MAM Day Thirty One – Au Revoir!

Oh dear is this really the end?

I am so sad.

I’ll miss you all so much my dearest sponsors. You who have stuck with me through thick and thin, who have encouraged me, cheered me on, been my stalwart audience. And you who have donated to CVRAN. I am so grateful to you. I couldn’t have done it without you. And of course so is CVRAN. This year MAM had fifty artists and writers or more participating, and around 1200 donors. We raised over $82,000 for CVRAN. Amazing! I can’t thank you all enough. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

I also wanted to give you the link to the final Marathon Gallery where you can see the work of some of the artists you didn’t sponsor:

March Arts Marathon 2025 Final Gallery

And now a few parting images and words

I love carousels. Thank you Joni Mitchell, for your words so true.
Winding down
Well here it is, April Fools Day.
Sweet dreams to you, my dears, until we meet again.
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MAM Day Twenty Nine – March and April, Lions and Lambs

“March Comes in Like a Lion and Out Like a Lamb”

They’re not kidding – at least about the lion part.

From my front steps this morning after the snowstorm last night.

Looks like we’ve still got some snow shoveling to do.
Cabin fever

So March comes in like a lion.

NYP Library lion, Prague cemetery stone, Lisbon Jerónimos Monastery
Fountain in NYPL, Zenkoji Temple in Japan, Lion guarding a coffin in Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon
March in Adamant
A little pale March sun
Still more snow and muddy roads – a spring thaw.

But April is coming…

BaaBaa really wanted to be in this post, and after all they are a lamb.

Speaking of which…

Out like a lamb (Thank you Erica Zimmerman for letting me visit your lambs.)
Ah now that’s more like it! Crocuses are blooming and Daffodils will be up soon.
Coltsfoot in Adamant, flowers in churchyard garden in Tavira Portugal, Oxeye Daisies in Lagos, Portugal
Plum trees and Magnolias blooming in New York gardens. They’re way ahead of us.
Wildflowers – Bloodroot, Dutchman’s Breeches, Trout Lily will come up after the snow finally melts for good.
Before you know it we’ll be gathering bouquets of tulips.

Now that’s something to dream about…

So dream sweet dreams.

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MAM Day Twenty Six – Refuge

From a MAM prompt. Wouldn’t we all like to have places of refuge and be able to provide them for others.

Here are some places I go to for refuge. Some where I physically go and some where I go in my mind’s eye.

The Adamant Quarry. Just down the road from me.
Another view of the quarry
Shangri La by the stream in Adamant Village
The grounds of the Ashram in Worcester
Inside the cave at the ashram
A stream by one of the East Montpelier trails
A cairn by the stream at a campsite near the town of Lincoln, Vermont
Sitting by a pond
Or maybe kayaking on one
Farther afield on the beach in Culebra in my mind’s eye
And sometimes when I meditate I go to one of my favorite childhood places -in my mom’s easy chair cuddling with her. That’s a Shirley Temple doll my grandpa, her father, gave me.

My mother always joked: “If I could unzip my womb I’d let you back in“

Now that’s a thought to curl up and go to sleep with.

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MAM Day Twenty Five- “Hands”

I goofed yesterday. I was up so late finishing my post it was past midnight and I called the post Day Twenty Five instead of Twenty Four. So now it’s time for the real Twenty Five to please stand up.

The prompt for March 24th was “Patchwork quilt” and “many hands make good work”. So I’m using Hands as the theme for my post today.

Circle of hands
The Japanese word “ma” means the space between two hands clapping. Similar to the Buddhist “kaon” (paradoxical saying) “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
Rodin sculpture of hands, 1940’s Life Buoy soap advertisement, hands of an old Italian craftsman, my Aunt and Uncle holding hands on their death bed.

Since this is the Anniversary of the DeafBlind advocacy organization I helped found, here are some photos of the hands of DeafBlind people showing the importance of the sense of touch through hands to communicate and to explore the world around them.

Braille, finger spelling in the palm, tactile speech reading, tactile signing
Exploring the world with your hands

Here is a list of the many expressions that have the word “hand” in them. Makes it clear the importance of hands in our culture.

