Thursday, September 13, 2007

This was the amazing view from " Bill and Betsy's place" just south of Pigeon point Rd

This is Buddy, one of their dogs. Boy, is he happy. I love the way he's still checking me out, out of the corner of his eye, as he runs away.


This sunflower was on Kelly Avenue and I just had to stop and take ( alot ) of pictures of it.
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Artichoke Bliss 7/27/07


Artichokes are one of my favorite California plants and this one just came into the lovely lavender of it's downy fleece. Some cousins* of mine and I had dinner tonight and they brought artichokes. Being raised on the meat and potatoes of Ohi-O, I had never really eaten an artichoke until I lived in the Greenhouse on Jones Gulch Road my first fall here in the greater La Honda-Pescadero-San Gregorio triangle back in 1989. Shortly thereafter, I started eating them on a regular basis. Around these parts, you can get them in bread, pesto , and even ice cream , though the latter might just be a rumor from Castroville, and the former ( from Norm's Market in Pescadero), I can never pass up. There is definitely a method to imbibing this flower's buttery insides , and mayonnaise is an essential element of the whole process. If you've never done it, get a Californian to show you.

* and beautiful , kindred spirits who I hope to write about. They drove up from Desert Hot Springs to see me. We met for the first time at a family reunion 2 years ago, they were sort of catalysts for helping to nudge me out of Columbus and back "on the road"....back out into the uncertainty of nowness. For the next week or so , I hope to show them the Redwoods, the San Gregorio Store, parts of Santa Cruz and Big Basin...maybe Castle Rock...who knows? what fun it will be.
This is the second summer that I have been able to see this flower bloom. Thanks to Teresa for planting it!
Medicinally, artichokes are good for your liver, stimulating bile flow and reducing cholesterol, among other things. more info at www.botanical.com

Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Jugtown Pirates of Lake Champlain !!!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The Lens Room clearer,perhaps a reflection

Posted by Picasa

Fog overtakes Lighthouse 5:40 pm 7/17/07


This was just a few minutes ago. I went straight down to the cove after work today and just played and layed (laid, lie ....at 40 something, I am starting to forget...help me editors at heart) in the sun , on the rocks enjoying being off and midsummer energy everywhere. I watched a beautiful greenish crab with turqouise sides come in and out from a crack and heard and watched oystercatchers protecting their brood. I had not been down in the cove prior to this, DURING the coming of the fog. I was standing in the sun and it comes pouring past the Lighthouse from nowhere and it looks like smoke as it follows the curve of the land and falls down the cliffs in a spray over the coves soft sandy beach. I looked up and the Lighthouse was completely gone ( but it's really not that far away, that's how thick the fog is). You can see a little nub in the center of the fog that is what I think are the windows of the Fresnel Lens room of the Lighthouse.
Pretty cool eh?
Posted by Picasa
Frank Waters
Posted by Picasa

Monday, July 16, 2007

HOW DID I MISS THIS BOOK? or the Recommended Reading part of the Eddy

So we all find great books in a myriad of ways and I have found one that I could have read 26 years ago but didn't know about. Oh yes, everything is happening exactly as it should.
A guy I know at work is always shooting off book titles, and sent me on a goosechase looking for this one under the title of "Sacred Mountains of the World "(which is actually a title of a chapter in the book, but thanks Michael for being the catalyst for this one).
Well I had read Frank Waters "Book of the Hopi" way back in 1985. It's one of the books that I will always keep and read parts of from time to time and wonder, "How did I miss that the ---time ( or all those other times) I read it"...but there's always something new.
Now I am completely mesmerized by one he wrote in 1981 correctly titled "Mountain Dialogues".

"The Circle of the Law Belt "is a pretty cool chapter. But it's all good and all -ALL.

I tend to read in waves and read a few books at once. I am also reading one by
Maxine Hong Kingston entitled "The Fifth Book of Peace" and have checked out another of hers from the library called " Tripmaster Monkey" that I have renewed a few times, but not started reading yet.
I lust after alot of new books, but I see that Barbara Kingsolver has a new one ,
" Animal,Vegetable,Miracle: A Year of Food Life" that I will have to save my pennies for.
My dream would be to win a shopping spree at Bookshop Santa Cruz or Half Price Books



Sunday, July 15, 2007

surreal sunday morning...


There's something really surreal about this place in the early morning, any morning and I awake today giving Thanks to be here. Here's a random postcard that I found in the Capitol-of-all-great-postcards, The San Gregorio Store. I always seem to find the right word at the right time and this was one of those serendipitous days.
Surrealism n.1 the youthful expression of dreamlike spontaneity which daily life conspires to suppress. 2 a state of mind embracing unconscious, poetic juxtaposition which is eroded by responsibility. 3 You pursue the terrible beauties of fear and hope. Your friends cannot help you
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, July 8, 2007

The Fog Returneth....

