Aug 31- Fading Beauty

Last weeks sunflowers are becoming more lovely as they wither.
Beauty transforming.

Aug 30- Last of Summer

Decorative Onions

Fading Hydrangea

Aug 29- Seed Heads

 Featherlike structures. Collected earlier in the summer they have been waiting to be photographed, tonight was their night.

Aug 28-Splash of Color

The heat is all summer yet fall colors are just beginning to show here

Aug 26- Sunflowers

Free sunflowers at the farmers market yesterday

fields of them 

just grab some clippers and carry them home.

Food for the spirit.

Some other things came home with us too, 

home baked honey wheat bread, fresh tomatoes and multi colored beans.

The bread and some tomatoes were immediately put to use in grilled cheese sandwiches,

later I tossed the beans with olive oil salt and pepper and roasted them.

They were like candy.

More tomatoes were tossed with pasta, fresh herbs and goat cheese for dinner this evening. 

no pictures were taken as it was eaten too fast.

Fresh ripe tomatoes are a wonderful thing.

I've come to cooking late in life. I was uninterested and rather intimidated when I was younger.

Lar cooked nearly all the dinners we ate for the first 5 years we were together.

Now I am the person more likely to try something new.

Always on the lookout for a good vegetarian recipe to try.

I think more tomatoes will find their way into a couscous salad tomorrow.

  

Aug 25- Whirlwind

Many thanks to our friend Chuck Davis who took us up today for a tour of the state in his plane. 

We lucked out with gorgeous weather. 

I took a few pictures and got to fly the plane for a bit!

(OK I held the controls which was a bit out of my comfort zone)

Mt Hope Bridge

Newport Mansions

Our house and my garden 

The highlight was getting to see my gardens from the air!

Aug 24-Smoke Bush

My computer is cranky, I may have too many photos on it...

Aug 23- Friday Night Plans

A bit blurry but I will be too in awhile!

Aug 22- Scraps of Land and Sky

Still Stitching...

Aug 21 - Little Wings

Dreaming of flight

Aug 20- Work Detrius

This is only a couple of months worth of sampling seconds...
there are piles of them
I really should figure out some use for these.

Aug 19- Known Steps in the Night

Stirring the studio last week helped me to identify a direction to move in.

I often get stalled when I don't know where a piece is going or when I am very invested in something being successful (see also katchinas)

I think I have had this particular piece on the wall for 3 years

I'm still unsure of how it will all gel but I knew I wanted to attach these bits together to start the ball rolling again.

                                        

Aug 18- Splash!

Watering the caladium

Aug 17- Stirring the Studio

I did a bit of straightening up in the studio,

found some very bound up energy in this stack of

 paper-guilt-decisions

not quite ready to deal with that today

maybe tomorrow

Spent a little time with the stones

this project is very tight right now 

a muscle that was stretched a little too far

now needs very gentle exploration

Stones are patient

Another project found in an incubation phase 

It waits

gatherings and gleanings are collected 

I will know when to start doing more

if I pay attention

I know I'm not done with these 

or they aren't done with me

they are all interrelated

sometimes its hard to know where to start

maybe with something new?

That would stir things up.

Aug 16- Mushroom

Looks like a map!

Aug 15- Taking Small Stitches

 Still toying with the tiny Bodi garden. Stitching on it every so often, many patches, like prayer flags.

Aug 14- Gleanings

Still picking up stuff on my walks. These seed pods may make it into a tiny weaving.

August 13- Romping

Zena at play

This is what she looks like just before she bites Dillon in the head, pure devilish joy.

Aug 12- Kayaking Stump Pond

 Today's trip, out for an hour or so, very relaxed, calm water, warm and still.

An adventure that was just the right size.

Aug 11- Gardening

Today I put time into sorting out the front point garden. Last year I dismantled it to get a bunch of plants to transplant into the back border. It was left with a few plants I wanted to keep, roughly shifted into position.
Now it is time to sort it out and make sure everything has enough space to grow, and do some weeding.
Tomorrow I will put down some mulch and let it settle back in.

 While I was out there I found a Warrior Mother's broken shield. I've given it a place of honor in the bed.
She deserves some recognition of her sacrifice.

Off to rest now.

Aug 10- Odd Fellow

Strange little guardian

Aug-9 Broken Beauty

Tiny egg found broken and kept safe from further harm.

August 8- Frozen Wings

I was given this dragonfly by Lar,
he is learning to roll with my penchant for collecting detrius.

I love the way the legs are poised as if in prayer,
and the quizzical expression on the face

August 7- Season Shift

A gathering of acorns

I noticed that it sounds different than it did a couple of weeks ago, there is a high insect hum in the mornings, and nights are now full of katydids and crickets whirring and chirping.
Sounds are what tell me when I am in the season.
A shift in tone or tenor will register in my less conscious mind and soon I will begin to see the changes around me.
We have lived here for 13 years now,
plenty of time to get to know the music of the place, the rhythm shifts of the seasons, cycles of sound,
the same song played differently year after year.

August 6-

Feather

Well I give up. The new template was pretty but it had me flummoxed as to how to get comments to show up.
So be it. I will go back to this format where I can answer comments without jumping through hoops.
I will just have to spiff the place up the old fashioned way.
Today Dillon found me this feather on one of our walks. I think it may be an owl feather simply because it is so soft, but it may have belonged to a hawk or turkey.
It reminds me of judes feather project.
I have been limiting the media I am taking in, I have found that I was using other's voices to drown out my own. There are so many sources, websites, news, tv, books, facebook, pintrest, games, and more that aren't coming to mind...
I don't want to cut myself off completely, all of these make good servants but poor masters. (maybe not the games)
I have been encountering aspects of the the idea of disconnecting repeatedly over the last week here, here, and here
All serving to reinforce my impulse, to curate my life a bit more discerningly.

August 5- Fabric Garden

The Bodi's garden has begun to grow again.  Setting roots and reaching for branches

August 4- New flowers

 A blurry photo of the succulent fountain after 4 months, still going strong. I'm deciding weather to leave it outside for the winter or to winter it in the garage...

 I chose a couple of new plants to add to the back border, Achillia and Verbena. I think they will do quite well in the back bed.