Biker Buddy

Biker Buddy, my sweet hubby. By me.

Away Message

I just wanted to let you know that I will be away Friday June 27 - Wednesday June 2.

--
I am certain of nothing but the Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination- John Keats
Mary

A 1930s wife

49 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

For some reason, I did significantly better than I expected and I tried to be honest. Of course, if I wore hose, my seems might not be straight. Let me know how you did! LOL!

I will be away for much of the next month. I will be in Syracuse NY through the 2nd and from the 8th-20th, I will be camping in the U.P. (Michigan's Upper Peninsula), and I will be totally incommunicado during the period (no internet access, blogging etc.)

dinner in Ljubljana

see what I'm eating?

In Ljubljana a year ago!

self portrait in Lujubljana.

A new Mole group

Jim Doran has organized another mole group and invited me to join it
and I have started my new mole. This is the inside of the front
cover.

Mary Ciaranello, 1964

When I started College as a freshman at Saint Lawrence University, I
had to submit a picture for the freshman directory. Lots of kids used
their high school picture, but mine was taken almost a year earlier,
when my hair was short(er). But this picture of me looking up toward
. . . what, salvation? . . . is pretty doofy-looking!!!

Morning Garden Report

Morning Garden Report I just checked the gardens, as I do every morning, and that volunteer tomato that got dug up is still alive--but barely. It's been further ravaged by what I believe to be slugs from the evidence. Usually the advantage of volunteer tomatoes is great hardiness, but this poor thing has been uprooted and left all day in the hot sun and then all night and ravaged by slugs so its hardiness is compromised, and the yellow squash the slugs have ravaged is hanging in there still, but VERY PUNY. I think there might be poison ivy growing in the veggie garden which if so we have to eradicate it!!! AK--they're very small and seem to have sprouted from seeds, as they has cotyledons! I may never have seen them before!!! But I just googled them and the few that I found on the internet (Didn't want to spend too much time at it) did not have the HEART-SHAPED cotyledons the seedlings I found have. But the tiny new leaves sure look like poison ivy--I'll have to watch them closely and see and be ready to rip them out. Now I am curious. Anyone know something with heart-shaped cotyledons and poison-ivy-like leaflets?

Before we leave for NY, I want to plant the tall yellow marigolds I recently purchased but haven't had time to plant.

Late Breaking news: I got all the yellow and orange tall marigolds planted in pots and in the gardens.

Rose Mole

A practice sketch of a rose from our backyard in the smaller Mole
sketchbook. by me, mary taitt.

The Weather in Detroit

We went to the Zoo yesterday. We went with two of our adult children, Soldier Boy (who is home between assignments, just newly arrived from Baghdad), Sewing Girl (Soldier Boy's wife), and our Grandchildren, Soccer Girl, Hawthorne and Gandbaby (Baby Loren).

They were threatening thunderstorms, but luckily, it was sunny and pleasant almost the entire day. We were there six hours! It clouded up and threatened rain, but the rain held off until we were safely home and even waited for us to BBQ! Then it beat down the flowers again.

I went out to eat my breakfast in the sunshine and sat down under a clean blue sky in the brillinat sun. I had taken 3 bites when I heard thunder. I turned and looked behand me and back clouds had covered half the sky.

More zoo pix here.

Backyard Journal: Peony (photo)

Not one of my drawings, just a peony photo.

in the forest of our own backyard

One of my cameras on BB's car in our driveway in the backyard.

PB's picture face

PB doesn't like having his picture taken and goes to any lenth to
wreck a picture.

Baby Loren Loving music

One of my grandkids, baby Loren, enjoying PB's music.

PB's piano Recital

On June 14, PB had his first solo piano recital. It was a big deal
and he performed very well to an audience of friends, family, and
relatives.

And the plot thickens

Handsome Polite Boy called after PB left to go swimming with with Nice Smiling Boy and wanted to know if PB was coming to his party and I said yes, PB had said he was going there later and he said was I OK with that? I said, why, what kind of party is it, and he said, a sleepover. PB did not mention going to a sleepover to me this morning, he just said he was going to Handsome Polite Boy's party. So I told Handsome Polite Boy that PB was grounded from sleepovers and why--3:45 AM incident with girls and police at last sleepover with skater boy--and called BB to make sure--and BB said yes, he was grounded for sure. So it looks like PB was trying to sneak away and just not come home so we couldn't tell him no. He left this AM without doing his chores or his practicing. I'm afraid he is turning in to a bad kid. :-( WAHN! And he keeps wanting more privileges and saying he is responsible. One doesn't become responsible by making pronouncements, but by behaving responsibly!!!

Arggh!

Last night, PB made three microwave dinners at 11:15 at night and then through one of them away untouched.  There was nothing wrong with it.  I know this because I removed it from the trash and ate it so as not to waste it.  :-(    But I didn't need the food.  I hate it when he does stuff like that.  He skipped his practicing, created a big mess in his room, and did nothing but play on his computer and hang out with friends.  I want him to have fun, but a little bit of responsibility goes a long ways toward pleasing parents!!!  He seems to have NONE!!

