Monday, July 5, 2010

An old fruit label that looks like it could be from around these parts where all plants and veggies, fruits are seemingly enormous!


One of my old leaf print/watercolors that reminds me of the rich diversity of my colorful
Irish-English-Welsh-Scottish-Dutch-Ukrainian-German-French-Cherokee-Mohawk
dna-family tree!

Saturday, July 3, 2010


Linda Hogan

There are times when I just crave the writings of my favorite authors. I have been away from my books for a few months now and really haven't been able to buy any or check any out of any library. SO I went online to see what I could read of Linda Hogan's recent writings.

It is no great coincedence that I woke up this a.m. to find an 8 point buck right off the front of my cabin. I had gotten up around 6 , went outside and he was just right there. He watched me for a few moments and then non-chalantly sauntered away.

SO tonight looking for something good to read I came across this poem on her page.


Deer Dance
(from "Rounding the Human Corners")
This morning when the chill that rises up from the ground is warmed,

the snow is melted where the small deer slept.

See how the bodies leave their mark.

The snow reveals their paths on the hillsides,

the white overcrossing pathways into the upper meadows

where water comes forth and streams begin.

With a new snow the unseen becomes seen.

Rivers begin this way.

At the deer dance last year,after the clashing forces of human good and evil,

the men dressed in black,

the human women mourning for what was gone,

the evergreen sprigs carried in a circle

to show the return of spring.

That night, after everything human was resolved,

a young man, the chosen, became the deer.

In the white skin of its ancestors,wearing the head of the deer

above the human head with flowers in his antlers,

he danced,beautiful and tireless,until he was more than human,until he, too, was deer.

Of all those who were transformed into animals,the travelers

Circe turned into pigs,the woman who became the bear,

the girl who always remained the child of wolves,

none of them wanted to go back to being human.

And I would do it, too, leave off being human

and become what it was that slept outside my door last night.

One evening I hid in the bush south of here

and watched at the place where they shed their antlers

and where the deer danced, it was true,as my old grandmother said,

water came up from the ground

and I could hear them breathing at the crooked river.

The road there I know, I live here,and always when I walk it

they are not quite sure of me, looking back now and then to see that I am
still

far enough away, their gray-brown bodies,the scars of fences,the fur never quite straight,

as if they'd just stepped into it.
You too can read more of her writings and see her web page at :

http://www.lindahoganwriter.com/

Cesar Chavez

Frida and Diego








I have hitch-hiked back from Silverton twice now and both times I have had to endure a rant from a middle aged woman about how "The Mexicans" are ruining Oregon. Both times I have thought to myself " Am I in a twilight zone movie?"


But no, I am not and these bigoted attitudes are clearly prevalent in many places in the Good Ole USA!


I feel so very fortunate to have lived and worked in Austin, Texas and the Bay Areas ( both Monterey and San Francisco) of California where Chicano/Latino Culture is such a strong and beautiful element of the landscape. The Mexican colonization of Columbus, Ohio is the very best thing to have ever happened to "The Westside" of my hometown .



Strong families, beautiful art and music, amazing fortitude in the face of so much opposition from racists and bigots . I could quite honestly live on (authentic) Mexican food everyday of the week and be very happy.


I think back to the lives of Frida Kahlo and her friend and partner, Diego Rivera. How would they react to all of this? With Art and music I reckon. How would Jose Posada draw this particular cultural cartoon?

I think of all of the amazing Mexican-American folks I have known and loved.


I would much rather be surrounded by "a bunch of Mexicans" anyday. Viva Cesar Chavez! Thank the God/dess, Great Spirit, The Divine for Mexicans everywhere!





Thursday, July 1, 2010

Peace Now.
War is Barbaric!

U.S .
out of Everywhere!

Peace is Patriotic!!!
I was looking for an Art Nouveau era Birthday card and came across these
vintage 4th of July cards. I have always loved the art of this time period.
You can get a hard copy of these and others at http://www.emotioncards.com/
Happy Fourth of July Y'all!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Foxglove around my heart....

Pink Rhody by The Lodge

Lupines near the Meadows

Thanks Ike!

My friend Linda Catalano in NYC makes alot of really whimsical and wonderful things that she sells on etsy. She sent me this wonderful little purple owl that is stuffed with an array of aromatherapy herbs. I Love it so!

