One Fine Day
acrylic on panel
10" x 10"
Two months have passed since my last post! This constitutes a record in my four years of keeping this blog. But the hiatus has been semi-intentional, as I allowed myself an "art and blogging sabbatical" of an unspecified duration. Aside from changing the palette of my doodle painting shortly after my last post, and doing a little block printing, I haven't produced any art whatsoever since the beginning of June. Outside of my nearly full-time job, I have been concentrating on the ongoing process of getting rid of things around the house and have also painted two rooms. Beyond that, I've been enjoying time with visiting family members, and have spent time watering and harvesting the vegetable garden and turning the compost (my current favorite garden task.)
The middle three photos were taken on a recent walk, and the last photo is of one of the clover patches that have gone rampant in our lawns. This situation, too, is semi-intentional and is a decided departure from the well-watered, well-groomed lawns that one typically finds at our house. After all, my husband is a landscape architect and he greatly appreciates a well-maintained design. But here's the rub: lawns in the Pacific Northwest require extensive watering to remain green during the summer; but clover thrives in drought conditions and furthermore, binds nitrogen to the soil, which serves to fertilize both the clover and the turf grasses. Equally important, if not more so, the clover attracts honeybees. And goodness knows, we all need to do everything possible to support the honeybees, our lifeline to a vast array of our foods. Oh, and by the way, bunnies like clover, too. :) After having all but given up hope of seeing the presumably lone bunny that visited our yard for a few weeks this past spring, it made an appearance a couple of days ago and enjoyed its breakfast of clover! Sure, the look of the clover takes a little getting used to, and we do have the neighbors to consider, but all in all, it seems like the time is right to return to lawns reminiscent of those we remember prior to the advent of widely available broadleaf herbicides.
Cheers!
