It’s that time of year when the lure of a crackling fire in the
hearth warms the soul. The grand stone masterpieces created by Lew
French have that same effect on a person with or without the fire
blazing. There is movement and power in his designs. Their energy draws
you in visually and while entranced you instinctively run your hand over
the rocks.
While my house does not boast a fireplace it is full of
stones and decorating with them happened quite by accident. However,
they have become permanent appointments of our home. With good reason
French needs to store his rock and stone in rented fields. Luckily, our
collection is not as extensive and I am able to fill bowls and tuck them
into shelves throughout our home.
How many times have you bent down to pick up a rock to admire
it’s simple beauty? Maybe while you were on vacation or just your daily
walk? Or do your children do this? Mine did and still do albeit they are
young adults now. My parents have a cottage on the south shore of Lake
Erie and all three of our children grew up vacationing there.
My mom and
dad’s house is filled with rocks from the lake that their grandchildren
have collected over the years. As soon as they could walk they were
always bringing rocks into the house and eventually the overflow began
coming home with us, our truck riding a little lower on the way home. I
have two huge stacks in my garage of large black rocks laced with
pyrite. Our son Zach had a passion for the ‘fool’s gold’ and would swim
for hours in water well above his head searching for rocks that
apparently spoke to him. Some of them are 18″ around and weigh 10 pounds
or more. My dad, would always say “Zach what are you going to do with
those?” to which our 10 year old always replied without fail “I don’t
know, I just like them”.
As Lew French stated to Emily Zeugner of NPR Radio, “I find it
interesting that people will almost like ‘confide’ in me that they have
this thing with stone…they go to the beach, they pick up stones, or they
are out in the field they pick up a stone, it’s like we have this
secret thing with stone. I think it’s a lot deeper than that, I think
there is this real connection. There is something about stone that is
powerful, it seems to have this energy or purpose where it has this
emanation of power, almost.”
His comments truly struck a chord with me and made me smile because
it’s so true. These basic, inanimate objects do have an energy. The ones
scattered all through our house also have memories and a permanent
place in the decorating of our home…and my heart.
Cranberry Salsa! Now that cranberries are back at the grocery store we'll be going through bowl after bowl! I know I know, sounds strange but trust me, you're
going to fix this every year during the holidays. It's full of amazing,
bright flavors that burst in your mouth. During Christmas cut tree
shapes out of spinach tortillas using cookie cutters. Bake or fry in hot
oil for tree shaped chips to serve with the salsa. For New Year's? A
champagne bottle shape?
