Friendly Skies: Flying to Poly Partners
…Curio Coast,
Where beach and wave define each other,
Hold each other in some dependency,
Maybe love, maybe war.
I seek my border.
What piece of matter is me, what is you.
At the edge, movement is change and
Results are visible.
The wave and the sand are restless dance partners.
Boxing partners, business partners,
Negotiating territory in an uneasy waltz.
But I grew up on the Ohio.
Misters Mason and Dixon don’t know that
Nothing marks a border like water.
Water like a highway, water like a fence,
Depending on your species.
But a river is a means to an end. The coast…
The coast.
–excerpt from “Curio Coast” by Wren Tuatha
I’m on a plane to Kentucky to visit my mom, Patti, my ex, and John, a friend and lover I’ve been commuting to see for about a year and a half. From there I fly to Virginia (ironic name) to see Harold, another sweetie. I’ll be visiting him in his home for the first time. In September Harold and I will attend the World Polyamory Conference in California–We’ll share two oceans in in two months!
The sign in this picture is a warning along Louisville, Kentucky’s waterfront. It amuses the hell out of me!
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Successful Howard County Fair Wraps, Despite Hard Times
Many thanks, West Friendship, Columbia etc., for a fine sales year for Heathcote Earthings at “How Cow,” The Howard County (Maryland) Fair! And thanks to the weather goddess for cutting about eight degrees off the usual August heat for a pleasant, inviting atmosphere.
Sales seem to be down by as much as half for most vendors, as Americans put discretionary money, and I imagine their “economic stimulus” checks, into their gas tanks. This gutted our chances of success at the Cecil County Fair, where numbingly high temperatures and thunderstorms conspired with tough times to turn the midway into a ghost town.
Heathcote Earthings is squeezed in two directions by rising fuel and other prices. The cost of our imports, fair trade and other, and the cost of shipping are going up. We’ve expanded our traveling range and bought a van to bring more goods to each show, increasing our mileage costs. And once we’re at each event, customers are much more conservative in their buying than ever before. If a typical family chose forty dollars’ worth of pendants, carvings, bumper stickers and instruments before, now they’re handing me fifteen dollars’ worth at checkout, after collecting an armful and putting things back.
Now I’m off for quick visits to sweeties, family and friends in Kentucky and Virginia. But it’s not all play–I will be helping my mom set up her booth at the Kentucky State Fair, where she’ll be fundraising for and promoting her group home for mentally challenged adults, Harmony Habitat. Mom reports that charitable giving has ground to a halt in these tough times, as well.
When I return to Heathcote I’ll see many of you at the Maryland State Fair, where I’ll be helping out at the Crystal Cottage booth. Then Heathcote Earthings is on to the York Fair and Bloomsburg Fair.
Also be sure to add Spoutwood Farm’s Mother Earth Harvest Festival to your calendar!
And we will have a greatly expanded booth at this year’s Festival of Trees at the Timonium Fairgrounds, the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Please check our calendar of events at the bottom of Hippie Chick Diaries’ Heathcote Earthings page. You’ll find dates, times and links to our upcoming events!
Thanks again for your support of Heathcote Earthings, our own crafts and fair trade!
Not Guilty Verdict in Ganas Community Shooting Case
I just received the news of the conclusion of a case I’d found disturbing before. Intentional Communities are highly peaceful places, overall. So the fact that this shooting happened jarred me when I first heard about it.
I have mixed feelings about the verdict; I don’t have all the facts myself and wasn’t on the jury, but I have an uneasy feeling that justice may not have been served.
Given the way New York Times reporter James Barron seems to have stereotypes/biases about “communes,” I wonder if the jury was fed inflammatory myths that may have hurt the case.
I was particularly miffed at the Barron’s lead about New York’s only “commune” and his comment that Ganas Community resists being called a “cult.” I’ll update this post later about the differences between Intentional Communities and cults. in the meantime, please read the article.
Barron also salaciously wrote about “wife swapping” at Ganas but made no attempt to confirm that with statements by members. And he made no attempt to write the actual mission of Ganas. But that wouldn’t have been as exciting..
I’m busy with fairs now but I’ll try to profile Ganas and their exciting work in group process later. In the meantime you can visit their site for yourself, ganas.org.
Fair #2: Howard County Fair Begins
After a slow time at the Cecil County (Maryland) Fair, Heathcote Earthings is all set up in an extra large booth at the Howard County (Maryland) Fair. At this fair we feature a 3 table discount section, marking down damaged items and closeouts from the previous months! We’ve been to a Ten Thousand Villages sale and we got great prices on these angels and Job’s tear rattles:
Tree Topper Angel, praying; abaca/sinamay10Wx17H natural/red/gold Usual retail: $24; Heathcote Earthings price at Howard County: $10.
From the TTV description: “…Sinamay is a natural woven fiber made from the stripped fiber of the abaca tree. The fine strands of fibers are woven into fabrics with a wooden weaving loom. The woven fabric is called sinamay. Sinamay fibers are also used for making cordage and ropes…”
This angel has earthy natural tans and a shiny red robe that will catch the lights around a Christmas tree beautifully! Get 3 or more for $8 each and give them as gifts!
Umbrella Rattle with Job’s Tears, umbrella stick/lily seed/Job’s tears 5Lx1Wx10H Usual retail: $8; Heathcote Earthings price at Howard County: $4.
Details from Ten Thousand Villages: “…This rattle from Cameroon is made from a locally grown soft wood informally referred to as ‘umbrella stick.’ Inside are lily seeds and Job’s tears seed that is produced by a tall, roadside grass that grows like a weed in tropical regions…”
Other values in our discount section include Gypsy Rose tams that got ever so slightly stained in the rain, Native Scents dream pillows and eye pillows, Super Hits incense, TTV birdhouses and much more!
Also, the gigantic order of pewter pendants we expected for Cecil County has finally arrived. We now have hundreds of new pendants in dragon, fairy, wolf, horse, eagle, bear, owl, cat, unicorn, butterfly, Kokopelli, hummingbird, pentacle, Celtic knot and other motifs, as well as many new colors and sizes of cloisonne wigglefish necklaces!
So visit us in West Friendship, Maryland, to catch discounts that won’t appear again this summer, and to get first pick of the exciting new pewter!
