Living in Paradise can be HELL

I'm not trying to implicate anyone in the brief telling of this story. I actually like the suspected person very much. However, it seems clear to me that justice sometimes needs to be served so people can move on. In the last few months I've watched the mayor of our town's personality diminish. He has lost weight. His wife is distraught. His children are scared.
This is the letter to the editor I wrote after the newspaper assured us a story would be written, but caved to pressure and didn't print anything. I know a lot of details are left out. This isn't good storytelling technique, but I don't know how else to tell it without implicating individuals unfairly.

Dear Editor:
Sometimes it’s easer to be quiet. However the citizens of Paradise are baffled by the silence of the Herald Journal concerning a case that has divided our town. Last Wednesday night over 60 Paradise residents showed up to a public hearing, in large part to show support to the mayor for the last eleven years, Lee Atwood. A reporter from the paper was invited to attend. The reporter assured us that some kind of story would be printed. However as the days have passed, once again it’s clear that this isn’t going to happen.

In short, our mayor has been maligned, harassed, and systematically set up in a complicated drug-dealing scheme that had the scheme been successful would most likely have sent our mayor to prison for a long time. Detectives made an arrest in the case several months ago, but now the county attorney’s office is dropping the case.

For all parties involved, we feel it’s important to bring this case to fruition. The victim in this case, the mayor and his family, and the citizens of Paradise, are being let down by the county. It is unacceptable that a person who works so hard for the citizens of Paradise at great sacrifice to his own business, and family should be treated in this manner. It’s one thing to be victimized by a disgruntled citizen who doesn’t agree with the policies that the mayor has been elected and sworn to uphold, but it’s quite another to be re-victimized by the system and the county, and even the newspaper who has chosen to cave in under pressure.

While I feel sympathy for the person arrested, it is important for him also to be able to tell his story in court so as not to be tried in the minds of community members. The truth needs to be revealed. While I don’t agree with Mayor Atwood on all policies, I now know after serving on Paradise planning and zoning for five years, that he walks a very tight line in making some difficult decisions. And in all the years I’ve worked with Lee, I have never seen him to bend the rules in anyone’s favor in the least degree, including his own. He is a man of extreme integrity. I have nothing but respect for him and I hope that the county attorney feels shame for deciding not to turn every stone to find the guilty person in this crime, and prosecute, so this good man and his family can go on with their lives in peace.

C. J. Warburton
Avon

Paradise Art Holiday Sale Saturday, November 22, 10-5

It's that time of year again. I've teamed up with photographer Jim Parrish again. Jim has been taking shots in and around Paradise and Cache Valley. He's experimenting with some new ideas and has some Ansel Adam's type photos ready. His work is adding to the decor in our newly revamped Cracker Barrel restaurant also.

I've got some great new pieces also. I've sold most of my chip & dip plates this summer, so I worked hard and made more. They seem to be one of my most popular items since they are so functional for holiday gathering and gift giving.

We are really lucky again to have with us Wade and Cara. They are seriously two of the most talented musicians I've ever heard. They play all kinds of stringed instruments that are works of arts themselves. I would tell you the names of them, but I don't know. Okay well Wade plays the guitar, but he also plays the citar and other lesser known instruments. They will play at 3pm in the afternoon. This is free.

We'd love you to donate to the food bank. Just bring a can. If you forget--no big deal. Leave us a dollar and we'll make sure it gets there.

If you just want to look around, hang out, browse and eat a cookie--we'll let you do that too.

Sometimes Life is too good to be true...

Barring a disaster, it looks like we will have our first African-American president. History in the making--and we witness the event.

On a smaller scale about a month ago, our friends the Major's invited us to go on a moonlight horseback ride. It was cold. It was scary. I had to put all my trust in a horse and in our leaders. I couldn't see really where were going as our horse walked through dark pastures, trudged through tall sagebrush and junipers until we reached the top of the hills and could see the lights all the way into Logan main street--fifteen miles away. The temple a little gem in the dark. When we crestted the mountain I was behind the group and could see the horses and riders silhouetted with the nearly full moon. It was for me the ultimate Paradise event. Dale teased me about bringing my cell phone with me and asked if I was expecting Obama to call. I said he might--he'd been emailing me regularly along with Michelle and Joe Biden. Afterwards we sat around a fire on the Major's patio and sipped hot chocolate and visited.

