art – The Hermits' Rest

Errands Did Me In

Just a quick hello from my fancy new phone to say I’m about to crash. I had many errands to do today, since I am not allowed to work this week. All but grocery shopping occurred but everything took longer than expected thanks to a nice rainy day.

I could fit in my birding station to watch the rain until it got windy.

First I indulged myself and went to Michael’s, the craft store. I try to go as seldom as possible but I needed a few things, like spray sealant for my silly painted rocks, more paint, and embroidery scissors, because I lost my RV pair. I had a good time looking at odd Christmas ornaments and such.

Next got my phone, which is an iPhone 17 Air. It’s very light. I still liked my other phone but it had some issues, so here I am with this golden one. This camera is a little better, too—not as good as the Pro, but I’m pleased. The new phone also came in very fast. I’d ordered it Friday evening and it arrived today. I let the young man at the store put the front cover on. I always screw that up.

Then I headed off for my mammogram. I’m a good person who occasionally does hard things. The new machines don’t hurt as much but I forgot that I have an allergic reaction to either their disinfectant or the machine, so I got an unpleasant boob rash. The technician gave me antihistamines. I was fine.

I quickly went home to set the new phone up, but it refused to comply when asked to download from the cloud. Since I got partially started, I had to spend HOURS unable to text, get calls, or check Facebook. Argh.

Sunset calmed me down, even though I was on my horse.

Nonetheless all is well. I made it to Apache’s lesson though he was filthy with mud and still damp from the rain. I just took out his burs and loaded him up. It’s good we went, since I was dying to see Tarrin’s new arena cover. It’s great, and didn’t scare Apache at all!

Ooh, the other thing I did today was iron on my bird patches I got at the Master Naturalist conference. My Scissortail on my jeans is perfect. You can see the heron on a denim shirt in the horse photo.

Whew. Not working is tiring.

(I’m glad Tarrin took pictures for me today, or I’d have very little to share!)

Book Report: The Tree Collectors

This is the book I needed right now. I needed sweet stories of people who love trees and are willing to go to great lengths to show that love. I also needed simple but beautiful watercolors of trees and the people who love them. The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession, by Amy Stewart (2024) gave me just what my fascism-weary brain needed—a beauty break.

First, the book is beautiful. Even the cover hiding underneath the dust jacket is a watercolor painting.

And the section headers are so fun that I just want to go try to make a painting like them. All the art is by Amy Stewart, including portraits of each of the people she profiles in the book (either their favorite plants) and all the other illustrations. (Oh yes, the headings are also in a fun font.)

This visual extravagance might be enough to enjoy, but the words in the book are very enjoyable and encouraging as well. It feels so good to read about people around the world who collect trees in many different ways, from embroidering holes in leaves to scientific DNA manipulation. There’s a lot in between, too.

Some of the people Stewart profiles seem so kind and dedicated that I just want to hug them. The best part is that she uses the words of the collectors themselves to explain their obsessions. I got a real kick out of the way an urban man with a checkered past described his passion for planting trees surreptitiously around neglected overpasses. His street vocabulary doesn’t diminish his love of trees and of beautifying his neighborhood.

No watercolors, but I used colored pencils to do this Autumn Buttercup from *Renaissance Botanical Coloring Book.*

The Tree Collectors would be a great gift for any tree-hugger you know. There are so many ways you could enjoy it and savor it over time. The chapters are short enough to read aloud before bed, but you’d have to show the photos. It would also be a fun book to leave in your guest bathroom for entertainment.

Regressing to Childhood?

Maybe. I was a bit too tired to do much after I finally finished a long work day, plus it was suddenly 100° outside after a break in the weather.

So I sat in my chair this evening and colored in my coloring book. It took me a few evenings to do this one, because I only do it when my hands get tired of crocheting.

Design, colored in markers and gel pens.

The design is from a book in a series a friend of mine writes, where she re-draws art to color, but also includes information on the source of the designs.

This is the book. Note the tasteful version of the image I did.

I have a couple of other books in Sugar’s series, too. She is a very fun jewelry designer and often teaches classes. I met her in the waiting room when each of our husbands was having oral surgery. Check out the series if you like adult coloring books.

