Sketching Over a Mono Print

We've had a couple of rainy days at the cabin this week.  Adding some gloom and darkness to the repertoire of summer days.  We've been SO lucky this month of July to have day after day of sublime weather that it feels unfair to have to endure rain and wind. 

It's about 66 this morning but will be warm and the weather man hints that this will blow off later this afternoon and give us back at least part of the day for outdoor things.  

It is the weekend of the Northwoods Art Tour so having a rainy Saturday is really ill-timed for that.  But hopefully we can enjoy that later in the day.  

We are blissful in the quiet between two sets of guests...all as welcome and delightful as can be.  BUT having some quiet time is essential for both of Greg and me.  So I wander down to the pier/dock area by the lake to listen to "loon chatter" on the lake and do a little therapy of sketching.  

I remembered that I had glued one of my gel-plate prints into the pages of one of my larger journals.  I really had no idea how I would respond to the pages later but this week I was inspired (in the quiet) to try an ink and water soluble graphite sketch on top of the muted print.  

The original print is acrylic on deli paper (which as a tiny bit of wax on it).  I wasn't sure how ink would respond to that surface.  Actually the ink went on fine but wetting the graphite was interesting and there was a little resist to that. 

It's a common view for folks here at the cabin...the lake was off to my right and I was sitting on our deck.  The boathouse is actually a center of activity for playing at the lake as it houses all the fishing equipment, boat supplies like oars and paddles, life jackets, hammocks, a small sailboat, swim noodles, goggles, and swim fins.  It seemed right to immortalize it that day. (note, the old clock on the side is forever running out of batteries...it is now permanently set for afternoon tea time now at about 5:45 pm).  

 

Working with the gel prints reminds me that I haven't done any for quite a long time but when I was cleaning in the studio last week I came upon a stash of "first drafts" that I left here years ago.  

For those of you not familiar with mono printing...it is quite common to take first prints or ghost prints (2nd prints) and then re-purpose them with another layer or two of prints or stenciling to complete them. 

So I think that most of my mono-printing will now be done at home in Madison, I am taking all the first drafts back with me and hope to get inspired this winter to go down to the University Woods art studio and spread them out and finish them!  

We have about a week left here (with fun company) and then back to Madison for two weeks.  We hope to come up the end of August again.  

The first acorns are falling on the cabin roof now.  

We had 8 loons visiting on the lake this week!  (very common in July) but all but our pair have gone now.  This summer the loons raised a baby which has been fun to watch.  

Happy Days at the Northwoods Cabin

The month of July has been hazy but not lazy.  Weather here at the Northwoods cabin is splendid.  Absolutely NO complaints about this at all.  One day of rain the whole 19 days we have been up here!  Temps in the 70-85 range every day and cool nights for sleeping. Who could complain????  

All our guests have been happy and helpful and fun.  The wine on the pier in late afternoons has been glorious.  Who can say that about all the guests?  Many of listed "projects" are getting done (although a few have popped up that I didn't have on the first list.  You know how THAT goes.)  One thing leads to another.  A leak in the roof needed fixing that we did not know was there...stuff like that.  

I found a new bird (King Bird), we were able to gift our old boat to someone on Craig's list that was happy to have it, and the loons have a baby this summer.  I must report they are behaving very oddly.  We think there is another loon trying to use our lake.  The birds are very territorial and so they have been "wing paddling" in agitation all over the lake.  You can see videos that on google if you look up "loon behavior".  It's quite amazing and we have never seen it before.  We hate to see them distressed but apparently it is normal behavior for agitated loons.  

I've been out canoeing several times, swimming, and enjoying lots of puzzles and card games.  The guests have been doing most of the cooking so no complaints there!  We are about half way through this first vacation time.  We hope to come back several more times this summer in August and September!  

The sketchbook has not been used as much as I would like and I've not been able to squeeze in time to join the sketch group up here as I hoped.  We are having more company than first planned and that's okay.  We love seeing everyone.  And it's fun to share the lake with folks.  So my sketching is somewhat scattered.   My list of "to do" is NOT getting done at all!  Sigh.  But we'll have about 4-5 days between guests later this week and I am determined to get onto some of my chores.  

