A Staples pen in one hand
a Dollar Store notebook in the other
I’m poised for work
resisting the urge to get up and see
whose song is playing on Pandora

I say NO to the cat
who wants to join me on the couch
I think about school days and factory labor
while watching the clock
and trying not to want
what isn’t so

A sheet of white cloud obscures the blue
from the window framed picture above me
The tops of trees only suggest their tallness
give the illusion of freedom from roots

Soon, the hour is up
I’m unscathed and unburdened
checking “poetry” off my list
while Brett Dennen sings
Ain’t No Reason:
We push back our debt
don’t think about death
It’s always been that way

_______________dVerse Poets Pub

 ~ The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on May 15, 2013

The third annual Auto Fair & Swap Meet took place on Chantilly Farm Saturday and Sunday to the tune of Low Rider, Mustang Sally and other classic car songs that played on the fair’s sound system. Car enthusiasts from all over Virginia and beyond toured the grassy meadows and graveled main drag to view the stand-out restored and modern cars and trucks that were on display.

Hosted by Erik Herdman and KC Murphy of Chasing SS Cars, the fair featured a car show, car parts and memorabilia vending, a swap meet, a variety of food booths and more.

With a drizzly start to Saturday morning, the weather improved by the midday.  Cloudy skies gave way to sunshine on Sunday.  “It’s a beautiful day. Everyone seems to be really happy,” said Murphy on Sunday afternoon.  She reported that the best in show trophy, awarded Saturday afternoon, went to Mason Hardin for a 1961 Ford Starliner.   Many other trophies were also awarded.

For those who missed this most recent Floyd Auto Fair and Swap Meet, there’s another opportunity to experience it this year. Another show is planned at Chantilly Farm on August 17 and 18^th.  For more information visit chasingsscars.com.

More Photos:  Auto Fair & Swap Meet co-organizer, KC Murphy, stops to pose with her daughter Kestral in front of a1934 Dodge School bus. The school bus owners traveled from Harrisonburg to participate in the show, Murphy said.

Linda Light of Ram Reproductions stands next to the 1934 Dodge pick-up that her husband Charles restored with spare parts. The antique pick-up towed the body of a 1955 Chevy from Ararat Virginia, where the couple is from. The sale price of the Chevy was posted as $15,500 or best offer.

Girl Scouts sold pizza and drinks at their booth and on foot. “We’re trying to raise money for a trip to Georgia,” explained one of the girls. Savannah, Georgia, is where the founder of the Girl Scouts was from.

Fair co-host/organizer of Chasing SS Cars, Erik Herdman shows one of the seven trophies that he made out of old car parts. Other trophies were from S & B Trophies in Floyd.

Jeff Kimball and Michele Bankey of Floyd’s Mountain High Tie Dye took orders for custom screened Tee Shirts with car related themes on them. Kimball designed and printed the Floyd Auto Fair t-shirts that were for sale at the  event.

This custom painted 1957 Dodge truck is an example of a rat rod, a vehicle with a junkyard vintage look that is often made of scrap parts.

Karen Harmen of Willis is pictured with a 1954 Chevy panel truck that her husband Melvin restored. The truck was once used for flower deliveries and as a hearse and is regularly used by the couple today. “What fun is it having an antique if you can’t drive it,” said Harmen. Also pictured is the couple’s grandson Ryder.

Car enthusiasts of all ages enjoyed outdoor shopping and swapping at the Fair. More photos HERE.

__________Our World Tuesday

Floyd Friday Night Jamboree _____________________Shadow Shot Sunday

I still get a few cards for my birthday but mostly I get Facebook wishes and bouquets of virtual flowers in emails. These days, I get more excited about my grandson’s birthday, three days before mine, and his birthday parties are about all the excitement I can take!

This year it was held at Pump it Up. While Bryce (now 5 and at the end of the table on the right) was bouncing around with a posse of peers, I hung out with Liam (2 ½), who I was able to talk into going down the big slide only once. Mostly he wanted to dance in the aisles, seen in THIS video clip, where I am pictured in my son Dylan’s socks after I got busted by an employee for not bringing any.

Watch Bryce during his reign as King for Day in a big blow up throne HERE.

1. “13 Words That Need To Be Brought Back Into Fashion,” including Dandiprat, a silly, finicky person, and an anythingarian, one that holds no particular creed or dogma, are HERE.