I also find the bleed-through on the back fun to look at. The book contains blank pages to blot up excess ink.

I also got a coloring book by another friend’s daughter, which has lovely Art Deco and Art Nouveaux images, with lots of space. I may try different techniques on those. Once I get the motorhome opened up again, I’ll have access to my pencils and crayons.

I’m glad to have this throwback activity to ease my mind. I loved coloring when I was little. It’s one of the things that kept me quiet (along with reading, but I read too fast and often ran out of books). I often colored outside in my treehouse. I’m pretty much the exact same person I used to be, only less anxious.

Another Lee photo. He likes to crop them this way.

Time to conk out. Thanks for enjoying my activity.

Book Report: Gaian Tarot

I haven’t been buying many tarot decks in the past few years. I’ve been happy with my favorite old friends, mostly Robin Wood. But last month I was intrigued by a deck my tarot friend Cat Dancing was using. I liked the nature images on the cards and the artistry of Joanna Powell Colbert, the author of The Gaian Tarot: Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves (2nd edition, 2025).

I’d heard of Colbert before, as she’s well known in the community, and I knew she was well respected, but I never got around to getting the earlier edition of this deck and book. I’m glad I was encouraged to do so!

I always like it when the book accompanying a deck has original insights and explanations of why each card depicts its components, and Colbert doesn’t disappoint. She weaves her nature themes skillfully through the traditional Fool’s Journey, court, and pip cards, creating a deck you can easily read from but gain new insights as well. I’m not finished reading all the text for each card, but appreciate that she gives a description, a positive and negative interpretation, and helpful keywords for each card. Her perspective is wise and novel enough to make me think differently about familiar archetypes.

This archetype of transformation showed up today, a roseate skimmer

I admit that any deck with salmon of knowledge and holy wells in it makes me happy. That’s my little Cups suit bias. I realize this makes no sense to most readers. Indulge me.

So this evening I spent some time breaking in the cards, which have lovely gold edges. They are somewhat less stiff now. Then, because I’m having some difficulty dealing with some interpersonal challenges, I did a simple three-card reading.

The past was 5 of Air (swords). Here eagles are squabbling, birds and sky representing air. There is some squabbling going on around me, and it feels like some parties have their talons out. I was glad to see this in the past—maybe it will settle down soon.

The present was the 4 of Earth (pentacles) with squirrels gathering up nuts for the winter. I like Colbert’s interpretation of this card as meaning to gather resources for the future, rather than the greed and miserliness Robin Wood depicts, which I always thought was more the dark side of the card. Anyway, right now I am actually saving up for the future with this short-term job. I’m reminded not to let myself get drawn into work drama. I’m there to help out and give myself a nest egg. But I’ll remember to share!

The future card is the 10 of Water (cups). Here we have the salmon! The Gaian card depicts their lifecycle, ending with their return home to die. Here I prefer Wood’s happy family gathered together. But both are about gathering at home, a completion of a cycle, and a happy one at that. I’m not sure what this portends for my future, though I have been thinking about how I have all I need now, and that I’m happy with those close to me—nice to think it will continue after the squabbling and saving.

Wake up or the archetypal vultures of decay will get you! No snoozing at my tarot babble!

Ha. I used to blog my tarot readings all the time. It’s been so long most readers are probably shaking their heads. Maybe I’ll do a card of the day again for a while, as I get used to this deck.

Or I’ll just gaze at clouds and see what I can gather from them.

Remember, you all, I use tarot to help me see things in a different light, to reach into areas I might be inattentive to, and to keep me centered. It’s a tool. Use the tools that work for you as we navigate these unprecedented times.

Writing You from the Mountains

What do you enjoy most about writing?

Thought provoking! I enjoy all aspects of writing, but my favorite part is how it helps me refine my thoughts. Taking the time to write down my ideas gives them another chance to become well-formed and coherent expressions of how I feel or what I think.

Sometimes, though, I just like writing, the act of it. Like today I wrote a ridiculously long Facebook post about my entire day today, even though I’d intended to do something short that I’d expand on here. Oh well.

It feels like I packed an entire vacation’s worth of activities into today, but it was nearly all great fun. How so? Allow me to blather on and share photos.

