Rick Fielding has a great backyard

Subject: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: DonMeixner
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 11:27 PM

Which is where we sat and swapped songs, beers and assorted philosophies while a stormed brewed over the lake. Rick is one of the best guitarists I have had the pleasure of swapping songs with. Rick's wife Heather is a most gracious hostess and surely put up with much that evening. ( I imagine she is used to it by now tho') Also in attendance were Rick's student Marcie and Heather's sister from Scotland, The Dutchess of Argyl.

Thanks for the home away from home Rick.

Don

PS: Did I leave my capo on the picnic table?

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Bert
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:18 AM

Yup, and he built that shed with a Dremel Tool!

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:32 AM

You lucky sod. You went to Pickin' Mecca and all we have to show for it is a thread? No t-shirt My friend went to my other friend's Mecca and all he brought back was this lousy t-shirt; just a thread?! **BSEG**

One day, I will see it, too. Got any pix?

luvyakat

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 09:46 AM

I think that the yard is Heather's doing, but I could lose myself in Rick's back room. Music, music, music.

Don, did you experience Rick's latest obsession, Barbecuing?

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 10:25 AM

Ahhhhhh....Barbequeing.....if any Mudcatter has had an influence on me in that direction it was Doug R. (remember all that talk about his smoker?). Don't worry though kat, even though I'm Barbequing up a storm, and even have an apron(!!) I'm not joining the Republican Party (or Canadian equivalent)

T'was great to meet Don.....and lemme tell you a few things about the guy (other than that he's 'quick', talented, generous, and smiles)....

....most of us have known for a while about his adventures with power saws and fingers.....but that's just the beginning. Apparently Don has always had a bit of a daredevil mentality and has broken more body parts than I can name!

P.S. He is a wonderful silversmith, and we are currently wearing examples of his art. If ya have a verrry special person on yer gift list, you should give Don a PM.

The "Dutchess of Argyle" (nee Linda Docherty McKissock), "Mcknees" on Mudcat, is enjoying her stay, and is probably wondering by now if I do ANY work at all!! She's caught me between concerts, and sometimes it looks like my students just drop by for socializing!

Cheers, Don. Hope to see you again! By the way he's got a nice Ode banjo (and is a wicked frailer) and a 'Mississippi John Hurt' Guild.

Rick

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Amos
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 10:51 AM

Dang, that's it. I'm moving to Toronto!...well...maybe in the Spring, eh? San Diego does have its redeeming qualities -- we sunbathe at Christmas.

But otherwise, I would. Sounds like a grand day!

A

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 11:02 AM

Actually Amos, this has been the most consistantly hot and non-rainy summer in Canadian history. The weather has been astonishing. Peter T, the environmentalist, thinks it's Global warming.....but we Rush Limbaugh listeners KNOW that Hilary Clinton is responsible.

Anyway, it's hot!

Rick

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 11:31 AM

I have a great backyard too, Rick. When are you coming down here? Don't make me come up there.

~S~

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 11:32 AM

WITH smoker. Jack Daniels wood chips.

~S~

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Dave Swan
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:16 PM

The Fielding's back yard is indeed a wonderful place, made that way by Rick & Heather's warm welcome.

But beware the black hole which lurks at the bottom of the garden. I saw it swallow Big Mick in one bite. No kidding. I'm not making this up. Ask Peter T., he saw it too.

And they say that late at night, when the moon is full, you can hear the lost Irishman moaning "What the feeeecccckkk?" as he disappears down the hole again and again......

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Amos
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:23 PM

LOL, Swanno!!

A

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:40 PM

That wouldn't be Finnegan, would it? If so, maybe we can get Bill Shatner to visit Rick and Heather on the full moon and pop that little Irish sod a good one (if you don't know what I'm referring to, you're not as well up on the old Star Trek episodes as you ought to be).

Do you live in the Beaches area or something, Rick?

- LH

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:53 PM

Yup. On Kingston road at the corner of Fallingbrook (the street where actual rich people live). Personally, we're downwardly mobile trailer trash, with pretentions.

The hole that Big Mick fell into, wasn't a hole BEFORE he deposited himself there. We have a memorial plaque, that says:

"At this spot a feckin' overweight Labour organiser who thinks he's Irish, tipped over backwards, and disappeared into the roses. We had to pry his Guild 12 string from his cold dead fingers".

Our neighbours on one side erected an eight foot high fence, so they wouldn't have to hear the folk music that often comes from our yard. We're sort of the "acoustic" Ozzie and Sharon Osbourne.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:59 PM

Little Hawk, Finnegan wasn't there any more than the ground was where Mick went. It was an illusion of ground, but a lot more believable than a talking rabbit. I believe Mick tried to move his chair into the "no-sit zone" when we were up there in July and multiple voices yelled "STOP!!!" before he could take a dirt dive.

