Anyone who read my last post here knows full well how I detest hot humid summer weather. What I didn't add to my earlier rant is the sad fact that oil pastels, my medium of choice since 1980, actually begin to melt in the heat. Even when air conditioning keeps the studio around 75-78F it's still hot and humid enough for the things to melt as soon as I have them in my hands for more than about 90 seconds. I guess this would be fine if I actually used oil pastels another way but since I like layering them dry surface on to dry surface it gets a wee bit problematic to work when the result is more like making mudpies than making art. All I can say is that I am thankful last June wasn't like this June or I'd never have been able to complete so many pieces for my "Phoenix Rising" exhibit!
This year's major task is to sift through 23 years of accumulated materials in this house so I can make the challenging decisions regarding what to save, what to throw away, what to give away and what to try to sell (heh, heh, heh and good luck with THAT!). IN addition I am spending way too much time outseid with a wonderful yard helper trying to put this poo neglected piece of property back into some semblence of order. I came across photos of my gardens in June 1995. Glorious. Absolutely glorious in every direction. Hard to believe I actually did every bit of that work myself. I wanted to live in a park surrounded by English floral border plantings and that's what I had and enjoyed for years.
The sad thing about arthritis like I had is the complete inability to get ticked off about things I couldn't do any longer. Ok I stopped all garden work in the Spring of 2004. Nobody could expect anything besides survival of the fittest after 7 years of complete neglect. On Wednesday my son-in-law and grand daughter came over late in the morning. It was shady on the far side of the house so he agreed to tear out vines that had completely engulfed several holly trees as well as way too many volunteer shrub honeysuckles. One vine was about 1" in diameter at its base. As he was strugling to pull in out from the hollies I told Sara I wouold make her a wreath from that kind of vine. She, of course, thought Grammie was completely nuts with this sort of project. Grammie had never made a wreath in her life so Sara wsn't too far of the mark thre after all. But I just sat in a white plastic chair winding this vine around itself until I had actually created a wreath about 16" wide. It's up to Sara and Jake to decorate it for Halloween and then convince their mother to let them hang the thing!!
It's hot. That was about the limit of my creativity for the week. Now back to sorting through clothing and digging through drawers and closets for yet more surprises to drag to the lovely folks at Goodwill to rehabilitate. Last trek included a dozen stufed animals, including some rare light beige monkeys left over from one year when Starr's team mascot at camp was a beige monkey. I'm actually enjoying this process as well as the garden/yard reclamation work. Just wish it were November and 55-60F outside. And of course wish my house were sold and I was getting ready to relocate to somewhere small with large rooms!