I've been on some hikes this fall where I was sure that the world couldn't possibly get any better. Then last weekend I stayed with eleven other strong women--only one I had met before--and she only breifly, and yet we bonded as if we'd known each other all our lives. We talked, ate, and hiked in Zion's and Snow Canyon, staying at Millie Watt's beautiful vacation home in St. George. Millie is one of those women whose warmth and quiet dignity takes you in and makes you want to be like her. She was able to discuss without vitriol her sense of sadness and betrayal toward church and governmental policies which deny two of her children full rights of citizenship and fellowship. The other women ranged in ages from 30 and 67. They came to our retreat from California, Pennsylvania, Oregon,Washington, and the rest of us from Utah. And yet we bonded over a pie-ceremony. The next day some of us hiked through the Narrows in icy cold water--without proper shoes--for the conditions. But with each turn in the canyon a new view, and a desire to see more, to experience more, and to never forget the wonders.

Tonight watching the polls, I'm again feeling overwhelmed by the goodness, the hope, and the beauty in being alive.

Pottery, Pottery, Pottery!!! And More...

Years ago I visited Joe Bennion's Pottery studio in Spring City, Utah and got to look around and he wasn't even there at the time. Little did I know that eventually I would have my own studio and shop that I could leave open all the time.

So this is to announce that my studio at 967 E. 11000 S. Avon, Utah is now open pretty much all the time. except when I'm set up somewhere else. This happens mostly in the summer. For those who wish to make the trek, the studio will be a help yourself type of deal if I'm not there. Since I live on the property, I think I can do this without disasters. At the studio there will always be some extra good deals going on. Right now everything in the studio is 15% off, plus I'll eat the tax, which means for you--more than 20% off. Think Christmas, wedding gifts, and so forth. I've started making great tumblers. These hold a good 16 oz. Come see what else there is.

The Paradise Art Sale will be Saturday November 22nd at the town hall. More on this later.(Studio will be closed this day only this winter.)

LESSONS: And now that I'm in a new place I'm offering lessons and classes. Any group and almost anytime. I'd love to do some group classes during the daytime hours, so if you have a home school group, or a stay at home mom group, or a mom and tot group, I'd love to start a class tailored to your needs. Scouts, church group, date night, family home evening--you'll be surprised with how much fun you can have with clay. The classes will focus on hand-building and can include projects, such as coil vases, slab bowls, and animal sculptures. The charge for a group lesson of up to six people is $30. for an hour and half session, add 3.00 extra for each person beyond 6. I can accomodate up to 12. Throwing on the wheel lessons are individualized and 20.00 per session. I'm starting a children's hand-building class Thursday Nov. 6th at 4:15. $30.00 for 5 weeks. 90 minute class. Email or call for more information. 435-760-2592 (If I get at least five students) AGE: 5 ON UP (CALL IF YOU NEED AN EXCEPTION) Also if you have little ones to take care of we can work out arrangements for this at my house.

UPDATE: I've added a MONDAY MORNING CLASS Nov. 10th THAT IS FILLING UP QUICKLY. THE CLASS GOES FROM 9:30 TO 11:00 AM. THE CLASSES WILL HAVE THREE HAND-BUILDING DAYS, ONE WHEEL-THROWING, AND ONE GLAZING DAY.

MAP TO STUDIO IS ON MY WEBSITE. FROM MID-LOGAN IT TAKES ABOUT 25 MINUTES TO GET THERE.

Out of the mouth of BABES!

Is there anything better than Autumn in Northern Utah? I'm not sure, but I just spent a week in Avon, Colorado and it was a close rival. In Utah we have a variety of colors with the maple, scrub oak, and aspen. In the area of Colorado I was in there was such a vibrant golden, yellow and sometimes orange aspen and against the blue sky it was amazing. Everyone knows I love to hike, but I wasn't in Colorado to hike I was there to help out with my newest grand baby, Isabelle, and to keep the two year old occupied and happy--no easy task! But just look at him? Isn't he delightful? And now he has a brand new baby sister, who I'm sure will end up being every bit as wonderful.

Well even though most people know I support Obama, I promise I did not preach to the two-year-old, and my son and his wife don't own a television, so he has not heard any political ads. So imagine my surprise when on my way home from Colorado while riding on the Amtrak, my daughter-in-law called me so the grandson Pi (nickname) could say his newest word--loud and clear into the phone, " OBAMA." and then he laughed hysterically. "Did he just say Obama?" I asked. "Yes," more laughter coming form the phone and in the back ground the two year old is shouting Obama, Obama, Obama, and laughing with all his energy. Now this kid is talking well for a two year old, but I can barely understand him when he says Milk, or Sopo (frog in Spanish) Yes, he's a bi-lingual two-year-old. But my DIL said he just started saying Obama, so to be fair they taught him McCain, but Pi doesn't get quite the pleasure out of saying McCain as he does Obama. Such a smart little boy.