So we have been soooo very lucky this spring/summer that we have had very little fog. Now that the rest of the country is inundated with heat, there is no chance for a blue sky here at Pigeon Point. Recent highlights: Seeing Kate Isenberg and her magical band ( GO see her in San Francisco) at Women in the Redwood's last weekend in little ole Loma Mar on June 30. Next year folks, make it to this lineup and this event. Small crowd and amazing free music. Loma Mar has been the "inspiration ground" for many a local musician. Other favorites Kelly and the Lighthouse Band and the Lisa Kelly Band were alot of fun to sit in the sun and listen to. Thanks to Kelly Barrett and her and hers "key rescuing skills" atop Haskins Hill post show. Amazing sunset and I slept up there for the first time in 14 years last Saturday night. This place is a true paradise on Earth. The "Tactile Table" mosaic is nearly finished. I will grout it later this evening and will probably fill in the gaps with Abalone chips. Above see a sneak peek.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007




These are some shots of the back porch Nasturtium jungle. This is the first time in over 13 years that I do not have a whole bunch of different kinds of Sunflowers growing in one of the many gardens that I have left behind. So here's one from the Santa Cruz Farmers Market on my windowsill in a vase.
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Some thoughts on Truth...

"Speak few words, but say them with quietude and sincerity
and they will be long-lasting".
Lao Tzu

"But such is the irrestible nature of truth
that all it asks, all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
The sun neeeds no inscription to
distinguish him from darkness."
Thomas Paine

"Better than a thousand meaningless words is one word of sense
which brings the hearer peace."
The Dhammapada

"A truth that's told with bad intent,
Beats all the lies you can invent."
William Blake

"Deceptions cease in the realm of truth.
There are no boundaries to be seen".
Sosan

"Love truth and pardon error."
Voltaire

"When a great truth once gets abroad in the world,
no power on Earth can imprison it,
or prescribe it's limits, or suppress it".
Frederick Douglass

"The truth is to be lived,
it is not to be merely pronounced with the mouth.
There is nothing to argue about in this teaching".
Hui-Neng



Friday, June 22, 2007

Sunset Summer Solstice 06/21/07


Sun going down on the Pacific on Summer Solstice between the two Monterey Cypress Trees
Posted by Picasa

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Sunset Summer Solstice 2007


The mini-digicam doesn't do this sunset justice, but with a little help from Picasa
and color saturation, it comes pretty close.
The sun just went down smack dab in the middle of the two Monterey Cypress trees
right behind my back porch.
Happy Summer Solstice from The Edge!
I am having a daily problem of going back to see my blog and seeing that the pictures are not viewable. Being the Luddhite that I am, I don't really have a grasp of the little red x in the top left corner where my picture once was. So I have been going back and re-entering them through Picasa again. If anyone reading this knows what I am doing wrong, please email @ annie.siemer@gmail.com.


Happy Summer Solstice, Y'all!
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Shards and Remnants


This is an old table that (some previous staff person left behind ) 2 years later I go back to insert this picture and the table popped back to the newer post but this is the picture of the austin mosaic i was looking for)and was given
to me last week. I am undertaking the fourth mosaic of my life . The first was a round paver and the third was a hallway floor in the apartment that I lived in on the Hilltop of Columbus, Ohio
for seven years.
I sometimes go to Harvey West Park in Santa Cruz
to swim or walk or look at the historic gravestones and arboretum
in Evergreen Cemetary there. Every time , I drive past this tile
and floor discount place and see a yard of stacks of different
kinds of tiles, all locked up and lonely. I have had the urge to continue
the contemplation involved in undertaking any mosaic for quite a number of years now. The last was the floor project.
During my seven years back in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio my landlord Charlie was going to tear out the hallway that had some tiles that were cracked and put in some gaudy orange shag carpet instead. The tiles he was tearing out were of a beautiful light pink with antique white flecks. I asked him if I could break them up and make a mosaic ( 5'x5' landing on the top of the staircase landing to my second-floor-of-a-house apartment). He said "yes" and was even willing to let me take $60.00 off on my rent to do it. I had been inspired to do large scale mosaics by a couple of beautiful garden- goddess- women, Linda and Marilee who live up in Sonoma County, and of course by every little mosaic book that I scanned in at the library during my short stint there.
The other two completely floored me ( no pun intended) with the transformative powers latent in creatity and the arranging the edges of randomly broken river and ocean wave tumbled shards of somebodies old plate, cup, jug or porcelin toilet. I also spent some time as a gardener in Columbus and worked in one of the old neighborhoods called Italian Village and would find old pieces of Italian pottery in many places. So I have had a stash, but they are in a million boxes stuffed into my vwvan in storage.
So, the other day I stopped in there and was promptly shown "the bone pile" and picked up $9.00 dollars worth to add to the pieces I found by the American River last spring and here by the ocean.
Today is my 1 year anniversary working here at the Lighthouse and I have been working on this mosaic for 3 days. It is being done over someone else's beautiful sun that you see on the western edge. The middle piece is a rectangular tile with what seems like Mayan design done on Italian tile. I just may have to go back and rescue a few more of those. There are a few pieces left over from the floor project that somehow got tossed into the back of my truck back in 2005 as well as some cool other pieces that also made it out here that I had picked up in Florida or German Village( also in Columbus). I have had a couple of extremely trying weeks emotionally ( aside from the seeing friends over past few weeks) and art like this saves me every time.
Hopefully you will come have tea on my backporch when the table is done.
We are all one big random edged mosaic. Someday in my octagon strawbale house, I will have a completely mosaic shower....and garden .