I had a bit o’ trouble sleeping due to altitude headache, but it ended up fine. After coffee on the balcony I intended to just walk down the road here in Breckenridge, but ended up finding a beautiful trail along a creek. I went down it and listened for birds, until I had to get back to meet up with my local friend.

You should take it easy your first day at high altitude. That’s what they say. Instead, my friend Cathy and I went to the slightly lower altitude of Vail and spent an entire day walking and hiking. I drank a lot of water, so I was fine. We also didn’t do any big ascents on foot.

View from bathroom window that proves where we went. Nice bathroom.

First we went to a wonderful art festival with vendors from all over the country. I’m grateful I don’t have a car here, because a couple of things tempted me, such as these ceramic items that were made with a colored slip technique.

The crow on top had a berry in its mouth

Cathy got us reservations at a well-known Vail restaurant, where we had an amazing breakfast of eggs Benedict. We sat at the counter and watched the cooks, which was fascinating.

After that we took the fancy gondola all the way to the top, which was really cool. No moose were seen, but that’s ok. I enjoyed the views of mountains, trees, and flowers.

Next we hiked from the Big Bear gondola to Gondola 1. That was a beautiful trek with many wildflowers. I saw many new plants that are native to the northwestern US and Canada.

After going down, we hit the Vail Farmers Market, where I got fancy local peaches and regret not getting some bread that looked soooo good. There were many attractive dogs, in addition to great vendors. All rather upscale, duh.

And finally we headed over to Ford Park, where I had an absolute blast at the Betty Ford Alpine Garden. On the way were more plants and a beautiful hummingbird.

That Alpine garden one beautiful place, both in design and plants. It’s a great time to visit there. We got tired and took a couple of buses to get back to the car, but still enjoyed the scenery.

On the way back there was a traffic delay , but I’m always looking for animals. I was rewarded by this pretty mule deer.

In late afternoon, Cathy was kind enough to take me to Walmart (not my favorite store) to get a charger for my watch, which will let me keep my move goal streak going. She did bring her charger to me so I got charged this morning before we headed out so I could collect my 14,000 steps. Whew. I decided to just get some food at Walmart rather than go to a real grocery store. That was a mistake. It took forever to check out.

No photo of the store, so here’s a ground squirrel.

Interesting tidbit is that in fancy Frisco, CO, practically all the workers were African. And they spent a lot of time talking to each other. It appeared many did not speak English much. I wonder if there’s some program helping refugees? I hope they get better at English so they can help customers, but am glad they have a chance to work.

Wise words they could learn. Very existential.

After I got back to the condo and identified the plants and animals I saw on iNaturalist, I went to the owner lounge to see if they had drinks. Nope, the bartender had an emergency. I did meet some other guests and talked a little with them, then I talked a long time with a woman from Austin who owns horses. We both enjoyed that chance to tack about our passions. She even had on horse jewelry.

No photo of her, but here’s a young Robin.

And then I fell asleep writing this. But I woke up to add photos. My point in all this is that I do love writing!

Better Days Do Come

Sometimes when you have a long string of anxious and worried days, it’s nice to have one that builds you up. I hate it when I’m dealing with annoying physical symptoms and I’ve done all I can to get my equilibrium back, but the truth is sometimes I just have to wait it out. Today helped!

I got to enjoy what passes for fall color in College Station Today.

Penney woke me up by wigging and licking like crazy for about an hour, so I got up, looked at the damp day, and did my nails with a set I’d looked forward to using, which looked like a brocade cloth with big flowers on it. It didn’t go on really great, but it perked right up when I added some gaudy jewels I had hanging around. Now the whole thing looks over the top, but it cheers me up.

After talking to the chickens, I headed over to the place I got them, Bird and Bee Farm, where our Master Naturalist wildscape project is located. I rarely have time on their special days to get out there, so I was glad I had a while to drop by.

I’d intended to take photos of all the butterflies, but it was still too damp in late morning for them to be out. Even the bees were still napping.

My friend Debi and I looked at all the flowers and found lots of caterpillars and a cat.

