July update

It's been a long time since I posted here... since April. My excuses are:
1) I started a blog about living with LMS.
2) I've been focusing on improving my lifestyle (see above link)
3) 2 is working so well that I've got all this energy and have been working in the garden, hiking in the woods (looking for fungi!) and generally being busy and having fun.

So no apologies. No doubt once winter hits and I'm stuck inside you'll hear more; particularly about the Studio; something I've been neglecting from all of the above.

The above picture is from my Night Blooming Cereus which blooms once; occasionally twice a year and only at night. If you've never experienced the sight and scent of this flower then go out and find it. It's worth the wait.  

The Garden is doing really well this year. The no dig technique in the veggie beds is working great. Anywhere the results are a little iffy are places where the wind blew off the mulch during our snowless winter even though I've re-mulched it. But the soil is getting more and more fertile and arable each year. Some of the beds I can plant with my hand as the soil is so fluffy. The soil is just full of worm casings and there are a ton of worms working at it.

We're past lettuce season; it's all bolted now. But the Kale is going well. The tomatoes in the greenhouse are doing really well but the ones outside not so much. There are rumors of tomato blight on the east side of the state near Boston which is bringing fear into the hearts of all who grow or eat tomatoes but were hoping it stays on that end. For those that don't remember or were unaware we had a blight come through the North East USA in 2010 that pretty much killed off the entire tomato crop of the region. I blogged about it back then. Keeping positive thoughts on this. :)

My perennial beds are doing really well and I'm going to try to find the time post pics. Of my fungi hunting walks in the mountain here too. I've been looking for medicinal mushrooms like Chaga, Reishi and such; found both but not enough to harvest. Or with the latter it was on public land so couldn't pick it ethically. But I found it and took pictures; which I'll share soon.

I've hired someone to help me in the garden this year. He's been reclaiming much of the old gardens and yard that started over growing after my diagnosis in 2001. The old rose arbor garden, where I used to sit and teach a lot has been uncovered and we've found 5 of the 8 climbing roses and an apothecary rose, which will be transplanted. I've felt bad for them all these years and it will be good to rescue them.

There is also a garage being built which will have a rather large art studio over it, attached to the house. Hopefully that will be done by Autumn and soon after I can move into the studio space. They just finished pouring the foundation; slab next then framing, etc.

So there are tons of things going on; renewing and rebuilding. I can't promise I'll post an update here soon but I'll try. As I said: things will slow down come Snow Fly.

Early April Update

I thought I'd better poke my head in here to assure those I've been getting messages from that I'm doing well.

Been a busy two months with various treatments and procedures. I've got a window for a little over a month where I'm resting up. I've got some things I want to accomplish including update my blog.

Since just what I need is even yet another project; I'm going to create a separate blog just to discuss the LMS part of my life. While it is a part of the whole which is Me.... I want this place to be dedicated to the studio and garden (and the infamous Random Thoughts). I'll post here when I get that set up.

It will be my hope that it will be an inspiration for those dealing with LMS, cancer and other “terminal” illnesses.

So.... meanwhile back in the studio. I've not done a lot. But I have done a few things.
I do try to still do something creative everyday even if it's just reading about another artist or watching someone's Youtube video. :) Hoping that at least the brain synapsis are keeping connected. :)

One thing, is above, and is still a work in process but almost done. It's a little 2” x 2” canvas. It was fun to work on it; while it's size made it fast it took enough thought to make it interesting. Basically it's an acrylic painting with a photocopy of a little “grid” drawing (more on grid drawing in the future) I did in my journal that I copied and then pasted with gel medium over acrylic paint and then embellished with ink pens.

I liked doing something this small. It's a nice quick way of getting something accomplished and yet is reasonably quick and fulfilling.

I'm going to put little nails into the upper sides and hang it on some wire.

I've been taking a few online classes; free and one paid:
I took Cathy Johnson's Watercolor free class which I loved.
And Pam Carriker's Pursuing Portraits.
I've learned a lot from both of them.

So it will be interesting to see if any influences show up in my work.
I want to get back into the acrylic painting.