I almost forgot the one I did ( the second) during my attempt to live in Austin, Texas again during 1998. My friend Jodi who lives there knew a place where there were lots of those big beautiful Mexican floor tiles all over the ground in pieces, so we drove there and asked them if we could pick some up...and they said yes, for free. So I hauled a bunch of them into my backyard there in Austin and made a pathway on the Avenue B sandy clay hallowed ground. Grass eventually grew in the cracks during my 3 month stay there. Most of my California seeds collection bolted and died without even going to seed, but the mosaic looked pretty cool and I have pictures of it...somewhere in a box.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Some more timely quotes and poems

Out beyond ideas of
wrong-doing and right-doing
There is a field
I'll meet you there
When the soul lies down in that grass
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase,
each other
doesn't make any sense.

Jelaluddin Rumi translated by Coleman Barks


"Nobody sees a flower , really-
it is so small-
we haven't time,
and to see takes time,
like to have a good friend takes time".

Georgia O'Keeffe


"The secret of making
something work in your lives is,
first of all,
the deep desire to make it work:
then the faith and belief
that it can work:
then to hold that clear definite
vision in your consciousness
and see it working out step by step,
without one thought
of doubt or disbelief".

Eileen Caddy

Sunny Skies, Good Folks!

This has been a phenomenal few weeks of mostly sunshine and alot of hooking up with good folks that I either just met, or have known for a long tiime and have not seen for a while. This picture is looking off the back side of the hostel towards my favorite "wave splash" rock.

The day that my Uncle Mike and Aunt Nancy came by the Lighthouse while out here for a graduation.

This is Uncle Mike and Aunt Nancy from Ohio.

These are two of my favorite people in the world, Felicia and Zak. Zak and I were Naturalists together at one of the residential Outdoor Education programs (SMOE in Jones Gulch ) and Felicia came along a few years later to the same program while I was living at the Hiker's Hut and subbing for SMOE. They are a few of the people I have kept in touch with over the past 16-18 years and they are just incredibly wonderful human beings. Trish the Treefrawg was also here on Thursday night, but wasn't around for our morning photoshoot.
This past weekend was very social, and social comes in waves for me.
Here's my weekend backwards, or eddy-like...
On Sunday afternoon I got to spend time listening to AMAZING live local music ( THANK YOU to Dave Elias and the Casual Tees, Jeff Ring and the Lighthouse Band , Perry the soundman,Lisa Kelly Band, Gary Gates , Mark Reid Band, Curtis Turner and a band that is new to me that is absolutely amazing---Jerry Logan and Friends). I was blessed to spend the afternoon with Cathy ( now Perry's wife ) and their son Ellis and Michelle, who just returned from a year travelling around the world. After I ask her permission, if possible I will add it to my link favorites column....as her pictures and stories are really amazing. Michelle and Cathy are two other "valley" Naturalists from 14 or so years ago . Kristen and Teresa, friends that I have known for a while, have been reunited with for a year, were there too...so it was really nice for me and alot like "OLD HOME WEEKEND".
I also got to spend some time on Saturday afternoon with some brand new people ( Peter Garrett and family and the folks who built the beautifully placed and artistically done new staircase ,picture posted below) relaxing, eating, playing music and drumming in Whaler's Cove.
Posted by Picasa