brief relief from the heat

We got much needed rain yesterday, without the violence usually associated with summer rain storms. We didn't have the 2 or 3 inches an hour that they did in suburbs of Boston, thankfully.

Our water service was back on-line by early afternoon.



DAILY HAIKU 2009, July 11
This group of entries has a sameness, I assume because I did several all at once. Why I got behind I don't know. The only reference I find is that outside work was calling and using up considerable time and energy.
The sun stamp, the puppy paw paper, and tissue appear in several. This has a tag stamp for some interest.

Perfect sunny day
blue sky, summer warmth
gardening thriving.

As I write this verse now, I'm not sure if I like the verb "gardening" having a verb "thriving".
However, I do like the vague impression it adds to the specific sky and warmth.

waiting for rain and lower humidity

This morningI did a quick walk with Deezel . We went through the woods and down the boat ramp toward the river. It was low tide, hot, and the cormorants were just sitting on the rocks. When I got home, I cooled off first in the pool, and then took a shower. Just in time because evidently, there's a break somewhere in the water line and the water's been turned off.

A month ago today I was leaving Shand's Hospital after most of the night in the Emergency Room, a bizarre trip through the tunnel at 2:00 am, and,finally, following an echocardiogram and lots of blood tests during the night, the verdict that I hadn't had a heart attack. It began with a severe bronchial spasm caused by exposure to the bug bomb released into the room at the hotel that had not been aired. I required oxygen to enable me to breathe. The subsequent drastic drop in blood pressure caused me to feel like the flu several times over. That was gradually relieved with an IV. My opinion is that's what caused the enzyme levels to look like a heart attack in the first blood test. Now, after two more visits to my doctor and a stress test, other than all the inconvenience, stress and annoyance the situation caused, I'm healthy.

DAILY HAIKU 2009

A year ago today, I saw "Up" with Mary Z. and, a few days later, I wrote

Thanks for the dreams

of adventure and thanks

for each day's adventure.

I guess I was thinking about the balloons when I stamped and used the puppy paw print tissue.

seacoast clouds keep us a little cooler

When I watered earlier, I saw that we have more cucumber blossoms. They are similar to squash blossoms, only smaller. They are a near-cheddar color.

Outside work, followed by a couple of quick cooling dips, followed by some reading or writing at the picnic table outside has become a heat wave routine. As the day heats up, I come inside to work on blog and art work in the studio.

While sitting outside, I worked on sketches for "Scroll #2". I'm replicating the paper one with fabric - it'll be six sections of 18" fabric fused to six other sections with "Heat'N Bond". It'll have two dowels and most likely roll from one end to the other as "Scroll #1" does.
I'm stuck for the content, however. That will also decide what I'll use to write on. I had thought of using gauze stitched to the scroll by machine and holding text behind it. But, do I want the stitching to show on the outside? About now Mark would say, "Make a mock-up."
That's not my style. Usually, I think through each step several times until I have a clear picture of it in my mind. I use drawings to help, also. Then I work through the construction and what the sequence of construction will have to be. Of course this leads to doing and un-doing sometimes, or not having something operate as smoothly as I'd like. Maybe a mock up will help me determine the content...
DAILY HAIKU 2009

I like this collage. The flip flop stamp fades with each successive application and works well with the "puppy paws" tissue. The sun, breaking through at last, is part of the sun stamp I made.
Again the text is written on vellum which has been inked on the back with a stamp pad. The writing is with a Sharpie pen for the blue color.
The border has some light writing about breakfast with Linda Foote and that Roger was crabby looking for something.
In the evening, Mary Z. and I went to a poetry reading at the coffee shop in town, "Crackskulls".
The "old friends" phrase has nothing to do with their age !!!

numbers

Today's numbers are 07, 08, 10. Last year they were 07, 08,09.
Today's numbers are also 90 degrees at 10:30 and 3 dips in the pool to be able to do some outside work and some art outside. At least, with the heat, I can be out somewhat. The pool, despite its smallness, certainly keeps me at a temperature for working.
Earlier, Deezel and I managed a quick loop though the woods. I watered the vegetables ( there's one blossom on a cucumber plant) and my ligularia and other two unknown plants. Then I layered some bark mulch around each of the latter to, hopefully, keep the moisture in the soil a little longer.
This is our 5th day in the heat. We haven't had rain for several weeks. I'm inside through the hottest part of the day to journal and finish window coverings.
Acorns and nuts fall.
A cicada's call rises,
morning's haze clearing.

DAILY HAIKU 2009
I used the numerical sequence lightly around the card for a border, stamped with grey on the sun stamp and one red. The tracing paper has pencil to darken the edges. The section with text has been edged with a black ink pad.
The card has rain written on it and a grey spiral stamped in varying degrees of intensity.













The sun hides as the
rains soak, soak, and soak again.
Shine away the clouds.

