A Day in the Delta
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.
Everything is blooming like crazy and we are so allergic. It's beautiful. Alexander is snotty from allergies but so happy. And this longer and longer days deal is great as we can get in some playground time at the end of even a long work day. Don't we love the advent of summer? This evening Sender, previously trepidacious with swings, demanded, "More higher! More higher!" We need to plan a foray into New England to do some summer hiking! More higher!
I think I'd really like to get to Maine a year from this May for a 25K run in farmland in Gloucester, ME. I've started training with that in mind. I'm up to a comfortable six miles. Anyone want to join me? Anyone have a running hydration pack? I've been running on trails mostly to protect these old knees. Maybe I'll try my old cycling camelbacks and see if they work.
On the painting front, things are going well. Big (and small) canvases with big wild clothesline being unruly around kids and dogs. I'll give Jim some images for your entertainment!
