Sweet, slanty light.

School has started and it feels like fall.

Coincidence…

Recently a couple of friends called to tell me that there was a book reviewed on NPR I that I need to read. It’s about a boy who draws maps of his world. Of course, I ran out and bought  The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet right away. I love it. There are so many coincidences in the book, things that remind me of my childhood, ideas that I’ve had for map making, etc.  I find T. S. Spivet’s mother, Dr. Clair,  to be a very intriguing character. She is a coleopterist (entomologist who specializes in beetles) and has spent 20 years searching for the allusive tiger monk beetle. The other day I was thinking about her  as I was scanning a few  maps that I had made and wondering if I should even continue with this sketchbook. After all, T.S. Spivet had pretty much scooped me and published many of my ideas already….

Just then a huge, gargantuan, buzzing  beetle came in from my screened porch and was frantically richoceting off the walls, my monitor, my HEAD, the window…. Needless to say I beat a very hasty retreat out of my studio, slammed the door and ran down the stairs. I am no Dr. Clair. I did not re-enter my studio until the next day. I found the beetle, belly up on the floor. I scooped him up with a page from my circus calendar and proceeded to photograph him. The above photo shows the perceived size of said beetle (compare to tightrope walker) as well as the actual size (compare to key). Below is a map of the beetle’s crazy shaky journey around my head and my subsequent escape. Whew.

I am about a third of the way through The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet. I can’t wait to find out what will happen next….. it is fast becoming my Jumanji.

ps. To see the belly of the beetle beast, go to my flickr photos.  And while you are there check out the work of my friend GunnerGirl. She makes the most fabulous beetle drawings ever.

a broken heart

I broke a wine glass yesterday. My daughter and I were marveling at the perfect broken heart in the glass. I turned to chuck it into the trashcan but she stopped me saying, “No mom, you HAVE to take a picture of it!” Afterall “a broken heart can make great art”.  Silly, huh?

Summertime

A cooler full of water balloons.

Icy cukes.

Thunder cake.

A fairie camp fire.

Paul Klee – Twittering Machine – 1922

A blog-flickr-twitter friend recently mentioned that she saw the influence of Paul Klee in one of my maps. He is indeed a favortite of mine.  It’s been a while since I’ve visited with his work so I did a bit of research and found this marvelous image!  The original is at MOMA .  I can’t wait to visit it in person. I also found a wonderful except about him from one of my favorite books, The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes. I need to re-read that book. It’s been too long.

And then I found that he was also a poet! The book Paul Klee, Poet/Painter by K. Porter Aichele went directly onto my “to-read” list.

A book, a poem and a painting….. A google trifecta!

Returning….and turning…

I have been wanting to get back into dance for a quite a while. Last week I happened upon a dance school that has adult ballet classes at the right time and location for me. I met Dana, the owner of the studio, and felt right at home.  So, yesterday I took my first class in many years. The class was wonderful,  just what I need.  It’s amazing how much came back to me instantly,  and um… how much didn’t.  I have a lot of catching up to do! Even so, those body memories are pretty intense.

Even sewing the elastic on my slippers brought back a flood of memories. Of course, the last time I did that I didn’t need to first find my reading glasses!

Big thanks to Shelley for her inspiration.

Spring Break

Well it has been a fun & busy week. Last Friday we all got in the car and headed south. I have wanted to visit Savannah, GA for a long time so we did, stopping in Charleston on the way down and back. It was a wonderful trip. Lots of good food and ghosts.

Almost impossible to make a decision at LuLu’s Chocolate Bar.

Never too soon to check out colleges right? Yikes.

I grew up near a cemetary and have always found them to be very serene places. This one above is in Savannah.

But this has to be my all time favorite graveyard.  It is at the Unitarian Church in Charleston.  We took a fantastic ghost tour and so got to visit it at night. More pictures on flickr. I can’t wait to go back and visit during the day sometime!

Then it was home again, home again in time for the bunny. As is our tradition, on Easter we gardened and in the evening we toasted peeps over an outdoor fire. That’s really the best way to eat them in my opinion. Sure,  you could make a peep-nut butter sandwich, which is much like a fluffernutter. I do enjoy those (once a year)  but really the best way is toasted. Beware with little kids though, the peeps get really hot,  but after cooling off a bit the sugar coating gets crunchy, sorta like a marshmallow brulee, if you will. If you aren’t fond of eating them then, by all means, make a diorama.  I absolutely adore this year’s winner of “Peeps Show” the Washington Post contest: NightPeeps by Melissa Harvey, Arlington.

The girls are back at school today and David is back at work.  All that’s left is the hardboiled eggs and a very quiet house. Now I’d better get back to work… : )

Road Trip

Last weekend we took a trip to visit my parents, my  sister and her family. It is a 10-12 hour drive depending on how often you stop. On previous trips we’ve passed signs for caverns along the way. This time I thought, rather than just stop at a rest stop for lunch, we should get off the highway and stretch our legs with a tour of Luray Caverns. But on the way to our scheduled stop, I just had to pull over for this…..

A 90 foot octopus is worth pulling off the road for…. so we stopped to visit Dinosaur Land!

It was a great opportunity for the girls to visit a time when giant octopi roamed the earth… and we got to see some great dinosaurs and King Kong too!!

We had so much fun! After lots of picture taking and lots of laughing, we got back on the road and finally made it to Luray Caverns. It was amazing! I was a bit worried about being claustrophobic, but the air in the cavern is crisp and cool, not at all stuffy. And the formations are astounding. It was like being in another world. Here are some photos that my daughter took.

Dreamy wishing well. You can see more stalactites and stalagmites on flickr.

We  arrived at my sister’s house 5 hours later with plenty of stories to tell and had a great family visit.

Officially Fall

The Autumnal Equinox, AKA the start of Spider Season, happened today. I think they have been busy preparing for this for some time.

I wish I could have gotten a good picture of her face. But, alas, I frightened Miss Spider away.

What’s in my garden now…