Rick, you and Heather gotta NAME the backyard garden retreat. Not something silly like "The Backyard" or "The Garden" but something along the lines of "Elysia" (which I'm probably spelling wrong) or "Tream" ...or maybe just "Graceland."

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 01:01 PM

LOL....Great plaque Rick. The only plaque I have is on my teeth......

Actually it sounds a great time and as I have one of Don's beautiful bracelets which Karen wears daily and gets a lot of comments on!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Peter T.
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 02:22 PM

What these snide remarks at Mick miss was the gracefulness of his unexpected descent, not unlike what one must imagine goes on in the depths of the ocean when a diving whale drags a hapless harpooner to his doom. An Irish Leviathan, perhaps.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Amos
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 02:35 PM

Beauty in haplessness!! By god, PT, you're on to something here!! LOL!!

A

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: DougR
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 02:39 PM

I dunno,Rick. Don't sell the power that comes with good barbqueing short. It COULD sway you my way (now if I could just remember where I put that recipe for Republican rub I use on brisket, mutter, mutter) :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Night Owl
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 03:01 PM

trying to stop laughing long enough to ask if Mick was ok.......cuz I know it's not nice to laugh at other people's pain. Really, I do, (giggle)...really....

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: MMario
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 04:10 PM

"I>Fluffy the Irish Leviathon?

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 04:14 PM

Oh, there was PAIN ALL RIGHT, Owl! The pain in Heather's eyes as this massive form crashed through lovingly tended flowers! Even more pain from Peter T. as his hero once and forever dis-proved the theory that large men CAN be graceful! And I can barely describe the pain that the four Nuns in attendance went through, when they heard the language that the lumbering Leviathan sprinkled around! I can assure you, he didn't say "Oh Lord Be-Jaysus, Oim takin a wee tumble here"!

It's too late Doug...I may even take up Golf, and buy a white plastic belt! Them bleedin' hearts ain't gettin' my vote, now that I know the joys of outdoor carnivore cookin'!

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 04:33 PM

It sounds lovely, Rick. Let me know when the next big event occurs in your backyard, and I will come down and play harmonica and stuff. Seriously. PM me whenever.

- LH

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Amos
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 04:39 PM

Rick:

I warn you, Heather's gonna draw the line when you put in for Argyles and plaid knickerbockers, man!!

A

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Peter T.
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 04:45 PM

Start watching the golf channel, and I rip up my Rick Fielding Is God poster. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Tinker
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 10:39 PM

Laughing out loud, but my tears are for the flowers....I'm hoping they were old perrenials which will return with the spring.... or perhaps an old rose which could bite back... To Heather, my sympathies... Mick, the poor wee flowers were just trying to grace the evening ad scent the air and then....

Tinker

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 11:33 PM

I'm with Peter in this one, Rick...having a barby, okay, I guess, esp. if ya do veggies on it, BUT golf???!! White plastic belt??? There goes my altar to Pickin Mecca!!*bg*

Oh..Mickdarlin'...ya need any help getting those thorns outta yer lovely backside?:-)

kat LOL

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: DonMeixner
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 01:23 AM

I never saw the "The Black Hole". It was dark after all and we did engage in a small bout of consumption so we weren't wandering far from the table.

I missed out on the B-B-Q oportunity, I had to leave for home at 5:00 on Friday. I traveled that Parking Lot known as the QEW from Toronto to Hamilton in just under three hours. Next time I'll go home by way of Kingston and take the Ferry.

Rick spoke some kind words about my banjo playing but the first time I ever heard my Ode played was when Rick played "Catspaws Rag" on it for me.

Everyone's back yard should be a hint of Eden. Rick's certainly is that.

Don

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 10:01 AM

Jaysus, Mary and St. Joseph! As if it isn't enough of a load to bear, what with having to spend the weekend playing in a Festival with Seamus Kennedy, drinking copious amounts of a barely adequate imitation of Guinness (Murphy's), watching the wee fella from Belfast do his version of "Got Milk" for my 10 year old substituting Murphy's foam for the milk and having the mustache start at the bridge of his nose and go all the way to his chin. Then he would refuse to wipe it off, instead letting it drip to his mouth...................hahahahahahahaha. And wee Ciara loved it. I suffered the outrageous slings and barbs of 4 of these Norn Irish lads. Pat Woods from Keady, Seamus from Belfast, Des Quinn from somewhere in County Down, and the wee madman Seamus Duffy of Derry. Once they got going, civilized Southerners couldn't understand a word of that "sweet Belfast brogue". Singin', slaggin' and playin' the tunes nonstop for three days.

And then I come home to this!

