~Thoughts for the day!~

Good morning. Coffee? Will be at the ready, having last night’s tea cold. LOL! I am smiling because its been marvelous week! Yesterday I spent several hours with my son Stephen. He talked and talked and talked about his maple syrup business. He was making maple candies in different molds, buckets, the maple leaf and stars. There is all this equipment he uses. A huge machine makes maple cotton candy! I had gone up a several weeks ago and watched him boil the syrup and another where he cleaned that.

I love being back in Maine so as to see Stephen. He works all the time, so a busy feller.

I called an older friend, and we got together and enjoyed ourselves so much we got to gather a second time that same day. This because of my making the effort to reach out. I was happy as a clam back along. Thomas and I were totally happy with ourselves. But as you get older____. And without Thomas____. The realization we do need people in our lives. If it’s not family, then we must do it for ourselves as best we can. I write letters and that helps. Started with simple hello notes, and then I was delighted when people wrote back. We humans are social. Doing things with other people is a very good thing at this point. When I come back home? Home feels great! I have not just worked all day. The following image is Stephen making the maple candy.

~In the studio.~

Working on the angel triptych. Black micron pens. It has been fun to pull older works and then finish them. Cleaning them before hand with a kneaded eraser. It can be surprising how much dirt and smudges you lift. The paper is definitely brighter. At this point they are almost there. Ready for Glassine to protect them.

Brought in two small boxes from my car finding more paintings and actually I found my missing silverware container. LOL, it’s a tray with three boxes that separate out the knives, forks, and spoons. When I put the frames in these helped to hold the frames in place. I had one and did not recall where the others were. I think I see a recipe box too. Later I will pull things out of the boxes and know what I have in there along with paintings.

I also brought in my newsprint paper. Now! It will be drawing thumbnails for the collaboration project! The conte and charcoal and charcoal pencils will come out. It has been some time since I have used these.

I need to hang more of the framed work too. The plan is not to hang in the studio so that only new things can be framed and hung in there.

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~Poetry~

Future Plans

When I am old, old woman I may very well be

living all alone like many another before me

and I rather look forward to the day when I shall have

a tumbledown house on a hilltop and behave

just as I wish to. No more need to be proud____

at the tag end of life one is at last allowed

to be answerable to no one. Then I shall wear

a shapeless felt hat clapped over my white hair,

sneakers with holes in the toes, and a ragged dress.

My house shall be always in a deep-drifted mess,

my overgrown garden a jungle. I shall keep a crew

of cats and dogs, with perhaps pa goat or two

for my agate-eyed familiars. And what delight

I shall take in the vagaries of day and night,

in the wind in the branches, in the rain on the roof!

I shall toss like an old leaf, weather mad, without reproof.

I will wake when I please, and when I please doze;

whatever I think, I shall say; and I suppose

that with such habit of speech I’ll be let well alone

to mumble plain truth like a dog and bare bone.

From “Where the deer were” by Kate Barnes.

May love and laughter find you! I send the very best! Pejj Nunes