Rethinking and Reinventing ... a Life.

NANOWRIMO is eating my soul. Chores are eating my soul. If you read this post you will be able to see someone adding words to their NaNoWriMo storyline and how dirty it all is. I am not stopping for anything. Even paragraphs, so good luck on following my thoughts. I told the Mister this morning - or suggested to him - that we stop doing everything. I don't want to wash clothes any more or change the bed or answer the telephone or go to work or ... just don't want to do anything.
(Oops! A paragraph.) I feel tired out and used up and washed out. I can't take on one more project in November and yet I have signed up for NaNoWriMo and it's not getting done. I did it in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and I'm wondering if I really need 50,000 more words of something I don't do anything with. Don't worry. I am not truly depressed, but just tired of fulfilling chores that require me to be somewhere else and not working with my hands at doing something beautiful (to me anyway). Something beautiful would involve paint and scissors and glue and glitter and more images clipped from here and there. Will the police come to the door if I don't finish 50,000 words? No, of course not. So I may opt out this year and just give myself a break. I think it would be a big, big relief. I have been getting my e-mail pep talks "You can do it!" type of thing. "I've been there, and we find out we can do more than we think we can." Etc, etc.
I know that and I think I'm doing that every single day anyway. I am learning Dreamweaver and on Friday I updated our company Web site, so there is no lack of learning new stuff. There is also the new copy machine at work that involves printing, stapling, folding, bypass trays, Tray 1, Tray 2, Tray 3 and thick 2 paper, thick 3 - Yikes! Learning, learning, learning, and everything takes three times longer.
Well, I have blathered on long enough. If you have made it this far, you will know I'm feeling frustrated and tired and overworked. I no longer wish to peer into the computer screen for more than 8 hours. I want a break. I want to work with my hands on actual physical objects. So this November I declare myself free, free, free to do what I want (within limits, of course) - femminismo
p.s. Needless to say, I still require more practice with Photoshop!
p.p.s. YES, it did feel GOOD to draw my dream about stabbing the copier!

It's a NaNoWriMo Day!

I WROTE 1,678 word at lunch to add to my total at the left under NaNoWriMo.
Yes, indeed, I am so proud of myself.
There will be more to this post later. Right now I am due back from lunch at work.
Adios until this evening.
Jeanne

WELL, I didn't get back to post anything momentous. However, on Monday, a super windy day in Oregon, I got outside in the midst of all of it and took a picture of "my tree." (I'm watching over it, documenting it this winter and spring.) You can see the wind bending the very top.
AND, NaNoWriMo, Candace said, is an especially cruel mistress this year - femminismo

Rewarding Evening ...

VALLEY ART was ablaze with talented artists' work and talented volunteers on Friday the Thirteenth when "Expect the Unexpected" was staged in the gallery - the 43rd annual artist event.
I fell deeply and unexpectedly in love with a watercolor by Jan Su Hirst, titled "Adonis." And in love with many more things too - some of which I will actually have to give away as Christmas gifts.
The annual artist event is always blessed with food "treasures" from the members of the gallery's association, and this makes it a very special night. Here is my choice of just some of the delights from the hors d'oeuvre table. (The plate would only hold so much in one trip.)
On Saturday I volunteered at the Forest Grove Book Sale and my goodness! The rooms were very busy with folks searching for good deals on good reads. And Saturday was the last day of the sale. Those who helped clean up - and they were all ages, as you can see in the last photo - got a good deal on a FREE bag of books. (Yes, I helped clean up. Very worth it!)
I even did some gift shopping. It was my brother's birthday last week and I got him an absolutely first rate "gag gift" book. I'm sure with more searching I might have found something even better, but waiting until the last minute isn't very reliable.
Now I must quit blogging and get to writing on NaNoWriMo. I know I'm missing a lot of great football - I can hear it from the other room - but I still can't be two people at once - femminismo

Happy Birthday Little Bobbie!

It's Bobbie's birthday. Visit his insect blog today. Force your home schooled children to read his stories. They will laugh themselves silly. These are stories about the insects Bobby tormented throughout his youth.
Well, perhaps "tormented" is really too strong a word for a boy/man with a heart made from marshmallow fluff - femminismo (proud sister)

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog!

