Monday, November 11, 2019

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A Better World - Host McNair Ezzard



A Better World provides an in-depth look into the people and organizations, locally, nationally and internationally, who are working to create a world that works for everyone. Whether it be those who are working in the areas of hunger and poverty, social and economic justice, healthcare, education, housing, restoration of the environment or those people and organizations who bring a fresh perspective to spirituality – "A Better World" features interviews with people who are making a difference. Email us at: betterworldradioshow@gmail.com
  SHOWS: Show #171 - Voices for Creative Nonviolence- September 19, 2019 "Nonviolent action in solidarity with those in the crosshairs of U.S. war-making cannot be a single day event; we make a commitment and act upon it every day of our lives." Our guest: Kathy Kelly is from Voices for Creative Nonviolence, an organization whose members have led over 70 delegations to Iraq to challenge economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by other countries. They have also have had delegations travel to Afghanistan to meet with and learn from nonviolent grassroots movements and have worked to raise awareness about the negative impacts of U.S. militarism.
Audio of  9.19.2019 show


 Show #170 - Overthrowing Venezuela - Orchestrating a coup for oil - September 12, 2019

The U.S. government says their efforts to overthrow Chavez and Maduro are for the purpose of advancing democracy and human rights in Venezuela. True? Not according to our guest, Dan Kovalik. U.S. interests have always been about one thing - oil. And what the U.S. and opposition resent most is Chavez and Maduro govern in the interest of the Venezuela's poor. Dan is an author of The Plot to The Plot to Control the World: How the US Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of      Elections Around the World and his 2019 book, The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US Is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil. Dan teaches International Human Rights at the Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Law. www.law.pitt.edu/people/daniel-kovalik
Audio of 9.12.2019 show


   Show #169 - International Day of Peace: Climate Action for Peace - September 5, 2019 Guests: Rachael Bliss from WNC 4Peace; Said Abdallah, Peacemaker of the year 2019 and a founder and leader with the Asheville chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. Peace Day is 37 years old this year. Originally started by the United Nations as "a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says this years theme, Climate Action for Peace, reflects the concern that peace faces a new danger, the climate emergency. Listen in as our guests talk about this concern and the plans in place for the Asheville community to recognize Peace Day. www.facebook.com/groups/wnc4peace
Audio of  9.5. 2019 show

