Michael took the top picture yesterday at sunset. I pulled the bottom two from tiny sections. If you look closely in the second one (click the picture to magnify), you can see dark specks. If you can look very closely, you can identify them as bald eagles. On my first cursory count, there were forty-seven of them. I am still speechless.

Of course, it could be a refractory effect on some other type of bird, too. But hey, go with me on this! Whatever they are, they are very large birds very far away...

The bottom picture is a magnification of a fleck of green just off the right rim of the bright spot of the sun. If you look at it just right, you can see a spiral like a yellow-brick-road, with the green on the walkway. Isn't that crazy? Like a golden circle...

If you look just above the spiral there is a smudge that resembles a bald eagle flying. I swear, I am not making it up! Just off of its "beak" there are two small flecks. You guessed it, real bald eagles! (if only in my kingdom...)

Then, if you look up in the right corner, you see another small spiral and at about nine-o'clock to that is another, even more vague, smudge that might resemble the head of a bald eagle, if you are really trying.

Be a sport and try! Just click on the picture and see if it doesn't magnify enough to pick up the effects.

If this isn't the most amazing photograph you have ever seen, I will refund your money! And give you a good whack to knock some sense in you!

Hi mom, Hi gramma, hi everyone.
I made it home safe and sound from New Joisey. it was fun if not a little hectic, but i would expect no less. now, i am frantically working on getting to my next projects that i must must have done by the end of this week and mid february respectively. a poster and cd artwork. wish me luck.
mom, i read your poetry book last night. its beautiful.
thank you.
happy new year.
love all.

hey guys, i do not know what happened to our cool intro, with maya's cool picture. I probably did it cause i have been the only one here but i have no recollection of same. Anyway, having lots of fun with my camera thingy. Check out "gardenplanet" link, then go to "photos" tab if you want to see more.

mostly i don't know what i am doing, except having a blast!

mary

oh, i finally figgered out how to form a group blog, and added myself as a member so i don't have to log and relog and relog again and again. But, then the last post is too hard to edit, and I am too lazy to go into the rigamarole above when I can p.s. you here.

( to remind myself: movies to watch for: the invisible, and the guardian.)

okay, well, i just wanted to say that the last post was my annual christmas story-lecture thingy, not really a legitimate post.... except for what it is, of course!

cyberspace is very lonely.

Merry Christ-Mass!

Deeply entangled in the christian mythos, I sit with questions about the baby jesus and a steaming cup of coffee. My eyes light on the drug-store star, garishly lit and fully half the size of the tiny bargain tree, an after-christmas scavenge many years ago, upon the very tippy-top of which it somehow maintains a ridiculous perch, glowing unashamed for all its humble roots. All of the merrily, and hastily, wrapped gifts are gone, even as I waken, a reminder that this year is different.

I miss my oldest daughter! First Christmas celebrated on Christmas Eve in my entire lifetime. And first without her since she was born, twenty-five years ago. For the first time ever on a Christmas morning, my younger daughter is sleeping late and my husband spent the night at his family's, and here I sit alone, dreamy and reminiscing, my mind seeking that golden thread of merry christmas past…

Hmmm, yes…. what is that?

Ahhh, I see babies! Christmas! Happy children, afloat in a sea of bright paper and ribbons, passed between elders all a-koochie-koo and my my my how you've grown! And food, sweets aplenty, no end of excitement! Lights, color, noise, the smiles, the smells - oh, the smells… and all the rules abolished for a day! Oh my!

Then, ever seeking balance, my wayward mind pulls a darker thread.

I see babies, millions of them, wailing, gray from malnutrtition, a symbol of relentless demand to parents overburdened with their own cares, screaming too much beseeching too much and why why WHY WON'T YOU EVER SLEEP! So many terrified children, familiar with the closets and underneath places for hiding, bones broken, tears sucked dry, hearts bleeding out and blackened… Oh, all the children!

And all those millions of babies in-between, each beautiful and brimming with a potential never on earth seen before, and to never be seen again. Ever.

Only this light can shine itself.

These babies, all of them, all of them! are our future. We battle-scarred, war-weary citizen-soldiers will soon pass the baton. And how will we prepare the ground? How will we care for our children? How will we care for yours?