Check out her store on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PurtyBird

Traveling Altar Collage
Annie B. Siemer
June 2010



Foxglove/Digitalis

Oregon Iris Beauty






Above is a picture of a fox that was over my head when I looked up from eating breakfast this morning in The Towne Diner in Silverton. This year has been the "Year of The Fox" for me personally. I have seen foxes ( more than once) both in my dreams and in waking life . While I was in Florida this past winter I crossed paths with (most likely the same) fox on several occasions.


While riding my bike up and down my Dad's rural Florida road, Crossing the road, in the field behind my Dad's place, in my dreams.


One day that I ran into the neighborhood fox, he/she was crossing the road and stopped dead in his/her tracks and just looked me in the eye for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only 5-6 seconds. It was so large that I thought it was a coyote at first. One certainly well fed fox.


A few months before my little brother Patrick "crossed over" I had vivid dreams of this fox.
So now I will do research (and look up Jamie Sams Medicine Cards, my favorite interpretations) to see just what this fox stuff means for me.
Thank You to Jim and Liz, who once again have reminded me that everything is happening exactly as it should. And Thanks for the serendipitous ride into town too:)

This found July 1st,2010....
From Animal Speak by Ted Andrews:
"Fox embodies the magic of the world and was revered by every society at some time. It's a keeper of magic, healing, and the gifts of shapeshifting and invisibility. It's active at night but more easily seen at dawn or dusk at the edges of fields and forest which are seen as 'between' places, or doorways to Otherworlds.
It can teach lessons on camouflage, allowing us to see and hear things we might otherwise miss. Knowledge is power and the knowledge you acquire through quiet camouflage will be of use some day, if not the present moment. It has a keen sense of hearing and smell and so can herald a heightening of your senses, especially the psychic. It teaches us to use our senses to capture any prize we seek for everything is possible with the right action. It can also serve as a warning. If something doesn't smell right... if you aren't completely sure, then do nothing. Instead wait quietly for the right opportunity".
From Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams:
Flora is the foxes ally. It can vanish in the woodlands and foliage, which offers protection and medicine. Another of its abilities is to adapt to winter by changing color. Fox medicine involves adaptability, cunning, observation, integration, and swiftness of thought and action.
Its ability to remain unseen allow it to be the protector of the family unit. It is charged with the duty of keeping the family together and safe which is accomplished by observing undetected. It is an excellent talisman for traveling".


Me: Go figure.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Freewill Astrology

As horoscopes go, Rob Brezny's "Free Will Astrology" is my absolute favorite. I am a Libra Sun and Moon, Scorpio rising and a whole lot of other planets in Scorpio (intense yes I know). SO I usually read Rob's Libra and Scorpio every week in the alternative weeklies when I can find them. Here's what he sez this week for those:
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):" Have you been doing a lot of sweating and grunting from sheer exertion in 2010? Have you thrown yourself conscientiously into the hardest, smartest labor you've ever enjoyed? I hope so, because that would suggest you're in rapt alignment with this year's cosmic rhythms. It would mean that you have been cashing in on the rather sublime opportunities you're being offered to diligently prove how much you love your life. The next six months will provide you with even more and better prods, Libra, so please find even deeper reserves of determination. Intensify your commitment to mastering the work you came to this planet to do.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): How's that project coming, Scorpio? You know, that assignment the universe gave you at the beginning of 2010 to loosen up, play more, and periodically laugh like a tipsy Sagittarius. Have you been taking a sabbatical from the seething complications that in most other years are your rightful specialty? Did you throw some of your emotional baggage off a cliff? Are you dancing more frequently? I hope you've been attending to all of this crucial work, and I trust that you're primed to do even more of it during the next six months. To take maximum advantage of your appointments with relief and release, you'll have to be even sweeter and lighter."
The funny part is there is amazing insight in the others (signs)too. http://www.freewillastrology.com/

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Matriarchial Collage w/Handmade paper




Right to left:younger me, my Mom Joan Finneran, her Mom Mary Bernice McVay Finneran, her Mom Elizabeth Cecilia Burns McVay...I thought the first 3 "booth" photos were a cool start to this collage. I never met my Great-Grandmother "Lizzie Burns" but I have always identified with her and wear her wedding band on my left pinky finger (her being tiny at her wedding and me being the big girl that I am). AM I glad that it fit perfectly on that finger? You betcha!
"Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smaller right and doing it all for love."
St. Thérèse of Lisieux