Greetings from the porch where I sit at the table looking down into the garden and yard of trees. Typing out this letter on the laptop. Cup of coffee beside me. Mint geranium leaves the size of my hands in a jar of water
I started to write inside, but had to come out here to my outdoor living room. I wanted to be with the unmuffled musical sounds of nature and city. A chorus of birds, wind in the trees. A dog is barking, my neighbor just roller-skated up the steep lane wearing a blue mask, someone just shut their car door, gardener sounds from down the hill, more wind moving the leaves. Down the hill there are faint sounds of traffic. Wyatt is sitting in front of me staring, commanding me with his mind.
Here is what I will be doing when I finish sending off this missive to you:
Repotting some succulents that need my attention in the back patio. I started the copper spoons (plant in pot above) from leaves a few years ago. How amazing that from discarded leaves can grow entire new plants. I have one planted in the front garden that is the size of a small tree. They will get big in the ground and produce fantastic chartreuse flower spikes this time of year.
Scenes from this morning’s walk:
The camelias are blooming. Brought so long ago from Japan by nurserymen, they thrive in the warm climate of Southern California. Thirsty plants, they require water year round and more care than I can provide, but every winter I love seeing their pink, red, and white blossoms opening around the city.
I just finished Ann Patchet’s Bel Canto. It’s a beautiful story. A group of people, including an opera singer are taken hostage in a South American country by a rag-tag group of rebels with a long list of unrealistic demands. They live together in a mansion. Held captive, but not mistreated. After awhile they become so immersed in their present lives that they almost don’t care if they’re ever released. The opera singer sings daily and everyone listening is held in a state of blissful wonder. The fact of their imprisonment becomes almost irrelevant and they sink deeply into their days, more present than they have ever been.
(By the way if you care to share your thoughts on the very end of the book, I’d love to hear them)
The entire time I listened to the story (audio book on loan from library) I drew parallels with how rich this pandemic time has been for some of us. How much I have treasured all of these hours spent on the porch in the company of trees and wind and birds.
Oh, the deep pleasure of being alive. To sit in wonder and observe every living thing. I am grateful for the climate I live in that allows me to live my life out of doors.
Teachers are being vaccinated. I received my first dose and my 2nd is scheduled. I felt a surge of love for every young soldier from Ft. Carson, Colorado who were administering vaccines and helping people at Cal State LA on the day I went. What an efficient system they’ve set up there. From the parking to waiting in line, it was easy and relatively quick. 40 minutes or less from start to finish. A marvelous use of military.
This probably means virtual school is coming to an end soon. So be it. In a few days it will be exactly one year since the schools closed across the district and school went online. I’ll keep you posted on reentry.
I found this sketch of dear Mama Moss while rustling through some of my paper piles. It reminds me of what I love about drawing from life. Even though one hand looks like a table leg, , and her feet resemble…something, I captured her perfect essence. Her brow knitted in nap concentration. She is getting ready to wake and drink a half a cup of lukewarm coffee. She will laugh and ask what I’ve been doing “over there.”
Nothing. Just watching you doze.
I recreated a Duncan Grant painting in my sketchbook and added a few of the objects from my table.
I’m still resting in a still life cocoon. Wanting to draw and paint everything around me.
I found the wooden side table above on my street at night. I lugged it up the hill to my house. It’s the perfect table to hold my sketchbooks.
The settee Wyatt is resting on was collected from my driveway where I left it with a “free” sign last week. I did a bit of rearranging in the back patio and decided I didn’t need it anymore. How nice it is to live in a place where I can recycle other people’s leftovers and they can recycle mine. Usually they only have to sit out for a night or two before just the right person comes along to claim your discards for themselves.
As you can see the little table I found is very lightweight and I can carry it wherever I need it.
Back patio, front porch and garden – these are the spaces where I spend most of my time.
I sat on the couch one cold evening and drew what I could see through the big window. It was the puffy yellow cloud that caught my eye.
on my bookshelf
I’m thoroughly engrossed in Vanessa Bell’s letters. I used to be quite a letter writer myself, but alas all of that was lost to the digital age in which we live. It’s good to remember times when phone calls were expensive and letters were our chief mode of communication to the people we loved who lived far from us.
If you’re an artist reading this, I won’t need to explain the Bloomsbury books. They’re a natural choice for anyone captivated by the still life as it relates to art history.
