Day 27 August 31, 2010

So very hot.  A cold shower for many long minutes helped.  I waited too long and ran out of patience to get myself to the river.  It got to the point that if I didn't cool myself off in the next 3 minutes I was going to scream.  Like being locked in a greenhouse. 

this is where I should have been today

Finally by about 8pm it started to cool, just in time to welcome my guests for the 1st WART meeting, that is the 1st Women and Art meeting, thanks to Charlotte's impetus.  Charlotte, Dawn Rae, Nicole and I drank wine, ate some wonderful food and talked about art, looked at my disastrously messy studio, and began to work on felted wool projects, and an applique project in Nicole's case.

Everything from the hot, sweaty day fell away.  Art prevailed.

Day 26 August 30, 2010

Mabou Harbour

Early Morning in Falmouth

Just made it home under the wire of yesterday, so to speak, around 11:15pm. 

Amazing place, Cape Breton.  Of course the heat, sun and crystal clear water helped...  the friendly people....  the sheer beauty of the vast woods and ample watersheds that empty into the ocean....  Ahhh.... I kept sighing in relief just to be there taking it all in, one more time.  Having lived there for more than a decade raising my girls also endeared you to the folks currently living there, or in some cases, still living there.

Day 25 August 29, 2010

The road dips and turns, exposing the shoreline. Wait… the sunset colours are so exquisite. Need to stop to enjoy it.

Day 24, August 28, 2010

Ah…. Time slows down in Cape Breton, especially if you drive the back roads. There’s nearly non-stop laughter when you visit with old friends.

Day 23 August 27, 2010

If you  practice your yoga first thing in the morning, you might find that you have a different body than the one you have later on in the day.  David likes early morning practice because it really shows you where you are stiff.

Road day.

Mostly sunny.

Party tonight with new folks and old in the country.

Just kidding, I’m not really in New York city, though I was last month.

Day 22 August 26, 2010

Getting ready day. 

Got the clover seed scattered for the green manure section of the garden.  Now it's up to the weather to do the rest.  Cloudy, rainy day, just might help things move along.

Packing for the weekend getaway to Cape Breton. 

1. yoga gear
2. vitamins
3. clothing
4. food and wine
5. camera
6. car ok
7. friends to go with
8. friends to visit

Day 21 August 25, 2010

You guessed it.  The beach!  Finally. The air off the water always makes me feel wonderful.  Today it was Crystal Crescent beach.  Only a few families shared it with us, as we arrived later in the afternoon and it was cool. 

Turquoise water close to shore, long barrel waves crash rhythmically.  Sand as soft as nubby silk.  Water as cold as a spring fed creek, even colder. 

A chance meeting with an old yoga friend in the city, inspired me to fly through my yoga practice with energy to spare.  Yes there are days when the conversation I have with my body when I practice yoga is very much like visiting a very good old friend.  Remember, I am old and I feel like I've been my own friend for quite a long while now.  Makes sense, doesn't it?

Day 20 August 24, 2010

The crickets' drone sets a backdrop for this evening.  The silver poplar leaves twist in the breeze but only at the very top of the trees.  It's early evening and quite still.  Farmers were busy hauling away freshly mown red clover from the nearby field where David and I walked the doggies an hour ago.  In the closest field to our house the corn is jumping out of the ground to an astounding height, maybe 14 feet high, or more. That's the highest I've ever seen corn here and I've lived here for 17 years now.  The summer has been green and bountiful.  We've had rain nearly every week which is highly unusual.  In a normal summer our lawn would be brown by this point.  This year it is still green. 

Every year brings a change.  Every moment does actually.  As I get older it seems I get smarter.  But probably I've just been noticing my mistakes and learning from them.  What a brilliant idea to do yoga every day for one year.  Thanks for that idea, Denise.  What a brilliant idea to have an art practice daily for one year as well.  Thanks for reminding me not to forget about art Charlotte.  You two helped me realize it was time to embrace my loves.  They are both medicine to me it seems, not just fun and challenging too.

In yoga practice today I thought that doing this for an entire year wouldn't seem long enough, I might have to do this for the rest of my life!  That gave me pause for reflection.  And as I sat down to compose this writing I thought, oh, what art will I practise today?  I thought why not show people some of the art I've already made?  Afterall, most of the people who might look at this blog won't have seen all of the art I've already made.  It's not like I have to run to the studio and quickly make something. Believe me there is art here.  I decided to celebrate with images of my own favourite art work.  Now I think I'll have to figure out how to run the images as a slideshow or something.  Or maybe just show them one at a time.  There's no hurry here.

