No Comment (Breakfast)

What do you do at breakfast if your bread has large holes in it? In our household, we stick our fingers thorugh it and take a picture. Then it winds up on the blog. I guess it was a hot day.

The worst of it was that it wasn't even Bob's bread. It was some store-bought stuff that I wasn't super impressed with.

A Brookside Surprise

Bob discovered this healthy clump of lobelia one afternoon- it might have been on my birthday. I wish I could have captured the hummingbird that was alight on it when Bob first took me down by the bridge where this lobelia is growing in muck in the middle of the stream. Spectacular!
We are so lucky to keep having an amazing range of wildflowers and birds appearing in our backyard. Turkeys, bluebirds, the bats we saw the other night. And we know we have deer, but they've been incredibly well behaved thus far and haven't (yet!) dared to eat my unprotected hostas. I realize I am tempting fate by having this veritable deer salad bar unfenced...
I'm trying to concentrate on the interesting and beautiful things that I can (sort of) see with my one eye. I am aware that many people walk around like this their whole lives so I suppose I shouldn't complain if I exist in a visually impaired state for a few months. (And let's face it: I'm opting for optimism about what my sight will be like after the cornea transplant. Doctors love to boost the best possible outcome and I'm imaging it will accomplish nothing but to bum me out if I consider that my vision will never be the same as it was...) Anyway sometimes when watching bats and birds and the flowers filling in in my garden, I can almost forget that I can't see well. That's a good thing!

Tiny Bubbles

This morning when I took Jules out to pee, I saw this curious accumulation of tiny bubbles at the base of several of our fence posts (this was before Jules peed so it had nothing to do with his actions!) Thye looked like crystals: very pretty! It was also so nice to have relatively cool temperatures and a bit of wetness after all that heat.
Also, in the midst of the dying poison ivy, there were a few of those fairy cobwebs that sometimes form. A couple of years ago, when walking in the woods with Frank the Dog, I came on a place in a hemlock grove where there were hundreds of little cobweb macrame-like cat cradles all glistening with dew. Spectacular! But of course, I had no camera with me. In contrast, this was a modest show, but still pretty...

I think I liked the dryness of the expiring poison ivy coupled with the condensation lingering on the twigs and leaves.

Too Hot to Blog

Oh boy! You can tell from that last post that it's been too hot to blog. At a certain point, one's proteins begin to denature and the brain stops functioning and nothing of value is produced. Our computer is upstairs, in one of the hotter rooms in the house. I am therefore behind in emails as well as ideas! Don't make me do anything! And I usually pride myself on taking the heat better than some people...
We came back from work yesterday to discover the clock in our bedroom read 92 degrees. We spent the last two nights sleeping on the floor of my studio. A bit hard but lots cooler. There is a sliding door that allowed as much cool air in as was possible. Jules approved of our low lying attitude.
Here's a picture of the fan that Bob constructed from an old fan housed in an air compressor (another piece of equipment that coame wiith the house). It fit into our extremely narrow (only 15") windows which will not accommodate air conditioners... and it worked famously! The temperature in the bedroom was significantly lowered after the fan was turned on. Unfortunately, not much worked after two straight weeks of extraordinary temperatures. Bob has faith in this gigantic whole house fan mounted on the roof. I think it makes and impressive ammount of noise and fury, but signifies- and cools off- nothing!

Non Stop Fun With the Neighbors

That's our neighbor dog Hurley. He has discovered that we don't bite and now comes by to play several times a day. Jules thinks it's just great to have a new friend. Hurley is something of a Gracie the Dog replacement (although no one can ever replace Gracie!).
I think Hurley is old and he has many odd bumps and barnacles and is not much to look at, but he's a good guy. I don't always pretend to understand the enjoyment that dogs recieve from body slamming one another, but he keeps coming back so I guess that it's fun.

An Eye for An I

I am generally leery of employing my art work for "therapeutic" ends. I've had therapist in the past who advised me to work issues out by making interpretive drawings and the like. Somehow, this never seemed comfortable or "natural" to me; it often felt forced or sort of hokey. It is therefore ironic that I am contemplating making some pieces about my eye...

Maybe it's because it's not even metaphoric. It's actual and literal that my eye (the primary organ by which I make art!) was damaged. That a part of the "Mighty Three" (hand/ eye/ brain) was directly involved is  profound. If I had lost hearing in one ear, it would be tragic as I love music, but it would have been no where as terrible as this eye involvement. Still, I sort of roll my eyes (yes, it stilll rolls even if I don't see so well) and wonder what on earth I'll accomplish by making a million pictures of eyeballs.
And, of course, I return to the fact that I really don't care ultimately what I or anyone else thinks. Making art is entirely motivated by the urge to, well, make art. Therefore, whether it commences as a form of therapy or an exercise in seeing, it really is about simply doing it and being committed to that act. It doesn't matter where art starts. It's where it goes that gets interesting. Sometimes, I think too much about making art. I'm happier and "more productive" (whatever that means!) when humming away in my studio, despite the results.

Instant Garden- Just Add Water!

Sort of "instant garden" anyway! I have many perennials that I brought from our previous garden and they have spent the spring and early summer vacationing in the vegetable garden. Now I'm busy translpanting them but there are still eight million rocks and roots and all kinds of "junque" to remove before the instant part can happen. There are some happy combinations occurring; some I lifted wholesale from my old borders- like the "Gold Mound" spirea and small deep red day lily.