As for me, I have turned into a court reporter in my own house. It’s all I want to do. Someone notify the school district that I shan’t be reporting for duty when live teaching resumes. I’m busy!
I feel confident that one of these evenings I will come across an old leather Samsonite on the streets stuffed with cash which will make my working stiff life a distant memory. Naturally you’ll be the first to know when that happens!
I hope you’re well in your own still life. Absorbed in the tasks of the day. Ever present to the changing seasons. Looking forward to future travels, but for now enjoying good books, good coffee, and maybe the occasional real letter. Chime in if you wish with some bit of news from your faraway life. I’m all ears.
If you are still studying still life, I would recommend checking-out Erin Lee Gafill. She and her uncle, Kaffe Fassett get together and paint every year. There’s plenty to poke around on her blog. https://eringafill.com/
Oh I love your porch! If I could afford to live in Cali I’d move in next door! Your patio is such an amzing oasis! Love your sketches. I cannot seem to get inspired to sketch everything around me, too much of it. :}
love the gouache paintings Mary Ann! love your sweet porch and sketchbook filled tables!!!
I still love reading blogs!!! Maybe it is age or maybe it is my need to feel connected to others. My husband passed away suddenly last month and I am leaving this beautiful paradise in FL. to be closer to my kids and grands in Dallas. It is will an adjustment but I have decided on living in the city and spend my days walking and taking photos. I need to heal for I am rather broken at the moment. Much Love
Oh Rosemary,
How very sorry I am to hear about the death of your husband. How you must miss him. And now a big move on top of everything? Brave times ahead for you, but also hope. Spring is here. And you will be out in the midst of it bravely exploring your new world. xoxo Wishing you the very best. Sending an extra large bear hug.
Oh Mary Ann – I too still blog cause I think there is so much to share. Most don’t take the time to read long winded posts anymore favoring quick instagram pictures now – but I still read every word of your posts. I wait for your book recommendations because we obviously have the same taste in books. I enjoy how you “live in the moment” and do the same everyday in this new world we live in. In my nick of the woods in Canada, (Montreal) we are still in lockdown and even have an 8PM curfew for the last month and no end in sight. I recently (although I thought I was retired) took on a contract position and my days are filled with project management in telecomm which I thought I was long over. I am grateful for the work only because it fills the days now in this covid world. Like you, I have also been obsessively creative during these times and draw, paint , collage every single day – it’s a saving grace. I dream of days back with my girlfriends, and who knows, maybe someday even out to California to meet with you and Pam and your sister to scribble in our journals too. Keep the posts coming – it seems to make me feel like we re all still connected.
How nice to hear from another blogger, Cathy. Everything you’re making looks quirky and fun. Here’s to a splendid weekend of art & rest!
I just finished the book “The salt path” from Raynor Winn. A book about loss and the healing power of nature.
I was deeply touched by her (true) story. Her second book gets even better reviews.
I think you might like it.
thanks for mentioning this. i’m always on the lookout for a new novel!
The film of Bel Canto with Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe is very good too. Of course, in my opinion, the book is always better.
I enjoyed the movie also, but the book was just so much richer.
I LOVE seeing all your paintings! They are wonderful. Are they gouache? or ???
Mostly gouache. Some matte acrylics and acrylic gouache…
It’s still shiveringly-chilly outside overhere (Norwich, England) – Winter-end, rather than early-Spring, so far.
Your copious Sunbeams remind me of warm fresh Air + brightness to be enjoyed, here, too, I hope, before very long.
I’m still hibernating, but I miss being in my lovely garden, now.
I’ve been seam-ripping ongoingly, playroom-organising, stitching, experimenting, + researching the artistry of Anni Albers. I wrote a post on this recent sleuthing – did you see?
I’ll be dreaming of watching the shadows dance in the breeze in your delightful garden, till there are shadows dancing in my delightful garden again.
May your suitcase Dreaming come True, in perfect time. More Glorious painting, reading + basking, meanwhile. Keep Well ~ x x x J
I have been reading your posts for some time. They are so wonderfully satisfying, especially the home-based ones, and your art journal entries. I have ordered Bel Canto from the library. it sounds delightful. I am far away from you in Tasmania, although there is probably not much except the sea and Fiji separating your garden and mine. I do enjoy the glimpse into your own Still Life With Cat every so often:)
Bel Canto was a real pleasure, do enjoy it. Tasmania sounds like a faraway dream of a place…mmmmm
I hope everyone clicks your name to be transported to YOUR blog. It’s so seldom one can do that these days. What a treat they will find there, Jo.
