Opie Outlaw

Peace... Be Still. . .

I have many, many thoughts - yet don't quite know what to say, so I'm praying that the spirit directs my commentary here...

The blogosphere lost a tenacious "cut and paste man" with a true artist's heart...

... and a whole lot of "sparkle" (or was that "Sass"?) for me, at last week's end, with the passing of Opie Outlaw, also known as Op, or you could call him Opie... aka: Locusx1y2... aka Ricky D.... etc... etc... etc... ;-)

I loved this man.

He was a self designated "Huckleberry" to me & I loved him even more for that.

I was wishing & hoping the reason I'd not heard from him over the weekend was that he'd been down to a favorite spot of his, with family and special friend(s) in tow... Harker's Island.

Sadly, I received an e-mail this past Monday evening, sent from his cousin Tony (Saturday the 26 th) - Rick had died the night before.

He was letting me know. He said he had remembered my internet name from an earlier visit with Rick. He wanted me to let all the people on the blogs know. I've caught up with some of you - some other's will see this - some, I feel, I'll just need to track down yet and send a more private message to...

It is pure trial for me, these past few days - my psyche stretched out and purely grieved over all that I'd yet hoped to share with this rare man in my life and... yet joyful, thankful even, that I'd dared to pour out every loving bit that I could - while I could - all over him. . . Thank you God, for your wise direction and... for always, and in all ways, being the well spring between Ricky and me.

You know by now that the portrait here is one I did of Rick. It was a part of my portfolio art showing and also part of a package of items I was gathering to send to him - I have indeed sent those gifts on - to his family... and I've purposely uploaded this picture at a large imaging size (8x11.5 300 dpi) ...it may make my blog slower to load - however any extenuating family member, or friend of Rick's, who'd like to download it for keeps - should be able to get a nice print off of it - Rick never wanted a current photograph of himself posted on the internet. His sister said posting a drawn portrait, now, would be ok.

Reminders of Rick ...and his love - are every where in the world to me right now... Ironically his obituary posted on my birthday ... May 29th... and, that declairs (in part) these things:

He passed away at his home on Saturday, May 26, 2007. Rick was a retired independent trucker who spent the last fourteen years devoted to his father and battling Crohn's Disease. During this time, his spiritual life bloomed and has followed him to journey's end. He was loved and will be missed. The funeral services were to be held today (May 31, 2007).

I opened up my Hymnal this morning. Looking for some solace. . . It opened to this Hymn:

Each Life that Touches Ours for Good

...and even though I don't recall ever placing it there...
There was the scrap of paper I'd jotted down -all the "important information" on. It was all the ways to "contact" Rick, everything he thought I'd ever really need to know and to have to reach him... he insisted I write it all down, the very first time he ever talked to me about going to Harker's Island. ....

Now, I know without a shadow of doubt, nor tunring, that his spirit is only a prayer away from mine... it always has been.

Yes. Indeed, he was loved and will be missed...

God Bless all who pass this way...
Love,
D.

~

Liberty Remembers...

I got this amazing e-mail forward from an Artist friend a couple of months ago... (truth be told I have several hundred e-mails I need to look over and answer - all piled up from this past Semester - which was a "doosy").
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Anywhoo... here, we see a couple before and an astounding after photo of the guy's work.




I thought the artist, subject matter and 'canvas' were extraordinary... I'm sure the photos only give you a pint-size idea and the real deal is more mind-blowing than what mere pix can convey.
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Anyway... I couldn't leave it be, myself... HAD to beat the search engines up and track down his web page(s) ...so the artist, Eric Grohe, is now a side bar link, for me and for the Memorial Day / Weekend coming up, I thought you'd appreciate, every bit as much as I did, a look at this short movie tribute, with the title and honor of: 'Liberty Remembers'
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I, along with 'Liberty', will be remembering and keeping that flame alive for all those that have served before us, right along with all those who do so now - they deserve our respect, faith and every prayer we can spare!
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Wishing everyone a safe, happy, loving 'decoration day'!
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Cheerios,
D

How Does Her Garden Grow?

