Blog Neglect

    Parry the Parrot here has been a better correspondent than I these past 5 weeks! I have been on the run the whole time and when I sit down at the Milway's PC I grow quickly frustrated. I'm heading home on Tuesday and I will shortly purchase a new Apple computer, at which time I will write a proper synopsis of this year's adventures in Britain. It has been wonderful and exhausting and anyone who thinks I come here to sit in the hammock and eat plums is just plain crazy.

    I am extraordinarily fortunate to have such a rich community here, and I am always a bit torn between my two homes back in Virginia and here in the Cotswolds. I often say that I am the richest person I know...and I mean it. See you on the other side of the Atlantic!

Edinburgh

We had a lovely day in the capitol city of Scotland. Edinburgh is located on the Firth of Forth (I love saying that!) and has been a political and cultural center since Roman times and has, like everywhere you travel in Brtiain, a long and sometimes bloody history. It is home to Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood (the Queens official residence in Scotland.). It is sometimes known as the Athens of the north because of it's concentration of intellectuals, writers and inventers. Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and William McGonagall ("The only truly memorable bad poet in our language"!) all spent time here. One of my favorite contemporary  fictional characters is Inspector Rebus, who prowls the city solving crimes and nipping into the Oxford Bar for a pint of Deuchers. Good writing continues to be an important feature of the city, with a fantastic Literature festival. Just now 'The Fringe Festival' is in full swing, with music, theatre and comedy performances in every nook and cranny of the city. The Edinburgh Tattoo is a huge assembly of bagpipers who perform each day during the festival. I'd love to hear/feel those pipes in all their glory one day! The tall tower is called the 'Gothic Rocket'. The pub called 'Finnegan's Wake' was irresistible, so are Jan, Pippa and Phoebe, enjoying a drink with the ghost of Rebus. Thanks for the great company, ladies!

Next: west to Dumfries and the studio/home of a world famous blogger...

Bloggus Interruptus

Almost three weeks of travelling (and over 1,000 miles) and enjoying myself means that I have been  moving too fast to keep you up to date, gentle reader. I couldn't possibly fill you in on all the fun I've been having, but I'll begin in Scotland.

    I flew into Edinburgh and was met by Jan Farquhar, one of my oldest friends here in the UK. We took the scenic route to her family's home in Blairgowrie which took us along the coastal edge of county Fife through St. Andrew's, where the British Open had just finished. It made me wish that I was a golfer! The golf museum had this crazy group of bronzes, capturing the 'grips' of a bunch of famous golfers. The disembodied hands are very odd. We crossed the Firth of Tay through Dundee on the way to her home. 

    Jan and Derek and their two gorgeous daughters ( well done on those exam results, Pippa!) live in a beautiful manse overlooking the town and they treated me with great generosity, excellent home cooking and numerous cups of tea. I'm looking forward to a return visit. Soon! I can't forget to mention Finn, their excellent canine companion!  

    Blairgowrie used to be a serious mill town, producing linen from flax. Now it is known for what the British call 'soft fruits' - raspberries etc. That's what all those white tunnels are about with the wind farm in the background. We  took  a beautiful drive around Tummel Loch past towns whose names are poetry themselves..no wonder Scotland produced such fine poets. There is music in the language when the Scots speak.

    Toff and Georgie left for Orkney yesterday and I'm now in charge for a couple of weeks. Plenty of time to write about more of my travels and make some new birds in the studio.Tomorrow...Edinburgh.

Buy This Book!

    I feel like a proud parent introducing you to this fine novel written and self published by Father Paul S. Naumann S.J.. PS was the first teacher to become a real mentor to me when I went to high school. He directed  the theater department (my FIRST love in the arts) and taught classes that ranged from Shakespeare to the existentialists and 17thc Italian comedy.

    The novel follows Crispin and his quest to save the great pine tree that is dying in the forest. He receives guidance from a wolf, a falcon and young man who drives a Pierce Arrow (the only car made in Buffalo, NY!). It's a fine adventure novel and I encourage you to buy a copy. Or three! They are available through EXLIBRIS or AMAZON. PS spent his life inspiring and encouraging thousands of students and now he's 'doing his own thing' and it is fantastic!

Bird Identification in Virginia

Since I've decided to make an entire flock of these critters, I need a tracking system of some sort or other. I once did a '100 Fishes" project, a limited edition of small vases, no two alike, numbered and recorded in a lovely book that Paul made for me. Of course, it wouldn't do to repeat that trick, so I've decided that, like the National Weather Service names hurricanes, so shall I name the birds...alphabetically...starting with mens' names. These smaller lidded guys are, from left to right, Ignatz, Hiram and Knute. Laurence didn't make it into the photo. Of course, I don't name them until each is done, since I'd like to think that in some way their character helps suggest the correct moniker.
Dennis Allen suggested, and Megan identified, the similarity between the long necked bird in my last blog post and Feathers McGraw from the Wallace and Gromit claymation series. I often show their videos when I teach workshops!

