art – The Hermits' Rest

I found the birds, at last!

Most of the week we’ve been in Myrtle Beach, we haven’t had much birding time, and not many birds have been around other than the classic pigeons and pelicans one can see from the condo balcony, Ospreys on the river, statues at Brookgreen Gardens. Today was different!

That’s right, I’m a bird! (Little Blue Heron)

We headed over to Huntington Beach State Park, right by where we were yesterday. I just love this place. Thank goodness Anita got excited by how many beautiful water birds were there. By the bridge were many White Ibises, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, a Tricolored Heron, an Osprey, and way in the back, Roseate Spoonbills.

Next we wandered over to the nature center, where there are always songbirds. We saw Red-headed and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a female Painted Bunting, a hummingbird, and more. The boardwalk was closed, but that’s okay. We also enjoyed the fish, snakes, turtles, and other marsh life on exhibit.

We then headed over to the beach to check out Mallard Pond. There were lots of birds in the trees, but not many around the pond. It was full of dead fish. Because of the drought, the water has become too salty for them, I was told by a park worker. I did find some interesting flowers, and the elusive Seaside Sparrow (lifer).

There was one more stop at the state park, where the birder/sales guy told us to go. It’s a lovely walk between two ponds Mrs Huntington had built for shorebirds.

Were there birds in the ponds? Oh, yes. And beautiful American lotuses, too.

We had to walk very quietly, because there were many juvenile birds everywhere, darling Common Gallinules, White Ibis, and best of all, a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron! Look at all the cuteness!

I had a good talk with a park worker and his son who were working to create a rookery area. They were carrying water in buckets for new trees. It looked like they were succeeding, since dozens of Purple Martins were surrounding some pine snags in the area. I learned a lot from my conversation.

I managed to delete my Martin picture. Darn.

We were tired, so we stopped for a cold beverage at the park store. It was so relaxing to sit on a bench and enjoy our photos while cooling off. But, we did have another stop to make.

Yes, we returned to Brookgreen Gardens, because we had missed some of the glass art yesterday. Our passes lasted a week, so why not? Anita had left hers at the condo, as we hadn’t originally planned the stop, but the worker let us in. That pleased Anita a lot!

We quickly found the indoor exhibit, read about the artist, and enjoyed all the colored glass.

As we were leaving, we had to look at more glass art, as well as some cool bromeliads and unusual white flowers

This is a dandelion seed—they are hidden throughout the garden

What I did not expect to find were more birds, but they were lurking everywhere, unlike yesterday. The Little Blue Heron was right in front of us when we were looking at the glass water lilies.

Whew. We didn’t have energy to get pedicures or eat out. I miraculously managed to fit all my stuff in my luggage, too! Back home tomorrow.

Book Report: Mona’s Eyes

I finished this novel/art history textbook before I left for South Carolina, but needed to find time to write it up. Mona’s Eyes is a masterpiece that will live on for many generations. Or so I think. It’s by Thomas Schlesser and was originally published in French. The translator did a superb job capturing Frenchness into English.

The plot sounds really strange when you describe it. The grandfather of a young girl who might be going blind takes her to museums in Paris to view a piece of art per week. She learns and grows. The end.

There’s more to it than that. It’s more fun to discover it for yourself. The bonus is that you get a free Art Appreciation 101 class along with your novel. It’s great. The book jacket is secretly a key to all the art discussed, so you have a reference point. I rearranged the cover many times for handy viewing.

Mona is a bit strange and eerily smart for her age. She also has super vision, other than that impending blindness. And the grandfather is a warm and emotionally complicated guy, too. All the characters are nicely developed and it’s fun to watch the plot unfold while simultaneously learning to analyze art from ancient times to this century.

The only caveat I have about Mona’s Eyes is that it assumes some degree of cultural literacy and a bit of understanding of French history. I had to look up a couple of references, though Schlesser does a pretty good job of working in historical context and art terminology as the action unfolds. I found the educational part really fun.

If you have some time and a place where you can focus, you’ll treasure this book like I did.

