#chifferobe

African items John collected Beautifully arranged items in the studio The small case John carries at all times: mechanical pencils Drawing of the parts of the ear One of the many portraits in the studio. She looks mean! Look at the chacter in this face! Clothes line with portraits Images that came to his mind as he studied the Kabbalah

Something strange happened yesterday as I was driving to work. A song by Aaron Burdette came on the radio and when he sang the line, “I wish I could go back and do it again without the stress…just the happiness,” tears started running down my face. I don’t think anything like that has ever happened to me before. I started thinking about my children and the years they were growing up. Often what…

Adding Cool Stuff to the Collection

One of the new designs by Andrea Freeman of Freeman Clayworks I read a wonderful essay by Anne Lamott yesterday morning on Facebook. She is facing a birthday this month, and as we all do, she is questioning how it is possible that she has reached an advanced age so soon. In her case, it is only 68, but I’m sure that feels old to her. And seeing what horrible stuff is happening in the world, she…

What’s up at 44 Cherry Street? Last week when I asked Lorraine about Frederick, she burst into tears and told me between sobs that he was gone! “Gone???” I asked. “What in the world happened?” Grandpa Ron and Max She was crying hard and couldn’t speak, so I offered to fix her a cup of tea. She nodded her head vigorously, so I got up and went into the little kitchen of her top floor apartment…

Where will this portal lead us?

Wood sculpture of a noisy crow, $150 The first thing I read this morning was an excerpt from an essay by Indian writer Arundhati Roy that a Facebook friend had posted. In “The Pandemic is a Portal” Roy contends that the changes wrought by this now two-year-long pandemic must lead to changes in how we operate, and her hope is that these changes propel us forward.  Back when this whole mess…

Baby Max stole a piece of pizza off his mom’s plate and stole off to a corner to devour it. His first pizza, and it seems he really likes it! Well, it’s that time of year again. It’s the time when we have to decide when to make the shift from Fall to full-on-Christmas. It’s when we take down all the rusty colors of Autumn and replace them with the splendor of Christmas. The unofficial…

Getting Advice from Homer

Grrrr! It’s Max! An old friend and former Black Mountain resident came by Chifferobe yesterday. I was delighted to see him and we settled in for a chat. He was not wearing a mask, and I instructed him to mask up, which he did grudgingly. “Well, I suppose you are vaccinated at least,” I said, trying to figure out what he was thinking. “Not vaccinated, and not planning to!” he declared…