Tales From The Labyrinth

Where I Go On Monday Nights...

The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation. -Ezra Pound, poet (1885-1972)

For those of us that paint or make art of any kind... creative expression is the very air we breathe... so having the time and space to create is more than precious... and good art supplies are a must to do so!

Santa Rosa is soooooo lucky to have Simmon and Robin Factor, the artist~owners of The Village Art Supply... This is one of my favorite stores and I so appreciate having this wealth of art supplies to choose from!!!

Here is Simmon at his studio!

Even though I love working in my studio...

Simmon has opened his studio on Monday nights for painters to gather and do just that, paint... giving each other inspiration and a focus to work on week after week...

So with art supplies in hand,
interactive acrylics that is...

I'll give you a peek here at one piece I'm working on...

colors splash...

crackle...

smile...

and wind their way to a center place...

This is a commissioned piece and I want to surprise its new owner, but give them, and you, a taste of what is unfolding! So more pictures to come!!!

By the way... I finished my magic box made from a gourd, apoxie sculpt, mirrored tiles, tempered glass, paper, iron sconce, jasper, and tourmaline!

Here it is!!!

Oh to have the time to breath creatively...
it so feeds my soul...

Where is your creative time taking you???

Independence Day All Month Long!

Happy Fourth of July to all my bloglandia friends, where our community expands well beyond the borders of the United States!

Did you know that one of our founding father's, John Adams, thought this day of independence would actually be celebrated on July 2nd? That is when the first vote of congress was taken, after agonizing days of debate, looking for a unanimous vote from the thirteen colonies which took two more days to acquire. The final vote was on the 4th and congress took a holiday while our declaration was sent out to be  documented and printed. On July 8th the declaration was read aloud to the public for the first time in Philadelphia and the celebrations began! On July 26th it reached the capital of Virginia! All signatures of congress were gathered over the summer with the final signature on the 2nd of August! This is not what I learned in my school history classes!

We celebrated this 232nd anniversary by feasting with friends in the beautiful town of Sonoma, California under blue-smoke free skies and a canopy of dazzling fireworks.

Our beautiful hostess and friend Elizabeth...

Guests gathered on the patio to eat appetizers and sip lemon drop martinis, pomegranate spritzers, Prisoner Zinfandel, and Sonoma County Fumé Blanc...

Wasabi deviled eggs and potato salad took to platters...

as did the Pineapple coleslaw...

and Heirloom tomato bruschetta...

Alas... I have no pictures of the key~lime marinated chicken, pulled pork sandwiches, salmon cakes with Wasabi aioli, the fresh from the garden beet and green bean and goat cheese salad, or grilled corn, as I was too busy talking and eating...

Elizabeth slices the fig gallette with figs from her garden...

while I dish up the fresh strawberry shortcake
and manage to take a picture...

then we all sat back for spectacular fireworks that lit the night sky and brought friends together from one side of the continent to the other...

This beautiful afternoon~evening captures for me my appreciation for the founding fathers and mothers of our constitution and the sacrifices made by so many... setting the foundation for the life I live and love...I think John Adams would have been pleased...

Magic Wands

When in need of a magic wand...
Do you know how to make one???

Bees do...

Just a bend and twist of natures gift
with a ribbon will do the trick...

You will need:

• flower cutting shears
• scissors
  
• 30 stems of fresh cut lavender...
• approximately 2 and a half yards of 1/2 inch ribbon
• one small rubber band

In the early hours of the day
find a lavender plant in full glory of bloom
and cut 30 long stems with blooms...

Strip the lavender stems of any extra leaves...

Tie a knot with half inch ribbon right below the blooms with one end very short (this will be tucked away inside the blooms) and one end very long...

Then turn the bunch upside down, holding the blooms in one hand while you gently begin to bend the stems down over the blooms...

Continue all the way around...

until all the blooms are encased...

Tuck in the short ribbon and ease out the long ribbon and begin to weave in and out over two strands at a time. For those of you who are right handed, work counter-clock wise... for those of you who are left handed work clock-wise...

When you come around for the first time... you will go under (or over, which ever way is opposite of your first twist of ribbon) the first two stems where you started... take your time, if you find you made a mistake, slowly unwind until you find the place where you lost or picked up an extra stem...

over two...

under two and on you go...

When you reach just below the blooms...

Twist your ribbon around and around on top of itself three to five times, depending on how long you want the length of your magic lavender wand to be...

and tie off into a bow...

trim the ends of the stems so that they are even...

and place a rubber band near the end
to hold the stems together while they dry...

