North of Westport, when you cross over the Juan Creek bridge,.......
look over the edge.

 
While shopping at a  Michaels Arts and Craft store a few weeks back I found some cute little unfinished wooden coffins. Very inexpensive. Probably made by the thin fingers of small children in China. I had to get some.  I would decorate them with such brilliantly dark whimsey, they would fly off my gallery's shelf.

I wanted to do something with Edgar Allen Poe. Poe and Halloween, what could be better?  So I found a suitable image of Poe and made a visit to Dr. Photoshop.

A few days later I had my coffins finished. Paint dry, glue set. I decided to see if any other artist had the same stroke of genius...., so I took at peek at Etsy.  Etsy is a giant site where folks go to sell arts/craft, vintage type stuff. (Sort of a kinder, gentler, eBAy,..but without the auction part.) I put "little wood coffin" in the search.

Apparently Micheal's did a brisk business in those stupid caskets. There must have been a zillion of them. Some even more clever than mine!! Many even had the same picture of Poe. In fact there seems to be only one in photograph of Poe in the public domain. It was taken not too long before he died. At age 40.

At least my coffins are the only ones I saw that had an old key inside and magnet stuff glued to the back, allowing for a tasteful refrigerator display.
Alas

       My morning coffee is taken at the social hub of Westport, the venerable Westport Community Store. "Group "as we like to call it, takes place on the store's weathered porch, with the centerline of U.S.Coastal Highway One spitting distance from railing ( I know that because we have a serious spitter in Group.)
 
The  Westport Store has a wonderful view of the open ocean. Whales are often spotted while Group is in session. It is okay to interupt the conversation when this happens.

Group helps me get my social needs met. My husband leaves early in the morning for a real job. I work at home. It's 3 hours to any major Bay area town, on a choice of 3 bad roads. Group at least gets me out of my jammies and briefly out of the house. Plus you never know who might show up. Yesterday, Group was joined by a lovely couple who were passing through after camping at Macchericher Park. It turns out they work for the Discovery Channel. I won't reveal names but you might  recognize them from Deadliest Catch and Whales Wars.

Westport's population is meager. Maybe 50 year round residents in the village. Group has about 6 to 10 regulars. Two have to be there because they run the store.

We never gossip in Group. Or at least we try not to. But at least when you show up you can pretty much figure out the topic won't be you.

I love my fellow groupies. Even the Spitter.

My newest  art print. The  Westport full moon and the neighbor raven.