A Garden of Virtues

Sweet, old pic of little Shelley in his chair. I remember how cold it was that day.

"What do we have here?" Shelley put on his gold-rimmed glasses and started leafing through my notes. "Well, I'm typing up some old notes from my novel  A Raven for a Lark . I'm thinking of revising it." "I haven't read that one yet," he said, scanning my outline with interest. "What's it about? Let me guess. Romance, plantations, scandal. And a duel." "No, there's no duel, but there's a scoundrel." Shelley looked up with interest. "Tell me more." "His name's Hennessy. That's right. It was what I was going to name you. However, I decided against it, because I didn't want to associate you with a specific fictional character. Well, at the end of the story, Hennessy kidnaps Jenny and carries her to her childhood home. He sets it on fire, but Jenny escapes. Hennessy dies in the end." "Or so it seems, right?" Shelley's green eyes peered at me over his gol...

Shelley and Ophelia posed on a rare overcast morning in River Legacy Park. It was wild and overgrown, and we were literally hidden by the tall grass around us. Ophelia is wearing her "Kathleen" wig from Global Dolls and brown acrylic eyes. Shelley's wearing a default Tender Zen wig from Dream of Doll and his blue glass eyes. A pair of lovers, forever and ever, in a Texas grassland wilderness.

These are images from the omukae ceremony that I held for Ophelia and Shelley, my Dream of Doll Tender Bee-a and Too, on December 6, 2006, close to their second birthday. The omukae, or welcoming, ceremony is a ceremony designed by the ball-jointed doll company Volks to introduce new Volks dolls to their owners in a special way. I learned about the ceremony by reading threads and viewing images on the site Den of Angels. From what I can tell, Volks uses music, recitation, candles, and flowers in their omukae ceremonies. I created a ceremonial photo shoot with Ophelia and Shelley using candles, evergreen branches, and tiny flowers. The photos were taken at night with artificial lighting. Taken with my Palm Treo 600. MUTABILITY. Percy Bysshe Shelley We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver, Streaking the darkness radiantly!--yet soon Night closes round, and they are lost for ever: ...

This image reveals Shelley's gentle, contemplative nature. He looks at home in the bough of a tree in a brown landscape. Last night, I completed Shelley's name: Kirin Shelley. Kirin is his surname. In Cambriel, Ophelia learns that Shelley is the kirin, a powerful unicorn that occupies the earth for a thousand years. I learned about the kirin, or Japanese unicorn, last night. The Japanese kirin is similar to the Chinese ki'lin and the Western unicorn. The kirin has the power and menace of the ki'lin, but has a beauty similar to that of the Western unicorn. The ki'lin is a less attractive creature. Shelley is more of a kirin. Here is the kanji of his true name: 麒麟. Next time I go to a Japanese festival, I want to ask for a Shelley bookmark, so I can get the kanji for his first name as well. I guess it will be more like Sher-ry. Two years, and I'm finally getting around to a full name for my doll. It's never too late, though.