Author: -N-

Coastal Cypress

I cannot believe I haven’t posted anything since the last few days of August!  Life has been filled with family activities, horrible heat, and other things that take up time like sewing and reading and cooking and a photo safari.  However, I could not stay away!  Surprising how much I miss my daily forays into paint and color, and especially gouache!  (I really need to get back into watercolor – more in a tad about that.)

Trees again.  Cypress trees have their own character – they invite sweeping brush strokes with a flat brush, or a tapered one.  Movements of the brush match the movement of the wind it seems.  Where cypress trees live along the California coast is usually windy, foggy, and often cold, and these trees rise like ghosts out of the mist.  They are quite eerie.

We are heading out to Monterey for a few days.  I havene’t packed any gouache, but a small watercolor palette and a sketchbook for out-of-the-house experiences.  I hope I take the time to paint or draw, and catch some flavor of where we will be.  Along with my sketchbook I am bringing a camera (or two, or three, or . . . ?  Anyway, the idea is to enjoy some time off while the other half is on vacation – our road trip was sidetracked by a water leak a couple of months ago.

Heat & Sloth

 

Today both Josh and I were exhausted.  This hot weather is so draining, and instead of the nights cooling off as they usually do in California, it pervades into sleeping hours as well.  Open windows and fans work most of the time, but today the air conditioning is running full time to keep the house at 75, not 81 or so.  The result is fatigue in a very odd way.  The mind is numb.  The body is numb.  It’s like being a reptile in cold weather – moving requires too much effort.  In a bit, around 7:30 p.m., we will be out for a walk – how hot will it be?  Certainly cooler than earlier, but probably in the mid-80s.  How far we go depends on how hot it is.  Both the dogs and we need some exercise.

Such an uneventful day.  So little accomplished or aimed for other than survival.  No dinner cooked, just scrounging around for whatever can be found.  Passive activities such as watching TV and movies in the middle of the day.  The mind is only now becoming a bit more alert.  No sewing, painting, or anything that required too much, although I did pick up a 6th grade math book for the fun of it . . . that took a bit of effort, let me tell you.

And more heat tomorrow . . . it does beat a hurricane, though.  I am grateful for that.  I still have a home.  And, I know enough about heat exhaustion, having had it many times over the past several summers, that I stay hydrated and cool.  Only the other day a hiker died in the nearby mountains while his or her companions called 911 for help with their own heat exhaustion.  But being passive is so tiring in its own way.