Where did April go?

I have an idea for the next Art Journal entry and it has to do with another month coming to completion. I typed all the verses for April, printed it out and it will be incorporated in the visual work. Also I printed the photo of all 30 days' entries.

Where did April go?
Another day for words avoiding my brain. Quick walk with the puppy.
Lounge in the spring sun. Puppy and kitten playful, bring laughter and joy.
Peepers late at night singing sweetly to announce the season.
Visitors and smiles watch the clumsy new motions of the small sweet puppy.
Spring winds blow roughly - more friends visit with, soft. sweet eyed ,tail wagging puppy.
Beautiful morning walk with Deezel through the woods’ glowing orange trees.
Another wet, rainy day; sky grey overcast blankets, green lichens sparkle.
Quick evening trip out, dark blue sky, trees budless and still. Pileated hammers.
Orange full moon sets early morning. Rises again, round at night.
Lovely afternoon in the field. Solid grey skies, spring days are coming.
Rains and cold winds blow hyacinths, pansies, daffodils spring’s fragrant colors.
Family , friends, food, laughter, hugs, fresh air, sunshine, generations celebrate.
Brilliant sun bathes the brown earth. New green shoots shake with the spring winds’ blast.
Evening moon setting, azure clear spring sky – coolness on the quiet branch.
Doodle in journal – is this an idea for a quilt in fabric?
Serendipitous collage falls into place. Scraps from other projects.
Lovely sunny warmth glowing around life throughout the daily events.
Spring’s early shoots work through the soil to present tiny white blossoms.
Yellow daffodils float above ground heavily textured full growth hides.
Sunny spring day glows through the growing daffodils over the brown earth.
Drops collect along the gentle curve of the bending briar with a day’s rain.
Quick walk through the wet woods, hesitant puppy needs cheesy treats and praise.
Morning sun cool – clouds edged with pink and purple for evening’s beauty.
Vacation wishes laughs, fun, plans a break from work, means a break from friends.
Hot summer day, no shade for respite. Bloodroot white against pale green leaves.
Backyard pool fills with water slowly. Refreshing for a summer day’s work.
Barcode patterns call to be documented on little works of art.
Very hot day, too early for such temperatures; went in the pool, quickly.
Pedicure, polish, low stools, their native language manicure, massage.
Tiny leaves, oval plant all over the forest floor, jack-in-the-pulpit.

morning sun, spring green

Well today will be more like April, even though it's almost May...
One of the main reasons I started the Daily Haiku was to slow time down, to hang onto the time that goes so quickly from one month to the next. I heard myself asking," Where did____ go?" so frequently. Now I can look back at 2009 and see and remember where it went. My Art Journal serves this same purpose, but it's more thematic than a daily exercise.

April 29, 2009
summer weather again
I went with some friends from school for some pampering - a manicure and pedicure at a shop in Amesbury. The women spoke little English and sat at my feet. I felt pampered, yet it was somewhat disconcerting
Several women did the work -one the pedi, one the toenail polish, another the massage and a fourth did my fingernails. We had lunch at JoAnne's house.
The drawing shows hands and toes done with pen on tracing paper. (This is when I got the idea for my stamp for the flipflops, which I use to show walking the dog.)I edged the card with a portion of the spiral stamp, because it was warm. A scrap of tracing paper under the tissue with the paw adds a subtle texture. The strips of tan rice paper helped fill the space which seemed a little too big. The verse is on that paper.
pedicure, polish
low stools, their native language
manicure, massage

