• Tag Archives Highpoint
  • Tours

    Imbolc                                          Garden Planning Moon

    Students from St. Matthew’s School in St. Paul.  The first group was willing to go with my plan for contemporary art.  There were several very interested, engaged students.  We looked at the Mushroom photo exhibit, the Highpoint Print Co-op show and the Shackleton photograph paintings in the MAEP gallery.  We also went into the contemporary world gallery where the students loved the works.

    The second group had more particular ideas so we saw the Buddha, the mummy, a Grecian amphora and kalyx, the Tatra, the wind vanes and the flintlock rifles.  It was a strange tour but the kids loved it.  They had studied Buddhism, Egypt and Greece in social studies.  The rest were individual interests.

    Both groups loved the museum.  Felt very good.  Reinforced my decision to keep doing this work.

    (this print I bought today.  Florence Brahmer.  The Temperaments:  Flammable)

    Over to Highpoint again.  One of the prints had been calling to me since I passed it up on Monday.  I went back over and bought it after the tours.


  • Bees, Clay, and Prints

    Mid-Summer                                                                              Waning Honey Flow Moon

    Long day.  Up at 7:00 to get a head start on the bees.  Hive inspections done, then get ready for Northern Clay.

    At Northern Clay Kate and I tried to make cylinders.  Not as easy as it sounds.  Especially since come of the clay was short.  This means damned hard to draw up without breaking it off at the wheel.  Kate was pretty worn out after the first day.

    I went on to Bryant Lake Bowl after a quick stop at the Sierra Club, right across from Northern Clay.  At Bryant Lake Bowl I waited for the Woolly folk to show up.  Warren and Sheryl, Frank and Mary, Mark and Elizabeth, Bill, Yin, Charlie Haislet and I ate a nice meal at the Bryant Lake Bowl, then adjourned to Highpoint Print Co-operative where we each made 2-3 monoprints.

    I found myself in a primary color, color field mood and produced a couple of prints that are not too bad.  It was a fun process and everyone had a great time.


  • To Bee, To Do

    Mid-Summer                                                             Waning Honey Flow Moon

    Out to the bees in just a few minutes to slap on two more honey supers each, the six I finished varnishing yesterday while Mark put foundations in the frames.  This will find six honey supers on colonies 2 & 3, while colony 1, the parent colony for next year’s only divide, will have four.  Not sure if I’ll need more than these.  I’m having to do this in the early morning, not the best time, but the only time I’ve got today.

    At 9:15 Kate and I take off in separate cars for the Northern Clay Center.  Our clay intensive starts this week, 10:00 to 4:30.  I hope to learn how to make Japanese style tea cups and salad sized plates.  Like tai chi working clay puts a premium on hand-eye co-ordination and sense of touch as well overall design skills.

    A good while ago my spiritual journey had gone stale in the reading, meditation, contemplative modes I knew best. The next stage of my spiritual practice became gardening, working with the rhythm of flowers, soil, spades and trowels.

    That practice went on for many years when Kate and I decided to add vegetables and the orchard with permaculture principles in mind.  That added a good deal of oomph to the tactile spirituality, deciding to keep bees put animal husbandry into the mix.  At this point my spirituality has become more and more attuned to the rhythms of growing seasons, plants and bees, all within the context of the Celtic Great Wheel.

    With tai chi and clay my spiritual practice comes closer in again, my hands, my feet, my hips, my arms.  Both clay and tai chi are paths on this nature focused ancientrail, though for me they are quite a bit harder.  But that’s the push I need to grow.

    After our first day at Northern Clay, I have my Woolly meeting tonight at Highpoint Print co-operative where we will make prints.  One more step down the ancientrail of the mind/body link.