Yesterday........March 22, 2008

I saw the coyotes today. 3 of them, I think. 2 youngsters and an older, much larger one.
They were in front of the house this morning. One scampered off, the other sauntered up the hill
across the street (in a field). Then, Nikita and I started walking and we ended up following 2 of them
for about 10-15 mins. It was great. They would cross the road from field to field. They kept an eye on us,
but they really weren't too concerned. I'll take my camera out tomorrow. Hopefully I'll see them again.

Saw a roadrunner and a few lizards too! Here's a photo of that roadrunner, leaping off of a house! Everybody is waking up, coming out of their winter slumber.
I too, am coming out of my winter slumber. Nikita and I danced around in the moonlight and explored the backyard on the 21st of March - the full moon, Good Friday and the day after the Vernal Equinox.

I took a little time off from my blog. I was not feeling at the top of my game for a bit but, I'm back!

Happy Spring Everybody!!!

Here's a tiny piece of one of my stories...............

"The Epiphany of Tiffany E. Poh"
by Susan Lowery/copyright 2004

Chapter One:
Tiffany’s Sleepy Day

After 2 hours of putting together puzzles, redressing her dolls, painting rainbow pudding onto her new dress - and licking it off, Tiffany was bored. She’d already done most of the things that she liked to do and it wasn’t even noon. And even though she was tired, she didn’t want to take a nap, and she was getting crabbier by the minute but didn’t know why. She started to sulk, then to throw herself around. It seemed that she couldn’t control herself at all, and worse yet, her horrible behavior felt good! She was having a temper tantrum of the highest order. After doing this for about an hour, she finally became very sleepy, much to her mother’s relief. But before she fell asleep, she dangled herself rather precariously by her knees over the back of the sofa. She looked up and imagined that the floor was the ceiling and that the light fixtures (also hanging down) were her tables. She thought about her feet touching the ceiling and about the ceiling becoming the floor. She always did look at her world a little differently. What a great time it would be to walk around on the ceiling upside down, right side up! She then closed her eyes and began day dreaming. As she did this, she could smell the orange-raspberry cake that Evelyn; her mom, was baking in the kitchen and could hear her whipping up the creamy vanilla frosting with the hand mixer. It was going to be glorious and she could hardly wait to sink her teeth into it tonight for dessert. This made her mouth water in delight.

While day dreaming, she thought how wonderful it would be, to be able to fly. She loved watching the birds outside soaring and then careening straight down from the wires to the ground, and then scooping up at the last second and shooting up to the sun. Oh, how she wanted to be able to do that.

Her mother had left the big windows open in the living room and the wind whipped and tumbled through the room, tousling her hair to and fro. She started to feel a warm, soft breeze against her cheek, and with her eyes closed, she could feel herself start to tumble through soft cotton like clouds, lulling herself to sleep. With this, she also started to experience the cool splash of tiny raindrops gently glazing her skin, and dampening her dress. Have you ever smelled the air after a summer’s rain? To Tiffany the smell was so fresh that it even smelled a little bit like vinegar! Soaring through the clouds, she was ecstatic and care free. She was also very happy to know that since she was flying - although she was daydreaming, she’d remembered to put play shorts on under her dress! Now she could do anything! At this, she turned up her nose to the sky, wrinkled it all up, and smiled toward the heavens.

The next thing she knew, she was doing every kind of loop-dee-loop, spin and dive imaginable. As she caught up with the birds that she’d just been watching diving and careening here and there, she matched them with aerial spins and swoops.

"Try and catch me, round robin! Try and catch me blue, blue bird!" She shouted while her belly bubbled with laughter.

After half a day of this, she finally wore herself out and decided to let herself down to the ground.

"Hew!" She sighed, I never knew flying would make me so tired and hungry."

Instantly, her dress became a brilliantly colored puff parachute filled with air. Slowly, it delivered her to the shake roof of a building. The roof had lots of bumpy places on it, so at first it was hard for her to keep her balance.

"Oh boy, luckily I have lots of bubble gum stuck on the bottoms of my shoes! Hopefully it’ll in turn help me stick to the roof!" She gloated. "And mom said that all my bubble gum did was make me look like a cow chewing her cud..... I sure wish she could see me now!" She had made quite a bit of a habit of talking to herself of late, and yet continued on.

