.  I went out and shook the snow out of the dogwood trees.  And the boys think this is the best thing ever.  Dandy was born in December, so he loves snow.  He and my old girl Star played and played.  He was light enough to run on top of the snow banks, while she ran in the paths I had shoveled.

GET ME!

All tuckered out.

And today's play:

Peace

Happy March 17th!

I love Maxine, she's my kind of cranky.

AND, the rain has quit for the first time in five days.  We are heading out for a nice long walk.

Peace

Clearing Out!

I'm sifting through inventory, trying to make sense of a huge pile of "stuff".  I'm going to try to pare out a little bit, which is to your advantage.  I'm feeling generous and want to find out if anyone is actually paying attention.

This matching set is the first thing up for grabs.  It's all sterling silver metal, the beads are african trade beads in colors that are great for spring.

I'm going to have a give away, this set will go next Monday the 19th.  There really isn't an exact hour on Monday, just whenever I feel like it.  You must leave me a comment on this blog telling me which of my jewelry pieces on my www.riverwomandesign.com website you like the best.  I'll do some random thing with those who comment and the winner gets this exact set.  (This is just for my friends in the US, shipping overseas is too much.)

Have fun!

Peace

Little Radar

I love these pics of the band, well mostly my boy Grant Himmler, but I think I'm entitled to adore him.

I'm surfing for plane flights now, heading out to Austin, Texas to see them perform and to help celebrate their CD release.

Mostly I just want to see Grant performing and playing music, something he was born to do.

Thanks to Pens and Lens for taking these great shots.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pens-lens/

Peace

Walkies

The boys are always up for a walk and a little water.
Here's Dandy having a very loud conversation with Bode.

Here's Bode doing his thing.  He never quite swims but will happily wade around.  I think if he had a Corgi buddy who actually swam he would follow.  This will be a nice swimming hole this summer.

We're at Stocking Flat down at Deer Creek, the rocks are really smooth and beautiful.

And some great old manzanita on the hike back up.

We're heading into a few rainy days which means muddy floors and stinky wet dogs, but happy forests.  All the flowering trees are in full bloom so it's worrisome, will the fruit make it or not?

I have some great shots of my son performing with Little Radar, will post those later.  Still hoping we can get some higher resolution copies to have some printed.

Little Radar will be having a CD release show and party in Austin on April 29th.  I'm going to be there, can't wait!

Peace

Merry Monday

What a fine day!  This time last week we were preparing for a snow storm, today it's 63 and sunny, my kind of weather.

We went walking on the Champion Mine Road Trail again today, but this time we took the trail down to Deer Creek, ate lunch, cooled our feet and then headed back up again.

It was great!  Here's a view of a little tributary creek on our way.

There are robins splashing around in my fountain and a pretty little daffodil is blooming by my back steps.  I can see the tiny buds of the flowering dogwood in the front yard.  There must be about a million of them, should be gorgeous this spring.

I'm getting my hair trimmed soon and then will get ready for pistol league tonight,  hopefully will be better than last week.

Enjoy your day, wherever you happen to be.

Peace