why?

i wonder why we do these things to ourselves. listen to experimental jazz. watch cell phone footage of a young man being killed by a cop on a subway platform. read faulkner...
what urge is it that makes us do things that make us feel sick of spirit? or is there something wrong with me that external things affect me so personally?
okay, and the real curious question: why does tom waits make me feel BETTER? i swear, he's better than prozac. (so i've never tried prozac. your point?)
i'm gonna go listen to small change. i'll be right as rain before the espresso finishes burbling.
h.

asheville's ice queens

to ring out the old year properly, we (sadie, lori, and i) decided to so something we rarely ever do. we went ice skating. now, i know that conjures up lovely images of snow covered hills and scintillating frozen ponds, but it is not quite that cold here. chilly! but not quite 6 inches on ice on the french broad chilly. so we skated indoors at the civic center. it was fun! parents and children crowded the ice with the occasional really fast big fella from the actually frozen north zinging circles around us all. we looked and felt like grand dorks in our rented skates, but it was tremendous fun! i waited at one end of the ice to catch the video posted here.
and we didn't kill ourselves. not even once!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
lovepeace
heather

tragedy strikes the bluebird

o sad day... i realized that it was windy, but i didn't think that it was enough to snap my aluminum clothes line at the base. unequally weighted, it was no match for the gale going on outside. it crashed hard and seems to be irreconcilably fubar. (a military term i learned as a child from ken hardy. it means "f-d up beyond all relief.) and so i am here with two loads of wet laundry, no line, and a serious dearth of quarters. sigh.
so, instead of going to the washateria, i think that i will go pick up the cool old cabinet i just scored off of freecycle and go skating. i'll figure out how to dry my clothing later. preferably before anyone needs a shower, as all the towels are damp.
lovepeace
h

yesterday

i was very proud of myself! the bathroom got some much needed attention. i took apart the dripping faucet in the tub and reseated all of the springs with new gaskets, put in a new ball and some other bit that keeps water from spraying everywhere when you turn it on. and now, no drip. yay! i also changed out the defective light switch without killing myself even once! AND it turns on and off as it is supposed to!and then to top it off, i oiled the hinges on the door. for those of you who have visited, you know that access to the bathroom is through my bedroom. (yes, a minor flaw that will be amended when the children leave home and don't have to use that bathroom at 4 am anymore.) but for now, at least it is quiet...-er.
and all was well in my world until i went outside to hang my laundry this morning...

home at last

though it feels sooo good to sit in my own chair at my own desk in my little tiny house in my favorite town... i sure do miss mom and dad. andgabeandlesandanatobinandedisonand
eliandmarieandkikiandjojoandnickyandsonyaandeddieandchantalandfrancisANDemmy.and harisandevanandrockyandjessie, too. and grandma. and annie. sigh. if home is where the heart is, i must have two hearts.
h.

mr. bush (nearly) got sole...

if you managed to miss the news for the last few days, a top story was that of an iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the head of the head of our government during a press conference. response from iraq is notably positive.
this from the NYtimes:
(Kirkuk)“Muntader’s action is the top of heroism,” said Farhan Khalaf, a teacher. “He represents all Iraqis’ tragedies and sadness, but he has not become a suicide bomber, nor planted an I.E.D., nor beheaded anyone. He practiced the democracy which brought by the American. He has to be released at once. He is in all people’s hearts in Iraq and in the whole world. I am sure that he will supported by the Democrats in America.”
this from me:
progress in iraq
how wonderful to have such tremendous symbolism in what is not a truly dangerous act. no bloodshed, no inflammatory posters, no marches with overturned cars and automatic gunfire... just a guy throwing his florsheims. that is democracy in action. o... wait. they put him in prison... and probably tortured him. hmmm. well.... we'll have to get back to you on that one. but at least the iraqis are making progress, even if the american led security forces are still a little draconian.

