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.