lost needles, cold weather, Art Journal

Well, it's about 35 degrees this morning and the little sun we saw, is gone. I need to start a fire in the woodstove. Last year it reached 92 today! We used the pool!
Last night, I decided to finish a new glasses pouch. I looked everywhere for embroidery needles and that nice pair of little scissors. Guess it's time to clean this studio. I use the make-two-piles-and-have-a-garbage-bag-ready approach. One pile to sell/donate, one to keep and as the garbage bag gets full, I don't remember what's in it so out it goes.
I finished some pages in my art journal and I'm happy with them. Just couldn't quite decide what to do for several days. The need to move into a new theme helped me decide.
I had bought a piece of paper in a paisley design, I used it as the art work on the left side.
I cut a frame in the next three pages and glued them together. What to go in the frame stumped me. The last page in the series, since the framed area would also be the back of that page, I drew one of the paisley shapes with colored pencil and I
was not happy with it. It's on a piece of watercolor paper. I'd cut to match the frame.
Then I had a piece of printed parchment ; it has some text. I attached that to the back of the frame and covered the edges with the gold wrapping paper.
I retraced the paisley with ultra fine sharpie and like it.

This is the 2 page spread. The parchment looks blurry because the paisley paper behind it is visible. I add some hand printing explaining some of the steps.

DAILY HAIKU April 28, 2009
very hot day, too
early for such temperatures
went in the pool, quickly
WOW It certainly feels like summer. This entry has some commercial paper along the lower edge, a small drawing of the pool and a very hot spiral for the sun. The barcode stencil makes great grass. I added a few extra holes for some texture on the circles. We have a stone path along the back of the house.

barcodes, apple blossoms

Here's the apple tree 5/26/10

I'm moving slowly this morning - got to get all the kinks out after spreading 6 garden cart loads of bark mulch - about 1 1/2 c. yds. I have a slight sunburn on my face even though it was only partly sunny. I got the two largest gardens and the two smallest done. Rain is forecast for today and tomorrow, so I wanted to move it when it was relatively dry. When I was enjoying some cold water on the back deck later, I saw and heard the two osprey that I spotted the day before. This time I was ready with the binoculars.

Here's garden #1


Today I'll work my creative muscles. I have an idea to combine ferns, jack-in-the-pulpits, and barcode/grass stamps. Also,today's the day for some gelatine printing after I take the dog to either the beach or Adam's Point. Since we're on a budget to go to our nephew's wedding in June, I'll have to avoid the paper store !!

April 27, 2010
This entry, obviously, pays attention to my interest in barcodes.
I used the positive and negative of the image in one of the erasers. Also, I cut a stencil of a similar design.
barcode patterns call
to be documented on
little works of art
When writing Haiku, many of the words are single syllable. I like that "documented" is multi-syllabic.

ready for warm weather

It's overcast and cool today. Hopefully I'll get a walk and spread more bark mulch before the rain. I finished the large portion of my oldest garden in front of the house. I started this garden the summer after we moved here. It has evolved greatly. I had succulents and irises. Now it's more daylilies and campanula with vinca running every where. I have a collection of hostas there also.
One section has been a challenge. Now, I have an assortment of things - stones, on old canvas bag, a tiny picnic table, half a whiskey barrel - arranged in that area. I constructed a tepee of branches which I need to repair.The picture shows how it looked last year with the houseplants included. Roger made the metal wagon several years ago. It holds a window box of impatiense and fuschia that I've wintered over again at school.
We set up our new pool on this day last year because it was so hot. We've set it up and partially filled it this year, but it looks like we won't actually be using it for a while.
It feels refreshing after a day gardening...
This is my quick drawing of it
April 26, 2009

Daily Haiku # 115, 4/25/09

I'll be outside today again tackling the bark mulch. The crabapple tree behind garden # 1 is fully pink this morning.



April 25, 2009
The text says it all
Hot summer day, no
shade for respite. Bloodroot, white
against pale green leaves.

I cut the petals from a scrap, used the commercial paper for the birds, stamped the grass (from the barcode work) and the spiral for the sun. I came to use the spiral for all the sunny days. I should have either straightened the printing with light lines or done it completely irregular. I have come to using my initials as an integrated part of the visual. Here they help to ground the flower petals.

barcode series

These are some of the barcode pieces I did. They are ATC size.
For some, I used staples to attach the scraps and repeat the line of the barcode.

sources of inspiration

Another sunny, but cool, morning with work ahead. I'll be spreading bark mulch in my 7 gardens after a walk with Deezel. I'll not do all of them today. My gardens are quite nice. The biggest, in the front yard, always has grass. When I started it nearly 30 years ago, I didn't remove the clumps of dirt with grass. So it's been me agaianst the grass ever since. Usually the grass wins.
The newest garden, in the backyard, near the screenhouse looks very nice also. The lilies are very tall. The peonies have sprouted. The clematis' vines are climbing the iron cage. The tepee of poles still stands, but one of the birch sticks fell apart this winter.

