Was I There?

Robins (again)

I know I've written about the robins before, but they truly are wonderful to see in the Oregon winter.  What cracks me up is that a whole flock usually shows up on a cloudy day, and they stand around our land as if someone had placed them there, like a carefully arranged sculpture garden.

Anyway, I enjoy common robins a lot.  I've done them on bowls....

Now tiles....

And I can't get all metaphorical about them-- like making them into "the return of hope" OR "the promise of spring" OR "a time to renew..."  No, no.  

A big flock of them came through on Christmas day this year!  Those robins are outrageous...no matter when they show up! 

 

Flu Vacation in Alaska

This is one of the new bear bowls I've been working on.  And, yes, I was too excited to wait until I had actually bisqued, glazed and fired the thing, so here it is in the raw.  

I did the drawing from my imagination but I do have this great vintage book that a friend loaned me-- its from the 50s and has a lot of stout Russians in it rolling around with bears.  I swear some of the photos of the baby bears look exactly like Maurice Sendak's lovely drawings for the Little Bear Series.

Last week, a terrible flu made its way through all of us, first starting with Theo, then on to Gus (who actually didn't leave his bed for three days-- shocking!), then wiping out me and Josephine.  Today is the first day Josephine and I have ventured farther than the porch for five days!  Bah!  It was (and still is) awful.  

I was comforted, though, by inhaling down about five Dana Stabenow/Kate Shugak mysteries which are set in Alaska.  My favorite is Breakup, although Dead in the Water, with its descriptions of crabbing, is good too.

And the bears!  I've run into black bears on my hikes behind our house. I usually joke that I only see "bear bottoms," for they are always running as fast as they can away from me.  But the way Dana Stabenow described the grizzlies in Alaska just fascinates me-- the locals seem to treat them like pesky deer, and shoo them away, and try not to get eaten.

Baby Benjamin and the "Damn!"

This was my offering to Fred and Fiona, parents of Baby Benjamin who turned two last weekend and who should not be called a baby anymore.  I actually had been trying to make a soup 1) with black-eyed peas in it because that is an American New Year Tradition and 2) some spice to counteract the current weather of freezing fog.  Hence, this Black-Eyed Pea Soup with Mexican Chorizo.  I tell you, it truly is the best soup I have ever made.  It is loaded with my favorite spice, chipotle, and is the type of soup that one just slurps with one's dinner companion, and there is no gentle conversation because your nose is running and tears streaming down your face.

Maybe I am the only one who thinks this is funny, but I thought this soup should be called "Damn!" because, even if you don't swear, this soup would make you do so.  In a good, appreciative way.

So we went to Baby Benjamin's house in the old timey Jacksonville, Oregon and presented the "Damn!" In return, we had a wonderful party and took a walkabout in the chilly, wintery sun.

 

It was like the parading through the streets with royalty.  (Is that Baby Benjamin and his hardworking Da-da?)  And, even though I totally freaked out Ben's mom, saying how much harder 3 is that 2 (why did I say that?  I hate it when people say stuff like that to me!), we all agreed that Baby Benjamin was coming into his own, perhaps on the brink of kicking up his own "Damn!"  And I mean that in a good, appreciative way.

 

Love, Leap, Late

This is Theo's fresh-off-the-press "L" homework and it slays me.  I also feel the need to explain the last drawing: the detailed kindergarten rug, which they all sit around for "circle time" in the mornings, and the kid (that scrawl to the left) who is late, frantically putting all his gear in his cubby.

My son is the one who is usually late.

Step aside Eat Pray Love-- here is my wish for the New Year:

Love....Leap....and, okay, being okay with Late.

 

 

Ice and Lace

The frost was on the mistletoe today, and coated every weed and twig all along our little mountain road...

It was very still.

These lacy trees put me in mind of the lace I've been using lately, lace Diane picked up at some estate sale (that Diane...she always seems to find the gems) for me to press in clay.  I could tell this lace was tatted a long time ago, and by someone with loving and meticulous hands.

 

Happy New Year

Here is my New Year's card for 2011.  The wren with the crown I started doing lately because I had been doing wren dishes with the line from an old Clancy brother's song....

"Although he was little, his honor was great."

The beginning of the song is "The wren, the wren, the king of all birds..."

Hence, the crown.

(And, okay, in the interests of full disclosure, the wren song is about this bizarre Irish custom on St. Stephen's Day-- Irish people, is this true?-- that involves the murder of the wren by children, and then the children taking the body door to door to collect money for the funeral.)

Anyway.  Although I don't condone the idea of murdering a wren, it's still sweet to imagine him with a crown on.