I have not posted anything to my blog in about four years,
but I’m ready to make a fresh start.
Previously, this was all about food and the comforts of home and garden,
as the roof of shelter over our heads, and the foundation of a floor beneath
our feet. And I will still share
thoughts on these essential elements of life, but there is a whole world beyond
my window that cries for attention and expression.
On this wet, mid-March day, my thoughts have drifted back to
a sunny late summer memory of a glorious trip through France last year. This image of the water lily garden at
Giverny, just outside of Paris, reminds me that my favorite painter of all
time, the master of Impressionism, Claude Monet, is still my lodestar of
artistic guidance.
As his eyesight failed him, his passion to express what he
saw was not diminished, but rather intensified through his later work. As my eyesight begins to cheat me of all I
used to love to do and am no longer able to because I’ve lost that very fine
precision, I am turning to other passions.
I may not be able to read so well anymore, but I can still write. I may not be able to sew as I used to, but
fashion is irrelevant anyway. I can
still work in the garden, prepare a fine meal, and yes, I can still paint.
We will be taking a road trip with our precious border
collie, Trace, in late April. We will be
following the coast all the way down to Southern California, and will even
visit the desert of Anza Borrego. With
all the rain that California has weathered through this season, we are
expecting the hills to be splashed with riotous color of exuberant wildflowers
finally able to quench a six year long drought of thirst.
I will have my journal, my sketch book and my camera, ready
to drink in the glory of spring…
