Lori's New Horse Hotwire

A run Lori made in Lynden, WA,  December 2012.  Lori says Hotwire is just naturally the fastest horse she has ever been on!  Lots of potential.

Goofing Off

From Lori: Flatbed

Attached is a picture of the flatbed John and I built 

for a brand new   Dodge. It is aluminum with tongue 

and groove deck and we used mahogany   for the sideboards. 

It is for a friend that runs barrels with us in the 

winter and then travels the polo circuit in the summer. 

Hopefully we   get to build more of these! 

-- Lori   

Some Seasonal Activities

Some fun holiday activities:  riding the Santa train on Bow hill, preparing our Christmas tree for indoor survival, and installing risers on our repaired septic system!!!!  Happy Solstice!  Happy Holidays!

December 21

Hold onto your seats!  I''ll see you on the other side of the Apocalypse.

Re: Happy Birthday -- News

Sam writes (in part):

"We are building a 14x14' writing studio that can double as a small guest house. We had Lonnie mill us a huge stack of 4x8 cedar beams, and we're making a sort of Lincoln Log cabin. The foundation piers are down, and the first few rounds of beams. Progress has slowed. I hope to get back to work soon. 

Having Lonnie here is interesting in many ways. Parenting, at this age, is way different than it used to be. I sort of thought it would stop some day. Hah! 

Writing. I had a little book come out from Village Books that is serving as a fundraiser for the state PL position (I had to buy my own book). VB did the production on their espresso machine, but is actually serving as the legitimate publisher, as well, and handles all the money. $8.50 of the $10 purchase fee goes straight to Humanities Washington. I'm just glad to be done with it. See: http://www.villagebooks.com/book/9780986009716    Carnegie Mellon won't be issuing the new book of poems--The Fierce Bird of Memory--until 2014. Meanwhile, Sally and I are working on a prose memoir about our life here on the island and with Brooding Heron Press. It might take a year. So far it's interesting, at any rate, just jotting all this stuff down. I just did a commissioned poem for Artist Trust (did I already tell you this?) that is going to be issued as a small booklet. I'll attach a copy of that, as well. New poems are coming along very slowly. CM wants to issue a New & Selected Poems maybe two years after the next book is out. We shall see . . ."

Lynne, Sam, Me & Julia

Happy Birthday to US!

And, Julia, thank you for hanging in with me the past 43!

The Day after Thanksgiving

"You will be assimilated."
(Perhaps July saves the human race from the white cap Borg collective.)

Wetter

I ask Lori if all this rain has caused any flooding down on her farm.

Lori replies:

If you mean do we have rice fields instead of pasture YES!  Is there more water around the water tubs than in them YES!   If ducks would be more comfortable living here then YES!  However we are not living in a boat yet!

Home

Made it after an unplanned (Un-planed) overnight in Toronto.  Airline paid for hotel and meals.  My body is here but my mind is still back in Dalmatia.  Very strange.

A Night at Apartment Jerko

I sense a joke there somewhere?

On my way, one step at a time . . .

Thanks to Slavko and Mate for making this first leg of the journey painless . . .

Here ...... and Gone

Milna, My last full day here

Sveti Martin's Day

I feel a certain resonance with St. Martin, or at least his moment/ method of illumination.  And of course, the 900 year old church of Sv. Martin, perched a couple of kilometers above Milna, is one of my favorite spots on the island: tiny pre Romanesque stone church, a small windswept stone courtyard on a lone hill top,  fronted by a tiny grove of pines, sacred since Illyrian and then Roman times, looking out in all directions to stone, mainland, sea, islands, sun, sky.

Today was St. Martin's day, so in the afternoon after mass in the village church,  about 13 people, 2 nuns and a priest, climbed the rocky hillside for a service at this small, old stone church. 

