THE FARM CENTER ~ Carmel Valley Magic – 5 miles inland

WARNING  ALL ,  SUMMER   2016

This blog below was written over five years ago.  The Farm Center has so dramatically changed nothing about it is recognizable.  Everyone who made it beautiful, including me, has moved out.  I had a remarkable four years there. It was once all magic. There just isn’t anything left.

You’ve been advised.THE SPARHAWK GARDEN HAS NOW BEEN VIOLENTLY DESTROYED AND PLOWED UNDER AND THIS IS ALL YOU WILL SEE:  there is NOTHING LEFT LIVING

is a charming small magical island with more wide-open space around us than people ~~ between the ocean.  It’s half way, only miles inland, sun-filled and delightful. There’s a huge, welcoming meadow for walking next to the Carmel River (path next to the bridge) where Steelhead run, ducks bob. Condor, Hawks, Heron, Seagulls, Wrens, Blue Jays, Crows fill sky and tree….the ancient live oak, the Redwood, Aspen, Willow trees. Every side road is decked with reeds, flowering trees, Magnolias, Cherry, Pear, Apple, Plum. Deer roam in day and mountain lions stalk nights along the river banks.  Before heading further out to the Village for vineyards and wine tasting, before the cattle of Cachagua and just past the shopping center, is THE FARM CENTER and GRANGE.

   THE FARM CENTER just before this the oldest building in Carmel Valley (And Jack London Slept There)  It’s closed right now, used to be occupied by a wonderful sculptor named Paul, some of his sculptings and his gardens remain on view. THE FARM CENTER is a small group of fabulous little SHOPS just a few feet off Carmel Valley Road beyond the Safeway Shopping Center. In it you will find Char ETIENNE ANTIQUES FOR HOME AND GARDEN(she also designs landscaping) with exquisite things and has a spectacular back garden to wander through.

Then THE HAWKS PERCH GALLERY, the only art gallery in mid-Valley and the best on the Central Coast!  And I also carry Ron Wohlauer Photographs. Run by the  EXPRESSIONIST PAINTER ~~me~~ BARBARA SPARHAWK.  I accept portrait commissions of people and animals, SIGNS of any kind made to order.  I sell my own beautiful oil paintings of FLORALS and LANDSCAPES and PORTRAITS, WATERCOLORS, PEN & INKS, and imaginings at unimaginably low prices!  I want everyone in the world to own a Sparhawk Original. 

Next to THE HAWKS PERCH gallery is the most extraordinary. In their huge backyard gardens and fountains, a walk through will lea

 

Hthe meadow is BOB MATTSON’S SADDLERY.  Bob has been here over 25 years.  He’s a master craftsman with leather.  He’ll not only repair your saddle, or sell you a spectacular one for a great price, he’ll make you a belt or knife-sheath, soften up old reins, sell you a saddle blanket.  His shop is an incredible delight to all the senses, a step back in time, a feel of the world of horses before cars. SEE WHAT YOU’VE BEEG! 

THE F used to be all grain and feed and the best place to get your Levi’s.  We still get visitors looking for jeans and hay. It’s gone through a lot of transforming over the years, and it’s better all the time.  Stop in for a visit!  Worth the trip and the sun is always shining.THE FARM CENTER SHOPS, MID-VALLEY

 

JUCARMEL VALLEY BINSANYON ROAD

Original Oil Paintings by SPARHAWK

EXPRESSIONIST ARTIST BARBARA SPARHAWK is famous for being the only female scaffold hauling BILLBOARD PAINTER in the world in the ’70’s (mostly over Times Square) and painting the ROLLING STONE’S WORLD TOUR BILLBOARD ALBUM COVER ‘MADE IN THE SHADE’. She was commissioned to paint a portrait of WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR from sittings; her work has been exhibited at QUANTICO ACADEMY.  She is the author and illustrator of a book of short stories (THE GANDY DANCER) and a children’s book (COCO NO!) with more to come! In a NY career of journalism and politics, SPARHAWK wrote evening news for CBS, ABC, FOX TV, produced ROCKANDROLLA and TALK RADIO shows for WABC and WOR; and was PRESS SECRETARY TO US CONGRESSWOMAN GERALDINE FERRARO, and family CHEF to the Beach Boys Jardine Family.  That’s the short version.

SPARHAWK ORIGINALS STILL AVAILABLE:  EMAIL thehawksperch@outlook.com

 

 

STUNNING PETRAEUS HANDJOB or IS IT?

STUNNING PETRAEUS HANDJOB or IS IT

“This is a very personal matter, not a matter of intelligence,” the senior U.S. intelligence official said. (credit Horowitz & Miller, Washington Post, 10/10/12)

Hoo boy they got that one right. No intelligence required.

Because we’ve gone through the looking glass, pal. One hot fireball of corruption after another has been nonstop hurtling through the sky at the American population for years. None of your breaking news is news.

We all know what we’re seeing without the usual falsified investigations, made-up timelines, pretend guilty parties, pretend innocent politicians, who picked the fall guy or why ~ all of which are no doubt on their way ad nauseum. Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Congress. Nobody cares.

No one in any governing body in this country is ever going to hold anyone of their kind accountable for anything, evermore. The American population may be properly exhausted by lies, but see all politicians for what they have become. We know what you’re doing to us.

One of the officials said Justice Department officials were unclear on what steps to take after they concluded that there would be no charges against the CIA director (Petraeus) or Broadwell and that there had been no breach of national security. “What was our responsibility?”   said one of the officials. “We were in an area where we’d never been before.” (credit Horowitz & Miller, Washington Post, 10/10/12)

Of course he doesn’t have a clue. National judgement based on constitutional reference or plain logic no longer exists. Our systems of highest security are fallen to the sea. The population is the first to figure it out and the last to be officially notified. Still, it’s a rare conclusion. I mean, who’s he talking to? A country of amnesiacs?

We made the bed we lie in from histrionic celebration of power/money-mad politicians who profit from corrupting their sacred trust instead of being put in jail. Who unequivocally malign or murder their inconvenient mistresses and never stand trial. Who fail their duty to disclose flaws of candidates giving them authority great and small over the governance of 350 million people…yet still hold office. Morality is now speculative. Truth, now subjective.  2 + 2 now = whatever you like.

Mitt Romney was the wrong opponent in a 2 party system because he surrendered with only 10 percent of the vote counted. If he’s not a fighter, he’s no good to anyone. I think we’re going to see state-wide secession big time, and a population that picks where to live for the political climate not the purple mountain majesties or shining seas. Then we’ll either have a civil war or avoid one.

As for the press, your capital has been spent. WE DON’T NEED YOU. WE DON’T HEED YOU. WE DON’T READ YOU. Where’s Bob Dylan when he could be doing some good again. Oh right, he’s just another old white guy.

(Note: Barbara Sparhawk is a former speechwriter for Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro; news writer, producer, & researcher for New York’s WCBS, WABC, FOX TV, and ABC and WOR Radio, and reporter for The NY Post. She currently has an art gallery on California’s central coast where she happily produces and sells her own paintings and drawings.)