oh just me talking with my hands with some great John Ferrie paintings behind
A fumbly stumbly but well-intentioned message of gratitude for sending fond wishes for a birthday and whatnot.
Post-BC-trip for various reasons, been feeling a little bit mentally unwell, struggling, so I’ve been laying low while I try to pick up the pieces and figure out what comes next //
So – conciseness/brevity not being my strong point, I say something about “hooray for the trip, my brain will eventually be all right (everything is wonderful except for a few things) and something about typhoons and how I sent out a lot of cards but never seems to be quite enough.”
Then – more to that point – talk about going to an {underwhelming} van Gogh exhibit by bus and eating venison and blueberries with Ryoko & Mac-san + the incredible Ichiro Stanley.
It’s all a long clumsy way of saying “I am very grateful for you and you being part of my life and not forgetting about me”
So, first I’m very grateful for everyone’s participation & interest and for simply remembering me after i disappeared with illness and other life conundrums.
Keeping Expectations Balanced with Priorities
Next, extending a warm invitation to come meet us at various parks and gardens where we’ll be with a picnic blanket and a thermos of coffee at checkpoints in:
Langley/Surrey: current til April 19
West End / DT Vancouver: April 19 ~ 25
Metchosin: April 25 ~ 29
Victoria / Oak Bay: April 29 ~ May 3
Pender Isle (Woods & Sparrow): May 3 ~ 10
Fairview / Kits: May 10 ~ 12
North Van / Lynn Valley: May 12 ~ 17
Langley / Surrey: May 17 ~ 25
Home to Tsuchida Cottage: May 25/26
“Main point” of the trip is for my darling wife and adorable son to meet family as well as to reconnect with hugs and gifts with so many of you wonders.
Especially eager to meet kids for Ichiro to hang with at wonderful playground. Also, so grateful for recent friends coming to visit and participating in our life.
My big concern is “crashing” with this illness which puts me out of action for days/weeks. Good news is: doing the best i have in years thanks to some recent treatment protocols and modalities.
I’m doing my best but/and if we can’t meet, no big deal – its complicated and folks have lives/jobs etc, please come to Japan! A safe, efficient, interesting, amusing, and somewhat affordable destination where we will be happy to welcome you with tea and goats.
In front of a wood stove, Dave stashes cards from the “string of honour” into archival book while recounting tales of the wonderful folks who sent greeting cards and letters to Tsuchida Cottage.
Very grateful for your friendship and lovely correspondence.
Along with banter about:
* having several scrapbooks on-the-go at all times
* special collections and on-going correspondence
* topsy turvy start to the year
* “lap projects” like mending and scrapbooking
* thoughts about last year (lots of paperwork!)
* theme for this year (letting go)
and usual digressions, meanderings and anecdotes (i.e. hanging stereo speakers and maybe something about solar panels). Oh, there is a Dymo LabelMaker in action.
Very grateful for your friendship and lovely correspondence.
Meanwhile I’m trying to tidy up the room a little bit so here are albums of postcards/greeting cards etc., duly annotated by Dymo label.
PS if I’ve missed sharing your card I probably shared under separate cover / somewhere else, or will do another time (thinking of you Astrid in Germany who’s art is already hanging up).
Oh look, adventure Ted is having a beer, sashimi and plotting good times…
Adventure Tour Guide Ted Taylor and DaveO riff in a historic Kura barn in Tsuchida, Okayama, Japan talking about exploring… well off-the-beathen-ish-path Japan – specifically not Tokyo, Kyoto, & Osaka (sure those places are great or whatever but plenty of info) so let’s explore elsewhere with places, tactics, tips and musings. Alas, no “b-roll”, links, edits, but plenty of digressions and pretty great hats.
Despite what dashing Ted Taylor tells ya, you can/should hire him for adventure tours (seriously) plus dig his most excellent journals at: Notes from the Nog blog
A meandering rundown from the kura barn about New Year routines, foods and rituals in Japan, plus usual gabba gabba about postcards, lucky numbers and postal obsessions… but this time featuring various hats and even more personal translucency, unnecessary archaeology, remarks about improving the campsite, being a good hubbo and papa, health situation, life admin tasks, blank sheets, re-caps of projects: poems, pods, vids, trips – and various anecdotes about wonderful pals, probably you ya beauty.
Very important annotations
Special hellos to friends in places where I left pieces of my heart – important for a rambling type with out that “regular hometown” vibe.
“In the studio barn, anxious on account of an impending medical and other “life admin” project, Dave reads from a variety of slim-sized (mostly) books of poetry, discusses book layout, design and publishing styles and pathways, relates some anecdotes about writers & how the books came to be here. Plus a few musings and projects of his own – while trying to calm a weary head and body.”
Maybe I’ll make you a mix tape
(I will add a proper list of books and writers, soonish, not right now, but of course if you just watch you know about the books cause you’ll hear all the poems)
Adding recent postcards, cards and letters to an “accordion” style scrapbook with various tapes and stamps in kura barn studio while listening to records (Aztec Camera and Belle and Sebastian) and discoursing on recent trip to Shimane, the role of monarchy in commonwealth countries, importance of friends, fondness for invitations, sending postcards to self, putting everything on casters, discarded records, and hats – many many hats.
Spontaneous riff with usual lousy video and dodgy audio but solid stories
Diary musings including: brain fog; trips to Shimane and Kyoto (Minka Summit); pals Ted and Ed and a big dog; recent books (Alex Kerr, Robert Whiting, Miles Copeland, Dave Bidini) + classic Japonica books; ++ sorting out my head about “what comes next” (answer equals anything; seitai treatment; MECFS awareness (and other awarenesses month); sortganzing ephemera; new records, old records; how are you? etc – all from kura barn a spontaneous rambling blur on another sunny day in Okayama.
Accidentally features Leonard Cohen and Mxmtoon.
Did you notice my sweet black globe and green ship lantern?
+ Improving the Campsite, odds and ends from Tsuchida Cottage +
A little bit lost – &/or found – of late, but the dishes are finished, laundry started and the rabbits ointment is applied so saying “Hello. How are you?”
Plus a few other life annotation about *improving the campsite*, curbing ambition with gardening, wild boars, geolocated signpost, illnesses, funeral, taxes – goodtimes!
Also noting that i’m putting “Postcard as a Service” shop on hiatus, cancelling everything, tidying up here and there and attempting to find a little bit of peace in my aching head with yard, garden and barn projects.
Peace to all of us.
mixed-media art library, global diary, project dossier and whole life documentation