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

New Designs

Bronze Dore' Ginko Pendant and Earrings
Hand cast bronze with 24 ct gold plating

Pendant $75.00
Earrings $75.00


Bronze Pendant $75.00
Earrings $75.00


Enamel Bracelet
$125.00

Enamel on copper
hand carved bamboo motif
Pendant $75.00
Earrings $75.00


Fold Form Enameled Copper  Pendant
$135.00

White enamel bracelet $125.00
Earrings $45.00

50 Shades (Quotes) of Diana Vreeland - Into The Gloss

50 Shades (Quotes) of Diana Vreeland - Into The Gloss


Everybody wants their life to be like Diana Vreeland's. Heck, even Diana Vreeland wanted her life to be like Diana Vreeland's. Before fashion editors became personalities/street-style stars/fodder for major motion pictures, there was the eminently quotable, largely self-invented and always fascinating Mrs. Vreeland, whose life took her from Belle Epoque Paris to Studio 54, whose friendships ranged from Coco Chanel and Wallis Simpson to Andy Warhol and Jack Nicholson, and whose imagination and keen eye propelled the pages of Harper's Bazaar (1936-1962) and Vogue (1962-1971) into the future and revolutionized the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute (1971-1989). Today, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel hits theaters in NY and LA to a collective sigh of it's about time: the documentary chronicles her wild, inspiring life full of vim, vigor, and what D.V. called “Faction' (as in both fact and fiction, because, as she once explained, “why not make a story more interesting?”).
“There’s only one very good life and that’s the life you know you want and you make it yourself,” Vreeland famously said. And she devoted herself to this infectious, all-encompassing idea that you could make yourself as interesting—as fabulous—as you wanted. Why be boring? She also, luckily for us, never seemed to say anything that didn't qualify as a perfect (not to mention totally Tweetable!!) little life quote.
In honor of the film—and in case the only offering at your local cinema is Finding Nemo 3D— we spent days pouring over both her 1984 memoir D.V.(as told to George Plimpton) and Visionaire 37: The Vreeland Memos to pick out 50 of her best zingers. Below, presented in no particular order (and in some cases, condensed by ITG), the D.V. 50:
(P.S. If we left any good ones out, holler at us! We tried to keep things fresh.)
1 “Unshined shoes are the end of civilization.”
2 “You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It’s a way of life. Without it, you’re nobody. I’m not talking about lots of clothes.”
3 “Of course, one is born with good taste. It’s very hard to acquire. You can acquire the patina of taste?”
4 “A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste—it’s hearty, it’s healthy, it’s physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I’m against.”
5 “The first rule that a geisha is taught, at the age of nine, is to be charming to other women...Every girl in the world should have geisha training.”
6 “Where Chanel came from in France is anyone’s guess. She said one thing one day and another thing the next. She was a peasant—and a genius. Peasants and geniuses are the only people who count and she was both.”
7 “You know the greatest thing is passion, without it what have you got? I mean if you love someone you can love them as much as you can love them but if it isn’t a passion, it isn’t burning, it isn’t on fire, you haven’t lived.”
8 “There’s no such thing as a slack French face. Haven’t you ever noticed that? I’ve given this a lot of thought and I think it’s because the French have to exercise their jaws and the inside of their mouths so much just to get the words out. The vowels demand so much.”
9 “I think part of my success as an editor came from never worrying about a fact, a cause, an atmosphere. It was me—projecting to the public. That was my job. I think I always had a perfectly clear view of what was possible for the public. Give ‘em what they never knew they wanted.”
10 “Style—all who have it share one thing: originality.”
11 “There’s only one thing in life, and that’s the continual renewal of inspiration.”
12 “Unfortunately, Hungarians don’t impress the world anymore—they’ve never been successful, and success is the only thing the world we live in now understands and remembers.”
13 “Fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes.”
14 “Balenciaga often said that women did not have to be perfect or beautiful to wear his clothes. When they wore his clothes, they became beautiful?”
15 “One never knew what one was going to see at a Balenciaga opening. One fainted. It was possible to blow up and die.” [ed. note: it's also possible for the seating to malfunction and leave you standing for the duration of a presentation.]
16 “I think when you’re young you should be a lot with yourself and your sufferings. Then one day you get out where the sun shines and the rain rains and the snow snows and it all comes together.”
17 “Prohibition. Insane idea. Try to keep me from taking a swallow of this tea and I’ll drink the whole pot.”
18 “Still, my dream in life is to come home and think of absolutely nothing. After all, you can’t think all the time.
19 “If you think all the time every day of your life, you might as well kill yourself today and be happier tomorrow.”
20 “I adore artifice. I always have.”
21 “‘Worse things happen at sea.’ That was [my father’s] great expression. It summed up any unpleasantness.”
22 “...Don’t think you were born too late. Everyone has that illusion. But you aren’t. The only problem is if you think too late?”
23 “Everything is new. At least everything is new the first time around.”
24 “I was always fascinated by the absurdities and luxuries and the snobbism of the world that fashion magazines showed. Of course, it’s not for everyone...But I lived in that world, not only during my years in the magazines business but for years before, because I was always of that world-- at least in my imagination.”
25 “The West is boring itself to death! And talking itself to death!”
26 “You can’t say ‘My masseur told me this.’ And then again, why can’t you?”
27 “I’d like to have been Elizabeth the First. She was wonderful. She surrounded herself with poets and writers, lived at Hampton Court, and drove that little team of spotted ponies with long tails....She’s at the top of my list. I loved the clothes. It took her four hours to dress—we have a lot in common!”
28 “I’ve learned a tremendous amount from maids in my life.”
29 “Where would fashion be without literature?”
30 “Oh, the ‘Why Don’t You,’ column first appeared in 1936 [in Harper's Bazaar]. ‘For a coat to put on after skiing, get yourself an Italian driver’s, of red-orange lined in dark green.’ That was one of them. ‘Have a furry elk-kid trunk for the back of your car.’ They were all very tried and true ideas, mind you. ‘Knit yourself a little skullcap. Turn your old ermine coat into a bathrobe... ‘Wash your blond child’s hair in dead champagne, as they do in France.’”
31 “Oh, but I think that thoughtfulness and manners are everything.”
32 “All my life I’ve pursued the perfect red. I can never get painters to mix it for me. It’s exactly as if I’d said, ‘I want rococo with a spot of Gothic in it and a bit of Buddhist temple’—they have no idea what I’m talking about. About the best red is to copy the color of a child’s cap in any Renaissance portrait.”
33 “Lighting is everything in a color.”
34 “Black is the hardest color in the world to get right—except for gray...”
35 “This story went around about me: Apparently I’d wanted a billiard-table green background for a picture. So the photographer went out and took the picture. I didn’t like it. He went out and took it again and I still didn’t like it. ‘I asked for billiard-table green!’ I’m supposed to have said. ‘But this is a billiard table, Mrs. Vreeland,’ the photographer replied. ‘My dear,’ I apparently said, ‘I meant the idea of billiard-table green.’”
36 “When I arrived in America, I had these very dark red nails which some people objected to, but then some people object to absolutely everything.”
37 “V ogue always did stand for people’s lives. I mean, a new dress doesn’t get you anywhere; it’s the life you’re living in the dress, and the sort of life you had lived before, and what you will do in it later?”
38 “She was just putting on the ritz, keeping things up. Why say you were born in a hovel? Who wants to hear that?”
39 “In my leisure time I appear rather... impractical. But I do think that I’ve made a practical woman out of myself. You can’t have worked the number of years I have, through hell or high water, without being basically practical.”
40 “You’re really on a dead horse. Don’t you love that phrase? A friend of mine and I once got out of a movie house across from Bloomingdale’s, and we stepped into a taxi standing there at curbside. A guy leaned in the back window and said, ‘Hey, you’re on a dead horse. No driver.’ We looked and sure enough there wasn’t anybody in the front seat. Heaven knows where he was. In the movie house? Perhaps he was off having a hamburger.”
41 “To be contented—that’s for the cows.”
42 “Power has got to be the most intoxicating thing in the world—and of all forms of power the most intoxicating is fame.”
43 “I was the most economical thing that ever happened to the Hearst Corporation. Perhaps they loved me because I never knew how to get any money out of them.”
44 “Truth is a hell of a big point with me. Now I exaggerate— always ?”
45 “A lie to get out of something, or take an advantage for oneself, that’s one thing; but a lie to make life more interesting—well, that’s entirely different.”
46 “I always say I hope to God I die in a town with a good tailor, a good shoemaker, and perhaps someone who’s interested in a little quelque chose d’autre.”
47 “Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world.”
48 “One thing I hold against Americans is that they have no flair for the rain. They seem unsettled by it; it’s against them: they take it as an assault, an inconvenience! But rain is so wonderfully cleansing, so refreshing, so calming...”
49 “I have a terrible time remembering exactly when my birthday is. Age is totally boring...”
50 “The best time to leave a party is when the party’s just beginning. There’s no drink that kills except the drink that you didn’t want to take, as the saying goes, and there’s no hour that kills except the hour you stayed after you wanted to go home.”
Images from the book The Eye Has to Travel.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

