Close to Home

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I have still been walking over to the gym in the morning. It is getting greener and denser along the way.

On my way back it was sunny and the meadow was filled with spider webs.

A half moon just hung there in the sky watching.

Mostly I have kept my walks to right here in the neighborhood. Later in the day I am accepting invitations to sit on porches and have a glass of wine. Soon there are several neighbors crowded in.

This past Saturday was a town garage sale and plants available to buy.

I was tempted by nothing except raffle tickets to benefit the veterans and coffee and a biscuit to benefit the local historical society. It was nice to have so many people know my name and ask how I was getting on in the new surrounds. It is a very friendly town full of kind people. Where I came from was more on the clique-ish side and few crossed the borders of their controlled comforts.  The welcome mats only came out if you could think and behave as expected. Although we were always popular when financial assistance was needed. With Lee’s decline it was apparent that that town was not the place to be by yourself.

It is so much the opposite here. Neighbors and new acquaintances have gone out of their way to introduce me to those I might have things in common with.  It was a good move.

I have been trying to organize writings into poetry, essays, and short stories. Over fifty poems look promising for inclusion into a book. The short stories will need serious editing. But today I am enjoying going through the random writings about recollections and observations. This morning I worked on Recollections – Australia.  Always a good place to lose myself. Especially now that I bought some lovely reds from the Yarra Valley being sold through the local wine tasting event.

Last night I woke at midnight and never did get back to sleep. So at four with the addition of cuddly cats, I took a half hour on the Migun bed. Lovely right before the shower and heading off to the gym and coffee on the corner after a quick trip to the store for donuts.

Tonight will be a sound sleep for sure.

Tomorrow is a weekly check with the doctor to see if blood thinning medicine is working correctly.  An irregular heart beat was discovered a month ago and medication is needed. Of course, thinking of my Aussie friend who has prepared her and her husband’s “Daisy Boxes” for burial, I went back to the funeral home and made those final arrangements for myself this time. Seems a good thing to do as I approach seventy-nine.

BUT in the meantime, the only friends from my previous town took me out for a Mother’s Day dinner to a town I have not been to for a few years. It was exciting to see all the new shops. And two of us are heading back to do some serious shopping. I saw so many perfect Christmas gifts and there are several new places to eat. We will make a day of it for sure.

Yesterday I made Anzac cookies and am thinking I will take some in to a young man from Australia who opened a bicycle shop in town. I just want to hear him talk. Not interested in a bike.

My lunch yesterday of savoury scone and Romaine lettuces from my pots outside.

Til later….Hopefully with more sketches in sketchbooks and river pictures.

 

Moving On

Posted on by Sandy Webster

This photo is from walking through the meadow to get to the gym. I like this early walk and having to change shoes when I get there because my hole-less Crocs are covered with sticky wet buttercup petals.

They are such a lovely yellow.

And more blooms of asters and blackberries.

And the trees at Spikebuck Indian Mound are finally leafing out.

At last week’s poetry meeting I was again encouraged to send work for publication.  It all seems so ego-involved, and I am getting older. But it did get me to thinking that maybe I need to organize poetry into a book that can be read by family later when I am gone. And then there are the short stories and essays that need to be somewhere beside the blog and website. So the last few days have been locating and organizing my writings.

There seems to be much more than I thought…and on a broad range of subjects. I get lost in remembering what caused the words to be written down in the first place. Especially the Australian inspired poems/stories.

Last night my builder asked me to come to the early wine tasting along with the two young girls from the bank, that he usually has at his table. The sommelier chose wines from the Southern Hemisphere. A nice Pinot Grigio from New Zealand and a couple reds from the Yarra Valley in Australia. Then two more reds from Argentina. I ordered some of each. I will sit and sip from Australia and New Zealand as I do some final editing on the stories inspired from down under.

I wonder if I should illustrate the two books. Why not? There is research to be done on how to take on this project, but I can get there. So many self-made books appear to be done on some site where they can be ordered or where I can just buy a bunch myself. I will ask my new poet friends if any of them have undertaken such a job. Mostly I think they look for recognition in poetry publications. I am going to be seventy-nine next month and don’t much think I want to wait for the nod from editors/publishing houses. I will be on my own with this.

In the meantime I think it is time to start sewing again. The clothing choices out there are dismal at best with the clingy knits that grab onto body parts as they find their way to hanging freely. So here is my 100% linen, washed up and waiting to be cut out.

The rich tealy-blue in the back and the lotus green in the front are a medium weight for pants and the white in the middle, a lighter weight for an asymmetrical top.  I will start cutting tomorrow and look for threads. I also feel like getting out some hand sewing again. Maybe add to the shirts in the closet I have been ignoring. Sure wish I had half the sewing knowledge of my friend, Jude, in Tasmania. But she did help me make a pattern of my favorite shirt that I have used many times.

I put the river dragon scale book aside for a bit until I come up with what goes on the opposite side. Still thinking of a writing about the river and time. Need a good think on that. but at least I have my work table back to get to drawing in the various sketchbooks.

Til later….

Strawberries and Colored Pencils

Posted on by Sandy Webster

One over-filled gallon box of fresh-picked-that-morning strawberries. And the field is only about a quarter mile from me. They are beautiful, sweet and so many big ones!

Now most of them are in the freezer packaged up in servings for one.

The last few mornings have been frosty walking to and from the gym.

And now back in the studio and the struggles with the dragon scale book illustration. I tried, I really did, to get the right colors and mood with the colored pencil collection that I have, And when I put the guide drawing up to follow for the next section of several half inch exposed fore edges, I realized the plain graphite was better…somehow better….

