Personally, I enjoy mine with spicy brown mustard, a little chili and cheese and some good ole sweet, Carolina-style slaw.
Mountain Strong Fundraiser
Twenty small businesses lost buildings and retail products in the recent fire on The Mountain in Canton, Texas.
“We got a big day, fellas,” Granddaddy said. “Eat up.”
Before I could blink, memories of my past, and this big machine, came flooding back. And, for the briefest of moments, those that I loved, now long gone, were there with me again…
Intrigue abounds...
Keep in mind: BINGING doesn't have to happen all at once.
"I'd be willing to wager that this Phoenix will rise from the ashes in some new form."
...where Feathermaye and Yours Truly were sheltered by the many good folks that called the place home...
Whether you've spent a little time on THE MOUNTAIN in Canton, TX., or you have spent the night in one of the B&B's, roamed the lanes and shopped for something unusual, sang a little karaoke, or maybe sat on one of the many porches to listen to a singer-songwriter do his or her thing, you've tasted the magic of The Mountain, and took it with you...
You may, or may not yet know, that a fire
broke out in the wee hours of Saturday
morning 11/09/13, and the old boardwalk area, just above Buffalo Girls, was destroyed. Old Mill Marketplace/The Mountain has established a fund raising campaign--Go Mountain Strong--to help those that lost everything, the general push to clean up and restore our wonderful MOUNTAIN, as well as a donation to the
first-responders whose gallant efforts saved the rest of the shops and B&Bs from the flames by containing them; a feat of supreme effort on their parts kept the fire from spreading and limited the potential damage Please dig deep and help us rebuild THE MOUNTAIN and come along with us as we GO MOUNTAIN STRONG! December market starts Thursday, November 28th, and runs through Sunday December 1st. Come join us for a strong Christmas market! See more from The Mountain and Old Mill Market Place here!
I woke up early this morning; had to make sure the property was ready for Saturday's business. The TV news was on and I heard--as I poured my first cup of coffee--about a fire in Canton, Tx. Freezing in my tracks, I waited to hear details, but all they were saying at that time was that it was near 1st Monday Trade Days area...Then I saw the video and knew for sure. Of course, the whole town is, more
Canton, Texas 1st Monday Trade Days, on the first Monday of every month...
or less, 1st Monday Trade days once a month, and has been for over a hundred years. My worst fears were confirmed
I painted this scene, one of a collection painted: Impressions of The Mountain This one is among the first to inspire me to pick up the brushes and get busy.
later when it was reported that indeed fire had ravaged THE MOUNTAIN, and my heart just sank. Many of you
The other end of the same street, now devastated by fire.
have read my blogs about life up on THE MOUNTAIN, where Feathermaye and Yours Truly were sheltered by the many good folks that called the place home--if only for a few days a month, but many full time.
Back in the 1980s an artist named "Wild Willy" (he was a sculptor turned promoter) started up The Mountain.
He invited several of his artist friends to join his little movement, and like a bunch of kids with scrap lumber and a pocket full of gumption, they began to assemble the grandest bunch of shacks and tree-forts you ever saw.
My wife and I felt the unusual energy of this place when we first set foot on it; magical, whimsical and down right
imaginative. A place filled with fellow starving artists and part-time entrepreneurs with a shared dream and a lot of hopes.
Mountain Cat by Feathermaye
Feathermaye's photography and my own impressionist paintings came to fruition up on that old hill and we came to know so many good people that gladly
linked their lives with ours. Our very dear friends The Ziebers, Laurie, Dan, and their sons Keith and Randy offered up a roof to put over our
Sugar Britches Night porch
heads when we were laid off two years ago. It was THE MOUNTAIN that they had only just discovered themselves, and invested in; Sugar Britches on The Mountain, as well as a cute
Mardi Gras B&B
little B&B called The Mardi Gras, where we were housed the first few months at the end of that long, hot summer.
From what we can tell, everything on the right side of the street and behind is destroyed...
Later, Laurie insisted we move on into Sugar Britches, where we helped that old building go through many changes, working
side by side with the Ziebe
r family, until the building had evolved into what it is now. Today, Laurie and Dan live right there; they bought the little Gingerbread hou
se next door and that's where Dan and Keith put on Karaoke on 1st Monday Friday and Saturday nights.