April 24, 2009
A handful of us went out to kick off the vacation with some time at the Holy Grail. I used the label for the basis for this entry.

April 23, 2010
On a quick loop this morning, with the dog through the woods, I found the bed of jack-in-the-pulpits. If you've never seen these wild flowers of the woods, I'm sorry. They are just wonderful. Their spires slowly open with small pointy leaves and the "blossom" somehow form. It's a tall cup, with purple and green and a little lid. It eats insects that fall into the cup.

April 23, 2009

One of many calls to Social Security brought a letter from them with a wonderful barcode.I began saving interesting barcodes from many sources. This started me on a small series of "Barcode Studies" now in an envelope. I'll post them later today. I created a stamp with both the positive and negative barcode. Also a small stencil. These became favorite tools for texture,and grass. They show up in many subsequent entries.
On this entry, I used a copied image of the bar code, enlarged it and trimmed with stylized leaves when it was attached to the card. I shared the barcode project with friends; none of them even flinched that I had become interested in this ubiquitous line image that means something only to machines.
Inspiration is everywhere, it takes training to catch it. One becomes more sensitive to possibilities when working consistently and when actually pursuing the inspiration into its options.
The commercial, stampbook paper on this entry with pale green and blue stripes repeats the line of the barcode. It also has a spring feel because of the colors. The tracing paper softens the colors more. I wrote on the tracing paper.
morning sunny cool
clouds edged with pink & purple
for evening's beauty

Happy Earth Day
It's starting as a lovely spring day. The sunrise had mauve clouds trimmed with brilliant gold and alternated with pale blue sky. The ferns are unwinding - they'll be my subject for my art journal work.
The jack-in-the-pulpits are piercing the earth with their spires. Although I haven't seen the ones in the woods. Last year,later than this, I had to move some of mine for more shade. I took two to school. One had its roots exposed, the other I planted in a jar. The kids did some lovely work. I made print plates with styrofoam sheets for them to use. Many kids and adults had never seen them or knew of them.
I brought my Haiku book home from school yesterday. I think many looked at it. The gloves I had left with it were dirty. I'm glad to have it home.
The second grade started their quilting unit and are sewing covers for books in their classrooms. Several kids in one of the classes are sewing and want to make covers for personal, accordion books. Kids love to stitch. When I stitched some scraps on my sample, I felt that love, that connection I have with sewing. I love the immediacy of glue and papers; I love the time and comtemplative nature of hand sewing - although, my thumb joints don't !!!

April 22, 2009
This simple entry marks the walk with the puppy through the woods. I used the tissue paper and stamped with a square inkpad to soften the white a little.

April 21, 2009
Having a puppy has some advantages - I'm out with him in the rainy morning and see this lovely image. The stems of the briars are red.I used some hole punch scraps for the raindrops. Nearly from the beginning of the project I used scraps, leftovers from other projects and junk mail in my collages. I used a box that had held chocolate cigars to hold the little, and smaller than little, pieces that were too good to throw out.
Drops collect along
the gentle curve of the bending
briar wih a day's rain.
The soft green is a vellum and the writing is on tracing paper.I covered the back with glue to make it more transparent.

sunrise, habit, need to create

When I saw the sunrise glowing orange this morning , I thought for a moment I should write a poem. I miss the discipline of having work to do every day. I like the freedom of doing whatever I want each day, knowing that if I exclude art from too many days, I'll begin to feel its absence and need to bring it back into my life. Respecting this need by creating is valuable in two ways. It keeps my creative connection open by using it. Also, I better understand others' need to express themselves and keep that a primary goal as an art teacher.