And I've been thinking of creating a tutorial for making my paper mache prints.
Any interest out there?
I miss teaching but don't have the energy to do it one on one anymore so this will be a good way to at least pass things on.

The Garden is waking up.... early, like everywhere else on the East Coast and perhaps elsewhere.
Though the weather shifted to a more seasonable chill and rain.

The greens in the greenhouse are up and growing but not big enough to eat.

I planted some Spinach in the coldframe but nothing is happening yet.

But the Daffodils are up as are the Hellebores and the tree buds are swelling. I'll have my Magnolia blooming soon. Today the sky is blue and it's supposed to get up to at least 55F.

I'll try to take some pictures soon.

The bad news is the ticks are worse then ever this year. After my bout with Lyme in the autumn of 2010 and winter of 2011 I have a serious tick phobia. So I'm very nervous when I go out and check myself the minute I go inside.

We've stopped feeding the birds and squirrels a week or so ago. We cut them off slowly to get them to start foraging naturally. As well as to make sure there is no seed around when the Bears wake up. :)
Those of you who have been reading this since the beginning may remember our Bear visits.

Well... hopefully I'll have some more artwork to show you soon. Stay tuned. :)

And lest I forget; Happy Easter, Ostara and Passover!

Seed Catalog Advice, Garden Planning, Black Squirrels and Happy Imbolc/Candlemas/Groundhogs Day

Happy Imbolc/Candlemas/Groundhogs Day! Or whatever your Religion or Lifestyle calls this Cross Quarter day. :)

It's the Celtic New Year for me; when the Light begins to return as the days start to noticeably become longer. And this is the day I've been waiting for as my personal New Year this year. I've always loved Imbolc and it seemed the right focus for me to see as the day I leave behind all the bad aspects of the last year for me. I still have some healing to do; and treatment in the next few weeks; but I'll get through it.

The work we're doing this month at Creative Awakenings is on “Presence – the Sacred Moment of NOW” (a new, small but growing group working on Spirituality in Creativity (and vice versa)). This works well with where I am at the moment in my healing. While I'm much better I'm not far enough along to just start running around and while I have my moments of frustration I see having to restrain myself and Be Here Now (to quote Ram Dass); a good way to start my new year.

That's not to say I don't have things to Do. But much time needs to be spent simply Being still.

One of the things I plan on doing this afternoon is to start planning The Garden. February is a good time to do this here in the North East USA. Even in a mild Winter as we are having now.

As always most of my seed will come from High Mowing Farm. A small family owned organic company in Vermont.

Beware many of the catalogs out there; most are no longer owned by the families that started them in the years past and are owned by huge companies. Some by the same company. If you suspect your old seed company isn't living up to it's past qualities then you might look into who their parent company is.

I know people who are having issues with older and/or bigger seed companies in recent years who are now turning to smaller family owned companies. One of the most common issues is wrong varieties in packets. Nothing like giving garden space for a eating tomato only to find you're growing nothing but sauce tomatoes.

While Vermont may be a long way from you I'd suggest you give them a try but if you want to find something nearer to you there are some guidelines I'd suggest:

* Buy certified Organic. (I no longer get seed from companies that aren't 100% organic. I've dropped some folks I've done business with for years because I noticed their organic line is getting smaller as is their open pollinated. If Organic seems like an after thought then it probably is. Better to focus and support/vote for those that are totally dedicated to organic seed production.

* Buy open Pollinated when you can.

* Buy Heritage seed when you can; keep these delicious well producing species going before the big companies kill off the varieties in the name of easy marketing and GMO promotion.

* Buy untreated seed.

* Make sure the company is really owned by a family. No parent company is involved.

* The company really is small. I'd rather do business with several small companies with small inventories then one huge one who gets their seed god knows where.

* When you call with a question a human answers the phone. A better sign is when you have to leave a message for the person who can answer you because he or she are in the fields.

* It's as local as possible. Vermont is one state up from me so HM Farm is a good choice. Check out whose closest to you that fills the above criteria.
High Mowing Farm isn't the only seed company that covers the above and more so look around.

