Improvements - mainly gardeners at work

 

The drainage basin by the Clay Studio now looks like a rain garden. I took this photo May 16, 2024

Back in February it looked like this (from the other direction).

It's a bit hard to see, because it was winter, and with the shade cast by the tree. There were cattails which would come up later, but the gardeners pulled them all out. 

We shall see if they don't come back.

But the main thing is this is a basin for sludge from the pottery studio's sink. It supposedly catches solid clay waste before it is drained, but the water always has glaze chemicals in it. I can't wait to see how it looks differently in this sumer!

I salute the Beautification Committee of Black Mountain for doing so much to improve many areas of the town. However, I personally feel they put in low maintenance shrubs just so they will be convenient. A three tiered planting area by Lake Tomahawk now has this sense to me, where before an Extension member gave us interesting plants. Even volunteer elders like myself could put some veggies and flowers into the lower space. A huge lavender plant was at least saved. And now lots of little blobs of green are all in a row. But change is necessary, and having no consistent gardener to care for it meant sometimes it got weedy. Yay new things!

Today's quote:

We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us., JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Sharing with Sami's Colorful World Monday Murals

Monday mural

 I can't believe I have another mural to share already!

It's actually 3 floors of murals on the back side (facing south) of the Black Mountain Center for the Arts

I like the connection to the fiber and paint artists of Black Mountain College back in the 30s-40s. Both Albers and Asawa are well known when students study art history of this area. I think their art is the "Universal Citizen" which is depicted on the sign. I haven't seen it in the mural by Laura Nguyen.

Today's quote:

Edna St, Vincent Millay wrote: “My candle burns at both ends; / It will not last the night; / But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends — / It gives a lovely light!”

Sharing with Monday Murals

Murals near the clay studio

 People who drive down this hill probably get a glimpse of the mural...Doughtery St. goes steeply down from State St.

But it also goes around the corner...

where we meet our local black bear (they really do come into town and get into people's trash)

and the mural continues over the retention pond...

and then you see the Clay Studio with it's art-tile murals! (more later)

This wall is behind an enclosed dumpster, as well as the retention pond, where clay sludge is filtered before going into the aquifer.

There are apparently a sunset and a moonrise pictured on the wall.

Sharing with Monday Murals

Today's quote:

Living gratefully offers a merciful path for walking through life with our eyes and hearts wide open."

Kristi Nelson

Approaching the big day

 

'Seeing Santa' by Charles M. Russell

Cat cozy town of Kristianstad - a mural to please cat lovers

Three more days till the Winter Solstice

Just a shot of my passive heating system during the winter months. It's so amazing that no sunlight will come inside these windows directly during the summer...but thanks to the earth's tilt we get the sun's warmth in the winter when we need it!

By 4 pm there's no more sun, and by 5 pm it looks pretty blue-grey outside.

My same view at night, with the lights strung by my friend climbing on the step ladder to save me from doing it. I think the price I paid by giving her something was a fair trade for my own caution.

This painting was attributed to the "School of Rembrandt"

Rembrandt (recently attributed to him) 'Adoration of the Kings' -  and the price went up!

Seven more days to Christmas

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Sharing with Monday Murals this week.

Today's quote:

The next message you need is always right where you are.

RAM DASS

Longwood Gardens. Three more days till Winter Solstice!

Monday Murals and holidays about the light returning

 

Washington NC mural

Norman Rockwell's "Dicken's Christmas Carol"

Winter Solstice is on Dec. 21 around 10:30 pm EST

Sharing with My Monday Mural

Today's quote:

It is not the answer that enlightens but the question.

EUGENE IONESCO

Santa and Mrs. Claus getting ready to ask little kids what they want for Christmas.

And Hanukkah continues, this night the 5th candle will be lit.

And then I found these interesting photos with no particular link between them.

 

Mattie Ross' home as seen at the end and beginning of the movie "True Grit."

I'm guessing this is a remake of the one with John Wayne?

Sharing with Monday Murals!

Bright sunlight giving lots of tree shadows on this mural in Asheville...kind of hard to see!

That's sure a lot of bricks to paint!

And this hodge podge is where I look every day when I lift my eyes away from the screen on that laptop! Most of these are my pottery and sculptures. I did give my cousins some of them a few weeks ago. They are the source of this photo as well!

I haven't shared much art lately, so will be posting at least one of the pieces I've got in my Art folder for your "pleasure" or not.  This is Apartment House of the Future by Grant E. Hamilton, in Judge Magazine in 1895.

Today's quote:

Your voice dries up if you don't use it. -Patti Page, singer (1927-2013)

Monday murals plus some Beethovan

I had remembered lots of Amish (I think) Quilt designs, or perhaps just Hex Barn Symbols...on various walls in Burnsville NC. Nada this visit. So maybe we didn't go in the right places?

Here are a couple of murals we did see (as well as the Oz to the courthouse one posted before)

As we were there on Monday, we couldn't shop at Plott Hound Books.  The Toe River Studio Tour is coming up soon. It should be a fun drive through lots of small mountain roads. Not sure if we'll be doing that though.

I liked this realistic mural, especially the way it went all the way to the stair-step roof line. I can sure enjoy thinking about the Highway of Hope.

And a special treat...a video of the wonderful flash mob of "Ode to Joy" in Sam Sabadell, Spain.

Sharing with Monday Murals. 

Today's quote:

One reason that cats are happier than people is that they have no newspapers.

GWENDOLYN BROOKS

The Yellow Brick Road

A mural of the Yellow Brick Road from the Wizzard of Oz. It's interesting that the court house is their destination. It's on a wall in Burnsville, NC, the county seat of Yancy county. There used to be a theme park nearby in the Appalachian Mountains. I think it's closed now. The weather has not been kind to this painting.

 And Toto too! With the artists signature (Rhea Ormond, 2009) as well as a real dog bowl on the sidewalk.

Sharing with Monday Murals and Randomosity

Today's quote:

When we empower ourselves to create what we want through making art, we will also create what we want in the art that is our life.

Monday Murals

 

Monday murals (also posted on When I Was 69)

"It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary. War is obsolete.  

"It is a matter of converting the high technology from weaponry to livingry.

 - R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path, 1981

Our Black Mountain Center for the Arts building has been given some artistic murals.

The brilliant blue is on the ground floor.

Even going around a corner! I love that feature!

The top floor, where the galleries are, has some butterflies against a possible sky blue.

I didn't stop on that visit to see the middle floor, so will capture it for you sometime in the future!

Linking to Monday Murals

Monday Mural

Linking to Monday Murals

A well decorated retailing wall, with gravel on the slope above the mural, and kudzu (probably) growing across it and hanging down over the mural.  It faces a parking lot in Spruce Pine NC, where we recently visited. This community is a mining town, where much of the feldspar and the finest silica (for use in all technological devices) is mined still.