In a crate with walnut handles

He finished her chair sometime ago. But she lives in the Seattle area. Now our roof and skylight are fixed. So he's building the crate to ship her chair. A custom crate designed to hold the walnut comb-back Windsor chair. How to crate it? How to hold it still inside on its journey? It needed something to hold the plastic wrap that will serve as a tie down across the seat. Hmmm. He found just what he needed! Leftover walnut from the chair, turned into handles inside the crate!

Men on the Roof

Our skylight broke during the October 2006 Surprise storm. It has been wrapped in a blue tarp... still leaking .

Today it is over 90 degrees and sunny. And the men are on the roof. I'm told they won't finish today. Hopefully the outside will be done so the expected rain doesn't get it.

But the orchids are still inside. The forecast is for temperatures below 50 over the weekend. This is the strangest time of the year.

Orchids in the basement

From September until the end of May my orchids live in our basement.

Visit from a Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Herons in the area fly over regularly on their way between ponds and the nearby woodsy swamp. Two days ago, for the first time, one stopped in our yard. There, up at the top of the pine tree our my kitchen window, a Great Blue tried to perch. High enough, but not a strong enough perch. I wonder what drew the bird to pause in our yard before flying on?

Buber's I and thou

Tonight a group of us will be meeting to discuss Martin Buber's I and thou : Practicing living dialogue by Kenneth P. Kramer. Last night when I was re-reviewing it I was reminded of my reaction last October, before our first meeting was cancelled due to unexpected weather.

This morning early, the thought came to me. I had felt buried in the words describing it all. I drown in words and go straight to my head, loosing mindfulness. How could I strip away the words to get to the image?

Teshuvah
a return to mindfulness?
Mindfulness; a frame of reference
in the moment
the moment is all you have
the Blessing of the moment.

Squash the fragile with words or
smile when you see the butterfly wing its way off the flower
the moment

Teshuvah
return to mindfulness
mindfulness in relating to other
a form of prayer
discipline of focus
the energy in the exchange
in the moment

Random books display

The librarything.com widgit displays random book covers from my collection. Click your browser refresh to see a different group. I'm not sure why some of the images are blank -- or why some covers display that are not my books! ;-(

Living with orchids

During the grey season the orchids make a big difference.