Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Snapshot


In a week we will be finishing off February. Time is certainly flying! I've just returned from a visit to Phoenix where I spent time with my daughter, her fiancé, and two of his sons. It was very relaxing and fun. Lots of time for the boys to hang out with each other and with a friend who lives in Phoenix.

The last time I was there we were working on the house, including doing a lime wash on the large fireplace in the room off the kitchen. This time there were a few things, like securing a wobbly electrical outlet, but mostly we spent time together enjoying ourselves, especially in the fireplace room. One evening we even hosted Aaron's sister Holly and her partner, plus a long-time friend of Aaron's and the friend's wife and daughters. It was so nice meeting some of Aaron's family and friends, including his cold plunge buddy on our final day.



I've been cleaning out my office space, too. The next part is my cork bulletin board, which has gotten so full that papers are pinned over other papers, and over cards and passwords and some artwork, too. I suspect that I'll have more than will fit, even after I sort and throw some of it out!



The garden has started to call to me. Right now there are daffodils just beginning to bloom and still some paper whites and grape hyacinths that began blooming earlier in the month. The rose bushes I pruned and sprayed are beginning to leaf out. To Sweetie's dismay the grass needs mowing. To my dismay the weeds are already taking hold. Yesterday I filled the green can with weeds and spent soil from some of the pots that don't have bulbs. Soon I'll plant some seeds in soil cells in mini-greenhouses and put them in the sunspace to sprout. Our weather has been unseasonably cool and we might even get snow this Friday, so I suspect that it will be late April or early May before tomato or squash seedlings can be planted. I like for nighttime temperatures to be 50 or above for a week to warm the soil before I plant seedlings out.



I'm still experimenting with printing with the Gelli pads and acrylic paint. The wonderful thing about prints is that you never know what you will get! Above is a photo of a print that I made recently.



The Sonoma County Airport is also the Charles Schultz Airport and they recently did a remodel. When I returned from Phoenix it was the first time that I was in the part of the 'new' airport that had the model of the Red Baron's plane up above. Soooo fun!


These are but some of the threads of the tapestry of my life at the moment. What threads are you experiencing dear reader?

3 comments :

  1. The house we're in now (Move #109457.4) has a bare back garden and we have lasagna pans full of little pots just waiting for the sprouts. Every time we have frost (FREQUENTLY) we groan aloud. The hail was met with sighs, but we'll never complain about precipitation, so we are just waiting - impatiently - for the garden to be a go. This is a much sunnier yard, so we're looking forward to our fig tree and our clementine tree getting large and lush, and we're trying hollyhocks this year - I've never grown them and I hope they're as easy as promised.

    I'm also making art with aluminum - I started with upcyling cans to make garden tags, and now it's gotten entirely out of control, because the internet keeps showing me more projects. My art room looks like a recycling center - piles of cardboard, tin cans, aluminum - it's ridiculous, but fun. (We just quietly close the door.)

    Now that I'm feeling a little less winter blah, the nephews want another mystery party, so we're hosting one of those. Just getting together with the family now is something we don't take for granted anymore. Not going much of anywhere still (on a drug that kills my immune system, so still playing it safe) but glad the thread colors are expanding for the tapestry.

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  2. PS - that BACH program is gorgeous! The style of the lettering and the artwork is frameable.

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  3. So where is the house now (town)? Sounds like gardening will be fun this year. I'm going to start seeds soon but this cold weather is a bit scary...afraid that warm soil is many months away. I LOVE hollyhocks and grew them as a child (and saved and sold the seeds!) and they are easy, but plant where it isn't windy so they don't get knocked down. I had one that was over 7 feet one year when I planted them here.
    Love the aluminum art thing...such fun to try a new medium. Also nice to have a place where you can just close the door on the inevitable mess.
    The BACH print is a David Goines print and should be in a frame...it might even be worth some money since it's an original. I love his work. He did a lot of prints for Chez Pannise in Berkeley in the '80s.
    You have really interesting threads. Glad that they are including more time with family...such a blessing to have close family. Have fun with the mystery party!

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