At the Beach

Away at Cape Cod for a week.

We wait for this week all summer. Before we left, the temperatures (and rain) fell. But then summer roared back, and now it is perfect: warm enough to seek out the beach, cool enough to bicycle or just sit on the porch. Even the ocean is warm. My daughter and her friend now require as much privacy as they used to need attention, so I have a lot of time to dream. My job is to buy food and drive to the beach.

We found some good signs - a prank typo:
and our favorite:
A discovery: if you are hankering for a life drawing class, you could do worse than spend the afternoon at the beach. I have been drawing and drawing. More soon.

Advice

Stumbled on Melissa's blog: Fabric Dyeing 101. As good as any course could be: full of clear instructions, well-illustrated and broken into digestible pieces. I've printed out a bunch of recipes and hope get to Lowell for dyeing again soon. Someday I'll get that sink installed in my basement.

Traveling

On the road for five days. My mom turned 81 this weekend, so my sister, her son, my daughter and I left the husbands with the dogs and traveled to Lancaster PA, where my mom lives in a huge but kind-hearted continuing care community. This is the B&B where we stayed, Hollinger House.

Just a year ago we emptied her home. So many memories, and so much junk. She had self-medicated with TV shopping for years, resulting in an indescribable excess. Clothing piled waist high. Books, cooking equipment, tools. Box after box of unused cosmetics promising new youth. We hauled, boxed, donated, tossed. Back-breaking. Heart-rending.

Now we are free to visit without having to battle Depression Made Visible. Also, since mom moved into care, she gets good food, accurate meds, and, not least, regular company. For the first time in years she seemed glad to spend time with us, and even laughed. Perhaps the years that are left will be better than the ones that went before.

My camera batteries died, so I did not get to photograph the signs (CHICK 'N' WAFFLES, CORN AND DOGGIE GRILL TONIGHT!), the town buildings, or the farm vistas.

Driving to Philadelphia on Saturday, my girl and I went through farm country: no one on the road but a few buggies, so we slowed down to 25 and opened the windows. Sweet smells, crickets, bird song. At one point, deep in wooded dell, we slowed to 10 MPH, came around a corner, and there in front of us were three Amish girls, cozied up in a miniature cart, pulled by their miniature white pony. "It's us," sighed Sophie, "The big one's Annalee" (her best friend)" the blond one is me, and the little one is Ursie" (Annalee's sister). If she could have, my girl would have left me there and then to live where girls wear long skirts, learn to cook, and are courted with buggy rides. I wanted to let her go. It was like those stories where a picture comes real, and, for a moment, you can step through.

They waved to her as we passed.

Rough Draft

Open Studios today at Western Avenue.

Hot hot hot, but still people came. We had cold drinks, lots of fans, and a new freebie: cloth to dip in ice water and put around your neck! Anything to make folks more comfortable. I started some new quotation collages. The Brush Gallery held its opening for Art Quilts Lowell 2007 in the afternoon. The show is rich in imagery and ideas, and it was wonderful to meet so many of the artists. The exhibit is open through October, so get there if you can.

More Prints

Here are some more images from the marathon printing day. I love this one, a fragment from yardage I printed with first with a screen from leaves. Then I thermofax printed a sketch of a Degas's sculpture on top.

This piece (dreadful photo) layered text, sketches, and tree images. I've cut into it for collage: you can see a bit of it in yesterday's post.


This is still in the "What's This?" pile. The ghost print came from turning an ink-covered thermofax screen over and pressing gently. Very messy but sometimes interesting results.