I'M WITH DOROTHY. There's no place like home ... even if it takes a while to get used to it again.
It is good to travel and be exposed to other viewpoints and actually experience from high above how great and wide our part of the world is. Flying over Lake Erie - seeing just a bit above its surface the cloud formations that looked like some kind of fancifully concocted foamy dessert topping- was awesome. You wonder how many of the Native People, who once lived on Lake Erie's shores, believed it had no end. To them it would have seemed as wide as the ocean to us.
The plane was so full on the way from Salt Lake City (first stop) to Detroit that we were encouraged to check carry-on baggage at the flight deck. (Or they were going to start taking it away from us!) So I gave up one bag not remembering that Scar, my body guard for the trip, was in that bag. With the chocolate!!
I quickly found my bag in Detroit at the luggage carousel and guess whose little head was sticking up? Yes, Scar. Sent with me by the Mister and mistreated by me in the worst way. Scar had gotten hungry along the way and got into the chocolate. What a tummy ache he had. Fortunately there was a doctor in our group who administered an enema (oh, poor Scar!) and he was soon feeling better. Scar, not the doctor.
The Model Student Assistance Program coordinators' meeting I attended got me all fired up to go back to work and sign up new Oregon teachers to attend the Model Student seminars to get the help they need to improve children's lives. The next three-day seminar for teachers in Oregon is in March 2010. If you know an Oregon teacher, have them contact me. They will learn to set up a core team within their school to learn to identify and help at-risk students. (Many schools already have their own programs, and this one doesn't take the place, but gives additional support.)
Meanwhile, when all the meeting attendees went out to dinner, I got another unbirthday celebration thanks to Earl W. He takes delight in "gifting" me with more and more birthdays. And it's OK with me as long as another year older isn't included in the deal. I got a delightful slice of tiramisu.
I had asked Mark Bernardin, a coordinator from Ohio, if he would do a magic trick for me. He has been doing magic since a visit to Disneyland when he was around 11 years old. He told me he had a card in his wallet and asked me to guess what it was. I was thinking the Ace of Spades. Then he said "Don't think of something easy. People are always guessing the Ace of Spades of the King of Diamonds."
I gasped, "I was thinking of the Ace of Spades!"
"Well, think of something harder he said."
So I thought about it and said, "OK, the seven of spades."
He wiggled the card from his wallet after I said this. It came out the six of spades. I was a little disappointed. I really wanted him to guess right.
He looked at me and said something like "Sometimes I come up a little short and I'm off a little." Then he flipped the card over and written on the back in black marking pen was what is in the picture: Off by one.
Well, it was a good productive time in Michigan, but I'm glad to be home. When I found Scar trying to use my BlackBerry to call home I knew he was missing Oregon too. Even though he had me and the queen size bed all to himself - femminismo

Great Day Today - Inspirational

THE conference I'm attending in Detroit, Mich., is for coordinators of the Model Student Assistance Program (I'm the coordinator in Oregon), offered free of charge to teachers, for identifying and helping children at-risk. The Masons of Oregon pay for the whole program - which includes professional seminar leaders - and teachers' lodging, meals and supplies.
Listening to the great work going on in the different states across America from other state coordinators, I have become inspired by the goals of these people to help teachers and, first and foremost, children.
But now I must get some sleep. It's 11 p.m. Eastern time, but back in Oregon it's much earlier. My little pea brain doesn't know what is going on. Talk to you soon and don't let me forget to tell you about Mark's magic trick - femminismo

Landed in Detroit at 3:47 p.m.

Here I am safe and sound in Detroit, Mich. Yippee. I am entering this post to justify lugging this heavy old laptop around two airports. Aren't you happy?
The clouds over Detroit were the most beautiful I've ever seen, even if they did have "turbulance" written all over them. Giant Johnson & Johnson cotton puffs made to cushion the angels' falls. I took a picture, but have no way to put them on this computer. This Life magazine archive photo will have to do. (It was taken in Florida in 1946, I think.)
Maybe when I get back I will trade in this computer for a lighter version with a card slot.
Love to you all! I have met wonderful people so far - femminismo

A Piece of the Moon.

