Have you ever seen anything so beautiful as this leaf. Barbara comes on Thursdays when she can to have lunch with Lee and me. She brought the other ones that I tied into a stack so as to see how they would push against each other as they dried. This leaf that has a waxy feel had fallen off the plant and into a protected place where it became this.
Right away I photographed it with a paddle made from Tasmanian Sassafras and purchased at the Salamanca Market in Hobart some years ago for Lee.
I tucked it away with this curling stack.
And the drawings a day.
A hat from many
bought in airport shops for Lee.
Here is New Zealand.
Hawaiian straw hat
A bit rumpled and crumpled
But can do the job.
Leather moccasins
Lee’s favorite any time
he is in the house.
Shoes that Lee will wear
if he is in the right mood
to fit his feet in.
And some more journal writings:
Recipes…
My Savoury Muffins when away
Approx.
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
Mix above together.
Stir in approx.
½ cup chopped sundried tomatoes
½ cup chopped sliced ham
2 slices cheddar cheese cut up
½ cup shredded parmesan
1 ½ tsp chopped chives
Dash of hot sauce.
Mix in
2 eggs with one egg’s worth of milk
Mix til just moist.
Shape in flat balls and bake 200 degrees celsius (375 Farenheit) for 20 to 25 minutes.
From a bartender at the International Club in Stanthorpe, Queensland.
Whiskey Mac
Equal parts Stones Ginger wine and scotch whiskey.
The latest poem for the Tether Book:
The Sun Is Shining
The sun is shining
and he wants to be outside.
Back at work in the yard
lining up rocks
or raking leaves into rows.
But when clouds come
and put his day in shadow,
his mind will follow.
He drops the rake
and wanders into darkness.
All I can do is call him back
with hot chocolate,
a funny story,
or point to a bird out the window
still singing.
I will start working on drawing the tether line while our son is here. I can go back in the studio then. I don’t think the soft graphite will do…it needs to be a simple black pen tether line that morphs through the pages below the poetry. Illustrations are supposed to be in service to the text, not distract from it.
I just need to remember to pick it up where it left off on the previous page. Easy.
Speaking of books and making them fit the content, I still have this one left from an idea I had years ago. The idea was that these blank journals were to be used as diaries. And how could I get this across without the old lock and key. I came up with this plan of having to wrap and unwrap it to access the pages. They all had wooden covers that I could drill a ¾” in. Then larks head on a long cord to be braided with a weight on the end…sometimes a large bead, sometimes a coin. After you wrote your secrets, you were meant to wrap the cord over the top and keeping it loose, go inside the front cover, out the hole and pull the bead tight. Then reverse those steps to “unlock” the diary. It seemed simple to me but I had to make a drawing of the steps to place inside each one I sold. Something about pulling that bead down tight made everything inside seem so private.
I also made them with thick book board but must have sold those.
That should do it for now.
Stay safe.