April 20, 2009
Sunny spring day glows
through the growing daffodils
over the brown earth.
The background papers were from an advertisement. The gold is from a bracelet photo in the ad. I edged the torn papers. The thin strips piled up were from other days' work - the scraps left when trimming paper. A spiral stamps represents the sun and I used it to make some texture in the brown also.

quilts , memories, fiddleheads

My friend Mary went with me to see the Alzeimher's quilts. Our friend Barbara suffered with the disease. We were friends for over 30 years. We miss her. As I read the text from the quilters and the information about the disease, I could feel her presence; the various situations reminded me of how her last few years were spent. We're donating money to the PTO at the school where we all worked together in Barbara's home town of Newfields. They take care of the gardens and we want blossoms to adorn the grounds to speak to her love of her gardens.

My ferns in the back garden are slowly uncurling their lovely, soft green stems. I saw a clump beside the road on my walk with Deezel this morning. I quilted fiddlehead ferns in my quilts. This is a detail of the patchwork.

April 19,2009
I visited Barbara. I checked out the growth in the gardens.
The daffodils are opening. The yellow is warm against the bark mulch. I printed a photo again. First, I wrote about the day all over the card. The text is on a piece of torn brown paper.
The "floating daffodils" clearly represents how the heavy blossoms look on their delicate stems.

The weather is supposed to slowly clear today and tomorrow. Everything has sprung up with the rain - green is the color of the day with its subtle spring differences.I need to get some bug killer for those that eat the oriental lilies. As I drive around, I am dazzled by the yellow forsythia and the near white of the early fruit trees. Our apple trees have buds. Tulips and daffodils are lasting thanks to the cool weather. I am still amazed that the bleeding hearts are blossoming. I think they usually blossom in late May.
I have not done any work in my Art Journal. Yesterday I made curtains for the little bedroom that we've always called the "junk room". They're a crayon box colors seersucker. I have enough to make a small quilt since we plan to furnish it like a bedroom, not a closet.
Sewing is something I have not done much of lately. I have a turkey tracks quilt that I've been hand piecing for several years. I love sewing on the back deck in the summer. Especially after working in the garden and a swim in the pool.
April 18, 2009
I have two dated the 19th, so I'll use the bloodroot for the 18th and the daffodils for the 18th. The former are the plants in Ruth MacDowell's quilt and in much of my work. They come early and are strikingly white against the soil. The blossoms are delicate, wind rain or warmth in the extreme can destroy them But, the leaves contine to grow and look good all summer.

I created a simple border with pencil and did some quick pencil sketches beside the small photo.

creativity and its reasons

I read an email from a long time friend - not sure this word adequately covers our relationship - she asked several questions about my project and process. Also, she mentioned that it says zero comments. When I clicked on the word, I could read her comment. One of the questions she asked was why I started the project.
I started the "365 Daily Haiku 2009" project for one major reason. That was to be able to do something creative every day. I felt out of touch with the creativity I had worked with for so many years. I needed a tool to stay in touch with it, let it develop and hopefully enjoy the process.
I set the parameters to have several decisions made for me and be able to concentrate of the work. One parameter was the size of the canvas. The other was the type of text I would work with, because usually I write free verse and that would be too time consuming. I wanted an avenue that would allow me to write the idea, and revise it quickly.
I would use the 3" x 5' cards that I'd had for a long time and I had enough to create for the year. Also, I liked the cream color. The other factor was the verse. Haiku being a structured form of poetry, it would help (or force) me to use few words. I also decided that I would work with both the visual and the text to be "complete" , but I wouldn't over work either.
A secondary, but not less important reason I began this project was to attempt to slow life down. The last few years, I found myself saying where did ____ (fill it in with a name of a month ) go? I wanted to be able to slow time down and also be able to have some concrete evidence that I had passed through the time. I guess that's why many artists do what they do...
Now blogging about the project, I have a second record of last year and this year! As I review the entries for the blog, I critique them. But I am not changing them at this point
I would love to read why and how anyone reading this makes time and energy for making art - writing, painting, quilting....
April 17,2009.
This entry was done simply: I used an ink pad to color the background. I made a "sun" stamp for the circle (Originally it was for the full moon, but worked for the sun also.)I wrote the text - have not yet learned to write straight - with a calligraphy pen.
I frequently did not like the shape that the oval, Cat's Eye ink pads left. However the sky has a pleasing unevenness of color in this entry. We do have that sky color that's a Maxfield Parrish blue from horizon to horizon, but the irregularity made this more appealing.

