Journals, journals... Everywhere there are Journals! And Finding Arleen Polite Part 2

I have been an avid diary and journal writer as long as I can remember. 

  

My maternal Grandmother Bernice( from where I get my middle B. name ) purchased for me a small brown leather diary complete with its own little key, and Thanks to my Mom, who (unfortunately snooped into it back in the day.. without my knowing it) sent it out to me when I was still living and working at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse in Pescadero, California along with my tiny green 1st grade Catholic School Sweater, a teenage beaded Lion purse, a cookbook she had compiled for me of ALL of her recipes, and a small black Japanese music box with abalone! inlay that my Dad had brought back to me as a child on one of his many trips "out of town"  as a carpenter and general contractor.

All of those items , except for the small brown diary were left behind when I was abruptly forced by Hostelling International Golden Gate council and three very misogynous men , out of a job that I loved and a place where I had always wanted to work ...back in 2009.

I picture those other items floating around in the tidepools and surf surrounding this magical spot where I was lucky to have lived for nearly three years during which in 2007 I created this blog that is MY journal /book online, that has become also my chronicle of life back and forth, up and down from here to there and back again to the present.

So ,  I have, here in Florida and up in storage in Ohio, stacks and stacks of hard bound journals of every color and love looking back in then from time to time to put my life into perspective. 

My little garden journal from my four 4month long stint
Living with Artist Arleen Polite 
May She Rest In Peace

Here in our little pandemic refuge I am still up for some of the night . (See previous blogging regarding Owlgirl Rhythms and Finding Arleen Polite) I went looking for exactly what I was doing when Arleen passed on back in 2020, a few months following the murder of George Floyd. 

I had finally connected with Arleen's little Brother,  Hallbrook (and conservator of her amazing collection of woodcut originals and prints) the night before last.  In what was an hour of grace in conversation ...I found out the details of her passing on as well as the fact that she had ben cremated back in Austin after all and not buried here in Palatka as I had previously thought. 

So back then in 2020 I had been alone in this trailer for the first time since taking on the care of my disabled Father back in 2012 and was having, along with Mollie my dog and Verde my newish cat...my own personal ART camp, writing copiously into this old -school paper bound journal

This is what I had written the night before Arleen passed onto the Great Beyond :

"Dreams about being in a backyard somewhere with Dad.  I Was out after dark because I had heard a flute playing from a house behind us. I went to the house, where they were having a "music/food" gathering like  ones I had known in California.

One woman is talking to me, telling me that she remembered me from..... When I had made something. I told her it wasn't me .. she must be remembering someone else, and also I Had the feeling she had met me right after Mom died.

Later in the dream, I am traveling on river in these Utah-like" slot canyons" I was calling them , looked just like ones I had seen in Zion.

I was being helped out of this river by another adventure-type woman who had climbing ropes, but I somehow easily flipped myself up and over.. this fence and onto the banks.

In real life I crave both musicians and outdoor adventure types, to be back in my life again.

Last night Mollie went crazy barking at the back door again so I went out onto the back ramp calling for Verde again.. a large Barred Owl immediately called out. I am so  happy to hear one here finally again.

For the first four years here back with Dad, there was a family of 5 of them that would call back to me and they have been missing for a few years and Verde was okay and I told her to ho back to her hiding place. This morning after after another strong storm- the air is clean and the stars are incredible".

Back here in 2022 in the present where the "power  they say resides" .. I am working on 3 simultaneous journals.; A beautiful leatherbound art/nature/daily journal  given to me as a gift last fall? By my cousin Dawn for recording my dreams that are starting to come back and the small store bought travel journal like the ones I have had in the past, doing my all time favorite past-time of cafe writing, ( but as I am STILL in covid at home quarantine) it has become my little journal all about Finding Arleen Polite. 

Up in my storage unit in Ohio, there is a box full of journals written in the early part of my life and I hope that if i do not survive this multifaceted pandemic, someone will rescue them on my behalf. Its now the evening here and writing all of this has drained my vital energy needed to get it out... Or as Wayne Dyer once said..." Don't die with your music still in you".

In my View part 2

 

Mollie Girl holding on.. still following me around the house;

She and I have both been very ill... And "HOPE"

That we can/may both bounce back... 

Fixed the Santa Claus entrance for now..
. Complete with a new fire pole.. tee hee

I still love journaling and hope to lead work shops soon via my 

Withlacoochee Arts and Ecology... Stay tuned and look us up on facebook y'all 

I think I will always always have" little altars Everywhere" 

Horses Outback

Outback Yesterday..... And more in My View...

 

  

Owlgirrrrrrllllll Rhythyms.. and Finding Arleen Polite.. 4:00 am 6/7/2022

Illustration a screen shot from PBS? Tv

 OWL GIRL RHYTHMS is what I heard every time someone says algorithms.... so I became one these past few Pandemic years.  I had already been in near total isolation for years here, to a degree, while caring for my Dad.  

Years before my Mom passed back in 2012 and after she had retired from the Ohio Dept. Of Natural Resources, she too became somewhat of a nocturnal owl girrl... Up watching tv, praying to her "2 Mothers, Mary and The Virgin of Guadalupe" , writing her thoughts on little pieces of paper, talking with my little Brother Patrick before and after he passed.. eventually snoozing off. 

So during these past few years I too have left part of my previous "Diurnal" life... (crepuscular mostly)  like the Barred Owls outside in our huge Oak Tree.." who cooks for you, who cooks for youuu alllll... " (I can still call them in like I/we did on our trails in parks, outdoor and environmental education centers on my nighthikes with both kids and adults) and find myself 

doing so from here in the house. i reckon the neighbors wonder.. but probably don't hear. 

