Maybe you've noticed the redesign. Maybe this is your first trip here, in which case you'll have to take my word for it - this is a great redesign!
But why would I do that? What could have possessed me? I mean, the old design was no great shakes, but it wasn't bad, right...
Let's back up a little...
This is my blog. Not my business blog where I write about the hand-carved crochet hooks and knitting needles and hair sticks (that's new - thanks, Elizabeth) and looms and spindles I make. Not my farm blog where I talk about the building of barns and houses, and the care of sheep and goats and llamas and horses, and gardening and farming. Not the Road Dog Blog where we transcribe what the dogs "say" for your reading entertainment. Not my partner's blog where she writes about how she approaches each day and task with her own beauty and grace. Not my step-daughter's blog where she photographs life on the farm from her unique perspective.
This is my blog... It should reflect not only the topics I'm wishing to speak of (ecology, sustainable living, art and technology), but also the things I love... am passionate about.
I love inventing things, and gadgets. I've always been a fan of MacGyver and James Bond and Batman. However, I've always thought that said inventions should have some class and grace and beauty. MacGyver's emergency lunar lander made with just his Swiss army knife and duct tape, baling twine and the scrapings from a bicycle frame were never that elegant. Batman's gadgets were cool, sure. Bond's gizmos were, maybe, the best, but they were too concealed - I know, they needed to be.
I'm also a fan of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and that era. Inventions then were ornamented
with wrought iron and twisted brass and cast bronze and there were dials and gauges. Gadgets truly looked like gadgets. Yet they had elegance and grace.
They were art!
It would appear that I'm not the only one that feels that way. Apparently, while I wasn't looking, and entire trend has sprung up under the moniker "Steampunk." These folk like to create or recreate modern items with old-fashioned materials and methods - or at least make 'em look that way.
The finest example I have found is now featured with permission of the artist in my header there at the top of the page. This is a computer monitor and keyboard that would look at home in Captain Nemo's quarters or in the study of The Time Traveler or Phileas Fogg. You really should take a look at this gentleman's outstanding and imaginative work and the work of other Steampunk artists, too. I don't think this art form - which I believe is similar to my own desire to live a simple, beautiful life - is going away.
