The Landscape of My Childhood

The moon setting over my brother's driveway

I stopped at my brother's place on the way to see my Mom. He lives in the part of Florida where I was born; mostly rural, and driving through the little town, apparently untouched by time. Landscapes dotted with cows and single majestic oaks under a half-dome of cerulean blue so wide you can see the curvature of the earth. I crack the back windows and tip the sun roof up so the flow of warmish air swirls all around me. I feel free and relaxed and I savor that because it will not last.

An oak hammock dripping with spanish moss

In the morning I walked through the oaky woods. I found a crow feather and tucked it into a button hole on my jacket pocket. Crow medicine is very powerful and to find a feather is good fortune. I will take it as a totem with me as a travel on. Alone in the oak hammock I marvel at the abundant mosses hanging like earthly chandeliers. There is a carpet of oak leaves, reindeer moss and fallen weathered wood with seminole and rebel blood beneath it. 

Planted pines of long ago fail to mature as expected

The woods have a perfume of slash-pine turpentine and burning brush. There are Northern Flickers as big as ducks. They fly in a wavy up-and-down pattern and move up a tree with a mechanical ratcheting bob. High above, Turkey Vultures (called "buzzards" here) ride the thermals in an open descending spiral. There are little greenish birds in the pines...I wonder if they are Vireos. A deer passes through the woods beyond the pines and disappears, her tail flashing white with caution.

I love this field and could stay in it all day and never be bored

 Before I bought Chickory, I looked nearby for property. This is what I wanted, right here what you are looking at in this photograph. Looks like not much but it breaks my heart with beauty. My father wisely counseled me against it. He thought it was too far from my husband, and knew the pull to the land would make the trips home fewer and longer between. I do love the mountains and streams of north Georgia, but this big view is not possible where I live and I miss it .

a scrubby palmetto stands alone in the straw

One more pass through the woods before I get in the car

Here you will find the best fresh-squeezed on the 301

I stopped at the old Citra Orange Shop and got some fresh OJ for breakfast and just looked around a bit. The old florida cracker houses behind it reminded me of being a child playing barefoot on a painted wooden porch. The roads are sand-based mixes with oak leaves. I love interior Florida. Too many people only see the beaches or DisneyWorld and don't know about it. It is a landscape they speed through, indifferent to its charms and abundant wildlife. This is a birders paradise, thought I, as the familiar whir of duck wings filled the space above me.

A tent revival has pulled into town offering big top salvation

In this lonesome and timeless moment I reflected on Flannery O'Connors observation of the "Christ haunted south". She would have loved the sight of this trailer and would have been the perfect companion to take to the witnessing of healing, miracles and deliverance. I put the big top in the rear view, inserted myself into the north florida autobahn and sucked in as much landscape and air as I could. There is no time, no sun or wind or light, in an institution. 

Crafting St. Valentine's

I made this one for V last year 

I feel really really sorry for kids today. The valentines I see in the stores are all tied to some TV show or movie character. Dora the explorer valentines? Are you kidding me? Gone are those charming old-fashioned valentines with dopey puns and silly rhymes. I loved the ones that had the flocked (furry) red hearts and the ones with the moving parts. When I was in elementary school, we spent a week making valentines during our art time. We would also decorate plain paper bags with our names on them and they would be affixed to the back of our seats. Then on Valentines day, there would be a party with cupcakes and red heart tarts. All the kids would deliver their valentines to the decorated bags. Back then, there was no ministry of political correctness so it was not guaranteed that you would receive a valentine from each of your classmates. So there was some suspense and anxiety involved, just like real life.

My mom would help me craft valentines. Sometimes we would just doctor up store bought ones with glitter. Some years we made cookies and piped on the names with icing and packaged them in tissue for delivery. My mom never made me give a valentine to everyone, but she did use the opportunity to discuss levels of expression. For instance, I was very disturbed by the notion of giving a lovey dovey valentine to a boy I didnt particularly like. She would look through the cards and find one with a monkey or a walrus or something relatively benign and reassure me that it expressed nothing more than friendship. And I remember even going to the trouble of cutting red hearts off a card just to be sure.

The Love Bug Ornament

I still enjoy crafting Valentine's day gifts. Its a bright and cheerful, if commercially imposed, holiday in the middle of freezing gray days. And it's right about the time people peter out on their new year's diets and go ahead and enjoy some chocolates.  I've been celebrating the holiday by making these LoveBugs for a few years, a logical addition to my Christmas ornament designs. And I make valentine garlands too.
I haven't put them together yet, I am still creating all of the elements.