"3 air conditioners and new shades" HOT

Thankfully, yesterday's stress test is over - due to my Florida incident, the doctor there and my doctor recommended it - to see if there is some reason for the "elevated enzymes" following the respiratory distress incident. I'm probably one of very few people who have never used a treadmill. It was too hot when I came out of the hospital ( car thermometer read 101) for a stop at the hardware store for expandable rods.

I'm assembling shades to help keep the heat out of the kitchen and living room. I have a small piece of muslin and a leftover from a long-ago project to make them for the kitchen. One has enough length to make up for the shortness of the other.

You know it's unusually hot when we're covering windows ! Last year, we didn't even use the window AC in the living room. It looks like we'll be putting one in the studio this afternoon.

This morning,I even used the sprinkler on gardens 1 & 2. The plants in garden 2 were the worst- brown ferns and wilted bloodroot. I have three plants there that I can never remember the names of, but they wilt due to heat and/or dryness. And the jack-in-the-pulpits were wilted.

Then I hand watered the veggies. Last year we had slugs who enjoyed the lettuce. This year, we're watering twice a day. We use water from our system that collects water from the roof into 10 barrels under the deck. Even that is down about half.

Of course the rain will come in a thunder storm and will be torrential or short-lived and we could lose power.

After a morning dip and before I came in to escape the heat, I did some sketching in my new sketchbook with brown paper. Later I"ll read. The summer 2010 issue of "Surface Design Journal" has fabulous articles.

DAILY HAIKU 2009

July 6

I studied my gardens . The giant host leaves made a frame for the birdhouse.

The sun was trying to break through - I used the spiral stamp over a grey ink pad. I cut a photo for the other elements.

July 7

a single word says

it all - rain - seems constant - rain

soaking the smallest

I used tissue scraps with ink on them. They represent the colors that were in the gardens despite the rain.

heat and more heat...

July 5 2010 will be remembered as one of our hottest days in a long time. We read 92 at 2:00. It's too hot for me to be outside. I'm stitching muslin panels to cover the kitchen skylights since the heat is projected to last through the week. It makes a difference to block out that direct summer sun, although our days are getting shorter.

I'm taking a cue from Buck Wheat - just lounge around, do nothing, eat occasionally and have plenty of water.

Since it's too hot to be outside, I'll add photos of the scroll I made at the Institute last week. The outside is "paste papers" on white and metallic paper. There are six strips of 18" paper together.I butted the ends and glued them with tracing paper. The handles are 3 chopsticks glued together and painted. The tie is a cord strung through the left side. I added two glass beads made by my friend Linda Foote.





They add just the weight it needed to hold the bone closure under the cord.

The inside is a map of Florida with white paste/paint over its surface, cut it into strips, butted it together and glued it to the paste papers. I used Tech pens of two sizes to create the EKG lines and hand wrote the text to look like doctors' notations. It's a nice object opened and closed. Thanks to Mark and all the people in the class who were supportive and inspirational.




DAILY HAIKU 2009

Last year, I enjoyed reclining in the sun after a morning in the garden followed by a refreshing dip.


Reach deep in my
aching soul and tired body.
Warm the deepest needs.

many Haiku to mark the missed days

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unlike a year ago, it's a hot July day. We took an early walk, got some fresh cucumbers from a neighbor, fertilized and watered the vegetable garden. I also filled the birdbath since we haven't had rain for about a week.
Now I'm facing the challenge of how to make up for a week of posts and not be too long.

I was in Manchester NH at the Art Educators' Summer Institute at the Institute of Art(http://www.nhia.edu/). I stayed in the dorm and could have done a daily post. I was just too tired to think at the end of exciting and demanding work in the studio. I was in an all day workshop - "Book Arts gone Wild" with Mark Wangberg. (He has a book in 500 Handmade Books.)

I wrote about my trip to the emergency room in Florida, cried when I read aloud, and created a scroll to contain the story. I am very happy with my book and was totally blown away with some of the other work. We made paste papers to use in the construction of our books. Mark showed us several strategies for book binding. I'll post photos of my scroll in a couple days. Today I have to catch up...

I'll post the photos and comment mininally.
DAILY HAIKU 2009

July 4
celebrate the sight
of purple and pink along

clouds' edges at dawn

July 3,
thick, heavy grasses with seeds

off-key notes of the distant wood thrush

cloudy skies clearing

July 2

Leaves glisten above

black marker of stone.Black
lush mosses grow green.

July 1, 2009 Roadside grasses each year catch my eye, and usually I pick some to bring home, again are there to be captured somehow.

seed heavy grasses

arrange details in garden

gently bubbling brook

The 30th was a day to dig in the garden and clean out stuff that didn't belong where it was. the messy collage shows the work effort and how I felt after.

The 29th is a miniature of a drawing I created inspired by Pierre Bonnard. Garden #1 shows through the little window.

June 28th the grasses along the road are represented in the curve of the writing and the diagonal pencil lines. The word "rain" was erased from the pencil area.

delicate grass stems

bow deeply, weighted by days

of rains, slow and fast

On June 27, several of my colleagues and I did a garden tour through Exeter and Stratham.