Now..........you know how these folks exaggerate. The facts are that Heather has recreated Eden in that back yard. It only had one problem. She needed a reflecting pool, a place for schools of Koi to swim. A place for water lilies to bloom. Given that I have pledged my life to service, and conflicted by my status as a partner in Fielding, Swan, Patterson, and Lane....Layabouts at large and for hire, I had to find a way to excavate for the pond without much manual labor. After all, our corporate logo is "It's the least we can do". And so I sacrificed my body to fulfill my desire to serve. And what do I get???? Abuse...............feckin' abuse.........I'll tell ya, it ain't easy being me.........

Rick's basement...........wow.....I do love that basement. When Jed and I took our ramble early in the year, that room was my bedroom. I would reach up and strum the strings on the instruments. Or pull one off the wall to wind down with before bed.

Glad you got the chance to experience this, Don.

Mick

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 10:19 AM

Mick, I'd probably believe that stuff about excavating if I hadn't also heard they immediately tried to fill the hole...and that you kept undoing their work by continually trying to dig your way out.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 10:31 AM

Now, Jeri, Mick was just trying to give them more hole to fill!! Dedicated to service is he!! LOL!!

A

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 10:36 AM

Mick, it's a lot harder for me to be ME, than it is for you to be YOU! You've always had that "ethnic" thing to fall back on. (actually, the last time you fell back on it, you completely crushed the sucker!)

Glad you had fun Festivaling. Hope to see you at the Gettttawayyyy.

Rick

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Peter T.
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 10:39 AM

Sure, and now he says it was a pool he was excavatin', him the force of Nature himself, spreading devastation in his wake, sure, and all them poor orphaned flowers weepin and carryin on, ochone, ochone, their pur old mithers and fathers crushed and broken, scattered along the crater's edge, the orphans takin' sips from the craythur's edge, and them with their whistles wetted then keenin high and low, and Father Rick lookin' out at the ragin' sea, and tryin' to be a comfort, and the waters roilin', and all because of Moby McDick, the Irish Leviathan, despoiler of innocents, could there be anythin' sadder, mother Mary sure, and now what does he say but it was construction, and the innocents lyin' shattered in the graves of destruction where they fell. Have you ever heard the like, Seamus?

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 11:10 AM

Now lift your bowl and intone, Te introibo ad altare Dei, and think on how the mighty, plump stately Buck and the Mighty Mick, Shem and Sean and all their kithing kin, are fallen. My, is all they could say -- it is a fine big hole he's left there, innit? Oh, yes. It's quite big, they reply. The wive cry, It was the ale, sure, but they wouldn't know nothin', being but alewives themselves. No, it was something larger, of that there is no doubt; larger by fathoms, larger by yards, unfathomable yards and mysterious holes to make the alewives weep and weep. Broadcloth, narrow cloth, and loincloth, by and in the yard, but it goes much deeper than that, sure. It is much too deep for the likes of me!

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 03:23 PM

Are the kithing kin couthinth? They aren't the oneth who kith the air in the vithinity of your fathe are they?

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 03:55 PM

LOL!! Ulysses guys outer the box and all hell breaks loose, thinking outside the box in all seven circles! Whose wake it is to be is to be seen, faceless kisses and faithless kisses merging in a caterwauling of misplaced hearts and hard-sugar Valentines. Ah well, we'll fall back on alewives and garden parties, and being as we are gainfully thus employed, or half-gainers anyway, we need not worry about the circles, diameters or the bums. Except perhaps the diameters of the bums. At least seven circles broad, but very hip, too, three four I am sure.

A

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 08:13 PM

Hey Mick, if the Michigan Irish Festival had a flower garden and a lily pond, I'm sure you could have made a right mess of them too. The big lad can sop up the poteen (it was a good drop, wasn't it?) like blotting paper, and he was lorryin' the ersatz pints into him like a man with no elbows, and still he could play the guitar, the bodhrán, the bouzouki/mandola hybrid thingy and sing like a lark in the mornin'. All seriousness aside, we had mighty craic at the Festival with the Conklin Ceili Band - my God, Shelly can play that dulcimer and pick the hell outta that old Martin of her dad's - Pat Woods, and everybody else who came by Pete Brown's Office Tent for a song or a tune on Saturday and Sunday. Great jammin' with youse guys. Thanks for the hospitality.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 08:29 PM

My gawd!! Seamus and Mickus Infinitus??? I'lda thought I'd died and gone to heaven by mistake!! Wotta waking that would have been!! But unlike Finnegan, wiser by larning, I'ld have kept me piehole firmly shut! :>) Just to watch the poteen fly around, ya know!

A

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Night Owl
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 08:37 PM

Mick was dressed in just a loincloth when he "excavated"??? Extraordinary sacrifices, Mick, to help with a Mudcatter's landscaping. With dedication like that, "Large Layabouts"........whoops, I mean....."Layabouts at Large" is destined for success!
(Sounds like a great wk-end at the Irish Festival)

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 04:45 PM

Alright lads ,all this intriguing chatter inspired this refracted little limerick :

I've read this thread of colorful words,

like so many burrds alla-crowin' ,

weavin' tales of a garden,

but I do beg yer pardon ,

there's nary a net photo a-showin'.

