Ah me, Quail Springs

After Papa passed, I decided it was time to just love myself, and I headed back to the land that nurtured me.  I sat in my dwelling place, I held on to the Earth and friends I had grown to love, I danced, I played music, and I let go.

Quail Springs: The only constant is change

A week or so since I've written on ye ole blog, and so much has changed.  Life is like that, no?  Slow and steady then suddenly different and perhaps a bit fast and disorderly.  This movement from order to chaos seems so natural and yet so disconcerting sometimes.  Perhaps even like the interchange between grief and praise, death and life?  Here's some snapshots from the week:

my first piece on the lathe: a chalice

the gids visit!

learning how to hula hoop/the keaneys visit!

fotografia at the top of the watershed

It's been a week of good things and yet heart-aching things. Even now, I'm back in L.A. to be with Papa as he goes into hospice.  It was terribly difficult to leave Quail Springs (left my camper behind because I'll be returning soon!).  And, when I arrived today, Papa didn't seem to recognize me at first. I played him some music with our guitar, and then he saw me.  He pointed at me and smiled.  I started singing "Bicycle Built for Two," and he joined in!

Quail Springs: Adventuring

Such a busy Friday.
This week has just flown by.  Tuesday cooking and Wednesday cleaning and Thursday visioning and Friday tidying.  We've made meals together, played music together, and shared our graditude for each other.  I love this. I love this community.
There's even been a bit of poetry reading (Mary Oliver, may she live forever), star and planet gazing with the new moon, and today I watched one of the youngest members of the community milk goats.
But mostly it's the relationships, and hearty dialogue.  I feel myself transforming.

Preparing the cinco de Mayo feast: Vic, Wyatt, Mae, and Kaiden

Jumping or Flying into the River



Con Senia




We are the music-makers: Senia, Mae, and Vic




My Vedic Chart: Thanks to Oscar



Senia and her bird

Vic and the Rattler

Quail Springs: Good Conversation(s), Good Things

Making Cob (clay, sand, straw) with friends from Whittier (Iris and Erin!)

So much ...simple joy and delight here on the land these days. Friends visiting, lectures on cross-roads in Portland, conversations while gazing up at the tree branches and leaves, learning new musica, making masala chai tea, checking out Saturn's rings through the telescope, planting a pomegranate tree, and learning the midwifery of death (of a turkey).

Pictures to demonstrate the "so much":


chewing on asparagus




My new hammock by the Dianita (thanks to Mark)




Singing with Julia in the common house




Transformative Water :)





Writing in Dianita





Off-Roading (up the dry creek bed) with Mark and Wyatt