A Holiday Weekend – For Who?

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Lee and Sadie are getting naps. It is Labor Day.  I am trying to hurry this along before Lee wakes up. Earlier today he wanted to go home again. He seems a bit more lost and does not know what to do with himself. I had him sample the goulash and had him dry the pots and pans….then we had lunch. When I went back to reading our book, he dropped off.  Now he is asleep on his porch swing.

Here are the last six days of drawings.

What causes the feathers

to fall from the bird’s body

and settle in our path?

 

This trail collection

was spotted and gathered up

to draw on this page.

 

It is difficult

drawing white trumpet shaped blooms.

Where are the edges?

 

A freshly fallen

pine cone spreading it’s petals

to release it’s seed.

 

Some of these feathers

from Rufus sided Towhee

one from mourning dove.

 

Giant goldenrod

growing along the driveway

are very golden.

 

There was some time to work on the fairy book.

And the acorn brothers collecting frogs.

And this below some root…an opening for hanging laundry.

All for as I need to get this posted….be back in a couple of days.

Tuesdays!

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I was just saying to the caregiver that we are living in a time when every day is Tuesday. Nothing big happens. There is not much in the mailbox. One day just rolls into the next. And almost all of them are less than exciting, less than memorable. There used to be a difference between say, a Sunday, and a Tuesday. Sunday we started with breakfast out and found fun things to do after we got home. Now there is no difference than if it was Tuesday….no breakfast out and little to no mail.

I read memes on facebook that it is up to me to make the most of my day. It is an attitude thing. Well, in all honesty, it is not an attitude thing! A smile on my face is not going to make Trump supporters grow some intelligence. A smile on my face is not going to make me get all the chores done that Lee can no longer do. A smile on my face is not going to make someone call and say, “Can I do something for you?” A smile just is not enough.

So I am reading stories, books to Lee. Both of us can get lost in someone else’s life for as many hours as it takes to get through the book. I just finished reading Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale. She tells a good story. Interesting characters, lots of ways to change your voice when you read it aloud…and you can temporarily become anyone of them. Reading aloud is magic. I feel myself becoming my mother. She was so good at taking us away with the classics she read to us. Not those silly Disneyfied Golden Books but big hardbound books with loads and loads of words that chased each other across the pages. Only rarely was there a full colored illustration that more or less fitted into what you had imagined.

I wish I had more time than my blog to write words that I know are just waiting for me to find the time to push from my fingers. Stories are just backing up in the shoe box I keep in my head to store the good stuff. It is full of 3 x 5 cards with pale blue lines full of names and “what ifs”. Sometimes I pop the lid just before going to sleep to put another card in there.

Anyway, there are two more new hardbound books on the table and another one on the way. Lee and I will get lost together in something that makes our endless Tuesdays more worthwhile. When I catch him napping while I read, I wake him and tell him we are getting to the good part and he leans forward and waits. We just need to have books with lots of good parts….easily done. Amazon! “Amazon” is like “abra cadabra” used to be. And there it is in the mailbox….plenty of new .3mm pencil leads, new shoes, fish food, cat litter, new shirts, whatever is truly needed at the time with the luxury of being able to send it back…..but we rarely do. You just have to be honest about how much you really need to have brought to you via the magic of Amazon.

Speaking of magic….isn’t this an inviting image? I altered it just a touch to a vivid warm I think they call it on my IPhone. But it does conjure up something that begs description….a story.

I reminds me in a way of the Eucalyptus trees in Australia that I never get enough of. Someone over there asked me why I found them so irresistible. And I said, “Just look at them! Not one wants to be ignored! They present themselves for your approval! How in the world can you possibly ignore that?” Something about this one seems to be giving me an invitation to come close and listen to what it has to say.

I also found a Howler Fairy in the crape myrtles.

And the last four days of drawings.

The lotus season

has left the tiniest pods

slumped by their own weight.

 

These oak tree leavings

were found along the trail path

this early morning.

I love this feather

that was wet, a bit tattered,

and just left behind.

 

Small messy feathers

and remains of a pine cone

trying to be one.

