100th Blog Episode!

I’m having an episode of writer’s block, stuck for an opening line to begin this week’s entry. I’ve typed just as many words as I’ve deleted, the cursor sweeping up the unused words into a pile of nothing, the blank white screen staring back at me like a threatening ghost.

It’s because this is our 100th blog entry and I’m making it out to be super important in my head; a milestone which I’ve turned into a millstone, you know, the really bad kind of jewelry that gets fastened around the neck and causes drowning. Not my kind of necklace at all, thank you.

So I shall remove the self-imposed yoke from my shoulders and instead of mixing metaphors, mix up the blog routine.

For the past two years, every Wednesday, including when we’ve traveled as near as Corvallis or as far as Japan, we’ve met our deadline, which was the original challenge when we launched it back in 2008.

Having been under the spell of “wanting to be a writer” since I could hold a pen, I wondered if I could actually set a goal for myself and then keep it no matter what was going on in my business or personal life. The answer is happily yes.

I was under the misguided belief that designing jewelry was our temporary thing until I could become a writer full time and sadly, I must confess I’ve wasted an awful lot of energy resenting what I thought kept me from being a real writer. Guess what? That was me!

While I do enjoy splashing the page with words, I don’t love it enough to work at the business end of writing, which in this day and age, is the majority of it.

When I decided to create a blog, a venue where I could write about anything I wanted and to illustrate it with our photographs, I soon discovered the weekly experience more than scratched any chronic writing itch I may have had… and then some.

Creating the blog has required two days of work for me and one for Groom each week. Tuesdays have been set aside for writing the initial draft and selecting the photographs. I marinate the composition overnight and then spend Wednesdays editing while Groom sizes the images and formats the text. Phew, talk about time consuming.

Yet a funny thing happened on the way to the computer. As I committed to writing this blog, I discovered I no longer spent any energy resenting the jewelry and in fact, I fell head over heels in love with it, unearthing a growing passion for design and metal.

So I gratefully thank the blog platform for giving my writing an outlet and harnessing the creative power that we’re now channeling into our new line of bricolage jewelry. And I wholeheartedly appreciate all the followers, the long-term ones who have actually read all 100 and the new ones who pop in every now and again. Thank you.

Having said all that, the blog is changing. Into what, we don’t know yet, but the idea that is forming is taking shape in shorter, perhaps more frequent entries: Maybe a photo or two at a time with a paragraph ---but not on any rigid schedule, so you’ll get to check back anytime to see what’s new.

As for this week’s photographs, they were all taken last Sunday on our walk. It felt like we traversed all four seasons in the span of 45 minutes. Starting from the top, it seemed like spring with the blue sky and the tree still in possession of all its green hair.

We were thrilled to find flowers in bloom, their bright petals representing the transition from spring into summer.

And then we ran across this little vignette, an old-fashioned typewriter hanging out between a brightly colored beach ball and picnic table and a pile of pumpkins. This photo is a bridge between the joys of summer and the harvest of autumn.

These pictures are set up for you to click on them to enlarge. Just hit the back button to return to the blog.

The sand dollar paired with the leaf imports more seasonal changes, images of playing on the beach receding into happy memories as the falling leaves become more immediate, but all of it transient.

The progression of photos leads us into winter, but before all the trees are bare and we’re full force into Holiday Market, we must stroll along the calendar pages, stopping at Halloween for a little spooky fun.

For thousands of years, frogs have been associated with myths, folklore and magic. Looks like this poor little fellow escaped being the secret ingredient in a cauldron full of swamp punch, only to be struck down on a side street. RIP little froggie.

Of course the Halloween season, full of cats, jack o’lanterns, candy and costumes, falls just before All Saints Day, November 1st. So whether you party, pray or do both, please remember to clean up the rotting pumpkins!

So stay tuned as there could be a brief entry tomorrow, who knows?

Happy Halloween and an All Saints Day to you! Stay safe.

Summer: Good To The Last Drop

A seasonal shift is taking place, little signs popping up all over to reveal the impending change of the weather guards. Yep, it’s still hot, forecast in the 90’s, but Summer is packing her bags preparing for her notoriously quick getaway. She’s antsy, that one, always on the move ready to get the party started. Apparently she’s got things to do and people to see on the other side of the world, for she never stays very long in our neck of the woods.

Autumn, however, is a generous fellow, always showing up early and staying for a long time. Not as long as Winter, for he’s just plain greedy, feeding on the waning light of Oregonians, getting a few souls stuck in his teeth now and then.

A friend recently sent an email and I’m including a brief excerpt from his lament. “We’ve had a pretty low key summer. I wish summer would last for six months ... I love the heat and the water. I dread the thought of another long foggy winter ....”

Dread the thought.

But before the light scatters, the fog settles, the rain falls and mildew lines our bones like green, fuzzy insulation, there’s plenty of summer activities to enjoy. On Saturday, Kimmmm and I attended a Hawaii Five-0 party, hence the floral print dresses. Her red muumuu, authentically “made in Hawaii,” was the hit of the party, while my blue sundress purchased at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival’s costume sale a few weeks ago makes a good story. I think Ophelia might have worn it in a tropical version of Hamlet.

