The Gallery/Sitting area transformation is coming along pretty well, not 100% complete yet but it won't be long now...










Another week and should be good here!

As we sat and watched the fire in the firepit tonight this sort of came to mind:

Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun. And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun, The near and the dear ones, the old and the young. A very Merry Christmas, And a Happy New Year. Let's hope it's a good one, Without any fear. And so this is Christmas, for weak and for strong, For rich and for poor ones, the war is so wrong. And so happy Christmas, for black and for white, For yellow and red ones, let's stop all the fight. A very Merry Christmas, And a Happy New Year. Let's hope it's a good one, Without any fear. So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun. And so happy Christmas, I hope you have fun, The near and the dear ones, the old and the young. A very Merry Christmas, And a Happy New Year. Let's hope it's a good one, Without any fear. John Lennon Wishing you all a prosperous and enjoyable Holiday Season! Don, Kiran, and Roxie

Roxie's Failure

The protector of the house, Roxie the boxer dog, has failed to keep a vermin armadillo from getting in and chewing up part of our dishwasher...we discovered this sad crime when we started the dishwasher and water went everywhere...personally I think "Grinch" has paid us a visit...LOL...Its the Holiday Season so "Murphy's Law" is in effect...

Moss on the trees out by Cheneire Bayou...northern Louisiana...

Back from Louisiana and ready to go back to work on the house...

The expected weather event in Dallas did not really materialize as bad as it could have...parts of town were hit harder than others, and Dallas is virtually shut down this AM with school closings and the like, but here in McKinney all we got was a dusting, and most of that was sleet, not snow...so the roads are treacherous. Wind chills here this AM are in the 0-minus 10 range, actual temp is about 16 right now...another happy day in north Texas...

Well...I guess a weight control program of some sort is in order here...

Work on the house continues this week as we wait to see if this "winter storm event" is going to materialize or not, but my guess is that I should not hold my breath since the moisture part of this deal is coming from the south...of course I have been known to be wrong before...LOL...

The first good front of the season has arrived and "wufless" dog has assumed her position of responsibility until its over...

A reminder:

The next meeting of the DPS will be on December 4th @ 2PM at Jason's, where we will discuss our goals for 2006 and critique individual members prints. Please bring 3-5 prints. We will be sharing work and talking about location and technique.

Windstorm came thru here the other night and did a number on our backyard tree...

Had a good weekend here...Had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got some more work done on the house to boot! How can you complain about that?...

Work in the sitting room/gallery area is coming along nicely...This is a project that may come to completion by the end of the weekend...or at least as far as we can go for now...





























Those of us who live at the Lil Red House want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving...stay safe and enjoy...

This is pretty important!

Nov 21 2005 2:55PM
WHO forecasts new strain of flu virus - official

Interfax >Politic

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the danger of the appearance of a new strain of flu virus from which humans will not be immune, Russian Chief Public Health Official Gennady Onishchenko said in a letter to regional health departments.

This shows the WHO's concern over the possibility of a flu pandemic, he said.

There have been 124 instances of humans contracting bird flu in Southeast Asia, with 63 deaths caused by the disease, Onishchenko said.

Old abandoned church across the street...

Another room in the house is beginning to take shape...

Found object...on the side of a shed...

The next meeting of the DPS will be on December 4th @ 2PM at Jason's, where we will discuss our goals for 2006. We will also be showing work and talking about location and technique, and those who feel comfortable with the idea are urged to bring 3-5 prints for this critique session...

There is nothing like late afternoon in the swamp...

We were thinking the other day about how much we have accomplished here, and how much there is left to do...we have done OK


The Gulch...before the transformation...














The Gulch, after the transformation...

They say a picture is worth 1000 words, this one says a mouthfull...

Couple of interesting things to bear in mind over the next few weeks:

"Roy Cirigliana: Infrared"
Richland College Lago Vista Gallery (library)
November 17 - December 16, 2005
opening reception: thur. 11/17 12-1pm

Carrie Garner will have a guest artist at Galleria d'Arte in downtown McKinney next weekend, November 12th - not photography but kewl none the less! Its a great way to spend a Saturday evening!!!

At the AfterImage:
Jenny Ellerbe
Exploring Nowhere, Discovering Home
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 5, 2005 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

National site for Pandemic Flu:

http://www.pandemicflu.gov/

Replacement sight for enlarger bulbs:

http://replacementlightbulbs.com/lampscrossreferenced.html

Pictures of the house in the early days, January and February::

http://www.photogserver.net/file/simmons/1st%20days/

Happy Halloween! Looks like Mother Nature has other things in store for trick-or-treaters here in the DFW metro area today...its raining and thundering out there this morning and supposed to continue for the rest of the day...there will be some very unhappy little people later today I imagine...

When Kiran and I started working on the house we had a mess of obstacles to overcome, among them bad weather days in January and February, heck just the house itself was a mess and lots of work had to be done before we could even consider the re-building!







Things have progressed pretty well over the last several months and a lot of work has been done...there is still a lot left to do but we can be pretty happy with how things have moved along...the major stuff that needed to be done in order for us to move in like leveling the house, plumbing, and rewiring the place are all coming along well - the house is pretty comfortable, and we are happy to be here. If all goes well and there are no setbacks The Gulch Gallery will be open in about four weeks and then we hope things will move along a lot faster! We're hoping to become an asset to the community by providing a strong vehicle for showing work that would otherwise go unnoticed...in a comfortable, laid back environment...in the mean time we welcome you to go and have a look at The Gulch Gallery website in its present incarnation...

http://www.musecube.com/simmons

Happy Halloween! Go trick or treating with your kids, its safer for everyone that way...

Welcome to our Gulch Gallery blog!

This is a first for us, we will just see how it goes...I have been known to be highly opinionated about a number of things, any of which might show up here...this might evolve into a journal of sorts, or it may go some other direction...

The Gulch Gallery has also been referred to as the Lil Red House, a wonderful 116 year old house in historic McKinney, Texas that Kiran and Don are restoring and will eventually use as a traditional black and white studio and gallery...and show both our own work and work of other emerging artists. This has been a long but fulfilling project which will no doudt go on for quite some time...

The Gulch Gallery is really the result of an ongoing discussion Kiran and I have been having for quite some time, about being able to have a place to do our work, under controlled conditions that we would control , without the same restrictions placed on us that a college type environment would place on us - and this is the perfect solution to those discussions. As far as the blog goes there is just no telling what will show up here...

Don