Ann's last cigarette

I had the pieces...all I had to do was put them together....

This 1930s Bakelite cigarette holder has been part of my stash for forever...

the skull a recent acquisition...

I wanted to use them in a piece but never thought of putting them together...

but yesterday I went to a funeral of a friend's mother, who, although

it was never said that she died of smoking, all the signs were there...

the cough, the oxygen tank, the raspy speech.

I thought of my mother...and her Camel unfiltered in the 50s,

then the more modern Salems...but my mom wised up and quit

before the damage set it...

still she bought the goods sold by advertising companies

and by the fact that in the 1920s to the 80s smoking was considered cool...

and suddenly I see a resurgence of smoking in films, photography and cool hipster bands.

But now that I think of it, nothing like what we had when I was a teen...The Rolling Stones,

The Beatles, The Animals...all my heroes and cigarettes were a big, no huge, part of their

looks and sex appeal...

So then this came together..

 My homage to Ann Zam...

A fine southern lady, a wonderful cook, conversationalist,

fellow gatherer of antiques, a zesty drinker and

a lover of life...rest in peace Ann.

Blustery, sunny, thunder, rain, rainbows and more!

What a day!   the weather has been all over the place...

started out English grey, cold...then dark, then suddenly

torrental downpour and big shock, a loud clap of thunder...

it hardly ever thunders here and to hear it reminds me of home back in Wisconsin,

where thunderstorms were as commonplace as grass...here not so much.

Right now...cold but clean clear beautiful fluffy clouded sky...perfect.

Meanwhile, I’m at the workbench making these..

Had to use the pearls I found at the Los Angeles Gift show..

they just are amazing with Om Shanti etched right into the pearl.

They look so elegant, old wordly and downright magical...

then working with aluminum which is my latest fave metal...

so soft and easy to work with...files like butta.

These are pretty on and make the best tinkling sound as you walk.

I got these great brass beads at the show too which I have found

to be so useful...you can pound them flat on the wire to hold things in place

to finish off the end of a wire...dah?   Also working on these little whirls, twirls with wire...

they come out different each and everytime, but I like that...quirky.

  Sometimes I am a little slow on

discovering things that everyone else has been doing for ages...

such is the plight of a self taught art tist.

Finished off with Petra’s spikes which are so wonderful n wacky in their own right...

you get them right there in her little shop of wonders, Scorched Earth.

So nextly, a big cappuccino, a log on the fire...

some hanging with my uke to work on some new songs...

Happy February

Best time of year in the garden...

lush cool green 

best time of year period.  My amazing vine...now about

20 feet high...I trim and prune this bush a lot to shape it into

a tall lush screen...I mean cans and cans and more cans filled to

the brim with branches...she would cover our garden if I let her

and jump over to the neighbors too...but I reel in her wildness

with a harsh pruning and tame her rampant ways

My pink brugmansia....tall gangly crazy grower...

gotta keep an eye on her cause she’ll control and take over everything!!

poisonous too... that doesn’t shock me... how she lures with those amazing scented trumpets

siren song.

Brugmansia is a genus of seven species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae. Their large, fragrant flowers give them their common name of angel's trumpets, a name sometimes used for the closely related genus Datura. Brugmansia are woody trees or shrubs, with pendulous, not erect, flowers, that have no spines on their fruit. Datura species are herbaceous bushes with erect (not pendulous) flowers, and most have spines on their fruit.^[2]

NOT MY HOUSE

..but wouldn’t it be nice if it was...or better

than that...be able to housesit there for a couple of months.

Beautiful day here which I now plan on enjoying...

the sun...the heat...the reason for living here.