brought to you by the letter S

winter trans-por-ta-shon in my imagined post-oil world, we skate, we ski, we snowshoe, we walk, we sleigh! (Snow = transportation methods that start with the letter S).

well, some photos

a green roof!

A green roof, or 'living roof' really helps regulate the temperature of a house or building, keeping it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. You can even graze your goats on them! Indeed: goats can climb ladders, they are quite agile! generally only grass or wild plants that do not require deep soil are used or found on living roofs, and it is better to plan a building from the beginning to accomodate a green roof, retro-fitting is an expensive idea...but you can also have plant boxes on your roof, and even consider living walls! inside or out.

sustainable living, post-oil kitchen!

The kitchen of your dreams? Kitchen of your nightmares? I've heard both when it comes to this piece...but personally I would love to have/ inhabit such a kitchen!
A wood-burning stove that not only smells great and heats your home, but also adds a wonderful smokey flavour to your breads, roasted vegetables, and other dishes that you cook along side the burning wood. You can use your frying pans, cast-iron pans on the stove top, as well as using the hot surface to boil water for washing dishes or for tea or coffee.
About you hang various plants - harvested from your own garden - that are drying out for use later on, to add flavour and spice to your cooking; and on the wall a variety of earthenware jars - perhaps created by the potter down the road, with whom you traded some preserves and vegetables to obtain these vessels - containing various essential oils, and sometimes spices, that you have made yourself.
The old electric stove lies dormant: A nice piece of pine covers up the old stovetop, upon which you have placed a beautiful assortment of potted plants.
Your water does not come from some huge industrial water-purifying plant that adds fluoride (and who knows what else?) to your water, it comes instead from an underground source that has past the test for safety and purity. You collect rainwater for menial water purposes - often boiling it first just in case if its to be used for things like dishes.
At night your light comes from candles - that have been made by the bee-keeping and candle-making family who live in the hills nearby - as well as lamps that burn kerosene, or animal fat (?), and the glow from your wood stove.
The rug is a braided one, made from strips of old material, braided and sewn in a circle.
Alternating between your stovetope and your old - but sturdy - wooden table you work, going about canning and preserving fruit and vegetables, making jams and sauces that source mainly from your own garden, and if not, then the garden of someone nearby, with whom you have traded.
Perhaps you tune in to music or interesting talk on your antique transistor radio as you do so, and in the afternoon take a break to go puruse your garden or the fruit trees and streams and forests in the hills nearby...

Pan and Findhorn

"I became aware of a large figure lying in the ground. I could see him through the grass. It appeared to be a monk in a brown habit with the hood pulled over the head so that the features were concealed...As I watched, he raised his hands and rolled back the hood. It was Pan. He rose up out of the ground and stood facing us, an immense figure. He smiled and said: 'I am the servant of Almighty God, and I and my subjects are willing to come to the aid of mankind in spite of the way he has treated us and abused nature, if he affirms his belief in us and asks for help.'

"It became apparent that what was happening was a sort of reconciliation between the Nature Kingdom and man.

"Another encounter took place in September of the same year, 1966, at Attingham Park. I had attended a weekend course conducted by Sir George Trevelyan. Before leaving on the Monday morning, I was prompted to go to an area known as the Mile Walk on the extensive grounds of Attingham. The walk starts at a point on the bank of the River Tern where there are many trees and bushes. I followed it until I came to a slight bend in the river where a huge cedar tree with a seat around it is situated. To the left of the tree, at a right angle to the river, is the beginning of the Rhododendron Walk.

"I sat there for some time enjoying the beauty of the place. After a while I rose and went into the walk. As I did so, I felt a great buildup of power and an increase in awareness to a high degree. Colors and forms became more significant. I was aware of every single leaf on the bushes and trees, of every blade of grass on the path standing out with startling clarity. It was as if physical reality had become even more solid--a strange sharpening of vision. It is an overwhelming experience when it happens and nearly impossible to describe in words. It is a thing one must experience for oneself to understand fully. I had the impression of complete reality, and all that lies within and beyond it felt immediately imminent. The sense of awe and wonder this produced is not easy to convey. There was an acute feeling of being one with nature in a complete way as well as being one with the Divine, which produced great exultation.

"I was aware that he was walking by my side and of a strong bond between us. He stepped behind me and then walked into me so that we became one and I saw the surroundings through his eyes. At the same time, part of me--the recording, observing part--stood aside. The experience was not a form of possession but of identification.

"The moment he stepped into me, the woods became alive with myriads of beings--elementals, nymphs, dryads, fauns, elevs, gnomes, fairies--far too numerous to catalogue. They varied in size from tiny little beings a fraction of an inch in height--like the ones I saw swarming about on a clump of toadstools--to beautiful elfin creatures three of four feet tall. Some of them were dancing round me in a ring; all were welcoming and full of rejoicing. The Nature Spirits love and delight in the work they do and have to express this in movement.

"I felt as if I were outside time and space. Everything was happening in the Now. It is impossible to give more than a faint impression of the actuality of this experience, but I would stress the exultation and the feeling of joy and delight. In spite of the intense exhileration, there was an underlying peace, contentment, and a sense of spiritual presence.

"I found myself in a clearing at the end of this part of the Rhododendron Walk, where there is a great oak tree. I turned and walked back the way I had come. I now had pipes in my hands and was aware of shaggy legs and cloven hooves. I began to dance down the path, playing the pipes--the melody I had heard. The numerous birds responded, their songs making an exquisite counterpoint to the music of the pipes. All the nature beings were active, many dancing as they worked.

"When I had reached the spot where the experience had started, the heightened awareness began to fade and he withdrew, leaving me once more with my ordinary self. I stopped dancing and walked on. The pipes had gone. The change from this strange ecstatic experience to the normal reality of everyday life was not a disappointment. What I had experienced was still there; it is always there, as it is a part of the true reality. Because of our dulled sense and our habit of going through life wearing materialistic blinders in a condition verging on sleepwalking, we are unaware of the fantastic beauty of the life around us..."

Robert 'Roc' Crombie, quoted in the Magic of Findhorn (Paul Hawken)

some skecthes revisited slash resized!

Poe

This is a digital collage of some paintings i did during a life drawing sesh last semester. Law and Order!