Today I got out some of my materials and made a valentine or two before I leave town for a week. I was inspired by Susan at 29 Black Street who is way ahead on making hers. I have painted many valentine themed illustrations over the years but I tend to not use them to make my own valentines. Instead I try to craft the whole thing by cutting and layering paper. Here are my favorite tools for the job:

Lots of paper; you need heavier stock to build the card on and lots of other papers for cutting designs. You need solids and patterns. Heart shaped doilies, glitter ( I like "Art Glitter" brand the best ), great scissors like the "cutter bee" shown; a white pen and a fine point glue pen. I also use those tiny pieces of pre-fab sticky foam squares to lift certain parts of the card. I used a paper punch to make that frilly edge at the bottom of the card. Here's the finished card:

I'll be blogging from the road this week. Im going to see about my Mom. I believe the valentine I made for her today is the last one I will ever give her. I hope to have some good pictures from my travels and look forward to visiting your blogs while I am traveling.

Anybody have some cool corny valentine rhymes they want to share with me? 

The Night Forest

Henri Rousseau. Carnival Evening

The snow has lasted a full week with most areas still completely covered with crisp white glitter formed into a crunchy crust that collapses into powder with each step. The dogs' paws sink deep but still dont find earth, their steps making a rhythmic ca-chunk ca-chunk ca--chunk. Daylight is brilliant but not warm and the landscape is high contrast. Impossibly long icicles have formed on the tin roof edges. Well-traveled pathways are defined by transparent turquoise ice all packed down and slippery.

The night softens the grove of hardwoods and pines into a setting for mystery or myth; that place of enchantment. With snow on the ground, and a full moon, one moves in and out of spot lit openings and pools of shaded indigo. The trees are very black. The hemlocks rise above the horizon with their tips pointing at the stars. There is no sound though; usually I hear the whisper of evergreen needles or tenacious and brittle fall leaves rattling but the air was so still. I was in a trance until I heard a car approaching from the west and I waited for it. It passed above me. I watched the headlights burn first through slits in the guard rail and then through the trees until I saw the red tail lights fade away. Quiet again. I waited for I didnt know what.  I heard an owl with a mighty and deep hoot; a single note repeated in some unknown pattern. It echoed back from the little canyon created by the waterfall and filled the walk with the call of the wild. Tomorrow it will rain and wash this magical snow away, and life will return to the normally scheduled winter of subtle colors with a persistent sameness of hue. 

Snow makes ordinary life a big adventure

I'm starting to figure out the camera. At last. Shooting objects in the snow tends to make the subject too dark as the camera tries to adjust for the exposure of bright white. By turning up the ISO- the backgrounds faded away entirely and I was able to get the right amount of light to photograph the chickens.

The dogs had been too dark in all their shots as well. I am happy with the photos I took of them yesterday but I still have too many blurry ones and that bothers me. The dogs and I went on a very long hike through the woods yesterday. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The sun wasnt out yet so it was still gray and very cold. Today is even colder. It is about 26 right now at 12 noon.

Photographing chickens is not easy they have erratic movements and are never still. Part of the picture is almost always blurred. Putting them in the snow put them in a kind of shock. They were as still as I have ever seen them. They've been cooped up too long. I leave the pen open for them but they wont leave. Today I took them and put them under my studio where they can scratch around and move some. Poor little things.

Trout is such a great dog. What a champion she is; she is game for anything. We have been all over creation. Every other day, I take her up to Big Sky for a hike where she can go off on her own and meet back with me as I make my way. This can't happen with Koby so she doesnt get to go. Trout has been much better about staying home and when Koby leaves our property she barks a certain bark to rat her out. I love this development!

Sweet little Wren. I have a soft spot for this hen because she is the bottom of the pecking order. In a group feeding situation she is always pecked out and away from the treats. So you know I arrange it where she gets her own private stash.

This is Boxer's favorite chicken. She is a damn good hen. She is the only one not laying through this cold weather -but that has more to do with age then temperature.

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I left the truck up at the top of my driveway. I went up there yesterday to see if I could get out. The snow plow had been by and buried it. So i spent about 45 minutes digging it out. I felt like a pioneer woman! A few guys with trucks and chains came by but I refused to be pulled out.

"I like shoveling. It's a fitness thing" I told one fella. His lady gave me the universal look of "whatever dumb ass" and they drove on. Eventually I did get out..scraping out a path where the tires could get some traction. And I drove to town to find it all but shut down. But i felt like a BAD ASS. Oh yeah, Im out and I'm driving.

Wish me luck cause I am about to go pick up Fishbone Betty and its much icier today as the low temps made everything freeze. But I know how desperate she is to get out of that cabin. And...Koby ate another bed. So I need dog toys and bird seed and I have to GO.