    These are the last things I'll make stateside this summer, I leave Wednesday for Scotland and then back to my old home away from home in England. Hannah, Toff and Doug are all on the itinerary as well as visiting the pottery show at "the Pens" in Penrith.

Last evening we had a ferocious 'microburst' storm that ravaged trees all over town. I watched a neighbor's ancient oak tree go over in what seemed like slow motion. Another crushed a big fence at LibertyTown and others went down in a very localized area. We've been in big drought and I believe that it has undermined the stability of some big old beauties. If you look close you can see the manhole cover that was lifted right out of the ground!

Can't...Stop...the...Birds.......

 After some extra large sculptural birds I'm now working on some smaller lidded ones. I have some very small ones to finish tomorrow and I continue to be excited by these regardless of the scale. I have always enjoyed changing the scale of an individual form..there are obvious and subtle differences that keep it  challenging.

I'm trying to figure out how to make a long 's' shaped neck, but this long straight one sure ended up with a lot of character. I added some fearsome feet to it after this photo. It's about 20" high at this point.

This is a good 'before' photo. There are 4 pieces here...the pedestal, the container and a two part lid.

Flock of Seagulls

I'm not sure what kind of bird these are really, Steve Cymrot called them crows. I think of Heckle and Jeckle (check 'em out on youtube)  sometimes...and I don't think that I've shown any good photos of the birds that came out the last firing but they've been a big hit and I really enjoyed making them. So much so that I'm devoting a big part of the next firing to our avian friends, both big garden sculptures and smaller lidded ones. It is a very different way to work than making breakfast bowls and mugs, but I'm interested in playing more and this is really cracking me up!

 This two faced bird has me really excited...I only had a vague idea that two might be better than one and for some reason this form made it easy. It has given me a bunch of new ideas to try...

 So far this is the biggest, reaching almost 40" tall. I'm guessing that there way more than 1000 'feathers'

Here is a thrown piece before I have my way with it...

This is a 10"x10" cylinder with 4 faces. A champagne bucket for four! It is a study of sorts for a totem-like piece that I'm dreaming of...stacking a bunch of pieces together with giant birds wrapped around it.

 

These will be smaller lidded birds, starting with 1 -2 pounds of clay.

Ketch-Up

I've been a bad blogger boy lately and I have been feeling more than a little guilty about it. I know we shouldn't apologize, but sometimes the vestiges of a Catholic upbringing get the best of me. The photo above is of 5 of the 6 Finnegan kids, brother pat's wife and their 3 and photos of my grandparents, mom and aunt Donna. A lot of Finnegans for a Murray family reunion! We met at Chestnut Ridge park which is a real nostalgic place for me and played bocce, cooked out on the grill (Buffalo is home to the world's only meat-a-tarian people...potato chips and pickles count for vegetables!), and told stories about the generation taht preceded us. My only remaining uncle got us all together, which took some effort. He tells us that this is an annual event!

    I also visited the house that we grew up in, something I haven't done in 20 years or more. Humble beginnings...

    Before I arrived in the Queen City I wandered through the Finger Lakes for a couple of days. We used to go camping and fishing there when I was a kid and it is just as beautiful as I remembered. Long, skinny glacier lakes surrounded by hills covered in vineyards and orchards. New York is the 2nd biggest grape producer in the US. I have lots more to report, but I just needed to crawl back into the computer's saddle and take it for another ride. I'm leaving for England in a couple of weeks and there is lots going on!

Shufflin' Off to Buffalo!

It has been many years since I've returned to the city of my birth and I'll be approaching it slowly from the west this week, visiting a couple of old friends as I wind my way through the Finger Lakes in central NY. I'll be gone for a week or so and hope to visit the Salt Museum in Syracuse, the Erie Canal Museum, and the Corning Glass Works before I return.

We're having a family reunion of sorts...it has often been said that we put the 'fun' in disfunctional...6 very different siblings, a few cousins and uncle Mike. I hope that we survive!

(Not sure why the first part of this is underlined...I couldn't make it go away)

My Favorite Food!

There is nothing I like better than a homemade fruit pie! You can keep your pecan pies and your chocolate pies, I want raspberry or blackberry or rhubarb or peach or strawberry or apple or cherry (the exception to this rule is blueberry which I'm not real excited about, unless they are made with wild blueberries from Maine). 

On Tuesday I was visiting the new art center at the old Lorton Prison and stopped in the sleepy town of Occoquan on my way home. The town had little to offer except for the best pie shop I've been to in a very long time, Mom's Apple Pie Bakery! I could have bought one of each, but restricted myself to four. Their blackberry pie is rated #1 in the South by Southern Living magazine. What a treasure...I'm heading to D.C. tonight for an opening and I just might have to stop in again...

9 different kinds of pie with the option of crumb topping or pastry. I prefer the later, but really, I'd suffer through any of 'em. I once discovered a fried pie shop in southwest Virginia. That was mighty fine as well.