All these black ones came up as salt marsh moths

It was so pleasant just wandering around and seeing what is still hanging around this time of year. The dew was so heavy that it made for fine photo ops. It’s nice to photograph non-wildflowers like roses and zinnias occasionally

I hung out with birds a bit, and heard a new wren on Merlin, a sedge wren. I wish I’d seen it because it sure looks cute in its photo online. Instead, here are turkeys.

After talking a while with other Master Naturalists, I had to leave. I hope Patsy notices I put my nails in the blog for her.

The reason I had to leave was that I had my second watercolor class at Brazos Watercolor Retreats in College Station. We learned to paint trees with sunlight pouring through them. There were lots of new techniques to learn, like making white space by putting some rubbery stuff on the paper before painting. I also learned to make the sun rays.

I didn’t do a great job on the tree part, but I know what I’d do differently if I tried again. For a first try, I’m fine with my finished product. Maybe I should get some paints, brushes, and paper. It’s fun to see how the colors come out.

I even made it home in time to feed the horses before it was too dark, which makes it a lot easier to give Apache his medicine. They have a new bale of hay, and judging from the holes in the wet ground, they had a good time running around after they escaped while the tractor was going in. Those little dickenses.

So, yay, today has been fine enough that I’m handling learning about a few deaths in my circle pretty well. I have plenty of energy to send out love to all the families and friends, which feels really good.

Hug a loved one.

Art. Love.

Who are your favorite artists?

I love art. It’s hard to say who my favorite artist is, because I like different things from different eras, in different media…all delightful to me.

So I’ll be selfish and say my mom. Her water colors looked like they were from another world. Or my stepmother, Florence. Yes, my dad married two artists.

I had a book report to write, but it’s been a long. But good day. Apache was a champ at his lesson, and Drew has a sore leg again, but we helped him. It was fun!

I’ve had such a great week or so with the horses. Mabel has turned into my biggest fan. Today I called her when she was at the far corner of the back pasture, went in the tack room for a moment, and when I returned, there she was, in her pen looking at me like she was saying, “You rang?”

Her reward? Dinner! She always turns her food dish over and eats off the ground.

And Dusty had me really worried for a while. He started to get real thin.

Here he is running toward dinner with Drew as Fiona patiently waits for them to go by. We hope he puts on weight and isn’t dealing with a condition.

He’s looking better and seems to appreciate his increased rations.

With all the turmoil in the world right now, it’s nice to have both art and animals to keep us grounded.

Book Report: Horse

After I finished my depressing but informative book on Florida history in Myrtle Beach, I had some extra time to read, but my huge pile of magazines was at home. But that’s why I brought my Kindle with me! I opened the next book on my list, Horse, by Geraldine Brooks (2021), and got sucked in deeply.

The title makes you wonder what aspect of a horse the book will be about.

It turns out to be a book about race horses, horse racing in the 1800s, modern skeletal reconstruction, race relations (past and present, all sad as hell), art history, and love (among people and animals). Something for everybody, by gosh.

The first part of the book made me want to run show it to Tarrin and Sara, who love horse anatomy so much. Brooks goes into a lot of detail and it’s so accurate. In fact, she’s accurate about everything, as far as I can tell. She is one excellent researcher.

Lexington’s skeleton when it was displayed outdoors.

Horse chronicles the great American race horse, Lexington and his lifetime companion, Jarrett, who grows to be a man as Lexington ages. Interspersed with their story is a story about what happened to Lexington’s bones and the portraits painted of him as he aged. We learn about the artists, horse owners, jockeys, who revolve around Lexington and how they negotiate respect and trust during the time before the US Civil War. Race relations among the modern-day folks are equally complicated, but feel quite real.

To write about all this, Brooks did a LOT of research. I mean, a lot. She comes across as knowledgeable about so many different things that my mind was practically blown. This book satisfied my desire to learn as well as my love of a good story. I guess I can see how she won a Pulitzer Prize in the past.

Lexington the horse was such an interesting animal, and thank goodness he was raised well. It makes me feel great about how I treat my horses, though they aren’t fancy!

Not all the parts of Horse that dealt with race relations weren’t all awful. There was love and respect, which always give me hope. However the sad parts were really sad, and after reading about how horribly early white settlers acted in Florida in my previous book, I feel more and more hopeless. People aren’t going to change. They are going to find ways to dehumanize and demean those they deem to be the “other.”

