Basil from tonight's supper. (We made a sauce of fresh tomatoes for our pasta.)
Back to school week - keeping things together.
I've just realized that this particular plastic duck is older than any of my children.
Doll's forearm. Not sure where this one came from, but it's been in a bowl of small change on my bureau for a long time
One foot is folded under me, the other one sticks out.
Not too many more days in the year for wearing these comfortable sandals...
By winter, we will have forgotten what these taste like.
Glass, empty, on the table. Found myself wanting to use a brush today, and black and white, after lots of days of fine lines or painted color.
We got out the playing cards, but decided we felt like talking instead.
Another one. Because we have many right now - so good to eat.
Some of the tomatoes we have right now are unusual. This one is mostly dark green, but I can tell by feel (and scent) that it's ripe and ready for the table.
So fresh, it still has a leaf.
A small rag I use for wiping off my brushes becomes a flower-like shape.
We cut down this hillside when we walk to our favorite city pool.
Made by a child from cups, masking tape, papier mache, and paint.
Got three watercolor pencils at the art store today. Colors felt tentative and awkward at first, but after I added a little gouache to the composition, I liked it better.
Bottle of tacky white glue toward the back of my desk. Left to dry with the cap unscrewed, so no telling whether any glue can be induced to come out when I need to use it next. Have tightened the cap after the fact.
On the hillside by the public pool. (And hmm, the Hi-Tec C pen is not waterproof if the brush with paint on it is really wet and the pen's ink has not yet had time to dry.)
For breakfast tomorrow...
Recharge. Update software. Sync. (Lather, rinse, repeat.)
Drawn with a Pilot Hi-Tec C 0.25 - a kind of pen I haven't used in a long time. (I got a batch that weren't reliably waterproof, and gave up on them for a while.) Ordered a new one from jetpens.com because I missed that fine fine line, and lo and behold, it doesn't smudge when I wash over it with color. I've been using it for more than a week, now, and am happy to have it back in my pencil case.
Stars came and went behind the clouds as we watched, lying on our backs in the grass. A dog came over to make friends, but no Pleiades visible for us tonight - too much city light, too many clouds.
Such cheerful fruit.
Given a choice, I prefer zucchini.
Local peaches are even better than yesterday's melon.
Cantaloupe. Local. Thought I'd paint a slice, but the scent was too tempting, the flavor perfect. So I ate and then painted, rather than the other way around.
Ready to do a little bit of proofreading, then hope for another good rainstorm while we sleep.
Nothing matches the taste of a local tomato in August.
A few left from an assortment of rice crackers.
Two ends of an orange ribbon hang down from the edge of my bureau, like bookmarks. Here's where I stopped picking things up today. Perhaps tomorrow...
Drawn in pen, however.
End of the week, edge of a frame.
Local. Look forward to tasting it, especially as the tomatoes are coming in now, too.
Left in the grass near the side of the pool. When I got out, I sat on my towel and drew them. Then it was time to put them on, get some groceries, and go home.
House is quiet. Phone rings. Older son calling.
"Hi," I say. "Hang on a sec, I was just painting a potato." Silence at his end. "I mean, I'm painting a picture of a potato - not painting the potato, not painting on a potato." "Oh," he says. "Oh. For a moment, there..."
From an odd angle: my left foot.
Late afternoon at the pool, and hardly anyone there - maybe because it had been rainy earlier in the day? Our favorite city pool is in a large park, and you are surrounded by trees and flowers as you swim.
After I'd finished drinking the water, I drew the glass and the lemon in it.
Top of a tree next door as lit by very late light - near sunset. The colors anticipate not just the end of a summer day, but the end of summer itself.
This variety is named Pristine. Tart and good for baking, and right from the farm. We made a double batch of applesauce.
Interior landscape, with books for rocks, and edge of table as horizon.
Returned home to find that the refrigerator had stopped working while we were gone. Interesting collection of molds... Threw out the spoiled stuff, and scrubbed the interior. Fortunately I have a summer cold, and can't smell very much. Repair person comes tomorrow.
Seen from the train window, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The shapes of the wrecked rowboat echo the shapes of the rocky beach.
Sat on the beach at the edge of the rocks as the tide came in - just finished painting as a wave curled over my foot and around my ankle.
Hazy and hot all day, until the thunder, lightning, and rain came after sundown. Sat on the porch to watch the storm approaching, spotting lightning way up along the coast of New Hampshire and Maine, then closer and closer and flashing just across the bay. Rain, but not so hard we needed to close windows, and now the fresh cool smell of the air after the storm.
Sun so bright today that the jumpers and swimmers became silhouettes.
After fog and cool rain all day, the sky cleared to stripes of blue and pink at sunset.
Granite at high tide. An overcast day, but the rain did not start until nightfall. Good for the garden and the straw-yellow summer grasses.
A present from one of my sons - found on the beach.
The sea was much colder after yesterday's rainstorm.
In the middle of a fierce storm, I drew the anchor. (On a model ship, indoors.)
Today I drew with charcoal found on the beach - the remains of someone's fire, left above the high tide line. Later, I painted.
Drawn with a twig dipped in black paint. (Didn't have an ink bottle with me at the beach.) Color added with a brush, afterwards.
Or so it sounded from shore. The launch called out instructions, "You're over-steering!" and the sailboats tried to respond.
In the dark after a hot day, I sat on the porch to draw a tree by drawing all the parts of the picture that were not the tree's trunk and branches.
This will be a vacation full of beach days, and - most likely - beach drawings.
The tide was right for an afternoon at the beach.
As seen from the train window, not too long after we pulled out of New York City.
The book I almost forgot to pack. And it was in plain view, with an orange cover - how could I have missed it?
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