Its a big adventure. All of the hardships, the mega bulk of clothing, dealing with frozen things. I LOVE this. I really do.

Today

Creative Internet Toys

A mosaic of bird illustration and photography by Chickory

1. Vera and the Dread Beet, 2. chickadee, 3. Woman with a Red Hen, 4. silverwynadotte, 5. bird jungle, 6. Little Dovey, 7. Bluebird Block, 8. swan, 9. spring-sparrow, 10. wren-walkin, 11. crazy-mix-of-birds, 12. french-hen-plywood-painting, 13. Gull, 14. birds, 15. old-english-game-hen, 16. Flight, 17. 2-hounds-an-a-cardinal, 18. cardinal, 19. hamburg, 20. The Hunter, 21. Cranes in a Landscape, 22. mock and girl, 23. Ladybird of Sorrows, 24. anahinga, 25. blueshamo

Isn't this fun?

I've decided that one of my goals for 2011 is to become a lean mean art making and marketing machine. When my website comes up for renewal this March, I am not going to renew. Its too expensive and too hard to update it. My website is stale because it is a huge pain to work on it. There are so many free or inexpensive tools available now that it makes no sense to have an expensive professional site anymore.
I made this bird mosaic with Flickr. My first tasks for 2011 are getting my Flickr collections together, my Big Cartel shop designed and built and possibly redirecting my domain URL to a blogger page. Have you seen the new tabs widget for Blogger? It allows for clickable links to static pages across the top. In essence, the same as what a website has with the contact, news, client list, etc pages. Only its much easier to keep a blogger page current.

I've been trolling around looking for free creative tools and I am overwhelmed by all the cool toys there are out there.

Here's an Official Badge generator gizmo:

Then there was the free download for the shape collage maker. 

All these creative tools remind me of Januarys of long ago, when I was still enthralled by the newness of the delightful toys Santa brought. I also stumbled across another great toy last night -its not a creative tool, but an amazing site that takes the Apollo moon landing and brings it back to life with interactive flash animations and the real audio recordings from the launch.  It's called "We Choose the Moon". I highly recommend it. Enjoy!

the new day

Red sky at morning, sailor take warning. Time softened the red to pink and in a few short minutes, milky gray. It was warmer and a light sprinkle hit the thick carpet of oak leaves with a sweet sound. There wasn't any of the strong humming vibration from the super slab miles away or the honking impatience of the main artery of the city just a few short blocks away. No leaf blowers. No dog walkers. Rare to find myself in such a quiet space in the ATL. I closed my eyes. I could hear a jet, a mockingbird, a bus, the light rain, wind and...that was all. This is the best it will get today. People will wake up; TV's will again blare and there will be talking. I wouldnt mind going into a monastery right now where a vow of silence is strictly enforced. Instead I meditate on the chicks dining on a plate of strawberries, bananas and chopped kale.

Whatever happens the night before, the chickens await release from the coop at sunrise and that is my job. It really is winter now despite this warming trend. A cool austerity has blanketed everything and soon sparkling ornaments and tinsel will be trashed and there will be no more distractions. You know I'm glad? Its too much and too long. It feels as if life has been suspended. Last night the Dick Clark New Years Eve broadcast moved colorfully in the background. They showed the celebrations from around the world...from New Zealand and Australia and Japan and Moscow..the most beautiful I thought with the fireworks going over St. Basils in a heavy snowfall. And then the cut back to the US with a melange of neon bright flashing corporate logos and K$sha on stage. How perfect is this, thought I, a pop star with a dollar sign in her name, in a scene where everything that can be, was, branded with some kind of advertisement? Nivea was the sponsor of the NYE midnight kiss. Is there anything left in the USA that cannot be bought or sold or co-opted?

I wish everyone a very blessed New Year. Maybe some of you are awake and formulating your resolutions. I am thinking about my garden and the seeds I will try this year and if i should order some spring chicks. Easter in particular, wants to be a mother. I am considering getting some fertilized eggs for her to brood over. But a rooster remains out of the question as long as the chickens spend part of their time in the city. Im thinking about the movies i am working on for the county and how much I want them to be sheer visual poetry. Im thinking about integrating my website, shop and blog into a unified page and expanding the Chickory farm truck shop all the way to the Chattanooga market. Will the truck even go that far? I dont know.

Sincere and grateful thanks to everyone who made a garland as a part of our charitable NYE celebration. A good chunk of money was earned for respective charities. In my case, the money will be given to Heather, a young single woman, who foster parents 4 children on her modest salary. Thanks to ring-leader Boxer and all the other bloggers in the NYE ring for sponsoring fun games and activities and for making your own charitable contributions. Youre the best of people, and I want you to know how honored I am to call you friends.