It has been a quiet week, but a busy one! We had new windows installed yesterday, and while I wasn’t the one doing the work, I lingered around to see the progress and take pictures. I can’t wait to show you the results. The back side of the house is looking amazing!
And, thank you so much to everyone who has asked how I’m doing. I’m doing well. My arms are still red and splotchy in places, and a little itchy, but the allergic reaction is so much better. I have bought gardening sleeves to wear when I’m back working in the garden, hoping to avoid whatever caused the problem in the future. I’m also finding a new rhythm without Sebastian shadowing me all day. Some days I’m fine, and then other days I cry when I get out a block of cheese! I just roll with it, knowing it will continue to get easier with time.
So, here are my four things for this week – Grab a hunk of lighting, the eye of the storm, words from the 6th century, and this and that.
what I’m reading
I’ve bounced around between several books over the past few days, including a couple on the “Ashcan School” of artists, The Dust Bowl, and gardening. A book among the bunch that I’ll recommend is Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning. (What a great subtitle!) If you’re not familiar with Lange, she is known primarily for her photography of the tragic human impact of the Dust Bowl. Her photos are not only works of art, but she also has a knack for capturing an entire story in just one still image. Almost 100 years after her photos of people who had to leave their homes in order to survive, you can feel the desperation from their faces, their posture.
It’s amazing what she did with an old film camera that can’t even touch the kind of cameras we have today.
what I’m watching
Jeff has been fascinated with extreme weather events as long as I’ve known him. He’s the kind of person who stands in the front yard to watch the thunderstorms roll in. Until recently, weather documentaries haven’t been too exciting to watch. They are usually filled with poor-quality videos and reenactments. But now that we have cameras everywhere, stories of extreme weather events and natural disasters can be told with stunning and intense visuals. Eye of the Storm, available on MAX/Discovery, stitches together footage and eyewitness accounts to tell the story of various events, including tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, and blizzards. I will warn you that this show is intense. It highlights heroes and miraculous survival stories, but it also shows how terrifying some of the events were for the people who experienced them.
It is a very well-made show and worth watching.
what I’m loving
“Be a bright flame before me, oh God, a guiding star above me.
Be a smooth path before me, a kindly shepherd behind me, tonight and forever.
Alone with none but you, my God, I journey on my way;
What need I fear when you are near, oh Lord of night and day?
More secure am I in your hand than if a multitude did round me stand.”
Columba of Iona, 6th-century abbot.
what I’m working on
I’ve continued to be gentle with myself, getting back to work but not charging ahead at full speed. I’ve worked on finishing a large commissioned painting project, started some small paintings for my next original art sale, shot some video for a client project, and worked on photos for my book. It was too hot to work in the garden, so I just did a few small chores like watering and pulling weeds. Cooler weather is on the way, though, so I plan to get outside and take advantage of it.
13 Responses
You might enjoy the book Roar of the Heavens. About hurricane camille, but also interesting because it was at the beginning of modern day weather forecasting.
Oh yeah, that does sound interesting! I’ve read Isaac’s Storm, which is great, but it’s a little tedious at times!
I live on the Gulf Coast, and last year we had a Derecho and a hurricane, without electricity for one week, then 10 days. I hate hurricanes. They are so destructive. We have homes that are still being worked on. Praying for no destruction this year.
I’m glad your arms are better. I have gardening sleeves, and WHEN i use them the are great! Most times when I garden I don’t plan, I just garden, and then I look like am skinned alive.
Our love and sympathies again on Sebastian.
Glad you are feeling better, there will always be something that brings back a Sebastian memory. I think you experienced poison ivy on your arms. Red rash, blisters, painful, oozing; if those are symptoms you had then it sounds like the poison ivy. I’ve had poison oak, same symptoms. Dorothea Lange’s photos of the dust bowl migrants in CA just tug at your heart, what a struggling time for them. She was married to Maynard Dixon, an artist in San Francisco but wanted to paint the west/South west and moved to AZ. He became famous for his landscapes of the west. They were pulled in different directions artistically and ended in divorce but both had a lasting impact on the world. Can’t wait to see what 5 items you bought.
I’m glad to hear you are taking things slowly and being gentle with yourself. The time will (eventually) come when the most random things will bring bittersweet memories, heavy on the sweet. Even going at a slower pace, the description of your days feels like warp-speed to me!! If it helps at all, a picture you took of Esme sitting on your desk is my screen saver. She is so queen-like in how she looks at me!
Seeing the link on the side panel to your blog post about the Karcher attachment for your pressure washer reminded me…after seeing your post about how well it worked for your sidewalk, we bought one. I used it on our composite deck and the deck now looks brand new! It was so stained from leaves, mud brought up by the dogs and whatever falls from trees and sky but the Karcher attachment for our gas power washer worked beautifully. I’m a 71 year old woman and didn’t have any trouble at all using it. It worked so much better than the wand alone — much easier to handle and cleaned the deck much faster. Plus, my legs didn’t get covered in dirt as they do when I use the wand alone.
My husband kept saying “look at the deck from this window…or the upstairs window!” Thanks for your recommendation.
that first photo is such a parallel to recent news from Gaza. so much desperation.
Did I miss the post with the five things that you chose?
❤️
Thanks for sharing
Years ago, I had a beautiful, extensive herb garden. One of the plants I added was rue … I loved the shape of the leaves, etc. It was gorgeous! After working to trim all the herbs on one hot summer day, the next day, my arms were covered in what looked like second degree burns. They felt awful, and the doctor immediately said poison ivy, but the blotches never quite looked like poison ivy. Later I found that rue puts out an oil that once on the skin, reacts with sun to create severe burns. Ouch! That was the end of my rue plants. (Therefore the saving: “You’ll rue the day,” I guess!)
Love the cat painting!!!