At the Cuthbert Amphitheater on Thursday, Celtic Woman is playing while music lovers (i.e. we) are invited to sit on the grass and picnic at the outdoor venue. In addition to concerts, there’s still time to attend a movie in the park, catch a baseball game, go swimming, look at art, walk on the beach, garden, dance, run through the sprinkler and eat fresh organic berries.

This week, our newly crowned S.L.U.G. Queen (an acronym: Society for the Legitimization of the Ubiquitous Gastropod), will be presented on Saturday at the parade during the annual Eugene Celebration, a three-day block party filled with music, a classic car show, a Health & Well Being fair, the Mayor’s Art Show and the Salon des Refuses (this year called “Salon du Peuple”).

There’s also time to peruse the Farmer’s Market for fresh produce as the clock rotates from the high noon of summer and its corresponding fire element to the harvest of the earth. Corn is growing, acorns are falling, and sunflowers are stretching their solar powered necks toward the brightest star.

As Groom and I investigated our neighborhood on Sunday with our cameras, I was struck by how two things could be true at the same time, which reminds me of a very lively and helpful conversation a few days ago with God’s Minion. She told me it’s quite natural to hold simultaneous contradictory beliefs as does our current season.

Our photos for this entry reflect the height of summer and the early signs of fall taken on the same day in the same neighborhood. To do your own investigating of details, simply click on any photo to enlarge and then hit the back button to return to the blog.

I noticed a double-seated lawn chair, its orange cushions bleached by the sun while Groom captured a very autumn moment with the lone Adirondack chair sitting in the shade, shedding its apple red paint.

It was a veritable flower fashion show, this season’s colors ranging from bold pinks and purples with sassy attitudes to the more subdued tones of silver dollars and prickly whites. The bees were busy collecting last minute pollen while mosquitoes were getting drunk, turning skin into polka-dotted tents of flesh.

Hpnotiq? Well, I think the last photo reminds us to girder ourselves, to grab every last bite of sunshine and soak up those rays, inhale the warmth and relish it all, because sigh… leaves are being tagged by Autumn, his graffiti style signature undeniable.

The End of a Season

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.” - Albert Camus

In between these poetic quotes, I am going to pause for a moment and remind everybody that some of these photos make more sense, alone and in context, when viewing them enlarged. Simply click on the image and voila! it's like magic - they get bigger. Then hit the back arrow to return to the blog.

“Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms Without the aid of the Seasons.” – Kahlil Gibran

What exactly is a season, anyway? Is it the division of a calendar by four, astronomically orchestrated by those power couples, the Solstices and the Equinoxes?

“No winter lasts forever, no spring skips its turn.” – Hal Borland

Eep, I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but in Oregon, the weather decides her own moods and a timekeeper she is not. We’d prefer to think of the seasons as being equal, the 12 pages of the calendar neatly categorized into four symmetrical periods of three months each.

Well, let me tell you, that is not how Mother Nature reveals herself around here. Winter is the longest season by far, starting in November and stretching out her stay until Spring finally pounces like a roaring kitten in April, showering us with rain, hail, snow, fitful sun and flowers from the bulb.

If brevity is King, then Summer is our Monarch, arriving in July and leaving in July. Autumn comes at his earliest convenience, unpacking in August and staying until Halloween.

And let me make this clear, Halloween is over my friends. Do I really need to state the obvious? Get rid of your putrefying pumpkins, it’s the end of the season!

“What you have to remember is that baseball isn’t a week or a month but a season – and a season is a long time.” - Chuck Tanner

In quest of defining “a season,” it seems to encompass more than weather patterns. It is a time of year dictated by certain activities, such as sports, hunting, fishing, television, shopping (oooh, Black Friday is almost here), planting, harvesting and worshipping.

Autumn-into-Winter has many overlapping seasons, the first of which is ushered in by its fashionable rule: No white shoes after Labor Day.

In quick succession, our days are governed by Back-to-school sales, Grandparents Day, Stepfamily Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, International Day of Peace, the Jewish Holy Days, the Equinox, Johnny Appleseed Day, Constitution Week, National Hispanic Heritage Month,

Native American Day, National Children’s Day, Leif Erikson Day, Columbus Day, White Cane Safety Day, National Boss Day, Sweetest Day, United Nations Day, Mother-in-Law’s Day, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, National School Lunch Week, National Forest Products Week, Halloween, All Saints Day, Veteran’s Day, Chakra Girl’s Birth Day, and Thanksgiving. Phew!

Of course, there’s more, but let me sum up by saying, no wonder we feel overwhelmed.

Thus far, we’ve established that there are four main seasons, plus all the Holiday/Activity seasons, but what is the Fifth Season or the New Season? I’m still trying to sort that out.

Changing direction by degrees, to season is to add flavor, either to food or conversation. Wood sometimes needs to be seasoned, the wealthy often season elsewhere, people are seasoned by experience and this week we bid adieu to the final outdoor Saturday Market for the 2009 season.

As one season ends, keep in mind we have others to anticipate. There’s Clean Up Your Moldy Pumpkin Day, AIDs Awareness Day, National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, Human Rights Day, Kimmm Day, National Regifting Day, First Day of Winter, Christmas, Kwanza, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve…

“To everything (Turn Turn Turn), There is a season (Turn Turn Turn) and a time to every purpose, under Heaven.”- Pete Seeger and King Solomon