Below is a Zentangle I did before I left.  I can't remember if I posted it before.  I probably did.  But I found it on my desk top where I leave things for the blog and so I'll just include it in case.  

 

Playing With a Variety of Drawing and Painting Materials

 

I am fairly sure I posted this photo on top of the "peace pole" project here at University Woods but I did take a photo of it after it was placed in someone's garden.  They are randomly placed around the grounds in the gardens and planters.  Look very cool.  Acrylic.  

The Tiger Lillies are blooming all over campus now and around the Wisconsin area.  And Lillies of all kinds.  It's just "Lilly season" now.  they are such a pretty waxy flower...so vibrant.  These are just outside on the patio here at University Oaks.  Watercolor and ink. 

This is one of those sketches you do when you are waiting for something.  I was down in the Oaks Community Room the other day and waiting for something...can't even remember what for at the moment.  But I do like the lamps and the furniture in our center.  Sort of a Frank Lloyd Wright theme.  Ink and white charcoal.  

Graphtint pencils by Derwent.   I got the initial box of 6 "tints".  They are a water soluble graphite with just a hint of color.  I think I am going to enjoy using them.  They do also come in 24 shades but I am thinking that I'll play with these 6 for awhile first.  

They are different from "watercolor pencils" which do not contain graphite.  I used 3 tints in this sketch...a dark indigo shade, a Mountain gray shade and then just a touch of Ivy green around the label.  It's quite lovely for studies like this.  I hope to put them into my sketching bag and try them more.  So easy to use with just a water brush to activate.  Here's a look at the tints:

What's Up in June?

This page seemed to just design itself...taking me from mid-April through early June.  From temps in the 50s to temps in the 90s!  We are having a veritable heat wave in Wisconsin in June...quite startling as it is hotter here than in Leesburg, Florida!!  AND very very dry.  Worrisome drought.  And as I write this on the 11th of June no rain in sight.  My mini memories above carried me through the lovely spring flowers blooming in the woodland forest here next to The Oaks with everything I've always loved (see below for more on that) and through graduations and shared lunches and garage sales and art projects and two lovely books.  The feather theme appeared midway with several quite nice turkey feathers from our woods as well as song bird feathers.  And led to my reading When Women Were Birds!  

I did these tiny sketches standing in the woods and briefly stopping to see what I was looking at. Three different dates in April, May and June.   Many of them were labeled by friends of the woods!  Some I looked up on iNaturalist..an app on my phone!  Others were old friends.  Jacob's Ladder and the Golden Alexanders were new.  

This beautiful foxglove is from Julie's garden just along her patio.  Such a beautiful one.  

And here's my Peace Pole around in a garden here at University Oaks among the many flowers and vegetables growing in the amazing heat. I am not sure how many there are but surely 15 or so at least scattered about the campus.   Someone located mine for me and I took my first trip up to visit the it the other day and found Ian who was gardening near by and gifted me with some delightful fresh lettuce!  Lucky me.  

June is seeming to slip through my fingers...meeting new folks and sharing histories.  Katy was here for lunch this week...we visited the lovely bistro salad bar for that!  We plan to visit a neighborhood garage sale tomorrow (as the heat is supposed to abate slightly for Saturday).  Really 90 is over the top for garage sales for me!  Whew.  Father's Day weekend Beth will come for a visit and we so happy to have her too!  Our first overnight visitor!  

Just a few weeks now until we go up to the cabin for the month of July.  Greg is especially excited about that!  And it will be fun to cozy up in the reading corner again...enjoy the lake front and hopefully enjoy some family visits.  

There's an outdoor musical event tonight here on campus...I plan to take my sketching things.  What a lovely month is June in Wisconsin.

 

the joy of ordinary days.

"A quiet moment in the University Woods conservancy at the Settling Pond on a May morning near the Lady Slipper"

Madison, WI

"A quiet afternoon beside Tippecanoe Lake in Lac du Flambeau"

The United Church of Christ devotional comes to my inbox each morning.  About 3 paragraphs of "thoughts on a scripture passage" and in true UCC fashion always a little bit of a push to think on the message a little outside the box.  

The message today had to do with "ordinary time" within the church setting, but more than that... in our lives period.  The the difficulty of keeping "the wonder" in our lives present and glowing when the tasks of ordinary time flow back in.  Even post pandemic when we should be more than sensitive than ever to the absolute amazing wonder of doing ordinary things.... again we forget.  

