Caffè latte art

February 5, 2011 at 11:18 am

Barista art sent us by Jan Janzen from Vancouver Island, BC

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Bike ride up coast yesterday

February 4, 2011 at 4:51 pm

I tell ya, when I get on my new bike, it feels like I’m on a motorcycle. Each time I take the first couple of cranks going down the road, I can’t believe how good it feels. Here we go! Yesterday I headed up the coast off-road. The bike with its air shocks takes potholes and rocks with ease. Surf was up, tide low, air filled with sweet negative-ion-charged sea air.

Then I rode out to a secret pond in the hills, where swimming is great in the Spring:

On the way home as sun was setting, here was a herd of 14 deer. Never seen a flock like this.Each day of my life right now seems so filled with interesting stuff I can only get a fraction of it down.

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Dwell gets funky

January 31, 2011 at 3:49 pm

Dwell, the magazine of mostly architectish soullessness, has come up with “…a map of resources across the United States for salvaged materials. Whether you’re looking for 200-year-old barn beams from Georgia or resurrected steel panels from the Pacific Northwest, we bet there’s a stockpile of goods in your neck of the woods. Let us know the place in the comments, and we’ll add it to the map!”

https://www.dwell.com/maps/lost-and-found.html?123

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“Mary Don’t You Weep,” Georgia field hands, Aretha Franklin

January 30, 2011 at 3:37 pm

 From Boing Boing last night, posted by Xeni Jardin. It’s a rainy Sunday morning; I managed to haul myself out of bed early and am now listening to Aretha’s wonderful version of the song.

“‘Oh Mary don’t you weep,’ an early film recording of unknown origin, found on YouTube with the description “Georgia Field Hands, recorded 1928-1935.” More about the song, which was a sort of coded message of resistance in the American South, and seems timely today, with current events in Egypt. Thanks to NPR’s Andy Carvin for the inspiration.”

Lyrics here. There have been many great renditions of this song throughout the ages; Aretha Franklin’s from 1972 is one of the finest to be found on YouTube.”

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Home of artist J. D. Harris in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

January 28, 2011 at 2:06 pm

“…Two of the more remarkable things about the Harris’s home and studio are that there are no blueprints other than a sketch on a piece of paper, and J.D. built most of it by himself, with little help.

‘It’s all in his head,’ Cathy said. ‘He just sketched it to show me what my new home would look like. Every cut and nail is in his head.’

   ‘It’s all two-by-fours and one-by-twelves,’ J.D. said. ‘I can see this so clearly in my mind, and it stays. It doesn’t just come and go.…’

   Others have constructed sloped roofs, J.D. said, but he came up with a way to do it without steaming the wood, which would be impossible for some of the lengths he’s using in his roofs. He figured out a way to put two 2x4s together, put pressure on them and then nail the joints with nails at different angles so the planks hold their curvature.

   How did he get 40 feet in the air to do this?

   By building the walls from the ground up and making a hand- and foothold “ladder” out of pieces of 2×4 nailed to each vertical section. ‘He hung upside down by his toes from these to do some of the work,’ Cathy said. ‘I couldn’t watch.'”

https://www.lovelycitizen.com/story/1641288.html

Sent us by Fred W. Weisenborn

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Cob with living roof, Portland, Oregon

January 28, 2011 at 12:43 pm

“This structure was designed in a group setting, with input from architect Mark Lakeman, builder Scott Howard, and school headmaster Maitri Erson, among others. Construction was lead by Scott Howard and Joshua Klyber, assisted by architect Gabriel Prost. Completed over two consecutive years during the annual Village Building Convergence with the help of hundreds of enthusiastic people. Scott created this work with many artistic elements inclduing: Stained glass windows depicting local landscapes, woodcarvings of animals and plants, and colorful mosaics.”

https://www.earthenhand.com/NewDay.html

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Sea shells and staggering beauty today

January 28, 2011 at 2:30 am

Beautiful sunny day after a lot of rain and cold. I got up early and worked until 1 PM on the tiny houses book, then went to beach. Look at these shells. The beauty out there in the world sometimes staggers me. Years ago, when the kid in American Beauty said the below, it resonated:

“…when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude…”

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/quotes

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