Next on the list for restoration and reuse. The old loft will become a multi-purpose workshop. The lower lever, typical farm use for tractors, tools and a small welding shop. The back side of the barn on both levels of the extension to the original building, will be opened for use as outdoor work decks and lounge areas.

You may recall seeing the photograph of the ramshackled room below in an earlier posting. Things have changed. Although unfinished details remain, it's clear we've made substantial progress, and have been successful in our attempts to rescue the old Farthing Shack. The entire team is pleased, and everyone involved deserve high praise for what they've done. However, there can be no question, none of this would have been possible without the generous, caring efforts of W. Ellis & J.T. Galloway. It has to be said: good design doesn't have a chance without skilled, dedicated craftsmanship. My hat's off to you both!

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home

A seed

Collection of Little Plants

After Driving All Night

Dawn, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Around 5.30am, on a small street facing East. The sun is about to break over the horizon. Everything is quiet, humid and uncomfortable. It'll be in the high 90's today, and this is as comfortable as the day will be. Within a couple hours this street will be noisy, loud and rushed. People will be prowling for parking, and enough meter time to get dry cleaning dropped off and a few gift cards to send. By noon it'll rain, monsoons of water. This street will be flooded, and hard to cross on foot. Just beyond the far building is a canal. It'll heave with big boats, to cumbersome for their own good. On the docks, 3' long Iguana, too menacing to pass, to ugly to ignore. This is South Florida. It is as rippled and worn as this picture, as indiscernible as it's image. It isn't what it appears to be.

Facing South - 285 degrees +-

Taken from general area building site.

This Afternoon

Fall colors are everywhere!

Road Home

There are endless reasons to be grateful. Even an old dirt path.

What would life be like if instead of struggling against everything uncomfortable and strange we sought to understand it, and allow it to inform and enrich our life? Is it possible there are forces greater than we’re able to imagine, perhaps with a better view of who and what we are, and of what would make us truly happy?
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People everywhere speak of God, or faith, of being spiritual or of enlightenment, insisting just as often they know the meaning of life, human existence and divine purpose. But how can it be, that so many billions of people, throughout human history, can know divine truth with such certainty while leaving in their wake such suffering that any divine, enlightened source would scarcely be able to endure, to survive such imagining?
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Perhaps our difficulties are rooted in our certainties? After all, we barely know anything other that what we’ve been exposed to, and what we’ve been taught.
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I have found my greatest joy in uncertainty and the greatest adventure in openness. Now, I see that life is and has always been perfect, and that my deepest suffering has always been rooted in seeing imperfections where they didn’t exist.

Salute to Becky's Adventures & Winter Travels

Peter Rolfe - Five Paintings

On going to the studio at 3am

4.30 am / 5.30 am

From early this morning, the first day of summer.

Night 21

Doorways, to what, I don't know. But, I watch and wonder, what goes on in the lives behind the billion doors I pass in this life.

Little House

Picture taken from the back of the little house. As you can see, the land has ups and downs! From inside the house the view to this area includes a valley and stream, from the front is looks onto pastures, Bethel Valley and up, towards the homestead site.

Early Morning Flowers

On the left, a flower spike from a Blue Agave. It's about 25' tall. On the right, a flower from a Organ Pipe Cactus. It's about 8" across and blooms for a couple of hours at night. Both are growing in our yard. The photo on the left was was taken just as dawn was approaching. On the right, before dawn.

June 1, 2010 Everglades

I've never been able to catch one of these birds tack sharp. They always move too fast for me, who is rarely sitting in one place very long anyway. I thought this was worth working with, and I'm happy I took time to take another look at it before considering it a failed picture. Since I don't see the world like my friends or acquaintances, it doesn't make sense to create images like they would, even as beautiful as they are. And, because those beautiful images elude me anyway, this is what I do.

This bird is like a thought, a quick flash of insight, interest, humor, an observation that has form but isn't so clearly defined that it compromises imagination. I like being surprised, and I'm happy for the uncertainties in life, because being unsure is the fast way to discovery. Otherwise, we just do the same thing, think the same thought, live the same life over and over. And that doesn't seem like much of a life to me.

Ford GT

I took these for my friend Ed, the owner of the GT. The car was in a big, two story high warehouse with bad lighting, shadows, racks of tools and parts, a bunch of other cars and temps around 95 degrees. I used 100' ropes hung from rafters, walls and ladders to create a black tent, using black felt, and a single 150 watt light on a stand. These images are pretty much right from the camera, as shot, except for some lens dust I had to clean. I framed both in 2" square, matte black frames, double matted with non-glare museum quality glass. They hang in Ed's office.

Portrait of Bruce

Bruce is a friend of 20 years. He spends most of his time creating beautiful homes, and day-dreams a lot. I took this picture at his place, after one of his family's luxurious feasts. We were all full and dazed. Bruce was dreaming. We were sitting together and I was fortunate to have my camera, and clicked this image. The background is from an image I took while traveling in China, and I think represents how Bruce might dream.

Courtyard addition to a small gable roof house.

This addition completely enveloped a small 1950's inner city bungalow. All that remained was the small gable end on the left side. The owners wanted to use every available square foot of build-able space on a small lot, and include a pool, spa studio, roof deck and garage accessed from a back alley. The idea was to create a modern, personal resort, for what they referred to as a "permanent vacation". The final configuration did not include the spa as shown, but separated it on a slightly elevated stone paved platform, just off the bedroom. It was 7' square when complete and a much better fit than the one shown.

Not Paying Attention

In the great scene of things it doesn't pay to be distracted by standards of beauty other than your own. This is the only way to find out what you can do, and what you are made of.

Red Sweet Pepper

ummmmmmm

Tomatoes

Yellow TAXI, Fargo Yellow Pear,Gold Nugget Cherry, Golden Delight.
We're gathering dozens daily, helping feed our neighbors and friends. These are delicious. Lettuce, cucumbers, peas, beans, Swiss chard, beets and carrots have been producing for the last 6-8 weeks. Peppers are almost ready, baby bok choy too, and Asian greens. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Hubbard squash and onions are coming along, and we're on to a new crop of bush beans. Basel runs rampant and soon I'll plant arugula. The Tiger melons didn't make it, but I'll give them another try in late summer. No one can tell me they can't grow an urban garden anywhere there's sun and water. I did this with junk boxes, old fence sections, buckets and milk cartons. We haven't eaten supermarket vegetables in months.
PS: Broccoli greens are really good sauteed in olive oil, garlic, with a little salt and pepper. There's no need to toss out thinned plants - they love being eaten!

Baby Red Sweet Peppers

These will blush to soft orange-red, at about 5" long.

Jimmy Nardelo Peppers

Close to ready