2.  How times have changed: Most of us likely associate the word “groovy” with 1960s flower children, but had you hollered out the word a century earlier, your contemporaries would have thought that you were talking about a sardine!

3. I just noticed that exclamation points look like upside down candles when I wished my grandson a happy 5^th birthday with 5 exclamation points!!!!! 

4. I’m a big fan of Zach Sobiech, a seventeen year old from Minnesota who was diagnosed with incurable cancer and was told he had only months to live.  After listening to the song he wrote, “Clouds” (that was uploaded to YouTube on December 5, 2012 and has since been viewed by nearly 3 million people), and after watching THIS video documentary of his life, titled My Last Days, I feel like I know him and admit that I periodically check  his Facebook page to make sure  he’s still here.

5. Sobiech wrote the song to say goodbye to family and friends.  The chorus goes: “And we’ll go up, up, up. But I’ll fly a little higher. We’ll go up in the clouds because the view is a little nicer. Up here my dear. It won’t be long now, it won’t be long now.” Jason Mraz and others sang the song for Zach in a recent tribute HERE. Speaking on the tribute video Mraz said to Sobiech, “we’re doing this not because you’re dying but because of the way you are living.”

6. I think being moved to tears is one of life’s greatest gifts, which is why it’s ironic that I always fight them back.

7. I’ve been trying to remember the names of my elementary school teachers.  So far I have, Mrs. Golden, Miss Smith, Miss Fleck, Miss Welch and Miss Jubette (the spelling on this one is sketchy).

8.  My friend Alwyn always gives her cats such interesting names.  She had a Cali and Lucia (who looked like he was wearing a tux, and a wild cat named Misery, which sounds like poetry if you put aside the meaning of the word.  Her current cat is named Pet Pet Petunia. She sometimes calls him Peter.

 9. Klimt yourself HERE. 

 10. When inventing a God, the most important thing is to claim it is invisible, inaudible and imperceptible in every way. Otherwise, people will become skeptical when it appears to no one, is silent and does nothing.  ~ Anonymous

11. I was never any good at lying to my kids even for the sake of tradition.  When they asked about Santa, I told them he was real but that he was a spirit. Who can argue that the spirit of Christmas isn’t real? 

12. In a country where millions don’t believe in evolution, global warming, and the birth certificate of our president, what makes Santa Claus your cause celebre?  ~ Rabbi Rami Shapiro

13. God is closer to Jackson Pollock than paint-by-number.  ~ Rabbi Rami Shapiro

_______________Thirteen Thursday

Oddfella’s Cantina

______________Wordless Wednesday

Watching my newly 5 year-old grandson play T-ball in a Red Sox uniform is more fun than seeing the real deal at Fenway Park.  I don’t follow sports, but, being from the South Shore of Boston, the Red Sox are part of my DNA, and most everyone in my family follows them with a passion.    

Watching Bryce play was more fun than meeting Carl Yastrzemski, the all-time great Red Sox player (1961 – 1983), when he came into the Tremont Street boutique I worked at in 1969.  Truth is, I didn’t’ know who he was at the time.  He had an entourage and I felt like he thought all the young girls working at the boutique, including me, should have fallen all over him.   

When Josh was a kid, he admonished me for not getting an autograph from “Yaz” for him.  “I didn’t know then that I’d have a son someday who would love baseball,” I explained.

My son Josh is the biggest Red Sox fan that I know. I like to joke that his enthusiasm for the team turned half of Asheville into Red Sox fans.  Oddly, when he played Little League here in Floyd, he also played as a Red Sox, and the minor league team out of nearby Salem is called the Salem Red Sox!

I also love the Red Sox because my brothers Jim and Dan loved them. They died in 2001, three years before the Sox won the World Series, after losing for 86 years.  Jim and Dan didn’t even get to see the New England Patriots win the super bowl for the first time ever in 2001.  We like to joke that they pulled some strings in both cases. 

Some baseball players are known for their game rituals, routines, eccentricities or superstitions, every thing from wearing golden thongs or a Jetson’s t-shirt, to chewing on a fingernail, adjusting equipment, or kissing a Babe Ruth plaque before playing. We found out that Byrce has one of his own.  He wanted to put two power ranger toys in his back pocket, saying there was a lot of game time spent waiting and sitting on the bench and that he wanted to have something to play with. 

I didn’t have the heart to say no, so I helped him tuck them in tight.  During the game (which was cut short due to rain), he kept touching his back pocket.  I don’t think Bryce knows anything about luck, good or bad, but I do think he’s still young enough to have his own version of a security blanket.

