Brian Cutean (QTN)

The first time I ever heard Brian Cutean's melodic voice , I was stocking produce at the Wheatsville Food Coop in Austin, Texas where I worked at the time back in 1985.

Somehow I got into a conversation with him and he told me that he was a musician doing a gig coming up at an amazing little club called Chameleons (sp?)just off Sixth Street that I had been to alot because two amazing dykes owned it and I was way into the Women's music scene back then( still am but have expanded my horizons). Moving there to Austin right after college was a God/dess send anyway in so many ways but most of all it exposed me to the amazing kaleidoscope that is the world of folk and acoustic music. Let's just say I was spoiled there in the "Live Music Capital of the World". I saw him many more times in different locations before I left Austin to start my Environmental Education/Naturalist career in Vermont in 1987.

So the first thing I remember about seeing Brian play for the first time was the incredible light emanating from his eyes. It was hard to tell from my vantage point whether they were brown or blue, I could really only see "Light". Then he started singing. I can't really explain in this blog. You really have to hear this stuff for yerselves. I would recommend "Lubricating the Species" as a first dessert for yer ears.

I serendipitously have run into Brian over the years at the Ruch Barter Faire in Oregon, Kerrville and back in Austin when I tried (unsuccessfully... too many people) to move back to Austin in 1998. Today I got a surprise email from him and I could only smile (permagrin the whole way through) to read the newest from him, this Bright Spot in the Universe.

He still roams playing music between Eugene , Oregon and Austin....and everyone STILL
should hear his music. He has a load of concerts up and down the West coast this summer. Check out the Master of Puns and his blog at
http://www.qtnrg.org/ You truly will not be sorry.

Peace, Annie B.

Borrowed Quotes

Corn illustration also borrowed : www.botanical.com

I "borrowed " these two quotes from one of my new favorite blogs (that I think I may have mentioned previously) www.salmoncabin.com
They are both from Rilke, but I always love new quotes and these are timely for my recent state of mind:
"if there is nothing you can share with other people, try to be close to Things; they will not abandon you" and "Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn't force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come." Words to live by.
Salmon cabin also talked today about the old saying about corn (that I learned from both of my parents)
"Knee high by the fourth of July". My Dad and I have a Sunday morning ritual of walking in a different Columbus City or Metro Park each week. Today we drove back out to the" Ponds at Prairie Creek" aka Prairie Oaks Darby Bend Lakes. This little gem of a park was made by reclaiming an old (Olen) quarry that is on The Darby River (or Big Darby Creek as the locals call it). To me it will always be "a river".
Anyhoo, we were driving back to the Westside and passed by many a corn field that was indeed "knee high" and some even taller.
What alot of folks don't realize about all of this corn though, is that more than 80% of it goes to feed livestock or processed to be some variety of corn syrup or corn filler. Science sez that humans are now being born with corn in our DNA. Watch "King Corn" (the documentary) for more on that.
I am hoping that the corn that I planted at Blue Rock Station a few weeks ago has not yet been found by the chickens. The small plot in my Mom's backyard isn't "knee high" yet...but it is growing fast. I planted it just a few weeks ago, knowing it would be ripe in time for my October birthday. Open-pollinated , the way all corn should be. Read: This is not Frankenstein corn. I dream and hope for big ears to sink my teeth into in the fall.
Time will tell.

Freedom

Picture taken by Alicia Dragonfly in front of the newly scratch coated

Mayapple Strawbale Shack

Happy Fourth with Albert

"Peace cannot be kept by force.
It can only be achieved by
understanding."Albert Einstein

more from www.botanical.com

Mullein
Jewelweed or Touch-Me-Not
www.botanical.com

www.botanical.com

I had some mighty powerful dreams last night. Which brings me to this plant (illustration also found on www.botanical.com ). This is Mugwort. It is widely used throughout the world: in Chinese Traditional Medicine as moxa; Native American tribes on the west coast used it to cure poison oak and pieces of it were reportedly placed beneath the head for enhancing their spiritual dream life; it has also been used in herbal tobacco substitute mixtures. Checkout this website for more beautiful illustrations and medicinal uses.

www.botanical.com

www.botanical.com
I just love the illustrations on this web site. Old fashioned, printable and frame-able.
Here is a Sassafras (my favorite Ohio tree besides Tulip Poplar)...someone had the wisdom to put this entire book ( "A Modern Herbal" by Maud Grieves) online years ago. I still refer to it whenever I am looking up the medicinal uses of any plant.