Caregiving Considerations

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Lee and I did not do our walk today. It was more than just the rain. He had a hard night of digestive problems and a very confused morning. I got him showered, dressed and back down for a nap. When he awoke he seemed listless, unstable and a bit ornery.

Thank goodness it was a caregiver day. I turned him over to her and made a dash to the grocery store. Our intestinal tract medicines were fifteen years past use by dates. Evidently I need to pay more attention to what is and is not in the cabinet.

By the time I returned a nurse who works for the caregiving company agreed to come out and check his vital signs. And the caregiver got him to take two sips of herbal tea. His spirits were much better but still wobbly. I might have to have a gate put across the stairs going down to my studio. He refused to use a walker and had another nap. The nurse came and checked him out. She also gave me some recommendations for supplements to ask our doctor about.

And I also realized that the only pants he has are jeans with buttons, zippers and belt buckles….so I went on Amazon to get some pull on track pants for the next time he has difficulties.

I bought myself two bottles of wine to add to my supply. Tomorrow I will make the Healing Soup of equal parts broccoli, asparagus and spinach with onion and chicken stock. It is so tasty and really does make everything better. Sort of like a visiting nurse in a bowl.

My daughter’s partner sent me a black squirrel tail that I had to try making two more brushes with, Very hard to hang onto those cut hairs….but I made these two.

I used a chopstick and a piece of black bamboo with loads of wrapped waxed linen and glue.

Here are the last four days of drawings.

It could well be that

most yard birds contributed

to this crude paint brush.

 

The tip of squirrel’s tail

made a very fine paintbrush!

So worth repeating!

 

Black squirrel tail hairs

were irresistible fun

for new paint brushes.

 

A bamboo chopstick

makes a great paint brush handle

for these black tail hairs.

 

There is not much else new. I had no time in the studio today but did manage to get it picked up quite a bit. Soon I will start packing some things away to pass on. Passing on was the best part of having private students here. But since that can’t happen between caregiving and covid, I will find another way to let these things go.

Til later when I can do more talking about other things.

 

 

Catching Up on Lee’s Birthday

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I ordered yellow lined pads but they were too bright. So I am staying with this Spirits Bar book as a separation between head and bookcase. I will add some yellow pages tucked in somewhere…otherwise finished.

A catchup on the drawings…all paint brushes with only two left to go, then back to leaves…..

I am going to

draw one of my Nature made

paintbrushes each day.

 

Today turkey plumes

yesterday a dried bush bloom

for my paintbrushes.

 

And today’s subject

is the very tip of a

butterfly bush bloom.

 

Bristles on this brush

are a gathered bunch of weed

blossoms all dried up.

 

A wrapped gathering

of dried fennel seeds can be

made into a brush.

 

Tiny little twigs

tied with some white waxed linen

to a stick handle.

 

No caregiver today so I had to take Lee to the store with me. He stays in the car. I got some barbeque thighs and legs for dinner tonight and a lovely little German chocolate cake and ice cream. I will not put 83 candles on the cake but just ask him how old he would like to be.

He received a nice email birthday wish from Holly this morning …we miss her lovely hugs….and a good phone call from his cousin. He remembers those from earlier in his life but not more recently known friends. Which can be a good thing because he does not ask about those who haven’t called or checked in much since his diagnosis.

A friend has fixed his leaf blower and it will arrive Thursday when his wife comes for our weekly lunch. He will be excited to start waving it around the driveway.

Not much else new. Following the hubris of a sickening president and his incompetent staff.  We are in such desperate need of a change. His ignorant easily led base I understand but certainly wish those only looking after their financial assets would start paying attention to the assets their children and grandchildren are….and the bleak future ahead of them.

I almost forgot the Fairy Book inspiration and images.

This bamboo man hangs on the porch. We have had him for years and he seems magical to me.

I added another dancer between the two.

And this big strong fairy man with tattoos?

 

Okay, time for a scotch.

Til later.

Back With The Fairies and Finishing Off The Writer

Posted on by Sandy Webster

We are having some beautiful early fall days and can’t resist bringing some of it inside.

The fungus is also very prolific now.