I'll report in a few days or so on how the plan is. I'm hoping to get my order out in, at the most, two weeks.

I leave you today with a photo of Shadow. His story is a few years ago we had a black squirrel show up at our winter feeder. Turns out they are the same squirrel as our gray squirrels but have some gene pigment that shows up sometimes. I've seen the black squirrels in Toronto; where gray is the rare one. But never seen one anywhere else.

This year I have three black squirrels amongst about ½ dozen grays. So the population is growing. Since I can't tell one black squirrel from another: I call them all Shadow :)

Sorry the photo is of such poor quality but it's taken with an iphone.

I'm back. (no pun intended; really!)

On the other side of the spinal surgery... but not over it by any means.

I'm afraid there is no Garden or Studio update but I thought I'd better report in for those of you who have been asking (or wondering) how I am:

I'm very glad, again, that I have a sense of humor as I find myself rather amusing. It would seem one of the life lessons I'm not getting (and so Life must keep trying to teach me) is that you can't predict what's going to happen. Both the good and the bad.

The surgeon warned me “This is going to hurt”. I figured I've been through a lot in the last ten years: 7 cancer surgeries and one radiation treatment. So I figured I was emotionally and physically prepared for the surgery to remove two tumors off my spine. I've hurt before and gotten over it and moved on.

I was both right and wrong. I'm actually doing well when you consider what I've been through in the last couple weeks. I've already weaned myself off the prescription pain meds. Just the occasional OTC as needed; mostly at night.

But I'm having some trouble dealing with being physically immobile to the degree that I am. Mostly all I can do is sit in a recliner. Any activity; including trying to draw or anything more can't be done for more then a few minutes.

Getting my supplies set up and ready to work is about all I've been able to accomplish; much less actually do something with them. :)

I had all these plans for my recovery. I had a stack of Art magazines I'd saved up for months. Seed Catalogs piled high to go through and plan the Garden with. Simple things I was shocked to find I couldn't do.

I signed up for Traci Bautista's Doodles Unleashed workshop and Jan Fox Designs 52 Play Dates. I saw myself sitting, relaxing and following their lead so that I could stay creative. Only to find (can we say Duh? :) ) my arms are attached to my back and it hurts to move them and I have to move my position every 5 minutes or I'm in agony.

(hopefully I can play catch up soon on both workshops that, btw, look great: good job to the teachers and the students.. at least I can watch :) )

The good news is I have a short attention span so it's easy for me to move from one thing to another but a big part of me loathes not being able to do what I want, when I want and for how long.

And better news: I can now sit up for a bit with the keyboard in my lap (where I am now) and communicate to the outside world and I've started on the magazines and catalogs some. I'm even walking around the house a bit.

So there is a light at the end of this tunnel and so, I feel that once again, I am ready to Get Over Myself. In short increments. :)

Hopefully, in the following weeks I'll have some reports of results of some kind of Creative expression... as well as the plans for The Garden in 2012.

(the above picture is from one of my Art Journals and seemed appropriate for me relearning to Soar!)

Musings on being Productive, Holidays and Life :)

I've been totally blank on creativity lately. I fought it for awhile and then decided to let it flow. That maybe that's where I'm supposed to be at this time.

I'm all for working on getting “unblocked” and tapping into one's creativity and getting one's productivity going.... but it occurs to me that sometimes that fighting the need to Simply Be is counter-productive. Sometimes you just aren't supposed to be able to be productive. Or one is supposed to focus it elsewhere.

We don't always have that luxury of course. Many of us have pay checks that rely on being productive. But perhaps it would be more advantageous to step away from the “trying” and let something else get your focus; even for 5 minutes.

For me, however, it's been a month and a half. I totally stepped back from fighting my block after about three weeks of fighting it. I realized that I needed to step back from everything except the basics. The basics being making sure I'm up, dressed, fed, and in good spirits.

I've had three surgeries for the LMS so far this year. I'm actually doing great considering but this next one on 1/9 is going to be a bit more complicated. I realized I had to go Zen. :) Meaning I had to just Be and not push myself.