Written by Talitha Arnold this short "reminder" got me to thinking hard about my last two sketches above.   Both of them are dear to me in different ways.  One done in my new "home setting" in Madison and then in the home in my "get away setting" at the north woods cabin 4 hours north of Madison in the forest by the lake.  But both are celebrating ordinary time.  

To be fair, my journals ARE and have always been my way of celebrating ordinary time.  The absolute wonder of it.  The absolute joy of it.  Both sketches are out of doors but sometimes I wonder about things inside too. 

So have a wonderful ordinary day.

 

Spring Garden

 Not too "wordy" today blog followers.  More just "the picture tells the story."  We met at Julie's cute little home on Gately Terrace this week to celebrate our grandson Ben's 23rd birthday and for Greg to get his seeds into the plot that Julie is gifting us.  I did a little helping in the garden...(I am the seed sprinkler).  

Then while other things were happening I snuck out back to do a sketch of some of the purple flowers out in her garden.  I was drawn to that color.  Then decided that it might be fun to put Julie's home there too.  Afterwards we joined together with the neighbors for an outdoor pizza picnic followed by a large pan of my Blueberry Buckle...Ben's favorite cake.  (I think you can find the recipe on Google if you type in Ginny Stiles Blueberry Buckle.). I'm famous.  Hahaha.  

We are off to the cabin for the seasonal opening next week...about 5 days.  I'll take some sketchbooks with me. 

Be Like the Bird

Woke up at the unGodly hour of 4:30 a.m. this morning and made myself a cup of “sleepy time” tea.  Which really does work by the way.  I finished reading a classic book (written in 1991...which is NOT in the olden days) called A Life in Hand by a wonderful journaler/sketcher named Hannah Hinchman.  I am always inspired when I read through this which I have several times.  Her powers of observation are joyful. 

Anyway.  Then I saw on my art table the teensy little feather that my friend Sharon had recently mailed me...An honest to God real envelope and stamp full of poetry, hand made book marks and then this little feather.  (I seem to be in a mood for feathers right now) as I had just sketched in my journal the enormous turkey feather that we found on a recent walk in the woods.  It is so hollow at the stem you can almost see right through it.  

So then this tiny little feather falls out of the envelope only a day or so after I find the turkey feather.  From a woman whose last name is Feathers.  Julie would call this serendipity.  The universe is sending me a message about birds, feathers, the lightness of birds, OR the freedom to fly is maybe calling to me.  I tend to want to think it's about the “freedom to fly” now (or the courage to do so.)  I feel like my move to Madison is a kind of leap of faith and in doing so had so many endings and beginnings I am slightly overwhelmed.   Victor Hugo’s words came to me right away: 

“Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.”

Then I remember that my dear English friend, Mary Sollars, would always stick her found feathers upright into the ground when she found one on a walk promptly saying this will improve the weather!  That memory makes me smile. 

So in the wee hours this morning the tiny feather itself (not a drawing of it) got glued into the illuminated journal and the bits of the story behind it, just enough to remind me of the serendipity, written around it with a Zentangle® aura around it.  AND a wee drawing of the book about “noticing” and “recording”.  (Sharon says it is a chickadee feather, by the way.  And Julie says there is a book I should read called When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams.)

I did fall asleep then until almost 8 am!  And now this all brought me round to the new day with a wonderful sunshine just glowing into our eastern windows. Everyone gets messages from the universe it’s just that not everyone hears them.  

Notes from Sycamore Tree House in May.

Ginny

 

April and May Memories Begin to Pile Up.

What a lovely day the Madison Urban Sketchers got for the first seasonal outing at the UW Arboretum on Sunday afternoon.  We had 11 people show for it. the lilacs were blooming and all the crabapple trees were a riot of color.   

    See me at the far left in the first photo and my daughter Julie kneeling front right in the second photo.  We got a historically warm day...84 degrees...which is pretty amazing for May 2 in Wisconsin!  

This is Pat Wafer's sketch of the tree that I was sitting under...see me in the shade to the left! How fun.  Thanks Pat!!!

