Tag: nature

Under a Rain of Acorns

Yesterday I decided to finally go on a bit of a hike by myself. With a bit of trepidation, I told people where I was going, had my phone, and watched where I put my tootsies. The result was a slow meander, camera in hand, down the Chumash Trail. Housed within the area of this park is the Chumash History Museum, closed weekdays, but worth a visit.

Overhead, the half moon could be seen above the trees and glimpses of the mountainous ridges above. The pathway beneath the trees was dark and shadowy.

Though it is just weeks away from winter, here in SoCal we are experiencing dry weather, sometimes warm, sometimes cold. This morning I woke to the news that Malibu is, once again, in flames. An ironic bit as I thought I should walk down the Chumash before it burns again as I knew the east winds were on their way.

My favorite old, old tree is gone, with only a reminder of its former grandeur and an empty sky overhead.

Grasses, flowers, poison oak, toyon were present, too – some plants I could name, others I could not, but it was just a pleasure to be out, looking for deer and squirrels – listening to the birds – canyon wrens mostly, an occasional crow – and to the patter, patter of the acorns.

And, of course, everywhere are oak trees! Some scorched, some fallen, some cut down and left to return to the earth after the fire. Each tree has its own lovely and crazy shape and form, like dancers bending and arching. The Chumash Trail is a magical place and one which soothes the soul as only a walk under the trees can . . .

Across the Pond

This has been a terrible week out here. Where I grew up was burnt to the ground in a lot of areas with family and friends losing houses. Election week was a roller coaster. It is always surprising to me how such things can just cause my sense of world order and sanity to just blow away, as well as realizing the world is not as I see it – perceive it – want it to be. But connections with people and hobbies and doing things – normal, everyday things – does help settle the discomfort and chaos a bit. Not sure what the next several years will bring, so we will wait and see – what else can we do?

I guess we can paint!

Watercolors almost always soothe my troubled soul! Painting and drawing does in general. The act of doing is an act of being, an affirmation of life, and the validity of existence. Me, I am always searching for explanations, but there are times when the only explanation is to do something, like paint, watch a movie, read a book, go for a walk, watch the cloud pictures in the sky.

Nature. Water, trees, sky, grasses. Peace.

Watercolor, Kilimanjaro 300# CP paper, 11×14.

Hiatus from Focus, or A Return to Chaos

These past 8 weeks or so have been very, very busy. I have been taking an art class online which is very demanding and equally fulfilling. A sewing class, too, which is also demanding and fulfilling. At times I have had to make choices between the two, and the art class won out, as it always does.

I don’t know about you, but for me focusing on one thing for a long period of time becomes overwhelming and I feel trapped. It’s not like I spend an hour or two doing something, but sometimes a whole day just doing one thing. When this happens, it is really hard to get back to a normal perspective of life. That is when everything has to simply stop and a determined moving toward other activities has to be done.

One way I do this is to get out and move. Going for a walk, watching a movie, gardening, cooking, socializing. Getting out of the house, away from the studio or fabric, pulls me out of the singular focus of the moment. Being singularly focused gets a lot done, but the feeling of being trapped is not a good feeling. It is suffocating and in many ways crippling. Anything beyond the focal point becomes unimportant.

Obviously, that doesn’t work too well!

The other day, I decided to take a camera I had loaded up with film out and take a long, long walk. Up hills and down, near creeks and on rather scary heights. I went alone. I took my phone for safety, and I let my husband know where I was. I just needed solitude and movement and being out in a world welcoming spring. And then I played with the post processing, sometimes with color, sometimes with silly extremes, and sometimes just to enhance a pretty place.

The world feels a bit more normal now! And given the current craziness, it is something to be cherished and appreciated. Nature gives us something far beyond our comprehension.

Daffodils

Every now and then, a day becomes more than a day.  I went out to the local botanical garden to do some sketching, and came across a small mass of daffodils all in bloom under the olive tree.  After all our rains, the world is bright with new growth and color – butterflies in multitudes, fresh breezes, the scent of flowers – everything is as if the world was just created.  How easy it is to forget nature’s beauty in our crazy world . . . 

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

     –by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.