ANOTHER gorgeous day here in Oregon. Well, our part anyway. A little cool this morning, but lots of sunshine in the afternoon.
Geese are flying -VvV- all over the place, back and forth in no particular direction. I guess they are feeding somewhere - Vvv - waiting for temperatures to drop a bit more and then they'll take off for southern climes. (This is absolutely a guess. They are much too high up to converse with and I haven't been flying in some time now. The V's are my geese!)
When I go to Michigan, I am hoping there is a duty-free shop at the airport in Detroit. I enjoy looking through them. Sometimes even treating myself to something I don't need. I believe on the return trip I will be stopping in Texas. I'm sure that's the quickest way to fly from Michigan to Oregon.
Today at work I printed stationery - colored letterhead - and actually got our new printer to cooperate with me and print No. 10 envelopes with the return address in color. It's these small triumphs that make life so worth living.
My pal, Dawn Sellers, was asking about the next library book sale. It begins in Forest Grove on Monday, Nov. 9, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. This is open to members only. They get first choice. You can become a member at the door, Dawn. (Incidentally, I haven't heard from you lately on Twitter. I know, I know ... I should talk!) The sale goes on Tues and Wed, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. (yes, Veterans Day it's open; come in the side door off the parking lot) and Thurs-Fri, 10-5; Saturday, 10-3, bring a bag, fill it for $5. Wow! I just checked out Dawn's blog and her "Days of Poe." She has two really cute necklaces ("Nevermore") and other great stuff. What a fabulous exchange!
Hope you enjoy the two views of tonight's moon. One is the real photo and the other one I couldn't resist "solarizing." I always open that photo editor and vow not to do more than crop ... but then I get carried away - femminismo

Beautiful Day, Busy Day!

I GOT a lot done today, with a head start before I had breakfast by beginning a load of clothes and doing the dishes. The back yard was beautiful in the sunshine, with the golden leaves from the neighbor's tree glowing in the back right-hand corner.
My friend Barb is coming tomorrow (from Michigan) and is going to stay with us for a few days before I leave (for Michigan) on Thursday (without her) - yes, you read this correctly - so I am getting "the guest room" ready.
In preparing for the trip, I am packing a quart size Ziplock bag with teeny, tiny bottles of fluids and am limiting myself to one small carry-on bag so I will be able to take my laptop. I will find time, I'm sure (hahahahahahaha!), to rack up more of a word count for NaNoWrimo, even though I'll be attending a work conference. I hope I get to the electric outlets before anyone else at the airports!
After a little house cleaning today I picked up my brother and we went to the local library book sale. He brought two big bags - one for each of us to fill. Look who I found for sale! Not a book, but a very special little person. He had his own balloon, but I didn't buy him. He told me he was meant for a little girl with blond hair and wanted to wait for her. No problem. I know men and their blondes.
We waded through lots of books. I found a delicious Maira Kalman book. I'd already bought several from Amazon and was happy to find one I didn't have - for a mere $1.50, sans postage. I saw my friend Sylvia at the sale and we went upstairs to look at foreign language books because she'd seen some Indian religious tracts, we think, with some comic book-style drawings. I found a great dictionary - English descriptions with the foreign word after - and Sylvia found a great Hebrew "dictionary" with the word and drawings. I think we'll use these for collage and trade some pages. One of the book sale volunteers let us in the "secret" storage room (not really so secret) and there were boxes and boxes of books bound for the sale where I will volunteer. There were lots and it made my fingers itch, wondering what treasure was inside them.
I saw a wonderful book at the sale with a big price tag. I denied myself the book, hoping it would remain unsold and make it to our book sale. (That's where the unsold books go.) But at the last minute I sneaked back (right beside Sylvia; I don't even think she saw me!) and I grabbed it and bought it. After all, it was for a good cause: the library! The cover says "Great Ideas." It's a huge hardbound book, a sort of self-promotion piece by the Container Corporation of America. They must have underwritten all of these artworks and along with them are great quotations.
Here's some examples. Well, I guess you can see why I didn't want to take any chances on losing such a find as this. I've regretted some purchases, but regretted more the things I didn't get when I wanted them.
After the library it was shopping for a pair of tennis shoes while my brother perused Barnes & Noble. Then we went to have lunch at the Golden Arches. I indulged in a small chocolate shake. Good while cold. I took my brother home and then went grocery shopping. (yuck!) Sunshine when I went in, dark when I came out. Waaa! It seems on one of the most beautiful days yet of November I was inside all darn day. But it's only the first day! That's right!
Oh, before I forget I have painted journal pages (with no journaling yet), and I've discovered what Kelly Kilmer said is true: Don't think about it too much. I just started sticking some things down and like them. Also, this morning, when I peeked inside the journal, I found the shoes I had cut out were turned over and I liked the back side more than the real looking shoes.
And the face with the huge eye got all mixed up and twisted together with a cutout hand, since nothing was glued down yet, and I really like that too!
Have a great Monday tomorrow - femminismo

Full Moon, Clear Night. WHoooooooo!