the cutest things

toddlers are mighty cute, but i think that teenagers are pretty adorable, too. guthrie is in his room singing and playing his guitar and sadie is dragging the dog out of the compost bin. she was swearing at origami instructions earlier. those darned kids are so precious. i sure do love 'em.
h.

nothing but knit...

that is exactly what i intend to do today. aside from going to the farmer's market. and grocery shopping. and having my doorway fixed. and making a cake. and maybe taking the dogs for a hike.
we'll see. knit three, purl two... knit three, purl two... knit three, purl two...

morning

i am sad today. perhaps i am just tired. at eight this morning, i was in my neighbors david and emily's back yard discussing a potential sewer line with a city right of way inspector. it is a proposed forty foot swath of destruction to pass directly behind my house (through my deck, as i see it), tearing out all the trees and maintaining a 20 foot permanent easement through the middle of my property. i also discovered that i don't own the garden patch next to my home. what else? o, that all of that "community land trust" area behind the cemetery was a lie fabricated by the agent selling the house. there are owned but undeveloped lots back there, lacking only an access road to begin construction. is 20 feet permanent easement wide enough for an access road? next to my bedroom? i am not sure if i want to scream or weep. even if they put the line where the existing one lies, they will tear down two or more hundred year old tulip poplars, destroy the creek, and rip out a great deal of the little woods that i so love. it makes me wish i had bought out beyond the vagueries of in-town easements and growing sewage capacity. if losing everything i love about my home is the price i pay for living within biking distance of everything, i think that i am paying too much.
happy holidays.
h.

odetofishes

a good firing... whew! after my last misadventure opening the kiln, i was more than a little paranoid. there are still a few things that i need to work on with that kiln, but i think that i am getting a handle on it. fish are my few favorite motif, along with bamboo leaves. they are both simple and graceful, and the fish are an endless source of subtle amusement for me. one fish will go the wrong way. one will have a different pattern on its back. another will wink or make kissy face. but only one little thing per piece. and then some have just fish. they remind me of living on the boat and the endless hours of meditation spent staring at millions of darting fry in the shadow of the hull. they remind me of long boat key and summers splashing in the shallows with younger siblings and eventually my own children. they remind me of sadie fishing from the dock with a chopstick, thread, and a bent pin. she caught more fish with cheddar than anyone i know does with shrimp! i suppose it is no wonder that i like them so much. they have faithfully eaten the crusts of peanut butter sandwiches of several generations, dodged the sinking pottery of my first year's classes, amused my toddlers for hours, and fascinated me since i first tried to catch one in my hands. all hail the noble fish!
now... off to work!
h.

sheshome

after a five month vacation at the piano emporium and spa, our musical baby is finally home. she sounds and plays like a dream. shane owenby is on my sweetheart list for life. sadie will be out of her mind with joy. guthrie will be spending more time playing outside.
happy day!
lovepeace
heather

localtools

(above: my wagener trim tool and the first pot i trimmed with it.)
being in a studio with matt and josh and their constant odes to local clays and materials inspires me and occasionally riddles me with guilt. it is simply easier and more time effective for me to buy my clay pre-bagged. besides. i really like my clay without quartz rocks, garnets, rubies, and old nails in it. (what they do with it is divine, though.) but, today i took a step closer to local clay. my friend alwin is a blacksmith in the Wedge building where i work, and today he gave me a new trimming tool! it looks rugged and lovely, fits nicely in my hand, and trims well... and is made more locally than even my favorite beer! (which is at the whole other end of the building!) so, my foot is on the step. matt has promised me a bunch of local clay to wedge up with mine. we shall see. i might yet have to bow to the vagueries of the local material. and it all starts with a trim tool.
lovepeace

