Things I've Been Doing Instead of Drawing....

I'm having one of those Life-Gets-In-The-Way sort of week... Wanting to work in the studio every day, but stuff, besides doing things like flying across the country for the weekend, continues to come up -

Spent one evening taking my Sondheim-loving daughter downtown to see "Sunday In the Park With George" (which I related to much more now than the first time I saw it. All that crazy-obsessive-artist stuff! Hmmmmm....... :-)

I volunteered to put together a card for the owner of the house we stayed in for our spring retreat - with a Thank You piece of art from all of us. I enjoy making these things, but they always take longer than I had planned. So, another evening Not Drawing.

Spent some time researching mini-laptops (Michelle is shown here with her new baby Asus Eee). I'm traveling more now, and as much as I love my chartreuse green 17" Dell Inspiron, it is *heavy* and cumbersome to lug around in airports. 'Would like a small, light-weight one for travel. (Anyone out there have a 10" laptop you recommend?)

Attended critique meeting with my fellow POBL-ites. This is one amazing, hard-working, well-published group of women! (And our meetings take an entire evening...)

But probably the most time consuming thing of all -

as a result of that UFO up in the sky (some people call it "the sun" - a thing we don't see so much of in this part of the world at this time of year) -

-I've *had* to spend a number of sun-drenched hours out in the yard, working on the gardens and various beds that have been so neglected over the past couple of deadline-heavy summers. (See all my parsley babies coming up here? So much new plant life. So gratifying to be out amongst....)

I'm sure I'll get more studio hours in as soon as it starts raining again. Could be any minute now.

We interrupt this break...

...to shake our heads in amazement at the craziness of the weather!

For the first half of the week we all wondered when it became October? Rainrainrain, grey, and chilly-cold. Sweaters and thick socks.


It rained so heavily on Sunday that the local streams rose over their banks and flooded the roads (and a few basements) for a few hours.


Overall, it has been a remarkably cool and damp August...


But the sun has come out again - bringing the heat with it. Maybe I'll get some summer squash and cherry tomatoes this month after all.


I did get to harvest enough flowers and herbs for a yummy salad for dinner.*

And now back to our regularly scheduled studio time...

*Garden salad ingredients:
Greens: leaf spinach, rustic arugula, climbing spinach, garden sorrel, salad burnett
Herbs: creeping golden oregano, spicy globe basil, chives, chervil, parsley, cilantro
Flowers: marjoram, viola, scarlet runner bean, borage, calendula, garlic chives, purple chives, and sweet cicely.

Best served with a sweet dressing - poppy seed, raspberry vinaigrette or my current favorite - Sesame pear!

Sunshine and 'snow'...

We're having record-breaking or near-record-breaking high temperatures here at the end of May... (see that *hot* sun bursting through our Big-Leaf Maples? Indigenous to this part of the country - they truly have BIG leaves. Larger than your head. Larger than a dinner plate! Too big to be pressed in any of my existing flower presses even.)


For our un-airconditioned Pacific NW houses, this means one must close all the curtains, run all the fans and try not to move to energetically, or you will get much too hot!


Another option is to take a walk through the 'snow' that is currently falling from the cotton trees... (It *looks* like it ought to be cool, at least)


I believe it was about this time last year that I posted about our late-spring 'snow' season. I've still yet to come up with a better descriptor than 'air decorations'... Still open to suggestions!!!


I loved the juxtaposition of 'snow' and bright green, new growth...