So it turns out that I follow Red Sox games, afterall.  Bryce’s daddy, my son Dylan, who played for a non-Red Sox team in little league, is following them now too.

So, I spent a couple of hours on Saturday covering the 3^rd annual Auto Fair & Swap Meet at Chantilly Farm in Floyd.  To the tune of Mustang Sally and other classic car songs, I cruised the open meadows and graveled main drag viewing the stand-out restored and modern cars and trucks on display.  I learned what a rat rod was, what a project car was and saw some cars as old and older (and better kept) than me. 

Hosted by a couple who recently quit their day jobs to focus on their car restoration business, Chasing SS Cars, the popular event is poised to be another reason to put Floyd on the map.  It reflects the long history of local car culture in the area and the diversity of interests and talents that make Floyd County what it is.    

Another Auto Fair & Swap is planned for August 17 and 18th.  Look for more photos in this week’s Floyd Press. Read more about the fair HERE.

_____________Our World Tuesday

 ~The following first appeared in The Floyd Press newspaper on May 2, 2013.

It was dinner theater with a flair, with a pirouette and a spin, with veils, feathered boas and a petticoat at the second annual One Stoplight Variety Show, held at Oddfella’s Cantina on April 25th.  

The dramatically staged Variety Show entertainment focused on dance and included a mix of modern, belly-dance and improv.  There were also performances of original poetry, original songs and a puppet routine that involved a flamingo, a penguin and a peacock. 

A trio of belly-dancers – Emily Williamson, Barb Gillespie and Julie Arlington – danced to a recording of O Death after making an entrance in black veils and smoke from burning incense. 

Another dancer, Leia Jones, mixed modern and ballet movements with a touch of barefoot flat footing, as she danced in a simple petticoat dress to an Appalachian ballad played by fiddler Mike Mitchell.  

Although it wasn’t directly stated, there was an underlying theme to the show, said dancer and primary organizer Emily Williamson, “Rising from the darkness.”   Williamson explained how she put the show together with her fellow Gryroscopic dance troupe members, Grateful Bread’s Gillespie and Oddfella’s co-owner Arlington.  All three women were closely connected to Tom Ryan, the Republic of Floyd Emporium owner who passed away last winter.

“We were thinking of Tom, and of course I was thinking of my father,” said Williamson, daughter of the late WVTF radio personality Seth Williamson.  Other loved members of the community passed a way more recently and were also remembered, Williamson noted.

Dancer Katie Wells also performed to Mitchell’s fiddle.  Williamson explained how Wells, who performed a dynamic improvisational dance in gold body paint, described to Mitchell beforehand the feelings she wanted to convey in her dance. 

Referring to Mitchell as “a class act,” Williamson explained how she and Mitchell and guitarist John Wilson played together at Ryan’s memorial service.  They collaborated with such ease and hoped to work together again. The Variety Show provided a perfect opportunity, Williamson said. 

Emcee Shamama (Siobhan Lowe) provided a burlesque flavor to the show in a lavender tutu and pink fishnet stockings.  At one point she dropped her stage persona and spoke about the strength of the community coming together in good and hard times.     

Although the underlying theme of the show was dealing with death, the atmosphere was not grievous, but joyous. The full-house audience clapped, hooted and whistled their approval throughout the evening, and especially at the finale where all the performers gathered on stage and then filed out in celebratory procession, one by one.

Williamson, whose art is currently on display at the restaurant, said she appreciates the One Stoplight Variety Show’s creative forum and the challenge it provides for performing artists.  She would like to continue to do an annual or biannual show.

~ Watch a video of the finale HERE . Megan Ihlefeldances to the original song performed by her late husband John 2 Ponies HERE. Other video clip links are embedded in the text above or can be seen by searching “one stoplight variety show” on youtube.com.

1. I think it’s appropriate that we have nine hens since both Joe and I are one of nine siblings.

2. Recently overheard at my house:  Was it a shoe-in or just a foot in the door?

3. Sometimes I feel like the world is like a snow globe that is getting tilted upside down with melted glacier water about to torrent down.

4. I like that the word wet is within the word sweat and that the S at the beginning sweat suggests a mutant plural of wet. 

5. I recently read that the Big Bang was originally meant as dismissive term by someone who backed another theory, sort of like how “Obama Care” began by Republicans and was meant to be derogatory until Obama and others embraced it.   