History of the Asheville / Buncombe Water System




Link to 2012 -2013 Mountain Xpress articles via  "water system"  search results.

I have used mostly Mountain Xpress articles for this information blog.  Citizen Times has done a lot of coverage , but their articles are available for just a short time. However members of Asheville library can access via the library computers.

History of Sullivan 1, 2, and 3

Note: Sullivan 3 was passed in June, 2005  Sherrill, Goforth and Fisher introduced the bill




Video links 
Dr. Gene Rainey
click to view video 



Part one  2.13.12 Water Forum





Part two  2.13.12 Water Forum


By Jonathan Barnard on 02/08/2006 02:00 PM


In Asheville, fifth Tuesdays of the month are traditionally reserved for neighborhood gripe sessions. Instead, City Council earmarked Jan. 31 for a special water session. And though it was far from the first time city leaders have waded into this stormy issue, the contrast with the past could not have been starker.

Like the May 24, 2004, Council meeting (see "Then and Now", below), this one could aptly be described as having marked a new chapter in the turbid history of local water politics. But this time, Council members and city staff alike were taking pains to show that the process would be altogether different -- in tone, pace and transparency.

In her opening remarks, Mayor Terry Bellamy described the search for new water policies as an "interactive decision-making process that is starting, not ending, tonight." And she reaffirmed that Asheville is "open to working with the county."

