Some very dreary days here but the dogwood is beginning to bloom. And I tried to stay away from the plant stores…honestly, I did. But then one wander around the neighborhood and I thought I should go before they were all sold out. Silly idea! Many stores don’t even have all their plants in yet. But I did buy two new Japanese maples, several ferns, some herbs and wormwood and grasses. Digging holes is not as easy as it once was. Neither is hauling large bags of potting soils from the back of the car to where it needs to be. I might be finished for awhile. I also added a lovely glass hummingbird feeder to the back yard. But it has turned cold and they may have delayed their arrival.
The best news in the past few weeks was hearing from my Australian students who call every year to show me what they made in their workshop and the projects they are working on in the house we all rented together. This arrived yesterday from printmaker, Patsy, that has a side for each of the six of us. Mine is the Eucalyptus leaves…Judith is the penguin from her travels to Antarctica. It, along with Jane’s amazing embroidery have places of pride in the den. I am so grateful they check in each year with a video call to show me all the things they have worked on. They also send pictures of the cockatoos, kookaburras and kangaroos out in the yard there. My suggestion for next year is we each design a board game.
The idea of being a workshop instructor for students like these and others willing to dig deep got me thinking about how extraordinary some of those works have been. And how much it mattered to them to get feelings, passions and memories fixed into a place of belonging. I think I will write an essay on the works that come from such deep places and how wonderful it was to be a part of their explorations. I will forever miss those students who took the adventures into the things that genuinely mattered in their lives and asked for help in getting them housed in reliquaries with hidden spaces and private places.
Very few of the students I taught locally went beyond making places for family photos, letters and mementoes. All lovely, all safe to show. But the others, the ones that struggled with meaning…those were the best by far.
Last night was another invitation to wine tasting with the usual table of fun conversations over good food and wine. Here is the starter with all French wines beginning with a Viognier. Superb!
In another hour my physical therapist will be here to work some more on my balance, strength and confidence. Last week he remembered how much I loved punching the boxing bag. So we got my gloves back out to make it part of the new routine. Now I can make jabs with right and left fists into his padded hands while keeping my balance. It feels so good to just hit something.
Time to sign off for now….
Til later….