Tuesday, April 19, 2011

"Cadillac Flutes".....


It was another snowy, travel-trouble winter here, much akin to the previous winter. 50"+ of snow, made all the more frustrating by my lousy snow-driving car with only front wheel drive. May this will be the year I can afford a reliable used 4x4 so I can tame the slippery mountain roads here! I can see it now, scrimp and save to barely be able to afford a 4x4, then next winter there will be only two 1" snows and that's it! HA!

Anyhow, in response to the snow and cold (I still have to work in the still-unenclosed carport), I decided to celebrate the warmer weather by pulling out what I call my "Cadillac" woods, very rare, special pieces that are one-of-a-kind, most pieces good for only one flute. Many moons ago I restored a gorgeous 1957 Cadillac Fleetwood that, while possessed by the Devil, brought me much joy and appreciation for a while. Hence my moniker of these flutes pictured...

Pics SHOULD enlarge when you click on them....this is but a sampling of some of the more unique pieces, starting with THE most stunning wood I've ever worked before...tilt it in a strong light and it's downright holographic. There is over $100 in wood, mostly for the extreme curly Hawaiian Koa, and for the Gaboon Ebony endcaps and block...


A4 Curly Hawaiian Koa and Ebony drone

A4 Black and White Ebony with Gaboon Ebony drone

Bb4 Redwood Lace Burl w/turquoise heartline inlay

D5 Curly (rare) Pink Ivory with figured White Oak block

C5 Flame Birch with Bubinga inserts and block

C5 highly figured Ash with Massarunduba block

D5 Myrtle Burl with figured White Oak block

G4 heavily figured Myrtle

B4 heavily figured Red Oak with Narra block



Monday, April 18, 2011

Wildflower picture time!


The Greenin' o' th' Hills is alive and well here in western North Carolina. Here at 3775' the trees are flipping coins to see who goes first in the leafing department...always interesting to note how they stagger that output, and it's not necessarily by species, either. Got one Buckeye fully out, and another only starting. The wildflowers are out like gangbusters, thanks to our decent rains (winter snows!!!!) and finally some warming temperatures.

It looks like pics on here WILL enlarge when you click on them, but it is a slow process when I try it. Give it a shot...and enjoy!

Fiddle ferns unfurling

Smooth Yellow Violet

Wake Robin Trillim

Squirrel Corn

Dutchman's Breeches

Canadian Violet

Finger and Spring Beauty

Squirrel Corn and Molly

Bloodroot

More pics coming as the yellow Bellwort is out as well as the deep purple Dwarf Larkspur. And a new crop of flutes has bloomed with some of THE most wickedly beautful woods I've ever used...looks like a pic-filled week ahead! Stay tuned....


Friday, April 15, 2011

"Fried Fridays" returneth...kinda

To update a la Cliff Notes, last year's dead computer was finally fixed, and I did make a couple of posts...but between life and economic challenges, it didn't help that the computer died once again. I've since learned that HP laptops (my dv9000 series among others) have serious design flaws in cooling, and my video chip died from heat stress, as many do. One repair expert said the last 3 he worked on he couldn't resurrect. Tired of limping on an old Pentium 4 chip laptop (which multitasks as well as I keep things cleaned and organized), I finally now have a new boogie jam laptop and am off and running.

I miss the blogging, and I do aspire to get back to a routine of writing again....and I really enjoyed taking Fridays to tal
k of odd stories that are 'fried'. Writing, like anything, must be practiced to keep honed, and I've written precious little except for emails and blog posts for my neighborhood per severe weather issues and items of local interest.

Won't make a classic 'Fried Friday' post until next week, but one thing happened just a few minutes ago that made me get off my duff and write. I enter my day's easily, having coffee in quiet, watching local news and stupidly thinking it will be worthwhile...and then it happens.

Commercials. Not just any commercials, mind you, and I might as well lump in radio commercials as well (which is a whole 'nuther story as my car's radio is basically dead unless I'm within a few miles of a station). It's a specific type of commercial that makes me want to deck the person that wrote 'em....

It's those $#@& doorbells and dog barks. Talk ab
out going from 0 to 90 in a flash, my two pups could give any shark feeding frenzy a run for its money. They could be curled and snoozing, but you let one little ding-dong go off, or one dog goaded into barking, and the maelstrom starteth.

This morning there was a 'fried' national news story about a parent attacking a referee during an 8th grade girls club-league basketball game...the arrested idiot was 6'6" and near 300 p
ounds, and served as a wonderful role model by grabbing the ref's throat in a choke-hold. Scary the number of adults that have such a disconnect with common sense.

Sports stars never disappoint, either. Kobe Bryant got hammered with a $100K fine for giving public potty mouth a whole new level of head-shaking. Local station here put up one of th
ose stupid viewer polls and asked the question, "Was he fined too much? Too little? Should he have gotten no fine?" Setting aside that I hate those viewer poll things, I immediately mused why they left out the obvious answer choice of "appropriate". News and reporting in general continue to drop to new lows in terms of lacking thoroughness and veracity. Gotta stir the pot and create a drama, even when there isn't one.

Lest I forget Charlie Sheen. Next.....

Twitter. Next...

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The wildflower explosion is well underway, so look for posts of pics soon. Still haven't figured out why my neighborhood blog lets me enlarge pics and this one doesn't....if you are signed up for notifications, you may see some testing new formats to see
if I can get the pic thing fixed. I've also been using some very fancy woods for flutes that are worth a look, so lots to catch up on.

Have a good 'un, y'all.

test pic of my photo assistant...