it is full-on summer and most of my days begin and end on the porch. as i type out this missive to you i am in front of a window that opens onto the porch. in another hour or so i’ll be out there scanning the trees, the hills, listening to neighborhood sounds, beginning a new journal entry, eating a bowl of sugar kiss melon, or drinking something cold.
i’m enjoying the procreate app on my ipad pro. it is terribly fun to trace photos and color them. i also use it to draw freehand without tracing. 2 of the portraits above are freehand. i bet you can tell which ones. one can learn a great deal by using the ipad as a light box and tracing images. never to replace paper and ink of course, but a terribly fun, creative toy. it’s also what i use to made the 4-picture grids above. now that my old-school photoshop has been disabled as i’ve updated my operating system on my mac, i’m left without a way to grid photos, write on them, or alter images. bummer. i don’t want to pay for a photoshop subscription service which i would use infrequently, but i’m discovering the ipad pro comes to the rescue quite nicely. the more i play around with it, the more i see how it can replace photoshop.
the hibiscus in my garden love being under the oak canopy. especially brown sugar who is still blooming up a storm.
i’ve been back to the huntington for walks a few times since it reopened. i set my alarm for noon on tuesdays when the online box office opens for reservations. i’m also back at descanso gardens for morning jaunts under the oak canopy.
i continue to accrue miles on my camino de santiago virtual mission. i’m approaching the town of najera. i log my exercise miles from my apple watch. so far i’m on mile 124.2. i’m able to walk further and faster than ever before. this brings a certain amount of exhilaration, as i increase my stamina.
walker’s high.
it’s a real thing and i’m grateful to be able to experience it, especially since a knee issue last summer made walking difficult for a very long time.
i’ve been making blurb books like crazy these last few weeks. i have thousands of photos on my computer going back to 2006 so i decided to curate them into photo books i can keep in my bookcases. how nice it will be to have out of the dungeon of my computer’s hard drive and into the light of day. a book i can pick up and flip through whenever i want. a library of memories.
i wait until blurb has a sale, which they do on a very regular basis, then i order my books. if you decide to make one, don’t pay full price, wait for the sale!
once upon a time time, when air travel from the usa to europe was allowed, i flew to norway. this is what i saw out of the plane window. someday i will return to scandinavia. in the meantime, my travels are limited to california. i’m headed to mendocino in a few weeks. have mask, will travel. when one prefers solitude, social distancing poses no great difficulty. during the pandemic, i have a handful of familiar locations where i can return to, until it is safer to venture further from home.
live teaching has been sidelined indefinitely. in mid-august virtual school will resume with a brand new class. not ideal for the students or parents or even teachers who are parents of school-age children, but everyone will make do and eventually this too shall pass. life will return to some semblance of normal.
my sister, carol, who is on the front lines of the pandemic wrote a good update about what’s happening in her busy kansas city hospital. you can read it HERE.
i try and stay away from the televised news. i only have a certain tolerance towards dumbasses doing and saying dumbass things. they’re out in force these days, perhaps emboldened by the divisive political climate. the united states is an enormous country with perhaps more dumbasses per capita than other places. i don’t know, but i’m pretty sure the majority of people getting in fights over masks live right here in our country. too much rugged individualism is not always a good thing – it’s like a gateway drug to conspiracy theories and just a general loss of common sense.
stay safe out there friends. let me know how you’re doing and what sort of pandemic adventures you’re having. i’ll just be up here on my porch keeping company with the squirrels, cats, and birds.
on my bookshelf
I hope none of you undertook to read one of my recent book recommendations, lawrence wright’s THE END OF OCTOBER. i had just begun it in my last dispatch and had high hopes, but it turned out to be a poorly written bunch of rubbish. the reviewers from NPR and NYT must’ve been drunk to give it such high marks.
i merely report what i am currently reading. as such i can tell you i finished and enjoyed WEATHER, and have started and am presently loving SK’s latest short story collection. i’ve been forced to turn to winston graham’s 8 POLDARK novels in audio form due to finishing the series on amazon prime. this first book in the series is most excellent and full of gorgeous descriptions. i’m besotted and thrilled to bask in the details not present in the series.
sharing is caring
rare as hens’ teeth, a delicious new blog for me to devour
new ambiant music for me to listen to while i labor away in my art room writing or sketching or thinking.
austin kleon is an endless source of wonder and delight. i am going to start thinking of a guardian spirit for my new journal.
Try photoshop elements. I just got a new Mac and was not able to transfer my very old Photoshop Elements to it. It was inexpensive, quick and easy to get the new version – no subscription just one time payment.