Let your magic lavender wand rest at least 24 hours,
it will shrink slightly in size...

The next day... remove the rubber band and slide the ribbon down the stems... to tighten for where there has been any shrinkage...

Now that your magic wand is complete...

What will you abracadabra with this beauty???

Summer Solstice Heat

This dryness,
juice of my body gone to desert,
savannah blossoming
in the heat of summer
and turning fifty...
I am the bone,
the stripped bark of tree
and flower,
the dry river bed
longing for rain
and the roll of thunder
that fills
this empty well
of my soul,
this cracked vessel
a lantern
in the dark night,
where coolness drapes my shoulders
and star ice
melts in the heat of my being...

Photo: My shadow in our Santa Rosa Labyrinth... reflected from the heat of the summer solstice 2008.

Sunflowers

For years...

My husband Milt has tried
to grow sunflowers in our front yard...

Seedlings,
started and watered daily,
planted lovingly by hand,
never made it...

Until now...

That one lone sunflower,
that magically appeared last spring,
has left a prolific legacy
that is blooming all over our garden...

and brings a smile to our faces
every time we watch these beauties dancing
at the edge of our meadow!

Fifty ~ Years

At 5:35 pm,
today...
I've been here fifty~years...

How could this be,
this passage of time
that is no more than the flutter of butterfly wings...

Of a sigh that escapes
the speed that years fly,
as my body
shifts and changes
while the young woman who is twenty
still pulls at my heart
and says
there is no difference
in the stranger who looks
at us in the mirror...

My life,
like a secret box
of beauty,
unfolds before me,
a mystery,
I don't understand,
like wanting to know
what lies
beneath
the glass lid of a magic box,
that is as incomplete
as the fifty years that lie before me...

Photos: Taken the day before my fiftieth birth day of the glass box I am creating out of a gourd, paper, mirrored tiles, tempered glass, jasper orbs, tourmaline, gold paint, and an iron sconce.

Wolf House

Friends Annie (In My Dreams) and husband Don
came for a day visit...

First lunch...
then off to Jack London State Park,
where we stepped back into time...

into golden hills
and the blue branched skies
of Beauty Ranch...

Finding our way to the ruins
of Jack and wife Charmaine's dream home...

destroyed by fire
just weeks before it's final construction completed,
in 1913...

We follow the memories...
Into turrets...

and over thresholds...

where ghosts of the past
gaze once more into their reflections...

Wandering, we witness stone voices
still singing
of hopes and dreams...

sacred ground
forever tumbling into majestic redwoods

emblazoned in
the California afternoon sun...

Tumbled rock...
time opens
through stone arches
and light pours
through shadows...
illuminating
history and stories
confused,
misunderstood,
and not seen
in Day Lilies
that still open in spring
despite
the cauldron of fire
that sparked dreams...
in the Valley of the Moon.

Lea Goode-Harris ©
April 18, 2002
Published in Valley of the Moon
Natural History Association Newsletter
Moonletter ~ July 2002

Note: Jack London passed away three years after the burning of Wolf House in 1916. They say that the fire and destruction of their dream home broke his heart and he died believing that the fire was intentional and in retaliation for his political leanings... In 1995, a forensic team of arson experts found that the cause of the blaze was actually at the main fireplace, where workmen had been cleaning the wood paneling and left a small pile of rags soaked in linseed oil.

Another View...

With Alexander Valley on my mind,
more than usual this week...

I did another watercolor of where I grew up...

For my best friend
from high school's son and fiancé...

A little bit of Sonoma County to take with them,
wherever they make their new home...

Thinking of Maggie...

Margaret Cranford Kirkpatrick Wetzel

April 30, 1925 ~Hampton, Virginia
May 22, 2008 ~ Alexander Valley, California

From Maggie's journal, April 7, 1986...

"When I see people there they will say 'Where have you been, what have you been doing?' And I will say that I have been at my beautiful vineyard planting my garden during holy week, hiking through the high lupine-filled meadows and flying kites with my grandchildren."

No words can convey how this beautiful woman graced almost my entire life... She and her family have given so much to the world through their love of life and beauty. Being at her memorial service, in her garden, was like being in a painting that Maggie orchestrated with her own hand... The beauty she inspired in me is a foundational pillar of my life...