The Jugo was blowing in full force, moaning, howling, threatening every foot hold, surging and  threatening again and again to blow you off your feet.  And at the top, the wind was magnificent, unrelenting, powerful, triumphant and mighty and sublime.   Tree limbs cracked,  the sky was a turmoil of gray with sun breaking through here and there.

Inside the tiny church we huddled, vulnerable but safely out of the wind.  Candles were lit.  Before a 14th or 15th century stone altarpiece depicting the saint at the moment he cut his cloak to share with the beggar, the priest donned his vestments. a nun handed Slavko a prayer book to read from.  Ancient magic, faith, mystery was re enacted, safe under the small barrel vault.

After the service, the priest led us in several choruses from the Battle Hymn of the Republic, especially for their visitor from America.

Later,  I enjoyed a cozy Sunday dinner at Slavko and Nada's.

Glory, glory hallelujah.

November Attention

I picked olives today up  on Mlin with Ivo, L., and Pavle.  Green, red, black, they all went into the bucket, into the tub, fill with salt water.  The day was lovely, sunny, warm and the fruit were just beautiful.  Good company.  Sore muscles.

Blessings any way you can, can ...

Last week Slavko and Nada drove a nun into Supetar to return some bottles for refund.  I contributed about 40 or 50 beer cans to the cause, 'coz you never know the straw that could get you into heaven!  Even beer cans maybe!  The nun could not believe an American donated the beer cans to her.  Tonight I met her at Slavko and Nada's.  She said," Thanks. Maybe next time it could be 150."

I said "I'm working on it."

Hey, No. 1 Eldest Son!

Happy Birthday, Eliot, happy, happy birthday.  I hope you have a wondrous year ahead and have many happy returns.  Love, Dad

My First Dream after Reading Some Jung

THe Dream

I was driving a black van northwards towards home.  THere were 3 men and 3 women in the van with me.  WE had just completed a series of dangerous tasks and I felt that I had played a major role in us all surviving.  I had "saved us."

I left the freeway and drove parallel to it through fields and trees towards some mountains and home.  I remembered that I had somehow and for some reason placed a major detour on the road ahead, diverting us around a city, I believe.  ANger broke out in my passengers when they realized that I was driving towards it, anticipating a traffic jam or some more significant issue.

FIne, I said, I'll just pull back onto the freeway. 

"YOu can't get on this way," one of the women said, "you need to go back."  THere was some arguing. 

FInally I pulled the van over in a wide dirt spot and got out.  I started walking north.  I was surprised when someone took the wheel and drove past me, also heading north.  THe van did not go far before it veered sharply to the right and drove -- as if nearly out of control -- across a small patch of grass and through some saplings and disappeared from my sight.

I didn't know if this was accidental, or what had happened.  I continued walking and then followed the path of the van. 

I found it half-submerged and sinking in a lake beside a grassy bank.  THe 3 women were on the grass and acted distraught.  "WHere are the men?" I asked.  ONe woman answered, "They are still inside and won't come out."

I managed to get the side door opened and pulled the men out.  AS I did so the van began to rise and float in the water.  WHen I thought that all was well I became aware of a great hairy bear trapped in the rear of the van and holding a pet  - a black dog - firmly between its legs.  "LEt me out," it said, "or I will kill the dog."  SOmehow I succeeded in tricking the bear and leaving it trapped in the van which was now on dry land while freeing the dog.

WE were all then at a reception celebrating our success.  I began to feel that I was not being properly recognized for my part and began to quarrel with one woman in particular who seemed to be the loudest, taking most of the credit, and minimizing my role.  IT seemed that people were taking her side.  I finally interrupted her and the group around her, apologized for the quarrel, and told them that I was tired and I was leaving.  "HEre are some books that I checked out from the library," I said, "Use them if you like but then perhaps someone can see that they are returned."  I held out several brightly designed books on Native Americana, I thin.

I went outside and sat on the grass in some sort of inflatable lawn thing, shaped like a donut or tire inner tube.

