Medicine Wheel Mosaic Collage

Annie B. Siemer 2009

There is a stillness after someone leaves this earthly plane that both soothes the soul and leaves a longing. Spring has been glorious here. Redbuds still linger; forget-me-knots and purple violets grace the lawns, life springs up from the soil as death fertilizes. Lilac bushes are profuse.

I am spending way too much time inside with traipses out to the back patio to check on the growth of my sunflower babies.

1966

Patrick

Patrick

Patrick Raymond Siemer

November 12th, 1965- April 16th, 2010
"It may be that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings."
Wendell Berry
Collected Poems







My little brother Patrick died two days ago. I found him on the floor of my Mom's house. I came back for this.

Patrick was a mystic, seer, lifelong carpenter and the best of concrete/cement finishers.

He had a St. Francis- like way of attracting animals to his side and he loved being alone in nature.

He had prophetic dreams throughout his life and much of what he saw in dreamworld and in so-called "real-life" he could not reconcile, so he drank.

He had the same wanderlust as I and longed to go on a long road trip on a motorcycle. He wanted to see the vast openness of the west. He was a true desperado.

I Loved Him.

Chattanooga Redbud

Below is my Mom's Garden Madonna in front of my favorite old weathered fence. This garden is profuse with roses, hydrangeas, violets, dandelions, balloon flower, comfrey, purple cone flowers, day lilies, buddlea, lemon balm, forget -me-nots, clematis, dames rocket, lilacs and mock orange. All waiting to flower again.

Annie B.'s Spring Cleansin' Tea Blend:
1 handful each of Dandelion flowers, leaves and some root.
1 Handful of blue violet flowers and leaves
1 handful of Lemon Balm
Push down into a cup and cover with boiled water
Steep for 15 minutes and drink slowly.

If the birds can reuse our own torn and tattered blue tarps found on the ground, why can't we?

This picture I forgot to upright before I blogged it. Good way to stretch yer neck.

This is a redbud that was growing in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Oh just think how much money and poison we pour into the earth trying to rid our (old outdated british tradition) lawns from these dandelions. What an amazing plant for cleansing after a long winter of eating comfort food. Make some tea from the flowers, leaves and roots to tonify and cleanse your kidneys. Roots alone should be simmered for 20 minutes or so.

I did some experiementing with taking pictures on the fly out the window of the Greyhound bus on the second leg.



Driving back up from Florida to Chattanooga this past week, my eyes have been treated with a second spring this year and a glorious one it is. More Redbuds and dogwoods dot all of the hill/roadsides, more wildflowers in bloom of all kinds.

Leaving My Winter Sanctuary

It is time for me to leave my winter sanctuary here in Florida and start making my way back to my vw and then out west.  It has been an amazing sabbatical to be here and see everything open up into spring .  A good place to be introspective for the cold months.  Alot of reading and art.  Alot of journal writing and transformation. 

 Below are some more pictures of this unique region of north central Florida.  It will be really difficult to leave yet another garden but it must be done.  I hope to return here (if even for just a little while) every winter in the years to come.

This pine tree (like me)  seems to  march to the beat of a different drummer!

A few days ago my Dad and I took a trip up the Rainbow River in his old motor powered rowboat.

It was a beautiful day and I could have taken pictures non stop but here are a few...

This boathouse sits on an area of the Rainbow River called the "Bluehole".  It is a remnant of the old phosphate mine's quarries.  I have admired this house for years, it being a beautiful version of an Octagon , my dream house.  It is just the right size and design for me too.

These are some leanin' prickly pear cacti that are in a field behind my Dad's place.

They look like leaning people to me.

Every spring here these native Phlox take over all of the open fields in this area.   This my first time being here this late in the spring, so to say the least, I am overjoyed to have see them.  4-5 different shades of purple, make a field of paradise for Annie B!

Here is one of my favorite oaks in the grove behind my Dad's place...

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Carl Jung

Happy Birthday (tomorrow) to Corva Rose!

Thank You to Howard, Bill and Betsy, Barbara, Sara, Steve and Treefrawg for your support!

"I have noticed in my life that all men have a liking for some special animal, tree, plant or spot of earth. If men would pay more attention of these preferences and seek what is best to do in order to make themselves worthy of that toward which they are attracted, they might have dreams which would purify their lives. Let a man decide upon his favorite animal and make a study of it, to learn it's innocent ways. Let him learn to understand it's sounds and motions. The animals want to communicate with man, but Wakan-Tanka does not intend they shall do so directly - man must do the greater part in securing an understanding".

Brave Buffalo (late 19th century) Teton Sioux Medicine Man

Just one Branch of a 500 year- Old Live Oak on the Withlacootchee River

Bald Cypress on the Shore of Lake Rousseau

"i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)"

e.e. cummings