Chinese Cultural Center - Red Wood

Kevin had physical therapy today, down by the Chinese Cultural Center, & although I left work at one to go home to sleep, as it turned out, alternative drivers to get him there and pick him up didn't work out. I had to go. I had to stay awake (it's too hot, already, to snooze in my truck while he's upstairs), but I couldn't tolerate the idea of trying to hold my head up for an hour in the doctor's lobby. So I took my MuthaCam along with me, and prayed the gardens would be unlocked this time. THEY WERE!!! Tri-corner red lacquer lacy wood. My favorite photo, this group. What an image/angle, as if the tree is riding in a boat across the sky, & dipping some of its limbs in the sky-water! Red lacquer, red lantern. Red lacquered eave [is that a dance?] Corner carving: detail Banana palm leaves and pagoda.
Wooden lace. Octopi-like roofline. Silhouetted pagoda wings.

Window Ledge Vignette

This vignette, in our master bath, caught my eye as I passed from the kitchen to our bedroom. I don't normally see it at this time of day (1 p.m.), not even on weekends, and I immediately noticed the angle of the light. This is the bathroom Double BB designed and decorated, in white and gray, one black & white beach/dune grass photo, white accents and wood furniture, deep deep lilac towels and rugs. I adore this bathroom, it is so spa-like, so CLEAN feeling, so perfect. AND the only finished room in our fix-er-upper house. Seashells, starfish, and Double BB's ancestors. (Actually, the photo is one from the newspaper, a couple we adopted because we have NO pictures of Bobby's family.) Three white candles. Candle, open window, and fresh green oleanders.

Ciera's First Grade Field Day

This just in from my bro', Chris: "Field Day was FUN!!! Ciera won her long foot race!! Her legs are so long, they other kids dont have a chance (not even the boys). Her First Grade class won the tug of war against all the First Graders AND her class beat the Second Graders!!!"

DJ Boo Bear

This just in from Chris: "Ciera got gold "grills" for her front teeth ... "

A Burst into Spring

& now,
blue skies pure as a glacier,
or a frozen wave,
sultry breezes just-cool-enough,
& Double BB's kisses,
familiar with that known heat,
yet grow new exciting wings &
lift me into the arcing sunrays,
through the light-laced clouds,
my heart-flight disappearing into warmth.
Oh, how he takes me
soaring across this spring horizon;
oh, how the woman I think I am
disappears &,
instead,
I fly with him, away, into each other.

Desert Vista

Tihs just in from my bro', Chris: "Here're some desert shots for ya'!

I went out by myself today looking for a WWII airplane crash site. Near Big Horn Peak (20 miles northwest of Tonopah off I-10). Was a big T-6 radial trainer out of Luke Air Force Base on a night navigation mission , 14 March 1945. Pilot got trapped in this box canyon and crashed - he didn't survive.

Closest I could get to it in the truck was 2.5 miles over 4-wheel drive roads. Hiking in, I had to cross numerous deep gullies and ravines. The last one below the crash site was like the autobahn with 80-100 foot cliffs on either side.

Neatest thing was the huge cholla cactus ("jumping cactus") forest I had to cross. It was a half-mile wide & long. I have so many cholla thorns in my boots it'll take me an hour to pull them all out! I havent seen a cholla forest this thick before. See the photo and you'll know what I mean.

Big Horn Peak looks more like a Big Hoof to me.... But it is very stark and ominous -- shoots out of the desert floor straight up. It is so steep I could barely keep my footing. The upper half is just pure cliffs. You can see it easily from I-10 west of Tonopah on the way to L.A.

The airplane appears to have impacted in a slight, level climb, actually impacting twice, then flipping over off with it's nose inverted. He was 400-500+ feet from clearing the mountains and didn't have a chance.

Must've been a moonless night..." Big Horn Peak. The Cholla Forest. Crash site. The final resting place for this airman. Close-up of wreckage.

In the Morning

In the morning, the prayer blooms, grace arrived from a much-needed dreamless sleep through to a dawn potent with glittering hope, sparkling ideas, notes from friends, the welcome swat of my kitten's paw. How different seems the sky now. A new light illuminates my vine-tangled corners, and sings & sings like all the birds, up early in the trees. I feel awakened, awakened.

Inside Phoenix, & Me

Rain. A winter-Williamsburg sky, like raw pewter being hammered, and with scraps of lint from the artisan's polishing cloth scattered thru. Misty, like my thoughts. And strange, alien shapes, pods of unopened growth, scratching the horizon, obscuring the view, but there. There. Coming along slowly. Maybe the rain, watering them, will finally open them, revealing me to me.

Indoor-&-Outdoor Vignettes from C&C&C's Pad