Beep - Adios Leon

“I’m glad that beep's not wasted,” said Leon Hale. He would barely beep the horn of his blue truck as he went by on his daily mail check to town, and one time we told him we enjoyed hearing that.  “There goes Leon!” we always used to say. He was very much appreciated in our area and getting a little beep was special. When Leon was away from his country place we would miss that beep. It was part of the day. But today, Saturday, March 27, 2021, Leon headed down a lone dusty road, his last blue highway. He left behind many people that hated to see him go, like us here at the farm. But Leon also left behind some magic, and out there on the quiet road a little beep might yet arise someday, “There goes Leon!”

Twenty Years

Have been working off and on on a small painting. It has had many iterations, but now it seems just about time to finally move on - call it done enough. Have completed other paintings in the meantime, this one just never seemed right. Kept realizing basic things were wrong, and surely still are. But you know, it is an amazing thing to paint, hard to describe but might say there is a heightened sensibility and some kind of feedback loop gets established. When you get close to right, forever after, when you see what you've done, something strong comes back. Ha - even if no one else sees it.

 

Time And Space

As Daddy-o used to recite:
Time waits for no man,
it passes you by,
it rolls on forever,
like the clouds in the sky.
(by who?)

by Avey Shrum

And in an email from a dear friend:

"Death is a strangely irreconcilable moment (no matter if we are together to the end or not) …we rationalize and carry on but the heart still looks for the love lost."
and
Shakespeare’s Tempest…
Prospero:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest Act 4, scene 1, 148–158

Old Friend Avey and Staying Home

Time these days speeds by so fast. Changes happen, friends get sick or pass on, there are sad feelings. The pandemic is not helping the joy factor and have to say am somewhat worried, but so far am keeping the spirits high. No Travel plans for now, but beginning to have visions of being on the road somewhere, maybe New Mexico or Rome or a beautiful beach. But for now staying home is not that bad, there are many blessings to count.

Wisteria blooming here and filling the air with scent. And just noticed the first scent of honeysuckle. Also in a week will have confederate jasmine blooming.

Easter Flowers of the Fairest

As little kids in a Catholic elementary school we had a springtime ritual where for a few weeks in the mornings we would parade around the class room and bring any kind of flowers we could pick to the Virgin Mary the Queen of Peace and sing "Bring flowers of the fairest, bring flowers of the rarest...", can't remember the rest. Always sort of enjoyed doing that.

Hinckley's Columbine first flower opened this morning for Easter. Easter was very late this year so a lot of flowers have already peaked. But there are still a lot of pretty flowers around.

This beauty on road side. Some years never see an albino Bluebonnet.

St Josephs Lily, an amaryllis planted long ago by the old Muske House. These are common in the area and this was a really good year for them.

Penstemon Cobaea called Foxglove.

With good rains it has been a good year for flowers. Wildflowers like bluebonnets and indian paintbrush were very nice, as well as hugely fragrant flowers like narcissus, wisteria, honeysuckle, star jasmine. My osmanthus fragrans has been blooming since winter, its almost over now. What is missing are petunias but still have hope some may come up.

And a tribute to Momma, the bluebirds and silver-linings are everywhere you look. Just throw your troubles away.

Fall - First Day

Arizona Highways. Have to say experienced Magic on this roadtrip.

Thru the desert garden.

Alone in the Superstition Mountains. Lost Dutchman Mine Park.

Montezuma's Well. Drive to park entrance has been congested w human weirdness but once in the magic prevails. Reality is altered.

Sequoia National Monument. Unreal but there it is.

Arches National Monument. Hiked up to Delicate Arch. Was impressed with the pale weak looking people suffering the slightly difficult hike. Many made it and were greatly rewarded (me).

This visit to Arches noticed the presence of many visible entities.

New Mexico was beginning to turn yellow. Saw chamisa and purple aster just starting.

Between Roswell and Vaugh, mystery rest stop.

Winter Spring Summer 2016

Summer Solstice sunrise viewed from porch. The sun rises straight off the porch on this morning as if the house were oriented that way.

The following are a few things that happened this year.

Went to Costa Rica with friends.

In the picture you see a few surfboards made by the famous R. Dick.

Stayed in a different place that was down the beach. Made many visits to our friends The (C.R.) Farm to fix things up for the year but ended up not staying there. As usual the time was magical, the place and the people always leave lasting impressions.

In the barn added a footer and more foundation type support for tower. That required a pretty big rearranging of space and moving a lot of plumbing. Tried to do the most logical system of valves but now realize that there are little weirdnesses that will be hard to fix if I feel like it.

In the spring a friend who is really into flowers asked me to look for penstemon cobaea that grows in this area. So I got lucky and found some. Watched them bloom and then eventually collected seeds that my friend will try to grow

They are also know as foxglove in this area. My friend may be creating the largest collection of penstemons in the country at the Los Alamos Nature Center. There are over 75 species included and more to be added.

Here a lighter pink, cobaea range in color from fairly purple to almost white. Other species range in size from considerably larger to very small plants. They include reds, oranges and blues.

In the hot summer the eustoma grandifloras bloom. A very good year for these wildflowers.

Here is a turtle laying eggs by the back door. Wow, but a bit of a bummer because overnight some creature raided the nest and there were torn up egg shells on the ground in the morning.

Walking the dog in the land of enchantment. Hero was a good dog when out walking but in the house would often try to take a little bite of my brother or me

Tsankawi mesa top with monsoon clouds in the distance.

Who is that and what are they doing after a walk in Georgia O'Keeffe's White Place?

And finally got to doing the back part of the Farm roof that has really needed replacing for the last few years. It was very hot up there and couldn't have done it without my brother's help. Might try to finish the front part this year also but we'll see, we have other things planned for the rest of the year, so may not have time for roofing.