Ok, I am going to take you up on your challenge to discuss the end of Bel Canto, which I have now read. I did love it! This is what happens when a literary author writes a thriller. Brilliant, also heart-breaking. Am trying to do this without spoilers. So the end was not surprising, though shocking all the same. It was foreshadowed from the very beginning, where we are told what the outcome will be, and then we attempt to forget it, just as the hostages and terrorists try to do.
The epilogue, now, that was surprising. But then I thought about it, and realised that no-one else in the world would ever understand each other as these two people do. No-one else has shared that particular kind of love and loss. These two are together, maybe to swim in their grief together as much as anything. Notice that only Edith, of the four of them in the epilogue, believed that she was lucky. I think it works, but it is a jarring note, that end. It’s like an anti-happy ending, a travesty of the kind of happy ending a classic thriller might have, with the ‘good’ guy and his girl getting married and living happily ever after, having triumphed over ‘evil’, which is really The Other. Bel Canto shows us there is no Other, and that is its triumph.
Hi MaryAnn. As always, I’ve enjoyed seeing your artwork and lovely cottage. I have had the Remarkable Diaries in my cart for awhile and am wondering what you think of it? Wonderful or just a random smattering of entries? I usually really enjoy DK books but was just wondering what you think of this one. My buying finger is a bit itchy, but I’d hate to be disappointed. 😁😷 Take care, Sally
Sally,
I was pleased with my purchase of Remarkable Diaries. These days I only buy books that will be reference material for my library. RD is one I will keep returning to, but as with many things my taste may vary greatly from yours so I hesitate to recommend it. Maybe you can find someone flipping through it on Youtube and you can see exactly what the pages contain.
Sister!!! that sketch of mom calls her to mind perfectly, sitting in her rocker, feet up on the camel saddle, in a way that a photograph could NEVER capture. Bravo!
I have been fortunate enough to visit Charleston House 3 times, in 2017, 2018 and 2019. It is one of my happy places–I feel such peace when I am there. I go there in my head now quite a lot. I was there during the Charleston Festival 2 years ago, and was told members of the family were in attendance, but liked to keep a low profile.
Can’t quite get through Vanessa Bell’s letters, though I can recommend a couple of other books about her if you’d like. and that Charleston book is on my wish list!
So glad you have discovered Vanessa!
Otherwise, having a bit of depression/fear here that scares me at times. Trying to hang in there! Thanks for sharing your cool plants with us. I never see things like that, here in Pa. LOL XOXO
Hello, my friend! It’s always such a delight to spend some time with you as I ramble through your posts. Still have piles of snow here – seeing all your flowers is a wonder. I’m packing up my household, a bit every day. I have nowhere to go yet, but hoping something will turn up.
I subscribe to Annie Sloan’s newsletter and she did a virtual tour of Charleston with the executive director to raise funds for this National Trust property during the lockdown. A few weeks later I was invited to attend a virtual concert and readings by Jack Farthing ( of Poldark fame) for the New Year as a thank you and it was one of the most memorable performances I have seen. They have a charming online bookstore that helps support Charleston.
Hi!
I would love to know what you think of the book Remarkable Diaries. I’ve been eyeing it but……I don’t know yet. Thanks!
Your home and gardens are such peaceful places ~ thank you for sharing them with us. My crafting mojo is still on holiday, but I’m doing great not sweating it ~ I know it will be back.
Like the rest of the world, I’m hunkered down inside most days. But I live in Oaxaca, Mexico so this message does indeed come to you from faraway.
I am the oldest of four, we are 60-64, all have partners/spouses. Just received update from them. Not all content, but I am. I am the oldest & had my first of
vaccines yesterday.
I have many Textile UFO’s UnFinished Objects. Each day, I have a goal, work on SOMETHING. The gardening vibes are humming as bulbs are sprouting as
flowers. Each day has more daylight. Focusing on the positive is so much easier with Spring ahead of for those in the USA.
No Travel is planned, other than to visit family members who are also vaccinated. So glad I didn’t sign up for Spring Break in SouthEastern USA.
Thanks for the update, Holly. Good to hear from you. Being content is a good place to be, happy to hear you’re THERE. Your textile UFO’s sound like a worthy project.
Mary Ann your posts are works of art!!
Here’s to wishing that you find that Samsonite ASAP!