Muse
My muse.
At this time of year, there are many bees nearing the end of their golden lives and are quite content to sit sunning themselves on my hand. I keep the hunting wasps away as we bask in the sun. In return, the bees correct my grammar and spelling and inspire wonderful thoughts!
Flags in the Garden
I like little pennant style flags of any sort. They are always cheerful and ready to announce some kind of party or activity. Well, except those that hang over car dealerships. I feel sorry for those flags, for all they snap and dance in the wind, they can't seem to energize the big block of energy that is all asphalt and vehicles below. Parked in tedious uniform colour and rows, the cars sit blankly. Compare say, to a marina. "Oh!", those flags say, "Something is about to happen!". People come and go in a marina, the tides come in and out, wind from around the bay makes the boats bob and dip. Flutter go the pennants!
Cosmos
I like the fact that I painted Cosmos.
"I painted the Cosmos," I could tell someone.
Yes, last night, before bed I painted the cosmos. That's how I roll.
Rain Watching
My finely honed abilities for guessing at a field guide were correct. There is RAIN. It started heavy in the night and continues through the day. This is my version of a Nimbostratus cloud. Yes, you may well be amazed at my keen attention to lack of detail...any detail...or any kind of general effort... But there is a reason for this, fellow cloud lovers; it has no discernible puffy appearance of a rainy thundercloud (its rainy brother), but it makes up for that with its immense coverage and uniform mass and lots of decided, no nonsense rain that is continuous....like today.
Cloud Watching
I am back from Peru to be greeted by very lovely weather indeed. This whole past week has been marvy here, but I notice today there are clouds creeping in. According to the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Weather"(phew), altocumulus clouds may occur anywhere (Nooo, think of the children!). They accompany the more important moving weather systems. IF they only last a few hours or cover only a small portion of the sky, they don't seem to indicate a system moving in. They are just messin' around up there for fun (my words, not Audubon's). If, however, these clouds show up for an extended period of time, which these ones have, I've been seeing them for most of the day, then there will be "moisture".
On Birds
There is a crow who visits our yard. We call her Sharp-Beak for her top beak extends well past the lower. She defends this yard from all other interloper crows and for some time there were aerial bouts in and out of the trees, quite often leaving feathers behind on the grass. Ironically, we also have a visiting Steller's Jay, and she only has a bottom beak, the top being but a stub of growth. We call her, yes, Half-Beak. You can see her black tongue flicking in and out like a snake's. They get along okay and I never see any battles between them.
The energy of the Jay, Half-Beak is lively, curious and very bold and sees no problem with coming right into the kitchen for a hand-out. Naughty.
Sharp-Beak, on the other hand, is watchful and composed. She will sit still as night, in the apple tree, rarely even shifting her position, thinking crow thoughts.
While I know they are here for the peanuts, they stay around after their handout and rest and groom a few feet away in the apple tree, which is nice as the top of the apple tree is level with the deck. It is a peaceful hour until the neighbourhood jays come swooping in, screeching and hollering and darting about and we all leave in annoyance. Upstarts.
Iduna's Tree
I have the good fortune to have two apple trees in my back yard. So here is a painting of one of them with the sky in her hair.
I was reading in, "Plant Lore, Legends and Lyrics":
In remote districts, the farmers in Herefordshire, Devonshire and Cornwall still preserve the ancient customs of saluting the Apple-trees on Christmas Eve. In some places, the parishioners walk in procession visiting the principal orchards in the parish. In each orchard one tree is selected as representative of the rest; this is saluted with a certain form of words, which have in them the air of an incantation, and then the tree is either sprinkled with cider, or a bowl of cider is dashed against it, to ensure its bearing plentifully the ensuing year. In other places, the farmer and his servants only assemble on the occasion and after immersing cakes in cider, they hang them on the Apple-trees. They then sprinkle the trees with cider, and encircling the largest, they chant the following toast three times: -
"Here's to thee, old Apple-tree,
Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow;
And whence thou may'st bear Apples enow.
Hats full! Caps full!
Bushel, bushel, sacks full!
And my pockets full too!
Huzza! Huzza!
After this the men dance around the tree, and retire to the farmhouse to conclude, with copious draughts of cider, these solemn rites, which are undoubtedly relics of paganism. (pg. 219)
This appeals to me in so many ways, cider, bowls holding cider, apple trees on Christmas Eve, the word "copious" to describe the quantity of cider and most of all, saying, "huzza, huzza!"
Iris
This one had to get up early to bear the numerous messages of the gods to each other and to the humans below. In Greek mythology, Iris was the constant, reliable faithful messenger. A goddess of both sea and sky, she appears time and time again as helper to Zeus, handmaiden to Hera, bearer of the water from the River Styx to keep the oaths of gods truthful, and appearing in the form of a rainbow, she would span heaven and earth, delivering what was bidden to mortals. Her name contains a double meaning, being connected both with iris, "the rainbow," and eiris, "messenger."
She is often depicted with golden wings, water pitcher, and a herald's staff and has nothing to do with this garden flower that I have painted.
Kimono
Oil painting. This one emerged with a very Japanese feel about it. It makes me think of cherry blossoms rising into the sky with the wind energy catching the petals.