It has been very, very cold and will be for another week. Here is this morning driving down into my neighborhood.
And the ice build up on the bamboo spout into the pond at 9 degrees.
Patrick gave the cats some sort of new cat addiction from Japan…a silver vine that seems more potent than catnip. It must be so because Sadie is easily addicted and Dilly, never,,,,but she loves her stick!
I made oatmeal/golden raisin/slivered almond scones when it got colder.
And yesterday a ham/green onion/parsley/cheese quiche. Very good for several meals.
I also have been busy with the drawings keeping up with the story of Scrabble. Most of Beatrix Potter’s illustrations were on paper the size of a modern day photograph…about 6″ x 4″. My papers are cut to 3.5″ by 5″. Her soft brown ink outlines were likely done using diluted ink in a fountain pen. I am trying to make a rust colored ink roller ball do the job. Whatever happens will get redone if I become dissatisfied with the drawing.
He now has five new friends and tools in a tool belt. Pretty soon they will start building boats to get Scrabble back to sea.
This week friends in Tasmania are gathering for one of their holidays for the shear fun of stitching and basketmaking. I get out my Gathering Book to vicariously stay in touch. This morning I put some scraps together. Background is leftovers from beige linen pants I made last year, then an eco-dyed scrap of wool jersey I bought from Aujke on a trip down under, one of those tabs that hold sleeves up from a well worn favorite linen shirt, scrap of rusted paper done in Claudia Lee’s class, off white lokta paper with a piece of an old kitchen towel that was the perfect color so I lifted it from the kitchen when I was an artist-in-residence. The thread is from an old wooden spool of thick black silk bought in Australia many, many years ago.
It will be fastened to the page and drawings added around it. The opposite page will get another small something before they (we) all go back home.
I will also have a bit of this red that Patrick brought down at Christmas. I was introduced to this wine by Janet DeBoer on a very early trip to Australia to do workshops….maybe 2000 at the latest. Anyway she found herself stuck taking care of me as I traveled from one place to another along the Queensland coast. This bit of libation helped get us well-acquainted. I thank her many times for inviting me to come there to teach in ’97 and many, many years after that. I told Patrick I was not going to share one drop of it and save it for myself to smile and remember.
I will stay in even though the sun is shining…well, until it is time to bundle up and do my loop through the neighborhood. I check on Sandi’s house being built just four doors down. It is a similar floor plan to mine and so much fun to see take shape. She is an artist doing mixed media and Nature paintings so it will be great to see how artwork plays a part in her decorating.
Til later….