Feature Works

We are all just hanging out in our four walls…and making the most of being by ourselves with one day rolling into the next. It was easy to adjust to this isolation. Even going to my six month dental appointment tomorrow morning seems like an inconvenience. The good thing is that tomorrow a friend comes to eat lunch with us out on the porch. I will change into clean clothes and maybe put in some earrings…maybe not the earrings…maybe comb my hair instead.

Walking the trail with Lee each morning is fun. He likes it if I am there and can show him where to place the rocks he collects along the way. We are slowly lining the edges with his stones. The deer try to stay in the path as well. I do put the corn in the grass to keep them from kicking our stones out of line. Lovely buck and his female come first thing to get more than the others that arrive a bit later. I think we will see some fawns soon.

Here are the last four days of drawings a day.

This here has to be

a turkey’s big wing feather

probably the left.

 

Lee found this little

treasure on our morning walk-

gift from mourning dove.

 

A feather from a crow

dropped by the wing or the tail

maybe an omen.

 

Rock and feather.

One of them found on the trail,

one a gift from Lee.

 

Lots of fun working in the fairy book the last few days.

Cute little cherub fairy and her bird on the head of a troll.

A flutter of fairies.

Another young girl fairy holding her broken wing as she flies around the moon.

I went to the post office this morning to pick up a handful of forms to ship the books to Australia. Only five of twenty five were asked for in this country. So this afternoon it is filling out forms with addresses to save time at the post office tomorrow morning.

That is it for now.

Til later.

Each morning after breakfast and before I do my drawing a day Lee and I walk the trail. I love this first peek into the deep woods we walk past. It feeds my imagination for the Fairies Book.

I think the Fairy Queen below could have walked down this path to collect her bird, nest and stick.

I try not to go too quickly with this book and often find more in the pages I thought were finished.

The trail maker returned today to spread two more palettes of mulch and spray weeds. He and his helper also took the time to pull some unwanted and uninvited plants from the front yard. We are desperate for rain. All the greens have collected dust and are drying up. Leaves are beginning to drop along the trail, some colored as if it was fall. The deer, turkeys, squirrels, birds, rabbits, all seem to want to stay on the path. I will have to be careful to only put their feed in the path or my mulch could be scattered everywhere.

The Stoat Story books are getting bound. Only four more to hang in their covers.

I should be able to finish them off on Friday when the caregiver comes to stay with Lee. Then I will take a serious look at the studio and decide what needs to go, what I am still interested in working on. What materials and tools need a different home. At one time I wanted to have workshops here but that seems a bit optimistic with present circumstances.

I also have discovered that with isolation and everyone keeping distances, there are probably things and people that are not as necessary to my life right now. And certainly that is the same for those who wanted us in their lives. It has brought out our differences, our priorities and what and who matters. I  simply do not have the time to be as social as before. Keeping Lee from sadness and despondency is important right now and can come on us at any time during the day.

But having someone to talk to in person is such a pleasure. This morning I kept one of the workers talking and listening for quite awhile. Looking someone in the eye at a safe distance and asking questions and getting not only answers but questions in return was a such a good feeling.

I am also grateful for those who keep in touch via social media, cards, emails and surprise gifts. Thank you.

Most of the books I have been finishing up are headed to Australia. Mail is taking forever to get anywhere, but eventually they will arrive. I will put in the name of the charity to donate to. And please, those of you who know me, would not make donations in my name just because I am sending you the books. Use your own names or be creative and make donations in the name of someone in power who is working against environmental issues. Much like I make donations to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence’s name.

Here are four days of drawings and haiku. I must say I do like doing those turkey feathers.

I forget the name

of this twiggy late blooming

bush of pink and green.

 

Left by a turkey

is a fluffy small feather;

maybe from his back.

 

Another feather

from somewhere on a turkey,

maybe under wing.

 

Creeping rosemary

is now blooming and smelling

simply wonderful!

 

That is enough for today. I did not go near the Fairy Book today…but tomorrow maybe just one page.

Stay safe. Covid cases are rising here in our rural area. Friends needing surgery have been put off until this gets under control.

Wear your masks! Wash your hands!

 

 

 

 

We made zucchini bread the other day. Lee can grate and chop….just have to watch he does not pulverize those walnuts. It is delicious. But I noticed this for the first time ever on the bag:

How are we supposed to lick beaters? Fingers? Are they serious? Is this an issue? What about all those cookie dough ice creams?

Also let’s get the drawings a day over with now:

A delicate weed

full of trios of burrs supports

delicate grape vines.

 

Tiny white-flowered

weed that could easily fill

the vase of fairies.

Hydrangia bush leaves

are amazingly soft, large

and very fuzzy.

 

The final performance

of my single clematis

bloom of the summer.

All I have to draw

this morning is a dried up

rhododendron bloom.

 

Split morning glory

pulled from the overgrown grass

in forgotten patch.

 

And now a follow up on the Chub Ditch Tonic Drink. Here is the fish.

And Wikipedia write up.