cccccold

it is... ummm... RAH-ther chilly in here today. i still haven't had the woodstove installed. (no surprise to those who know me well. procrastination is actually my middle name. nicole is just a ruse.) the direct result is, of course, that it is COLD in here. i must say that the advantage of having a postage stamp house is that boiling a full kettle will warm the kitchen at least as long as it takes to drink a cup of tea. and the oven! o nectar! o ambrosia! o warm muffins! (well, until the puppies ate my silicone muffin tins.)today it is apple cranberry cornbread. here is a recipe (with vegan alt.) if you leave out the cranberries and apples and sorghum, this is my best cornbread recipe. mom will add sugar, but guthrie likes it best like that.
apple cranberry cornbread
preheat the oven and cast iron pan to 400 degrees
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
2 Tbs - 1/4 cup of oil or melted butter
1 egg (or 1 1/2 tsp. egg replacer and 2 Tbs water)
1 c buttermilk (or 1 c. clabbered soymilk*)( or if you want to be creative, half the liquid measure of orange juice)
1/4 cup sorghum, unsulphured molasses, or honey (or sugar)
1 tsp salt
1 TBS baking powder
1 c chopped apples (with crust on! that's where all the vitamins are!)
1 c (more or less) cranberries (chopped roughly, if you like)
combine the wet ingredients. add the salt and baking powder . it will foam up. add the meal and flour. stir gently but well. fold in fruit. bake in cast iron, an 8x8 pan, or
a loaf pan. bake 25 min. eat hot!

*how to clabber milk/soymilk: add 1 tsp vinegar to 1 cup of milk. stir once. let sit while you aggregate your ingredients.
eat with butter or earth balance, slathered with sorghum or honey. mmmm.
enjoy!
lovepeace
heather

knitten

this is me in the cute little hat i knitted for lori of crazy green studios. it is only a year overdue. she asked for purple. the crazy green stripe was my own addition. yippee!!!
more news as it happens.
lovepeace
heather

justincase

sometimes i do the dumbest things. and sometimes i do them without even knowing i do them. the blog, for instance. there is no knowing what i will write about. it is seldom the most important thing in my life, or even in my day. it is just whatever strikes. kind of like a notebook for writing down random things that might make good titles for novels some day. and sometimes i whine about things that i don't even realize i am whining about. things that i like. enjoy. love. why? i don't know. so let me put in words a few of the most important things that have happened in the last month.
1. my mommy came up for a visit. she surprised sadie for her birthday. it was a rare delight to have her here. i tried to be sneaky about not posting that she was coming and then didn't post that she had been. that was a stupid oversight. it was a busy time, but those few days with mom were ambrosia for my embattled soul. and sadie enjoyed it, too! (so did guber, though he was relatively invisible.) my mom really is the very best. i was so so so so glad she came and made an oasis in my craziness.
2. michael broke up with me. it did not feel good. i respect his decision, and we are still close. i don't really want to talk about it.
3. clayspace co-op, where i make my ceramic work, was on the cover of the mountain express last week. it was a big deal and very very cool. the article brought lots of people to the river district's studio stroll. we were momentarily famous. okay, so some of us are already famous, but not me. so i had a few days of people recognizing me from the front of the paper. that was fun. joe sam queen, our illustrious state senator (just reelected), bought the teapot that was featured in the article. i suppose now i am a member of the permanent collection. neat!

there is far more that i have not written down, like the fact that (due to naked trees) i can now see from my bedroom the civil war graveyard up the hill from my house. and that matt gave me a sweet felted hat that keeps my ears very warm. and that my winter project is to learn entrelac knitting. so many things that i skip right over in favor of catchy bumper stickers and pictures of laundry. but they are in my mind. and in my heart. trust me.
lovepeace
heather

electionontheline

lovepeace
heather

whyilovehomeschooling

guthrie, my 15 year old, is homeschooling. among other lessons he is required to read one article from the scientific american and one from the new york times (online) every day. he emails me a synopsis including several key points. this was his report on the sciam today. i would like to have included his reports from the ny times, but they needed a little editing for profanity. apparently he's been tutoring with the shade of george carlin... and possibly lennie bruce.
Force Fields for Mars Exploration?
European researchers have developed a magnetic force field that hopefully will allow astronauts to explore dangerous Martian territory. Scientists in England tested the field by firing charged particles (stand in for energetic solar particles) at it at mach 3. What they saw was almost a complete reflection of the particles. So now we know that those commie Martians' laser guns won’t phase our astronauts. Then we can have Saturtians occupy Mars and suppress communism, then we can use a puppet dictator and run Mars from behind the curtain.

