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Winter colors
We had a big wind storm yesterday and this morning when I went to remove fallen branches and cedar debris from the driveway, I remembered a video of someone making color from pinecones. We have an abundance of cedar cones always blowing down on the driveway. Free color! I did a little test with some…
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3 modes of me
I seem to have three mental modes: Hyper GSD; (Anti-)Social Butterfly; and Napping Hermit. Maybe it’s how I am all the time but I notice it more when Tod isn’t here. And this week, he is in Tokyo for work. Hyper GSD Getting Shit Done. I get a lot of big, heavy, or challenging projects…
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The Shed
It’s not exactly a shed. It’s a gatehouse-atelier-kura-shed with a basement. I love how it completes a triangle of buildings to form a compound. As you come up our driveway, the gatehouse stands tall and imposing at the top of the hill. The barn doors open into “B1,” the concrete structure that holds our grass…
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Moriya Beach
Today was the last day of a very long and relaxed New Year holiday. Tod & I did just about nothing all week. We puttered around the house, made meals, and played with the cats. We missed midnight. Haven’t been to a temple yet. I didn’t even see friends’ Line greetings until today. This morning…
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Project 2025 Bingo – pregame
We are just about two weeks from Day 1 of this bingo. I’ve been trying to keep track of the topics on the card and to be honest, it’s already a challenge. It should get easier when the 100 days begin since there will be news about what’s happened, rather than speculation. But using speculation…
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Remembering Philo
I didn’t expect this would hit me so hard. I met Philo Hagen only twice in person. I couldn’t call him a friend, but my life between 2008 and 2018 was shaped his influence and our online collaborations. I left my “hooping era” years ago, and so did he, but now he is gone from…
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Welcome 2025
明けましておめでとうございます！今年も宜しくお願いします。Wishing you a very happy Year of the Snake. This is the final design in the 12 year cycle of Nengazou in the Chinese “zoudiac.” It didn’t start out to be a series. For 2014, I drew the elephant-as-nordic-horse as a cute pastiche of the Chinese zodiac year, traditional Christmas decorations, and our favorite animal.…
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25 words
Another long-running annual tradition, this is my 24th time summing up my year in 25 words exactly. Living my best life teaching crafts and making art. Learning & collaborating with new friends at Oyama Senmaida. Yumbo license, hardscape patios, new shed, clean barn. Here are the others in reverse chronological order: 2023: House-building decisions had…
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Mother Trees
Up on the ridge of the mountain behind 555, there are five huge and ancient Shii trees. They are relatives of our Ent but somehow even larger. The mother trees of the forest. Photographs can’t show their majesty. While we were visiting with them, Tod discovered the shrine we knew would be there. We’d looked…
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Non-zero Days
My memory skips right over my successes and accomplishments, so I feel that I have done almost nothing for the year. Fortunately, my calendar, photos ephemera, and this blog prove me wrong. Here are some highlights (and lowlights) of the year. Around 555 We focused on hardscaping & outbuildings: patio, path, and tiles with my…
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