After she gave herself a little bit of time and a few deep breaths to gather her composure and balance, she got down on her hands and knees, crawled to the edge of the roof and looked over the side, to the ground. With the gum still sticking to her shoes, it stretched and stretched and yet, kept her securely attached to the shingles.

"I knew that I chewed Double Bubble for a reason!" she said aloud.

As she leaned out over the shingles, she could see earthworms that had been brought up by the rain from underground.

"Oh Grandma, where are you? I wish you were here! They’re wriggling around everywhere and they look just like live spaghetti!" "They're too amazing to be true."
"I, I think I even see one smiling!" "Oh my gosh, man!"....

This is one of the "sneaky bunnies" from our yard!

He/she was too cute! It was hiding under one of the bushes in the backyard the other day and just looked a little "guilty." Like it was in trouble for doing something silly.

I'm Gonna Be 50 Next Month!!!!!!!! How Time Flies!

Now, it's "ART!"

Not too magnificent of a shot or angle, but oh well, here I am! I'll be 50 in one month and 4 days.

Where has the time gone? Perhaps overhead; like today's migratory cranes. Or, just flying by, like Ms. Prairie Falcon who made her presence known this morning. She was wigging out because of all of the crane overhead flying north. Daring Ms. Raven came gliding by as well - her wing span must have been no less than 5 feet. She was dazzling and enormous.

We have a bird that I believe is nesting on the top of our chimney! I saw her today, she's a round little thing - adorable as can be. I hope to climb up on the roof today to check out the nest as well as look over the roof & stucco itself for cracks & such. The monsoons will be here sooner than we know it and the rains will come pouring down!

Dan started a job a little better than a week ago. He had his first full week, this week. He was tired this morning! We went to breakfast to celebrate his job, and few other things for which we are extremely grateful.

Oh yeah - I got a new hat too! This is it.

I wore out the cowboy hat that Dan got for me in July. It got holes in from being outside so much and from the extreme use! I'm a "yard woman" these days!

Thank you Creator for all of our blessings whether or not we recognize them at the time - thank you.

Namaste.

Total "Chill" on a Saturday Morning

Here's Nikita in her total "relax-o-matic" mode this morning. Both Dan and I are finally working and Nikki is relaxing because of it, I think the stress of not having both of her "parents" at work was wearing on her! She's actually been a good girl the last couple of days while we were away. Prior to the last two days, she'd destroy things wile we were out for any period of time. We just hope this not simply a non-destructive trend, but the turning over a new leaf. She'd become anxiety ridden just before and then after moving here from LA. We are unbelievably grateful for this change.

Bells and Entanglements.................

The bells ring in the new & the ancient, the vines - simply like the spider, the webs we weave - the things we either do or don't pay attention to.......

Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes.......

In loving memory of Vince Yeo. Vince, I'll miss you.

Brrrrrrrr, it's cold!!!

I haven't entered anything in a while on my Blog, so, when it rains, it pours! Or actually, snows! It's been cold out here today and actually for awhile. We've had a reprieve every so often, but for the most part, there's a big chill goin' on. Here are a few pictures that I snapped this morning before school. In the last two photos, Nikita blends beautifully with the snow - being a Siberian Husky, I suppose that that makes a tremendous amount of sense.

My Friend Andrea!

My friend Andrea and her dear Darius came over today to walk with Nikita and I. Dan made breakfast for us all! We love it when they come over. :)

Winter Morning & the Moon

The moon managed to make herself barely noticable yesterday morning. She was actually quite large and nearly looming.

The sky was beautiful blue, pink & violet.

Little Changes on the Greenberg Portrait.......

I made a few minor changes to this portrait. If you look at Jon, you'll see that I've added a little more color to his face and helped define him a bit more. I think I'll take a few minutes this week to finish it up for good and begin a new "Finnish Fairy" portrait.

Happy mid-month everybody!

Tuesday's Mourning Dove...........

Here's one of our regular little visitors.

He/she's all puffed up for the cold weather. We've had a little precipitation; snow, sleet, rain - but it's mostly frozen outside. The usual desert yummies are few, our birdseed bell is lessening quickly and our birdseed house, is empty. Slim pickin's for hungry birds! Time to go to the store. I've been in bed sick that last few days but hope to be up and around tomorrow as I am to start working again.

