A farmers market peony
& some rescued Queen Anne's lace,
three ways.

In the fields
and in the woods
by the water.

Do you see the foxgloves
in the last two photos?
Pink
& white,
they are hiding.

I gasped when we came upon
the wild expanse of lupin.
It so reminds me of Miss Rumphius
("The Lupin Lady has been here!").

These photos do not do it justice.

Three photos,
each a little out of focus,
but I liked them still,
so I thought
I'd share them here
anyway.

----

Anna-Wili Highfield

Inside
& outside:
tones of pink.

Right now
I am obsessed
with that specific shade of pink
that is muted
(but not pastel)
with a hint of purple
(but it's not maroon).
In some lights it almost seems
to be quite grey.
It's dusky
and gorgeous,
and I call it rose.

A sketch for a new painting.

A summer version of this one, I think.

I am imagining it in roses and pale blues
instead of sienna and ochre,
and I am looking forward
to getting into it.

----

Steeleye Span - Saucy Sailor

Days like this,
where the warm air
is buoyant and expansive
(soft on your skin),
and the idea
of slowly licking an ice cream cone
in circles around its center
until it disappears
in a crunch of perfectly messy sweetness
feel less foreign
and more fitting
as Summertime approaches
and the season comes upon us.

Jasmine, oil on canvas, 30" x 30"


Painted with a limited palette:
ultramarine blue,
cadmium red medium,
cadmium yellow medium
(& zinc and titanium white).

It felt good to limit the options,
and in doing so,
I think it opened up some new ones.

A few more shots
from our recent visit
across the mountains.

----

So far this month of June,
the unabashedly nerdy
and endearingly earnest Quebecois band
Le Vent du Nord
has been the perfect soundtrack.
They are especially good to listen to
while cooking in the early evenings
with the windows open
and no one home yet but me,
where I can dance about and sing along
even though I don't understand the words.
This song in particular
sounds like summertime to me.

An out-take photo
from documenting my latest attempt
at rubber stamp carving
that turned into
my #1 shot.

I am always shocked
at how much the landscape changes
when we cross through the Pass
and visit the other side of the mountains.

That's how I always think of it:
"the other side of the mountains."

One of my goals recently
is to learn (and remember)
more of the names
of the plants and flowers
that I come across.

I was pleased to be informed
that the yellow, sunflower-like blossom
that grows all over the hillsides there
is a type of Balsamroot.

A new plant for my kitchen window,
and a new self-portrait.

I thought it was time (for both)
as my late violets
had succumbed to an over-watery demise
and I had not shot a satisfactory self-portrait
since this one from last August
which looks so foreign to me now,
as my hair has been cropped quite short
and has faded to it's natural paler brown
since February.

Do you ever look at photos of yourself
and not recognize yourself?

My whales again...
...this time with another shadow lurking!

Late-Spring-just-starting-to-think-about-Summer Light.

That is what this light is.

While preparing supper,
it slants through the kitchen
and is the most welcome guest
during our evening meals.

It was just this Spring
that I decided
that the pink-flowering dogwood
(I believe that is what this is!)
is my favorite tree.

A bold statement!
And perhaps with the next season
my mind will change.

For now
there are two I see
on a daily basis
(one on my walk to work,
towering and resplendent,
and one out my window,
a haze of green and pink
in a neighbor's yard)
and it is something of a treasure hunt
to find others
of this coral-hued variety
throughout the city.