"I hug myself till my arms turn blue, then I close my eyes and cry and cry till the tears come down and I can taste them. I love to taste my tears. I am special. I am special! Please god, please, don't let me be normal!" -- "The Fantasticks"
I always thought that was the best line -- and it so fit me. Now I just want normal again.
Sketchbook Revival has really pushed me to try new techniques and practice drawing and sketching as well as painting. So here we have the good, the bad and the ugly!
I remember when I was working and how hectic spring used to be. I sometimes wonder how I managed to have much of a life while I still had a job. Oh wait, maybe I didn't manage all that well!
It seems as though my calendar has been more or less empty for so many months, I don't know what to do when something fills it up. I took a quick glance at an upcoming week. The doc. The dentist. Going with Rick to a retirement planning seminar. A birthday gathering for a dear friend turning 70.
My friend Wally died last week. You've seen his work -- the beautiful images of Paris that hang above my mantel are by Wally. And my personal collection holds many favorites from this well-loved and respected photographer who focused on European images.
And, as you might expect, it takes a chunk out of a person to know there will be no more lunches, photo shoots, good talks about photography or travel with someone you just plain like and have known for a very long time.
And, it should be noted, the Father Goose is right at hand, ready to spit or advance on anyone that might be a threat!
Let's just say that after a March with a lot of reading, April was a let down! I guess all that reading time in March was disrupted in April by a lot of painting, which was probably a better thing overall!
A couple of weeks ago, Rick and his musical partner Josh were playing an open mic night in Lansing's Old Town. I wanted to see them perform but after five minutes in an overcrowded room with bad ventilation and practically no one but me in a mask I said, "I'll walk around a bit and try to come back when you think you might be playing" (about an hour later). (You can here it too, at the bottom of this post!)
So, I took a stroll around Old Town, one of my favorite shopping areas. Unfortunately, everything was closed except for one (very lovely) gallery -- the excellent "Absolute Gallery."
I have the most charming new neighbor!
The Ditch is still pretty much a symphony of muted colors and fairly quiet. I think most of the ducks have gone down-under, tending their nests; the new growth of grasses is yet to be visible and the trees still bare.
But there is definitely some life going on! And more than a little bit of beauty!
Before I start this post, does anyone else who follows blogs with bloglovin' find that their site has been down for about a week? If I don't visit you, it's because even though I get their notifications, when I click on any link to visit you, it says their server is busy. Same when I visit the url for the site so I can't even complain! Just asking -- wondering if it is overall or just me!
Last week my friend Jan and I went to our favorite market to pick up Easter food. Their "fresh" selection beats any local grocery. On the way past the bird seed, garden implements and seeds, we glanced outside and saw some color in the greenhouse. And so we ventured forth, curious to see some color in what has been a very gray spring.
And we were blown away!
Sketchbook Revival continues till April 30 but so far I've filled a lot of pages on my book! I shared the cats and landscape with you HERE. These are a few other pieces.
This weekend, many who celebrate Easter will do so on April 17. (Orthodox Easter is April 24.) We celebrated on Palm Sunday with our kidlets. And it was so much fun!
Spring is trying to break through here in mid-Michigan, although the weather is doing its best to provide the obligatory April showers. It brings out the critters, this happy cardinal...
With only two weeks until Easter, it was time to bring on the rest of the bunnies! It may be frigid outdoors here in Michigan -- or not, we're on the seesaw season of Sprinter, no matter what the calendar says! But inside it's pretty cozy!
What draws you to a certain book at a certain time? Maybe it is your favorite genre, a new entry by a beloved author or events swirling around you. This month's books weren't picked because they were about "real people," but that's how it ended up. Our March offerings take us from Amsterdam to Paris, Michigan to Japan, and to the war rooms and stages of England.
Rick diligently practices his classical guitar every day. And guess what? He gets better and better. In the summer, I paint every day. And guess what? I get better and better too.
Then I put everything away for months at a time and when I go to start again, I realize how far I've fallen. So when the Sketchbook Revival free workshops began, I decided to jumpstart my creativity!
Now, this is the way to spend the first day of spring!
We hadn't yet celebrated the Big Guy's birthday -- he turned five in February. So, on this glorious first day of spring, we headed to Livonia with presents and cupcakes and settled in for a day of fun!
The sun was so bright, the weather forecast so positive, that I couldn't resist stepping out the front door early in the morning to smell an early bit of spring. The daffodil shoots are tall enough now that I can see them from the kitchen window, bravely peeking from the dirt and the mulch, hoping it is safe enough to continue to shoot taller, without the possible enemies of snow, ice or squirrels to deter their growth.
Since it's almost spring (and friends tell me it already is meteorological spring -- I wish they'd tell that to the weather here -- we bounce from high to low) I figured it was time to spring up the house.
In an earlier post I mentioned a lovely, early March walk to the Ditch. It was 60 degrees, sunny and perfect. The water still looked pretty cold. There's still a lot of ice, but it's breaking up and the weather was certainly helping.
Shortly after what I view as world lockdown began, March 11, 2020 (the date would no doubt vary from place to place and person to person), I began what I called "The Covid Journal." Thinking, like so many, that this change in our lifestyles would be short-lived, I chose a rather small journal I had bought two years before at Sennelier in Paris. I would record thoughts from this time in words and watercolor. It would all end neatly, when Covid and masks were a thing of the past. Not necessarily a happy ending, but an ending.
February was a wonderful month to curl up with a book and I curled up with a few good ones! The seven books I read took me from the France of Julia Child and M.F.K. Fisher to the village of Three Pines in Quebec; from the Illinois midwest to the cathedral town of Lafferton in the UK; the from wealthy homes of Paris to the farmland of Norfolk, and from war-torn London to England's Kent counry side. February's reads were well worth the time.
Rick just left after watching the finale of "Derek" (Netflix) and part of "The Darkest Hour" (a timely film to see during these challenging times). Freshly fallen snow was on the ground as he started home. It's March.
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| Calendar art by Kate McNenly |
Did you know the national flower of Ukraine is the sunflower?
I didn't. Until today.
I looked at my Facebook feed and it was becoming flooded with glorious images of sunflower.
The good thing about February is that we see signs that winter won't be forever here in Michigan. Yes, we will still get snow -- maybe even a lot of it. But then you have melting days where the temps are warmer and the snow begins to reveal the grass beneath. And, as we celebrated Christmas late, we did Valentine's Day late, too -- so only about a month till "official" spring. Time flies!
More from the digital photo file vault! This revisiting photo files has been a walk down memory lane for me. Today I'm delighted to share some photos from our February 1998 trip to Japan.
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| "Peace" - Created with thousands of paper cranes in Hiroshima |
By the time we get to the middle of February, winter gets old. Pretty, but old.
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| Calendar by Kate McNenly |
I've been enjoying my newest neighborhood critter, Bunny FooFoo. Well, probably he won't stay Bunny FooFoo for long -- he seems far too masculine for that!
We came bearing gifts and received as well. We played with little boys and savored fabulous meals. We were with our tribe and it was wonderful.
Christmas didn't play out for us in December. Between our isolating and Covid hitting the kids' house (thank you, day care!), we were behind the game. So, we reverted to something my cousins and I actually did back in the day when families were either too large or not well enough to travel far at the holidays: Christmas in February.
Hearts. Chocolate. Love notes and pretty cards. Valentine's day is one holiday that can be divinely fun or deeply depressing. Or, a day everyone, it seems, but you, seem to be celebrating.
