Ryan McGinness: Advice to Beginning Artists
from Inside the Painter's Studio, Joe Fig (p. 127): Lastly, what advice would you give a young artist just starting out? Ryan McGinness: "I think there is something to be…
A Good View of an Immature Hawk
Yesterday, on a crisp sunny Sunday morning, we heard a hawk calling in the woods by the ravine. Here are a few pics of my attempt to get as close…
A Unique Greenhouse with Lowering Windows
Very cool and inspiring. From the 2005 Seattle Flower & Garden Show. Found at gardenweb.com at this thread.
The Necessity of Cutting Wood to Burn for the Winter
We're cutting wood to burn in the stove for the winter, and there's a kind of quiet urgency to the task, it seems. It's getting cold, and windy, and the…
Austin Kleon’s “The artist who changed my life”
Austin Kleon's little black book, "Steal Like An Artist," hit the New York Times bestsellers list a few months ago. The book was based on a talk he gave, and…
Insulating the Old Farm House
We keep moving ahead on the renovations/changes to the house. But slowly. The other day, we insulated the south-facing wall of the primary demolition room. And on this cold October…
Reusing Old Windows for the Greenhouse
Yesterday Paula and I pulled out about two dozen old windows that we had saved years ago when we helped my parents tear down an old house on their property…
Crows in Flight
Perhaps it's the time of the year, but the crows have become so active and animated here. They have been chasing hawks. They gather in groups ("murders") and feed on…
Planning the Greenhouse #1
We were looking for a house that had a nice south-facing wall, so that we could eventually build a greenhouse attached to the house. Paula staked out the rough dimensions…
A Blend of Recycled and New Materials in “The Backyard House”
We're intrigued by the blend of recycled and new materials in Megan Lea's backyard garden house, discovered in the inhabitat.com post from 2011, "Rustic and Beautiful Backyard Micro-House is Built from…
Cutting Wood for the Old Buckstove
It's fall now, with cooler temperatures at night — down to the mid-30s last night, the first warning of frost — and we're using the old wood-burning Buckstove insert that…
“The Mantis Shrimp” Video Poem in Progress
Screenshots from a video in progress: a meditation on visual perception, the Mantis shrimp's 16 photoreceptors, and looking back into the past. I've been thinking too much about the color…
Eating the Giant Puffball
Four inches of rain came down in the last two days, the remnants of Hurricane Isaac, and in the woods several large, alien-looking, egg-like mushrooms appeared — the giant puffball…
The Surface of Mystery
In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard says: “Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle, curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of…
The Curative Powers of Fresh Paint
A coat of fresh paint holds wonderful curative powers. After we tore down the ceiling tiles, the old plaster ceilings were revealed, with their cracking and flaking and sagging wallpaper,…