hello from la la land

Hello from the murky haze of whatever head cold/flu bug has put me in bed these
past three days. I haven't recovered yet but am very grateful to the husband who
keeps cooking and tending to our dependents, as well as to the kitchen-cleaning
housemates, all busy at work while I sleep, groan, and shuffle about.

happy first day of autumn!

 To celebrate the end of a long, hot summer, here are some snapshots from my neck of the woods.

 In Tucson, lots of things start blooming around 

now as a result of the late monsoon rains. 

(And we're still in flip flops, as you can see in the corner). 

 When I see pictures on people's blogs of the leaves

changing color already in some parts of the country, 

I realize that fall for us is like a second spring --

lots of green leaves and grasses, and blue skies all around.

In fact, I have this theory that people in Tucson and other hot

climates experience the seasons opposite of how they are 

generally conceived: We hide in the summer and come

out to play in the winter. We celebrate the passing of the heat and

welcome the opportunity to head outdoors comfortably with the cold. 
We garden through the winter and hibernate through

the heat. There are similarities, too, though -- I'm just 

itching to bake again, and to throw on a scarf and a sweater. 

Bring on the cold!!

my poor parking

This note was left on my windshield last week. 

I'm certain I didn't run into anyone on my way in.

But it was a wonky parking job -- I'll grant the

anonymous manila folder note leaver that much.

I've been a little paranoid about my parking ever since.

There's something charming and artistic 

about the note, though, don't you think?

little white flowers

Emily brought these little flowers over today, 

and we spent a few minutes painting. It was so 
refreshing to paint with a friend! I wanted to post 
her painting as well, because it came out so different 
from mine. It was too wet to slap on the scanner, 
though, so I'll just have to leave that to your imagination!

sewing again

I spent this morning sewing up new lunch bags for

my kiddos. It's dropped below 100 degrees outside,

which makes the sewing closet bearable again (being

a closet, it's not connected to our cooling system).

Click here to see the finished project.

new nibs

I picked up some new nibs for my dip pen last week

and have been experimenting with them to see what

they can do. Ashton already absconded with her favorite,

which is the Globe nib at the top of the page.

great gift

One very cool gift that Elliott got for his birthday was a personal concert by his

favorite musician -- his Uncle Joel. Now, Joel recorded an album several years

ago, and it was one of the CDs we put in Elliott's room when we gave him a CD

player (that boy loves music). He must've listened to it a million times before

we told him who the singer was. He barely believed us. But now he does.

was it a detour or a doorway?

 

I have hardly picked up a paintbrush in the past year and a half.

I would like to step back into this particular branch of the creative

road, however. As I do, I realize that I have lost fluency. I have

lost a sense of how to go about the various processes. I have very

little hope of things turning out the way I imagine them and even

less hope of finding all the tools I vaguely remember having. 

The journal page above is today's attempt to resurrect this 

long-lost part of my life. It is also a meditation on how 

change comes, and how sometimes, but not always, 

it is a result of our own choices. I wonder if some 

of the directions I've chosen were detours or doorways. Would 

I have chosen differently if I had been listening along the way?