i am so proud.
lovepeace
heather

yeswecan

this is heather tinnaro, of the teeny tiny blog future 26 calling the great state of NC and the presidency of the United States of America for Barack Obama. i don't have the words to express my intense joy at watching his acceptance speech. my eyes welled up, and my heart beat fast in my chest. (as opposed to my left kneecap...) i have hope again. i know that, in the immortal words of the late molly ivins, "you got to dance with those what brung ya," but i believe that our president elect will remember that it was WE THE PEOPLE who brung him, after all.
good night, and god bless.

and THANK YOU for voting.


note: mr. mccain's speech was also gracious and conciliatory. i respect that.

today

today i fired the soda kiln at odyssey. it was completely full of my very own work. i could scarcely be more excited. all of my ware for studio stroll is in there! i haven't fired a kiln entirely for myself since st. petersburg! and almost as exciting as that was the prospect of sitting in peace, knitting, reading, and listening to john adams in audiobook; all...day...long.
i finished livea's baby hat by 11 am and started on lori's chullo (killer wooly hat with ear flaps.)i knit the first two inches of that hat and unravelled it 8 times. EIGHT! it was my own fault, though. i chose an unvetted pattern off of the internet. apparently, it doesn't work with knitting patterns any better than it does with vice presidential candidates. i seriously hope that this pattern doesn't come back to haunt me in 2012.


shoo! get back over there!


now... go vote.
no really... now.

therevolutionwillnotbetelevised

last night, as halloween raged outside, michael and i sat at my desk and watched the documentary "the revolution will not be televised" at freedocumentary.com. it is a well done piece filmed from the inside of the coup that briefly deposed venezuelan president, hugo chavez. i watched it several years ago with my sister marie, and i remember watching the papers like a hawk while it was all happening. still, it was heartening (and nerve wracking) to watch the venezuelan people reclaim their constitutional government and beloved president within days of losing both in an elitist, media-manipulated, american-backed coup d'etat.
several things amazed me. one: one of the first things chavez did as president was to encourage every venezuelan to learn to read and then to read their constitution. he calls it, "the people's book." how many of us have read OUR "people's book?" two: how the people responded immediately and in tremendous number when he was abducted. the barrios were empty, and it was all "organized" by word of mouth, as the news stations were all broadcasting propaganda insisting that chavez had resigned and left of his own accord. three: how anyone could accuse hugo chavez of suppressing opposition media when it was a free (and opposition owned) media that orchestrated the coup in the first place. four: (and finally) how millions of (mostly) unarmed poor people managed to retake their democratically elected government after it was stolen by powers better armed, better funded, and backed by the largest hegemonistic government in the world.
as the film drew to a close, i wondered about our own stolen elections, and wondered what it would take to draw "we the people" into the streets on our own behalf. is this the year, with more than a few military leaders in our corner, an unprecedentedly popular candidate, and a still-lingering stench of vote rigging in the air, that we mobilize? what will we do if this election is stolen from us? chalk it up to the bradley effect, shake our heads at "those closet racists," and hunker down for the end of the world?
to quote (or paraphrase) Tennessee Williams (and my mother and uncle michael,)
what shall we do for the rest of our lives?
sit here and watch the parades go by, play with the glass menagerie, and forever listen to those worn-out records that your father left as a painful reminder of him?
O, NO! NOT ME!
now, get out there and vote.
and if that fails, put on your shoes and get ready to march!
lovepeace
h.