Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland -- 2006















Outside the Guinness factory in Dublin.

How Doth the Little Crocodile

"How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!"
-- Lewis Carroll (from his poem "How Doth the Little Crocodile")



The toothy smile reminded me of Carroll's poem. Love those painted jaws. I'd enjoy driving around town for a day in this van, just to see people's reactions.

Justice Conference

A few weeks ago, Jeff and I drove to Bend, Oregon for the Justice Conference 2011.
While we listened to the various speakers, an artist in the back of the hall worked on this picture. Nice, eh?


That second morning, I shot a photo of the sunrise from the patio of the house where we ended up staying.

I'll try and post about the speakers and what stood out to me in their presentations. The weekend got my mental and spiritual gears turning faster and faster! Now I just want to take the initiative to live out some of the results of my internal pondering.

Im Frühling

Im Frühling (In the spring), we start to see more birds back in the Northwest. Unfortunately, the squirrels return in force too! Today, I came upon a frisky brown critter digging around in my hanging planter -- no seeds yet, but he held high hopes. An entire band of squirrels already ransacked my eighty crocus bulbs. Guess I've been too complacent since last year, when the bulbs bloomed untouched...And it's not as if we've endured a frozen winter, unlike Iowa and Connecticut and several other Arctic states. Go find food elsewhere, you little beasties!


Anyway, I came home today and decided to make a Frühling collage. Several weeks ago, I browsed through a new store on Mississippi Avenue in Portland, and found a picture I wanted so badly--the artist had glued old newspapers to create a songbird shape, then matted and framed her finished picture. But the price? Oh, a mere forty-five dollars. Gulp. I thought to myself, "I could do that at home." And this time, instead of forgetting about it, I took glue stick to paper. No antique newsprint around, but even better, leftover road maps from our time in Europe. Combine large dose of sentimental with a dash of thrifty and the result's addictive.