How about it then ;-)

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 12:04 AM

Actually Taleisn, Don Meixner's being very kind. We have a smallish house off Lake Ontario and the backyard is pretty non-descript....we DO have lots of privacy, and quite a bit of growin' stuff, but if anything has made it special over the six years we've owned it, it's the folks who drop by to chat and pick (and fall into the garden).

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 07:49 AM

(quote) ".., but if anything has made it special over the six years we've owned it, it's the folks who drop by to chat and pick (and fall into the garden). "

Ahhhh , I understand . Then it truly is a "magic garden" as you apparently have all of the magic ingredients. ;-) Well then photos could never do justice to what the white magic of words have conjured; something those of Irish decent are well-practiced in the arts of.

So keep those thousand blarney-blossoms bloomin' between friends then for they are as fair and as sweet ;-)

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Peter T.
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 08:38 AM

actually the garden is very descript. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Amos
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 08:43 AM

Nought to do but re-Joyce the hallowed Mickus, then, clearly.

A

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Big Mick
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 11:54 AM

Aye, Taliesn, you have the meat of it then.

Allright, then, my friends, turn on your receptors and imagine this. One parks in Ricks driveway, walks along the side of the older red brick bungalow to a fence gate. Upon opening it, stop for a moment and look out over the houses towards the big lake. It is a vista to let your imagination run with. If you start at the furthest point you can imagine, you will see one of the storied Great Lakes, and feel her breath coming up the hill. Bring your minds eye to a slightly nearer point and you find yourself looking out over the neighborhoods of this wonderfully diverse city. You find yourself wondering at what she looked like growing up, and how many stories she has to tell you. Stories of those who lived and died while in her care. And if you focus no further than the narrow city backyard you are in, you will see all the signs of Heathers little plot of love and contentment. You will see a box or a barrow, filled with weeds fresh from her busy, Scottish hands. You will see the table, with a couple of coffee cups, testament to the time spent there by these two wonderful people. Once you have become their friend, you know that this is where you will find them. You will see a shed, well built, but upon closer inspection it will bear the unmistakable marks left by the Dremel tool. And then there is the rather large depression, left as a shrine to the big, lummox of a brute who fell into the garden. The best thing you can do here is to sit down. With any luck you will get some quiet time with our Heather. You come to realize that she is a quiet, strong woman. In the conversation you realize that she is deep, yet there is a twinkle in her eyes, a gaiety, and a love of life, that one cannot help but be strongly attracted to. Children see these things quickly, and that is why my 10 year old daughter, the wee Ciara, loves this woman so. As do I, and all that know her. In a few minutes, Rick will invariably head up the garden stairs to the magic room. His fabled music room. And a minute later he is back with a couple of instruments, his actions signalling that the conductor is ready to begin the sharing of his beloved craft. It is in the sharing of the music that one begins to know the love that this man has for his music, and the people that want to play it. He is, quite simply, a master teacher. Our Rick will pull every person into the music, and make them comfortable for the being there. But be warned, he will dissect your technique and give you tips on how to improve it. And you will walk away feeling good about your music. And you will have shared the music, learned new tunes and techniques, and met some of the most fascinating people you can imagine.

There in lies the crux of this backyard. It is the ultimate expression of the team of Rick and Heather. In Heathers loving hands, it has become a place that one just loves being. It looks great and feels comfortable just walking down the stairs. And when the conversation, and then the music, starts..............well, you just know that you are welcome here, indeed you belong here, in the company of loving friends and caring people.

Rick and Heather do, indeed, have a great backyard.............When one walks back up the stairs to pass through the gate, they cannot but help but to stop and turn and look down the hill again. First at the yard, then at the city, then feel the breath of the lake......and feel sad at leaving. And looking forward to returning........

Mick

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 12:15 PM

Well said Mick.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Night Owl
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 12:22 PM

Wow, Mick....THAT's beautiful writing. THANKS for the wonderful picture you painted and the warmth of the colors in it.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Peter T.
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 06:27 PM

Oh hell, I withdraw all the smart remarks, curse you, Mick, now I owe you a goddam hug, curses.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: DonMeixner
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 07:07 PM

I suspect it was done this way to limit time mowing and maximize time musicing.

Like I said, Rick and Heather have a great backyard.

Don

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 09:25 PM

Ahhhh , Mick , me boyo ,but ya make it all sound like a song of the spirit of Findhorn has found a perch on Lake Ontario.

You always get what you give.

"Magic garden" indeed.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding has a great backyard
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 06:57 PM

Sublime and moving, Mick. But I'da still paid money to see the incident!