City Manager Gary Jackson then delivered a lengthy staff report. With the stated aim of providing "reliable, safe and affordable drinking water to all customers throughout the region," it examined five policy areas: "capital investment, rate structure, growth and development, financial policy and governance models."

The portion dealing with capital investment covered well-trod ground. An asset-management study prepared by consultants Brown and Caldwell several years ago for the old Regional Water Authority cited the need for $57 million worth of system repairs and refurbishment by 2012. Reviving a familiar bugaboo, Jackson showed how a capital-improvements fee on meters could at least provide a start on generating the needed funding. Twice endorsed by the Water Authority and approved by City Council only to be vetoed by Buncombe County each time, this approach was most recently voted down by the new City Council in December amid concerns about public perception and the need for outreach. And though the proposed meter fee would affect all system customers, the bills of large commercial and industrial users would increase by a higher percentage than those of smaller residential users. C'ntd here.


By Jerry Sternberg on 09/07/2005 02:00 PM


Well, the fire finally put the water out. Water am I talking about?
If you can stand it, here is another postpartum analysis of the aborted water negotiations between the city of Asheville and Buncombe County. You might find it somewhat surprising that Gospel Jerry has some particular insight into the excruciating process that plagued our county commissioners and City Council members.
A few weeks before the Water Agreement was to be washed down the drain, I was asked to help negotiate a settlement. Here is a thumbnail version of how we got into this quagmire.
Since 1985, the local water supply has been under the administration of the Asheville-Buncombe Water Authority, which became the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson after Henderson County joined.
Asheville city has always run the day-to-day operation of the Water Department, developing the budget and controlling the hiring and firing. The Authority was primarily in charge of policy and rate-setting.
At the Asheville City Council winter retreat of 2004, the Council decided to reclaim its birthright and take back the water system from the Regional Water Authority in order to appropriate additional water revenues to increase city income and control growth. I doubt that any of the City Council members envisioned that this act would become a battle of Cain and Abel proportions. It is also doubtful that any of the parties involved were prepared for the ensuing firestorm that resulted from this action.
The rest of the discussion has to be prefaced by the assertion that all parties in this kabuki dance were absolutely sincere and felt they were representing their constituencies to the best of their abilities. It is my opinion that the Water Agreement broke down because of three things: AFFRONT, VICTIMIZATION and POLITICS.
Unfortunately, North Carolina is a "may I" state. Cities and counties in North Carolina cannot pass such things as new taxes or other revenue sources, change annexation regulations and a whole host of other ordinances without express permission of the state Legislature. The city's failure to recognize this fact and consult with the Legislature before making this draconian move was a fatal mistake.
Notification to the Authority by the city of its withdrawal was viewed by Buncombe leadership as a hostile act, and they were seriously AFFRONTED. They immediately began to look around for defensive measures that they felt would protect the county residents from paying a higher rate on their water bills and threatened to invoke the Sullivan Act, which prohibited a differential water rate between city and county.
The city immediately countered by declaring that the Sullivan Act only applied to the water customers and lines that were in existence at the time the Legislature passed the act 70 years ago. The county then appealed to the local legislative delegation to pass new laws that would clarify the matter with acts known as Sullivan II and Sullivan III prohibiting differential rates between the city and any part of the county.
The city was outraged at this action by the county, and they felt VICTIMIZED. I must say that if I walked up to the biggest guy in the bar and punched him in the face, I could hardly feel that I was a victim if he then wiped up the floor with me. Such action might also preclude further negotiation.
One might then ask why would the legislative delegation want to get into this act? After all, several of them live in the city. The answer is that they were loath to even touch this third rail and were hoping against hope that this would be settled by negotiation between city and county. And they brought considerable pressure to bear on both sides.
The problem the delegation had was POLITICAL. These legislators have to run again next year. They are savvy enough to understand that if they failed to act and the city raised county water rates, the county residents would hold them responsible and might vote against them, while the city dwellers would give credit to City Council for lowering their rates.



By Jonathan Barnard on 03/23/2005 02:00 PM

In Asheville, fifth Tuesdays of the month are traditionally reserved for neighborhood gripe sessions. Instead, City Council earmarked Jan. 31 for a special water session. And though it was far from the first time city leaders have waded into this stormy issue, the contrast with the past could not have been starker.

