Persephone

Persephone was sitting in a beautiful meadow, painting the flowers, when suddenly the ground opened up and huge black horses galloped out pulling a chariot that held Hades, God of the Underworld.

Hades was so taken by Persephone he grabbed her and down into the Underworld they went, and he made her his bride. When Persephone’s mother, Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, found out, she became furious and declared that nothing would grow while her daughter was down in the Underworld.

Plants died, people and animals starved, and so Zeus, King of the Gods, was forced to handle the dispute. He decreed that since Persephone had eaten six seeds of a pomegranate while in the Underworld, that was where she must spend six months of each year. And during that time, Demeter holds true to her word and nothing grows. This was the ancient Greek’s explanation for winter.

Like Persephone, we are all yanked from our peaceful meadows and dragged down to the Underworld. But I think we are served by our trips to the “underworld,” as long as we work hard to emerge. Those who do emerge do so stronger and brighter; it’s just a fact.

This is the fanciest necklace I have made to date and I wanted to share it here. I used sterling silver, polished garnet, and elk ivory. Elk, both male and female, have two teeth made of solid ivory ~ they’re actually tiny tusks. The ivory on this necklace comes from a female elk. It’s so gorgeous! {It’s also in the Shop.}

Memory Lane

At one point during my woeful computer zonking last month, I dug out a rarely-used external hard drive and found treasure on it!
Scans from my cross-country Vespa ride (during which I shot only film).
Many photos have been posted, over the years, on Vespa Vagabond,
but here are some new ones….

Wyoming. About 100 miles from where I now live.

Pawling, New York. The house where I was born.

Gypsy Grande!

The man on whose property this old bus sits said to me, “You haul it off my land, it’s yours.”

VERY TEMPTING.

When I was revamping my gypsy trailer, I though how awesome it would be to have, instead of a house, a conglomeration of trailers, each one a “room.” The kitchen/dining trailer. The livingroom trailer. The boudoir trailer. All joined with little pathways. The bathhouse trailer would be a sheep wagon, the interior all whites and dovey blue-grays with a tiny woodstove and a huge clawfoot tub.

This schoolbus I see transformed with lots of heavy, dark, burnished wood and a huge leather sofa, a nice place to stretch out with a good man and a good movie on these October nights.

Can you get over that DOOR????!?
LOVE.