HALLOWEEN, the time when the veil between this world and the next is thinnest. Or so they say.
Happy Samhain! Celebrate the harvest time along with the full moon and clear skies here in Oregon. Happy Halloween! A fairy princess showed up at my door, along with other demons and haunts under four feet high. But there are still some miniature Snickers for us grownups!
I was painting paper in my little journal book while my brother answered the door and handed out treats. There were plenty of small ones still out on the streets when I drove him home at 7:30 p.m. Not too many trick-or-treaters this year again.
In looking online for Halloween pictures I found this funny one of a party thrown by radio star Doris Dudley. That is her house in the orange picture above. What characters, huh? (I love the Life magazine images that Google hosts. There are so many good ones, and so long as you're not using them for profit, you're allowed to use them.
Tonight at midnight NaNoWriMo begins. I am signed up to begin. My brother and I are going to a library used book sale tomorrow and I hope to get some writing done at the same time. I'm hoping other Nanos will be there. I am writing for donations this year. I have pledged to raise $250, and just like in a marathon I will "run" so many words out of my fingers if you'll support me. Contact me to find out how.
Hope your holiday evening was not too spooky and that you didn't hand out all your candy, but still have a bit left for yourself - femminismo

The Great Internet Celebration

TODAY, 40 years ago, the Internet began - and then crashed. How many times did you encounter problems on your machine today? Me? Only this one time (left). For the most part things went swimmingly. (And this really isn't the Internet. Only Windows.)
And remember my "Woe is me" whine yesterday about all the pretty leaves being swept up? Well today I had to walk down a soggy sidewalk covered with slimy leaves. They must have all fallen at the same time and gotten a lot of rain and traffic. I think the city must be responsible for them - and I hope they get to them soon before someone falls.
I bought a balance ball today; a yoga exercise ball. I am going to use it to sit on at the computer. I cannot deal with chairs any more. They turn my knees inward and cause me aches and pains. The ball is supposed to keep your back straight and strengthen your core muscles. I'll let you know how it works once I've got it properly inflated. I was using a foot pump and it will take half again as much air to get it to the proper size.
Tonight the sun was setting in the west, although you could not see it for all the fog and mist. It was still light enough outside so you knew the sun was setting because the air was pinkish orange. I couldn't get a photo of the sky's color, but I did take this one in the near dark of the back yard. A snowball tree's red leaves are glowing. (I think I spotted a witch's body in the tree above the red snowball leaves!!)
Then I noticed the way the clematis is reaching up for the twisty copper tubing the Mister added - exactly for this purpose: So the plant could climb higher. ArtSparker has a cool Halloween pattern for anyone who would like to make black bats - femminismo
p.s. Click on her name and follow her guide.

The Leaves Are Gone Too Soon.

TODAY, at work, the groundsmen - maybe groundswomen, too - were rounding up leaves by blowing them into huge piles. The leaves flew into the air as if they were trying to get away. Whirlwinds of yellow and red were everywhere.
I feel so sad to see people remove the leaves. Why not just let them stay? *For me.* Not for the elderly people who will have to walk through them and undoubtedly slip and slide. Not for the people who like things neat. Along the street, too, where yesterday it looked as if a good two inches of fluffy golden snow was under the poplar trees, today there was a tidy row of raked leaves ready for tall buckets. Containers to take them away. (sigh)
Today I had a stability test at the doctor's office. It's to see how good my balance is. (I would never get tested for mental stability. Robin Williams said, "You're only given a little spark of madness. You musn't lose it.") I stood on a platform hooked to a computer and it showed me as a small X on the screen. First I stood on a firm platform and then a soft one. I thought I wobbled all over on the soft one, but the assistant said I did good.
Then I put on goggles and followed a dot on the computer screen with my eyes. Next, the light from the goggles was blocked, everything was dark, and the assistant tilted my head back and forth and forth and back and sideways. Wowee! I won't know anything about the computer test for two weeks, but right now it looks as though my balance is better than I would have thought. Me, who walks into walls and falls over sometimes when all I'm doing is standing still. (I don't fall all the way over. I always catch myself.)
At work I will be using Adobe Dreamweaver. The software was installed yesterday. I haven't updated Web sites before so this is a new skill I think I'm looking forward to learning. I think! I also think it's funny that I've been keeping track of my real dreams each day - rustically scribbling them down on my desk calendar each morning in pencil - and now I'll be using the most sophisticated software with the name "Dreamweaver." If I didn't already have two blogs I never touch, I'd start another one.
This last photo is one I want to share. I found this fortune in my mother's old leatherette handbag. I keep the purse by my side of the bed. I don't know how it got there. There's a rule in our house though. Once something gets somewhere, it generally stays there for a while. (I wish I knew where my nail polish went to live!) I like to think that my mother had many happy adventures. She could make one up out of almost anything. Making bread, taking a walk with us kids, holding a baby on her lap, having lunch with friends. Oh, Mama, you are still loved so much!
If anyone wants to try those numbers in the lottery go right ahead. Let me know if you win - femminismo

Play's The Thing!

