march

I love March.

sunny side up

Good news!

Daylight Savings Time

begins in less than two weeks

on March 10th.

Sunny side up!

headstand

Standing on my head makes me sick. 

It makes me feel like something bad is about to happen.
Upside-down.

Pay-offs for living longer:

No more headstands.
No more twirling on a swing.

Ahhhhh... 

feral cat

Another feral cat showed up

at the house on Sunset Beach.

Barely.

here nor there

In the studio and on the laptop.

Neither here nor there.

Just an observation.

zippy fishies

Here's to zippy fishies everywhere.

They fly through the water like birds.

Remember to be amazed.

getting back

A grocery store bouquet

in a blender

with a votive lit by the sun.

Everything looks so good in Hawaii,
 it's difficult getting back.

So much beauty challenges perception...

Sad to say, I'm afraid
 the Queen did not protesteth nearly enough.

Like... light your hair on fire, girl!

You can tell I'm not quite
all the way back yet.

ubiquity

From the signature and the ubiquitous little men, you'd think this mural was maybe painted by Sven Haring.

hale hokua

Home sweet hale, where all colors are possible all the time.

wave

Wave goodbye. 

Aloha.

good company

After my confession in the previous post,

I heard from a couple of cataract compatriots.

Both very fine painters.

We are in good company. 

Claude Monet founded Impressionism

 through vision veiled by cataracts.

He painted his Waterlilies half-submerged by them.

   
Claude Monet, Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond, c. 1920

Here's an interesting Wiki bit:

In 1923, Monet underwent two operations to remove his cataracts: the paintings done while the cataracts affected his vision have a general reddish tone, which is characteristic of the vision of cataract victims. It may also be that after surgery he was able to see certain ultraviolet wavelengths of light that are normally excluded by the lens of the eye; this may have had an effect on the colors he perceived. After his operations he even repainted some of these paintings,

 with bluer water lilies than before.

next

So, what's next?

Hardly ever what you expect.

See, the details change.

Like the cataracts I didn't know I had.

Now I can't see the details at all.

Sht.

See?

But they do explain all the fits and starts
I've had in the studio in the last few months.
Actually, this might not be a totally bad thing...

Now I can't get fussy with my painting.

Definitely a plus.

For instance, now fussy and fuzzy look about the same.

I'm tellin' ya, this could be good.

So I'm doing what any mature adult would do.
I'm running away.
Ima goin to Oahu,
back to the North Shore.

When I get back from Hawaii at the end of the month,

I can just have them removed

maybe get some vision correction done at the same time.

Probably a plus.

Gulp.

Do I sound casual?

Are the drugs working?

self-portrait

Rub-a-dub-dub,

scrubbin' the tub.

tree #14

This last little tree begins this new year in a fresh forest,

a forest that breathes for us.

Like I said back at the beginning...

lungs of the planet.

tree #14

tree #13

I know this triskaidekaphobia stuff
is difficult for some to deal with,

so this won't be the thirteenth tree in the series.

Just the only irradiated one.

For your protection.

*grinning emoticon here*

tree #13

tree #12

It's a bright and sunny first day of the 13th year.

Why not make 13 your new lucky number?

Believe it or not,

luck is a choice. 

tree #12

tree #11

It's going down to 2 degrees tonight.

I've put out millet and pumpkins

 for the birds and squirrels.

No small wonder we have a squirrel 

the size of a large meatloaf;

I call him "The Gubbner", 

in honor of the big man in New Jersey.

Stay warm, everyone.

Happy New Year!

tree #11

tree #10

Two nights ago, 

the air was crystalline,

and the full moon silvered the snow-covered trees.

Nice planet.

I think we ought to keep it.

tree #10 

tree #9

Aaahhhhh...

I have found the magic elixir!
Guaranteed to boost me through these dark days.

There's a place downtown

 that sells 2 oz. shots of straight

cacao.

WOW!

Pure, unsweetened, unadulterated, unprocessed,

and never heated over warm.
The deepest taste of chocolate.
Xocoatl.

tree #9

tree #8

Ice covers our little river out there.

When I asked the rancher next door

why he calls it Hell's Crik, he said he only does when

it freezes over.

Usually, he's funnier than that.

tree #8

tree #7

What could be colder and darker than here?

Maine.

In Maine, they're having a blizzard.

They sent home the help at the assisted-living place

and are passing out picnic boxes to the inmates. 

My mother's comment:

"Yup, we call it winter."

At 92, she's got those New England understatements

 down cold. 

tree #7

tree #6

It snowed on Christmas (yay!) and got bitterly cold.

Neither fact is a reasonable excuse 

for today's tree being so late in the day,

but I'm using both.

Today didn't top 20 degrees,

the sun was brilliant,

 and the sky was as blue as could be.

tree #6

tree #5

To everyone who reads this blog,
thanks for checking in now and then.
As for those of you who actually leave comments,
you are sublime.

To all of you,
be merry.

tree #5

tree #4

When I was a little kid, 

I'd lie underneath the tree on Christmas Eve

and look up through the branches at the lights.

It was a magical kaleidoscope. 

tree #4

tree #3

tree #3

It's quite yellow.

Hmmm...
Apparently, the dogs got to it.

You knew it was going to happen.