Dots, dots dots.....

Yesterday I hung the big dots at school. They look great. The first grade class I saw wasn't ready to be done with the project. They wanted to do more on the foam core. Several kids even asked when I said they could free draw, "Can I do more dots?"
It has been rewarding to focus on a theme for a long period of time. We largely encourage students to move from subject to subject too quickly. This theme was open ended enough to allow creativity and yet it had a purpose. Each student expressed him or herself. Most are abstract, some have geometric designs, some have specific images. There are all kinds of targets and eyes. Many have faces, and even those are varied.

Today, I have several errands (one to the post office to mail taxes) to run and calls to make, dog to walk and a doctor's appointment.

April 16,2009 the fifth grade is away, so I stayed home for the day.
This collage made itself - the scraps fell and I attached them as simply as possible.

April 15, 2009
First doggie class tonight with Deezel. Hope it goes well.
This art work is a doodle from my date book.

windy, gold paper and the moon

It's another lovely spring morning, chilly, but pretty. Walking early this morning to get to school around 11:00 to finish "Dots" project with 3rd & 4th graders. The walk yesterday wore me out with the wind, so I had to come inside, not garden. I wrote a Haibun

Hosta spires have penetrated the rich ground. Daffodils are golden yellow and bobbing in the wind. Lungwort is green and has blue to pink blossoms. The Hellebore is a soft green with its dark green leaves on the ground. The bleeding heart has small buds hanging gracefully.

Has spring come early?
But its calendar does not
Match our numbering.


Tiny leaves highlight the branches. Some buds, like the oak and hickory, have only swollen. Wild strawberry blossoms are pure white with golden centers. Oriental lilies have sprouted, will need something to kill those damn beetles.


Spring and summer time
is recorded visibly
buds, blossoms and seeds.


Summer and spring both are so colorful and lush with foliage and blossoms for the viewing. Each day plants appear changed. The bloodroot has blossomed and dropped its petals. The bleeding heart is waiting its turn to remind me that time is flying by.

Bloodroot, bleeding heart
names for plants and blossoms with
life giving fluid.
4/12/10

April 14, 2009

This entry has an appropriate image for the Haiku form.

evening moon setting
azure clear blue sky, coolness
on the quiet branch



April 13, 2009
Brilliant sun bathes
the brown earth. New green shoots shake
with the spring winds' blast.
I printed the text on white paper, tore it out and glued it over the scrap of gold paper, which came to represent the brown grass in the field at springtime. The green shoots are drawn with a Pentel gel pen. The verse works, and the extra words - with and the- are acceptable. I try to avoid them usually because they can cloud the image.

friends, poetry, poets

The morning's soft light reflects warmth across the tree trunks and on the trailer next door. It's cool. The delicate bloodroot blossoms have fallen , the tiny seed pods have formed. They had to endure the heat of one day and the strong winds on two days.The day offers many wonderful options ahead - writing, walking gardening and art and vacuuming. I'm practicing with "gelatine" printing this week. I have two pages in my Art Journal to refine and make some decisions about.

Yesterday, Sunday April 10, I met my friend, poet Mimi White at a performance at the Portsmouth Library. It was Debra Connor presenting Emily Dickinson. It was wonderful, too short in some ways. Then Mimi told me about "haibun", another form of poetry to investigate. I looked it up this morning and it's intriguing. It combines prose and Haiku.

