Michael's List

Back, Yet Again!!

Now I am living in Farmville, NC, in the eastern part of the state, a small town of 5,000 ten wiles west of Greenville. Moved from Juneau in August of 2015. Farmville is a delight, a former tobacco town and an important tobacco distribution center; it has dwindled as the resident population has aged, but experiencing a renaissance with an influx of new residents associated with East Carolina University in Greenville. CHanges are happening, and it is exciting times for this sleepy southern town. Quite a shock after my 22 years in Alaska!

Back, yet again!

It has been a few years of often enjoyable chaos, jewellery-making, working, traveling, and a recent epic drive.
Where to start?
The bits will soon crystallize as I get to them. Meanwhile, please read the last transmission from the Hathors, or, if not familiar with them, read "Who are the Hathors?" at the same archive: www.tomkenyon.com/hathor-archives
Amazing material, and by all means listen to the free download (link at the end of the transmission) of the Elevatron. One of the most soothing sound files I have ever heard.
This current blog entry is merely an announcement of my intention to stay current, and to offload thoughts and wonderings of our future.
Thank you for your patience!

A Sudden Winter

I am used to the swings between rain and snow in Juneau, but not the sudden onslaught of winter. The week began with a ferocious storm on Saturday, constant light snow and yesterday's forecast of 1" became 6". Now the landscape looks like mid-January, and it is still not officially winter for a month! So it goes, a warm curling into books, tea and singing bowls until our next summer of long light.

Still Here!

I spent a week and a day off to the East Coast...Amazing tour. First visiting my father, Alastair, in NYC; busy with great conversations for a rapid day +. Then, belatedly, off to Boston with visits and stays (thank you SOOO much!) with Jane and Neal and their brilliant daughter Annie! followed by a much overdue (20+years!)visit with my brother Jasper and lovely wife, Deb,'new' niece Ella and nephew Ian. And a lovely dinner with Jane, Neal and Annie along with Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, lately of MIT. Whew!! FOLLOWED by a visit to my sister, Anne and brother-in-law, Andrew at his farm, Clear Brook Farm, in Shaftsbury, VT, with my mother living, as Anne points out, "in our front yard" in a house they built for her for 1/2 of the year. So, everyone was visited, and for each far too briefly. Another pilgrimage will be planned in the Spring. Back in the grey Alaskan Panhandle waiting for the sun to drop from our experience. But I had REAL tomatoes while I was away! WOW!

Vermont is astonishing, and green and abundant, and NYC was but a 45+ minute car trip, a 2 hr train and $35 away!!! Things to think about!

"Bottle On a Journey" An oddly wonderful fragrance!

"Wow, what a fun day THAT was..I have to get a lathe like Eric's...making all those tiny little silver doodles was great!....what time is it anyway?" 6:50....Hmmmm...Oh NO! Jennifer is taking me out TONIGHT..I've got 10 minutes! and I REEK of that lathe oil. Sheesh...wipe it off, try hmmmmm...something...ahh here is an old bottle of what? Perfume...no label...flowers...Made in France sticker...duh! Ok..wash arms and try this...hmmmm maybe...All I can smell is the oil...Quick..gotta get dressed....crap!"

"Harry? You ready? Wow, you look GREAT! What's the scent? Smells kinda like my grandmother but whats the other smell? Oil? What IS that?" "I'll tell you at dinner"
~~~~~~~~~~~
Andy Tauer has really mixed it up this time; a old fashioned floral (hyacinth) that blends a cacophony of blossoms with an undercurrent of cutting oil (think 3-In-One household oil) that helps to ground the angelic sweetness with a dose of reality. It is a perfect foil, and one that draws you closer. I am NOT a floral fan, and this is one of the first that made me take notice. Very close to the "What IS it?" reaction that people have to Luctor Et Emergo (POTL) with its Play Doh/cherry notes, or Dzing!(L'Artisan) that is described variously as "burned, rubbery, and cardboard. It is the placement of the oil note so close to a vibrant floral that makes you actually pay attention to the brash smoothness of the oil note. This scent works as both a mysterious feminine or an edgy masculine. The tentative title of Mr. Tauer's work in progress is "Hyacinths & a Mechanic", which in this reviewer's opinion, is spot on!

Andy Tauer introduced his creation by mailing a full 4 oz bottle to a friend with a brief introduction and instructions to pass it on to another. The bottle has made a slow journey and is now in the Eastern US at last note. I had it a month ago and there was about 1/2 ounce of scent left.

An experience not to be missed, and likely the first and last floral scent I ever buy and wear!

For further information about Andy Tauer's superb line of perfumes see: http://www.tauerperfumes.com/website/index.php?lang=en

I AM Still Alive....

Contrary to appearances, I am very much alive and reading. So many favorites.
I should note: Itzhak Bentov Stalking the Wild Pendulum; a superb book from 1977 about vibration, the cosmos and consciousness. This was found through reading Tom Kenyon's The Hathor Material (www.tomkenyon.com); an arresting compilation of channeled information from the Hathors. Not-To-Miss!!!

Earthworm books. We LOVE earthworms. The BEST pets! Quiet, not demanding, very low maintenance, produce wonderful fertilizer, (your houseplant's best pals!) and fascinating. I have had worm bins for about 5 years. Look at a great book, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms by Amy Stewart. A page turner!

What else? 2012 material, Buddhism, Chess, atmospheric physics, oh, and Clara's Grand Tour: Travels With a Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-Century Europe by Glynis Ridley, a rollicking tale of the FIRST-EVER rhino to visit most of Europe (by horsecart). A lovely bit of historic peculiarity.

So it goes...