i'm just here. doing this.
listening to tom waits sing about his "old '55"
whoever sent me that video awhile back. THANK YOU. i haven't stopped listening to the entire album since.
over and over. because we love the tom waits of the world. and their bluesy selves.
heading to the shore next week.
then the desert the following week.
i had planned a wonderful trip to british columbia, but i was worried about getting stuck in the rowboat with a shoulder that decided to stop rotating. on a quiet stretch of water. where i might drift for weeks. alone, except for the occasional eagle that dropped down some provisions. hmmmmm. sounds sort of good.
so i'm staying close to home this summer.
if you're traveling somewhere. anywhere. tell me.
Santa Fe/Taos V excited
From one who is recovering from a Rotator Cuff repair, four months ago, I know what you mean… Love your sketches!
We went to Boise Idaho last weekend to adopt a new dog version of Buck Moss. Our old friend Cody left us about a year ago, and it was finally time to look for a new friend. This one is also a Border Collie, rescued after being dumped. His name is now Beckham, and he is a keeper for sure. But Boise? Ugh. I am a sea air type of girl, and Boise was 100 degrees and no oceans. The trip from Tacoma was grueling. The trip back much nicer because we were heading home with a new sidekick.
hey, I’ve had some shoulder issues, which I TOTALLY BLAME on the KIDS, lugging groceries for FIVE KIDS….seriously, I am kidding. I really did hurt myself, I fell down the escalator at the ROME INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. So, I did go to PT, and I think very highly of their skills. I did that for a few months…..but I gave in and had a neck & shoulder massage….and the therapist thought it was a strained pectoral muscle. Which is was….massage + PT = a very good result.
For summer trip, we’re just headed to Rehobeth Beach Delaware in August for 4 day….but we will visit Key West, Florida in November….never ventured that far south in Florida.
Holly
PS Reading through some of the comments, going to Kelowna, BC is beautiful…watching the Tour de France is what we’re doing and gasping at the mountains….hoping to go on walking tours in either Portugal or Spain in 2015.
Ha! Actually am going to BC in August, to the resort town of Kelowna. For the wedding of my lovely niece @ a winery. Am so looking forward to my first getaway in years! Hope you enjoy your jaunts.
Mostly I’m weaving and doing this really cool class called Sketchbookery. But, you may know about that already. I am heading up to Carp for a week in Aug and out to Joshua Tree in Sept.
At home right now … but dreaming of Italy. Reading Marlena de Blasi: A Thousand Days in Venice, A Thousand Days in Tuscany, and The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria.
I’m working during our current winter holidays. But am looking forward SO much to traveling from Cape Town to Berlin in September! I’m participating in Stephanie Levy’s ‘Art and Adventure in Berlin’ workshop. It is through her that I came to meet you and your stunning and inspiring work!
Staying quiet around home for now, watching Le Tour de France on tv, but going to a watercolor journaling workshop with our mutual friend Barbara Roth at La Cascade, Durfort, Midi-Pyrenees, France in September. I’m anning on getting started on Sketchbookery this weekend! I do hope your shoulder gets better – perhaps instead of tennis elbow, you have ‘sketch shoulder’?
Sending happy hellos from Nantucket! I’m iN Katherine midst of my annual pilgrimage to The Grey Lady to visit my best friend. I was supposed to have had ten days or so in Iceland last month but my traveling companion became ill and we had to return after two my days of tour and an overnight in the hospital for her. Sad! Iceland is AMAZING and I can’t wait t,o return to complete my circumnavigation of the island. Stunningly beautiful in June, with swaths of blue Alaska lupine intermingled with sunny yellow buttercups in fields of green, green grass. And I can’t forget the baby lambs are bounding about through this gorgeous landscape!
Oaxaca in September for an art retreat with our mutual friend Judy Wise (and Katie Kendrick, too).
I’m getting around this year, that’s for sure.
Happy summer!
