Look What Happened At My House Last Week!
Emily Malone and the Spider Rock Girls needed a place to hold their Navajo weaving class. I was honored to have them in my home for 4 days. It was lovely to sit and write with the soft beat of the battens in the next room planting the warp into the weft. All that color and energy and creativity inspired too. Inspired me to finally get to work on that last inch or so on my loom. Emily set up my warp so I will be ready for my next project. Finally I plan to [...]
Ten Steps To Retreat and Inspire: Bluff, UT
I have written several blogs about places I go "to get away from it all" and write. I have also written about a few best kept secrets if you live or travel in the four corners area. La Posada Pintada proved to combine both of these themes and so; Ten Steps to a Writing Retreat:1. Find an out of the way place that is comfortable and charming in a setting that is unusual and takes you out of your everyday surroundings. La Posada Pintada(http://www.laposadapintada.com) in Bluff, UT about and hour and a [...]
Four Feet Two Sandals Going Strong
Four Feet Two Sandals was recently recognized by Huffington Post in a new List of 50 Inspiring Children's Books with a Positive Message.Take a look at the other great books on this blog.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-handler/50-more-inspiring-childrens-books-with-a-positive-message_b_4739495.htmlAnd look at the big things one teacher has done with this little book:Thanks to fantasic teacher, Laurel Voris-CoranSee this link for a great lesson planhttp://farfallabaci.blogspot.com/2014/02/teaching-friendship-understanding.htmlHere is a preview:Teaching Friendship; Understanding through Literacy“What is friendship?
Gem Hunting Take Two
The New Year has offered another opportunity for my new passion. Last week I was on the hunt for Augite crystals. Hmmm. There is a lot of land there. Those crystals are about as big as the tip of my little finger and some quite a bit smaller. I learned some things about gem hunting and Augite in specific. Well at least at this site. Augite is a mineral. Augite crystals can be found at the outer edges of patches of tiny black stones in the desert sand here. When I think I [...]
Poetry, Passion and Photographs
I took a photography class this semester at Dine Community college. I am still stuggling with the technology and I have learned a lot about the craft.I came away from the course impressed by the similarities between the craft of poetry and the craft of photography.Light, shape, line, texture, compostion, rythym, meaning and metaphore. It is all there in a poem or a photograph. One thoughtful photographic image should do what a poem does in a few well chosen words; evoke emotion and meaning for the viewer or the reader. We should want [...]
The Cook gives Thanks(Or I’d Rather Be Writing)
Warning: If you plan to eat Turkey at my house this year should stop here.After some thirty odd years of preparing Thanksgiving dinner I have much to be thankful for. All my guests have survived. I pretty much follow the rules. I wash my hands until they are chapped and clean the cutting boards. I do not remove the wrapping from the frozen turkey until it is time to cook. And still I worry. This year in the middle of the night a few days before the big gathering I sat bolt upright [...]