Back in 1998 I lived for 4 months with an amazing night owl in Austin, Texas.  There , on Avenue "B"  where I rented a back room from one,  ARLEEN  POLITE, a strong Black woman Woodcut Artist, martial arts  practitioner  (Blackbelt in Karate, Aikido to name just a few) Gardening God/dess, I would be sleeping my diurnal self and beautiful cooking (albeit somewhat shocking) of onions and garlic sizzling in a cast iron skillet would come wafting back.. as Arleen was up working her woodcut press, cooking her amazing concoctions, caring for her dog , Caldee and cat Venus.

Arleen had come from Palatka, near here on the St. John's River and I had also known her when we worked together p/t at Wheatsville Coop circa  1985 ( my first time living and working for Austin Parks and RecReation) . 

 

Back then, Arleen was already established as an Austin Artist... doing the local art fairs such as the Sixth street old "" Pecan Street" twice yearly festival, events at both Bookwoman  Women's bookstore collective and Chameleons Coffehouse off of Sixth St.  as well as myriad other venues, including an amazing mural on there,  on the side of  Wheatsville Food Co-op on Guadalupe, where   i had worked in produce for one of the many jobs I had to have, as (Austin PARD where I worked as a Recreation Specialist ) did not want to pay benefits.

So back in 1998 I wanted to return to Austin from here in Florida, I had been working on a rabbit farm,, still had a few college and other friends there in North Austin... so I did. .....move back, armed with my California seed collection as well as a determination to start anew..

 I had answered an ad Arleen,  the nightowl, had placed in the local University of Texas daily and moved in and Arleen allowed me to plant whatever I wanted in the backyard... that was March of

1998. 

She had just lost her brother and best friend, a fellow Artist and Photographer and

she was trying to get a Masters degree from UT Austin. to be able to further her career and be able to teach her craft. I had been dealing with life post Ovarian Cancer scare and lasted there just over Four months, again working p/t at The Austin Nature Center. 

"Ode to George and Arleen"
Watercolor and Crayon on Canvas
A Pandemic Premonition 
By
Annie B. Siemer

All of my seeds in the unforgotten! Texas heat, went straight to seed and by July, I had fled back to my hometown of Columbus, Ohio after retrieving the Vw ( had left back in Cali ) and drove all the way back home. 

I had planned to stay one month and ended up staying seven years in Columbus, during which there one summer (around 2002 or so ...darn my shrinking memory) i attended the fabulous Columbus Arts Festival, there on the banks of the Scioto River I met another  (small world even then.) Metal artist , Kathy of Katsu designs, who knew Arleen and had passed on her experiences in the UT Masters progrm.. and how badly she was treated there.When I returned here in 2012 to care for my Dad... Arleen had apparently been living back here in Florida, going to Nursing School . I had tried to contacrlt her then, to no avail.

Well last year, I found out that Arleen had passed on to the Great Beyond, just a few months after the murder of one, George Floyd.

I found out "accidently" or as a long time mutual friend, Brian Cutean QTN, said.. "there simply are no quinkydinks ",  

 By searching for Arleen on facebook and the googleworld. I found this video and I will post it here to allow you to hear Arleen's story answering questions in a 2010 interview,( where as/ her nephew (Son of aforementioned Brother)  said " she somehow gained  retribution ".

legacy. com/funeral-homes/obituary/arleenreginapolite

As it is nearing the anniversary of her demise, I want to go to Palatka, where I have still never been..  and i still do not know if she is buried there or in Austin or if she was cremated.

According to her obituary link here:.    legacy.com/funeral.homes/arleenreginapolite  )  

She left behind a living legacy of woodcuts and had done  The Stations of The Cross in  (East?)  Austin, where she had been living as an "Artist-in-Residance" for a local church there.

In many ways Arleen and I had parallel lives. I am determined to find my OwlGirlRhythym friend and still hope to find out exactly how she died... A mysterious illness... 

Here is a link to the video that seems to be too Large... Larger than life as was 

Arleen -The- Nightowl.  Goodnight A rleen, Goodnight... 

womenandtheirwork.org/archive/exhibitions/arleen-polite

Round cheer.....

 

 

Thunder and Lightnin Bolts...with some letters HUGe For Vivien!

My Mom's Magnifying glass I found in her purse!

 I call my  momentary , day-by-day realizations, or times y'all call AH HA! moments....Thunder and Lightnin Bolts. Here are a few from this past few days:

I found the backspace/delete/   CLR   button on my consumer cellular flip phone.  I have only had text for a few months and had not used it on this Phone, as  I tend to get dgthrhfthe quwrong things typed ....fat fingers and all...

2: I am 420 in dog years. This came about as I realized that Mollie , my border -collie -black- lab -mix is now 9/63 and has surpassed me...being 60/420. 

The picture of me to the right of you was taken as an early selfie, 2010. Now my hair is white and I now have crow's feet... and being the troublemaker/raven/loud- mouthed- truth- teller that nobody wants to hear anyway...I love my cousin crow!

3: This just in today...I am old enuf to be called a (friggin albeit welcome and happy to have lived this long y'all.) CRONE. Wow.

4.   I once again realized today...that  am on the right path...I have always been on the right path regarding plants and plant medicine! 

Now if I could only have skinny fingers and eyes to find quote button on this tiny keyboard! HA/YEE! 

And OH! Yeah!... One more thing , par -for- the- course , and me being my Mother s daughter after all....*as Mollie tries to get me off computer...I will remember it later...  And did .*...

Postcript zoom! I have not zoomed yet. I think that makes me a zoom virgin....any takers? Message me here or on Facebook y'all!