From behind Marty's place, the old board walk is all but ashes
The fire, it seems, broke out somewhere down the lane I painted that summer. Our good friend Marty, a woman who had been on The Mountain since the beginning, who
More Impressions of The Mountain, I did a lot of these as well as a few commissions folks had me paint of their buildings
knew Wild Willy himself, and who can tell you more stories about the old days, opened up her hospitality to us often. For several months of that year she stayed up on the hill and would always come by, or have us come down to use her WiFi, sitting on the open breezeway of her building--that's where I broke Feathermaye's laptop one night when we were the only two people out there (it was mid month and hot and the place was otherwise deserted). When I saw the first pictures of the fire damage, I knew at once that it was Marty's place I was looking at, all four shops that she and her son owned, tucked into the side of The Mountain, were burned to the ground.
Both Feathermaye and I, even though we were in different rooms at the time, searching for news about the fire, thought about the painting I did of the little street where Marty's places were situated, along with so many others: testaments to a time now long gone. From Sugar Britches, I would often sit and look down that street, taking in the crazy shapes of buildings and poky-limbed cedar trees pushing up through overgrown oaks all the way down to a lone door, which was the only thing that looked back at me, other than Marty's little white sign. That door and her sign kept speaking to me until I set up a canvas and painted the street; a street that just invited you to walk down its length, to see what was on the next porch. Some are already saying that this
will be the end of The Mountain. But, knowing the folks there, and knowing the magic of that place, not to mention the sheer will and determination of so many of the fine folks involved, I'd be willing to wager that this Phoenix will rise from the ashes in some new form. I've seen the Kemah Boardwalk
(just off the ship channel, down in Houston) rebuild and rebuild, time and again after a big storm knocked it to shreds. My hope is something similar will take place here, where we called home, at least for a magical while.
When it was off market, The Mountain was so quiet, that Feathermaye and I used to sit out on the porch while she ticked away on her laptop and I
played guitar and sang along with the night birds. Like I said: it was is a magical place; where
Waiting In The Wings photography by Feathermaye
magnetic ley lines criss-cross and Native American tribes once gathered; where later the settlers came together for want of a place to assemble and trade horses, supplies, pocket knives and stories; a place to go to see someone else's face, in a time when the next neighbor was miles and miles away. I'm linking my many other blogs that I have archived here at 'as told by', for you to go back and get some idea about this place and how it affected The Fabulous Feathermaye and Yours Truly. Take your time and look them over; maybe you'll get a little of that magic yourself... New Year's Eve Market 2011
Not sure how many others are doing it, but Yours Truly will once again be out on the porch painting during Market weekend.
Weather Underground says we should remain clear, sunny, highs from 58-65 and lows in the upper 50s. Real good weather, folks, the kind to make you want to jump in the truck and come to Canton!
The fabulous feathermaye will be working on our papier mache projects--more about that later...
Stay tuned to the blog next week to get your updates from this weekend.
I've always wanted to sit outside, on some crowded sidewalk, painting as people come and go around me. This past Market Days weekend I did just that.
S Bond outside of Art's Cool
For weeks, I had been looking down the street that extends to the left of our porch (Here at the Little Red School House). There is a door down there, the only thing along the view that is truly Perpendicular to the street. The other doors and windows are all facing the street, and thus nearly hidden from view.
Just how to paint that special doorway has been on my mind a lot over the weeks leading up to Market. I took pictures to study, in various lights, and then put together a simple paint kit, something akin to Bob Ross meets Jerry Yarnell and they fight to the death, sort of deal... Anyhow, I had paint, brushes, and a good idea, I hoped.
I figured, quite obviously, that to become successful with ART here on The Mountain, I need to get plenty of material on display. The Art Buying public can be a fickle lot; one never knows when or where they will be moved to purchase. I can only count on the fact that THE MOUNTAIN calls people up here in some special way, and that what I'm capturing, hopefully, calls them to take it home with them, a part of The Mountain to call their own. . We had a few pieces ready as Market came:
Plus some of the awesomeness that can only be Feathermaye:
as we opened the new studio/shop: Art's Cool...