6. A story on the nightly news that really caught my attention:  A school principal Roxbury, Massachusetts, turned a school around that was plagued by violence and ranked in the bottom five of all Massachusetts public schools by getting rid of all the security guards and reinvesting all the money used for security infrastructure into the arts.  More HERE.  

7. Another impressive story reported on the nightly news was about an Indiana first-grade school project that involves writing down random acts of kindness that were done for you and posting them with colored post-its on a bulletin board.  My favorite one was from a first grader that read “Hunter tied my shoes.” The idea spread to the high school. Watch HERE. 

8. I was shocked to learn about a five year old that got a .22 caliber rifle for his birthday and shot and killed his 2-year old sister with it. “We don’t give our kids the keys to our car, and there is a good reason for it,” responded one emergency room pediatrician.

9. Blogging is a form of regularity for me and if I go a couple of days without posting I don’t feel well.

10. I think it’s ironic that corporation sounds so much like cooperation?

11. Once again, the truth is stranger than fiction:  Most people have this view of our encounters with microbes from the perspective of disease. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Only 10% of the cells in our body are human. The rest are microbial.  The human gut alone contains almost four and a half pounds of bacteria.

12. Every other day I get someone landing on my blog via a “has Jackson Browne had a facelift” search because of THIS post, in which I state that Browne isn’t the same cocky young guy standin’ on a corner in Winslow Arizona with seven women on his mind and girls in cars slowing down to check him out, but he still looks good.  

13. I don’t get THIS, but it made me smile.  HERE.

Wordless Wednesday

 “We are born in a certain time and a certain place and like vintage wines we retain the flavor of our origins.” ~ Carl Jung

I am from a granite boulder seawall
and cotton candy at Paragon Park
I’m from blackberry stains and beach rose petals
catalpa beans and bamboo

I am from my father’s eyes
after he saw the holocaust at Buchenwald
and the nape of my mother’s neck
where white pearls hung
before her thyroid surgery

I am from Hail Mary full of grapes
midnight mass and pennies in the poor box
I’m from the unlucky luck of the Irish
the old sod and Southie
before there were gangsters

I am from A your Adorable
B you’re so Beautiful
God Bless Mommy and Daddy
Jimmy and Kathy
Colleen and Danny
Sherry and Johnny
Joey and Bobby and Trish

I am from the salt of the earth
One if by land, two if by sea
John F. Kennedy and Fenway Park
even when the Red Sox are losing

I’m from ice skates and alphabet streets
jump ropes and black and white TV
I’m not from the farm or the city
I’m from plastic flowers in the village cemetery
and horseshoe crabs with blue blood

I’m from my grandmother’s picnic basket
sleeping on curlers in baby doll pajamas
kerchiefs and bobby socks
hoola hoops and the twist
Dear Diary today is Friday

I’m from a one pot New England boiled dinner
from steamed clams dipped in real butter
and playing monopoly during a hurricane
by a kerosene lamp in our kitchen

~ Colleen Redman

The above poem was inspired by George Ella Lyon’s poem of the same name, from the book Where I’m from, Where Poems come from.  I wrote it in 2005________________dVerse Poets Pub

The following are some favorite shots from the 16 Hands Spring Studio Tour.  My Asheville potter son Josh Copus is a 16 Hands member and one of the tour stops is at our house, his childhood home.

Tour goers taking the ride through the country enjoyed being greeted by our free roam chickens. I just posted the above photo on my Facebook Timeline.

Josh had some  help setting up in my kitchen. We call this shot “the block party.”

Meanwhile, while Josh was transforming my kitchen to a pottery gallery, his guest artist, Julie Covington, was setting up her display in my living room, after our furniture got moved to the cellar.

The displays are always an art within an art.  Julie uses antique cupboards, shelves and tables to show her work.  Her check-out station was an old wooden ironing board, which was where she also hand-painted bags when the weekend traffic of friends, shoppers and collectors slowed down.

That’s Josh and his girlfriend Christy just before she climbed an apple tree to collect blossoms for some of Josh’s woodfired vases.

The porch is not off limits and the gallery work spreads out onto it.

On the evening before the tour begins all the 16 Hands artists and guest artists visit each others studios to snack, socialize and see the work.  They call it the “run around.”  HERE is a story I wrote in 2009 about 16 Hands for the Floyd Compass and where you can see some of the studios of the other 16 Hands artisans.