XO
Last day of term today! Heading for the magical isle of Angelsey in Wales for a week of sheer laziness. Then a few days in Berlin of full on sight seeing! Happy summer holidays x
Alas, just to the hospital at some point in the next few weeks to push a miniature human out of my person…. I’d much rather call in a sub and go on some adventure for a few days but sadly, that’s not how these things generally work. I hope your shoulder improves. I feel your pain–I had a stubborn shoulder injury several years ago. I found IMS (intramuscular stimulation) to be very helpful. It’s a bit painful however and not many physiotherapists are trained in it, but worth it in my opinion.
Hi Mary Ann,
Heading to Morro Bay this weekend with my honey bear. <3
In another week or so heading to Portland OR to visit my brother. We will take a short road trip together to Mt. St. Helen's, a place that is on my bucket list. Looking forward to that oh so much 🙂
I saw Tom Waits play at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara during my days at UCSB, the year was probably '76 or '77. He was cooking' with gas.
xx
Gabrielle
Going to the shore in summer is perfectly reasonable, BUT THE DESERT in JULY??? Have you lost it? I live in the desert year round, it’s the last place I wanna be in summer. If you’re headed for Palm Springs their temps are even hotter than ours. Some people love the heat, I’m not one of them.
I’m enjoying the videos and postings in Sketchbookery and all the sharing of art work of the students. I’ve not completed one single assignment…too intimidated by all the others work. I have to wonder why some of these people are taking a class when their own work is wonderful, could probably teach a class themselves. So you won’t be seeing any of my piddley sketches, no sirree!
I am traveling to your house while you are at the beach and I am going to steal that citron green paint that you used in your sketch above AND I am going to roll around with corky Lynn and Wyatt then I am heading to the shore and will parachute in when you send up the flare to let me know where you are. sister!!!!!
Just came back from a beautiful trip to the green mountains of Vermont. Guess I am still a hippie at heart, pristine fields of goats and cows and miles of untouched lands, beautiful Lake Champlain, quintessential New England. And then it was over and I am back at work, but I still have you and Sketchbookery! Amen!! Have a wonderful vacation!
In August we’re going north to Grand Marais, Michigan — A deliciously sleepy and stunning town complete with diner that serves homemade pies, woods filled with wild blueberries, sand dunes, lots of rock watching (some rock catching), and tremendous sunsets. Slow and easy with very little to do but enjoy the company of humans and nature!
Just got back from a week in NYC…loved, loved, loved!, where I did a great deal of architectural sketching. And, thanks to your TTV inspiration, I leave for Italy in 10 weeks, Cannot wait to visit Venice, Tuscany and Rome with Sketchbookery eyes.
sending warming thoughts for your shoulder hopefully all these good vibes here will gently bring it back to full range. Goin’ no where but reading a lovely book called Road Angles by Kent Nerburn memoir about the author’s journey from Mn to CA. Love a good memoir for summer reading. Happy to hear you’ve got a few jaunts planned, love your travel tales, they are always DA BOMB!!!!!
Headed to Scandinavia tomorrow!! And have taken many notes from your trip archive! I’m taking a mailing tube to smuggle back papers, my sketchbook, some watercolors, and a handful of pens/pencils. Hurray!
Funny you should ask right now. I am in the Seattle area right now traveling from New Hampshire. Its beautiful here. We are heading south over the next couple of days (doing some volcano visiting) down to the Portland, Oregon area. Should be fun. I posted a few snapshots this morning if you’ve never been-but you probably have-you’ve been so many fun places. (Or if they’re not, you make them look fun!)
Hi there, while we are not traveling overseas this year, I checked out gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area and there are many to visit. Also, I have a list of all the neighborhoods in SF, and there are 48! So we have lots of places to go to and restaurants to enjoy. Art continues and I’ working on my third Imaginary Travels sketchbook (England & Wales), and will teach this at the senior center in August.
I’ m looking forward to a magic wand workshop this weekend, as well.
I hope the shoulder improves and that you’re seeing someone to help you.
Thank you for all that you do-enjoy your retreats!
I’m so sorry about your shoulder, MA. I hope it’s not the one from which your art is released onto paper. I am itching to travel to every place above and more, but alas, I am sticking close to home. I had an amazing start to summer at Squam Art Workshops in NH which is just dreamy. I’ve been to Newport RI for a family wedding and will probably go back to NH for a few days and possibly Woodstock, NY for a step back in time and to visit friends. Last year we hung out at a stream with David Bowie’s daughter and nanny – very low key but super cool!