April 12, 2009
Easter Sunday brings a large group of family (including Ila, our dear friend) for feasting and sharing.
I used the stamp used prior to show get togethers, only in fragments. Then I stenciled an "egg" over it. The verse marks the event with a list.
family, friends, food
laughter,hugs, fresh air & sunshine
generations celebrate
For us, it's not about the religious significance of the day, but getting together.

April 11, 2010
One of many trips to my favorite greenhouse, Wentworth's in Rollinsford. I got pansies, container for me and one for Barbara. ( I picked up pansies again in 2010 as well as a new house plant, the orchid cactus, and an Easter lily. I got pansies to take to Barbara's grave, but haven't worked up the courage.)
rains and cold winds blow
hyacinths, pansies, daffodils
spring's fragrant colors
I worked on watercolor paper, drawing the pansies with colored pencil. I wish the words could have been placed differently. They seem too close to the blossoms, but I was happy with the blossoms.

blossoms, fuschia

Today is sunny but windy and cool. We might get out to the screen house for some time this afternoon, since it looks like a day to be out. I've been reading up on printing techniques and am going to do some for my journal. Gelatin printing gets great effects. I have two pencil drawings to add also. One is the blossom on an Easter lily the other is a blossom on an orchid cactus I got a couple weeks ago. Since they're on small pieces of paper, I haven't figured out how to integrate them.

April 10, 2009 The fuschia color - doesn't that sound better than "pink" - is from one of those magazine subscription inserts. Over a small piece of the gold paper,it made an effective focal point and nice for writing on.
Several stamps one over the other created the background texture.
lovely afternoon
in the field, solid grey skies
spring days are coming

April 9, 2009

This circular stamp is surprisingly versatile - I was careful to ink one spot orange for each of the full moons. I saw the moon set on the quick walk, and the moon rise that evening, both times out with the puppy. The verse recalls this event:
Orange full moon sets
early morning. Rises again
round, yellow at night.

simple events

It has cooled this morning. I'm hoping to get a walk with Deezel and that the laundry will dry outside before the rain starts. I mailed out a flier yesterday for an art journaling class I'll be teaching here this spring.Email me if you'd like the information.
A year ago, I was out frequently with the puppy. Now I seldom see the evening world. I'll have to motivate myself to get out. We have to watch for the skunks that visit us.
April 8, 2009
The blue paper is from an advertisement, I don't have a collection of blues. The writing is on tracing paper. The bird stamp is so cute I had to use it even though it looks nothing like a pileated. I used for some other bird sightings.

rainy days, art work, paw prints

This afternoon I'm meeting the 4th grade at the Exeter Town Hall to see the student exhibit. There are 10 pieces from the class there with work from the other schools in the SAU. We will look, sketch, share and write about the work. Tomorrow, I'll prepare the foam core dot for the staff dots and post it on Thursday.

April 7, 2009
The rain continues this morning from last night. Deezel and I did go for a quick walk. Sophie followed, sort of. Art classes this afternoon.

I stamped the card with a grey inkpad , glued the scraps, and wrote on vellum to go over everything.

Monday, April 6, 2010 I did some work in my Art Journal about rain using some photos from "365 Daily Haiku 2009", tracing paper and a poem I wrote,"Another Day of Rain".
"Rainy Day Study" shows the photos on vellum.I printed the poem on vellum also, cut it back somewhat and put the photos under it. Before gluing the photos,I wrapped two pages with tracing paper after I wrote rain related words on the pages.
The photos are somewhat covered by the poem, then when the page is turned, the entire photos are visible.
Here's a photo of Deezel I took this afternoon


April 6, 2009
beautiful morning, quick walk through the woods with Deezel

The sunrise reflected on the grey tree trunks with an orange color. I used scraps from the craft advertisement for the color against the puppy paw tissue paper.