To-do, PB, June 19, 2008

PB,

do not leave the house or use your computer until you have done the following things:

1. clean the birdcage, including cleaning the water dish, getting rid of all the old papers, shaking the seeds out of the pan and wiping with a paper towel, dampened, cleaning the mirrors, vacuuming the seeds, replacing the plant etc.  do it correctly.
2. clean your room!!
1. put hamper in closet and clear a path to hamper
2. pick up dirty clothes and put in hamper
3. clear a path to your bed
4. neaten/clean your room
5. return all dishes and silverware to kitchen
6. recycle all old papers and notes appropriately
3. DO YOUR PRACTICING, you missed yesterday
1. run through all your recital pieces
2. spend a little time working on the new pieces.

DO NOT VISIT FRIENDS or USE YOU computer or IPOD until you have returned that textbook to school!!!!!

You are in danger of losing privileges!  FIRST WARNING!

Piano Boy plays the Piano

He actually performs quite well blindfolded!

Arrival of Ian's Mole

Ian's Mole with Ian's and Milo's work has arrived safely at my house
and I am loving looking at all the great, fun, delicate, wonderful
work in it. So nice to see the real work, which is always better than
the scans or photos. I have begun my first piece in it. It has a lot
of dots -- so many that I got a blister! Literally!! On my fingers
from making dots!!! Ouch! (I am not as cute at 62 as an earlier
arrival photo, LOL!)

Making cards

PB's Elementary SOlo Piano Recital is tomorrow at 4:00 and I've been so busy getting ready that I haven't even been on-line for several days. Went shopping (twice, and may have to go again). Baked 2 batches of oatmeal cookies, one with and one without raisins, and a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I made some thank you notes (which I didn't scan) and some gift cards for the wonderful piano teacher, Mrs. Laura Lindow. The recital will be at her house. There'll be great music because PB is really good, and good home made cookies and drinks. Let me know if you'd like to come.

These images are some of the hand-painted cards I made for Mrs. Lindow as a gift in thanks for her kindness. (They didn't scan well, not that they were that great to begin with.)

5 from Many Meme I

Coffeypot has a long Meme and I don't have time for a long meme so I am doing the first 5 only for now:

1. Do you like Blue Cheese? Absolutely! (but I'm allergic to it! WAHN!)
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? No! But I have various other things. Corn silk. Grass. 1/22nd of a cigarette once. (GAK!)
3. Do you own a gun? No, but BB and PB have several! GAK! :-(
4. What flavor do you add to your drink? Lemon with water. Chocolate with coffee or milk, which I can't do any more because I am allergic to both chocolate and coffee--and milk.
5. Do you get nervous before going to the doctor? Yes! It will be good or bad; either way I will deal with it. After I cry a lot, I am more curious that nervous. I do like to watch when I have have surgery. Sometimes it works and sometimes not.

I'm not tagging anyone but let me know if you do these, out of curiosity.

the practice mole

Three new sketches in the practice mole. The third one, called "The
Lane at Grad Maxim," I did at PB's graduation last night during the
interminable speeches that I couldn't hear. (He was graduating from
8th grade.) The first I did later last night while BB was away
getting ML's frozen food--her power has been off 2 days because of the
bad storms we've been having. The other is just doodles.

Super-natural

This is a study for a large linoprint. But it turns out the aspect
ratio is wrong so I will have to redo it. I think I will add more
palms to the right? (?)

This is done on 9 x 12 watercolor paper and I was going to paint over
the ink with black gouache, but I may just start over. I did it all
with a very fine point sharpy. I did it in the car on the freeway and
off the free way and there were lots of bumps.

Two more unfinished pix from my sketchbook

These were both done in a rapiidly moving car with lots of bumps. I
don't consider them done, but dunno when I can work on them.

My New Babies

My poet friend Dawn McDuffie gave me two beautiful African Vioets. I
hope I can keep them not aonly alive but healthy. I haven't had that
great luck in the past with African Violets. But she is coaching me.
I set them in a pot of water for an hour twice a week, then drain
them. Keep them in an east or west window where they get at least
some sun. I hope to report back later that they are still doing well.

Self-portrait with haircut.

Self-portrait with haircut. I cut my hair today. I cut off more than
a foot which I will probably send to locks of love. However, I am
unemployed and they no longer provide mailing labels, so I may not.

One of these brais is from today and the other was cut when I was 14 years old.

My New Journal

For my birthday, which was Saturday (I'm 62 now!), I received from one daughter an all-media sketch book and from the other daughter, the book, Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E Roth. I have been keeping a nature Journal since then in my new book. Here is a crop of one of the pages (which didn't scan well because the book is too large to fit on the scanner.) You can see some sample pages here.

I also received from my daughters Last Child in the Woods*, by Richard Louv, The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Micahel Pollam, and the Wild Braid, by Stanley Kunitz. Thank you VERY MUCH! :-D

From my husband, I received: an 8 gig "extreme" card for my camera, a viewer (which you can see here, if interested), and a new Singer sewing machine so I can put larger pockets in my jeans to nerdily carry more gear.

What do the gifts that one receives say about them? :-D

*View a rant poem that refers to this book here, if interested.

PS: I haven't had time to post all the links yet, so if interested in them, come back later. I have some work I have to do FIRST.