Here is are my "smallies" so far (since April 11).  Note in the second row to the left is the trip to the arboretum and at the bottom left a remembrance of my granddaughter's college graduation that same morning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa which we watched streamed!  It is the Coe College "seal" and the big bell that each senior rings as they leave the campus for the last time. Abby graduated as a nurse and is off to TX to begin a new life!!!

    The big glass pitcher memorializes our first garage sale of the season on Friday.  

 

Maps and Birds...working in acrylic

 16 x 20"Acrylic and liquid Watercolor on gallery wrapped canvas

"The Elegance of Limits"

Other possible titles? "GPS Directions", "Orange States vs Yellow States" , "City Planning", "Gerrymandering", or "Follow the Yellow Brick Road"? Can you think of one?

This abstract started with a "paint throw" with Dr. Ph Martin's Hydrus Fine Art liquid watercolor out on the lawn one sunny afternoon in the fall in Florida.  Why?  Don't know...It just felt right.  I can't say why.  Throwing paint or splattering paint can free you up when you feel you've started painting way too tight.  

I've painted "on this" and "at this" for now maybe 4-5 months...dabbling here and there on it both in Florida and then here in Madison.  Sort of comforting knowing I had something unfinished that just needed some "dabbling" on.  This is not signed...so I must feel it's not completely done yet.  

Then at the same time, I had a title "Birds on a Wire" but  the painting hadn't started.  Sometimes it works that way too.  This is planned to be a diptych with two 16 x 20 canvas panels.  That's a lot of birds.  But birds are sort of theme with me this time of year and in this apartment up in the Sycamore Tree.  

I am still sketching and keeping my journals in watercolor but I am sort of off on an acrylic theme right now.  Friend, Mary, acknowledge this trend by sending me some lovely bird song.  Click here.  I hope it opens for you.  Just click on a bird to hear it sing.  

My journal for April has begun but it slowed down a bit.  Greg is thinking about his garden now as May approaches.  We went to the West Side Farmer's market this morning and got him some tomato plants to get him started.  I think I need to put them in the journal.  Also wonderful Cinnamon Scones.  

The Zoom Zentangle class is tomorrow afternoon.  That should be fun.  More on that later.  

In the Time of Daffodils.

As spring moves forward here in Madison (for our first spring here) we are fairly amazed how it has gone for -12 to 80 in such a short amount of time (or so it seems to us).  I do think Madison is having an unusually warm early April.  I was back in my Florida sandals yesterday!  

It won't hold.  I know that...I see rain ahead (much needed here) and then temps drop in the highs back to more normal like 50.  Still it pushed the flowering trees ahead and tons of sleeping daffodils in the area woke right up!  A sea of bright yellow everywhere.  Bloodroot popped up in the woods near the apartment here.  Forsythia bushes are yellow too and I can see the fruit trees pushing pale blossoms.  So now I pray temps don't drop down TOO far and injure any of them!  

We were out in the conservancy a few days ago...at that point still a sea of tans and browns...very little green.  But that will change soon with the rains and warmth.  The mother goose is on her nest and we saw a wild turkey ambling about.  A pair of wood ducks on the pond too.  I expect some insects will arrive too...I must remember to get some repellent.  Friends write from the cabin that the ice went off the lake this week.  

We are fully vaccinated now and University Oaks is offering vaccine to our families!  Julie and Mark and one of the grandkids will be over here getting their first ones tomorrow! 

 

I am signed up to participate in an art project on Thursday that involves dye and silk.  Wish me luck as this is way out of my comfort zone.  I'll let you know.  

 

Spring in my Studio

 I've re-organized the little studio AGAIN and keep trying out different ways to make the space work for me.  Gradually it is coming together. I bought a used bookcase this past week (out of the photo) but that has definitely eased up the storage.  It's important to know WHERE things are (of course) and be able to get to them rather quickly.  If I need a black permanent pen or a flat acrylic brush or carbon ink for my fountain pen, or have run out of opera watercolor...spending half an hour locating it in the middle of a project won't do.  You don't want to be grumpy in your studio which is a "happy place".  Tons of article are written about "how to organize" your work place or the "advantages of organization" etc.  I know this is not new news to anyone who makes art!!!  I am in the process of doing some "labeling" which helps.  AND I have purchased a small comfy chair which will, I hope, tuck itself into one corner.  That is something I had in Florida and strangely I miss that a lot.  

