Category: Arts and Aesthetics
All things creative. All things beautiful, profound, and moving.
The Wandering Monk visited the blog the other day. He says there aren’t enough pictures. So here you go. Not long ago, I gave you the tale of the west wall. Now here’s the north wall and how we (but as always, mostly the Monk) solved the Dreaded Drainage problems and created beauty. Few words, many pictures. Reduced out of mercy. Click to embiggenate. And enjoy! 2013 … 2015. After Handyman Mike’s dreadfully botched bathroom remodel. My heart sank. This photo also gives you an idea of the way the back of the house was sunk into the bottom of…
That’s an Indian burial tree, so yesterday’s host told me. I wasn’t able to find out a lot about it, though it resembles Indian marker trees, but with the bend higher up, and I know some tribes did “bury” their dead in trees or on scaffolds. Anyhow, there were quite a few of these around the barbecue pavilion at the house where the cannon shoot took place. All cedars. An archaeologist told my hosts the trees were only about 250 years old and therefore had probably been prepared for burials but never actually used. Somehow that made it slightly less…
… into the side of my head. Okay, I exaggerate Not into my head, but certainly into my house. There’s painting to do! Dirt to dig! Trim to trim! Instead, on this fine late-summer day (the kind of day that reminds you to savor every moment because there won’t be many more), I’m headed off to — ugh — socialize. Yes, I’m leaden with dread because (oh, I’m sure you’ll pity me so), I’ve been invited to spend my afternoon hanging out with a bunch of local artists and their friends at a gathering whose main purpose seems to be…
It’s county fair time. When I was 14 all that meant was riding the Tilt-a-Whirl two dozen times and getting to see big-name entertainment in the giant grandstands. That was in a mega-urban area and if people still entered their home-canned goods or their market hogs, I was unaware of it (and much too sophisticated to care). It’s a little different when you live in a county that’s basically one vast rural neighborhood. Here, the main stage holds an audience of 100 on plastic lawn chairs and “entertainment” might mean a polka band or a little girl giving a presentation…
Eclipse. Click for a short video. Now, if that time-lapse today’s eclipse isn’t quite as dazzling as a special effect from the latest Hollywood blockbuster, consider this: it was made as part of a father-son homeschooling project and made (over an hour and 20 minutes) with — I quote — “a box of recycled foam core, tablecloth, towel and tinfoil aperture.” I am impressed. The son also took this photograph at totality: Click to embiggenate. Not only that, but said family (near St. Louis) got Florida Grandma into the scene via Skype and a computer equipped with eclipse glasses. Three…