Hippie Car

Dear Readers,
I must comfess something to you. I know this may come as a shock, but I, Mary, drive a hippe mobile! A person may never know, because to the naked, untrained eye it appears to be a normal girl vehicle.

The thought process of someone examining my vehicle may go something like this:

First Glance: "What a cute blue VW Beetle, I have always secretly wanted one. And look at that fabulous fin! So shiny too!"

Second Glance: "Hmm I feel like this poor girl has seen some better days, that is some big dent. The wheels look semi-hideous without the VW circle in the middle."

Third Glance: "I wonder who owns this thing, it is filthy! Ever think of washing your car or getting new tires, eh?!"

Fourth Glance: "WOW! I don't know which is worse, the inside or outside? Why on earth would someone want to keep all of that junk in a car? Oh wait... maybe I shouldn't judge, she may be homeless."

Fifth Glance: "I think I can slip $20 in through the window, poor thing!"

Me Partying with one of my best friends, my car!!!
If I could tag little blue in this, I would.

If only it worked that way. *sigh* I would love to be the recepient of free money! Just a joke.

I have a different way of viewing my horseless carriage than most people. I am sure that most are familiar with the idea of being "married to your car." I myself violently reject this idea, I for one want to marry a man, not a man made metal machine. No, I think of my horseless carriage as more of a best friend. I spend more time with my car than I do with any of my other friends, and like a friend you need to take car of the other individuals needs or you will loose them. My girl, Little Blue, has been very true. I have been neglecting the poor thing for some time, she was in desperate need of new tires. Now that she is equipped, our friendship has been stregthened because there is trust. We have the mutual understanding that she will transport me from point A to point B without getting a flat due to the rubber running through, and in return she knows that when push comes to shove I will sometimes pull through. I am vowing to be a better friend though, and hopefully this will bring upon forgiveness in the end, I am still experiencing other issues due, in part, to my neglect. 

My vehicle contains the equivelent of a tornadoes debree. I believe that you should always be prepared for a variety of situations, and climates. The contents of my car heavily reflect this belief. There are always several outfit changes, shoes, and some jewelry, and most of the time makeup in case I decide to spend the night somewhere, go out dancing, or swimming.
Than I have at least two camera's with me, my Diana F+, and my Yashica TL Electro.
I always have at least one pillow, and in the colder seasons a small blanket.
There are also little odds and ends that find there way around such as my rainbow kite(you never know when you will stumble upon a good windy day), nailpolish, and of course last but not least, my books and notebooks. I carry half of the time in my car half in a house, my poetry notebook, and whatever novel I am reading, currently The Age of Innocense.
I am hoping to up the anny on my automobile, I invision an organized array of clothes in the trunk, with a better garbage system. Oh, and maybe it wouldn't hurt to vacuum and clean the thing. :0

When I was out swing dancing with a friend last week, she needed some sock because her feet were tired. She said to someone, something along the lines of, "If we had taken Mary's hippie car we would have had them by now."

Fowl Society

I have not yet seen the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds, and I think that I will keep it that way for a long while....

Dear Readers,
I know that this is mainly my Mother, and Catherine and Chuck Thode, but I still would like to call you Readers. I have been presented with the unique opportunity to be a female farmer.

Yes, I know what you are thinking, shy, timid Mary taking on the perils of farm life. Well, you see, the truth is, for anyone that has known me for a long while will have seen me grow up, and something that would have scared me three quarters of the way to death will now only scare me one-tenth to death, a very managable level I must say. Having pushed myself out of my shell, yes the egg has been cracked. No pun intended here. I have taken on a full fledged farm. Around two hundred birds, turkey and chickens, to be exact. Let us not forget the cats, fish, small horse and sheep, they are part of my life right now as well.

As I sit and write this, I am thinking to myself whether or not a female farmer can aquire some sort of pet name, "farmess" perhaps? Maybe "farmett" would be a cute title.



In my hours of feeding and egg collecting I have observed a number of things, which have become profound(ish) revealations to me.

1) Silky Roosters are insanely vicious. (Ok, so this may be a bit of an exageration, but they are very territorial)

2) Male Silkies, though small, frighten me.

3) Turkeys are not bright in the slightest.

4) Bubba the male is so interesting looking that he could belong in a zoo somewhere where Turkeys aren't such a huge item on the menu.

5) Humans are like Chickens.* (Don't worry, I will expound upon this thought)

6) I can only touch a dead chicken if it's feathers are plucked, it has been refrigerated at some point, and it is lacking a head.

7) They say that the Cuddle Fish is at least as intelligeant as a bird, I thought that this was a bigger deal before I spent time with chickens and turkeys.

8) The wispy grey feathered one in the back seems to know something important and it gives me the creeps.

9) Turkey seem to be a dostle creature.

10) I have come to deeply grasp the full meaning and implacations of the insult "bird brain."



