Journey of the Spoon

Dear, dear Terron,
I wanted to let you know that I received your wonderful spoon! What a treat to find it, so thoughtfully packaged and put in the mail.... and to think of you going through all the steps from carving it, to finishing it, to packaging and mailing it all the way from the magical place I imagine you live. And now, it has found a home in my kitchen on Osprey Lane in Ohio, USA... and we could not be more pleased.

My son said last night, as I shared the story of this spoon (and as he ran his hands across its incredibly smooth, smooth surface), "THIS, this, THIS is my favorite spoon ever." (And he meant it).

I've half a mind to frame it in a shadowbox with our lilac photos and hang it in my kitchen, so I will oft have the reminder to tell the lovely story of the lilac labyrinth. I will let you know. I'm sure the spoon will let me know how it wishes to be treasured.

Meanwhile, I am a bit saddened to hear your dilemma. In my experience, you are one of the most (if not THE most) straightforward, honest, REAL people I know and I'm guessing it is a bit unsettling for you to keep this project secret from one who means so much to you. I wish you well as you determine the next step on the journey.

Sending positive energy and so much gratitude for the gift of your lilac spoon!

Blooms & Birthdays

The way these blogs work, the first post goes off the page and I am concerned because that's the one that explains what this blog is all about. I intend to ask my friend and blog consultant, Robin, what to do about that, but I want to put here a notice to anybody who happens to read this for the first time to go to the bottom of the page and click on "Older Posts" and go to the first one to see the explanation of why I even made this blog in the first place.

Nothing more has happened as far as the labyrinth project itself goes that makes very exiting reading. The 200 lilac bushes I ordered have not shown up yet, but the 15 to mark the route of my water line have and I have planted most of them. The rest are just heeled in in the garden. I went out yesterday afternoon intending to plant them, but it was so cold I just planted the few handfulls of hulless oats I grew last year from a small sample. There is a Gaelic saying that whoever doesn't plant on a cold day won't harvest on a hot one, so I thought I should do it even if it was cold, and I'd plant at least a couple of lilacs afterwards. But it was blowing so hard and cold my hands were numb, and it started to rain, so I gave up.

The serviceberries (saskatoons, Indian pear) are a little past full bloom. Plums are blooming, the apple treees are slowly opening their buds into small green leaves. That is the stage things are at here.

It has been staying cold, in the 40s F (5-10C) in the daytime, which is quite a bit below the normal high of 14-15C (upper 50s to almost 60F).

I am working on another batch of spoons while the ones I made before dry enough for finish sanding. Some lilac, some apple, a few maple. I think there is a total of 54 in this batch.
Well, today is my birthday and my daughter and her husband are coming out, so I have to make sure everything is clean when they get here.

Lilac spoons

Yesterday afternoon I cut out the first spoons from the lilac wood I was recently given. Today I cut out some more and ground the ones I cut yesterday into shape, so my project for raising the money to get the land cleared is underway! If other people send donations, that will make the process that much faster.

I also have given a friend who is much more experienced with blogs access, so that she can put some pictures on and improve it however she can think.

Someone suggested or asked if I was going to charge money to walk it. I said no. I think that is contrary to the very spirit of labyrinths. It should be available to anyone who wants it or needs it, whether they have money in their pocket or not. If it costs anything substantial to keep up, I suppose it would be fair to have a notice saying donations toward the upkeep will be accepted, or something like that. But lilac bushes don't grow so fast that they will require frequent pruning, and they survive for decades in total neglect. I have seen an abandoned farm on which the house had completely fallen and rotted away. There was only the cellar hole in the ground. And a lilac bush and a row of rhubarb.

The man who is talking to you

I should tell you who I am, so you know who is speaking here. My name is Terron (My mother made it up.) I was born in Seattle in 1942, and grew up north of there, looking out over Puget Sound. I have a degree in botany, but have worked at many things: building houses, cutting pulpwood, teaching Grade 4, working in the office of a rare book dealer, &c.

In 1964 I first visited Cape Breton Island. I moved here in 1969, and in 1973 bought an old farm with no buildings standing. I lived here for years, raised 2 daughters, mostly on my own, moved out west with them in 1985 and didn't move back except for visits of a few months until Dec.2004. I have now been making my living as a woodcarver since 1979, going to fairs and markets to sell my creations, mostly wooden spoons. I now have a website showing my work: www.terrondodd.com . (On it, there are ways to contact me.) Now that I am collecting Social Security and a little Canada Pension, it is not so important to make every dollar I can by spoons, but I still do it.

I have gotten disabled with MS, or some variety of it, in the last several years to the point that it is a serious hindrance to almost everything I do, but I still try to grow as much of my food as I can.

I have always been interested in dreams, and in spiritual subjects in general, but I have seldom had a lot of success in understanding my dreams. So, when a friend who is inclined to research everything I mention on the internet came up with the dream class mentioned in my previous post, I joined it.

Terron