It’s the people that make the tour and sometimes they come in droves, filling both rooms and spilling out on to the porch.

Sometimes old friends drop by and pose for a picture with babies and with pots in the background.

By Sunday afternoon things start to slow down and we all feel grateful for everyone that came and that the rain, for the most  part, held off until Monday.

THIS is the story I wrote in 2010 for Clay Times about the history of 16 Hands and founders mentorship of young potters.   And HERE is a short video clip of Josh at this weekend’s tour talking pottery to some guests.  Read about past 16 Hands Studio Tours and more about Josh’s pottery HERE.

______________________Our World Tuesday

More shots of the 16 Hands Studio Tour at my house and featuring mugs by Josh’s guest artist Julie Covington.

Setting the Stage the day before the annual 16 Hands Spring Studio Tour on Saturday 10 – 5 and Sunday 12 – 5, featuring my Asheville Potter son Josh, his guest artist Julie Covington and all the artists on the tour.

________________Shadow Shot Sunday

]]> http://www.looseleafnotes.com/2013/05/thats-the-trick/feed/ 11 http://www.looseleafnotes.com/2013/05/tedxfloyd-covers-diverse-topics/ http://www.looseleafnotes.com/2013/05/tedxfloyd-covers-diverse-topics/#comments Fri, 03 May 2013 04:19:51 +0000 colleen http://www.looseleafnotes.com/?p=16570

~ The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on May 2, 2013

The TEDxFloyd program bylines reflected the diversity of topics covered by local speakers at the EcoVillage on Saturday.  There was everything from the credentials of a zoology master to “I live on a farm, I am ten years old, and my favorite book is the Hobbit,” provided by Jonah Coldwater, who told jokes with a sock puppet. 

The day long event was organized and hosted by upper elementary students at Blue Mountain School (the Unknowns) and their teacher Hari Berzins.  It featured more than 20 short talks in the TED Talk conference tradition of “ideas worth spreading” and was streamed live online.  

Titled the Fabric of Floyd, the independent Floyd TEDx was woven together by the sharing of ideas by community members and students on forest restoration, art, faith, growing up in the days of moonshine, our sustainable energy future, simple living, fiddle making, authenticity in business and much more.  

 Katherine Ingoldsby of the Historical Society and the Old Church Gallery’s Story Center gave a power point talk on the history and use of soapstone and handmade bricks in Floyd.  Veronica Santo, speaking on Abundance with Permaculture, gave useful pointers on how she got her electric bill down to $14 a month. 

Jason Rutledge of Healing Harvest Forest Foundation was introduced by a BMS student as one who “speaks for the trees.”  Rutledge spoke with passion about forest restoration and horse logging, saying “Horses are renewable. Nobody has ever woke up and found a baby tractor in the barn.”

Lydeana Martin, introduced as a community leader and cancer survivor, spoke about her faith and the grace she received after her advanced cancer diagnosis in 2008.  Jenny Finn, who is preparing to move to Floyd, flew in from Colorado to talk on Befriending the Darkness, saying, “Darkness is where we find the treasure.” 

 Plenty! co-founder Karen Day reenacted knocking on a neighbor’s door and delivering fresh produce, saying, “Plenty! happens because nourishing my community nourishes me.”  Sarah Beth Jones from Nary Ordinary Business Services (No BS) talked about businesses being built on passion and the pursuit of a happy life, rather than greed.

A highlight of the last of three sessions of talks was one by renowned fiddle maker Arthur Conner and his apprentice Mike Mitchell.  “It feels good to leave something for others to enjoy after I’m gone,” said the 89 year old craftsman.   When Mitchell, an accomplished musician, asked Conner for advice on learning the skill of fiddle making, Conner answered, “All you need is time.  It will take time.” 

The power of deep listening was a theme and conversation was encouraged. Joe Klein guided the audience in an exercise designed to bring them into the present moment.  At the lunch break BMS director Shelly Emmett encouraged everyone to sit with someone they didn’t know.  Conversation starter prompts were placed at each table.

Following TED guidelines, attendance was limited to 100.  The event included moments of silence, a pot luck lunch and a “stone soup,” supper, made with community offerings.  

Poet Mara Robbins, who combined poetry with commentary on the nature of trauma, posted on Facebook the day after the event:  “It was a mindblowing exploration of ideas and community.  I am awed, humbled and grateful.” 