Photo: watercolor of her Alexander Valley home, while thinking of Maggie... Click HERE to read more about the Wetzel Family, their renovation of the historic Cyrus Alexander home and property, and their Alexander Valley Vineyards Winery.

Butterflies in the Garden

Imagine...

Thirty-five or so...
little butterflies...
Kindergarteners,
just about to become first-graders...
Waiting to zip over the picket fence
and into the garden....

Dancing
through the flowers,
buds,
and climbing stalks and grasses into the sky...

These little gems
darted here and there...

finding nectar everywhere they turned...

Filling the garden
with even more sweet joy...

Buds waiting to open and bloom...

beauty ever unfolding...

Butterflies...
dusting the garden with joy and beauty...

Photos: Lynnette Scolari and Michelle Bellefeuille of Belle Feuille Garden Design take the neighborhood charter art school Kindergarteners through our meadow.

Pleiades Conjunct the Sun

The skies,
the heavens,
celebrate the Pleiades
conjunct the Sun...

Seven sisters
walking the earth...

I celebrate this path,
this life before me...
and walk...

into beauty...

Photos: Our Santa Rosa Labyrinth
and heart-space alter ~ May 19, 2008

Cascade of Roses...

Sometimes...

There are no words...
Only cascades of rose petals...

buds opening...

bursting into life...

a fountain of beauty...

sighing into the round
of a posy...

a gift for the mother,
I so love...

Photos: Cecil Bruener Roses in our garden...

Into the Garden...

Into the garden this earth day...

every day,
every moment sinking into this body
this matter blossoming...

that moves

touches,
ripples in the breeze...

spiraling,

and casting shadows...

Into the garden this earth day...

the heart beats...

and sap runs

and peonies bud...

open,

and dazzle the sun...

I curl up in the warmth
and watch ladybugs...

unrecognizable...

disguised as they shed primal skins...

becoming red wonder of flight
that defies gravity...

and I breathe beauty...

tiny creature that I am...
nestled on this giant ball spinning
endlessly through space...

stopping for just a moment
to sing of life
incredible,
into the garden this earth day...

Photos: Our front yard meadow.

Connecting A Million and more Hearts on Earth Day
April 22, 2008

A Spiral Garden

The California spring weather has kept me from my computer... and out into the garden...

I planted our vegetable garden in a new area, having composted and turned the soil, after eliminating the bits of remaining lawn... and found that our new garden was just too flat...

So I took a sojourn to the Russian River that winds through the Alexander Valley in search of rocks to make a spiral mound...

This river is the place where I spent, just a little further down stream, every day of my summer youth...

I had the most wonderful chauffeur and guide to the best accessible place for rocks... None other than my father!

He was quite tickled at my simple pleasure of having a pile of rocks...

And finding myself in heaven...

I even found a spiral rock!!!

I loaded up three crates of these beauties into the back of my car...

and used approximately 39 of them for the almost four-foot spiral, not counting the side beds that I am still creating...

I removed all the vegetables that I planted the other day and laid the ground circle,

filling it with a mixture of planting mix and compost,

With  a drip line up through the middle... I then began adding more soil and winding the rocks upwards, creating a spiral and place for the little plants to grow...

Notice that I removed one of the rocks from the outer ring to open up the spiral to the rest of the garden space...

I then placed the plants, and have even more room to add a few more herbs and vegetables...

A cow came to graze the thyme and oregano...

and my flat garden has now transformed into a spiral of wonder and edible delights!!!

Please let me know if you make a spiral garden... For you can make them out of rocks, or bricks, or rocks and bricks, and any other combination that your imagination might come up with!!!

A Friend's Passing...

Holding on...
Life so fragile...
Yet so tenacious and strong...
How could it be
that you were just here,
feasting and sharing friendship,
celebrating your heart's love,
as we gathered
with laughter,
cherishing each other
and the stories we share...
Seventy years of footsteps,
last night
you crossed a threshold
that we can not yet follow...
Your smile
and sweet hug
still wrap around my shoulders
leaving an ache in my heart,
in the space where I grew to love you...

My dear friend Dr. J, lost her sweetheart and partner last night. Some of you know Dr. J personally, and some of you have come to know her through our de-cluttering enterprises that we've been helping each other with. Please hold her and Joe's family in your thoughts, sending them your love. Joe and Dr. J found each other later in life... and shared a very deep and loving relationship. My life has been so enriched in getting to know Joe and his amazing outlook on seeing the positive in life, and making every breath of life, have meaning...

Photo: Newly planted pea vines growing in our garden...