From the Quote Box

The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe. Discard the make-believe and take the truth. — Ramakrishna

Made It, Another Year

Had a pleasant dinner with Mom at the Olde English Pub in Albany and today I’m at work. It’s nice to reflect on the years past and think about times to come and to enjoy all the wishes coming towards me today. Thanks everyone!

Yesterday a little painting and more of that to come and then some adventuring. Stay tuned!

Sunday out and around here and there

I went and procured tomatoes. Real ripe tomatoes. I needed a tomato sandwich and I needed it bad. I had a peach for dessert.

Diddled around at home for awhile and then went out late to the nearby pond and enjoyed the late day sun changing into evening. Painted a little just trying to capture something of the color and light. Took photos. Came home.

All in all a successful day. See the Flickr album for all the sights!

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Now I just need to write out the two postcards for the weekend – how fast August has gone! August Postcard Poetry Fest has been very good both in the writing and in the cards received. Yesterday I got four cards – WOOT – and one of them had been “commented” on by someone in transit, presumably a postal worker. We often imagine people reading them as they move from poet to poet but someone sure read that one!

chasing clouds

The clouds today were big and puffy and fun. Here’s all the photos I took this morning on the way to work.

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And after a long day at work, and even though I should be writing a poem to send out tomorrow, I did this, which needs some drying before I can do some final touches.

Finally, you might remember recently I spent time marking my brushes lest I lose another brush in deep grass. So far so good. But, the other night while rummaging on youtube I had to back up because of this, giving me great joy that I’m not entirely crazy.

And finally finally, from the Quote Box:

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry. — W. B. Yeats

Also seen, but yesterday

The Day of the Eclipse

So glad I took today off! Started out by mailing my August Poetry Postcard cards at the Nassau Post Office, each bearing one of the cool eclipse stamps. Hope they all arrive safe and sound. A little breakfast, picked up my mail (postcard! tshirt!) and then off to paint for just a little while. The flowers were gorgeous and there were happy bees and butterflies doing their thing. See linked Flickr album below for all the photos.

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Then it was off to Mom’s to gather with some cousins and a neighbor to watch the eclipse. We watched a little of the totality coverage on TV and then headed out. Although it had been mostly clear earlier, there was a big patch of high clouds overhead. We still got to be amazed by the eclipse, just enjoying it in small sips as it went in and out of the clouds. A good time was had by all and come on – those glasses are really cool! Notice that Steve, who took the first photo, managed to get it in anyway via the kitchen window. Good job! Thanks Mom, Jim, Ann Marie, Marsha and Steve for a great afternoon.

Friday Night Excitement

There I was, writing a too-long poem for August Poetry Postcard and… a bat appears.

Let me just say, I moved pretty darn fast. Locked myself in the bathroom while I tried to figure out what to do, having no cast iron skillet handy (family legend) When I’d put on shoes and steeled myself I opened the door and contained it and escorted it without further incident to the great outdoors. Hope it’s gone in the morning. Only hurt myself a little in the process of vacating the bedroom LOL.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the too-long poem or just write a short bat one LOL.

Photos as Reference

Long time readers may attest that I take a fair number of photos. It’s true. Not all the photos are great – some are taken to capture a bit of light or something interesting or just as an aid to memory. Lately I’ve been taking more photos as reference.

I was thinking about this as I watched a youtube watercolorist show how he auditions and “edits” photos. He prints them out and doesn’t worry about sharpness or perfect lighting. Obviously there was something about the scene that grabbed his eye but it doesn’t mean it is a composition worth painting. He uses a really soft pencil and a white pencil to move trees around, add some shadows, establish where the light is coming from, all the while considering how the eye will move in and around the image. (If you like his video, watch this one next for some amazing cloud wet in wet painting)

When he was done, the view was indeed more interesting to look at and still bore a strong resemblance to the original photo but it wasn’t the same.

All this is a way around to saying these two groups of photos aren’t the best I’ve taken but they were taken to show the scene. The sheep photos have some really dark ones because I wanted to show the clouds. The sunset photos aren’t very crisp because I only had a few minutes before it was too dark to shoot and I didn’t have time to set up a tripod so I was bracing against things. But, I hope the ideas will be useful.

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Someday

Someday, my friends, I will apologize for having filled my social media with scary news stories, abominations of the current world and calls to action, but today is not that day.

Words from Tolkien

Where will wants not, a way opens. — J.R.R. Tolkien

and this perenniel beacon:

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule. – J.R.R. Tolkien

and my oft-quoted:

…the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo’s side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Book II, The Land of Shadow.