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.

On a Winter Day

Allium

The past few weekends have made me feel so cramped and crazy, mostly because the puppies are growing, and needing a lot of attention.  Sometimes it makes me wonder if I was nuts to get two, but when they are all cute and cuddly, the answer is always a loud “Yes!”  Luckily, the other half is superlative at caring for them, but he abandoned me for the Super Bowl.  As the puppies are crate trained, I made good my escape for a couple of hours to the local botanical garden.

Where I live, endless blue skies are endlessly blue and cloudless.  We are in the middle of a drought.  The state does not plan to release reservoirs, and I don’t blame them.  Weather is weird, extremes showing up which seem abnormal.  Global warming?  I think so, but this is not a political / ecological foray, so we will leave it at that.  Back to the skies:  we had rain clouds!  And some light rain!  I went out to shoot landscapes with a long lens, 70-300mm, but could not produce any I liked – I expect my view-point was wrong.

Sage

Instead, tripod in hand, I also focused on flowers.  Always, flowers.  Leaves, rocks, trees, branches.  I love the shapes of nature, and ultimately these seem to be the ones I love the most.  Long lenses are great for blurring the background, and with flowers it is no exception.  On this trip, I took my time, crawled around, and looked through the camera to frame my shot.  At times, I used live view because I was down so low (luckily, no mud), and my battery was draining faster than normal.

Small patches of bright color are always welcome on a dreary day.  The smell of sage and earth and decaying leaves are wonderful.  I took my time to enjoy the garden, and even though it started to rain – and my camera gear was sadly unprotected – it was such a pleasure to be outdoors (sans puppies pulling on a leash) to enjoy the beauties of nature.

Allysum

Thoughts for the Season, i

Peace my heart…

Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet.

Let it not be a death but completeness.

Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.

Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest.

Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night.

Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence.

I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.

—Rabindranath Tagore