I  was very tired and I knew they were looking for me.  THere was a disturbance or some movement in the sky and I awoke.

Happy Birthday, Brother in Law

Many happy returns, John W.

Studio Update

So,
I 've been stuck on this Black Madonna for weeks!  Anyway, check out the views from my studio and paintings.  Got a week to move on ...

Boo!

Eliot says that Eason is top left. 

And Thanks Lynne for the wolfie Halloween card!  Full Moon, made to howl!

Update: Earlier this Summer

Some photos you won't find elsewhere.  (Who is that he-man in those blinding yellow shorts?) And that sexy English teacher?

The he-man is Almir and the sexy English teacher is his girl friend Dragana.  Just a clarification for anyone, ahem ! Julia, who didn't understand.

All Saints Day

Nov. 1st, national holiday of remembrance here, little markets have been selling flowers and graveside candles for the last week or so.  I have bought a candle and lit it for us and ours.  Church bells are ringing all day long.  I read a little Jungian text and remember.

Festival of the New Wine

Seas surge, darkness gathers
In with the old and
In with the new,
The language is strange
But the music familiar
With madness, sadness,
Longing

Julia

The bura is stirring again, masts take up the whistle and soft croon, but Julia calls from Alger, safely back to home #1. 

Buckets

Buckets of blood, buckets of blood.
My little bucket of blood.

I dreamt that I went sailing
to the end of the world

In my bucket,
my little bucket with a hole in it,

my little bucket,
my bucket of blood.

(Ed.:  3 a.m., what did I eat for dinner? Best not think about that!)

Stormorica

Today I finally found the lovely little church of Stormorica after several years of looking and I don't know how many driving and hiking expeditions.  (It's a story but the only way I finally found it - damn the maps and gps -  was a pathless walk taken on a blind hunch  from the Franz Josip bridge through olive groves and a friendly family out picking their olives.)  Set on a hillside in a shady oaken grove, it incorporates a fragment of Roman wall.  The clearance mounds around it show plenty of Roman ceramic fragments.  There is a new stone plaza complete with white stone altar that shows this 900 year old church is still used occasionally today.

Fig

As you can see, not only is my smokva recovering just fine, but it has the approval of the young nightingale perched above it.

Maybe

A couple more paintings before I Leave?

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday, Uncle Tim!  Bright days, peaceful nights and the best life has to offer!

In the UK....

Julia is sight-seeing......and as you can see was welcomed into the royal family, now on to the palace and the tower.......

Croatian Cravat

Happy Belated Croatian Cravat Day http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2012/10/croatian-cravat-day.html

Julia's Last Day Here (found this unpublished from 10/24)

<p>We take a trip across the island, have a lunch in the sun in&#160; Puschica, get home and discover our front tire is flat.&#160; Julia is out of here tomorrow.  Slavko volunteers a 5:45 a.m. ride to the ferry and saves the day. </p>

My Beauties of the Night

Prayer Flags

Lynne has participated in this wonderful prayer flag project.  See her blog (to the right).  I love her flag, pictured.

Gazul

Drove to the top of the island and found a little medieval hamlet called Gazul.  A Parkside setting among protected black pine and white stone,  Uninhabited now except in early summer when shepherds bring their flocks and mid-summer, when a large and rustic livestock sale is held, complete with feasting and lamb-roast.  This area was famous clear back to antiquity for raising prize cattle.  But today it was peaceful, secluded, and empty.

Just found this

Photo from earlier this year when Amir, Inela and Mak stayed at Brizaks End.

Lori teaches Eason the Joys of Farm Life

Way to go, Lori!  Get 'em when they are young.  "There must be a pony here somewhere."

Sv. Lukas

I added another pre-Romanesque church to my list today when Julia and I tracked down St. Luke.  Built around 1100, atop a Roman settlement, as evidenced by the sarcophagi around, it features some very old medieval drawings of boats scratched into the still wet plaster.it