Random Thoughts

Life has been keeping me hopping lately.  We just returned from a week-long cruise to Alaska, and the weeks leading up to it and now trying to catch up have played havoc with my usual routine.  Before we left I tried frantically to get all my bedding plants in, the deck scrubbed and re-stained, and lose a few pounds.  I did get everything planted.  The deck is half done, and I lost four pounds - all of which magically reappeared after a week of cruise ship food and drink.  I didn't paint a thing in May.

The cruise was great fun, but I fretted about the cat, and worried that all the plants I put in would dry up and die.  I thought Alaska was beautiful, and I did some jaw-dropping and bug-eyed staring at humpback whales, rafts of sea otters and crowds of harbor seals.  It occurred to me that I probably couldn't live on Alaska's rainy coast without losing my mind.  It's too wet and cloudy, even though the mountains and glaciers are stunning.  It also occurred to me that people with expensive cameras and long lenses need to remember that the people with cheap cameras have just as much right to a clear shot as those with better equipment. More than once my view from a tour boat was totally blocked by a photographer with all sorts of fancy equipment in tow.

Maybe I'm just in a bleak mood because of the results of the Wisconsin recall election.  I promise, I'm not going there.

When we got home I had an email from a local berry farm that strawberries are in.  I had a bag of rhubarb from my friend Mary in the refrigerator, so today I made strawberry rhubarb pie.  This will not help with weight loss, but the time for fresh fruit is short, and missing it is worse than calories, I think.  I used a quarter cup of tapioca to thicken it, but the juices still bubbled over, as you can see here.  I'm looking forward to dessert tonight.

I decided that I had to get back into drawing and painting.  After a few weeks off, it's hard to start again, sort of like when I stop going to the gym.  Getting back into the routine requires some self discipline.  A note from the open studio group where I sometimes do figure drawing reminded me that it had been a while since I worked on a figure.  This started out as a watercolor, but is becoming a mixed media piece, because the paint is largely being covered over with pastels - a medium I rarely use.  I like it so far, though my husband's noncommittal "Uh huh" makes me think it needs work.  It's not finished - I'm just glad to get back to working on something.