Dog's Plot Studio

Here in the secret garden grove out behind the stately Dogs Plot mansion is the cottage studio where I labor long into the night and where so very much is accomplished

Call Me Bullroarer

Oh sure, the hugely popular internet influencer, musician and detective, Christopher Malloy plays both a conventional stringed harp the size of a church window, AND the humble mouth harp too ... but does he play the WIND HARP? Well my ROOF harps the wind, and so do I...me using the traditional wind harp used by Shamen, wise guys, savages, and children of many and most primitive and neo-primitive cultures...In English most commonly called a Bullroarer. It can be used to amuse, to signal, to communicate with whales, to summon spirits or to horrify the superstitious. It is best to know the science of its sound though before doing damage to yourself or others: The Bullroarer produces sound in a low range much of which is well below the human range of hearing, and more in synch with that of whales and Elephants; but that we, or most of at are not AWARE of those lower sounds, does not mean that we are not AFECTED by them........be cause we are. Profoundly. Or so I have read. Anyway ... do I seem any different lately? Can you hear the sound of my bull roaring? That Seaton based one I made so long ago was probably based on an Ojibway model...maybe I will carve another in that shape, using some of my apple or pear wood. Or you can. I made my first one at around age twelve, more or less following the specifications in an Ernest Thompson Seaton wood craft book, which guided much of my early life, but it was of an odd shape compared to most I have found on line, , as you can see from the picture of it and my newly made one, and it never worked at all, mostly because I made it from a light weight wood: a cedar shingle. Some heft is necssary, and I can heft it.Call me Bullroarer!

First Bee 2021

y June last year I had not seen more than half a dozen honey bees. Here is my first one of 2021, and on my first flowers - snow drops- but she seems darker than a honey bee is supposed to be. No jokes about Queens, or Afro American bees please.

Pinhead's Spring Solstice

Yesterday, February 26, Pinhead, our only chicken, not only stepped out of the chicken house when I opened it, but went up onto her special rock on the ridge and sat there in the sun all day, during which I discovered that over the last couple of weeks she had resumed laying eggs and produced a clutch of eight...non-fertile of course, their being no roostes about, not even pheasant cocks, so I brought the eggs to the kitchen...and even she will get back her share. But when it got near sundown, Pinhead was still there on her rock, so I went away and came back later and she was still there. So I got closer, and we had a little talk. I will not repeat here what was said, but you can see that it worked out. And then I went to bed.

Dog's Plot Studio Reveal

You might think that a guy living alone in an big old three wing, fourth generation , fourteen room farm house would not need a separate building for a studio, but I do need such as a resort if I am to get a whirl wind of work done without practical junk and ordinary people things getting in the way. And you are not invited to visit me there, not only because of the Pandemic thing, but really mostly because I want to be alone there; but here you have a virtual visit. It was very very busy here today, busier than the day the pig fell into the well

Snow Shoes Last Tromp

Pinhead's Tipi

I went down to the chicken house to feed Pinhead, The Chicadees , the Little Brown Jobs, and the Jay birds, stood there still and cold as a snowman for a while , then came back, but its pretty cold yet and I won't be hopping onto my skis real soon, even though there seems to be chocolate coated candy drops all over the snow....rabbits you know. PinHead, the last lonely Chicken, who has chosen NOT to come out of the chicken house to feed or for any other reason, did not even come to the carry-out I had carried out...and brought in to her, but I heard a brief rustling in the corner where a while black I had put some rigid foam panels I need to use there, tied up in an industrial black trash bag, so that the chickens would not eat the foam, because chickens all like to peck and eat those white styro beads, like popcorn, not that it has ever seemed to do them any harm, and anyway the others and she have already put a door in the bag and eaten most of the styrofoam, so now I see she is in the otherwise empty, black bag tipi and she doesn't want to come ouf of her chicken tent right now just fora plate of dried tomato, basmati rice, oat flakes, chicken soup noodles, whole and cracked corn, wild bird mix, cat food sweepings, or the regular layer ration garnish;