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It Has Been A Lovely Few Days

Posted on by Sandy Webster

The early walks to the the gym have been full of dewy grass, fog, and buttercups.

Then later in the afternoon going to the river. The meadow is filled with such green and yellow. The first wild daisies popped through.

And in my yard the first of three bamboo fences have been made and placed.

The flagstone has yet to arrive at the stone shop. But when it comes and is delivered, it will line the mulch beds and the stoned areas out back. Then I can say it is finished when that and the bamboo bits are in place.

Twice this past few days I have been invited to stop and have wine on the porch of neighbors. It has been very nice to visit with them. Today one of them is coming here to read some of the books I have made over the years. She is a writer who is in the poetry group and has been quite encouraging.

I also spent a bit of time getting the poetry located and organized for a book. Now just to figure out how to do that so I am not handling the mailing part. I would like to look at Amazon self publishing as a possibility but need to do much more research to see how that is done.

This weekend I am going to get back into my sketchbooks. I am missing the drawing. And going through the books I think my neighbor would like to look at today, makes me miss it even more.  How fun it was to do The Fairy Book and The Stoat Story. I need to feel the pencil in my hand more often!

Yesterday there was a box on the bench out front from UPS shipping. I opened it to find a bag full of fresh-picked white lilacs from my friend, Marla, in Michigan. It was so exciting to unwrap them and quickly get them into a vase.

So many blooms have fallen off but I scoop them into a ceramic tray on the counter. Isn’t that a wonderful thing to do? Send flowers from your yard through the mail! I used to send my mother all the wildflowers I could pick along our road so she could hold my place in her hands and then put them in a vase.

My dragon scale book still waits all rolled up, wanting me to decide what comes next. Is it words or another drawing of what is under the river water….still not sure.

I baked more savoury scones for the freezer this morning. It is a necessary thing to do when you know the spinach is going to go bad, scallions are wilting and the ham and cheese want to be used.

Next week there is a birthday party at a restaurant for a neighbor turning ninety. She used to stop and visit Lee and I when we had a place in town to work while we were building houses and moving from one to another. I love that she and I now live in the same neighborhood. Then there is that shopping trip back to the town I rediscovered over Mother’s Day. And the following day is lunch out with a group of women artists and another party that evening in the neighborhood. I have been asked to bring an appetizer. I can do that plus take along some champagne. We are celebrating something, so why not.

I almost forgot about this…yesterday I took some Anzac cookies (biscuits) to a new young fellow from Australia who opened a bike shop here in town. I wanted to hear him talk. I miss the sound of an Aussie speaking. His accent he and his American wife said has faded but his parents are visiting next month. And they have thick accents. I said I would be back then with more Anzacs. Very nice couple and a good addition to the town.

More later….

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…