Hope tomorrow is a day to “get back at it.” Social media? Blah! Just made a mango, pineapple, Red onion and cilantro chutney. So things ARE HAPPENING, just not here online.
To re-enter, how about some pix from the writing retreat in Hawley, Mass? It was waaaaay cooler than last year and also amazing, profound, and a blast. Heard the most amazing writing. Got three more scenes to balance out end of my manuscript.
And then — here are some pix from the garden. Today I sweat and sweat and remembered how much I used to move plants around, and loved doing so. Still love doing so, as it turns out. Lately all I’ve been doing is weeding.
What did you do this weekend?
Love this so much Dee! I have a post kinda started. Perhaps I’ll finish later, after laundry. I’ve been bla for sometime. Kinda know why, kinda don’t. I love your green world photos, garden bliss. And really, really love your retreat blurb! What a fabulous thing to be able to do. I need to stop surviving and start living a bit more. sigh. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂 xo
Hey Nancy. Hope you find a little more living this week. 💖
Ah, how I’ve missed your blog. Stunning pictures. Glad the retreat went so well 🙂
Hi Michael. I’ve been in the lookout for your book reviews, too.
So summery and soothing and apparently productive! Excellent. We spent the weekend digging up the septic tank.
Oh no. Sounds kind of awful. I hope it wasn’t as sticky hot there as it was here.
good to hear the writing workshop was inspiring and productive
Thanks (Mo). Btw picked up a copy of “Overstory.” One of our writing prompts this week was from page one.
Happy you had a great time at your retreat. I flew home from 7 days in Seattle .. had hoped to meet Hazel and although we both did try to make it work we just could not get together 🥴.
Weeds never ending weeds .. I hear you.
Oh too bad you missed Hazel! Hope you had a great time in any case.
Hi Dee – I consistently check in here because I really miss the connection made while I was on instagram. There are days when I gain comfort (cold though it can be …) from the awareness that you’re generally in my same relative geopolitical “location” undoubtedly feeling and thinking a lot of the same things for a lot of the same reasons. Then living you best life with mindful appreciation for it. I just authentically love knowing that when I wonder WTF a few thousand times too many in a single news cycle. Have been especially fascinated and inspired by your Soul Collage ventures. They have tempted me for years but so far I just observe other peoples’ creations. The basic format (and the individualized perspective vibes) people create reminds me so much of the Voyager tarot deck.
This past weekend was the least golden and most intense of the entire summer. I spent almost ALL of it at my dining room table or the living room couch having an endless conversation with my husband about everything dysfunctional that has ever existed between us. We’re talking forty years worth of inventory. I don’t even know how it happened but there we were. He was super into it (which NEVER happens … hence the need to use a word like “inventory”) kept grabbing more coffee while I moaned it was horrible, just completely horrible “and on top of all the other horribleness in the world”. He just repeatedly insisted we were finally getting somewhere and this was no time to stop. So. no comment whatsoever on the underlying gender dynamics on display throughout. Maybe though, since it was his idea and he absolutely refused to let me off the hook for longer than a bathroom break and a solitary Sanity Walk around the immediate dooryards of the house, something of a shift will transpire.
At least we finally pulled everything out that neither one of ever wanted to see privately let alone think/talk/feel about together – no not ever again. Thanks to his persistence we got quite a good look at it. Shared thoughts and feelings that *were* sincerely shared. Hmmmm. Maybe it wasn’t the weekend from hell that it felt like at the time. Still I’ve been outside in the gardens ever since or working on exercises from Misty Mawn’s watercolor workshop in progress.
Well hello. I’m glad to hear from you both for what you have to say about my work and for the substance of your weekend (phew! Sounds intense!) I never want to make political collages but sometimes we can’t always fight what wants to come out. Someone recently said on Twitter that they miss being bored by politics. It’s hard to even imagine anymore.
PS. I love the voyager deck. Next to the Ryder deck it is my most used. Wonderful use of collage for sure!
That first photo is gorgeous! So admire your work & courage in writing.
The weekend, that seems so long ago…. Blue left for school, very sorry to not have met Tina, stitching, my friend was finally up for a stroll through the botanical gardens, and there were blackberries in there, too. oxo
I was in Massachusetts with dear friends, many cats, one dog terrified of thunder (two storms, several hot tubs and company from extended family, a swim in the outdoor pool, very much fine food and reading. Also viewed a film on video disc that I found uplifting and entertaining (“Pride” based on a true story about a group of UK good friends who decided to support the famous Miners strike in 1987-yes, coal miners which, taken out of context, poses a problem for our 2019 hopes to put a halt to fossil fuel…but, in context a heroic and heartwarming story about ‘solidarity’…brave, beautiful and engaging–https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/31/pride-film-gay-activists-miners-strike-interview.
Love the shots of writing retreat and your garden. I too have some difficulty getting back into the internet since I spent a week free of it entirely. I’m fashioning basil pesto using the flowers and your chutney sounds ‘famous’.