To make things even more interesting: I had a sneezing fit a few days before Christmas and cracked the rib connected to the vertebrae they are operating on. I wound up literally laying on my back in bed for about 72 hours. It's healing very well and I'm up and about again: gently. It would seem I was supposed to step back and relax even more :)

The Holidays added another layer of their own complications and another need to Simplify.
Which worked great: I had a wonderful Yule this year. Very relaxed, very simple.

So... here I am today. Updating my blog for the first time in over a month and awaiting New Years and the surgery on the 9th.

While I'll spend New Years Eve with family I'm going to focus on Imbolc (Candlemas and/or Ground Hogs Day) as my personal “New Year”. That's February 2nd. I should be up and about again and able to get involved in the Studio again by then.

I don't make Resolutions. At least not specific to New Years. I make my Resolutions as I need them through out the year. Pretty much they are always the same, or variations of the same, anyway: Live Healthily, Get Organized and Work/Play in the Studio and Garden.

So... I'll report back once I'm up and about again. ...Unless I come up with something to pass on in the mean time. :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Winter Solstice, however you personally celebrate it. And I wish you all a wonderful New Years and joy in all that enfolds for you in 2012.

I leave you with the above picture of my crazy cats, mostly as I don't have anything else to share at the moment as well as they are very cute. :)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

11.11.11 :)

Here is a picture of my constant companion here in the office: Bee my Cockatiel. I've had her about three years or so now.. making her five. A gift from a dear friend. She's a nut, can be noisy and leaves fluff all over my keyboard but I love her. Bee.. that is, not the dear friend. :) Though I love her too.

I thought you might like to meet her.

I don't know if today should be important because of the date but it's fun. And I'd like to take the time out to thank the Veterans and members of our Armed Forces for all their sacrifices. One might not believe or support in the politics behind things but one can't deny the bravery of those that defend us. My late Father was one of them.

I've been a bit unproductive lately. I'm trying to sort through my feelings about my oncology reports. Seems I have to have at least one more surgery in the next month or so and more then likely radiation. For some reason these things more often then not happen to me during this time of year. Astrological? My late Mother, the Astrologer, would have known.

I've spent the last week indulged in watching mindless TV and reading mind candy books (my vice in life is reading paranormal suspense novels and historical mysteries. I know enough about history where they have to be good ones though. :) )

On the one hand I told myself I wouldn't hide this side of my life here (the Leiomyo Sarcoma side; not my reading habits :) ).

On the other hand I don't like focusing on it either. While I don't believe in being a “Pollyanna”: that is acting like everything is ok despite hanging off a cliff edge... I don't like to dwell on the peril either. Keeping a positive outlook is, in my opinion, one of the many reasons I'm still here. Balancing a positive outlook with a sense of reality actually.

That and Medicinal Mushrooms.

Anyway.... even though I'm still waiting to see the surgeon about one tumor (fortunately a simple extraction) and hear back from the radiation oncologist to tell me if I should have another surgery before the radiation;

I feel it's time to get off the couch, so to speak, and get back into my life.

In other words, to once again, get over myself. It really is damaging to sit around and feel sorry for one's self and dwell on the “what if's”. Better to dust one's self off and get on with what one loves to do.

And for me that's the garden and studio primarily and cooking and hanging with my family and friends. With occasionally reading books and a computer game or two :)

However, I haven't totally ignored the studio or garden.

Now for the updates:

Studio update:

Mostly I worked on framing some of the paper mache prints. I have a friend who is a former frame maker who gave me some good ideas about how to go about this. I got myself some rectangular shadowboxes to experiment with. They are plastic unfortunately but I sanded one and painted it with the iron paint. I didn't rust it though: I thought that would be too much.

I then mounted one of the Ravens on unbleached craft paper, attached that to ¼ inch foam board and put it into the frame.

It doesn't look half bad.

I'm thinking I may have to learn how to build frames. Though where I will find the room (and time?) for such a big project at this time I don't know. And I don't think I need another big project at this point.

