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"When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy." --Rumi

Wednesday's journal page

uncertainty.

To go to the studio each day and work on journals - to dedicate my creative expression to self exploration, experimentation and personal visual vocabulary . . . . this work is the core of what I do and it does make me wonder sometimes.
I am exploring some new media and my journal really helps me think about things visually. I just am not a verbal thinker.
I love flipping through old journals and letting the inspiration take off -- try it!

"Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence." --Rumi

finally. some journal pages.

Just to mix it up, and not get bored, I always have at least 3 journals going at once. This little one was a real treat -- I have boxes of postcards sent to me over the years, many with magnificent collage art that I wanted to enjoy. I chose my 30 or so favorite postcards, and stitched them together in an accordion-style booklet. Then I added some paint and stickers and doodles and stamps and words when I felt it.
So it ended up a collaborative little book, 30 generous wonderful artists who shared their work in the mail with me, and a bit of my own hand.
Just because we tend to work alone in a studio does not mean we can't join a collaborative mayhem of art; make some awesome messy collages with other similar soul-searching spirits, sharing our creativity in ways not even predicted by the original artist.
Every time I flip through this book I get ideas for new work.
Here are some of these pages:



"There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street, and being the noise." --Rumi

Saturday's Garden - the last day of our garden tour

Saturday, a day of many chores inside, is a day of mostly enjoying what is there, and not doing too much work. (ha.)
This area includes the waterfall (now dry so the pump won't freeze) and some brick pathways.
There is a nice grouping of 2 pine trees and an aspen here, and some colorful groundcover that won't need much maintenance.
Not totally a day of rest, but the smallest bit of work possible in this, the last zone of the week.
I also found a papery wasp nest here, and will scan that and use it in some collages - so already the garden is giving gifts, inspiring me with textures and colors. Art to follow!





"It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought." --James Douglas

Friday's garden

Friday's part of the garden includes the rear raised beds -- which actually are quite large and filled with who knows what. I can identify a large wonderful sage bush, but not much else - might have to wait 'til Spring to really get a sense of what is there. Today the sun is out again and Simba and I took our morning walk; just when I thought this house couldn't get any better, we found a little path along a spillway, called the Highland Canal just up the street - it goes for miles. There are mature trees all along it, and as we pass various fenced yards, Simba gets to greet each dog with barks and a bit of running. It's awesome. Our neighbor told us her kids tube down it in the summer when the water is high.
A canal. Right here.
My last two favorite places in the world to walk were along the C&O Canal when we lived in Bethesda, MD, and along the D&R Canal when we lived in Princeton, NJ.
and now, a canal right here just steps from our house.
Who could have planned that?
and although I haven't journaled in a while, I am starting to get back into the swing -- here is a journal cover I made for printing little pocket journals, maybe it will inspire you (and me) to open up the journal again and play.

"I've discovered the secret of life. A lot of hard work, a lot of sense of humor, a lot of joy, and a lot of tra-la-la."
--Kay Thompson, author of the Eloise books

Thursday's Garden - with snow!

First snow of the season, and we are only part way through our garden tour. Thursday's garden includes the East side and rear beds, and my favorite -- a huge ancient tree, I think a Ginko but I have to check with my brother, the tree expert, when he comes.
That rope hammock swing is great to sit and spin in, even in the snow.
These beds will be dormant until Spring, then I'll see what comes up.
I already found some surprise rosemary in the front, gifts for the kitchen.
I am glad for the quiet today, and time to just enjoy the coming winter and stillness.


"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." --Robert Henri

Wednesday's garden - day 3

Wednesday's garden is the East side yard - there is a brick path leading to the back yard fence, and I counted FIVE rose bushes planted here.
There are also beds of pine needles, which will make great pine baskets, if I could learn how to do that.
and the roses, well FIVE bushes means lots of flowers. wOw.
Wednesday has the smallest bit of garden, so mid week is my lightest day for work in the garden, a middle of the week mini-sabbath, although maybe those roses will want lots of attention. They can be quite the prima donnas.
This morning was both misty and sunny, and the first frost of the season dusted the plants. This is going to be so fun.



"So you see imagination needs noodling, long inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering." --Brenda Ueland

Tuesday - day 2 in the garden

Tuesday's garden includes the wild flower beds in the front, some climbing vines on the garage, a little stone area with chairs, and a lovely pine bed with yet another stone paver area.
There is so much here and it is so overgrown right now, I trimmed some of the rose bushes, but just wandered perplexed with the rest -- I don't know how much to cut back.
There are still flowers blooming, although it is supposed to snow later this week so that will end that . . . . although even the "lifeless" brown seed pods are quite beautiful.
At some point, I should cut it all back, and just see what comes up in the Spring. In the meantime -- some images:






"Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through, and be silent." --Rumi

Monday -- first day working in the new GaRdEn!!!

Although we are still unloading boxes, and getting the gazillion individual items we own each to their right place, I stopped to work a bit in our greenhouse and gardens!
I have divided the land into six zones, and Monday's zone is the GREENHOUSE and the western edge gardens, including some wonderful rose bushes.
I found an old box of seeds from two houses ago -- mice had eaten all the corn, sunflower seeds, and pepper seeds - but left me a nice array:

I hung an amulet from a Hawaiian Buddhist Temple given to me by Chaz, my Shamanic friend who did the house blessing; it is designed to protect and nurture all that grows in this space, and then I added the first sage bundle ever from the herb bed:

The tables are ready to be filled with little seed pots, the worms are busy making me some awesome compost, the tools need to be cleaned and oiled, leaves raked, roses trimmed back to allow new growth in the Spring . . . .
Nature Spirits will be letting me know what is needed, and I am ready to be the worker in this little oasis we have been gifted with.
So much will come to life in this space, I am filled with gratitude for this new part of my life! Can you just see the foothills of the Rockies through the glass?
Journal pages, for sure, to follow.

"The place where your great gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet."
--vocation as defined by Frederick Buechner

still organizing studio -- journal pages to come!

“Myth must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are the artists of one kind or another. The function of the artist is the mythologization of the environment and the world.”
--Joseph Campbell.