the spirits pay us
visit and bring the bubbly
which comes to a head

faces part 007

my love for you is unmeasured...

i keep trying to quit, but it's so hard...

happy squash is happy :^}

transformation

today at work i discovered a little treasure trove of vinyl in the giveaway area next to the break room. there were like 20 of these and i was a little surprised too. usually it's pretty slim pickens over there, but david crowder band on vinyl? cool. anyway, i went back later and they were all still there. doesn't anybody own a record player anymore?
so i decided to do a little art project while i made a fresh pot of coffee. i grabbed another one and put it in the oven in our break room and let it cook while the coffee brewed. after several minutes it was malleable (and probably quite toxic) and i was able to form it into a little crumpled box. the dcb wax is now my new key tray. and something tells me that this would make mr. crowder smile as well.

and the stone cries out
remember me when the day
comes that i am gone

morning cup of death
pours out early over the
beckoning new day

and monday finds us
back in the yard of our thoughts
sorting out the lines

faces part 006

i am sew worried...

but i thought i was your biggest fan...

no problem. free refills from my giant mouth...

{:^) happy friday face roundup (^:}

faces part 005

you called me "electric" and it brought a tear to my eye...

they said i was outdated and i only scoffed at their own immaturity...

did someone say "let's eat"? i'm starved!

nature calling

i stepped outside my door yesterday when my son spotted this praying mantis. he had gotten hold of a grasshopper and was slowly eating his insides. we all got down on our knees and stared at the horror. beautiful. we could hear the crunching sounds and watched as the teeth sawed through the hard outer shell of the grasshopper. occasionally a leg would twitch. i was fascinated at the efficiency of the mantis and at how undisturbed it was by our presence. they really seem to be zen like sometimes. their attitude of prayer calling me to meditation.


and then i remembered that i had seen some glorious fall foliage all around the property earlier and went on a little photo expedition to try and record some of this fantastic transitional beauty.

although it is california, and many of these trees are not native, i'm thankful for these transplants that dot my local landscape like little wildfires this time of year.

and it is so great to have all of these reminders so vividly shouting out that the change is coming again.

the great pumpkins

grandma and grandpa came by yesterday and took us all out to the pumpkin patch. it's apparently become an annual event and the kids really look forward to it, as the season begins to turn. since it had rained over the weekend, i wasn't sure if our little quest for the orange squash would end up a muddied affair, but it turned out to be a perfect day of stubborn indian summer sunshine.
the folks over at the patch seem to have it all figured out too. come in and park for free on weekdays, but come saturday and sunday it's 10 bucks a carload. throw in all the little rides and activities, and it adds up. but hey, it's for the kids, right?

but the most fascinating part of the whole trip for me was watching the apple cider production. before my very eyes and within a matter of minutes i watched as apples came in from the field, were loaded on to a sorting and cleaning machine, carried up a conveyor belt into a machine that turned them to mush and then pressed all of the juice into a bucket which was then sucked out by a hose into a beautiful stainless holding tank where workers than tapped it straight into gallon jugs. reminded me of the old films mr. rogers used to show us.
and of course we loaded onto the hay wagon and made our trip into the wilds of the back 40 to find our jeweled gourds. each one a prize. and after all their effort lugging these things back to the car (can't have it if you can't carry it) we made the car trip home together and then as my littlest guy pulled his out of the car it dropped on the sidewalk with a painful thud spilling some of its guts out.

faces part 04

it's been a while since i shared some faces. so today i thought i would pull a few more out of the ether.
(titles given, but alternates welcome : )

game face

ear bud

fastened securely

"if a face could launch a thousand ships then where am i to go?"

-bread

in keeping with the "faces" theme today i wanted to share a drawing my son did recently. i really dig it, looking at all of the different characters he has created here. it looks a little like a rough sheet for an animated film and also works well as a complete work of art. enjoy.

faces part 03

it's been a while since i shared some faces so i thought i'd put a few more up today. the first one i call "bug eyed".

"angry time"

"what are you lookin' at?"

as you move around in your journeys, take a second look. they're out there...watching us.

faces part 02

more faces :^)

faces part 01

if you haven't seen robert francois' book "faces", you should definitely check it out. like george nelson's book "how to see" the reader steps into a world where the familiar and everyday gets a second look with surprising results. it's inspired me to look with different eyes as i travel about. so here are some of my own faces.