Like the May 24, 2004, Council meeting (see "Then and Now", below), this one could aptly be described as having marked a new chapter in the turbid history of local water politics. But this time, Council members and city staff alike were taking pains to show that the process would be altogether different -- in tone, pace and transparency.

By Jonathan Barnard on 07/30/2003 02:00 PM

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Here in Asheville and environs, long-running enmities and political infighting maintain a state of functional paralysis while the crumbling water infrastructure continues to decay and more than a quarter of the water produced by the system is lost to leaks.

By Jonathan Barnard on 11/27/2002 02:00 PM

It's come down to just $500,000. That appears to be all that's keeping Asheville and Henderson County from putting an end to their long-running water wars -- provided, that is, that the two sides can cut a deal before the new Henderson County commissioners take their oaths of office in early December.
At a special Nov. 14 meeting called specifically to address the situation, the Asheville City Council voted 6-1 to offer Henderson County three options for resolving their disputes concerning the implementation of the 1995 water agreement (Brian Peterson was the sole dissenter). All three plans call for creating a "regional infrastructure council" that would include the city of Hendersonville, which is not a member of the current Regional Water Authority.
"Option 1," as Mayor Charles Worley labeled it, would simply leave the 1995 water agreement intact, with all parties once again agreeing to abide by it.

By Jonathan Barnard on 10/30/2002 02:00 PM

After years of wrangling over water issues, Asheville and Henderson County may be close to making peace.
On Oct. 16, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to allow Chairman Bill Moyer to negotiate with Asheville on a plan he drew up that would amend the Water Agreement and settle the county's lawsuit against Asheville, the Regional Water Authority and Buncombe County. After looking over an outline of Moyer's proposals, Asheville Mayor Charles Worley told Xpress that they aren't far from what the city had previously offered and would require only minor changes and clarifications on a few unspecified points.
Under the Moyer plan, two of the thorniest issues -- the funding of water lines in northern Henderson County and the fate of a Bent Creek property transferred to Henderson County under the 1995 agreement -- would be resolved through a land-for-cash swap. Asheville would get back the Bent Creek property (which has been assessed at $2 million); in return, Henderson County would receive $2 million to build water and sewer lines in Cane Creek.



Double, double, toil and trouble
Regional water issues come to a boil
by Margaret Williams | mwilliams@mountainx.com 4.25.01

Asheville-area reservoirs may be full for the first time in several years, but listen closely: There's trouble a-boil in the depths.

