angelbirdflies

Move over Jackson Pollock Bodhi is home and every surface of the kitchen and laundry room is covered with fabulous, colorful creations. After an hour of painting with temperas, we brought out the shaving cream and food coloring. This is always a perennial favorite. You simply pour some foaming shaving cream onto a baking tray and add a few drops of food coloring. Soon the mixture was coating hands and arms with a squishy, laughing enthusiasm. I get it!!! We save all these fabulous artistic results, for wrapping paper and other recycled art projects. Gotta love it!

This was my garden a few days before I left, lush with beans, basil, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins, flowers, lettuce, chard and more. This is the same, although sadder garden upon my return. In my absence the house was hit by a devastating hailstorm that literally stripped the trees of their leaves and laid waste most of our lush and beautiful yard. Look at the flower bed in this picture posted a month ago and this is the same bed today. I can't tell you how much sadness this inspired on my arrival. I plod through winter with the anticipation of the glorious lushness of the warmer months. It is a hard feeling to stare out at a barren yard, a ruined garden and leafless trees. And yet mama earth will revive, she always does, and I will be here to watch and wait and hope.

Bertie entertained Bodhi for countless hours telling him tales of lions and owls, and sharing insights about angels, fairies and love. At the end of our visit, my dear soul-sister and friend, Auntie Yve arrived. Our travel duo quickly became a traveling trio. Yve performed an impromptu concert with Uncle Leroy and all too soon it was time to say good bye to Farmhome and Aunt Bertie. Leaving Aunt Bertie is like diving into icy water. The warmth and peace of her abode, shrouded in prayer and buoyed by peace, are always difficult to release. But there is a time for everything and the time had come to drive home. And so with Yve as copilot and Bodhi as entertainer we set off. In St. Louis we took a break to explore the famous arch and enjoy the view And after twelve more hours on the road we were home.

When I was a little girl, Aunt Bertie and Ma would take us on long walks down the lane and into the magic forest. A wood full of fairies and elves, vibrating with magic, fun and possibility. It was such a treat to get to explore the same wooded horizon with Bodhi, who takes everything in with a smile and a sense of fun. With puddles for splashing, blackberries for picking, ivy for avoiding, and balloons for letting go, we had a lovely and magical excursion.

On the eighteen hour drive to Aunt Bertie's house, Bodhi and I had ample opportunity to chat, plot and plan. Somewhere between Kansas and Missouri we decide that the fairies needed to have a party once we arrived. So our second day was spent in preparation and celebration of this wonderful plan. Bodhi created some spectacular crowns with a little help from mom and we set to work making a feast fit for a fairy. What do fairies eat, you might ask, well today they enjoyed a heaping fruit salad, water melon, chocolate muffins and tea. The muffins were an adventure in themselves. Bodhi and I mixed and sploshed and labored over the batter and then preheated the oven. In a very short time the house filled with a horrid smell, which Bertie proclaimed in a matter-of-fact voice, "dead mouse". I quickly turned off the stove gagging, sputtering and choking. We drove the uncooked muffins to a neighbors waiting oven and in a few minutes we returned to an incense filled house, c

Illinois and Aunt Bert's house... Upon arriving to Olney, Illinois, I always ask myself, "What am I doing here?". The town, with its crumbling store fronts, Wal-mart driven economy and quintessential smallness, seems to contract around me. Then I drive a few miles out of town to Farm Home A little haven tucked amidst a cloak of trees, can you see it here? With the first step along it's winding paths I find myself breathing deeply and relaxing in the beautiful knowing that I am about to embrace an angel on earth. And then she is there, my singing, playing, laughing, praying God-mother. At 93 she is no less amazing than she was thirty years ago when I knew without a shadow of a doubt that she could turn a pumpkin into a stagecoach with a flick of the wrist and a song. AAAAAHHHHHH! Aunt Bertie

Bodhi and I are off on another great U.S. escapade...whew...this all amounts to alot of driving...time in the car...cramped bodies and pent up energy. When driving through Kansas the monotany nearly drove me into a deep and abiding slumber. I staved off the snooze contemplating Dorothy's manic need to get home. Then I discovered the big/ little town of Lawrence, KS. Now that's a town I would click some ruby slippers to come home to. Bodhi played at the local park where we found another four-leaf beauty, but resisted the greedy temptation to pluck it and just photographed it instead. Now we are at the Lake of the Ozarks, resting up for a night before heading out to Illinois tomorrow.

My mama, aka. Gramma Oni, is visiting this week. We found a beautiful hike in the Golden Gate Canyon Park just above Golden, called Wrangler's Run loop . Bodhi particularly enjoyed controlling the pace of the trek, or at least battling for control with his grandmother. Then there was the unexpected highlight of finding several four-leaf promises near a babbling creek, in which Bodhi splashed and frolicked alongside an array of four legged counterparts. As a grand finale the trail made a surprise ascent up a long steep section peppered with erosion blocks. The result was a nearly impossible attempt to push the stroller straight up. In the end we tethered mom to the front with two leashes and I pushed from the rear, yelling "HAW old woman, HAW", doubled over with laughter and crying from glee. A good day.