Returning to my Roots

Do fruit rooms exist outside of Mormon culture? Do other people have an entire room in their home devoted to food storage? Going down to the fruit room to retrieve a bottle or a can of produce used to scare me as a child. I would obediently head down the stairs into the recesses of our home, passing through a semi-dark, underused room, to the outer darkness of the storage room. One of the reasons it was so scary is that I had to step into total darkness and fish my hand around for the dangling string to pull the light on. Even with the light on, I imagined spiders and rats lurking. And when I was very young, I had an irrational fear that the three bears lived under the stairs, the fear never quite left me. Since I grew up during the cold war, I was quite certain that at some point, our entire family would be forced to live in the small narrow room to survive. I imagined that I would play with the elf Christmas ornaments with small styrofoarm heads and colorful costumes for entertainment.

Growing up I took the bottles of fruit the room contained, mostly peaches, pears, and grape jelly, for granted. I do remember my mom bottling and I have a vague memory of helping out, but not too much. My most firm memory of the event that took place was my mom pouring parafin over the small jars of jelly.
So when I got married, I thought bottling was pretty much a given. It was Ruth (pictured above) my mother-in-law who really taught me the how-tos. Our first apartment was in the same town--Tremonton. She was generous with her help and I don't think she even kept any of the fruit--maybe a bottle or two. But before our youngest was even five years old, I'd pretty much given it up. I found the whole task beneath me. We still dried a few batches of fruit, but I quit bottling. Besides someone figured out that like many good things the time expended and the cost per bottle wasn't worth the effort when you could buy an entire case for X number of dollars.

Recently, I was on a hike with some friends, and one of the women was talking about bottling and I suddenly wanted to do it, but feared I was too late. Then I remembered that my good friend Josi Kilpack loves bottling. Josi is almost young enough to be my daughter, and is about five novels ahead of me on her published writing, and has twice as many kids as I had when I gave it all up--and even with all that, she LOVES bottling fruit--especially peaches. So I emailed Josi and asked if peaches were still available. She lives near the fruit loop. If you don't know what the fruit loop is then you don't live in Northern Utah. Anyway, she said, "Probably, but hurry." So I had my husband buy some--he works near the fruit loop and I was set.

First though, I had to find everything that I hadn't used in nearly two decades--canner--found it buried under the box of Halloween costumes, bottles--two boxes were in the garage, packed along in our last three moves, and one box in the new storage room where they ought to be. And I'm pretty sure I tossed some, and recycled a few. Finally the rings--dug them out of my pottery studio where I used them for cutting out clay with school children, and last a trip to the store to buy the lids. Finally I was set and few hours later and a life time of flooding memories you see the result--21 bottles of peaches, 8 pts. of peach jam (which didn't really set), and some left over to eat. And now I'm ready to tackle salsa, tomatoes, elderberry jam and juice, current jam and so forth. It's funny I gave up bottling because I thought I was too modern to be confined to convention and now I found the process so enjoyable, so . . . what's the word--liberating.

A JEWEL of a Book

J. Adams (Jewel) has written a layered young adult fantasy tale called "The Journey." This is an excerpt from chapter ONE: A gentle breeze stirred the lands and forests of Krisandor, the scent of pine and oak circulating through the comfortably warm air and adding a tantalizing sweetness that softly awakened the senses of a newly dawning day. Some would say the trees and the land were as old as time itself. Though Krisandor was established just a little over a thousand years ago, the land had always been there.

The Krisandorians were a beautiful, peaceful people governed, not ruled, by a peaceful king who loved them more than life itself...

And so the story begins. From that fairy tale beginning we already anticipate the peace can not prevail, that good will be interrupted. On one layer this is a timeless story, as old and classic as Snow White where evil will have a chance of destroying everything. This is also a love story, so should appeal to young teens who are just awakening their romantic inclinations. On a deeper level though, the book becomes an allegory. Choices even small ones can alter our course. But with each choice we make, we have the opportunity of turning back and righting the course.

Ciran is a lovely Krisandorian, who finds herself swayed to do something she was taught not to do. She loses her self-respect, only deepening the hold the evil Ubal has over her. What will Ciran do. Visit J. Adams site on this book and her blog.