Ramblings

A visit with a friend - Volcano

"I will always remember the native birdsong, 'ohia, ferns, orchids, curly antheriums, meeting friends, bleary eyes before Ka'u coffee, rain, smell of smoke, fresh fish, nuts, kale, kale, kale, nutmeg, bamboo shoots, cantaloupe, chocolate, "cheesecake", white pineapple, champagne, Menage ah red, cooking together, lying around, walking, and sleeping with Murph, zazen, talking story and tending the fire, bathing in rainwater, Volcano marketing, walking, dreaming, relaxing doing nothing, serendipitous shopping, Puka Puka, a peek into Clayton's modular rain forest studio spread, our laughter here and there...a generous gift of timelessness, my friend. Thank you for everyone and all it took through the ages to make it happen."

When someone’s giving his view of things, I’ve caught myself taking a position before he’s even finished laying out his point. It’s a contagious sort of reaction that’s greatly magnified when an opinion concerns the moral right or wrong of something. Judgments on right and wrong are a nearly irresistible enticement to pick sides. And that’s exactly why the old Zen masters warned against becoming a person of right and wrong. It isn’t that the masters were indifferent to questions of ethics, but for them ethical conduct went beyond simply taking the prescribed right side. For these masters, the source of ethical conduct is found in the way things are, circumstance itself: unfiltered immediate reality reveals what is needed.

- Lin Jensen, "An Ear to the Ground"

For Haku June 2, 1998 - August 21, 2010

Friday seems like such a long time ago

  you were alive then 

Lying under my desk...

  with me 

Big empty space you left.

 

Self portrait in kayak.

Self portrait on a kayak trip at Terranea Resort.

My friend...the talented artist, Susan Szabo, painted Murphy from a photograph I sent her. Then she had a bag made from the photo. She just did a post on her blog about that here: http://www.susanszabo.com/542/dogs-on-bags . Love that bag so!

Sharing this site...Alice Waters...Chez Panisse in Berkeley.
The best restaurant and I love Alice Waters.

http://www.chezpanissefoundation.org/

Murphy grunged

Punk palms

Shared Otto cheesecake

Naomi, George & Photoshop

I'm playing with effects in Photoshop and have been wanting to play with two images. Here is the story about those images.

On January 5, our friends, Naomi and George, left for Southeast Asia. They are "on their last adventure." That's what George said. They sold their beautiful home in Volcano. For the time being, their website is still online so here it is: http://www.thegarudaguesthouse.com/index.html .

We met them while George was doing some finishing work on our house. He made beautiful shelves and a desk. I'll always treasure them as he left a part of him. We had them over for dinner a few times and, although we only knew them for a short time I appreciated that they were very special people. Old hippies. The best kind.

Before leaving, Naomi gave me her spices. She kept them in two jars - one with spices started from A to C and the other with spices from D to Z. Amazing how the names of spices begin with the letters A, B and C.

George gave me his I Ching books - two volumes. I so love that they are so worn and used that the cover of one volume is held together with duct tape. It made me so happy to have them. I love this photo because you can see Naomi's spices in the background.

 

We're following their travels on Facebook. Thank goodness for Facebook. Wishing them the best and miss them in Volcano. Safe and rich journey to them!