  • On hand
  • At hand
  • Give someone a hand
  • Lend a hand
  • Have your hands full
  • Get out of hand
  • Wash your hands of it
  • Caught red-handed
  • In good hands
  • Hand in hand
  • Hands down
  • First-hand
  • Bite the hand that feeds you
  • Take matters into your own hands
  • Have the upper hand
  • Hand-me-downs
  • Hand-picked
  • Hand-over-fist
  • Hand in glove
  • Handsome
  • Hand it over
  • Hand it in
  • Handily
  • Second hand
  • Change hands
  • Try your hand at it
  • My hands are tied
  • Know like the back of your hand
  • Have a hand in it
  • Tip your hand
  • On the one hand…
  • On the other hand

Wow! Who would have thought there were so many expressions using the word “hand”.

Not going to let this post get out of hand now so I’m going to go to bed (and it’s actually before midnight).

Night night.

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MAM Day Twenty Three – World Puppetry Day!!!

Today is World Puppetry Day so to celebrate I’ll show you a few of my puppet creations. I like to make all different kinds of puppets:

This is Yin and Yang. Hand puppets made as a therapeutic tool for counselors and teachers who work with children.
Shadow puppets of the story of Esther for Purim
This is one of my companions – a finger puppet named Honey (Full name: Honey Bee Good). Honey likes to join in parades and hang out with me at airports. She is very sociable and children and adults often get attached to her. One little girl was so distraught when Honey had to leave she cried and cried inconsolably. Her dad had to make a fast getaway with her.
This is Eloise Guttersnitch, a bag lady. She was the first marionette I made when I joined the “Wisdom Marionette Troupe” in Seattle. That was my first job fresh out of college. She is made completely out of materials scrounged from “Dempster Dumpsters”. A true bag lady.
Not exactly a puppet, but a mask that I made for my niece’s one woman play. It was based on a Nazi propaganda poster depicting Jews.🤮
This is a dragonfly marionette. It was in the Adamant Blackfly Parade.Dragonflies love to eat blackflies. Good thing we have lots of dragonflies in Adamant because we sure do have plenty of blackflies for them to devour.
This is an Emerald Ash Borer costume used to warn people of the dangers of the borers to the Ash trees. I didn’t make the costume but I loved parading in it.
The bottom photo is of the marionettes that participants made at a puppet workshop in Prague for a production of Sleeping Beauty. The faces, hands and bodies were all carved out of wood. We performed the play at the Prague Arts festival. It was a wonderful workshop and Prague is a beautiful city. My friend Rosa (top photo) fell in love with the Jester I made. They were fast friends for quite a while.
This is a rod puppet of a caterpillar I made for a puppet workshop I helped organize for people with mild dementia. We all wrote the script, made the puppets and props, and performed the play together. What a lark!
Me and my buddies.

HAPPY WORLD PUPPETRY DAY!!!

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MAM Day Twenty Two – Seeds of Hope

Look what I found in my breakfast apple –

Never found a sprouted seed in an apple before… an avocado, yes, but an apple?

Maybe I’ll plant it by Momo’s grave. Her body will provide it with nourishment and the tree will provide nourishment for us.

Seed and seed pod bouquet
Garlic and Lilac, Rudbeckia and Milkweed, Iris and Mallow and Potentilla too.
Collage of sketches I made of seed holders:
Sensitive Fern, Milkweed, Poppy, Figwort, and the name of the last one I forgot to jot down.

Here’s an Emily Dickinson Poem I always liked about hope:

“Hope is the thing with feathers”

BY EMILY DICKINSON

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me
Assemblage inspired by the poem

Here’s another “Hope” poem of a different sort:

Hope

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

Sometimes when I’m lonely,
Don’t know why,
Keep thinkin’ I won’t be lonely
By and by.

Wishing you a peaceful day full of hope.

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MAM Day Twenty -Flower Sex

Happy Vernal Equinox!

Anticipating blooming flowers attracting their pollinators.

Flowers are so clever in their reproductive ways.

Pistil Stigma Ovary Style, Anther Stamen Filament Petal.

These are the names of the flowers’ reproductive parts.

And what won’t they do to attract pollinators – birds, butterflies, bees and ants.

Color, smell, movement, food.

Monarch in Milkweed
Bee in Morning Glory
Hummingbird moth in Phlox
Hummingbird in bee balm.

Sweet blossom dreams to you.

Good night.

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