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I love this view into the creek by the Indian mound near my house. And the walk to get there.

And how fall is taking over.

When I don’t walk up the hill to have coffee, this is what I step into from my car.

And the sunrises after the gym workout still have a view of Venus and the mist.

On Sunday friends came over with homemade pizza and this delightful bottle of wine. A nice deep red that can be purchased at the Food Lion grocery store, closest being about 45 minutes away. The bottle is a very heavy glass and was worth saving in the spirits cupboard. The label is in the 15th alcohol label collection books. No label to be repeated and a brief writing of what I thought of the drink and the company I shared it with. Been doing this since 2000. Documentations of good times, good company and very good memories.

The rest of my time this week has been spent trying to make The Stoat Story a more visually appealing book. The proof for this will arrive by Monday.

I did not like the images or text on white paper so did the book and cover in this soft grey.  Burke and Wills has a grey cover and this same font, but the pages are white because of the hopes of having a good color match with the original drawings/paintings.

Burke and Wills proof arrives Friday and I am hoping there are no more corrections or changes needed. It is a 5″ x 8″ book that is 48 pages . The Stoat Story is 8″ square and has a page count of 34. So, to keep the price down, both books will be priced at $10 each on Amazon. They cost about $4.10 each to be printed. My royalty is less than $2 for each book, which is not much but keeping them low in cost is more important than a royalty.  At $10 on US Amazon they still will cost about $15 in Australia. But I owe that country something for inspiring the names for Burke and Wills (most famous and ill-fated explorers there), their leaf print abilities, and some of the best students I have ever had in workshops. Beside all that, the Australians have been very supportive of the S. Webster books already available on Amazon. These two new children’s books are under Sandy Webster as author and can be found when finally approved for publishing with my Earth Pigments book from 2012.

Poetry meetings in the next two weeks so after a nice walk over to my tai chi class I decided to just pull out a pen and yellow legal pad to get things on paper.

Til later…..

On my walk to the river the other day.

And then going back to the dam in mid morning two days later.

And crossing over the bridge of the river at the dam that becomes the river from up above. Lovely to be back at both places putting one foot in front of the other. I collected sticks and mosses for my front entry.

Then Friday night was the chili contest on the square. We each get a sample from all the ones who entered and then vote for our favorite. One of the guys from the coffee group was there with his. Most of them were pretty good. Some just too hot for this old palette pf mine. Nice to see so many come out.

Friday lunch here with a few other artists was very good. So nice to have them to talk to. We won’t meet again until after the first of the year because of the busy holidays coming up.

Both of the proofs came for the books. I need to rework them color-wise and also the size for the Stoat Story.  The dyed leaf prints with graphite drawings throughout make it hard to reproduce. Later today friends come over to share red wines and I will ask their opinion on how to proceed with the layout, etc.

The white cover and cute font just aren’t what I was hoping for on the Burke and Wills book, so changed both. I also needed to adjust color on some of the images. So much time can be spent on getting what looks like it might work. I will get it sorted and then order two more proofs.

Better get going and prepare my charcuterie board…..

Til later….

Another beautiful morning on Monday. Then lunch with a friend and getting to a quilt show here in town. It is a traveling exhibition of quilters working during the shut down of Covid times. The work was much more serious in the inspiration of the makers. There were fewer quilts than the last time (2018) that this exhibition came to town. Not so many done with the idea of being pretty to look at. By putting in the code number on my Iphone I could hear in their own words about their inspiration and process. So here are some of the ones exhibited.  Inspirations being migration, peace, immigration, gun violence. It was good to see this much passion translated into cloth.

Melancholia by Linda Colsh

Fire Season detail by Dorothy Raymond

Blessed Are the Peacemakers detail by Susan Price

November 9th 1946 detail by Gabriele Ditota

Testimony of Yazmin Juarez by Ivy Sandz

Fifty-Eight by Lisa Jenni

These are only a few that caught my eye.  None were very big. I miss the large quilts that made you feel comforted by their size and yet confronted with their messages.

As  I was getting into my car in the rain, the color through the trees seemed very fall like.

And in my own yard, the dogwood was lovely in the morning sun.

Then I worked to a state of cross-eyed-ness on getting The Stoat Story in a size and format that fit the images and text. My proof for this one will be here on Sunday…which probably translates to next week.

This should do it for a while. I will let you know when they are officially published on Amazon.

Friday a few artists come over for lunch here and talk about what we are doing…hopefully what is mattering to each of us enough to put in a visual form.  It will be good to talk to people who hold brushes, mix paints, and maybe, just maybe, thread a needle.

Today I hacked up old shirts and pieced them with other shirts so they would be more interesting. Interesting and disguise spills of whatever did not make it to my mouth.

Dorinda, the new baker on the corner where we meet for coffee now has some of my recipes. She had to order golden syrup and barley malt to make The Second Best Malted Cookies I Ever Ate (she wanted the recipe for the best but I said I was sworn to secrecy and even my kids do not have that recipe), Anzac Cookies, savoury scones and cinnamon scones, which she is selling quite well. Today I brought home one of her latest quiches for lunch…delicious!

Time to take a walk. Yesterday I went to the river near here and it was wonderful. Brought home some sticks and moss.

Better get going.

Til later…

Just to keep things in order, here are some morning photos coming back from the gym. The first is a sliver of the moon with Venus off to the right and down a bit. Beautiful mornings.

And the bales of hay all rolled up between here and the gym. They smell so good when freshly packed in rounds.

I went to the local wine tasting with the builder and two of his building buddies this past Monday evening. It was fun and I am getting used to a room full of people. The best part was seeing the realtor who sold Lee and me our first piece of property back in 1988. We had a good chat and catch up of all those years since.

The tables are set up with the seating arranged and then the delicious small portions of a meal are brought forth with each wine sampling. Wines from Spain this time.

I only had time to photograph the first appetizer.

As for the rest of this week, I have been trying to get Burke and Wills in a 5″ x 8″ page format. There are twenty color illustrations and the cover image here.

I wanted a certain font that fit the story and then the laying out with illustrations in different sizes was also a challenge. But now the cover and 48 page manuscript is sent off to KDP Publishing with Amazon. The book will be priced $12 here in the states and vary in other countries. But first I need to see the proof and make sure I did not screw anything up. After a while of making corrections on a laptop, you begin to wonder where you are in the muddle.

The vet came to the house and removed Sadie’s small tumor. Now Dilly won’t talk to her because she has a hot punk bandage on her leg. And Sadie won’t talk to me because I keep trying to pin her down to take the bandage off. I will call a neighbor to help me get the job done.

Today I cleaned the porch, did laundry, finished editing the book, and made Anzac cookies. I will take some to the bike shop owner with another jar of Vegemite on Monday. I have given several recipes to the woman now baking in the shop where we meet up for coffee. Every morning she has a nice assortment to tempt the boys, MJ and me. Her quiches are excellent! And then there is her Apple Cider French toast with brioche! Not to mention the pumpkin/cream cheese muffins and assorted turnovers and fruit breads.

I do live in a very nice community.

Tomorrow windows will get washed first thing. That and laying out The Stoat Story for an Amazon release.

Better go and call that neighbor.

Til later….