 

I need to go through drawers, closets, cupboards and throw things away. But I am afraid I might need another responsible adult with me to do it. So much of what we have is no longer needed. And there seems no way to give it away. So much needs sorted. So much are things I don’t even want to look at let alone make decisions about.

I think it would be a good idea to have my kids arrive like they did at Christmas….but not until when things are safe again….say, April next year….after vaccinations. They could lay claim to the things they wanted and we would be left with only what we could see easily. No unwanted bits and pieces hiding away waiting to be important again. I get hard put to remember why they were important in the first place. I should have  been as unsentimental as my mother. She could give something away to the first person who said it was nice or interesting or lovely. She should come back from her place in the beyond and give me a hand here. Wherever she is, she is reading to someone and likely too busy enjoying herself to give me a hand….Somewhere I can hear her saying, “You made the mess, you clean it up.”

Well, yes mom, I am going to get to that. Soon.

Til later.

 

More To Talk About

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I see this tree outside my studio window. I am here now on a bit of a drizzly day with some time to work and write. The caregiver is on an earlier shift today. I forgot. Now the office is sending me reminders every week of who comes when.

Lee and I did get the shopping done early. I like to be there when the door opens at seven. This is getting more difficult as it now is darker later into the morning and now school buses are on the road. I think Saturday mornings might be a good alternative. No buses and unlike if I changed to Sunday, I could still buy alcohol at that early hour.

When we returned home I picked up the mail. Two wonderful gifts from Australia. Here is the first from Patsy. Her wonderful figures.

Sometime I will show you pictures of her studio where she conjures up these ideas. Patsy also is an amazing print maker. It might be fun to show some friends studios in the future.

Here is the other gift that arrived today.

Two more silk covered concertina books from Lorraine. She also tucked in a pair of hand knit socks for Lee and two silk scarves with contact prints. I twisted the two together and knotted them here and there to just slip over my head as the weather cools. But aren’t these books lovely? I will have to figure out what to draw in them after the fairies one is finished.

Speaking of which….

Another start to another page. I like the tulip on the one little fellows head.

I found another hidden doorway yesterday on our walk.

And I had an afternoon to draw some more clothes in the My Life in Clothes book.

Remember muumuus? I had a hot pink one with white hibiscus flowers on it. I think every female in Florida wore these around 1960. Then there is that wretched one piece gym suit….dark blue. A plaid kilt. straight skirt with the split up the back seem….why didn’t they just make fuller skirts so girls could walk? A peasant shirt (lots of loved those) and my first strapless bra in case I pulled the peasant shirt with elastic neckband off my shoulders. And penny loafers! I think these were costly for my parents to buy but I was so glad to look like everyone else back then. Certainly was a phase…teenagers!

Also going on in the studio is the figuring out how to bind all these reproduced images by another Australian. Judith had them turned into postcards that I cut down to place back to back over lokta folded folios. I might add other bits in between after it is sewn together and a cover is figured out.

And then the last two days.

An orange nasturtium

with it’s green lotus-like leaf

made a good subject.

 

The last of a bloom

on a dark geranium

with it’s bright green leaf.

 

After we returned from the store this morning we noticed that the last of the mulch was put down. He came silently yesterday and also pulled some weeds. Nice surprise. And then this in a sourwood tree right at the start of the trail. Isn’t it late for blooms? Is it Spring again and we missed winter. Odd things happening with weather changes.

I heard just a bit ago from a fellow in Australia just wanting me to know hoe very sad he is for our country. The willful ignorance has brought us very low.

Til later.

 

Lots To Show Today

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Lee and I found this passion flower on the trail today. So it had to be the drawing this morning. Here are the last four days.

A few brown dead things

from along the trail and some

from on the driveway.

 

Couple more dead leaves

dried, curled, rumpled and holey

– just right for drawing.

 

A very ratty

mud-filled feather is cleaner

as drawn on the page.

 

The passion flower

remedy for sleeplessness

is difficult to draw.

 

I finished my sewing as far as I could take it the other day. Now the studio is cleaned up of all the scraps, machine, ironing board, iron, pins, threads, scissors, etc. I miss the needles as soon as I put them away. I might just have to piece together some scraps if for no other reason than to keep stitching.

