Nocturnal Blue

The free-cycle picnic table is restored and embraced. We left the legs shabby-chic, weathered and sealed, and the seat and table top were scraped then painted in a dreamy deep shade of blue... Nocturnal Blue. It happens to look extra with pumpkins and mums!

Outside, we are ready for company, a fire, a starry-night dinner with friends. Inside we are ready for whipping things into shape, because things are getting a bit "lived in."

You know what? It is what is. It's been a busy week, and if I get too over-wrought about what I am not accomplishing, it will be kind of disastrous, because there's no sign things will be any less busy in the weeks and months ahead. So, steady on! And keep moving forward.

Maria gave so much thought, research, study, and learning to this physics project... a mouse trap car, designed and built to stop at a predictable distance.

She and her physics partner will get to demonstrate the car today, and I wish I could be there to see it go, and stop!

The first thing I wanted to see the next morning... our new table. We ate our dinner there. Well, some of us did. Maria ate her dinner with a headset, listening to a school lesson, and an open book. Her classes are hard enough, but she's been sick all week, trying to recover, and keep up, after missing 2 days of classes. We are imagining that this trying week means that she's paid her dues, and will be healthy, and strong, for the remainder of the year, and that we will enjoy many relaxed dinners around our table(s).



This week our watercolor assignments are all about brushstrokes... calligraphy. They're drills, warm-ups, and help me learn what each brush is capable of. Single strokes, double strokes, and repeated strokes. Round brushes, filberts, flats, pressing, dabbing, dragging, lifting, turning. It's interesting to get familiar with all the possibilities, and recognize what different effects there are and how they can be used. I liked seeing the simple swipe that looked just like a banana, and then I decided it could be a boat. The figures... people, animals are the hardest for me. They are small, and meant to be done in quick, minimal strokes. I struggle to not over do it!


Our teacher suggested we find bamboo placemats to use as brush holders. The ideal thing is to keep the brushes flat, and dry. I found a great deal on some mats, and got very ambitious about adding a sleeve to one. Well. I am happy with how it turned out, but ooph! that was harder than expected, and I am going to take precious care of this brush holder, because I don't want to hand stitch around finely tied bamboo sticks, again!

We still have a bun garden. We still have a very large Viking tent in need of repairs. We still have a sewing machine, also in need of repair. But... let's just gaze at this cute bun, shall we?


Buns, flowers, clouds, garden lights, pumpkins, picnic tables. All the pretty things.

I was just reading a therapist's post about trauma and how we manage strategies to escape the intensity of our emotions, especially negative ones... and how one strategy is to overly and excessively focus on the positives. (Here is where I casually mention that the DA's office called me to talk about the forms and additional reporting they need me to submit, and how important it is that I am "thorough and convincing, otherwise the defense could object and we would have to add another hearing after the first restitutions hearing." Will this never end?? Bunnies. Bunnies. Soft pillows, bunnies.)


Witch Physicist. She told me she's happy being a sophomore, and she loves her school.

Have you stacked some pumpkins?