HERE'S a blurry photo from the play, "It's A Lovely Day," we say Saturday night. Some of the props were quite ingenious. I especially liked the windows at the very end that the characters were carrying and "behind." Perhaps representing eyes, since eyes are the window to the soul.
A new way to see? Something along these lines. The play was billed as a "revolutionary farce" and it was infinitely farcical.
I hope your weekend held something fun, and you laughed - a lot. femminismo
p.s. The "person" kneeling down beside the actor front and center was dressed as a sock monkey. I know what she will be for Halloween!

Tea Party With Candace

LO, across these many American miles, I travel to be with my Athens, Ga., correspondent, Candace.
Here's mud in yer eye, Candace, my pal. Tea for two and such as that.
Glad to participate. My black Stetson hat has a copper-colored ribbon, an oak leaf with an oak ball growing on it (well, not anymore, but it's stuck there into eternity) and a black tanager feather with an orange stripe. (I'm guessing it was a tanager. I'm not a birder, as such.)
The orange glow can only mean Halloween spirits are calling, like the woman in my dream last night that had me rising from my pillow in answer to her calling my name. She wanted me to wake up and, I think, go with her. When I realized I was still in bed and her skirts turned into being my curtains, my head fell back to the pillow and I slept through the rest of the night.
Fascinating dream, but she didn't say anything witty or memorable. She did call my name though - femminismo (not that name - my *real* name)
p.s. I'm going to a play tonight! Exciting, isn't it?

Sticky Fingers . . . Gooey Paper

PAINTED journaling once again. I think I told you about the Kelly Kilmer class I took and the little book I made there. Well, I have nearly all the pages painted and am ready to paste in my images and papers and then add some words.
I have been keeping track of my dreams - and not that this phrase is overused in letters and journaling, but - yes, I've titled the first page "DREAMS." (thanks, Neko!)
I've even started going through a bag of journaling "trash" with odds and ends of everything I've liked the look of and couldn't throw away. I have taken just two or three items and torn them up and glued them down. (Will the journaling ever get done??)
I know I've had plenty of great dreams. One was so realistic I still get dizzy thinking of it. I was balanced far above the earth - high enough so the houses were about the size of match boxes - and I'm standing on a hollow metal tube next to someone else with better balance. (I'm hoping, anyway.)
I am doing pretty good but all of a sudden it hits me that I'm losing my balance. (Of course, as in dreams, I am looking at myself doing all of this.) I reach out my hand to the person sort of next to me - oh oh! getting dizzy visualizing this - and say, "Would you mind?"
I don't know what she says - I think it was a she; I know it was - because the dream ends! And the dream was in color.
Another dream I had I looked at myself in a mirror. This was a first for me; seeing myself in a dream.
Don't you love these "Kelly Kilmer Colors"? You mix highly pigmented acrylics with matte medium, paint and dry (hair dryer) and rub the pages in-between each color. The green page stuck and some paper ripped off, but then the coat of yellow went right onto the "new" paper.
While I was waiting for the DREAMS letters' glue to dry I started painting over the pages in a book on recycling. I can't get over the paradox - or genius - of finding this book right when I wanted something else to paint. (That's the book with the waxed paper between the pages. One side is blank for a while, which will be perfect for writing in ... someday.
Some of these pages might look familiar to you. I am tearing apart magazines. Yay! Then I can finally recycle them *really* and finally. And yes, you too can have a self! Just install it from this handy kit. (I've already used what was in the box.) What would one look like do you think? Would it have exotic ingredients you mix and drink?
So dreams ... what are some of the other ones I've had? I've written them down and would really like to have had some cool ones - like bears talking to me and telling me very intelligent, witty, meaningful thoughts, but I don't have dreams like that. Maybe I will tonight - femminismo
p.s. The last photo was taken on self-portrait Wednesday, but I didn't think you'd want to see me close up. Too many wrinkles! That's me up there, fourth bird up from the leader. (click on pics)

Time For Some Wicked Brew . . .