This week's botanical art included saying good bye to my beautiful tulips who have given us two weeks of lovely blooms but are finished up now.  And sketching the milkweed that Julie brought over on her visit on Saturday.  Am thinking the seeds should go into the prairie that we have here on campus!

This week's online workshop was by Karen Knudsen on the Dillman's Facebook page.  It will probably be up and viewable for awhile.  Be sure to take a look as it's quite fun and if you have some acrylics it doesn't take anything very unusual to complete.  She's teaching up there in late May.  

Off to my yoga class.

Have a great week.

A Potpourri of Art Activities over the weekend

Sketchbook Revival again (4th year) sort of drew me in.  Of course my life is not totally my own right now...although we are making progressing as weather improves in Wisconsin we are to get out and about more.  

But in-between I am trying to squeeze in a little art and the mini lesson on stamp carving and then layering the printing seemed to hit the spot for me.  I want to play more with that!  

 Then as we "spring forward" I started a new "mini journal" page in a new journal all together!  I got my clock up in the studio...comforting to have the old clock up there.  And then Marlene knit me some Bernie Sanders mittens which arrived just in time for the snow!  So I got to wear them!  

And Greg and I are nursing a lovely pot of pink tulips on our window sill.  So pretty and so helpful as we wander our way through the fickle and mired weather days of Wisconsin March.  

And then Zentangle is starting Project Pack #13 which is VERY different than one I've ever seen..it includes water-soluble graphite and a brush and a clear glaze pen.  The leaf shaped background is made with diluted graphite and a brush.  

My chop is an inverted V (for Virginia) and and S for Stiles. 

Pulling together Thoughts of Transition During the Pandemic

 It's been quite awhile since I finished a "tiny journal" page. This one had a few "oversized" entries.  I mean bigger than 2" x 2".  In actuality only the mask made for Mardi Gras is the original size.  I think it seems like a bit larger-than-life month for Greg and me.  

So this page represents the new beginning of our life "back in Wisconsin".  The sweet little clock from my daughter, Beth's home in St. Charles, ILL, represents the "interim time" between Florida and Wisconsin.  She put us up for about 5 days as we waited for the moving truck to arrive.  

We arrived at University Oaks in Madison at EXACTLY 10:51am on January 28.  We had to take a Covid test and so that name tag stated the time of the test.  It marked the exact arrival in an amazing way. Such a bitter cold two months...with windchills like -27.  Huge shock to two Florida refugees.  

It was hard to exactly pinpoint which of the many many things that have happened between January 28th and March 11th should be documented.  I usually just let the chips fall where they may on these things and it usually works out okay.  Moving left to right you'll see a welcome basket from my daughter and son in law, Mark, who live in Madison (with wine) and then the lovely old Sycamore tree which caught the snow on it's little fruit (seed) balls like little elf caps.  Giving our new home on 4th floor the name "Sycamore Tree House".  Then Mardi Gras mask making, and then our Covid Vaccination record card...we got our second shots on March 3, 2021.  And then the long awaited new sofa arrived making our little apartment home cozy along with a desk that we ordered unassembled AND put together OURSELVES (talk 8 hours of construction!). 

Then the brave step I took in upgrading my MacBook Air to Big Sur which is the latest upgrade to MacOS system.  All by myself!!!  And then finally our new WI driver's licenses and back into my new studio with some new ink pads for an upcoming project.  

This page completes this particular sketchbook.  A year long project overall, started Jan 12, 2019.  So it is my Pandemic Sketchpad.  I am guessing we'll all will have some memory like that...photos or sketches or something that we will hold in our hands and remember the strange amazing year. Something we'll pass along to our great grandchildren and try to tell them how it was.  And I know it's not over yet.  I am praying that we see the light now.  

But we lost so much.  I am praying that we learned some things too.

I look back at the last theme...about the butterfly who "has time enough" and I pray for all of us that there is "time enough" in your life too.  

 

Botanical Zen: A Relaxed Approach to Nature Inspired Patterns: A Zoom Class

Botanical Zen: A Relaxed Approach to Nature Inspired Patterns

A Zoom Class offered on Sunday April 25 from 1-4 pm

 

Here's a little information about the Zoom class...