How many happy memories can we provide for them to grow on? To bring to them the compassion, the warmth and the light toward which they can faithfully turn in the darkness, when they need to find their way? The warmth and the light that organizes their choices on every step of their life-journey?

Behold the Prince of Peace who comes into the world to lead us into a kingdom of compassion and communion….

My agnostic roots are tangled, perhaps, as even I, unbeliever of an enthroned god, can see the sense of that teaching! What makes it so hard for the devout? Indeed, for anyone? Isn't this the yellow-brick road between the here-to-there from anywhere winding through the heart of any path to Truth?

Goodness! I must be confused, mixing Oz and Seuss! Obviously in need of saving…

hehe ;-)

Ahhh, what good coffee! I am glad. What a good family to belong to! So many kind words and well-wishes to sustain me. How wonderfully blessed I have been! So many powerful memories, so many hearth-fires to warm my soul and light my way…

So, thank you baby Jesus, for the warmth and the light of your heart in the darkness, so strong that even this heathen-child can find it across these endless chasms of time and delusion…

(Now, that's what I call “Big Art!”)

Love to you all! Warmth. Cheer. Hugs and snuggles. May the season uphold the very best in us, and remind us to honor our amazing potentials, and to pour forth the very light that guides us….

Yours in Love and Light! Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas Eve! Maya is back to sleep after a morning of gifting and buckwheat pancakes and eggs. Persephone is sleeping too, after hours of fun in the pile of paper and ribbon. I hope everybody got their cards and stuff, but probably not.

Michael has gone to Christmas Eve in Evansville with his family. I thought it would be rude to spread my germs.

I have been writing poetry like crazy. If you're interested, hit the link to my blog at gardenplanetproject.zaadz.com...

Michael gave me a book called "The Essential Haiku." I am thrilled! Three masters representing each school: ascetic, artistic and humanist. I began realizing what a hack I am about two weeks ago, when it became clear what a magical medium it is, how fractal and complex in nature. So Michael must've read my mind. Or maybe I said something and don't remember. Still to his credit!

Maya will leave soon for Chicago. The weather is good, so no worries. Hope the airports are unsnarled by the time she leaves for New Jersey. I kind of forget whether that was supposed to be the day after Christmas or what. But that's okay. I am not the one who has to catch the flight!

It's a good thing.

Michael will be back tomorrow and we will have a turkey feast. Again. yum. I hope to be speaking with you guys on the phone. So.

Sated, (burp)

mary

Merry Christmas Eve, Everybody.
We are moved in but not unpacked. Fran and Bill are expected this afternoon for oyster stew supper and will overnight for our Christmas tomorrow. We will try to have a pathetic little tree, the usual glorious feast (if I can find the kitchen) and good cheer around the fireplace (Franklin stove). I found my camera so I can take and post pictures. Love love love to all. And Peace to the whole wide world. It is good .....

Good mording! I godda code. sniffle snort hack hack.

Baya is hobe! I am washing my hands and coughing into my elbow so as not to spread my good cheer...

I actually got everything in the mail a hair's-breadth after the deadline. Oh well. So. Everybody will get their cards by regular pony express a day or two late, because I'll be damned if I'm going to spend $14.05 per envelope... So there, santy claus. So I will call folks and maybe even write letters a bit more regular. I wasn't exactly procrastinating: i got some excuses, but they sound a lot like whining!

Well mom, I do hope everything is settling. Breathe! It really is fine! After all, think about it: you've made it this far, and a lot of the time you, like me and everybody else, had the accelerator jammed and no directional control... wheee!

So if we can make it to this moment with as little panache as that, well, then we can do anything, as long as it obeys the laws of physics!

Breathe: long, slow, deep, regular, long, slow, deep, regular...

Can't wait to hear from y'all!

mary

Oh, yes, Maya. Very cool (kuhl) indeed. Your partridge design is magnificent. My favorite Christmas motif has always been a partridge in a pear tree. And when I get a home with a printer hooked up to my iBook I will print it out and color it. I love all my family very much -- this will be my last night in the old house. I sent useful things for Christmas this year. Not hot pink, but useful. I'm losing brain cells to fatigue at an alarming rate just now and need some of that oh-so-good karma beamed my way. Mantra: I-can-get-through-this-I-can-get-through-this-I-can-get-through-this---------

Hi from Maya!

