Loose Leaf Notes

1. That was the name of my “Halloween Party at the historic Epperly Mill” Facebook album.

2. “A handsome devil” is an idiom used to describe a charmingly attractive man who may have a mischievous or playfully roguish quality. It is typically used in a lighthearted or flirtatious way to comment on a man’s good looks, which might be perceived as having a hint of danger or a self-aware charm.

3. We look oddly coordinated. I really just wanted to wear a simple costume – no wigs or masks over my eyeglasses – that wouldn’t interfere with dancing, or with eating. We got a meal with our ticket, prepared by Two Trees catering, which is the business of our host Adam Morisson along with being the co-owner of the renovated Mill with his wife Marcie Morrison.

4. Our friend Tammy Brown, who came as Cruella de Vil, won the costume competition, a two night stay at Epperly Mill.

5. I asked Epperly Mill Band guitarist Shawn Matuk, who went to Blue Mountain School with my son Dylan, if he was wearing a costume and he said, “Yes, I’m a grown up.”

6. The rest of the band is Shamani Hyldahl on drums and singer songwriter Adam on vocal and guitar. Listen HERE.

7. Featured musician Jontavious Willis was outstanding.  He’s a Grammy nominated musician from Georgia. Listen HERE. 

8. The Blues is so good to dance to.

9. We also went to a Tea with Rumi poetry and music event at Living Light Studio with my friend/poet Katherine and Indian music musician Jagadisha.

10. Katherine says: There’s only one thing to do and I’m doing it.

11. I think of Rumi’s poetry as love poetry. Whether it’s about the divine in the beloved or the beloved in the divine. Ecstatic or erotic? By the seventeenth century in Christian mysticism the word ecstatic had come to mean the erotic rapture experienced in contemplaton of the divine.

12. I read three short poems, including my early ’90s Spring Mating Flight which begins: Like bees collide / Not afraid to be stung / Spring is a reckless commotion / Like hawks lock and dive / We make impact then fall / Not afraid to spin out of control

13. Read more of my stories on the historic Epperly Mill HERE and HERE.

Meanwhile, We have a new governor in Virginia – Abigal Spanberger.

________Thirteen Thursday