It's being offered in conjunction with Olbrich Gardens in Madison, WI and registration costs $16.  Information and supply list is available on the following link.

I am co- teaching the class with my daughter, Julie, who is also a certified Zentangle® teacher.  

You can find out more about Zentangle at zentangle.com or by clicking the Zentangle link above in the header on my blog.  Julie and I will be teaching from Madison, Wisconsin, of course, but due to the joys of Zoom it doesn't matter where you are!  Come and celebrate spring with us and learn more about the joys of relaxing and meditative Zentangle.  

Naturally, we love working with students in person best and hope that it won't be too long before we can do that again.  In person classes in Zentangle generally run about $35/person including supplies.  So we are happy to offer this virtual class at a big discount so that you can get started enjoying the benefits of celebrating spring in a new way!  

No drawing experience is required and the supplies are simple.  You will need two 10" x 10" sheets of wc or drawing paper...smooth paper is best.  I recommend Canson Montval wc paper or something similar to a 140# paper (or drawing paper).  A fine line pen such as Sakura Micron .01 or PN (plastic nib) pens or Faber Castell Fine.  A extra-fine Sharpie can substitute but is not my favorite.  And a cardboard tortillion blender.  These can be ordered on Amazon or found in any art supply store or sometimes at Michaels.  They often come in a bag.  Pick small or medium.  

If you have any questions about the class you can use the comment section below in my blog or email me directly at ginny.stiles@gmail.com.  

 

Sycamore Tree House

I guess I have a little excuse for not blogging much recently...as we have just moved 1500 miles from central FL to central Wisconsin...in the middle of January!  

We love our apartment...it's airy and bright and roomy.  2 bedroom and 2 bath and a "great room" which encompasses a living room/study & dining area and kitchen.  All freshly carpeted and painted.  The master bath has a built in laundry.  Wow.  So convenient.  

We have given the apartment a name and a theme even though we have been here in residence for only 16 days.  It's name is Sycamore Tree House.  On the 4th floor we feel we are "sitting" in the middle of a great old American Sycamore just outside.  

I think you can sort of see the "bird" theme (in the nighttime photo).  some of the birds are stained glass and some are those darling "stickies" that go on walls, windows or wherever.  These look like they have been watercolored which was just what I wanted.   Although it appears that Greg is sitting there day and night...really that is not the case.  No daytime TV for us unless it's sports or now and then a movie.  

The daytime photo was taken before I put the birds up.  

 The weather since arriving has been stunning for us.  So cold!!! We left central Fl on January 19th in 75 degrees and arrived in St. Charles, Illinois 3 days later and it was 5 degrees.  Yikes.  We had clear roads and sunshine almost all of the drive and are so lucky as for the following weeks ice storms began to slam into the midwest and really frightening road conditions arrived!  We missed all that!  But for all of our life here the temperatures have been almost all below zero!  Wind chill is -27 here on Valentines Day night!!  

I have just this past 3 days started to unpack my studio which has been really not accessible to me since Christmas.  It was so good to see my things again!!!

From over 70+ boxes I am down to two.  That's pretty darn good in my book. Now not everything that was IN them has found it's proper place of course.  But that will come.  Poor Greg does nothing but cut down boxes and haul them away!  

My friends on the south end of D floor (about 10 apartments) each got a little Zentangle book mark today. That was about all I could manage at this point.  

We are excited to see that NEXT weekend we will be in the 30s.  And then some of the huge piles of snow should start to melt.  We have a heated underground garage for the car...that is very nice too.   It's all relative of course.  When I mention 34 to friend in Florida they cringe with the idea of the cold that means.  They are in the 80s again down there.  We already remember the agony of waiting for spring in Wisconsin.  ESPECIALLY this year!!!  

Hoping to get back into some art soon...we have some furniture shopping to do, need to get our WI driver's licenses. get a new primary doctor, and then do our taxes.  

The best way to describe an independent living apartment complex like Oakwood Village is that is like living on a cruise ship.  We are pretty self sufficient right here..."on board".  But we are also anxious to find out more about Madison and learn to get around here.  It's a pretty interesting town.  So that remains now for better weather.

I'll keep in touch as we more acclimated.  And see where my art journey here leads me.  I am already booked to do a gallery show here at Oakwood next fall!  

Keep touch everyone.  

