The view from here

 Three's a crowd

oil on mulberry paper

I realized that I am in my fifth year of blogging.  Five years of writing thoughts, posting images of success and failure in art.  Sharing snippets of life with a group of people who I know and don't know.

I wonder at times if I'll run out of words or ideas for posts or images to show the world.  Silences from me are usually short lived while I work on other things or life refuses to provide me with enough time to share thoughts in any cohesive form. But they still seem to come, at least for now.


I'm still waiting for supplied to turn up to do more work on my gyotaku project.  I do have the basics here, but am waiting for an order of Caligo inks to arrive.  These are oil based but clean up with soap and water.  I have a variety of inks on order to be able to see what works best for me. 

I do have a number of Japanese printing papers here now and some of them are exquisite. And some of them are quite expensive.  None are cheap, but they do print beautifully. 

Today I experimented a little with some leaf printing using oils.  They have a tackier feel to them and work well in printing.  I have to say that I prefer them over the water based inks I've used and they also give a crisper gyotaku image from what I've tried so far with them.  It will be interesting to see how the Caligo inks perform.

Today was a welcome warm day, warm enough to seek shelter from the sun in the gazebo.  Poor gazebo hasn't seen much use this year as the weather's been abysmal this season, but hopefully will change soon.  The gazebo is built on the edge of the woods between what was the enclosed garden for the dog and the meadow.  I can get wireless signal from the house and work or draw there which is an advantage.

The views on all sides are green and lush with coppiced willows sprouting madly and larch trees with that lovely bright green growth of a new season.

If I walk through the gate and past a small greenhouse that I use for tender herbs, I am in the meadow and my wild herb garden.  Wild only because a change in location for herbs meant they were all dumped in this particular area and now run rampant.  That's not always a bad thing and its not as if they are going to interfere with anything else, so I let them be.  Right now the sweet cicely is flowering and seed heads forming.  Its one of my favourites with its lovely aniseed scent and taste.

The strip of tilled soil is waiting for new occupants and if bugs abate, will be filled soon.

If I turn around to face right from this view, the meadow is in front of me and another vegetable bed.  This was one of the meadows that the horses romped in when I had them.  Now its more manicured and today it looked as if I should be setting it up for a game of croquet or other game that requires lots of space.

Finally back down through the gate towards the gazebo again.  See how easily I get distracted and wander off?