Oh, thank you for the Poldark book recommendation. I’m going to have to look for those. So many times novels are really different than television shows. But, I loved Poldark and I need some new reading material.
I have put off updating my Mac for just that reason. Photoshop Elements will stop working! I will have to find out about the new PS Elements as I thought it had gone away. But an tips for photo editing on the iPad Pro would be great! I just downloaded Snapseed….
This post was a perfectly lovely way to start another day of working from home. I, too, am avoiding the news (also trying to break my Facebook habit) and walking a lot, mostly meandering around my neighborhood and the beautiful local park. You’ve inspired me to sign up for the Camino de Santiago challenge. I am mostly content in my bubble, enjoying the slower pace of working from home. At home with my cats, more able to step outside to feel the sunshine and look at my flowers, picking up a paintbrush or a stitching project in my free moments, I feel more connected to summer, and that is a good thing. I so much appreciated your post letting me know I’m not the only one.
Thanks again for sumptuous photos and engaging chat, I always feel like you’re right here with me! I have just been down a rabbit hole in Austin Kleon’s blog, ordered myself a new notebook just so I can weigh it and give it a guardian.
hee hee!!! austin kleon is such a pleasure. i’m happy you think so too.
Sister!!!!
That photo of the lily pads and lotus blossoms with shadows in the water is STUNNING! Almost as good as ALL the drawings – especially the self portrait you did and the Richmond contingent in their masks!!
you are so right on about the current political situation and it’s sources – add lack of education and encouragement to think independently in my humble opinion. on another note, have you ever read stephen king’s on writing? some autobiography, some writing thoughts, and some musings. not a thriller!
oh lea…i loved SK’s book on writing. read it many moons ago. so good!
Hi there again, I am always surprised and delighted to see that you have delivered a new post. This one especially charmed me with its evaluation of the idiocy running rampant in this country right now. Thank you for making me laugh out loud.
lovely post. of course.
don’t hate me, i just have to mount a small defense of Lawrence Wright. While his people and their subplots are mundane and predictable i found his data based details fascinating. Fiction is clearly not his strong suit but he is a brilliant, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and the science in this uncomfortably prescient book is compelling.
i DID enjoy the virus info in the book and i forgot to mention so thanks for the reminder. i still contend his fiction is rubbish i don’t care how many PP’s he’s won. his editors should have held him more accountable and not let him get away with such nonsense.
Does ANYONE know how he found his children???? I was listening to it as an audiobook and swore that I must have missed that chapter… But….??? NO????
Hello from the woods in MI! Well, the pandemic, my school district’s plan to have me in person four days a week, and the upcoming sale of one of our houses (mine) has all led to one thing- FUCK ALL THAT! There is no way I am going back into a school building (in Chicago, no less) until there is a vaccine… So look for many pics of pugs, canning, gardening, cannabis growing disasters and new music in the upcoming year! Maybe even a visit to the CA desert this winter!
Love keeping up with you!
dahling nat,
i applaud your decision to swing out into this new school year FREE from the shackles of working stiff life. love you dearly xo
Thanks for the laugh. There sure are a lot of dumbasses.
Your portraits are awesome. I can’t tell which you drew freehand.
howdy dana!
the self-portrait on bottom right and pam’s profile on bottom left.
Really love your updates. You’ve turned me on to a number of good books and blogs and your photos are outstanding. Was it you that recommended Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead? I had trouble with it at first but I’m settling into her style of quirky. Adore your portraits! I too spend time on my iPad Pro using Procreate. Concerning Mac update and old copy of Photoshop, I’ve been using Photoshop’s “little sister” Photoshop Elements for many years, it satisfies and challenges me with its features and I use it for the final layout and printing of my greeting cards. I wonder if you could get a teacher discount? They just came out with a 2020 edition and the last time I noticed they were offering 30 percent off so that would make it around $40 maybe?
Good to know about Photoshop Elements…thanks for the tip.
Yes, DRIVE YOUR PLOW. i adored it and the main character especially..
Hi, I am doing well during this time. I have a question for you. How many pages do you normally put in your blurb books. After the book is made, do you delete your photos? Thanks and I do look forward to your posts
i put anywhere from 200-240 pages. I use the Proline Uncoated paper which is my fav – thick and matte. Maximum pages are 240. I like the 7×7 square paperback books best. Will show you when i get them all back from Blurb! Glad you’re well Glenda. Stay cool out there in the desert. xo
As always, your posts are good fodder for at least one glass of wine as I peruse the pictures carefully and then follow the links down into my own rabbit hole. Thank you, you are much appreciated. xo
glad i could be of service!