A picture of me and my neu haircut. sehr kuhl.

um I'm crazy busy. I just got an order form another band (not my boyfriend's) for t-shirts and they are paying me like real money and stuff. anyway so I got those done yesterday and I definitely got my mess-up/huge hassle karma out of the way very early on. you know what that means...perfection the first time from now on. yes yes yes it does. so now I just have to do 30 more shirts for the record low (17 of those are already sold) and a poster before next friday. Its gonna be a push, but I should make, thanks to all the perfection karma I got comin my way. anyway, so check on my other blog for the t-shirts in the next few days. Maybe if my mom likes them I can make her some for her garden planet project. I've already got a design...hmmm.

so here is my christmas list cuz mom is making me post this.
cds: bonnie prince billy, "the letting go"; magnolia electric co., "fading trails,"
polaroid 600 film,
a new toothbrush,
working heater blower motor for an 89 Toyota van, and
anything useful, thoughtful, handmade, and/or hot pink.


OK, love you all so much Grandma, call me when you get your new phone number.
bye,
maya

1:30 a.m. in Red Mesa. No sleep. I am trying to figure a way to tell Maya I am looking at her blog. There doesn't seem to be a way to enter comments on her site. Maya, I want to hear from you about everything. Can you call me? I'll be at this phone (Red Mesa) until Friday. Moving Saturday. So-o-o-o tired. It will be all right. Really -- it always is. Virginia

persephone sees a bird... mary

Hello! I am back again. Yay! Mom, don't do anything! It must've been a glitch last time I tried...

This is my view on the world this Sunday morning...

I am enjoying a cup of fresh-ground sticky-black and bitter french roast coffee, still foaming. Michael is making cd's, Ayla is tap-tapping at her computer. She just got in from swinging, which is what Ayla does to chill. We have a tall swing outside, and she, being an audiophile like her dad, has ten-thousand-and-counting recordings, which she burns onto cd's and listens to on the swing...

I think otherwise she may go insane.

Playing with my camera, my pc and my guitar. In my jammies. What a yummy day!

Love you guys. Mom, hire a young person please pretty please for the big stuff?

;-) mary

Hey everyone. Kind of at loose ends here. Michael and I plan to eat out tonight for our twentieth, which was Tuesday. But he was on call. Maybe we will shoot some pool. I'm no good since I got bifocals, but Michael said that's ok, he will clear the table for both of us.

Kinda sad, but we couldn't remember what restaurant we ate at the night we were married. And we don't remember whether any pictures were taken. I just remember I was huge with Phaedra, who was stillborn 10 days later.

This morning I awoke to a loud crack as a bone-chilling wind blew something against our bedroom window. I got up, stumbled around for a while before noticing that it was snowing outside.

First snow. Just a dusting. I took some pictures on the way to work, cause my mother was not available for our usual Thursday morning conversation. Probably moving to Flagstaff as we speak, or as I write. I am sure she will keep us posted. If we don't hear anything for a week, we should call out the posse.

Michael and I decided to splurge on a digital camara for our anniversary and christmas present. Works great, but for some reason I can't upload to this site yet. I have a couple up on my gardenplanet site (hit link to the right, go to photos). Pie-in-the-sky Techno-dreams: grrr.


Got to go!

mnp

Okay people, this is what I did. I updated our template. Classy huh? But, it appears that the default type is this Times or something schoolbookish.

I prefer Arial, myself, cause it is prettier on the page. But I guess we will have to all take care of it our very own selves.

Please notice a new links section to the right called "Where to go from Here" or something like that. This is a cool place to put whatever it is you might want to direct our attention to. (I know the damn thing is hangin', mother!). I put a link there to Creature Comforts, which is a very cool U-Toob animation that you'd best have fresh incontinence pads to view. If any of you actually use them, hehe.

So. All of your posts are in a serif-font of some sort. That is the worst of it. So that's not so bad, eh?

I am so glad Maya is home from Florida. She had enlightening whilst there. But I leave that to her able hand....

teehee

mnp