... by the square foot!

My sister sent Me and our Mom on a shopping spree to the "Common Scents" gardening place (handy location - just across the highway from my house) as a special treat for my graduation and for her Mother's Day gift.
We had a good time looking over the beautiful hanging planters - in splendid full bloom, etc..., etc..., etc... plus there was a fussy little ladies "Tea tasting" going on Sunday which we enjoyed, too!

I so wanted one of the full bloom hanging plants - however decided to spare that in favor of some more practicle fare, like strawberry plants (Yep. Got them hanging NOW - lol!) and Tomatoes - which I still ended up splitting out with Mom - and some Purple Sage (2)... I got pleanty of full sun and well drained soil for those bad boys to root around in!

Just as I went to planting I noticed that my trusty trowel had some how made it to the drive and had been totally destroyed by driveway traffic. grrr... miner set back so the strawberries and 1 tomatoe got planted the old, old, old fashioned way - bare handed digging!

Well, sheesh, ya gotta sieze them moments when they're red hot - don't ya?

(I've since been to 'the Wal' and bought another cheepy)

I am hooked on the square foot gardener's philosophy when it comes down to digging in and then watching my garden turn out big dividens! I saw a feature in Better Homes and Garden's magazine a while back that had raised beds - I mean really raised beds - like up 3, 4 feet off the ground that looked like the ideal way to:
1 - foil those rascally rabbits
and
2 - save my aching back and legs from weed "tremmers" ha!

I'm just going to have to condition this back and those legs to endure as raised beds are an investment best made by a home owner - I'm not putting in all that time and expense out just yet - I need to bite the bullet and become the home owner 1st.

Anywhoo... back to my excitement in planting stuff - I wanna get most of it in by the end of the month - I'm already getting a late start by the standards of many more seriously minded area gardeners. The big bonus is the satisfaction and taste of "home grown" aint nothing like it in the
market place, IMHO, and I get the peace of mind factor, knowing that my lettuce is not going to be subject to "recall" because it may be harboring deadly microbes! It's good to know what you're getting - same reason I'm excited about getting back into a regular schedule of sorts - I'm cooking up those fresh meals at home, something I dearly love to do but was too, too pressed for time to enjoy in this last semester's push to graduate! Only thing better than THAT is cooking it up with a special someone in that there kitchen or grill pit with ya... and believe me... I'll be working on that this summer too! =)

Ah!
"Summer"..... "Summmer time, time, time" .... "and the livin's eee easy"........

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On these summer mornings .... I'mma gonna rise up, rise up, singing - gonna stretch m' wings - and FLY!".... matter of fact, I already am!

(Which explains why I haven't been around the blogosphere much, y'all! Heheheee)

BTW: The 'secret garden' picture is a link to some other coolio garden pix...

Enjoy!

and

Cheerios 2U all!

D.

Graduation Day...

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- at long last...

Accomplishment...

I've always wanted to go to school to further my creativity and my skills in 'art'.
Now, I'm graduating with my associates of applied science degree in graphic design.
Hoo-rah!
One down, 99 more 'life-time goals' still on the wall...

(I should write out that list of 100 here someday, shouldn't I?)

No time to say "Hello" "Good-bye"....

Something beautiful in the e-mail files from a beloved friend o' mine...
I saw 'em at the Art Exhibit today, in fact.
I was escorting a (surprize!) visitor - from way, way, way out of town.
I've been busy beyond belief, but - I'm none too busy, to squeeze out every moment I can in "visiting" with him and to have my Breakfast with the man, too - come sunrise, at least, that's what he suggested to me this morning. *sighs* It has been such a long time.....
More details...
forthcoming...
as I get...
through
these
last
few
d
a
y
s
=)
(Meanwhile, for those of you that just can't wait for your gardens to grow... try: this link! Just start clicking away or try a click and drag technique... Kinda fun...)