I am having a Hell of a time with this blog template these days... The pictures upload in crazy disarray and I keep running into html problems, so bear with me!

I can't figure out how to type between the next pictures, so just imagine it's all lined up in a neat little row, which is how I like it. Grr!!
Dad was at the big gun show this weekend and Bran was at home with sick kids so Roxi & I had the Farm all to ourselves. I swam and tubed, walked around taking pictures (and maybe getting a touch of poison ivy) and got back in the water. It was a gorgeous day.The honey suckle is going strong, it's my favorite summer time flower. The Springhouse is looking festive in all it's dilapidated glory, beer cans scattered across the front porch. The water is still clear and gorgeous and when Roxi makes laps around me she churns up COLD water, it's Heaven.
I harvested some brass from around the shooting bench down at the range. "I got me a idea can't nobody touch" about a shell necklace...I will keep you posted with pics as that develops!
I am going to try to figure out this html situation...wish me luck!

Trancendantday a.k.a.Tuesday

It is a beautiful, cool, rainy Tuesday here on Commonwealth Ave. This is the view from my workbench. I keep the windows open for as long throughout the year as possible and today all I hear is the hypnotic sound of spring rain dripping to the ground, patting all the leaves on its way down. It is trance inducing.

To make matters trancier I'm listening to The Deftones new album Diamond Eyes. A few tracks are very dreamy and beautifully narrate my day in this dimension of rainy, sleepy, ethereal, eternal relaxing.
Days like these are a gift from the Weather Gods, meant to force one to be still, chill, snuggle, enjoy; a pause from the repetitious shuffling to and fro that makes up so many days.
Today I am living in the present moment...
            ...which is divine.

Cinco De Mayo

I don't know what is up with this template, but excuse the mixed up placement of the pictures for now...

So confusing!!!
Anyhow above is what I made for Cinco De Mayo dinner; brown & jasmine rice, avocado slices, tomato slices and sauteed chicken breast with lemon juice & paprika, oh and a random Mexican beer someone left in my fridge. Yum! I am totally exhausted and didn't want to cook but it was worth it.
I've been pickin' away at rearranging things for more work space in the house. The back room is now an official studio. I got this spectacular 1940s office desk to use as a workbench last weekend for twenty bucks! It was made in High Point NC and they did some fine work. It is all hardwood construction with beautiful brass plated bin pulls on the drawer and gorgeous walnut veneer. It's in fantastic shape too, I just need to remove all the packing tape gunk from the front and maybe do a wipe on varnish on the top.
It is getting hot here in NC and I am enjoying it before it gets unbearable. I have windows and doors open and fans ON.
They honey suckle is in bloom all over the place and everything is beautiful and green. We are at the end of spring, summer will come rolling in with its sweltering heat, swimming pools and ponds, sunburns, beer drinkin' on the porch, grilling, and air conditioning rattling good times.
I love the changing seasons, so glad I live where I get to experience all four!

Recovery

I am still recovering from an unusually hectic couple of weeks.

The number one best way for me to unwind and recharge is in the pond at the Farm where I spent every weekend as a kid. It's my Dad's place and it is Holy ground for all of us at "Those Sorry Old Pearson's" as we always fancied ourselves.

Here is Ellie disembarking after four hours of swimming and floating and goofing off in an exceptionally clear, cold and clean pond. Back when I was growing up it was an extremely clean and pristine pond where we swam, fished, netted, and took the horses swimming. Then there was a LONG period of about fifteen years when the entire ecosystem changed and it was covered in duck weed. There were other changes too.

The big bass that were once plentiful (as is evidenced by all the taxidermied 10 punders on the walls in the house) seemed to disappear along with the arrival of a thriving otter & beaver population. If we'd had those animals as kids we would have undoubtedly raised a few "orphaned" otter and beaver babies.
Sadly one of the biggest losses yet to recover is the near total disappearance of the once abundant bullfrogs, leopard frogs and tree frogs. These days you can still find tree frogs, although not as many. I'm still mourning the loss of the proud bullfrog. I Believe they will make a comeback, if memory serves me I have seen their tadpoles earlier in the spring.
Now after some trees being cut at the edge, and colder winters due to climate change the pond is making a big comeback! Last summer was the first year we could swim in it in about 15 years, and this year there is still as yet no sign of duckweed this late in the spring, a great sign!!!
I took Ellie & Danny out there Sunday while Bran & Jim were coming home from PA and the Halloween convention. Cassie had spent the whole weekend at the Farm with Dooda and I'm proud to say she is a master of all farm activities! We were all in the pond including Vanessa & Flossie who drove out to swim. Flossie and Roxi are dog best friends and they were both in the water nearly the entire time. 
A good time was had by all! There's so much more to write, but I'm just plum tuckered and I'll have to save it for next time.
Soon...
In the mean time I'm counting the days to the next Big Pond swim day!

