IT'S COMING TOGETHER

For almost three weeks I was without connection to the net, but anyway I was too busy moving and unpacking to want to post. I took some pictures of the living room and my room:

THE NEW HOUSE

In two days we are moving into the new house! It's been good to be spoilt by my friends for a month, but I'm ready to be on my own.

POGONIP

The Pogonip is a nature reserve in San Lorenzo valley just behind Santa Cruz. Today Shawn took me there for a hike. I have lived 30 years in Santa Cruz county but I had never been there before, that's incredible, isn't it!

AT LAST

Today we got a new home!
It is the one that, all since I saw it, was the one I liked best, but I had given up on it after not hearing anything for ten days after we gave in our applications. The landlady had been out of town and she called two days ago and wanted to meet us. So we had lunch together yesterday and she is really nice and cool, and today we looked at the house again and struck the deal. The house will be ready for us to move into at the end of the month.
I was beginning to get depressed after more than four months of house hunting in vain, but all the ones who said: "You'll get something!" were right after all. I feel I'll be happy in this house.

PASSION FRUIT

MORNING GLORY

I have a hard time feeling confident or thankful in the morning and the days are long. This house hunting seems hopeless. Or do we have too high hopes? Either the houses are too small or too far away or there are a hundred people competing to get in.

ABUNDANCE

VAJRASATTVA

Even though I had help with the heavy carrying, the move of all my stuff into the garage was exhausting. But I'm getting over it and I have no more excuses for not posting.

So here is a thanka of Vajrasattva, Buddha of purification, painted during a retreat in 1986. He is manifesting in the landscape of Utah that I had just explored with my friend Tyler

FUJI-SAN

This is inspired by a Japanese print in a series of views of Mount Fuji.
I forgot who did it.
I guess I'm a little distracted.

Today I passed most of the day having a moving sale. The weather was cold and smoky in the morning and few people came by and bought only small knick-knacks, but later friends and neighbors passed by and some of the best deals were picked up. I ended up having sold for about $60!
I'm moving out the first of July, to the day 15 years since I moved in. That's in three days and the mess is growing around me!

Susanne and Toby, who are to live here, are already working in the 'studio' and in the back yard. They are a sweet young couple - and Toby, tanned and golden-haired, trim and muscled - well, it's hard to not stare at him all the time. He's cool, and he says I can put all my stuff in the garage till I find a place, so I'm free to float around.
First I'll house-sit in Shawn and Michelle's nice house for a couple of weeks. They have internet, but I may run into problems and you'll have to bear with me if it takes time.

THE GOLDEN GATE

When i first came to the West Coast I stayed in the Berkeley hills with a view right through the Golden Gate. From that time dates my love for this bridge that has become for me a symbol of connection between opposites, a crossroads between a natural water way and a man made road.

FULL MOON BY THE SEA

DJEMBE & DUNUNS

MANBABIES 2

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

I know I have shown you ManBabies before, but this one is so hilarious that I can't pass it by.

THE LATEST

This one I had to fight with and it took me several days to finish.

PAINTING AGAIN

All this house hunting and school and the many parties of early summer kept me away from painting for a while, but here is this week's new water color.

FINALS

Yesterday was the last day of the ceramics class. We showed our work and everybody talked a little about the class. There was really a lot of nice things, but nobody had made as many things as I, 26 pieces!
I'll miss the class, but it's time to concentrate on the next task: finding a new house and moving into it.

RAKU

Raku is a Japanese glazing technique. Here are some pictures from our recent session:

Me in fire protective clothing

Kevin lifting his red hot drum out of the kiln.

And my three pieces:

DUNUN VILLAGE SPRING 08

MANBABIES.COM

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

COLLAGE

This is Alaya. I met her outside my house yesterday and hardly recognized her. Some of her friends are moving in two houses from me.

Tomorrow I'm off to Dunun Village. The weather forecast says 100° (38° Celsius)!
The moon is near full and the nights will be warm. Bolokada is coming and I think it will be a big gathering this time.

When I come back there is barely two weeks to the first of June and we have not found a house yet. Wish me luck!

FUN

This is a small painting made on the computer and worked over with color pencils.

CERAMICS

Yesterday a bunch of things I have made in class came out of the kiln. Out of thirteen pieces only two were disappointing, so I was really happy with the result.