The Third Act

bowl o greens...

Arugula grows fast once it gets going.  I have a lot growing in one bed (along with escarole and a few pepper plants).  It's time to really get at it.  So, I harvested a massive amount of the stuff...along with lettuce and escarole thinnings.  After a thorough rinsing, a large proportion of my daily salads is ready to go.  It's a good thing I eat a lot of salad.  Even so, I'm thinking of making a jar of arugula pesto as well.

The little blossoms are delightful so I kept a handful of those for salad as well.

 

 

 

 

history

My brother is visiting from out west. I suggested we go to Henricus historical park for an outing. This is a place I’ve wanted to go visit but never got around to it…and it’s only 20 miles away.

We definitely got a history education. We must have spent an hour each with the two docents/actors (?) who really knew their stuff. Quite fun and interesting.

I shot almost a full roll of black and white film in the Holga. It’ll be a few days for me to finish up the roll and then process. In the mean time, here are some images taken with my phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the rain came...

Rather strong storms moved through last night.  Thankfully no hail and uneventful winds at our house.  The lights flickered a few times and there were a couple explosive claps of thunder, but other than that just heavy rain.  The garden needed it. 

This morning is sunny and darn glorious out...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

waiting for rain

The forecast is for thunderstorms to roll through tonight.  The rain would be great...winds and potential hail?  Maybe not so much.  But it'll be what it'll be!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the day after...

It's the day after Mother's Day.  It's interesting to read about its origins.  How telling that the originator spent the last years of her life trying to abolish the "holiday."  I can't disagree about the distaste for the commercial aspect.  On the other hand, I totally respect the original idea.

When I woke up yesterday morning the windows were open so I laid in bed listening to the dawn chorus.  That's something I never tire of.  I thought about my mom and I thought about my own experience of being a mother.  I thought about how I wished I'd known myself more during my kids growing years, so I could have mothered them better.  At the same time, I thought about the wonderful humans my kids are and how lucky I feel to have them in my life.

It was a quiet, lovely day.  I took long walks, I finished a book, I fed myself good food.  The kids called, each on their own and we had good chats.  Saturday I received flowers from them both.  I miss living close to them, but I'm grateful for any kind of connection.  

This is a different time of life.  Sometimes it's a struggle to completely embrace the "what is."  But if I'm truly present, it's pretty darn good, so that's my practice.

 

 

 

two twos

Just a couple diptychs from in the garden today.

It's raining now...and lightening and thundering.  Wind is low, though, so it's all good.  We need the rain.

 

 

 

Busy day…

…so here are a few iPhone pics of the garden…

 

 

 

 

getting the kinks out

That's how I feel when I return to a practice I've taken a long hiatus from.  To be honest, I have been making a few cyanotypes here and there.  That's one thing.  It's another to be working towards an actual purpose.  It's true, I work mostly in a rather purposeless way.  I mean, there is purpose, but maybe not in a better defined sort of way.

Anyway, I was pretty happy with today's results.  It feels like I'm remembering in some way...the things that are good to remember about this process.

It's warm out.  Tomorrow will be warmer and then rain...perhaps.  That would be good.  I had to water the garden this morning.  That takes a while.  But it's a meditative activity and gives me a long stretch to commune with the plants.

 

 

manual labor

It was a day for the kind of yard work that really does feel like work.  Given recent rains plus warmth, it looks like it's back to a once a week schedule for mowing.  If I'm lucky I can let it go a bit longer.  I don't "edge" every time either.

Honestly, it's not a bad thing.  I rather enjoy the instant gratification that comes from taking care of my lawns (and I use that term loosely!).  The best part, of course, is the enjoyment I get from the tidiness (what does that say about me?).  I took off my shoes today to truly appreciate how cleaning up the grassy areas feels so good on my feet.  I should do that more often.

 

 

 

 

pressed flowers

I made my flower press a month or so ago and used the botanicals for testing cyanotypes.  There are new botanicals in the press now.  While I was looking at the first collection, scattered on the work table, I started getting ideas of how to use them.  

It's been a long, long time since I used the scanner for anything other than scanning little prints or negatives.  So today I played around with these flattened, dried flowers.  This is in no way a finished, anything really.  But I'm trying to follow ideas and instincts.  It's very easy for me to shut a creative idea down because I don't know the end point yet.  But pretty much everything I do creatively has a lot of steps...process...I suppose that's normal.  Truly, do I ever really know at the beginning of the work what the end will be?  Not for sure.