Mondo In The Mountains

For all the Project Runway fans, Mondo may have been robbed, but there is a bear dressed in his latest fashion in Hendersonville, NC.


The "controversial" Mondo polka dotted dress.

I was immediately drawn to this bear and realized why when my sister said, "it's a Mondo Bear!"

Trip To Connemara

Took a Saturday trip to beautiful Connemara, Carl Sandburg's home in Flat Rock, NC. The Sandburg family lived here from 1945 until Carl's death in 1967. One third of his work was done here. The beauty of this home is its simplicity. The house is not artificially staged but is instead decorated with the actual belongings that the Sandburg's lived with in 1954..the time Mrs. Sandburg wanted to remember. So many things about this home reminded me of my own home growing up...books and magazines everywhere, metal kitchen cabinets, uneven floors, few curtains, and a toaster in the dining room. The house is a delight to tour and there are beautiful trails on the 264 acres. My favorite moment....walking in the front door, turning around, looking out the front window to a magnificent view of Mt. Mitchell. Thank you for sharing, Carl and Paula.


Carl and Paula. Our guide told us that Carl would work all night, then Paula would bring him breakfast with a thermos filled with coffee, goat's milk, and honey.

Connemara was named by a previous owner for an area on the coast of Ireland. Connemara means "by the sea." The "sea" was partially frozen today for our visit.

The house was built in 1838 by Charlestonian, Christopher Memminger. The front porch was removed during the Civil War to make it harder for the Yankees to plunder.

The Sandburg's brought over 16,000 books with them when they moved to Connemara in 1945. Over 11,000 volumes still remain. The books still have paper bookmarks which Carl left to remember something interesting. There is a listing of the books in the library on the Connemara site.

Paula's milk goat farm is still active. Last year, almost all of the kids born did not survive, so new bucks were brought in this year.

Cold tub. The old watering hole.

"The fog comes in on little cat feet" This barn kitty is warming his toes on this chilly day.

Wonderful McFarland's Bakery in nearby Hendersonville. Perfect stop after cold day's hike.

Two Old Speckled Hens

Old Speckled Hen being enjoyed with Irish Dip and Shepard's Pie at Hannah Flanagans in Hendersonville, NC.

My favorite beer is this wonderful English Pale Ale with a rich malty taste and fruity aroma. What I just found out: it was first brewed by the Morland Brewery to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the MG car factory in Abingdon Oxfordshire. The beer got its name from the old MG that the factory had used as a run about. Old Hen's speckled appearance came from being parked in front of the paint shop.Old Speckled Hen herself, the original.

Who's There?

Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo. A collage I made about 10 yrs. ago.

Poe Toaster...Nevermore

Greatest fireplace ever at Poe's Tavern on Sullivan's Island, SC. Also..greatest hamburgers ever.

The honorable writer's birthday is here and for the second year in a row the 60 year old tradition of the mysterious Poe toaster has gone unfulfilled. (See November 2010 post). It appears that the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth in 2009 was indeed the last year that the dark and disguised stranger will make his midnight showing with his offering of roses and cognac to the grave. It is reported that a large group of observers were on hand in hopes he would return this year; one person coming all the way from France. But the crowd, who waited all night in the dark and dreary, was unfulfilled as four imposters came forth (there is a secret signal that only the grave curator knows), but the real toaster was nevermore. (Cruz, Start working on that secret signal...I think it may be time for you to take over).

The Great Southern's Gonna Rise Again

2011 brings an uprising in the southeastern states again of the periodical cicada brood known as the Great Southern Brood. There are 13 different broods of periodical cicadas and the Great Southern is the largest. These red-eyed insects are called periodical because they spend 13 years as nymphs feeding underground, then they emerge all at once in the same year, usually at the same time. There are also 17 year cycle broods, but most of them are the northern (Yankee) species. The Great Southerns usually appear on a spring evening in late April or early May, depending on soil temperatures. There have been as many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre during other emergences. Why? Probably because of the survival trait called predator satiation, also known as there's safety in numbers. This large mob all clicking around at once overcomes the reptiles and small mammals that prey upon them giving the cicadas plenty of time to let the magic happen. But predators be patient because after all the molting, singing, courting and egg laying there will be millions of dead bodies to feast upon in a short while- about 30 to 40 days. Only the males can sing and the noise is actually from the vibration of their tymbals, the ridged membranes on their abdomen. It is said that a large group like this can produce a white noise reaching 100db, about as loud as a jackhammer. I have never seen a large group but I have heard them once. The noise was so loud it drowned out my voice to the point it necessitated ending a cell phone conversation. People around me were running to their cars with their hands over their ears.
We had a pear tree in our yard when we were growing up and the yearly cicadas would hatch and molt around it every Spring. We found the discarded exoskeletons after molting to be great jewelry. They had tiny barbs on their front feet that made them instantly stick to your clothes, sort of like Velcro. We called them locusts, but locusts are a totally different animal that resemble the common grasshopper. I think it would be fun to see this Southern Brood emerge all at once but I don't know an exact location where this happens. I have read there are Cicada watch groups in Charlotte NC who are already making plans for the event this year.