Moving Day

 That day is coming around finally.  Moving Day.  

I wrote today to my children...

There are many times in my life when I’ve been “on the cusp”.

You know…not actually totally in one place or time but moving onto something else…sort of “on the edge” of being or doing or moving from one place to another.  This is definitely one of those times.

It’s a very “human” thing to be on the cusp of something…as we are all making changes all the time.  

I think of it almost literally in terms of height or width.  Sometimes “the cusp” image makes me think of being up high, stepping carefully so as not to slip.  Or I image it as a wide place…as in a meadow with lots of high grasses so that you have to take your hands and make a path through them not really able to see the destination…just knowing you need to move in that direction with the sun at your back.  Like the prairie in Kendra’s beautiful Seno Nature Center.   

This morning at 7 am our home was encased in deep fog just before dawn broke.  Mysterious and quiet.  Like being on the cusp of day.  I could not even see the other side of the pond for awhile.  Then the sun broke on the horizon as the earth moved round it and the fog burned away in less than 15 minutes and a glorious blue and white sky appeared with gorgeous grass shadows and the beautiful reflections that come up on the tree trucks in a kind of revolving barber pole of shadows that move round and round the trunks reflected off the water.  This lasts for at least an hour until the sun’s angle changes.  

It is Thursday and the movers come Monday…4 days counting today.  

I live in a sea of cardboard boxes and will live in them at the other end too.

I hope to have a few moments to sketch some of them into my sketchbook today.  

It’s a “cusp” moment that I need to record.

In the cusp moments in the next 4 days we have to legally close on both houses, finish the packing, and load the car.  Then we prepare to go cross country into the midwest in mid-January that is quite a bit different than our usual May trip.

We had to add anti freeze to the windshield washer fluid and we bought a snow scraper.  

Through this trauma we are saying goodbye to friends we’ve made over the last 13 years we have lived here…going through a kind of “grieving process” which has passed denial now and is into a gentle ache of sadness.  

We really feel now that we are “living temporarily in someone else’s home”.  

Barely anything, except the view out the windows, is familiar.  Cupboards are bare and furniture is not where it used to sit if it’s here at all.  We are down to two chairs, two beds, a dining room table, a couple book cases and a file cabinet.  We plan to start over in Madison.  

I chose brown for the font today because I feel even the print should look different and muted.

Greg woke up with a big grin this morning and a cheerful laugh.

What would I do without him.  He makes me laugh too. 

Why not?  He is perennially cheerful about each new day.  

So I look for lots of “serendipity” moments in the next weeks as we close the door here the last time…leaving the pack of warranties and instructions on the counter and handing off the keys. Wending our way north with the sun on our backs.  

Remember that time is a spiral, not a straight line.  And so there are no corners to turn…just a gentle sweep into the next part of the story.  Stay tuned for the new chapters ahead.  

That sort of sums things up I think.   

The Final Two Weeks in Florida

Imagine my delight when a gorgeous bouquet of flowers arrived as a thank you from the Art Club!!!  So huge I had to divide it up into two lovely bouquets.  And it's lasted a long long time!  I was so pleased and surprised.  I am going to miss my tribe here at Hawthorne Park!  

One of the ways I've been keeping sane while packing up my life to move from Florida to Wisconsin in the middle of winter during a pandemic is to tangle.  Daughter, Beth, sent me gorgeous sparkling watercolors to play with so I've enjoyed incorporating those into my tangles too. 

And then there is Neurographic Line Drawing.  Sort of on the same quiet relaxing side as Zentangle.  It's suggested that the original lines be done with the non dominate hand.  That's kind of fun.  See instructions here if you'd like to try it out.  

We are 17 days and counting now until the moving truck shows up at our door.  The packing is coming along pretty well.  But there are always interruptions and issues and decisions and unexpected events.  

Our first buyers backed out!  THAT was a big one. But then it went back on the market and sold again in two days.  So that was helpful.

But now we have to go through inspection again!  Sigh.   The last minute events are now beginning to loom...things that just had to wait to the end. Next week is a big week for those kinds of things.  

We are watching the horrific storms charge across the mid west that makes us nervous too.  Our moving van will have to get through those and we will too, of course.  We expect to be "on the road" on January 19.  We'll keep in touch along the way.