I don't think so

Enough of "cut and paste"!
I promised you to take an other dip into my pool, I don't think so. Weather has become chilly lately.
Take care, Lukas.

by: Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

AVISHED by all that to the eyes is fair,
Yet hungry for the joys that truly bless,
My soul can find no stair
To mount to heaven, save earth's loveliness.
For from the stars above
Descends a glorious light
That lifts our longing to their highest height
And bears the name of love.
Nor is there aught can move
A gentle heart, or purge or make it wise,
But beauty and the starlight of her eyes.

"fairy" news

She took her 7th grade to a stone carver. The children learned about "chemistry, physics, art, music, and destiny all in one..." (her words).
This is how education should be done! Let them carve stones and learn of all the above through experience, have them ask questions and try to give some intermediate answers. Then maybe the seeds that have been planted may grow into a beautiful revelation decades down the road. Teaching is both - in the present, and also embracing the future.

Frost might come

It will turn cold soon. Tonight maybe frost...
Though I still plan to take a swim in our pool before the leaves start turning into their gorgeous coloration's.Those fragile flowers amongst the garden will soon be gone...

While the storms batter the coast of the Gulf and create mayhem and destruction, we can call ourselves blessed to be on save grounds.
On the left you will see a picture of a memorial I carved for a child that died some years ago.

Vidars work

Vidar is working with a fine stonemasonry outfit, learning the "ins and outs" of the trade. His boss is a former punk-rocker, still making music, this time around a bit more "dolce". Anyhow, the work they do are high class artistic creations. Stonemasonry is intuitive work, matching shape to shapes. The brilliant ones are gifted to do such work. The mediocre have their walls crumbling...

16th birthday comming up

Helena will have her birthday on Thursday the 22nd. If you wish to congratulate her call 011-49-7664-5342. Just remember, they are six hours ahead of us...
So 10AM to 12 a clock eastern standard time or so would be probably fine, or a bit later as well. Don't know what my girl is planing for the evening. Hope she will have a splendid party and a great celebration!

lachaiam - to life!

Can you find Walli on this grand porch?

LACHAIAM!


Michael's wedding was lengthy, amusing and beautiful. Having it placed in Ventford Hall where I worked with Michael under sometimes harsh conditions (freezing temperatures) , was both cathartic and a good choice for culmination efforts to try to achieve the "impossible".
Can't believe that this restoration project happened about seven years ago... seems like yesterday!

Michaels wedding

Will go to a wedding in Ventford Hall (an estate of P.J. Morgans daughter) in Lenox MA that was used for the Academy Award winning movie: "The Cider House Rules". Will post some pictures later.
Did over a years worth of restoration there...

some pictures for JR

Before the move to Colorado JR gave me two pots with flowers in it. The flowers did well, thanks again JR!

Stone carver comes to carve

Am I lucky or what? Having a fellow artist around is so much more inspiring than carving by yourself all day long...
Julia graduated about 10 years ago at the GB Waldorf school, did her training at an arts college, went to Paris and Italy for additional chances to sculpt - now she is here in Hillsdale and penetrates a huge stone that borders my property.
Eventually she will be carving on her own sculpture that she brought down from Vermont.


Ok, here is the beginning!

My brother and Tassi

Here is my brother dancing around on a broom like a witch and Tassi figuring out my electric violin...

fairy's classroom perspective

Waldorf education is a peculiar method and also the largest private and independent school movement in the world, surpassing Montessori and others.
This classroom is located in a school in Colorado, a school that painstakingly believed in constructing their buildings in an environmentally sane manner. Main structural elements were build with local resources of clay and straw. Due to the dry Colorado climate, there seems to be little problems with fungi and such...
In Waldorf schools, the arts are being placed on the "front burner", enabling the students and kids to develop skills not found in public schooling. Hands on creativity replenishes and forms the intricate formation of our brain, resulting in "intelligence" capacities beyond standard expectations.
And ah, the "fairy" is doing this right now. Good for her!
The picture here show remnants of a perspective drawing session...

My daughter took journeys seriously

Dear Helena,
it is so great that you have found a perfect match with your host-family in Freiburg. I miss you but I also envy you. But it is a good envy ... wishing you well for the months ahed!
The circus, the canoe trip ... all that as a preparation to encounter and meet your piers? Awesome!
Hope you had some fun as well.
Things start to become "normal" here as well. Walli is in school, Vidar trying to fulfill his deeds at Chris's stonemasonry, being distracted by Chris Wetmore who came back and has no clue what he wants to do except occupying abandoned houses. Funny guy, but what a looser !!! Political and social change is not done by virtue of being a slacker.
Anyhow, you take care, I know you are strong, but I still funnel strength to you every day.
Yours -papskin-
(P.S. by request I changed the picture - because previous one was not acceptable. Hope this will do...?!?)

Sail away

As summer days are waining, I thought I will post this picture of a very fine sailboat taken just there at Pierces Point (in B&W). It sort of reminds me of the places I have been this season, and the places I still could have gone...
The weather here in Hillsdale is pristine, warm and sunny during the day, crisp and cool during the night. For some reason I believe that Paradise must feel like that.

More Maine pictures

One picture is of David, standing proudly in his famous kitchen. The otherone is me trying to get a soundpost out of a viola.
The evenings were filled with song and music in case you didn't know.
During the days I was swimming in the pristine waters of Vinal Haven granite quarries.

Lobster fishing in Maine

After this adventure, I decided that lobsters are the "cockroaches of the sea" and my appetite for them subsided. I prefer crab-claws instead.

Spending nine hours on a lobsterboat is quite an adventure.
I was in charge to fill the bait baskets with chunks of dead herring
and tie up the lobster claws with rubber bands.