I don’t particularly like going anywhere in the summer and since I’m retired, I can travel any time, especially when children are in school! I did have a retreat down in southern MD last weekend. Lovely spot on the Potomac and while bloody hot outside, it was wonderfully a/c’d inside. 70 other women and the connection of real time sisterhood was wonderful.
I just got back from 10 days in Greece visiting relatives. My cousin and I spent 4 days on the island of Lesvos (3rd largest Greek island) where we went to the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest, swam in the sea, ate delicious Greek food seaside, (I) collected sea glass, sand, shells and heart shaped stones, visited monasteries and churches, enjoyed the breathtaking views of the sea and other terrain, took a bazillion pictures and more! It was a spectacular trip. In Athens we went to the Jewish Museum of Greece which I had never visited in all the years I have been visiting Greece. It is such an informative and well presented little museum. I walked the streets of Athens as well with the Acropolis in view. I was finally able to walk around the National Gardens too, which I have also never done before. Greece is a magical country that I recommend everyone should travel to at least once in their lifetime!
I am her at the sea on the small island “Samso” in Denmark. I love to visit your blog and look into your life with art, drawing and artjournaling, which is a big part of my life too. Summergreeting from Ilse Aranti in Denmark
Tom Waits = Gravelly master. That is all. (Except warm thoughts for your shoulder to unfreeze). Kxxx
If you have any inclination that it is frozen shoulder….do not think it will fix itself. I was never at the full frozen state and it has taken. Me months and months more of work to get to 95 % range of motion. When it first started to show itself… I blew it off….never will I do that again.
Oh Mary Ann! Almost exactly like Pam’s comment above (with the exception of the Tom Waits link) we just returned this evening from San Juan Island. It is one of those magical places that grabs you, sinks way inside your innards and doesn’t let go. We’ve been to some good places, but none that made us just want to stay and stay. If it weren’t for missing the cats to a small frenzy, we might just still be there. I too made a little travel journal and keep looking at the small watercolors with happiness. I hope your shoulder is rotating perfectly by tomorrow morning…and if not by then, very soon.
Mary
I am here in Paris, Mary Ann and she keeps asking for you! Off on an excursion to see Mont St Michel today in Normandy, promises to be quite exciting!
I have a camping trip planned for the end of the month to the Sequoia National Forest. Haven’t been camping in years so this should be an experience. Hope the tent holds up along with my sense of humor (bringing three teenagers). I am going to do lots of field study paintings I hope. Will have to check out Tom Waits…I have been listening to Jamestown Revival – Utah album – and love it! Is it still called an album if you download it? Jess wondering.
Mary Ann I just came back from a month in Nova Scotia (you can check FB for my photos) and it is a lovely place! I think you would enjoy it… great people, beautiful scenery and great food (pastries included!), plus the best Celtic fiddle music on the planet. I went there as my Post-retirement thinking-about-the-rest-of-my-life walkabout (even though I drove while there so I guess it would have been a drive-about)… a great place to be alone and think too. (Yes I am now a RETIRED Middle School Science teacher!) Enjoy your remaining summer wherever you are!
Rhonda
Mary Ann, I sent you the “Old ’55” link.:) We play that CD a lot and that’s my favorite song of his. I was wondering how your shoulder was doing. Sounds like it’s not much better. Well, I hope those upcoming trips help relax it! We just returned from a week in a cottage right on the ocean on San Juan Island, Washington. Saw orcas swim by every day! Seeing them breach and spyhop and other fascinating behaviors and HEARING them – oh, my – they huff-snort when they come up for air and that became a sweet song to my ears. Especially at night with the windows by the bed open and you’d hear them swim down the strait. Probably the coolest experiences of my life seeing them. Lovely, lovely island with lots of other great scenery and wildlife, lush gardens…I made a little travel journal while there – great fun.
Sounds like frozen shoulder. Seek ye a physical therapist.
Hi, I am in Sunriver,, Oregon. Have been doing some very entry level sketching to post when I get home.next week. Tonight I am going to try and sketch from a photo taken today at the Newberry volcano in Deschutes National Forest.. Really a lot of fun.