May Full Moon

The career of flowers differs from ours only in inaudibleness. I feel more reverence as I grow for these mute creatures whose suspense or transport may surpass my own.                        Emily Dickinson

Fresh lettuce! Salad straight from the yard with green onions, parsley, arugala, coriander.  What could be better?  A few clear, calm days, everything freshly rained upon.  The very full moon clearly visible.  A soft fragrance in the garden in the evening.

Nearing the culmination of this year's cycle of paintings, which usually runs from September through the beginning of June.  Thinking about "What is beauty?"  Meanwhile, lots of experimentation with smaller "designs."  A feeling of experimentation in general!

April Full Moon

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

Margaret Atwood

Bright orange poppies, yellow-orange gazania, reddish-orange African daisies, pale orange small African daisies, deep orange flowers of the plant next to the front stairs that I can't remember the name of.  Then there's lavender, purple, white, pink, yellow and the deep red of the maple leaves, not to mention green.  Full spring in the front yard.

Some of the more challenging and interesting parts of this project are the watercolor sketches and snapshots which are outside my usual artistic mode of expression.  A way to practice beginner's mind.  Smelling like dirt is also outside my comfort zone--another thing to practice!

Spring Equinox

Now the rain is falling, freshly, in the intervals between sunlight,

A Pacific squall started no one knows where, drawn east as the drifts of warm air make a channel;

it moves its own way, like water or the mind,

and spills this rain passing over.  The Sierras will catch it as last snow flurries before summer, observed only by the wakened marmots at ten thousand feet,

and we will come across it again as larkspur and penstemon sprouting along a creek above Sonora Pass next August,

Robert Hass

Spring is already established, the date only makes it official.  The time has changed--lighter in the evening.  Substantial rain at last.  A relief, if only partial.  The garden is flourishing--lots of new vegetable seedlings going in: lettuce, artichoke, parsley, tomatoes.  Summer starts to appear in the mind's eye.  Plans for household projects start to push up to the surface.

Lots of work in the studio. Paintings and design ideas.  A bit difficult to slow down to the tempo of the blog, but this is it's purpose. A chance to pause a moment, look around, to see where I am.