The River of Moons is moving along with more stars and backing with more velvet
a balancing act dancing one step forward two steps back
more parchment stars !
Rod got out of hospital on Wednesday afternoon, the partial knee replacement went very well. He has been able to walk up and down all the stairs here from the minute he got home with the help of a walking stick and can even walk across the room without it already. He is pain free for the first time in years! Getting to the pub is still a way off so I bought him a 6 pack of beer to enjoy on the upstairs verandah when the sun goes over the yardarm. Magic Days! thanks to everyone for all the good vibes!
This fabulous roadrunner is from Marti in New Mexico along with these good wishes for Rod’s knee surgery tomorrow!
Dear Rod,
Sending you an early birthday greeting as well as best wishes for a successful knee surgery. Here in New Mexico, it is June 1st and before you know it, June 7th will roll around. Getting a new knee for your birthday is one fine gift and we wish you all the best as you go forth, getting stronger each day. Wanted to send you a smile with the accompanying photos. Without further ado, let us present to you our favorite Road Runner, the state bird of New Mexico. Spotted this bird on a trip down south to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Now we know that road runners are fast birds, sometimes clocking over 20mph but who knew they could grow so huge…this particular bird is 20ft tall and 40 ft wide…! Made up of recycled bits and bobs, old shoes, pieces of metal, batteries, etc. and was made by artist Olin Calk.
Here’s to rocking around again, with Mo at your side, here’s to strumming your guitar, strutting around just like the road runner, singing your wonderful bluesy songs, celebrating your birthday and your new knee.
Happy Birthday, Marti and Rich
love the crutches in the wing and these sneaker feathers!
&
“Rodzilla is coming to kick arse with his New Bionic Knee!” by Richard Whitfield June 2021 x fingers the surgery goes well tomorrow!
Moonfire made by the Queen of the Moon Glennis Dolce of Shibori Girl Studios arrived on the doorstep yesterday to celebrate the first day of winter here in the Land Down Under, I look forward to seeing where they take me!
added three more stars to the first moon and started backing the river with indigo dyed silk velvet from Jacinta of Spiral Dyed
the silk velvet is giving the river more body and flow
thread beads and x’s hold the cloths together
The March Full Moon needed some old rotted silk to soften the surface
the last three moons edged and laddered
I started this cloth back in August last year when my best friend Julie passed away from brain cancer, she visited in a dream on the weekend which was so good, very affirming, she taught me how to make Tiffany lampshades for pin money when we were young hippies in Nimbin in 1976. I will finish it on the anniversary of her passing, am not sure what it is… thought it was going to be an accordion book, then thought it could be a section of stream for sale remembered from Richard Brautigan’s “Trout Fishing in America”
“Stacked over against the wall were the waterfalls. There were about a dozen of them, ranging from a drop of a few feet to a drop of ten or fifteen feet. There was one waterfall that was over sixty feet long. There were tags on the pieces of the big falls describing the correct order for putting the falls back together again. The waterfalls all had price tags on them. They were more expensive than the stream. The waterfalls were selling for $19.00 a foot. I went into another room where there were piles of sweet-smelling lumber, glowing a soft yellow from a different color skylight above the lumber. In the shadows of the edge of the room under the sloping roof of the building were many sinks and urinals covered with dust, and there was also another waterfall about seventeen feet long, lying there in two lengths and already beginning to gather dust. I had seen all I wanted of the waterfalls, and now I was very curious about the trout stream, so I followed the salesman’s directions and ended up outside the building. O I had never in my life seen anything like that trout stream. It was stacked in piles of various lengths: ten, fifteen, twenty feet, etc. There was one pile of hundred-foot lengths. There was also a box of scraps. The scraps were in odd sizes, ranging from six inches to a couple of feet. There was a loudspeaker on the side of the building and soft music was coming out. It was a cloudy day and seagulls were circling high overhead.”
(The wonder of this 21st C world, no longer do we have to rely on memory, we can read it again in the blink of an eye! ) Anywho, all these decisions about what this cloth is and where it will go are for when it’s all said and done… for now I’m loving backing it in the silk velvet, it feels so delicious that maybe it’s just for me to share with the close friends who knew Julie well to hold in memory and evoke the good times! How indulgent is that?
Old Man Crow is so ready for his partial knee replacement surgery on Monday, all the pre-admission interviews and x-rays are done, just one more phone call tomorrow afternoon to confirm the time for the surgery at St Vincent’s Public Hospital
Marti sent these encouraging words and photos:
“I was going to wait until May 10th, the day of the knee surgery to send this note but then I thought well Rod will be kind of out of it from the anesthesia and I wanted him to hold these images as he heads into his knee surgery…you see, this wondrous event occurred right over my home this weekend. I was out weeding when I heard a swoosh, almost like a huge sigh, looked up and well, you’ll see at the end of this email: Put all of your concerns and cares into these uplifting images. Let worry go up, up, and away… May your surgery go well, may you both be well, may you achieve your heart’s desire to move to your beloved Blue Mountains and become wild and crazy Bushwackers. Rich and I send you healing wishes and our love. With your strength Rod and your love and determination Mo, your dream will arrive sooner than you know. Now close your eyes, imagine that you are along for the ride with what is below: Carry yourselves to the land of health, healing and joy- and in time, the land of the Blue Mountains.”
Old Man Crow found a recording he made in 2004 of another song that our friend Chris Clarke wrote, sang and played. At the time they were playing in a trio called CPR with Pete Cox. In this recording: – Chris sings the melody and plays acoustic guitar. – Pete sings harmony in the chorus and plays acoustic guitar. – Rod sings harmony in the verse and chorus and plays electric guitar.
‘Rising Moon, Fading Memory’ a collaborative work by Glennis Dolce & Mo Orkiszewski 2021 H 16cm W 19cm Glennis wrote in her e-mail from the Full Moon in February “I used very old handspun and hand woven silk cloth I just got from my “picker” friend in Japan. So special and itself full of memories-if only it could talk!” to preserve the integrity of the fragile cloth I backed it with silk, bound with silk and linen threads and cord, the edge of the moon is defined with a single boar bristle stitched in place with indigo dyed silk thread from Glennis
Glennis’s beautiful moon cloth was so perfect when it arrived
very carefully I circled the beautiful moon cloth with stitch and backed it with silk