We're far fom hurry, here in the land of droning crickets and dogs lapping water.  The evening air is warm and moist.  The garden abundant, the love for this life evident in every direction I look.  I trust that everyone finds peace within, the way I have tonight.  I know, I know, not everyone will find it by doing yoga or making art, but certainly it is not too optimistic of me to wish a few minutes peace to our plant earth and its inhabitants?  How about  if I include our entire solar system too?  Now that is overly optimistice I'm sure.  Done then.

Day 19 August 23, 2010

Yesterday I drank hibiscus tea.  Today I transplant my hibiscus plant into a larger pot. I post a photo I took of a hibiscus flower; I first noticed the bloom on the floor and was struck by its beauty, even in its state of rest, after the full force of the bloom period had passed.  It had dropped from the plant, but it still held life.  For what is life afterall?  A form of energy.  Notice the drapery of the bloom.  How it wraps upon itself.

In tonight's yoga classes with David I use more energy than I think I even have within me.  Being a great teacher David knows how to draw the best out of his students.  Not too much, just what they need at that particular time.  To work hard and find balance is tonight's lesson.  Sometimes the lesson is much more restorative, giving the body a chance to recover.  Other times even more energy is expended than tonight and sweat pours from the body.  Cooling the body.

The air is beginning to cool here overnight.  The sun's heat still is a force during mid day.

Today I removed a large charcoal drawing from my studio wall so that I could have a large blank spot in which to work.  Two painted plates hang there now, still in the works, but I needed distance to see what I'd done, to fine tune the strokes so to speak.

Yes distance can be very helpful, don't you think?  In art, in making all kinds of decisions, even in relationships.  We all need some space.  Here in the Maritimes we need lots of space, perhaps, because there is so much natural space all around us.  If we all clumped together there would be a bunch of people and too much nature, so we spread ourselves out to fill up all that nature all around us.  And nature is so inspiring.  Sometimes, especially in summer, I almost feel like plants are my very best friends because I spend so much time with them.

In yoga class tonight, the people are so friendly I find it very heartwarming.  I am a social animal too, even though I do really love plants, a lot.

Day 18 August 22, 2010

David and I worked on the garden today. He is tilling so I can plant a green manure crop in certain sections.  It is heavy work because we removed landscape fabric that proved to be ineffective around our ten blueberry bushes.  We'll put white clover there instead and mulch around the bushes. Tomorrow will see us back in the garden for a while.  I harvested tons of grape tomatoes.  Very lovely little round items. 

I'm working on hanging ceramic plates, painting them with acrylic paint and I'm having a mysteriously fun time with the process. Painting is pretty new to me, well artistic painting that is. House painting is very familiar. Yes I've decorated my ceramic work before, but only with slips, stains, glazes, scraffito, carving etc. and  I always fired the work to set the decoration. Today's work is different. I need new. The immediate feedback of painting on fired sculpture clay is great. Playful colours. Playful brush strokes. Fun, I need fun.  Lots of fun.  I'm writing myself a prescription right this moment, just like Denise did once, to have as much "me" time and fun time as possible for the next little while.  Let's say for the next week.

Tired hands today so I did a hand practice from one of Dona Holleman's books.  Gomukhasana was tough.  It always is.  Third time was the charm, as always.  I cannot believe how stiff I am.  Painful.  But with a few repetitions, thus the three times, I get some movement finally.  Actually the progress is rapid, but that first time is not anything like easy.   Enough complaints.  Perhaps I need the tee shirt.  "Complaining will not get you anywhere.  Just practice."  I don't think that shirt would be a great seller.

After my hand practice there were pleasant tingles in my hands, fingers and wrists. Voila.  I was also much calmer and I noticed my tiredness.  So, instead of forcing myself to jump up and do my normal inversions and a few standing poses, I just sat there, for a long time.  By the time my sternum was lifting towards my hands, my femurs tucked into their sockets, my shoulders down and back, the muscles between my shoulder blades contracting, and my collarbones stretching, I was perfectly happy.  I did the Ode to Patanjali aloud and when I finally came out of the sitting my right leg was pretty numb.  Oh well, small price to pay.  Savasana was lovely too.

David and I took a break during our gardening extravaganza.  We sat on our freshly painted deck in turquoise chairs which looked amazing next to the brown floor and crisp white railings.  We drank hibiscus sun tea, which was a gorgeous shade of coral red, which contrasted beautifully of course to the brown, white, and turquoise.  The sky was blue with long cumulus clouds lined up over the river.  Ah ....summer.  You are my favourite indeed.