Photos: 1. TEDxFloyd organizer and Blue Mountain School teacher Hari Berzins offered a follow-up comment to Fred First on his talk about our nature deficit disorder and the importance of re-localizing our sense of place, “an intentional, nurtured allegiance to our here and now.”  First is a local blogger, nature writer and photographer. 2. Jason Rutledge told the TEDx audience that the trim work, timber-framed beams and the floor he was standing on in the Celebration Hall was built with lumber from products he logged using restorative forestry practices. 3. When Sarah Beth Jones briefly lost her train of thought during her talk, an audience member shouted out, “We love your shoes!” Speaking on the importance of being yourself, she closed her talk by saying, “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” 4. TEDx speaker Lydeana Martin (left) and BMS parents Katie Roberts (center) and Cassie Pierce enjoyed lunch in the EcoVillage’s Conversation Café.  5. Jacksonville Center’s Lee Chichester, who gave a talk on art as an agent of world change, enjoyed lunch with her husband, Jack Russell and friends. During her talk, Chichester said she didn’t think she was artistic until she realized that we can bring an artistry to everything we do.

6. “The good Lord gave me the gift of carving and a love of music,” said fiddle maker Arthur Conner, pictured with apprentice Mike Mitchell. 7. BMS students presented Berzins with a bouquet of flowers at the end of the Talks. Berzins, who called the project “a labor of love,” thanked the volunteers and the local businesses and organizations who sponsored the event for making it possible.  8. Berzins husband Karl, a chef at a restaurant in Galax, made soup for 100, in the spirit of “Stone Soup,” a folk tale about community soup making.  9. Rick Brown of SolShine Energy Alternatives, pointed out that Floyd has a history of renewable energy with its many historical grist mills. His talk included a slide show of current evidence of renewable energy in the county, including a solar powered stoplight at the bridge on 221 that is being repaired.

1.  My 2 year old Grandson Liam didn’t fall far from the tree.

2. The county of Kildare in Ireland means “Church in the Oaks” in Gaelic.

3. Best line heard at the recent TEDxFloyd on the environment:  “Your home is not Las Vegas. What happens in your home doesn’t stay there. When you waste energy and use energy inefficiently it affects all of us.   ~ Billy Weitzenfeld, director of the Association of Energy Conservation Professionals

4. After another blogger asked me what form I wrote THIS poem in, I went on a search to find out.   In the past I have called my short poem persuasion “mutant haiku,” and I’m not one for following forms, but after she asked I looked to see if there was a more standard descriptive term.   The closest I could find was a quatrain, a four line poem. Quatrains can also be used to refer to a four line stanza. They appear in numerous forms and can be seen from the poetic traditions of a variety of ancient civilizations such as Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and China.  Many of Emily Dickinson’s poems are quatrains, usually rhyming on the second and forth lines.

5. My short poems could also fall under the category of newer genres, such as micropoetry or twaiku, aka as twitter poetry.   Some could be lunes (American haiku), which makes good sense since so many of my poems are about the moon.   

6. While watching dramatic dance video clips from the recent OneStoplight Variety Show, like THIS one, I noticed that my head and shoulders kept moving with the dancer, the way my mouth used to open for my babies when I fed them baby food with a spoon.

7. I became a blood sister with the land where I live when I was clearing some brambles and pricked my finger on a thorn.

8. “There’s the you that you present to the world and then there’s the real one and, if you’re lucky, there’s not a huge difference between those two people.” David Sedaris

9. David’s explanation on how he came to name his new book, “Exploring Diabetes with Owls,” which makes perfect sense to me:   I was signing books a couple of years ago, and I was signing for this woman who wanted me to write something specific in the book.  I just picture every book winding up at Goodwill, and I don’t have a problem with that, but I don’t want someone at Goodwill opening one of my books and then seeing an inscription that says: Keep laughing. I would never write that in someone’s book, right.   And I would never read a book in which somebody had inscribed keep laughing. So this woman wanted me to write to her daughter: Explore your possibilities. And I said, well, I’ll keep the word explore. And then I wrote: let’s explore diabetes – then I thought I’m not done yet – with owls. And then I thought: That’s the title of my book. So that’s where the title came out of. And I’ve got to tell you, I’m so pleased with it as a book title. I love hearing other people say it.

10. I posted this photo of the April full moon on Facebook with the caption: One of these glowing balls of light is the moon in downtown Floyd last night.

