well it was back in Blind River in 1985....

This photo surfaced today on FB, taking me back 30 years. A women's canoe trip led by Britta Wolfert.  Taken near our camp on tiny Gibson Island, in the north channel of Lake Huron, Ontario. I am on the left and Carrie is on the right, clearly ecstatic under a rainbow. We look as if we are airborne, and we could be.

Journal Entries:

August 26th
17E to Blind River.  Canoe Blind River to Lally Point.

August 27th
Still at Lally Point.  Water too rough - sun beginning to peek out. (We see) Jeff's canoes rounding Gibson and Sanford Islands.  Expects to see us at Gibson?

August 28th
Lally Point to Gibson.  Walked all around the island first.  Set up camp.  Canoe to Sanford's bay to collect wood and water.  Choppy waters and a few whitecaps 2-3 ft., back to Gibson.  A mite intimidating.  Gibson a safe haven, already feels like home.

August 29th
Drizzly warm morning on the edge of the dream realm, remembering the moonrise.  A glorious morning and a wandering night.  At peace, I know who I can rely upon. Om.

dream logos #1

demi-gods of carved quartzite

refract like many mirrors

vigilant, not cautious,

noisy

playing

words from a song  over and over

over soaring bright birds that the eye can follow

over dark pine-sapped conifers.

jangling keys  and piano teeth

reverberate  in the depths, echoes of  re-invention.

the great  sleeping mind

vast in it’s mythic undertakings,  shivers in the path of the comet’s tail.

there are infinite awakenings

like a chrysanthemum unfurling again and again

a message, a key, a puzzle, a small flame

what is it

some kind of  boundless vessel

spinning in the void

ignited by falling sparks?

©2001 leslie anne hinich cochran

Sepia dreams

Example of image taken with the Kodak Autographic folding camera.

Image ©  Kristin Cleage

Light travel, time travel

So I found this camera yesterday at an estate sale, just as it looks in the first photo.  No one knew how to open it - and it was getting passed by. It is a Kodak 3-A Autographic folding camera, made between 1914-1934. A quick search on line "how to open" revealed a "hidden button" , photo 2.

Autographic refers to the stylus that is included.  The camera could be opened and notes inscribed with the stylus right onto the negative. The No. 3A takes size 122 film, which produces postcard-sized 3¼-by-5½-inch prints. I remember seeing old postcards with white writing describing the location, date, etc.

122 film is not available, but there are workarounds using 120.  The mechanisms on this camera are so beautiful and intriguing, once unfolded.   I love the crazy patina, brass turning green...I'd like to take a break from the digital and instantaneous and see what develops. 

the wild woods of the heart

Finished today. I think.  But maybe there's more. More work to do with the heart, perhaps.

detail: wild woods of the heart

fragment

dyeing and ripping it up

Work in progress, assemblage, 7-1/2" x 10". Painted and hand-dyed fabric, poem fragment. Photo collage: vintage cabinet card, my own wolf photograph.  Thinking it is time to rewrite some old fairy tales. And keep the rusty keys that still ring true.