On Jan. 25 of this year, Regional Water Authority Chair Jack Tate sent a letter to Asheville, Buncombe County and Henderson County officials. He asked these governing bodies to come together to address murky issues in the 1994 Water Agreement, which created the Regional Water Authority.
To date, there's been no official response from any of them. But in the interim, Tate and other Authority members have spoken publicly about the underlying issues, both at their meetings and to nonprofit groups such as Citizens for Safe Drinking Water and Air.
The Authority has also sought to form a committee of its board members and governmental representatives to discuss reorganizing as an independent agency – which would, among other things, stave off the rising costs the Authority incurs when the state Department of Transportation relocates water lines.
Meanwhile, Henderson County officials recently sued the city of Asheville, the Authority and Buncombe County over an alleged failure to hand over, in good faith, nearly 140 acres off Brevard Road. The exchange was supposed to be part of the deal that gave Asheville the land needed to build the Authority's Mills River Water Treatment Plant. But after the city finally transferred ownership in 1999, Henderson County officials claimed Asheville had placed severe restrictions on the deed, limiting both Henderson's clear ownership of the land and future use of it.
It's a recipe for a bitter brew. Toss in the frustration shown by Authority board member (and Henderson County Board of Commisioners chair) Bill Moyers about the lack of progress in figuring out who will pay for a master plan that includes his county's Cane Creek area. Add a dash of Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick's annoyance that city appointees to the Authority's board haven't been more forthcoming with information on the situation. (On April 17, she urged Council to immediately implement a policy of automatically removing Council members from boards and commissions when their term on Council ends; former Council member Tommy Sellers, defeated in the last election, still serves on the Authority's nine-member board.) Then sprinkle in Asheville City Manager Jim Westbrook's admonition (at the Authority board's April 17 meeting) that Tate's public remarks weren't helping things any.
Mix it all together, and City Attorney Bob Oast's April 17 observation that there are "many issues percolating in the Water Authority right now" becomes a tactful understatement of the situation.
Enter the League of Women Voters, wading right into the frothing waters. The local Buncombe and Henderson branches are teaming up to host a forum on the Authority's past, present and future.
"The League is interested in working on regional problems cooperatively," says Nelda Holder, president of the Asheville/Buncombe chapter. "The situation that the Water Authority is facing in terms of its legal position [is] what spurred [this] forum. [The Authority's] history is part of the discussion, too: How did we get to where we are now, and why? And where do we go from here?"
Everyone, it seems, has a point of view. Former Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chair Gene Rainey, who signed the 1994 agreement with Henderson and Asheville, says: "I regret the problems that Asheville, [the Authority] and Henderson County are having at this time. I think [these problems] need to be worked out, but Asheville may have to make some concessions [particularly with regard to the pending lawsuit]." The 1994 agreement, he asserts, was a model "in terms of other agreements ... that bring regional cooperation between cities and counties."
UNCA Professor Rick Maas, who served on the Authority's board a few years ago, adds: "We had an agreement. We got the Mills River [property] and Henderson County got the Brevard Road site [for a potential wastewater-treatment plant]. It was that simple. We shouldn't squabble over the details." Maas, who chairs UNCA's environmental studies department, urges regional cooperation, calling on Asheville and Buncombe leaders "to abide by the intent and spirit of the Water Agreement."
Local-government watchdog Jerry Rice remarks: "There's never been a public meeting to sit down and talk about all the issues involved in the Water Agreement. ... We need Buncombe County and Asheville and Henderson County sitting down and talking about every piece of this and the options." The lawsuit squabble and the laments about the DOT costs "are the tip of the iceberg," says Rice.
Mayor Sitnick agrees that the issue is complex. "I've been asking for a review of the Water Agreement for years," she points out. On April 17, she demanded that city staff prepare – as Council member Brian Peterson had suggested – a report on all the water issues, including the pros and cons of an autonomous Authority. She hopes to have that in hand sometime next month. But in light of the lawsuit initiated by Henderson County, she guarded her remarks, saying only, "The efforts of the Water Authority to become a true [autonomous] Authority ... is interesting."
Holder, meanwhile, maintains that "Everybody needs to talk to each other. The forum is an opportunity for the public to understand what the issues are."
The event, scheduled for Monday, April 30, will be held in the community room of the Skyland Fire Department on Hendersonville Road, from 7-9 p.m.
All elected officials of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson have been invited, and former Asheville Mayor Russ Martin, former Henderson County Board of Commissioners Chair Vollie Good and Authority at-large member Leslee Thornton will be on hand for a question-and-answer session. Former Henderson County Board of Commissioners Chair Renee Kumor and former Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chair Tom Sobol will present a historical perspective on the Authority. Tate will provide an update on the Authority's status.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Copper enamel pendant and earrings.

Hand carved bamboo and fern motif. 

Monday, October 15, 2012

Just back from a week at Penland...exhausted but very happy with progress.
Copper enamel bracelet and earrings.
Main Offices and student center

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Asheville's Cajun Cook Off

I won second place for my turkey anduille gumbo. Next year I hope to win first place. I know how to make a vast improvement, now that the competition is over.

First you make a roux

Develop roux to a dark chocolate state

With the trinity added to roux

My Gumbo presentation...they ate it all.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Fall in the mountains


Vance birth place  Reems Creek Road

On luxury vs. vulgarity


French couturière Coco Chanel pinning a sleeve in 1962.


"The opposite of luxury is not poverty because in the houses of the poor you can smell a good pot au feu. The opposite is not simplicity for there is beauty in the corn-stall and barn, often great simplicity in luxury, but there is nothing in vulgarity, its complete opposite."

So Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (1883—1971) told photographer Cecil Beaton in 1966.

Fall in the mountains

Nantahala National Forest
Something about living on large expanses like the  one shown here, makes me feel very safe and secure. 

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Monarch Butterfly Miracles

Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis

I found this on a beet leaf we had pulled from the garden.  Herb has a big stand of milkweed that attracts butterflies and other creatures, including Hummingbirds. The larva eat the milkweed, which is poisonious and renders the caterpillar and subsequent Chrysalis and emerging Monarch Butterfly to have no natural predators.
After awhile, the caterpillars attach themselves head down to a convenient twig, (as seen above) they shed their outer skin and begin the transformation into a pupa (or chrysalis), a process which is completed in a matter of hours.  