Sorry about the pessimism, but mine is growing worse and worse. Nonetheless, I just loved the book and all the characters in it. Brooks may be Australian, but she sure knows how to depict US history vividly.

If you like horses, horse lovers, and history, you’ll just love this book. Want to know more about Lexington? Here’s a good article.

Sculptural Delights Plus Natural Beauty Equals a Good Saturday

Ah, It’s good to have a day off for fun and education. Today we enjoyed sleeping in a bit, then followed through with our plan to go back to scenic Brookgreen Gardens to see the new exhibit that was getting installed this week. We ended up seeing two new exhibits and lots of living wonders as well!

First off, we went to the beautiful butterfly exhibit, which was closed when we were at the Low Country Zoo last week. It’s always fun there, because there are beautiful flowers and water features in addition to all the butterflies.

They have different butterflies at different times of year, too, depending on what they have hatching. I can’t tell you what any of these are, because I don’t want to put them on iNaturalist. They aren’t wild. But they sure are pretty!

After the butterflies, we hopped back over to see the red wolves again, hoping maybe they’d be up to something this time. We lucked out, and while the female was just resting in the sun, the male came out of his giddy hole, walked around, then rolled and stretched for us. I guess that was enough of a show for him, because he went right back into his shady spot. We were lucky to see this!

We drove back to the main part of the gardens to see the first exhibit, which was the 90th National Sculpture Society awards exhibition. There were 42 works of art in the exhibit, which was narrows down from a couple of hundred entries. Only a small subset of these sculptures will be winners and exhibited in the NSS gallery in New York City later in the year.

We really enjoyed looking at the variety of entries and reading the stories the artists shared about their work. There were a lot of COVID themed works, and others with universal themes that really touched my heart.

I listened to a talk about some of the works by the curator of the museum, Robin Salmon. That was quite a privilege.

We went back to the same little restaurant we ate at last week, and had a good time visiting with the birds once again.

We also enjoyed lots of nature. There was a group of plants that was literally dancing with dragonflies. We must have watched them for five minutes, along with another couple. There were blue, orange, and yellow ones. Some of my photos have at least five in them!

We also got to see the resident alligator family (and hear them). First we saw the mother gator, who was hanging out in a small pond, then we saw two of her babies in a larger pond, hanging out with turtles. All the while we could hear other alligators nearby, but I decided not to be a dumb Master Naturalist and go look for them.

We ended up finding the other exhibit I was looking for, which was of Shona art from Zimbabwe. They used interesting stones, and I especially liked one that was completely different looking when it was polished versus unpolished. Many of the artists made people whose faces and body parts were polished, but their clothing was unpolished, and it was quite striking. I completely forgot to take any photos, but here’s a sample from the exhibition web page.

It’s just so lush and green at Brookgreen Gardens. I’m going to hold on to the image of all the green grass and the huge oaks when I go back to my crispy home.

When we got home, we napped, then headed down to the bar, where Kevin the bartender/history professor was kind enough to give me a pre-publication copy of his book on early Florida history, La Florida. I can’t wait to read it. I love an academic book with humor thrown in every so often, and I appreciate his perspective on the Spanish.

I also have the book from the NSS exhibit to enjoy, as well. It has interesting biographies of the sculptors.

Lee and I sure had a good day. And we had smoked salmon for dinner. That’s right. Indulged ourselves.

Hearts and Borders

Yesterday was lots of fun and I’ll share pictures tomorrow. Today I took it easy, other than cleaning, and got the border put on the heart afghan.

I was glad the squares matched up well. The border really sets off the heart and triangles. It needs one row of a border and it will be done.

The center pattern is called Tune My Heart. It’s a bit weird, but I did it. I now know better ways to make the squares.

I’ll figure out something fun to do with the leftovers. I have black yarn that will look great with the pinks. There’s leftover cream that looks good with the purples. Maybe I’ll make something a little less “beginner” crochet or knitting.

I did my nails spooky, too. Best job application-wise in a long time. The webs work well for the Master Naturalist conference next week!