Sign made entirely of random debris we found laying around on the hill
So, after two afternoons, I had this finished:
Porches on Lazy Days Lane
by S. Bond Herndon
It's clear that we've got a ways to go yet. We need walls full of Mountain, and that's what we'll spend this next month working on...
Once again we thank you for following this blog. You can always find us on facebook as you stumbleupon looking for stuff to digg. Please be sweet and give this one a TWEET!
The holidays have always been a source of comfort to Your's Truly. This year, I'll celebrate my tenth year of marriage to my fabulous wife, I'll turn 53(but feeling eighteen again in so many ways--Thank you ZEAL!), and I have four fantastic, ADULT offspring, two beautiful and quite lively little granddaughters and a dog named Starbuck (after Lt. Cm. Starbuck of Battle Star Galactica).
All of the above is the stuff of life, the surroundings that bring us comfort and the true sense of belonging to a family.
The writer inside of Your's Truly spent the morning looking back at what has happened to him during the past year...
This Blog began because I published a Book and as we worked to build excitement, learned how to effectively promote a work of such nature over the WWW, and found out just how much we needed to break away from the old routine before we could really get it going... This little blog was birthed, with little real expectation on my part. I just didn't understand how, exactly, a blog needed to be...well...blogged.
Feathermaye kept at me to read other bloggers that were out there, the ones that had kept it up, built a readership by finding a topic that people would enjoy following along with. Dooce, well, she's THE DOOCE, and perhaps the best example I've had to follow, closely along the heels of THE BLOGGESS, who uses humor like nobody's-bidness. I read and followed, and kept sticking up little pieces of writing that spoke to me, whenever they sparked up a little literary flame.
In August, the event I'm Most Grateful for, strange as it may sound, happened when we were laid off from our cushy little job and we lost the roof over our heads, medical insurance, as well as income. It was our chance... we realized quite clearly, to go ahead with our plans.
I'm so grateful for the confusing events of the summer because it brought real focus to this blog on my part. We found The Mountain, and a new world of subject material. I began to see how to create a blog audience, and since last November, I'm proud to say our readership has grown over 100%. I'm like a kid again when I wake up to see how many of you have taken a look at the latest post.
I'll most likely put up a few more posts like this, as the season progresses; I get all warm and fuzzy this time of the year.
Thank you all for following!You know you can always find us on facebook--Thanks Zuckerberg! It would really be sweet if you give this blog a Tweet!, as you Stumblealong looking for something to Digg.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL, HOWEVER YOU CELEBRATE THEM.
It took the fabulous feathermaye and I exactly two seconds of standing on this Mountain to realize that we were looking at ART WORLD:a place full of subject material right out of an artist's dream...
I mean, c'mon... this place is a time warp, what would you do if you found
all this around you? Got paint? Got a sketch book? A camera?
This one, and a couple of others are set ups for a few pen & ink pieces
Classic walkways that disappear around
irresistible corners...
In reality this bump of sand was once
the playground of artists
The aged wood, shapes...tickle the sketcher's eye...
Old West meets our age...
all yours to capture
look up...
look down...
Art is waiting for you here...
This place has been home to painters, photographers, and World Class Sculptors. Street performers and glass blowers with chainsaw art wielding husbands. Musicians, dancers and (like your's truly) a few novelists. This fertile mound is now ready for its next colony of artists to form. They only need set foot here once...
If you've been a starving artist working shows and traveling from here to there, you need to add Canton, and The Mountain, to your plans.
If you have a closet full of paintings, or a garage full of furniture that you've reclaimed and turned into fantastic works of art, you just might find the place where it all comes together, here, were ART HAPPENS every 1st Monday of the Month "Market Days" here in Canton, Texas.
Images used on this site are a combination of search results and personal photography; we in no way intend to infringe upon any rights. As applicable, our 2011 (c) belongs to one or more of the following: S. Bond Herndon, Heather Hyde-Herndon, feathermaye. If you feel you have a claim to any image used on this site, please feel free to contact us at query@feathermayemultimedia.com