Ms. Prarie Falcon makes an unscheduled appearance!

Here is Ms. Prairie Falcon. She came to visit in our neighbor's yard this morning, which happens to be right outside my studio window!

I wish that these pictures were a little clearer than they are, but I am happy to have been able to get them at all. I opened the blind and startled her a little bit, but she held her composure long enough for me to snap a couple of photos.

Alice and Jon, my mother & father-in-law....

Here is portrait which does not do them justice, but is something I recently almost completed just the same. One portrait has a lot less eye definition and color in the faces than the other. I had some corrections to make. So, if you see them either one above the other, or side by side, you can see that there have been adjustments. I will probably further define Jon's face with deeper color & shadow. Check it out, see what you think! It's important to see the products that come out really well, and the ones that have left us challenged. They're all worthy of acknowledgement. Just like in life, things aren't always pretty. It's been said that pain is the touchstone of growth. Painful paintings, drawings, writings, creations - lessons. We learn from them. Others learn from us. The "tooth" of this paper is extreme. Loads of texture; difficult to draw on, therefore, leaving really thick lines - plus I used a heavy stick of graphite. All lessons, all learning. Here's Jon & Alice.

Raven.......(a poem)

Caw-caw raven
Jagged overhead
Teasing me with questions
Where you goin' - where you been?

Seriously laughing
Looming uncomfortably close
Waiting for the shoe to drop
As winds maniacally blow

Gathering her minions
Crows, coyotes & snakes
Not asking for opinion
She corrals ones, others forsake

Eyes keen, beak pert
Messenger from the other side
From a place I can't yet see
Or, recognize

Raven are you callin'?
Callin' me to dream?
Callin' me to cloud filled days
To a shadow read?

Raven are you callin'?
Do I hear a dare?
Daring me to jump the fire,
To take my wings to the air?

Raven are you callin'?
Me, to the other side?
Giving me a ticket to....
Where another world resides?

Tellin' me you care.
Daring me to dare.
Let my ego die.
Callin' me to fly!

Here I am Raven,
Raven, I am here.

Susan Lowery 12/2007

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everybody!!!

We had a fabulous time at a beautiful party last night in Corrales. Wonderful people, fun dancing & awesome food! May the light guide us all year long & keep us safe. As my sacred friend Angie stated, "Let it be great in 2008!"

Namaste.....

Sunday Afternoon Images

It was suggested that I take some pictures on my walk or hike today, or where ever I went. So, I did. The one picture with all of the blue is a coven of crow or raven. There were about 20 or so that were flying in a pattern over the neighborhood today. The other birds are local doves. Then of course there is Nikita, and a little bit of back yard grass and rock.

The Simplicity of Zen................

Here are pictures of the corner of our patio. The three white rocks have been gathered from our backyard. I love how bright and beautiful they are. The extremely complex, yet seemingly simple - Julia Campbell would call them "found objects." This picture does not do them justice as they actually glisten. I have found many agates, pieces of obsidian and quartz in the backyard.

Treasures from the Creator. Slow cooling, solid, even semi-precious - volcanic in nature. The more lustre they exhibit, the more slowly they cooled from the original pyroclastic blast.

Merry Christmas from our hearth to yours........

Merry Christmas everybody!
Have a wonderful, joyfilled day.
We're joining our friends Andrea &
Don for a festive meal this afternoon!
Thank you Creator for this time of
plenty, friendship and love.
Also, We've determined that
"Ms. Hawk," is actually
"Ms. Prairie Falcon!"
Peace.

Full Moon Rising

It's the end of the day and the Christmas lights are on both in the front and backyards, and the moon is lighting up the sky, the fields and dirt roads of New Mexico. It's just past the winter solstice, but tonight and the tomorrow night are a Druid & Finnish Shaman's dream. Absolutely beautiful.

Today's Mountain View...............

While walking late this afternoon, this was our view. It was beautiful, cold and clear. About 30 degrees, except when you add in the wind chill factor, then it's a little cooler. Brrrrrrr.
On our earlier walk today we saw, as Linda J. calls him, "Mr. Coyote." He was crossing the road from one field to another, no doubt looking for lunch. Afterall, it was just about 12:00 noon.
Just after that, while I was sitting on the computer in the studio, Ms. Hawk came flying overhead and it looked just like she was looking in my window! She's awesome.