11. The moon has its ups and downs.

12. Another great line, spoken at Floyd’s first TEDx came from Jason Rutledge, who has a passion for forest restoration and is a horse logger: “Horses are renewable. Nobody ever woke up and found a baby tractor in the barn.”  Watch some of the TEDxFloyd HERE.

13. Storing nuts the woodpecker way HERE. 

The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on April 25, 2013.

Music lovers and supporters of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Music Festival (VBRMF) were treated to “Classics Around the World” in a final pre-festival concert to benefit the upcoming festival, scheduled to take place at various venues in Floyd from May 30 to June 9^th.

 Held in the Celebration Hall at the Floyd EcoVillage, the Thursday evening concert presented a range of musical masterpieces from classical composers around the globe.   Influences from Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Ireland and the U.S. were represented and were played with masterful style and inspiration by the festival’s artistic director/conductor Maestro David Wiley on piano and principal festival musicians Akemi Takayama on violin, Julee Hickcox on flute, John Smith on bass and Al Wojtera on percussion. 

 Wiley, who currently serves as the director/conductor of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and New York’s Long Island Philharmonic, was joined on stage by Takayama—a celebrated violinist and concertmaster of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra–  for the opening number.  Together, they performed The Sea in Spring, which Wiley dedicated to the families affected by the recent tragedy in Boston, saying the piece was about new beginnings.   

Wiley spoke with enthusiasm about the upcoming festival, dubbed Classics in the Blue Ridge.  It will feature an academy of pre-professional musicians (ages 18 – 30) and professional musician mentors who will perform a variety of chamber and orchestral concerts, concerto solos and more in both grand and intimate settings, as well as street performances. Speaking about the caliber of the student applicants, Wiley said, “Here in this amazing place, we will celebrate the stars of the future.” 

“It’s real. It’s really happening,” he continued, “and it wouldn’t happen without all of our sponsors and donors.”  Wiley thanked VBRMF sponsors and volunteer board members.  He expressed gratitude to EcoVillage founders, Jack Wall and Kamala Bauers, for the use of the state of-the-art hall, which overlooks a pond and pavilion, the setting of future festival music, Wiley noted.

Among the composers featured at the concert was Amy Beach, a 19th century pianist and child prodigy from New England, who was the first female composer to have a symphony performed by a major symphony orchestra.   Beach’s piece “Romance” filled the hall with a romantic spirit.  It was followed by a rousing piece by Italian composer Vittorio Monti, a rendition which Wiley described as having a “fiery gypsy flavor.”

Following the intermission, an up-tempo Jazz Suite performance prompted Wiley to quip, “Who says classical musicians can’t swing?”  Concert goers also enjoyed contemporary compositions penned by Wiley.   The musicians received a standing ovation at the close of the concert.

A dessert and coffee reception, provided by Natasha’s Café and Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, took place in the lobby, where attendees met the musicians, purchased Music Festival passes, made Silent Auction bids on donated items, and shared their excitement about the quality of music and the opportunities the festival will to bring to Floyd.

Wiley encouraged the crowd to spread the word, saying, “This is for the whole region and is something we will all be proud of.”

Note: Festival passes ($99 and $49 for students) to all events, which will include 11 concerts, are available online at VBRMF website and at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts.

I’m busy writing my TEDx talk (of sorts) about our TEDxFloyd talks for the local paper.  In the meantime, here’s the latest from the primary TEDxFloyd event organizer Hari: The livestream is still there for ten days (I think). The videos (each talk separately) will be edited and loaded onto TEDx youtube channel–this is a big job that Scott Smith and Stu Maxey are tackling–once the talks are ready, we’ll announce on the TEDxFloyd Facebook page.

The mantra
is the vehicle
that knows
the best shortcut
when my mind
is downtown traffic

__________Shadow Shot Sunday_____dVerse Poets Pub______

~ The following is a selection of photos from a group that first appeared in The Floyd Press on April 25, 2013.

NRV Master Gardener Coordinator, Wendy Silverman, presented an exhibit on identifying nutritional deficiencies in plants at the annual Earth Day Celebration, hosted by the Partnership for Floyd at the Floyd EcoVillage.  Silverman said her agency serves Montgomery, Floyd, Pulaski and Giles Counties.  They offer a master gardener program and are available to answer gardening questions.  

