home from palm springs!
i miss the velvety warm air at night
slipping into the blue pool in the mornings & evenings
floating on my back
watching the finches on the telephone lines
all that.
on our last day, the skies were filled with smoke billows from the lake fire up near big bear.
wild fire season. every year it’s a heartbreak, but an unavoidable one. with climate change, enormous fires in the west are on the rise. we hunker down and dream of rain. grasping hopefully at any chance of strong el nino conditions that would steer drenching storms our way next winter.
in the meantime i am putting the dates in my swedish travel journal.
having a designated spot to sketch, paint, write is enormously helpful in coming home with a travel journal that is evenly full from front to back.
most of my pages are plain white watercolor paper, but i do like having some found papers to break things up a bit.
hope you’re happily off exploring or preparing for an adventure of your very own.
whether it’s around the world or on your own front porch it matters not.
i’ll just be here at moss cottage. where all the women are strong, all the cats are good-lookin’, and all the ideas are above average.
at least i like to think so…
Hi! I am a longtime blog follower. I love your artistic photos and ideas. 🙂 I was wondering if you’ve ever used a traveler’s notebook?
lovely work on the “110 in the shade” drawing.
Oh, Mary Ann, how I adore your books! I have long read your blog but this is my first “but-in”. I’m madly working on a travel journal of my own for our trip to Cambodia in Sept/Oct. My fella is taking me for my 50th birthday as I have never travelled. I KNOW!! Such a lucky, lucky gal. Such a lovely man of the species! I’m wanting to try my hand at watercolouring before we choof off so I can idle away hours when we aren’t seeing temples & ruins. Not an essential as I note that you paint some of yours once you’re back at Moss Cottage. So, I see I should think about pre-dating pages of travel journal. I’ll try that, me thinks. Have a magic trip! Cannot wait to see the delicious goodness in your journal. Take care xox
P.S. Have been watching news of your bushfires and feel for all affected. We know about that only to well here in Australia.
Sometimes it’s the little things – dating the sections ahead of time.
LOVE, LOVE your journals! I do some travel journals, but without the ability to do realistic sketches, so I am fascinated by yours. so beautiful!
Good idea to add dates in advance – I sometimes find I’ve skipped a whole day ! I also like that you put down some scraps – avoids that dreaded white space-induced inertia.
jane,
i used this pre-date approach in amsterdam and after that swore i would forevermore date my pages ahead of time. if i run out of room to write in the dated section for the day, i’ll add a taped on flap using a postcard or extra piece of watercolor or ledger paper. running out of room to sketch is less of a problem because it’s a pretty big book and i will fill it ALL in a little over 2 weeks. i’ve gotten really good at estimating the size of book/section i’ll need. whatever blanks i have left when i return will get full page photos. i’ll show you all along the way so it’ll make more sense as the whole thing unfolds.
i’ve heard those keyboards are fantastic!
Yes, the sadness of Southern California fire season. With this drought it starts earlier and lasts longer. I’m in San Diego and it still breaks my heart when we drive to our mountains and see that it will not be back to its former glory before I’ve passed away.
Speaking of the drought, I’ve put water out for the bunnies that are still visiting our yard each day. They drink out of puddles when available and thought I’d help them out. It’s going to be a long, hot summer for the canyon critters.
Such nice color in your journals. Always a pleasure to get a peek.
Do you ever find that you run out of content to put in the pages if you already have the days filled in? Or have more content for one day than you have room for? I’ve contemplated this approach before but maybe it’s just what I need to try. Or, go all crazy and not even worry about bound pages and filling them at all, just do loose folios and bind whatever is done when I get home? These are nice things to ponder.
I bought a keypad ipad case (as i do most of my internet roaming and communicating on the ipad rather than the actual computer) – this should make keeping up with things much easier again! So nice to actually type on a proper keyboard.
MAM you have been a huge sketch-journal inspiration! Last year I took your Sketchbookery and Ticket to Venice classes. It was just after this that we went to Berlin in Sept2014 and I made my first travel journal and kept up with writing and sketching while in Berlin – whooo hooo It was a fantastic experience 😀 So then I knew nothing of our plans for this year – which eventually turned out to be a creative meet up with artsy on line friends in Ljubljana in Slovenia! When I had a look on the map to see which cool city is closest to also visit – it was Venice!!! So I am very much looking forward to our adventure – which is starting shortly! And I am in the process of creating a few brand new travel journals and loving every step of the way towards our travel experience…
Thanx MAM for your constant sketch, color, ‘anything goes’, journal inspiration <3
I always love to hear what you are up to, but man, I am LOVIN these COLORS, especially the orange! Are these the gouache paints Mary Ann?
Maybe the cat posse can do the rain dance???? Have them start with the Boogie Woogie, then the Tango, then the Salsa.
Maybe an El Nino will happen again. We’re in our 14th year of drought, Lake Mead is at it’s lowest level since it was filled! Yet they keep building water eating golf courses like they’re going out of style. Boggles the mind.
The travel journal is looking good. I’m sure you’ll fill it to the max with yummy things to see, eat, swoon over. When is the departure date?
welcome home from your romp, gotta agree that pool looked mighty inviting. HMmmmmmmmmm I’m glad you are tucked away in Moss cottage doing all the stuff you love to do…I’m always sad when I hear about the wild fires all along the west…ma nature trying to balance things out a bit. We are covered in clouds today and they are fat with rain and moisture…I’ll make a valiant effort to steer them in your direction with the hopes you’ll get some rain…a rain dance might help too but I will leave you to decide about that….miss twinkle toes. 😉