On the idea of sewing clothes. The thing that I like the best when looking at those who are modeling clothes is the looseness of them. And yes, the models are thin and everything looks loose on them. But when you go to look at larger models wearing clothes, they all seem to be in stretched out to the max knits. Every shirt catches on their bum. It just does not look good nor comfortable. So given a choice, I am going for comfortable. The linen pants I sewed are loose so they create a breeze when I walk. The shirts are big enough to fall away in the back and not get hung up. I added asymmetrical bottom pieces to the short vests I made a couple of years ago. I like the two tone of them. I like how they flare away from the body. I like how they looked layered already. I am not sure I could find anything in the stores that looked like these things I sewed. And I really like how I have been influenced by friends in Australia who just keep putting pieces together until it can be worn out in public.

So once sewed, I threw them all in the new washing machine and dryer to see how that worked on the linens. Then I ironed them and put them on hangers together with matching pants. I think I might do that with all my clothes. Just hang them together so I don’t have to go looking for what goes with what.

I agree with the stories I hear about how Covid and isolation has caused us to become more casual in our clothing tastes. We want to stay with comfortable. Even when this is finally over I don’t see myself buying much in the way of new clothes or shoes. I know what I like and have made sure to have enough to get by. Lots to give away when I get out to give away.

Other things along the trail this past few days.

 

Bambi.

His mom.

And Thumper.

I found some more faces to work into the fairy book.

This one almost ready to fall off the tree.

One carved in stone.

And this one giving me the side-eye.

I did start another page in the Fairy Book. And wonder what to do when it is finished. If I go to edition a small number of them I may just try to do it myself. The Stoat Story cost me not only the printing cost but just shy of $100 to get the pages shipped from Asheville to here…..a two hour drive but something I really can not do right now with Lee. I also think I would like to use a more fluttery paper to go with the subject matter…we will see how I go on that.

The books I sent to Australia are beginning to show up now. So far they are pleased to get them and make donations to the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Center.

And then the other morning while waiting for Lee to finish up in the bathroom down by the studio before we continued our walk, I looked close at one of the pieces that did not make the burial. It is a forty inch square canvas with much stitched and glued to the surface. Lots of shellac afterwards. It was the original idea for Lost Peaces about our penchant for going to war. And while I was staring into the textures I took some close up pictures.

Here a peace dove is shot down.

He ends up in the specimen drawer with others, all have the reasons for failure tied to their stiff and curled feet.

And this hole. I love the doorway-ness of it. “Holes are for taking things out and putting things in”….I read that somewhere. I also think these colors are luscious. I miss the days of just picking up bits and pieces and sticking them onto a surface with the intention of telling a story. I do not do this anymore because there are enough stories out there already and we can only listen to so much before everything becomes a slow meaningless hum in the background of our lives. But this, this one small part of a bigger humming speaks volumes to me. It is loaded with memories of those who were telling big stories at the same time. The ones I loved sharing ideas with….the passions we had to make our own noise in our work. I miss them. I miss the feeling. I want to walk through this opening and return to then. I really do.

And this other bit. The fragility of cloth and thread and paper in the company of organized metal pieces. Hard nails and screws that have had a hard time of it. They all, every piece of this work, seem exhausted by the efforts of keeping peace. And yet some of us just pick up the needle and thread and try like hell to hold it all together. I need to look at this work more often. I need to see the hopefulness and not the destruction. As these times have revealed, some things are worth holding onto and others are simply not.

And a small note on how Lee is doing. He is traveling a bit more into his past. At least twice a week he will hide something he thinks is necessary for his trip “back home”. Yesterday he told me that the house had changed and nothing was familiar….he wanted to know where the other things were…where the other people were. I said, “Let’s fix dinner.”

And yesterday I also finished reading the Australian mystery, The Dry, to him. He does not know so much what the story is about but likes the sound of my voice describing other things, other places. Next I will read him the latest Louise Penny novel about Inspector Gamache. It comes on the first of September.

Thank you to those who ask and those who keep in touch by sending cards and newsy notes. Last week he hid the bag he keeps them all in so I know he values them.

Til later with more fairies, more clothes I used to wear, and maybe even a new bit of stitching.