DEARY, stop by for just a moment, take off your hat (pointed or not) and enjoy a sip of wicked autumnal brew.
The pumpkins have produced a marvelous pie for our enjoyment - and a very special blend of pumpkin-cinnamon twist ice cream for another type of "topper."
Rich, red fizzy blood brew or a cool glass of elven beer. You can have your choice.
It will warm you up in no time and the ice cream will cool you off.
The "nasty-ershams" don't smell nearly as pretty as roses, but for Halloween beggars can't be choosers, and they look so colorful in the little green bowl.
It's a lovely day today here with warm breezes mixing leaves and sunshine together. Swirling down from the trees are golden and red hues. Ever wonder why autumn (fall) was never called "Tumble"? Spring, summer, tumble, winter - femminismo

I Love Autumn!

FALL is too dull a word for what's surrounding us today.
Red, orange, yellow - piles of leaves on the sidewalks and pine and fir trees shedding their needles. I would scoop them all up and take them home IF I had room and IF they would stay lovely.
Here is a bouquet I made today and you can see the pine needles on the table in front of the container. (Yes, Photoshopped.)
I took a walk and had on good shoes for sloshing my feet through nice dry leaves. On rose bushes there were rose hips of all kinds. Bright, fat, orange ones, soft red ones and some still green and just turning red like an apple.
The tree I am watching hasn't put on any color yet. I'm in no hurry.
On my walk I found a beautiful smoke bush (much taller than me; doesn't take much!) and the leaves aren't nearly as red as our neighbor's smaller potted tree. I think maybe the taller one hasn't gotten as cold and will turn color a little more slowly. Can't wait to see it happen.
I am still reading Michael Chabon's book and want to watch "Ship of Fools." It came in the mail yesterday. I haven't seen it in forever. Fanciful Twist's Halloween worldwide blog party is happening this Saturday. Candace is going to "spook" things up on her blog. I will try, but I cannot promise too much. Maybe pumpkin pie. Stop by for some - femminismo

Rain Today ... No Bright Roses.

THE RAIN has begun. It's October in Oregon and that's generally when it starts.
The sounds on the skylight in the morning and the patter after dark. Warm cooked dinner in the oven tonight. Hot roasted potatoes and carrots. A fire in the fireplace.
Watched television guiltlessly. What a sea change. (Isn't that what they say?)
Then received news of a death in the family that was expected, yet unexpected.
Now thinking of this day and how it will remind me in the future of a loss of someone I knew who liked chocolate and beer together. Someone who told a joke I wish I'd never repeated to the Mister. (I hear it too often.) Someone who could fix just about anything and machine parts from metal if a replacement couldn't be found. A storyteller. Someone who could share the same memories and tell you things about the woods you didn't know.
Goodbye, Dick.

Michael Chabon

I AM reading tonight. Not drawing, not working, not blogging ... well, just a little. I am trying to be much nicer to myself - doing yoga, sitting with a cup of hot tea (and drinking it too! I'm not a tea babysitter!) and now, tonight, reading.
A deadline was met today. There will be another soon. Seems like a good time to rest.
Hope you are taking care of all yourselves too - femminismo

The Tree I've Chosen to Watch.

I HAVE chosen a tree to watch through the seasons. Beginning with fall - although I'm sure some have already posted theirs. I don't know whose site I first saw this on, but I have found mine to watch.
It's a favorite maple tree along a roadway and in the later fall it is the most gorgeous colors. I want to save all the leaves and press them in a book. I think I will make a hanging display of some of the leaves for my office window, or iron them between sheets of waxed paper like the kids used to do in kindergarten. Do they still do that?
Near this maple tree I went walking through a rose garden and found some delights.
The large building nearby and all the grounds used to be an old folks home - the Masonic & Eastern Star Home in Forest Grove. It's now rented to a company that uses the various rooms for a bed and breakfast, a restaurant and movie theater.
The roses were mostly put in by these new renters. There is also a Frisbee golf course on the property, so I had to be careful while I was out taking pictures. No one was shouting "Fore!"
These photos look like they might be big enough to make you feel as if you could smell the flowers.
It has been a weekend of working around the house and getting a little work done with dust bunnies. No art - again! This is a sad state of affairs, and it must change.
Creative Circle is this next Saturday, so I know I will be making something then. I should get out my knitting. It's getting cooler here and while I picked beans today - the few that are left - the wind chilled my hands. I did find some edible sugar snap peas, however, blooming and maturing. We had four of them for dinner tonight.
I hope you all have a creative week planned - femminismo