And this just looked magic.

And another butterfly.

I used to know the names of most butterflies, but not so much now.

So I went back to The Fairy Book yesterday and found what one of the Acorn Brothers was pointing at….a pair of dancing fairies.

I will likely add some more details to these two.   Maybe something or someone in the middle.

Two days ago I pulled off the sides and most of the top from the writer’s head. Sanded some of it by hand where the paper stuck, so occasionally you can make out a fleeting thought or word that writers can’t quite let go of.

There is little more I will do to her…maybe a book laying across just under head. I put books that I have written on each side if her reference bookcase. Those small foundry molds came in handy as book ends glued to the base dictionary.

And the back…another writing guide. The Klimpt bookmark was just so perfect as it mirrored the head itself.

If you spot the fine roots coming out from under the open text on her head, they are there because all writing is based on what is deeply rooted in the writer. We dig for those bits and they surface whether we want them to or not. I am talking fiction/memoir when I say this.

Her left brain side has a single-colored post it notes among the reference pages.

Whereas the right brain side is a bit more haphazard. I used the post it notes from an old favorite graduate school book, On Longing by Susan Stewart. I used it for connecting our place in the familiar among others, then loaned it to my good friend at school who also used it when working on her series of what a place says about those who lived there…the bits of reference left behind. She was reading it in the tub while marking and making notes. It fell in, curled up and blurred our reference notes sticking out. Perfect for right brained thinking older women in graduate school working on their Masters of Fine Arts degrees.

Notice that in the front view I did keep the Sounds of Silence strip from the book.

Originally I was thinking more with the left brain and tried to bulk this head up to go with the print maker head. Then realized that writing is simply not so much full of ideas as it is waiting for what to say in the quiet. This book I made earlier this year came to mind.

So that is it for today. I will be back in a couple of days with my drawings a day where I am using my Nature paint brushes as subjects. Those are fun to draw as they cross two pages at once.

Til then….

Making Brushes and Making Adjustments

Posted on by Sandy Webster

These are the eight paint brushes that Lee helped me gather materials for and put together. I posted these on Facebook so if you saw that you can skip this part and move down. But I love these pictures and the marks made using the avocado ink I made awhile back.

Here they are in a mug/vase with the bottle of ink.

 

Tiny twigs, fennel seed stems, tip of dried butterfly bush flower.

dried bloom from a bush in the yard, cluster of wildflowers, tip of a squirrel’s tail.

Three turkey breast feathers and cluster of wild bird feathers.

The marks and where I brushed the remaining ink off.

I think most people who make these brushes use them for the fun of abstract marks or asemic writing. I think I am expecting more than that. I will try to make something legible with the brushes and inks I have made.

On another note, Lee and continue our trail walks each morning. It is cooler but the details of things is always surprising.

The other day Lee snapped off the latch that holds the battery in the leaf blower. He had no idea he did it. I found the parts and successfully glued it back together….only to find that it must have been put in place before the two sides were screwed together. It is a stupid design to not think that this might happen and therefore make one side the hole for one peg and the other an open track into the hole for that side.

But waking in the middle of the night I came up with a solution…a bungy cord! Still too much give to hold the battery in as far as it needed to go. So…..

A tightening strap, wooden pottery tool and some wrench I found that could also be wedged in. It started right up but only lasted a few minutes before loosening up. Now do I buy another leaf blower or just hire it done? I am leaning toward the latter as Lee gets more confused and again the next one could be broken just as easily.

Today marked the full year of drawings a day with haiku. I think I am the only one of my group to have lasted this long but feel good that I am inspiring some to get back to it.

Later trail walking

this morning brought out many

water-soaked feathers.

 

Feathery lichen

and some tiny fungus rows

grow along this branch.

 

Old, wet and tattered

are the things that easily

happen overnight.

 

Can you believe it?

I found the tip of a squirrel’s

tail this morning!

 

Well that about does it for now. I need to get ripping the writer’s head apart. She just had way too much going on regardless of which side of her brain she is using. I sure should have know that but just kept on making and sticking on. Now I need to bring her back to reality!

Til later.