To me,
this is what an evening in Summertime looks like.

And that's Summertime with a capital S.

We're going back soon.



.

This past weekend
was jubilant and glorious,
life-affirming.
I am sun-burned
all over my body,
but I don't give a damn.

It was, I think
a good way to celebrate
a new beginning.


Thank you all for your sweet comments,
and I hope your weekends
were wonderful as well!


Onward.

.

I haven't had much to say
in this space recently--
I have been too busy
to formulate my thoughts.


I begin a new job on Monday
and I am nervous and excited together.


The boy's new job this past January
significantly altered the patterns
and the flow of our lives,
so I am curious
and just slightly wary
to see the new form our lives will take
with this most recent change.
I am
undoubtedly
a creature of habit and routine
but I am looking forward
to discovering
where this newness leads.

Purple in the shadows,
purple in the reflections,
purple in the highlights.

Must be summer.

.

Emily Loizeau - L'autre Bout Du Monde


.

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?