Speechless

Okay, not really. I'm just whooped, and revived simultaneously.
Bran (my sister) has a Halloween art convention to go to tomorrow in PA and I've been helping her get ready. Shew! All I can say is we have a big ol' ball whenever we're together, filled with many witty quips and loud cackling.
When I wasn't at her house I was sneaking in a little jewelry makin' at my crib. This is a basket-o-tools and materials on my buffet. I have this kind of stuff everywhere. I'm thinking of moving the TV out of the living room and using it as yet more studio space, which is what my dining room has become.

I try sometimes to put all my projects away so I can show off my fancy dining room, but it never lasts. I love leaving some pieces out on the table that I can study on whenever I walk by and let inspiration come to me when it wants. It comes down to this; I love working on a few different things every day more than I love to sit down to eat in a tidy environment ( a LOT more). Seldom can I resist the urge to work on a piece of jewelry or other sculptural work, so why not surround myself in what consumes me?
I have gotten up out of bed in the middle of the night to work on a skull or to draw an idea in my sketchbook. The compulsion to create simply can't be resisted!
Maybe I'll engrave my name in this little trophy I found, or maybe my monogram, or perhaps some other icon. See, these are the ideas that keep me up at night and keep my dining room table overflowing with chisels, scraps of metal, ribbon, plaster,  sandpaper, paint, bullets, saws, pliers, ball peen hammers and sketches!

I am just enjoying the Hell out of life. The more I make and create and fulfill my artistic needs, the more I live in spirit and keep my heart full.
Now lets go forth and prosper!

WIPS

Here is a sneak peek...
I am loving working with all these different materials together. Just wait, it's going to be delish!

And what the crap is this you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait...

Ants

Bear with me, something about my blog layout has changed, I can't figure it out and I don't like change. It's freaking me out!

So, earlier tonight I was daydreaming as I am wont to do during all hours of consciousness and my mind went to ants.

I can remember being on a school bus when I was in first grade on a rainy day. In the great tradition of kid-dom, I was learning to make a realistic baby's footprint with the side of my fist on the steamy window. As I was making the toe prints with my fingers I watched the rain beat on the window. I thought "I wonder what it is like to an ant when a rain drop falls?" I could just picture them in their differently scaled world, rain drops thundering down around them like giant water bombs. How loud that must sound and feel to them.

Around that same time, I was at The Farm with my sister Brandi. We were running around barefooted, all scratched up and covered in mud. Much to our dismay, Dad had drained a tiny little fishing pond  that we dearly loved. The good news was it left an absolutely fascinating landscape in its wake, rife with new specimens to be captured and studied. It was as if a chunk of brown moonscape had been placed in the ground. There were hunks of things that looked just like rock but broke easily. There were gooey slick mud spots down low that could suck a boot right off your foot, if you wore them. There were areas of what we called "quick mud" that would nearly suck you up entirely! Lots of dramatic fun for a kid to make into hours of excitement. Yep, we really can get very excited over a mud hole (even still).

As we were exploring what lives in my memory as "Dirt Land" We found a breathtaking jewel of a creature walking around sticking out from its environment like a sore thumb. It was like a tiny animated sculpture, such lush red velvet flocking, such dramatic black markings, what beautiful shiny legs! We placed it in a rusty Folger's coffee can to show off to Dad, and to "keep!", we always wanted to keep everything.

I only had the Audubon reptiles & amphibians handbook (my bible), I didn't have an insect book. And way back then we didn't have the internet, so I never learned very much about this creature until now.
This red beauty's Latin name is Multillidae and it is actually a wingless female wasp. She has such a vicious sting she is also known as "Cow Killer", we're lucky we didn't find out ourselves. Allegedly they are found only in the southwest and Mexico, dry dessert areas. But I swear we have them here in the southeast too, although I don't see them often.
I am inspired to make a sculpture of this gorgeous Red Devilress. Can't you just see her?
Okay, daydreaming time is over Dusti. I will have to save the ant idea for later, but that was a nice departure from the norm for now.

Tomorrow it's back to Concord to work on pastiglia and woodwork. And P.S. I love pastiglia!!! I should have taken more pictures but I will have some to post soon. Plaster has a magic moment when it is drying where it is just a joy to carve. It's like liquid stone, very cool stuff. I love exploring the possibilities!