No more fried foods

Sigh. My lovely meal last night, which featured a cream-based soup, fried oysters, French-fried potatoes, and collard greens swimming in grease was a recipe for extreme discomfort for me, since I no longer have a gall bladder to spurt out extra bile for fat/filled meals. Needless to say, I didn’t have a fun night of sleep, or was I up for another nature day today.

Morning view was not bad. I looked for dolphins.

But Anita and I made the best of it by taking it easy this morning until I felt better. We then went to the Market Commons shopping area, which is like most such places, losing tenants. But we found Chico’s, where I could get a second pair of jeans to make up for forgetting to bring any. Um, and some shirts and shorts. We also enjoyed talking to the staff. They always have such nice old ladies in those stores (in other words, women our age).

We then visited an art gallery for local artists of varying qualities. I enjoyed some of it a lot, and of course, I got to chatting with the two women who were there. One was crocheting some simple dolls that she makes for the gallery (I forgot to get a photo). The other was creating cute coloring pages of the whimsical characters she paints.

The doll lady got me all interested in Sumi-e painting, which she studied after being told she had no talent for watercolor (what kind of teacher tells students that?). I may get a book and practice pad.

These practice pads look cool for any technique practice.

She was starting a doll and when I expressed interest, she told me exactly how she makes the bodies, which is ridiculously easy. But I wouldn’t have figured it out myself. She even sent me out with a crochet hook and some t-shirt fabric yarn to practice on. What a generous soul she was! I even have an idea to make similar items with knitted outfits.

I did buy two coloring books from the other lady, one as a gift for Ruby the goddaughter.

To make it up to Anita for sitting through the craft talk, I took her to a pleasant bistro near the gallery, where I had a sensible salad. She had a crab cake sandwich that she declared was good as one from Baltimore.

We enjoyed a nice beach walk, which I really needed. We wondered what the globs of clay-like stuff on the beach were, but assumed it was from dredging that’s going on. They are weird sights.

I’m reading a lot so I got another book at Barnes and Noble. I finished a book of Steve Martin’s writing, so I needed a longer queue. Eek, I now need to write two book reports! Two in the queue will take a while, Michael Pollan’s latest and Kevin’s history of Americans being mean to Cherokee people in the late 1700s. It’s important to learn these things to remind myself that assholes have been trying to put down others since this country was founded. (And yes, others had great ideals.)

On that note…off to bed in anticipation of fun tomorrow.

Now I understand modern art

What do you love now, that you hated when you were younger?

When I was young, I was all for art that looked pretty and looked like it was depicting something. It’s probably another one of my mother’s aesthetic choices that influenced me (she also hated tattoos, and while I don’t love them, I appreciate some of them). Mom was an artist and she had strong, if (now I realize) kind of bourgeois preferences.

She did like florals, and I’ve stuck with that, more because I love flowers than because I love still life.

When I was learning as much as I could about art, music, and literature in college, I was more fond of painting and sculpture up through Impressionism. After that, I could intellectually appreciate those Picasso shapes and angles, and the Mondrian squares, but I didn’t enjoy them. I could read about interpretations, but nothing moved me emotionally.

I can still remember the day it finally clicked. I was with a friend visiting museums in Houston in the 2000s. We went to the Menil Collection, which is housed in a modern building surrounded by a sculpture garden. First, I was so entranced by a large installation outside that I could barely go in.

I was so intrigued at how it was in the lawn. Menil Collection.

Then, as we walked around I came to be standing in front of a painting by Mondrian of white, yellow, and blue rectangles. I could see every detail, and was fascinated by its depth and warmth. This abstract piece moved me. I got how the simplified presentation could help your subconscious form its own associations. Ah.

Composition in yellow, blue, and white, Piet Mondrian, 1922, Menil Collection

So, now I’m more far ranging in my art appreciation, and that’s good at least for me. I’m not an art historian or connoisseur, so I could be making stuff up, of course. But I did enjoy the whole collection of “modern” art that day.

By the way, I’m reading a novel that’s also an art history class. I’ll review it when I’m done, but Mona’s Eyes is quite fascinating!

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.