Today's digital collage.
3 layers/2 filters.
My mother first gave me a camera to take photos with when I was around nine. If I remember right it only used black and white film.
This is a copy of a photo that I took around that time, looking up into the canopy of a redwood tree. I remember having to be so careful with film. How different it is now with digital.
How many possibilities there are to tell a story...
This morning
I spent an hour or so down on the beach.
I went to walk but also to recenter myself.
Not sure that was accomplished.
(I also stood right at the water's edge and said to the sea "Liz says hello.")
I sat on a bench for awhile.
I have to confess to a fascination about what people talk about.... Today conversations included switching bank accounts to one with a higher interest rate, someone's child, someone following up with a complaint, a book they really enjoyed, how dogs will follow their nose...
The funniest was when I heard someone say, "uh-oh." I looked up to see a jogger pick up her little dog as a man on a hoover board went by. She called out, "He's not okay with hoover boards yet!" The dog started barking and all three of us connected with a smile.
For my staycation week I decided to sign up for an art class being presented this week and next.
This is still very much in progress.
I am embracing the beginner mindset.
Somewhere on there it says, "Don't ask why."
Sometimes I do that too much.
I can see some connections with this project to what I am doing with my Peace and Plenty blanket. I have been thinking of as something to doodle on for awhile...adding words, shapes and lines as they occur to me.
As a kind of journal.
And then there is this.
It was there.
Outside the window last night.
I like this version.
Layered with something like a map.
Outside the window this morning:
No layers, just as it is.
This morning's cooking project.
Kumquats and honey, something saucy for yogurt.
Flavors can be bright.
Looking for the bright.
Over a foot.
There has been snow on the ground for a week now. It's warming but first there will be more snow, rain, snow, wind, snow, rain, freezing...
The garden will be changed when the snow is all gone.
The rosemary had blossoms on it last week.
Coffee filters ready to cut and then spin into yarn.
Wintering by Katherine May recently finished but not since I will go back and reread. It's a beautiful book.
I don't think we ever really "finish" books.
The Overstory by Richard Powers started as a library book, purchased because I had to turn it back in before being able to read more than the first few pages. I am about a 1/4 of the way in. Thanks Dee for giving me a nudge to make it next. There are sentences, passages that I keep rereading.
Ursula K. Le Guin's collection of essays (a collection of blog posts), No Time to Spare, is my current nonfiction choice. I've been diving in and out of it for quite awhile.
White fabric, to sew with and to dye with. Possibilities.
From my journal this morning:
End of year. Thinking about unfinished. Thinking about books unfinished. Thinking about projects unfinished. Thinking about me…unfinished. The New Year is a construct made by humans, a date, a measure. It doesn’t really mean anything to time passing. It’s a way we (humans) try to impose control and organization.
To be continued...
Early Saturday morning.
Playing a little...
This is about 4 different layers. The beast started as a fragment sent to me by Jude. It's something that I started, got stuck on and put aside for awhile...years ago.
That's how it goes for me. I start, stop, return.
A filter added. Change the mood.
Yesterday another trip to the vet for follow up immunizations. Timber escaped out of the carrier twice.
(Gibson was in another carrier. Would they have been happier together?)
Last night, just before sunset. I think I've finally caught the color. No filter, just beautiful soft reds, oranges...
The sky was the same color.
One of the two year olds told me this week "go to your room" and then she laughed and said "hi."
No melodrama with toddlers, just lots of experimentation.
It's early Saturday morning and a whole weekend before me.
Thinking about what I want to do.
Can a weekend be a room?
Reading:
Preparing:
(in the dehydrator)
Making:
Imagining:
Yesterday morning I pulled over because the warning light had come on in the car...I had forgotten to put my seat belt on. It was a good opportunity to take a picture of the sun behind the fog. It was even more glorious a few moments later, but I was driving then.
Today I got stuck twice backing out...which left me thinking something was seriously wrong.
Turns out I forgot to take off the emergency brake...twice.
As an exercise for a class I am taking (for work) I had to identify 5 self care goals that I want to work on for the next year. I chose: go to the beach once a week, take a lunch break when I am at work, do yoga every morning (I am sporadic about this even though it always feels good), go for a walk everyday (not as good at this now that there is a car), and only drink tea at work (rather than coffee).
To make this more concrete I made five paper boats and named them for my goals: Reach, Wander, Pause, Journey, and Comfort.
One of them tried to sail away today.
Day 14. Fermenting but still not dyeing.
A day off work and an early morning visit to the beach with coffee, my journal and some stitching...
Couldn't do much stitching, it was breezy and the fabric kept flipping up.
Really all I wanted to do was keep taking deep breaths.
Sitting below the trail I can hear snippets of conversations as people walk by.
Everyday conversations mostly.
Thinking about what we feel the need to share with others.
And what we hold close, keep tight.
Sometimes it's good to find a field to stand in (or even on the edge of).
This one is across the street from where I work. It had a "For sale" sign up but that's gone now. There was a petition for it to be used as a park as it's on the edge of a public trail but a lot of areas like this here are used for apartments. It's pretty amazing that it's been like this for as long as it has.
It would be a good place to stretch your wings (and there are many that already do).
I hope it does become a park.
A good place to take a deep breath.
We all need that.
I've finished updating my summer/hot weather wardrobe and am starting to re-imagine clothing that isn't worn much or scraps from the stash that have potential to be transformed.
What it means...how we make meaning.
Random or not?
I printed this one, the one below, and then took another picture. I've lost track of the layers...
"All the different realms, all the different story realms, and how many — every place, every window, every doorway is an opening to a life — a whole different life, a whole series of stories."
Joy Harjo (On Being Interview)