I treated myself to new sunflowers and a few other blooms the other day. Flowers like roses simply don’t fit in my house. Besides that, Sadie eats any plants and then chooses to lose them in pieces on the floor. This table is a place she will not jump up on…so they are safe. It seems sunflowers are much more expensive this year, but not surprising, as everyone is adding up the cost for consumers. I could not resist taking a Memorial Day bouquet to a neighbor just because she always makes me smile. Plus I pawned off a red glass vase (her favorite color). I wish there was a flower shop here in town instead of just the slim pickings of the grocery store. When I lived in the north, the florist would let me pick my own assortment from her cooler, charged me per bloom, and then wrap them in a brown parchment paper with a thin ribbon holding them all together. Now I am stuck with the pre-bundled choices someone in the grocery store arranges in ugly, poorly designed vases. All looking like they are headed to a hospital room or neglected mother.
BUT, the other evening a couple came by to share a nice red and brought more flowers with them. A simple bunch that I could put up away from Sadie.
I met them out front while sitting on this bench amid some very healthy, full shade loving ferns.
It was such a good visit. Virginia and I would occasionally have lunch together but got out of the habit. Now we will plan to do it more often. Her husband had not been to this house but loved seeing the artwork again. I so appreciate anyone who just stands in front of my large bird head image in the bedroom to stare at all the imagery and hidden text-like markings. Each one of them gets something different from what they see in it.
That got me thinking about what I catch myself staring at in the house:
Always Robert Hughes definitive book on Australia’s settling with convicts and consequences of a harsh land. And beside it on the same chest is my rock collection bowl.
details of work hung with the large bird head painting mentioned before.
Several have parts of my poetry included and always want to whisk me off to other times and passions needing expression. I love waking up each day to these reminders.
And this grouping that rounds the corner in the bedroom to more of the series of imagined specimens water colored onto gesso surfaces. Does anyone even make their own gesso anymore or do they just use premixed acrylics that are labeled “gesso”?
And next to the door to my bedroom are some other favorites to stare at.
And on the bed is always Sadie and Dilly coaxing me back for a warm cuddle.
My yardman came this week to do a bit of tending. He brought me another potted pine tree from his woods since I have not killed the previous one. Plus a new piece of bamboo for the water spout into the little pond. I promised him I would not buy any more plants and will keep showy flowers away from the aesthetic of my Japanese-looking exterior.
Sparrows come and have a shower here. Their nest is in one of the thick bushes by the pond. In the front yard there is an empty nest tucked into a bush. And when I am sure it has been abandoned, I will bring it in long enough to draw.
Some time back when a landscaper redid my front yard, I carved wood blocks to make a stage-like book presentation.
There were other detail images carved to be cut out and placed a bit away from the behind full image. the one on the far right had a lotus plant in front of the waterfall with fish image. Those same old iron fish came with me here to be part of my garden here. Anyway, I only made two of these books. they were a bit fiddly getting measurements cooperating with my idea. One was for me and the other for the landscaper, Tim Ryan, who sadly passed away recently. While landscaping my place he taught me how to trim Japanese maples…”always be aware of their bones.” He will be very missed in his town.
That particular wood cut of the fish and water is the image on my invitation card for a neighborhood open house.
Now I am going to go get some lunch, do my exercises, a bit of boxing, before settling into writing. That poor old man with limited speaking skills has so much more to tell me.
Til later…..