Raven Lodge

We all know that the Universe works in wondrous ways but when it hands you a perfect solution, you can’t help but be awed by the process. I have had my fabulous Raven Lodge listed for sale since last year. Many have loved it; offers have been made, but nothing had come to fruition. With the market so incredibly sour, I decided to take if off the market and look for a caretaker for the property, knowing that the economy will rebound with time.

On Monday, the realtor de-listed the property. One hour later, she received a phone call from a woman who had just driven by, looked in the windows and had fallen in love. She and her partner wanted to see the property as soon as possible. I didn’t get too excited as I have “heard that song before” – but a small part of me had a glimmer of hope.

As only fate can make things happen, it turns out that four women are forming a partnership to hold special retreats. When they saw Raven Lodge they knew it was THE location for their dream. I was instantly a puddle as that had long been my dream for the house and property. Now I know that the reason the house had not sold is because it was waiting for their vision to become a reality.

And that vision fits perfectly with Art & Soul! A coach offering Writing for the Soul, another for Yoga and

Reiki. Horse therapy and other soothing soulful classes are just the beginning. It will be such a joy to see where they will go and how we can be a part of the process!

I can only offer abundant gratitude to the Universe and Powers for guiding these women to me.

Some updates

I’m still waiting to hear from those two metal masters as with a class description and pricing. Life sometimes gets in the way of business – so hang in there a little longer! I will send an email to all of you who have requested information and we can finalize the class at that time.

We should have all class information for Nova Scotia by the end of August! I’m thrilled with your enthusiasm about this event and can hardly wait to go myself. It is going to be as great as Italy – and we are not losing money to the Euro! Yippeee!

Jan has helped me to set up a new newsletter for Art & Soul! The first one went out a few days ago and we hope to send one monthly. The goal is to highlight different instructors as well as giving updates on Art & Soul events.

We have had to change our date for VA and CA registration. Instead of in Oct – Virginia will be Sept 15 and Asilomar will be Sept 20. Many factors go into the timing so sometimes we have to make adjustments. We will send a group email and announce on the Yahoo site when the time approachs.

Busy Days

We went “live” with the new website yesterday and I LOVE it. I think it is fun, arty and reflects me and A & S very well! My web designer, Lisa Gray, did a fabulous job!

Today we had the jury for Virginia 09. What an amazing group of proposals we received! The talent in our mixed media arena is incredible. As usual, we have many more submissions than we have room for at the event – which makes the selections extremely difficult.

The next step is for Vonnie to gather all the descriptions and photos and begin working to upload them onto our new website. This takes quite a bit of time, but we plan to have the VA classes ready to review by Sept 15. Registration for VA will begin Oct 1. It will be another wonderful line-up and I am thrilled to be able to offer them to you.

We will be getting the Portland packets ready to mail the first week of August. It is a daunting task, so please be patient!

An update on our critters.

Quack 1, 2, 3 & 4 are growing rapidly. They have all their feathers and continually test their wings by stretching them out. Take off, however, has not occurred. Abby runs with them flapping her arms, and they wildly run after her – not flapping their wings. She gets quite discouraged. We have two drakes and two females -- who still peep --- occasionally, we will hear a small “quack”. They are quite contented in our big pond and come running when we call them.

Amy, our abandoned mamma kitty, is doing great. She is a little hunter and is taking care of the mouse population in and around the barn. We still have two kittens, Lily and Lucy and it looks like we will be keeping them as well as Amy. I brought Lily into the house with a bit of concern, thinking that she would be intimidated by my 3 other girls. She couldn’t have cared less about them. Sophie and Pica hissed and growled at her – Annie was just curious. Lily wasn’t nervous, didn’t hide – she just took over and did whatever she wanted to do. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Amy

We have had one other animal rescue -- a bird visitor – a small flicker. He got caught in the mouth of the cat. Fortunately, the kids found him before any serious damage was done and we were able to save him. I gave him antibiotics and in 24hrs he was ready to head back to the forest. So that is one gone and 4 ducks, one colt and one mare to go!!