winter landscape photography

Abstract Expressionist Found Art Photography

Abstract Expressionist found art photography

simple-vessel-forms (2 separate forms)

my handmade pottery - new work

the Blackberry bush as economic metaphor

I was picking blackberries recently down near the river. There is a bike path next to the area where blackberry bushes and other
fruit trees and bushes grow wild. I took the dogs with me and a backpack full of plastic bags. As we were walking and picking I couldn't help but see the metaphor of blackberry bush as economic model. All the old adages kept coming back to me about "low hanging fruit, going out on a limb,seek and yee shall find. I was struck by the nature and abundance of this plant. I walked in search of good berries and noticed that there were other people also looking for the fruit. I didn't panic or feel the tension of competition as I, knew that there were many more bushes with tons of berries on them. All I needed to do, was to walk in a different direction or look at things from a different angle and I would find enough fruit for myself. As I picked the fruit, the dogs ate the berries hanging in front of them. I started to ponder the number of people and animals that were sustained from these bushes. People picked the berries for their families, there was a blackberry festival, some people picked the berries and then sold them, the birds ate the berries, insects ate the berries particularly when they were rotting, bears ate the berries and I'm sure many more animals that I was unaware of were sustained from these bushes. As the people and animals collected and ate the berries the seeds traveled and spread. As long as there was water from the near by river, and sunshine,the right conditions, the plants thrived.

At first I just walked along trying to find the bushes with the biggest fruit on them. I noticed some of the best and biggest fruit was in hard to reach places, where I'd have to take a risk of falling into the sloping thorny bushes, or tumbling into the river to obtain it.I passed on this fruit but admired it from a safe distance. I wanted fulfillment with minimum risk. I then noticed as I bent down to pet the dog, that if I looked at the plant from a different angle, looked at the situation from a different perspective than most people, I found some lovely large berries hiding just out of site. I collected a back pack full of berries and thought of all the wonderful dishes I could make from the berries;cobbler, scones, pie, sauce jam. I realized that I had to come prepared to reap the abundance. I had to have the protective clothing, containers, good walking shoes. I had to be aware of the right timing to drive the 12 miles in order to pick the fruit when it was ripe. I had to have a strategic plan that entailed not going on the weekend when many more people would be in search of ripe berries, and I had to have enough time between the weekend and the next crop of ripe berries to ripen. So my free abundant harvest entailed some foresight and work to have a successful harvest, but the conditions were there if I paid attention to the details of attaining my goal. So in these turbulent times, I can't help but think that there is a way for abundance to flow freely, a way for people to find enough for themselves and others. Namaste

riffing - spring poem/ rant

two months of what seems like
solid rain - yesterday sunshine, good moods, and smiles all around -
How lucky can I possibly get? - sunshine and a gorgeous Eileen Fisher sweater find at the Goodwill, for $5 - thank you universe, and whoever donated it - trying to play the glad game - I can be thankful that the weeds are easier to pull out with all this rain - thankful that we built a greenhouse - thankful that it didn't ruin the marriage, when certain said person accidentally let a wheelbarrow of heavy dirt go careening into the side of the aluminum frame,denting it - and other certain said person bit their tongue and refrained from letting loose the torrent of words, that seemed rather in order - thankful that some power watching over us, may have been dad's departed gardening spirit, saw to it that the damage was repaired and it now stands finished, as if nothing ever happened -
glad for my friends, classical music, and a new assortment of birds
that have come to feed and entertain, on the feeders we put up this year -
so I live with the rain, knowing that there is winter reading still, to catch up on,
wool to be spun and knit, and hot food to enjoy along with the fresh garden greens
until the sun and warm weather return