Journal

A Day in the Delta  March 31, 2008

I spent the day in the delta on friends' land. The friends whose clothesline and cotton fields I've painted over and over the last several years.

Here is the note I left my friends when I packed up my paints:

Today's Tally:

One snake, eight or ten big turtles on log in pond, one baby barred owl, several dragonflies, several butterflies, one wasp, three thistles, one clothesline, one fence draped with 3 washed blankets, 2 dead trees (bottoms eaten around by beavers) sticking out of swamp, 4 happy dogs (two mine, one of these lost in woods along Yazoo River for a time), countless episodes of crazy gusts of wind across cotton fields and through old trees and young bamboo, one lunch of goose and venison sausage stew with dear friend Michael Foose (made by Beth Foose), one six mile run along levees in spring sunshine, six painting surfaces begun, one tube of white paint left home, pale yellow spirea in full bloom, the pink antique roses, one small green frog, duckweed, white blackberry blossoms, one stinky dog (the temporarily lost one. Roscoe had a bath when we got home), one happy artist.

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Spring Is Peeking Through  February 25, 2008

Spring is peeking through. Daffodils are blooming in the yard and a primeval green is edging the deep burnt umber of the woods where I run with my dogs along the Pearl River. A day ago I was in Boston about to catch a plane back here (in time to miss their latest Nor'easter). I had spent most of a week in rural Massachusetts, running along country roads, surrounded by an endless network of low stone walls, from fields cleared by backbreaking labor to eke a living out of the land centuries ago. Snow was melting everywhere and there was a lovely flowing of tiny waterfalls everywhere.

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It All Goes So Fast  December 13, 2007

It's a cold damp day in the Pacific Northwest. Denise is in a training here in Olympia, Washington, and Alexander is having his first nap of the day in this little cozy room at the lovely Fertile Ground bed and breakfast.)

We drove in to Olympia Tuesday night after several days in Portland with friends and family, and before that we'd been with other friends and family in Seattle (too briefly) and Spokane.

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In New Orleans  June 24, 2007

Denise, Sender and I have made a few trips down New Orleans way recently. Staying some with friends on Jena; some at Alexander's godfathers' apartment right in the heart of the French Quarter. Visiting as well with friends who were carefully and painstakingly re-doing their house when Katrina hit, and needless to say, don't have it quite ready for an overnight toddler guest yet. Thursday afternoon Alexander and I let D rest and took an exhaustive, and exhausting, stroller stroll around the Quarter. At the French Market he played every Senegalese drum we came across.

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One Foot in Reality  May 7, 2007

When we feed the dogs, Roscoe, the white one with spots and a big heart, stands up to sniff the bowl, walks a few steps like this, then runs to the corner where his bowl will be put down, turning three or four complete circles on the way. He's done this for every meal for the last three of four years. He's done this routine for every meal in this house for nearly a year. Tonight he started the first of his revolutions and slammed his nose right into the wall before he'd completed 45 degrees. Caught off guard, stinging, our sweet dog stepped sideways, looked at the wall, looked at me, and then started hopping around again, re-focusing his attention on the task at hand: the food bowl.

This morning I felt like Roscoe did just after the wall stopped his spin.

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In Joy and Chaos  January 19, 2007

It's not that there hasn't been anything to say. It's that life if so so so rich I don't have time to turn around, much less write about it.

Alexander is walking.
Alexander is very very busy.

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Domesticity and Casey Parks  September 22, 2006

What adventures are we having this week? The adventure of daily life.

While our former boarder, Casey Parks, is slogging through jungles and investigating AIDS in Africa with Nick Kristof, we are changing diapers, going to Parent Night at Sender's Montessori school, trying to get to church on time, and generally delighting in the everyday wonders of life with an infant...

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Home  August 30, 2006

Denise and I are home from a fantastic trip to New England.

Nearly every moment of this trip was ripe with beauty, or excitement, or reunions with dear friends, or some other something which would fill paragraphs to do it justice. So I can't tell it all. Which is sad, but at least life is that rich...

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Life-Affirming Tomatoes  July 31, 2006

Home from Virginia. The salt air breezes, local blueberries, corn, crab, and TOMATOES GALORE were life-affirming. If I couldn't find Denise I'd just look out into the garden and she'd be harvesting yet more baskets of Patsy's tomatoes or out with Alexander on the dock...

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My Old Friend Cotton Field  July 15, 2006

Wow it's hot! Of course, it is the middle of summer and we do live in the middle of Mississippi. I should expect cool breezes?

I spent two days last week standing next to my old friend Cotton Field, where I used to paint often but hadn't been for a year...

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