I like that the text is written irregularly among the paws.

bloodroot

Today:

Earlier, I took pictures of the bloodroot, which was not out yesterday. Last year it was April 19th when they blossomed. I fell in love with this plant when I saw Ruth MacDowell's quilt "Bloodroot" which is owned by the New England Quilt Museum. Of course,the blossoms on that quilt are nearly a foot wide, the real ones are about an inch from petal tip to petal tip. they are brilliant white against the brown, heavily textured earth.
April 19, 2009

summer weather, Easter, clean gardens

It's going to be another wonderful day today. Deezel and I will do our walk, before it gets too warm. I'll do some more garden cleaning - getting rid of last year's stalks. Then after I vacuum, I have some art time.
Yesterday we had 15 people for Easter lunch. Nieces, Kelly & Jennifer, nephews Tristan & Tyler and Tyler's wife, Heather, were here.Friends Ila and Becky were here also. Niece Haley and nephew Adam were too far away. She's in Spain "studying " for the semester; he's stationed in San Diego. My three brothers and wives were here. Sisters Anne & Elizabeth were absent. Our new kitty, Zeek hid from all the activity. Buck Wheat tried all day to get out.
It was a perfect day for sitting outside. The backyard is firm. Heather and Tristan wore Deezel out playing with him.

April 5, 2009
more guests,the star being the puppy of course.

This abstract collage is with pages from a craft advertisement, puppy feet tissue and tracing paper.

April 4, 2009

This entry marks another of the first days with the puppy. Several friends visited to see him so the tissue paper with paw prints dominates the entry. My initials made with a stamp, are highly visible.

April 3, 2009
Third grade was on a field trip. I made note of hearing the peepers for the first time on Thursday night. Since it says "11:30 last night", I must have been out with the puppy.
This entry consists of a stampbooking paper (with the dots) and two pieces of Japanese paper. The date is highly visible and an important part of the page.
Peepers late at night
singing full and sweetly to
announce the season
The colors and themes of the papers feel like spring.

carolina wren and sunny afternoon

WOW what a day yesterday was. We took a drive to Wentworth Greenhouses - had to go a long route, since Rte 108 was still closed due to flooding - and I got pansies, an Easter lily, and a beautiful orchid cactus, related to the Christmas cactus.
We spent part of the afternoon checking out all the work we need to do in the gardens and yard... this weekend. The wrens were courting in the field.
School today to work on the Dots with three classes. Two of my classes are on field trips.

April 2, 2009
Deezel slept well last night, had to wake him up.

The verse says it all:
Lounge in summer sun.
Puppy and kitten playful,
bring laughter and joy.
I used a part of a beer label because I love the art work, the dog is funny. The colors of the label fit a hot spring day. I colored one of the paw prints for the sun and used some gold paper for the color of the field with sun on the brown grasses.

April begins ...

I can see signs of blue sky - thankfully it's not raining. We got through the night on Tuesday supervising the sump pump and water levels !!!! We means Roger. I went to school yesterday the long way because the usual route was under water for about a quarter mile. Today's a day for some art, some writing, a long walk with Deezel, lunch with Paula, getting some pansies from my favorite greenhouse (Wentworth's in Rollinsford) and washing floors. The family will be here on Sunday.

April 1, 2009
Second walk with baby Deezel through the woods.
This collage is a combination of writing on the card, doodling some accents,gluing some scraps,and writing on scrap paper.
another day for
words avoiding my brain - quick
walk with the puppy
The number one became important because of the connotation of April Fools' Day

March 31st addendum ------
I began wrapping up the "Dots" project built around the book by Peter Reynolds "The Dot". All of the classes have been doing this. First, the librarian read the book to each class and discussed it. I reviewed it with the classes and had them create dots of their own for several class periods. I had them start with oil pastels on colored paper they are so freeing because its about the richness of color and , in this case the shape. Classes have also painted dots and splatter painted some paper to make dots. (Splatter painting is so fun and so messy, I always talk about Jackson Pollack when we splatter.)
Today students in three classes made the choice of the one to attach to a 4' foam core dot (one per class) They are fabulous. I will post photos after the 2nd to have most of the classes' work. A few kids lost interest in just doing the same shape each week, several worked on one for several classes, others were enjoying the simplicity of the work and enjoying using dfferent media.