Snowmen: Art Imitating Life

Just how much can a snowman take? Here he is with snowball battered umbrella and injured eye, having a smoke as he befriends the birds.



They are calling for snow in Upstate South Carolina tonight and the possibility of 5 inches in this area is the possibility of a "big one". This is a Southern event so rare that it sends frenzied hordes to the grocery stores so they can turn to food for comfort in their captivity. As one fellow on the news said last night..."it makes me want to eat because I feel trapped inside...even though I really have no where I need to go." I can relate. If this event does happen, it will also bring forth a primal need in many men, women, and children....the need to reproduce themselves in art by building a snowman.

When I was a child and we would have a big snow, the first moment when our Ford could touch tires with the black pavement again, we would load up for a ride to look at the white scenery which included the art of snowmen. Living in a college town in the 60's, we found our adventure to be a high entertainment mixture of typical friendly snowmen and male college student inspired snow sculptures of elaborate nude snow women. We loved snowmen. We were, after all, on the coattails of the "Frosty Generation" with our singing cowboy hero, Gene Autry, giving us his famous Frosty The Snowman song in 1950. We loved the song, but it did have a small element of "Bambi Factor" by bringing up mixed feelings...the frightening realization of the ephemeral world, but no need to worry cause "he would be back one day". We also had been exposed to and developed an unusual attachment for a strange 1943 German cartoon which aired frequently on our local morning cartoon show, The Mr. Bill Show. The Snowman In July tells the Gothic tale of a lovable snowman, who after seeing a calendar picture for the month of July, hides himself in a freezer. He hibernates until July, when the bird from the cuckcoo clock flies down to peck on the freezer door to wake him up. He leaves the freezer to wander forth into the joys of summer: picking flowers, wallowing in the summer wheat, allowing a ladybug friend with sticks on her feet to snow ski on his belly, and finding true love with an attractive rabbit. He eventually melts, of course, but is fulfilled by having experienced rabbit love and it all comes to an end with his tearful rabbit friend walking away from the puddle with her beloved's carrot nose. No matter how often we saw it, we sat in silence and fought back the tears ourselves. It was kindergarten angst at its best. The local station says it is bombarded with requests to reshow this cartoon to this day and they refer all requests to You Tube where it resides, titled Der Schneemann The Snowman.

This Christmas, these snowy feelings rose to the surface again as I looked for vintage snowman images for some artwork. In some of these older images we see quite a different Frosty than the one in our Little Golden Book. There seem to be two themes for these images. One is of the forlorned and abused soul who is tormented by women, children, kittens, and Santas, as they plummet him with snowballs, poke him with sticks, or run over him with toboggans and motor cars. The other theme shows the "Robert Downey Jr." years where he is the philandering, cigarette smoking, wise cracking problem child who has turned to the bottle. A little research on snowman folklore helps to explain the themes. The abused snowmen were mostly from the late 1800's and turn of the century. We were all a little stifled during those times with economic depression, crime and impending WWI. Any creature lower than yourself was fair fodder for target practice. Modern psychology tells us that anytime you mistreat or hold captive a soul, (evidently whether he is real or your icy replica) you are going to have to deal with some acting out behavior later, so here come the 1920's and 30's and "Snowmen Gone Wild". After enduring those years of abuse, Frosty decides to become a fun loving boozer, stealing our women and chasing our children as he cashes in as a post prohibition Ad-man for tobacco and liquor. So let this be a lesson for us tomorrow as we recreate ourselves in the snow. What you build may just be a glimpse into the current psyche.



Suffering abuse at the hands of little girls. Snowball to the back of the head and stick in the mouth.

He's trying to put on a good face, but gets plummeted anyway.

Toot toot, what fun! Frosty screams for help as Santa runs him down. A modern version of the abusive years. (I believe this picture has 2005 as date...a sign of the times perhaps?)

Even sweet kittens have their fun with a sad snowman who has turned to cigarettes for comfort.
A Merry Christmas to You Too.

OK...enough is enough. Revenge of the stick with bottled courage in tow. Frosty has grown himself a manly mustache so there is no mistaking that he means business.

It's Happy Holidays as Frosty gets the hot babe...ahhh revenge is sweet.

The turning point...Frosty tips the bottle with the encouragement of the torture squad. This is my personal favorite.

Misery loves company as Frosty takes a snort with a friend to numb the oncoming fire.

Now that he is large and in charge he gets a little respect and time to hang with angels and drink champagne.."life is good"

A smile, a new glossy hat, and dapper red scarf puts Frosty at the head of many Ad campaigns and all the liquor he wants for the winter. He's headed for the less humanized modern look of today.