Friday, August 1, 2014

CAPTURING MEMORIES

Rome
As we age, it seems, memories get more and more difficult to hang on to. Our hard drives are getting full, and there's not much room for anything else. We have to spend more and more time digging around for the words and data we need. Some things flit in and right out again almost immediately, not staying long enough to even become a memory. Which is why I am so very grateful for a few of the lessons I have learned through blogging and art journaling.

Marseilles

For one thing, as I was scrolling through all the photos I have saved on my computer -- looking for inspiration for this farmers' market art class I am taking -- well, I was just overwhelmed by the sounds and feelings and aromas they evoked in me, and the deep sense of gratitude I was left with, for all those simple joys and little adventures.

Java

In Hong Kong with my sister Carolyn

Sumatra

In fact, it was almost as if the act of taking these photos had cemented the memory in place, and all I need do is glance at them again, to be transported back to that time and place. I might not remember everything about that event, but I will remember something about the way it smelled or sounded, or how it made me feel.

Provence

And, if I happen to sit down and do a quick drawing in my sketchbook, or jot a few notes in my journal, the memory is even more complete, for I have paid it more attention, and given it more time to soak in.

Try it, won't you? You don't need a fancy camera with extra lenses. I have never used anything more than a little point and shoot! It's an amazing way to pin those memories down and, if nothing else, it makes for a fabulous gratitude journal, and gives you all kinds of fodder for future art projects and stories!

Thursday, July 31, 2014

ONE HASN'T REALLY LIVED...

until one has breathed in the aromas of an exotic spice market!


Still having tons of fun in Junelle Jacobsen's "Farmers' Market" food and art class. Up next? Making our own ricotta cheese and using it in several different recipes!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

FLIGHT SCHOOL

Every year we have at least one or two nests of barn swallows in our open air garage. Most people we know knock the mud nests down as soon as they see them, since they don't like having poop and feathers all over the place. Us? Well, we kinda love 'em. The only thing we don't love is when one of the fledglings is flunking flight school. It makes us so very nervous to see one poor baby sitting there in the same spot all the live-long day, seemingly unable to get up off the ground -- especially when that spot is right behind one of our cars, and we can't back out of the garage for fear of running over the little critter. Plus we worry about predators if they are still stuck there when night falls, which is what happened yesterday.


This morning when I went out for an early walk, he was nowhere to be seen. I thought for sure someone had decided he'd make a tasty breakfast. But then something odd about that Russian Sage caught my eye as I moved past, and I came back for a second look.


Well whadaya know? Somebody finally made it up off the ground.


Not very far up, but hey. Up is up!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

THE WEATHER PLANT

Our native Texas Sage has got to be one of the dullest plants ever most of the time. But when it blooms? Oh my! Unlike most plants, however, it doesn't really have a blooming season. Instead, it blooms according to the weather. Some say you can expect rain when in blooms. Others say that's not really true, and it's just a response to fluctuations in barometric pressure or some such thing.


I'm really, really hopin' this means rain.

The weird thing is that we have these shrubs on both sides of our house, but only the ones on the east side are blooming. Does that mean we're only gonna get rain on one side of our property?

One thing I do know for sure is...


we've got some mighty happy bumble bees around here right now!

Monday, July 28, 2014

MY COLOR-MAD HEAP OF LUSCIOUS

No, I still don't know what I'm going to wear to my daughter's wedding. I think I might have the rehearsal dinner figured out though! A week or so ago I started pulling out different things I already owned, to see if I couldn't combine them in a new way to make something that would pass for "Speakeasy" style. When I was done trying things on, I looked over and saw this...


an entire chair full of bluish-greyish-greenish lusciousness, which, in a totally unplanned/unconscious instance of serendipity, is my standard reply when someone asks "What color would you call your eyes?" Only they are more insipid than luscious. Anywho, I had no freakin' idea I had so many things in the very same color family. What would you call this color anyway?  Teal?



Robin's Egg?



Prussian?



I really should get around to putting it all away, I suppose, but it just makes me so happy to see this ooly-drooly mess each time I walk into the room!