Big Leaves

Evening sun chard in the community garden. 

Retired!

 

I started working part-time for Penland School of Craft sometime early in 1995. I went on staff in 1997, and it's been my place of work, my second community, and my second home ever since. My last day on staff at Penland was May 29. I shared my last day with Penland legend John T. Renick III, a.k.a. Big John, paragon of kindness, all-around good guy, and a crucial and calm presence in the Penland kitchen for 26 years. 

John is moving to Athens, Georgia--for love! I will be staying home, having even longer conversations with Tammy, going on longer walks, playing more music, reading more books and New Yorker articles, spending more time in the garden and more time with my excellent friends, and also doing some work for Penland (mostly from home). 

 Someone asked if I had big plans for my retirement, and without even thinking, I said, "No, I have small plans." 

 Thanks, Penland. It's been great.  

Ohle's Pond sunfish redds

Each spring, male sunfish make round depressions in the pond by vigorously thrashing in shallow water. The female then lays her eggs in these 'redds' (from the Old English words for "to rid of encumbrance" and "to ready"), the male fertilizes and guards them, and we watch and remember that not all is lost.

 

Tiny Dance

Loy and Bruce celebrated their new  hellbendre presse building with an open house. They haven't moved any equipment into the new space yet, so they were able to have a very small square dance (live music, even) led by the great Phil Jamison. There were just enough dancers for a square, and the whole thing was lit by the neon sign in the window. 

You never know...

You just never know what you might run into in the woods. 

Inflating steel

Elizabeth Brim and friends doing a steel inflation demonstration at the Fire on the Mountain Blacksmithing Festival. 

The piece is two sheets of steel, carefully welded together around the edges, with a pipe going into a small space in between them. It was heated up in a gas forge, and Elizabeth is blowing it up with compressed air--which you can do because hot metal is a lot softer than cold metal.  
 

Trombone Karaoke

This guy, accompanied by his little sound system, has been honking jazz standards on Main Street for years and years.