TOUCHSTONE AND OTHER THINGS
Last year Mrs.T and I visited Fallingwater, the well-known house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright over a waterfall. Meandering about we discover the Touchstone Center for Crafts in the same Laurel Highlands area of Pennsylvania. We stopped and obtained a catalog for the just-ended sessions. Over the winter we thought it might be fun to take some classes there especially as it was not far from the summer estate. It took a while for us to compromise on a week when there were classes we both might like. R settled upon wood carving and I upon nature printing.
Well, Rebecca was in for a big surprise. Wood carving was not the genteel picturesque whittling of grandfather in his rocker with penknife in hand. Although she took a LARGE log with her, she discovered that there would be a lot of tough hackin' and wackin' – this was sculpting in the tradition of Michelangelo, although perhaps without quite the same result. R did make a wonderful 'Bird with Hat' sculpture and the group collaborated upon a tall sculpture which we purchased at the fundraising auction. The Bird with Hat is in the forest where we were going to put the tall sculpture. But the instability of the tall one caused us to rethink our plans and anchor it to the front porch.
Nature printing was a bit different than I expected. We did most of the printing by hand, not with a press. The class was taught by internationally recognized master nature printer Gudrun Garkisch. Although I was a newbie, I learned quite a bit and have some skills and ideas about how I might want to continue with this craft. I met several wonderful and skilled artists.
It rained a great deal while we were at Touchstone so it was not a big surprise when we returned to high waters in Philo. But it continued to rain for many more days after our return. Water runoff has even made a small gorge in our driveway that we need to traverse. In one of the pictures you can see a beached glass globe showing how high the water in the pond reached. Now it looks like heat is upon us with temperatures about 90F (33C) due for the next several days. I might even need to turn on the air conditioner.
Here is a short piece by Mrs.T describing some of the things happening hereabouts:
Things have been a little unusual here in Philo. We got so much rain that the pond overfloweth. This happens occasionally but the water got so high that it shorted out the pump for my waterfall. I am waiting for the water to recede so that I can dry the thing out and test it to see if I can make it work by resetting it or if I need to consult Bill the handyman. The water got so high I wanted to trade my new Japanese maple tree for a gopher wood tree but the nursery refused, there having been a run on gopher wood trees. N.B.: If you don't understand this read Genesis, Chapter 6.
Meanwhile every weed on the place has been growing at a prodigious rate and it has been too soggy to chop them much. Dan has been extremely helpful pointing out all the different places I need to trim. The last few days have been sunny and we - my weedwacker and I - have worked hard trying to get caught up. The temperatures have been in the high 80's in the shade and Dan sitting on the shaded porch to better supervise has remarked several times that with the little breeze it is really quite comfortable. (!) (Mrs.T does not appreciate my supervisory and management skills. –dt)
In my spare time I have been coating the two wooden sculptures from my class so that they can survive outdoors. Today we moved them outside. I think they look okay but the tall one needs to be braced to keep it from blowing over. Dan is getting a couple of his prints framed and so we are slowly returning to normal.
I had a wonderful although exhausting time working on sculpture at Touchstone School of Crafts, and Dan, I think, enjoyed his printing class. (I did! –dt) I was looking at the fat lady catalogs thinking about buying some new clothes because we are going to a wedding in Idaho in September. (Any excuse for new clothes, right guys? (R is actually quite restrained.) -dt) But Dan suggested I might get some new chisels or gouges instead. The tools I brought to my class were totally inadequate but all the other guys cheerfully shared their stuff with me, when they had finished laughing. Their tools were incredible - some hand made for them, some specialized Japanese tools, some old tools bought at flea markets, and some special power tools. I brought the wrong kind of wood too, white oak which is very strong but hard to carve. But they gave me some nice cherry. What I am thinking about is getting a nice angle grinder, either that or a new dress.
This summer we have had a lot of birds we do not usually see. We have pairs of scarlet tanagers, indigo buntings, and eastern bluebirds hanging around. I also saw a pair of red tailed hawks. Dan thinks he saw a bald eagle which is rumored to be in the neighborhood. But strangest of all is the idiotbird. The first time I saw a broken bird egg on our porch I felt sad. Some other critter stole an egg and dropped it, I thought, as I scrubbed it up. The second time it happened I showed it to Dan. "Do you notice the broken egg is right under the porch railing?" he pointed out. "It looks like the bird sat on the railing and pooped out an egg." - his words not mine. The next day as I scrubbed up yet another egg broken under the railing it was clear Dan was right. A couple days later I caught her in the act. "Stop that you idiot!" I yelled. "Make a nest like a decent bird!" Well the bird took my advice to heart. Unfortunately she made the nest in one of the boxes that Dan was saving, for no reason I can ascertain, that was in our garage. (Mrs. Naturalist is strangely not into reuse and recycling. –dt) This is a small brown bird who lays cream colored eggs with brown spots. And this particular individual is definitely lacking in common sense. (Bird brained? -dt)
Not only have we been bird watching quite a bit but we have been entertained by the antics of three fawns. We never see them with their mothers although occasionally a doe will wander by in a sedate manner. The little guys leap and chase each other and are a lot of fun to watch. The other night we had a violent thunderstorm which shook the air around us. Suddenly we saw all three fawns leaping and zigzagging around the yard yelling "EEK!", "EEK!", "EEK!" After a few moments, as the worst was over, they started browsing and trying to look nonchalant as if to say, "Who me? I was not a bit worried." So our life continues from one moment to the next full of the ordinary which, we find, is actually quite extraordinary.
Here are some pictures, some of which our new friends from Touchstone will have already seen:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157634429374582/
and: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157634413270749/
There is a good possibility we might return there next year; Mrs. T will need to use her new tools.
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Hope you are staying cool.
Dan and Rebecca
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