I had a rude awakening on Sunday when I went to Bob's mother's house to retreive the other half of my perennials from her vegetable garden where I had healed them in. Apparently, despite a fence and gate, the deer snuck in or over or through the fence and ate all of my plants. I mean I stood there for several profoundly awful minutes wondering just where all those plants were. Then I started to find stumpy bits of phlox and rudbeckia and hostas. But the Cimicifuga and other good friends have vanished. So I transplanted what I could locate and have healed them into a hospital ward in our vegetable garden, where I hope they will revive and regenerate for next spring...

Here's another view of my in-process borders:

Look at all that empty space! It's so wierd because I'm one of those "fill it up" gardeners who likes to see plenty of plants and very little raw dirt. I realize it's all part of the moving process and soon enough the beds will be full (and need dividing!). But it looks so empty.

Sleep Disturbances

Following up on the subject of learning to nap, I suppose it's a good time to pursue a conversation about my apparent insomnia. For the last year or so, I am one of those who awakens at 1 or 2 in the morning, unable to return to sleep. Very annoying.
Sometimes, it's caused by hyper anxiety about things like money, being an artist in such an odd world (that undervalues art and overvalues everything else- like sports, celebrity, stupid collectibles etc etc.) or the Fukishima nuclear reactors in Japan. Sometimes, like tonight, it's not even anything specific. I simply wake up and can't fall back to sleep. And hell, I'm tired. I moved a lot of perennials today!
I have been subscribing to the practice that it's better to get up and do something (like work on one's blog!) than to toss, turn, fidget and castigate one's self for being unable to sleep. Here I am...
Obviously, napping has become a nice trick to obviate the effects of sleeplessness. At least I can catch up during the day on the rest that alludes me at night. But isn't it different sleep? It seems like it is.
I used to sleep soundly. I suspect the last year with all of the major transitions and uncertainties that we endured caused some malfunction in my sleep curcuitry. But I'm more than ready to return to more continuous pattern of sleep.

Catching some ZZZZZZZZZs

One good thing that has come out of this weird dream-time state hailing from my eye injury is that I have finally learned how to nap. All through college and beyond, I envied those of my frinds who were able to nap effectively. They emerged from their afternoon slumbers refreshed and recharged. I would occasionally attempt to nap if I had a head cold or was required to rise early... but to no avail. I could lay in a darkened room, but sleep? Forget it.
But the powerful combination of bodily trauma and medications and two surgeries made me really sleepy for several weeks. I found myself lying down on our bed and miraculously, I would actually fall asleep. Sometimes it was only for twenty minutes or so, but it worked.
As pictured in the photo above, Jules is a big advocate of napping; I think most dogs are. He often joins me when I recline and whole heartedly approves of my new found ability.
This morning after Jules and I returned from our morning walk, I put some of my eye drops in and lay down. The next thing I knew, I was awakening form a strange little dream about tripping and falling up some stairs. An hour had passed and I felt great. I think I'm a napping prefessional now!

You Won't catch Me Up There Anytime Soon

This is some of the exciting debris generated by the work that Bob and our good friend Don and his son Nigel did on our roof. A month or so back, Don was generous enough to volunteer his (and Nigels!) talents in the aerial repairs department. Of course, luck would decree that the days they decided to do the much needed re-flashing of our dormer were incredibly hot and unpleasant. But fortunately, what they budgeted three days for completion took only several hours...
I had forbidden Bob from going up on the roof. Maybe I'm nuts, but just think of the fate of Glenn Seator (did I spell his name correctly?) A Brooklyn based artist that fell to his untimely death while performing roof repairs! And after my peculiar foray into the "household accident" department, I am none too sanguine about displays of derring-do.
But the necessary work was done and we can breath easier when it rains. We can also begin some of the interior repairs that were linked to a dormer leak. (Remember that moldy blog entry several lifetimes ago?)
Here's another detail of the attractive camo tarp that was a feature of our roof. Good riddance!

Thanks again to Don and Nigel. We owe them a return on the favor, but you won't catch me offering to help with roof issues. (I am really afraid of heights.) The carport roof is as far as I venture and even that felt too high by half.

Remember Me? An Almost Normal Posting...

We actually managed to complete the digging of the new flower beds. This excites me as there are many things I con't do really well at present due to eye-ball adventures and mishaps. Alas!
But I did relate that I was able to de-sod the above area and in the final stretch, Bob pitched in and with Jules barking at rocks, the three of us made light work of finishing the basic initial layout. This makes me happy because it rained (finally) and I can transplant in some of my perennials. Interestingly, I often garden with many annuals and this year will present a reversal. I haven't been able to start things from seed and then have been too preoccupied to purchase annuals to edge and fill in (plus I would have had to babysit them in six packs) and now it's the beginning of June and what's left at the garden centers???!!
Gardening is always like that...
The other interesting factor in laying out these first beds is that I chose to make them really geometric. We'll see if I go wiggly in the future. But somehow, as there was nothing "organic" to start with- no trees, or walls, or walkways or pre-existing gardens- no nothing!- it seemed to me I needed to preordain a bit of strict order. I'm sure they will evolve from here!