Never Ending Story

Yesterday, the Lord’s Day of rest, started out as it usually does at Casa Claire with non-resting chores.

Having made it a lifetime habit of transgressing every rule I can manage from my childhood faith, the above should not be a surprise to anyone. Anyway, I keep Pete “Buck” Sheridan, the very last of the devout Catholics, and a highly skilled Harvard trained lawyer, on retainer for just this purpose.

Anyway, a few hours later, I had converted those sealed bags to this.

And moved the refuse here, to Hadrian’s Wall, to return to the earth.

For the record, the only soft wood at Casa Claire is imported in bags.

I did a few more chores and then my FB Marketplace account chimed and a very cool concrete frog I had an eye on became available.

So off I went on an adventure to the Southernmost end of Longmont, where I arrived at this deeply shrubbed oasis

manned by two of the coolest artistic types I’ve met since arriving in Northern Colorado.

Tulsa, the Nepalese pixie who had offered the frog for sale.

and her artist husband, Vann,

who warmly welcomed me into one of the coolest homes I’ve ever been in, full of top of the line art and sculptures, the coolest tchotchkes collected over a lifetime from all over the world, and of course more plants. But it didn’t stop there, they then gave me a tour of the green labyrinth that consumed ever inch of their property. You could literally get lost along the wooden paths that took you through art and fountain lined openings from one exotic flora grotto to another.

The greenery is magically generated by the very green thumbs of Tulsa – who had the intelligence, charm and energy of the character played by
Patravadi Mejudhon in Season 3 of The White Lotus – and her two Nepalese sisters, and the art generated by Vann, who is surprisingly 81 years young and spent time a long time ago cutting his artistic teeth South of Canal Street in Manhattan.

I immediately felt a kinship, a déjà vu, like Vann and I must have hung out during the Belle Époque in Paris. Indeed, he is a dead ringer for Alexandre Cabanel,

a prominent 19th Century French painter, who helped shape the character of art during the Belle Époque, and strongly influenced the Paris Salon.  Fun times.

Here’s Lexy’s famous Fallen Angel.

Any resemblance of FA to me in my youth is completely coincidental. That is why I never let anyone snap my photo in the 70s, except one candid photo of me fully clothed by my dear friend and 70’s co-conspirator Terry Daley’s – an incredible Celtic Poet – https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07PTD7NWB?ccs_id=8f0cf0af-7643-4e45-9ab5-66ae7d04ee4a & https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Atlantic-Soul-Theresa-Daly/dp/B0CJKTTMJW–

younger brother, brandishing a mustache for disguise. It can be found as an Easter egg hunt in one of the acknowledgements of The Claire Saga. However, you must buy the paperbacks to find it. How the mighty have fallen. But I digress.

Anyway, after the cook’s tour and a lot of fun filled conversation, Tulsa posed for a couple of selfies with me and Vann,

(I think she’s making the Belle Époque connection)

and I headed back to Casa Claire, completely re-energized from the high octane oxygen level that filled every inch of their salon, and a strong dose of mystical mojo that came along with the now named Kermit.

Who has transferred all of that mojo to the pool copse of trees at his new home in Casa Claire.

In sum, it was a fun day, despite the chores. And I am one mystical stone amphibian richer.

But now we are back to another Monday.

So, my fine, five readers, let’s project ourselves into the work week with a long competitive swimmer’s launch off the block, holding our breaths until we surface on Thursday. The summer is waning, as is the opportunity of a free read of The Wise Ass for all of your recalcitrant Amazon Prime members, that ends this month.

And no matter what else we get up to, let us make today a great one.