The pupa resembles a transparent jade vase with exquisite iridescent gold on the ridges of along the lower part of the  little jade jewel, and becomes increasingly transparent as the process progresses.  The caterpillar completes the miraculous transformation into a beautiful adult butterfly in about two weeks. 

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Stay Back Tree Fall


I first saw this truck in New Orleans during May 2010...while I was there at Jazz Fest. Amazingly a few weeks later it was in front of me on Patton Ave in Asheville.  You can't forget a truck with a message like this one.  

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Digital art work


Charleston SC 7/2011  Sunset through a church tower. 
Photo altered using Photofx.

Water lily sketch I did on my iPhone then
enhanced the color effects with Photofx.
Original sketch done on iPad...before enhancing with Photofx.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Carolina Botanicals series in bronze

Bronze pieces featuring original designs of pine, ginko, lichen, fern, bamboo cast in light and dark bronze.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Beatrix Ost:

From the Blog "Advanced Style"
I recently interviewed writer and artist Beatrix Ost for my upcoming book. I won't give away all her secrets just yet, but I wanted to share one her favorite quotes. Beatrix believes that style begins with food.For her, eating well is key in maintaining a creative life. As she likes to say, "In your body is a good place to be."

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Herb's (my dear hubby) bungalow restoration in West Asheville


242 Virginia Ave ...Asheville   Completed renovation.


 This floor is heart pine, but was painted with grey porch paint. Imagine our delight at finding this treasure underneath the old paint.  Frame in foreground and along porch edge  is for the screened in porch that will happen next week.
 Herb at the front door, color is off here, they are much more muted.
 Side view of house

Work in progress. Vinyl siding removed, cedar shingles added to all dormers.
Millwork around window, elbow brackets, drip boards all restored to original detail.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Chicago Tribune article Think Hats for Spring




Think hats for spring

If you want to be noticed, a knockout hat cannot fail.

April 14, 2011|By Ellen Warren | Tribune senior correspondent
Bill Hogan/Tribune photo
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Spring flowers. Easter season. The royal wedding. That's three good reasons that you might be thinking
about hats.

But here's the best reason of all: Put one on and you're a standout.
We spend so much time debating what to wear: the perfect dress, the shoes, the just-right earrings, the purse. And yet we completely forget that the quick and easy way to get noticed is a knockout hat.
"People would be amazed at the impact," says Davyne Dial, an Asheville, N.C., hat designer and passionate hat proponent.
"If you're the only one wearing a hat, all eyes are going to go to you. … Most everybody starts liking that attention," says Susan Lee, who designs hats in San Diego for the Sur La Tete label.
Think about the photos you've seen of Kate Middleton, Prince William's bride-to-be. Many of the most memorable are the ones where she's wearing some fetching feathery headgear, perched at a jaunty angle.
Ads by And while you might not recall too many 
details about Barack Obama's inauguration, the hat that Aretha Franklin wore when she performed that day is pretty hard to forget. See what I mean?




Hats don't need to be expensive. They don't really even need to be hats per se. A clip-on feather, known as a fascinator, can do the job for just a few bucks at accessory chains like Claire's, claires.com. At this time of year, department stores have lots of colorful options for under $100. Add a pin-on blossom to a skinny brim fedora from Target and you've got an Easter bonnet.
And never underestimate the power of a little face veiling. "Veils are wonderful. Veils can suggest a lot of wonderful things," says Dial. "They can be modest, virginal-looking, but a cocktail hat can have a very mysterious, flirtatious look. Veils are not worn nearly enough."
Still not convinced you're a hat person? Dial offers this: "Men love you in a hat. They'll practically kiss your feet."
Hat tips:
*Headwear is an outfit game-changer and guaranteed attention-getter.
*Show some attitude: angle it jauntily.
*Frugal flowers and feathers from craft shops give basic hats a luxe, new look.
*Don't let your hat wear you: Big, dramatic brims better on curvy, tall women.
*Proportion is key. Petite? Consider a cloche.
*Buy a yard of net at a fabric store and you've got an alluring veil.