So I took my kneaded eraser and daubed at the pencil drawing of the first full page over and over again to take the color back, way back.

The softness of the image seems to go with the softness of the paper. It felt more “comfortable” for me. Odd choice of words but if I have to spend so much time sitting over a project I set up for myself, I might as well be comfortable with it.

Putting color in only to take it back out was driving me to think the whole idea was beyond where my capabilities now lie. But for right now I am going to blame the colored pencils. Some just have too much pigment in them and you don’t realize how much until the mark is made. The whole bunch will be put away as soon as I see this through.

Then I went back in with the oh-so-much-better graphite pencils and finished it up. Anyway, I think finished. But on this side only.

It is a dreamlike image of the river flowing by. BUT what goes on the back side when I flip all the folios back to the left? The larger page will be on the right…opposite the way we “read” left to right.  Should there be something on each page if they were turned individually like a normal book? Seems like a dumb idea for this binding designed for continual movement.

I thought of making the “backside” a long image of what is under the water. Decided not to. Too much drawing! So maybe, just maybe the large exposed full page when flipped to the left will be a poem about the river. That appeals to me if done in cursive, using a graphite pencil.

Now, how to present it? I will likely do what it was intended to do in the first place, and make it into a scroll. And if I only have the poem on the back side, having another long image expected to lay flat will not be an issue.

But best of all, when I finally finish this I will have learned the following:

  1.  Pick your challenges carefully.
  2.  Keep your limitations in mind when you make the decision in the first place.
  3.  And never, never quit until it is seen through.

I will write the poem over the weekend and roll it all up with a tie to hold in place. Then I will get my table space back to work on something new and SMALL.

Til later…

Plants, Porch and Picking the Right Rabbits

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Seems I have been “fluffing” about these past few days. I spent so much time on the internet looking for rabbit statues for the garden. Did you know there are one heck of a lot of rather “not quite right” rabbits to choose from?

The shop in town where I had been admiring a pair from their rear ends finally was open when I went shopping. “Yes” they were for outside as well as inside. One that had all four feet on the ground was $52…his mate, sitting on his bum and back feet was $75. I told the lady that I thought about her rabbits every night because I could find nothing else that seemed so right. I also said that the price difference was rather odd. She went to get the owner who claimed since I was giving them a good home, having trouble sleeping, etc., I could have them at the lower price each. I could not wait to get them home.

So many rabbits for the garden are very English looking, meaning they are a choice if you can’t find a subtle garden gnome. Is there such a thing? All the others looked cartoonish…cute but cartoonish, or like oversized jack rabbits waiting to pounce. And yes, I did see plenty of the “moon gazing” posed rabbit that seemed to be sort of ridiculous in broad daylight.

So, first came the new pots. The tall white ones. They needed planting. So off to the garden center.

It didn’t seem quite right, so back to the garden center to buy two more pots of various colored calla lillys. The young girl assured me that they would politely die at the end of the year so I would not have to “winter them over”. Once those were in place, I put those perfect Japanese-looking garden rabbits where I could see them.

Then I added my stone partridge to a pot to give him something to do besides Christmas duty. I love seeing them all from the porch.

The neighbor across the way has many bird feeders and therefore many birds. But they fly over here to have a bath or get a drink. Yesterday beautiful blue birds showed up.

After settling the pots and rabbits, I decided to give myself more privacy on the porch and also get the neighbor’s gas tank out of view. I took one of the two shoji screens that were around my jacuzzi in the old place and popped it in the corner after pulling the shade halfway down. A very cozy corner for reading.

My neighbor across the road gave me a jar of her freshly made strawberry jam and told me of the market here near town where I could buy not only strawberries but all sorts of produce grown there. It is just outside of town but in a direction I have never been. Tomorrow I am going there to ask about the berries and Roma tomatoes. All the ones I roasted with my herb salt and froze have been eaten.

In anticipation I made up more herb salt today using rosemary, thyme, parsley from my pots and garlic and green onions. All finely chopped fresh with coarse salt.

When it has completely dried out I will jar it for those tomatoes when they come in. Also today I made up 12 more savoury scones with ham, spinach, green onion, and parmesan cheese. One for lunch before freezing the rest.

One of those with a glass of vegetable juice makes a perfect lunch.

This large, and not so attractive, iron sculpture was something I did not want to burden new owners with. Certainly the people who bought our house had a different aesthetic. So I convinced Patrick to take it north with him. It bounced around in the back of his truck to the point that he named it “The Free Radical”. I have asked him to bring it back. It will be perfect facing the Japanese garden from between the two sets of windows out back. I will put a pot in its head to give it a bit of “hair” during the growing season. It was a gift from Philip Kuznicki, an artist from California that Lee and I rented a house to several years ago. I loved it more for having come from Philip, whose work I have in my house. It needs to come home and not be a burden to Patrick as he wonders what in the heck to do with a welded, rusted, ceremonial looking head.

Patrick and Marla will be here in July and I will post a picture of The Free Radical back with me.

But I will say, looking back through the pictures of our old place to find this picture, was not easy for me. So many sounds and smells and memories come through those images. I am happy here with kind neighbors and arranging things to my liking. But we sure did have a full on life at that place we came from. It is now in the hands of the perfect people to care for it. Hopefully I will be able to see what all they have added and taken away. At least The Free Radical was not something they had to deal with.

Til later…I am going to have another glass of Aussie red…