*When I walk about doing all of my feeding rounds, I noticed something interesting: birds that were in seperated enclosures but were right next to each other had equally seperate societies. For instance, the chickens in one bin may be duking it out while the guys and gals right next to them were just chilling.
I feel that peope tend to be the same way, we often only observe what is going on with our friends and family that are either in close contact with us or are around all of the time. Like the birds, us humans can be consumed in our own mini-societies, while maybe the guy in the next cage over is dead, or in the case of the human someone who you don't know very well is in need. Working with the chickens is teaching me to evaluate my own life, and to make sure that I am not just showing the same common courtesy as an animal. Humans posses the God given intelligence to pay attention to others outside of our cliques.



I am hoping to take some interesting shots of the animals, so hopefully at some point not too far off I can get those posted for ya'll!



..... So you can see that at this time it would be very wrong for me to watch The Birds.

Shadows, Jane Eyre, and Marc Chagall

This photo reminded me of the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It makes me think of the mansion where she worked, lived, and met her true love. This mansion was very creepy on the moors of England, with an insane woman living upstairs. Below I have a few quotes from the book.

"While I paced softly on, the last sound I expected to hear in so still a region, a laugh, struck my ears.  It was a curious laugh - distinct, formal, mirthless.  I stopped"

"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags"

"In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards.  What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight tell: it groveled, seemingly on all fours: it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair wild as a mane, hid its head and face" 

Some afterthoughts.

Last night I was looking up paintings by one of my very favorite artists, Marc Chagall. I found this one called White Crucifixion. I think that is absolutely stunning. I love how there is chaos all around and then there is a beam of light that highlights Jesus on the cross. It is so full of meaning, and beauty.

Here is a close up. 

Fresh From the Dark Room

Here are two photos that are for my current assignment in my Photography class. The assignment was to put a chair somewhere, and then to photograph it at different times of day, and different angles and depth of field all the time keeping the chair in the same location. These are the two I picked from my roll, I like almost all of my exposures so it may have been the most difficult part of the assignment for me.

My cat Sloan loves to be in the back yard, he made a happy little model for me.

This one I find a bit lonely, and depressing.

More from my Diana F+!

Please keep in mind that the photos here are meant to be unpredictable, light leaked, not the best focus, etc.

This is a picture I took of my Argus Antistigmat, or Argus A.  I bought this camera at a quaint little antique store in Fawnskin, CA. Fawnskin is right by Big Bear Lake. I was so excited to find a camera that is old, and uses 35mm film. It wasn't until later that I realized this little beauty has no shutter. I think that if I put black electrical tape over the lens that I could do a pin hole-esque type exposure. It is really a sweet little camera, it was produced in the 1930's, has a body made of Bakelite, and the lens unit is able to extend.  

This is a photo of my Kodak Instamatic, it is a very cute thing, but I don't know that I will ever use it. It takes a funky film that is smaller than 35mm. This one I purchased at a garage sale.

This is a shot I took while doing some street photography. The little girl was so adorable, and I thought it was a loving moment with her and her mom. I remember being little, and how Mom was like a security blanket, there is a very special bond between mother and daughter which is so precious.

I think that I may have taken this one by mistake, I really love it.

A picture I took in an antique store, they have a great collection of vintage cameras.

I was trying to achieve the effect of the cook looking like a ghost. I think the tripod or camera moved ever so slightly causing the whole thing to look doubled.

Anther photo of my Kodak Instamatic.

Love this one! Dias De La Muerta! 

Cash Tails

This really doesn't go with the story, but it is my latest.

Spent to much money today. Please tell me, what is one to do when the money tell me to spend it? When the cash expresses that it's fondest desire is to support the faded economy. All the little Georges, Franklins, and Lincolns want to do is be put back into the system. 

Franklin wrote to me just last week from Wall St to tell me his elation that he was presented with the opportunity to "stick it to the man!"

George phoned this morning with tears of joy in his little green eyes, heard through his wee voice sharing his glorious tale. He was a small beauty shop in Kansas' first dollar. George, being born in 1929 is enjoying a beautiful retirement in a comfy black rectangular frame.

My good friend Lincoln, who was with me for a few months back in '01 is benefiting from a fulfilling career as a child's allowance money.

So, you see all of this currency I spent have gone unto rewarding lives of there own. What kind of person would I be if i had deprived them of these joys? My heart weeps for the millions of dollars that are thrown into savings accounts, trust funds, and bonds every day! Tell me, what did the dollar ever do to you? Why this? Why monetary prison.

More of my work

This is a pin hole picture that I took and my computer decided to crop it, it was bigger but I like what the computer did with it.
It is part of my series titled "Adventures of the clogs." Which stars my beloved lucky brand clogs. I will eventually post the series as its own post.  Hopefully with small poems under each picture.

This is an example of a panning shot which was part of an assignment for my class, it still needs some refinement, but I like it enough.

This is a contact or proof sheet. This is what I use to see which of my exposures I would like to make into a full sized print.