Speaker presentations took place in the Celebration Hall throughout the day and included director of SustainFloyd Mike Burton who gave a report of SustainFloyd projects for fostering sustainable local development and protecting natural and cultural resources in Floyd. Lydeana Martin, Floyd’s Director of Community and Economic Development, reported on the local Land Use Task Force’s recommendations for water, farms and forests in Floyd County.  Jason Rutledge of the Healing Harvest Foundation spoke on sustainable forestry and horse logging.

Author and biology teacher Fred First spoke about how the word ecology and economy come from the same root word (for household). “We should put Earth first in the design and operation of our economic machine,” First said.  SustainFloyd director Mike Burton is pictured behind First.

Barbara Pleasant, author of gardening books and a contributing editor of Mother Earth News magazine, was another featured speaker.  Pleasant is pictured signing books after her presentation on composting kitchen and garden waste.

The Blue Mountain School community partnered with Earth Day host group, the Partnership for Floyd, to provide a range of children’s activities, which included making garden hats, animal masks and field binoculars. Here, BMS parent, Elisha Reygle, helps a young attendee plant seeds.  

Seth Perry shows off his homemade hat and binoculars. His brother Kevin was more interested in looking at soil through a magnifying glass, but stopped briefly to pose. The boys are the sons of David and Kelly Perry.

Natalie Walker, daughter of Jon and Jacqueline Walker, smiles as she points to one of the two rabbits that were available for patting. 

Musician and music teacher Mike Mitchell and his eight year old son James opened for The Blackberries, a bluegrass band made up of Mike Mitchell’s students that provided entertainment from the Celebration Hall stage. 

A scene from the EcoVillage’s Conversation Cafe where Partnership for Floyd volunteers served lunch. Some of the menu items were made with locally sourced ingredients.

A young attendee checks out the 55 foot caterpillar bounce tunnel, a popular activity for youngest Earth Day goers. 

Earth Day celebrants socialized, shared ideas and received free seedlings.  There was an afternoon demonstration on chain saw safety by John Hairfield.  Geared towards providing something for everyone, the free family event was full of fun and learning.   ~ Colleen Redman

1.  We have our own West Side Story playing out at our house.  After introducing four new hens to the existing five in the hen house, we now have two rival gangs, which I’ve been calling The Jets and the Sharks.    

2. Dude is the new daddy-o. 

3. Blackberry is to iphone what Myspace is to Facebook.

4. The four chickens posted in the photo above are the sharks, the newcomers to the pen, two speckled Sussex and two barnevelders.   

5. Life in a small town can be big fun, says Doug Thompson at Blue Ridge Muse. He made a video montage of life in Floyd to prove it HERE.

6. After writing this Teapoet poem: Haiku with high tea / Best to sip slowly / Don’t brew the oolong / too long and posting here in 2008, I got this comment from a friend:   Don’t brew the Lapsang / Souchong or the Oolong / too long.

7. “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”   Dr. Seuss

8. We’ve been keeping the hens in the fenced-in pen for the first days of the adjustment, which just adds to the jail yard gang behavior and metaphors.

9. The chickens pictured to the right are the Jets: 3 araucana, 1 welsummer and 1 speckled Sussex.  

10. My grandson Bryce running out on the playground after pre-school on Monday: “I have friends all over the world!”

11. See the world as your self. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as your self; then you can care for all things.  –Lao Tzu

12. Soundtrack to this post is HERE.

13. I think it says a lot about me that Lao Tzu and Dr. Seuss are two of my favorite people to quote.

______________Thirteen Thursday

_________________Floyd Earth Day 2013 ___________Wordless Wednesday

Suspended chandelier
in a ceiling of night
refracting a prism
of starlight

________dVerse Poets Pub

Spring is like a Seurat painting, a pointillistic work of art. Trees fill in with dotted buds in shades of rust and green.  Some unfold into all the colors of petals.  I especially love the dogwood buds that look like little baskets of eggs. I check them everyday and watch their progress like I check for eggs in the henhouse.

Red buds ready to pop seem to promise a rosy future. 

Spring is a time of fuzz and buzz.  It’s flighty and flirty.  It all happens so fast.

I’m sad when it rains and yellow forsythia blossoms drop to the ground.  Daffodils droop, crocus crumble and grape hyacinths fade.  But then my eyes turn to swelled tulip bulbs that hint at what color they will be.  The azalea buds look like fingerprints, folded and holding their destiny, just waiting to be shook free.  

____________Our World Tuesday