Sam's Music Box

What do you give someone who has everything? Why, a hand made, one-of-a-kind personalized treasure box that plays their favorite song. Stay "tuned" for the charming lost art of music boxes and I will show you the next one as it takes shape...

"Do What You Love...The Money Will Follow"

"Always Sing" Suet Feeder by Evelyn Colom Kiggins

There are things that put you in the "zone". 

You have been at it for hours and yet time stands still. 

You are focused, serene, joyful! I am there when I write and when I create collages. The other day I was at Wings where my "Always Sing" Suet Feeder Collage was for sale.  http://wingsandcheepshots.blogspot.com/

and it had been moved to a new spot. When I saw it, I turned it a little. Today I visited the shop and someone had purchased it! That would make the third sale to date! It is very encouraging! I was digging for the photos I took of this particular one, and was glad I still had them. Sometimes parting is such sweet sorrow....

Bella's Music Box

There is a little girl, Bella, who just turned four.  She is the older daughter of the very talented Seattle photographer, Sarah Bunch, http://www.sarahbunchphotography.com/, and she is the inspiration for my first music box.
Bella loves pink, butterflies, elephants, books, music, and horses are her very favorite. I chose a tune from Dr. Dolittle, "Talk To The Animals", for the music box, which, since it is new territory for me, I am working on the proper installation for it. I look forward to sharing with you the sound and interior of the finished piece, but most of all to give it to that darling girl!

Bella's Music Box

Living The Poem

When boldly I announce that I am a writer, something my friends and family know about me, they inevitably ask: What do you write? That is when I feel a shyness come over me, and shrinking a bit,  I attempt to answer with a description that is short, to the point, compelling and satisfying to the person asking, who has taken an interest to ask.  This is the reason why I have not been "public" about the contents of the journal before: The idea is to connect and my fear is disconnect! Just as any writer would  have it, I didn't want the interested to lose interest. I needed to refine, define the voice and the audience, to chisel at it so to speak, so that I would not lose the reader/listener.

The first point I want to make is that the perception of being a writer is that 1) you have been published 2) you are working on something to be published in the future 3) that you have defined which category of writing your writing falls under.

I am attempting to answer the question about what it is that I write, so for the most part,  this is where journaling becomes the full work for me. It is an autobiographical writing artform in itself, lately getting more recognition as a tool for self-knowledge and documenting, with memoirs appearing in the publishing spotlight. I began my writing "journey" in notebooks when I was 15. Embellished at times with clippings, pictures, drawings, doodles, unfinished stories, and many, many dreams and poems embedded throughout, they cover over three decades (almost four)!

 When I discovered Anais Nin's journals at the university bookstore one day, I was elated and thrilled! Someone else had done it in a very similar way and I had found my mentor. To this day, Anais has been one of my writer-heroes, followed by Henry Miller, Erica Jung, Virginia Woolf, Colette,  Gustav Flaubert, Herman Hesse, to name some that come to mind immediately. I have admiration for so many more, not just writers of books of all kinds, but for lyricists/songwriters as well.  I continued to make my entries and let the words come, and become, as I expanded my self-guided tour through literature and non-fiction.

 What I want most of all: to portray a time and place, people and ideas, to document history, personal and collective, and to spark the imagination. The plan was to publish the journal just as is, in it's organic form, or perhaps not publish it at all, but let it be an original work of writing, a collection. I would select hardcover notebooks and they would be stand-alone parts of the complete set. They would be a work in itself, no editing, just raw and real.  At the time when I recognized how passionate I was about this life-long project, I had no idea of the opportunities and many choices and forms of "publishing" one's work that would unfold as time passed, and I am excited about some new possibilities that are on the horizon...

Here are some pages from the notebooks beginning with the following posts, while continuing to add some current writing, and multimedia. These notebooks are about to have a life of their own here, where the experience of writing becomes complete in the sharing!

 For starters, here is an entry from 1981, when I worked in New York City and my commute was devoted to reading, "Oh, Page, Oh Citadel". That was my Virginia Woolf phase...I think I was reading THE WAVES....

From November 2004 (Page 1)

From November 2004 (Page 2)

EARLY SPRING ON VASHON

Southworth Ferry

For The Love Of Pigeons

Photo by Alexandra Tsami Mousa from "Messolonghi OLD Times"

This pigeon perched on a Greek shutter with a reflective pose, as if with an awarness of the photographer,  embodies an ancient wisdom, a hardiness, a vigilance, yet a comfort of knowing home.

Just like Moss, which I have written about here as well,  pigeons are considered a nuisance by many.

 I am intrigued, fascinated, and I find it amazing that pigeons can be trained to be messengers, that they can find their way home.  I celebrate the Pigeon for it's courage, intelligence and heroism, for they are the "letter" carriers, nature's postal servants! Homing Pigeons, a common bird I often sighted where I lived near the Hudson River, are in my opinion, a bird to be revered. 

  From my first encounter with them as an infant, startled when a flock of them flew in through a skylight window, landing in my crib, there was a very early understanding between us, a familiarity and intensity without panic or fear.  I remember well the sound of their flutter. I have been attracted to their iridescent colors, the funny bobbing as they walk about, and their comforting coo. There was a pigeon coop in my childhood neighborhood, and I daily watched the elderly pigeon keeper from my upstairs window, whose brood flew around in circles at the wave of a pole with a cloth attached to it. 

In Venice, the 130,000 pigeons is astonishing. In his book CITY OF FALLING ANGELS, John Berendt writes about the Venetian authority's attempt to control the population using some rather inhumane ways in 

"The Ratman of Traveso". These ways have not brought the wanted results, and as of May 1, 2008, seed sellers have been banned from St. Mark's Square.

Pigeons of Venice

In Tarfalgar Square, London, Mayor Ken Livingston banned the seed sellers, got birds of prey to chase the pigeons away in 2003, and still they stayed, but are less in numbers.  

 "The best way to reduce the population is not to feed them," pigeon expert Professor Daniel Haag-Wackernagel from the University of Basel. 

Elizabeth Taylor in London

"Cher Ami" War Hero:  Cher Ami after recovering from battle minus a leg by US Army

Cher Ami was a homing pigeon that helped save nearly 200 American lives during World War I.

"Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace." AlbertSchweitzer (1875 - 1965)

The above quote and photo taken from the New York City Pigeon rescue site where this message appears: "We thank you for being among the few who care enough about the difficult lives of these wonderful birds to have come here and joined us in trying to make a difference by helping a New York City Pigeon."