Satromaculatus, known as the creek chub or the common creek chub, is a small minnow, a freshwater fish found in the eastern US and Canada. Differing in size and color depending on origin of development, the creek chub can usually be defined by a dark brown body with a black lateral line spanning horizontally across the body. It lives primarily within streams and rivers. Creek Chubs attain lengths of 2-6 inches with larger specimens of up to 12 inches possible. The genus name Semotilus derives from the Greek word sema (also known as dorsal fin), and atromaculatus comes from Semotilus the Latin word “black spots.

So you see, they do appear in ditches. And here is my drink with chubs in and out of the glass with a bit of ditch line foliage (mint).

Also see the green hose straw. It was quite tasty. It is actually a Turbo Tonic (because it looks the most like the ditch water of my youth) with added accouterments….that is how spell check spells it. Not sure…

And my new passion for diversion is the wonderful gift from down under, another Eucalyptus contact printed concertina book from Lorraine. I love it!

I am doing nothing but fairies hidden in and among the leaves….fairies and their friends.

I have drawn into these pages more since I photographed them.

More later.

 

Lee is looking down to where his trail is cut through the woods below the dining room. He will have so many places to line up his rocks. They should be able to finish the last of the trail near my studio by the end of next week.

It is really hot and humid today and he has taken his substitute caregiver on a tour around the yard. It won’t be long and I think they will come inside to the endless cop shows on the TV. It is nice in here with the air conditioner fixed.

Inspired by Lee’s lines of rocks and by the encouragement of friends to do an artist book about his rocks, I finished the book the other day. Here it is all rolled up.

I used a Japanese wooden fishing bobber for the center where all the scrolls glue by one end. I bought these from the Tombo booth at Grampians Textures a couple of years ago. I only have three and was going to give some away, but you know how that goes…..you hold them in your hand, feel the softness, the wear, the history, and you just know that no one else will love them as much….so you keep them. And it went with the Japanese type garden we have out front.

Here it is partially opened.

And then more so.

I painted the long lines of rocks with the watercolors I made from the earth pigments on our road/driveway.

The scrolls can roll out and then roll over each other and be held in place by the small rocks from Lee’s endless supply.

Then it just rolls up on the wooden center piece and the few rocks fit into a small can the same diameter of the bobber. It is fun to manipulate….much like it must be for Lee moving his rocks around.

Here is some of his trail starting down from behind the shed at the end of the driveway.

Looking back up toward the house as you walk by below.

Heading down toward where all the artwork was buried.

From there it comes into a small clearing before going back into a bit of woods then turns and curves back and forth below the porch until it will end at my studio patio.

Lotus bloomed this year. The pond guy was right, the lotus is happier in the sun. I might have him move the other two from the shady end to join this one.

My last four drawings a day.

This uninvited

massive green-leaved wildflower –

irresistible!

 

A fat juicy growth

with the emerging green buds

on dark maroon stem.

 

 

Red honeysuckle

really is not red, but orange

or salmony pink.

 

Thought it was catnip.

Now I am not very sure.

But then, what is it?

 

When I finish drawing the collected specimen each morning, I put it into this pot of water with the others. As they die off I will stuff another one into its place.

My dried up Eucalyptus stems are still here with the old small acorn covered branch. In with them are the fennel parts and juicy maroon stem and red honeysuckle.

This morning I was able to buy more cheap flowers at the grocery store. I won’t buy them unless they are three bunches for ten dollars. Then I try to find things that will go with the first choice of sunflowers. All are trimmed and shoved into an old brown pottery picture….I think it was titled “Stag and Pine Tree” and likely was quite valuable to collectors of early pottery at one time. Now no one wants these old things….and why would they? It weighs a ton empty!

Because the flowers are a bit old when I buy them it takes almost two weeks before they look like this.

I find this one as appealing as the fresh ones. Probably even more so. It looks like me in a way. The perk is pretty much gone. I am losing the brightness, the sunniness. I don’t know if my earrings still have holes to fit into. Forget the lipstick. This morning I noticed that I stuck my elbow into some bleach counter cleanser without knowing it and thought, “Not too bad. I can take a black laundry marker to it.” Earlier I would have put it in the “painting clothes” pile or tossed it out. Now I am using black marking pens to cover the spots. I think it is such a good idea that I may eventually turn my entire wardrobe to black. I am also watering down my heavy single malt scotch that I just loved straight. It is lasting longer when I do that and does not burn going down….which is a whole new phenomenon.

Two days ago my doctor’s office called to tell me my appointment had been moved back one day. I said, “I didn’t know I even had an appointment! Wasn’t I just in there not too long ago?”

“Yes, Sandy, but now we are checking you every six months…not just once a year.”

“Well did I forget that I have a disease that needs checking? Did I want Teresa (my doctor) to look at some new thing on my body?”

“No, Sandy, you are at that age where we like to see you twice a year. That’s all.”

Now I am wondering if I can possibly get some of the covid weight off before I have to face her always heavy-handed scales.

That is a stupid thing to be wondering about now because I just explained to the checkout girl at the grocery this morning at 7:15 that the two things you run out of before your two weeks is up between shopping trips, are beer and ice cream. These are not scale friendly.

Anyway, I am off to the studio to cut more of the Stoat Story pages and consider how much lokta paper needs to be ordered for their covers once everything is glued together.

Til later.