Another issue: and your feed back would be appreciated... is the quality of the images of my work. I've been scanning them on my computer and for much of the work it works great. But I noticed many of my paintings, particularly the batch from the Raven a Day Challenge don't do the paintings justice. The colors are wrong for one thing. I'm not sure if you can pick up the textures with a camera even but I'm going to start experimenting. I'll post the results here when I get to them.

The above is the first. My main problem I think is not having the camera reflected in the glass.

I'm thinking next week I should start a small Challenge. I'll spend the weekend deciding what that will be and report back Monday.

Garden update:

The greenhouse still needs watering every other day or so. Things are coming along well. The greens probably won't be mature enough until later this Winter. As always I was a bit late seeding. I'm thinking of seeing if I can grow some lettuce mix in the growing shelves under lights in the kitchen before that.

I'm still dealing with the straw/grass seeds in the mulch.

I'm hoping the weather will cooperate and I can get the garden beds tucked in for the Winter this weekend.

Oh... and I changed the format a bit in the blog. Let me know if it doesn't work on your computer. I have a large monitor so I can't really tell. Blogger is coming up with some interesting new formats for their blogs that I will be experimenting with soon but I'm waiting to be able to put in gadgets. (all those little windows on the side bars). A feature they say is soon to be.

See you next week.

Best laid plans..... of Computer crashes and Blizzards. And Studio/Garden updates.

In case you noticed I haven't been around... my computer decided to die. I had a 5 year old Dell and even they weren't sure if it was the power supply or the motherboard. I decided to rebuild; using my existing sound and video cards as they were practically new. The rest I replaced. Took about a week and a half to decide what to get then have it shipped then have it rebuilt. Still some quirks in the bios but it's working great!

I want to thank certain family members for putting it together and certain computer savvy friends who helped with the other issues. Yes: I promise to never go into the bios again unless you're with me :)

I'm very glad that I've had most everything backed up on an external hard drive so I didn't loose anything too important.

Though; if you are one of the people that I correspond with via email you might send me a message so I can get you back into my address book :)

So... I'm back!

Garden update:
This was also the week of the earliest Blizzard apparently in known history for Massachusetts. We've had snow; even heavy snow earlier but I think it's the first blizzard. The picture above is out the back window looking over the back yard, garden and woods and hills beyond.

Fortunately I'd gotten the greenhouse bedded down under it's plastic row cover and winter blanket. Unfortunately I still have to dig up my Celeriac and a few other things, if they've survived the foot of snow and temperatures in the low 20s. There were even still some beans on the vines I didn't get to on time.

The hard part has been for the trees. They still have their foliage and the weight of the snow can snap not only branches but trunks. The Japanese Maple out front has been particularly stressed and so we had to go out in the storm and knock the snow off with a broom.

Studio Update:
At the time of the crash I was working on 5 canvases of Ravens. I think I may have gotten Ravens out of my system but we'll see. :)

You can see them below with descriptions.

I've mostly been puttering in the studio as most of my free time has been reloading the computer with all my programs. I did do some painting; I'm just putting the finishing touches on so I'll post that next time.

I'm not giving myself a Challenge this week. Aside from trying to do something creative everyday. I have my oncology appointment on Wednesday following a Pet Scan to check on the anomalies found last Spring; aside from the two liver tumors that were removed (and discussed in a previous post). I'm a bit nervous so I don't want to put any pressure on myself.. beyond that. Even fun ones like the Challenges.

So here is the report from the last one; better late then never:

Raven Challenge:
(all are 9x10", acrylic paint and pastes, collage, oil pastels)


This and the next one are the first two I did and my favorites. I love the colors and general feel/mood.

The second is fiber paste rather then the usual molding paste. I found it neat but not sure if I like the texture.

This one was a bit different as I didn't use any acrylic pastes. Just paint, inks and oil pastels.

These next two I tried a different color palette. I'm not as happy with them as the first three; particularly the first two. But they are nice I think: particularly the last one.

That's it for today. As I said I'll post that other painting I did last week. A rather nice abstract on 4 6x6' canvases.

If you're in the North East USA; stay warm!

Prodigal Blogger