Barbara and Irving in Florida by James M. Drougas

Isabelle Hall Fiske Calhoun (Barbara), painter, cartoonist and co-creator of Quarry Hill, born Sept. 9.1919 in Tucson, AZ; with Irving Louis Fiske, writer, playwright, inventor and co-creator of Quarry Hill (they bought the property in Rochester, VT on April 10, 1946).  This is a lovely and affectionate photo of the two.
Irving was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY on March 5, 1908 and died on April 25, 1990 in Ocala, Florida.  As he said, "We do die. But we don't die poetically, so to speak."

Barbara is now 94, and in frail health, but still a spirited being for whom art and the creative life have ever been paramount.

Barb comes home from Hospital

Barbara got home from the hospital today. She seems to be getting over her pneumonia and to be feeling much better and has a clear head. She thanks everyone who sent their caring regards.
For 91, she is amazing!

Barbara Calhoun Ill

Today Barbara, who'd had a fever over the weekend, got out of bed and collapsed. Her legs wouldn't hold her up, and she fell on her left arm, which we feared fractured or broken.
Since she's 91, and on the good advice of Bayada Nurses, who visit her, we took her to Gifford Hospital in Randolph (in an ambulance) and she was checked out -- and as usual, ate a hearty lunch in the ER!
She has no broken bones, and her fever had come down, but she does have some pneumonia. If people would like to write to her, please send the letters to her at
Barbara Fiske Calhoun
℅ McFarlin
PO Box 379
Rochester VT 05767
I will get them to her; or you can write directly to her at
606 Fiske RD Unit 1
Rochester, VT 05767.
I think and hope she'll be well again in a few days. These years following William's and then her husband Don's deaths (2008 and 09) have been hard for her, but mostly she keeps her cheery aspect up and looks at the imaginative, sensual, and Blakeian themes of the ways of Time and Eternity.
I wish she were well enough to paint, or draw. It doesn't seem to happen much any more, not so surprising in someone her age. But perhaps next spring I will take her out to the hills (in a car, on the roads) and we can do some drawing.  I hope we will have the chance.

I'll keep updates here.
Thanks
LB

Joya Allegra Fiske Lonsdale

Joya, Ladybelle's daughter, when she was a baby. Ladybelle's holding her. She was wonderful then and she is wonderful now.

<script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=5&r=Joya Lonsdale at Quarry Hill Creative Center, about 1971"></script>

Celebrating Don Calhoun, Ph.D.

Today we scattered Don's ashes, and Joya read a beautifully written account of her closeness with Don and Barbara. A number of others reminisced about Don as well.
We buried Don's ashes beneath a magnolia tree to the west of the room he shared with Barbara. We will miss him. This,except for the minerals his ashes will give the soil, I suppose completes his journey on earth. Or "completes his journey on earth."
Two Japanese death poems:
The joy of dewdrops
in the grass as they
Turn back to vapor.
-- Koraku (Japanese Haiku poet)
died 1837
I read this one aloud… with many undercurrents going on…

A bright and pleasant
Autumn day
To make death's journey.
--Fukyu (Haiku poet)
d. 1771
Today was a lovely autumn day, though Don actually died May 5, 2009.
( Love that poet's name!)