Fallow Summer

8.5.23

I spent nearly a week house sitting. It was a sublime, quiet, peaceful mystery, as if I were at a beach house or a b&b, and my only task was to read and feed birds and take naps and fill pages in my journal. I added end-papers from an image I found online for a course in designing patterns for children. A challenge to find the base color and build up the image, took two days.

I’m not painting much. I have not got settled in from all my travels. Here at home I am still unpacking from Oregon, there is barely a spot not covered with papers and debris. The place I stayed was so serene, with two small white tables without distraction–I snuck out for one event, a guided meditation watercolor workshop with the woo woos. I painted a bit of a tree scape, a sort of remote viewing of a piece of property I went to visit later in the week on the Russian River. The two projects fed each other.

I have eschewed the festivals this summer, and when home I spend time in the garden. I built a planter bed from inherited lumber, not quite sure where I am going to want it to be, over by the fence near the roses, or closer to the hose bibb, so I don’t forget to water. Then I need to start collecting leaves and soil and compost.

I will go on another camp out or two before the rains come, likely even take my bass–I’m just not ready to emerge from my cocoon. Don’t know if I will ever be.