Thursday, August 9, 2018

a few steps behind the current reality


or straddling realities. I'm not quite fully immersed in the 'land of art' as my husband puts it. When I am, I'm not really fully present in daily life because even when I'm not physically working on a piece, mentally I'm still with it. I'm not to that point yet, I can still disconnect but a few days from now it would be harder. I've gotten four of the tiles set up and started sculpting the first hummingbird piece. 


The fifth tile I'm reconsidering the drawing, think maybe I'll do something else. Next week, though, is the three day workshop I signed up for in Austin so I don't want to get too invested in what I'm doing. I'll be leaving on Tuesday and won't get back til late Friday.

I went for my massage last Tuesday, full body concentrating on arms, neck, and shoulders, deep tissue work in those areas. It's crunchy in there, she told me, asking several times if she was going too deep. No, no, I said but Wednesday morning I was so sore and still a little residual soreness today but the pain in my biceps is much improved. I'll probably wait a couple of weeks and go back for a shorter session just on those areas.

Outside, it's nearly mid-August, the dog days of summer, so called because the hottest days of the year are associated with the rising of the star Sirius, the dog star. Sirius is also the brightest star in the sky and is called the dog star because of it's position in the constellation Canis Major. That's the historical explanation. To me it's the dog days because these are the days that are so hot that even dogs just want to lay around.

This is the time of year as well that all the foliage starts looking tired and faded and, our few brief rain showers aside, the tallows and pecans are dropping leaves and the big white crepe myrtle is shedding it's old layer of bark.


But a few things seem to like the heat like the flowering senna


and this althea


and the mexican bird of paradise



and the yellow bells


and the star of india (gardenia family).


Personally, I'll be glad when fall finally arrives sometime around October, if we're lucky, with highs in the more tolerable 80s.





22 comments:

  1. Our fall should start in mid-September, and like you, I am more than ready.

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  2. I love it that you love flowers, but what is that tree with the scaly bark? If it were growing here in Oregon, I would guess madrone, but in Austin...?

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    1. hi Snowbrush! that is a crepe myrtle tree. mature crepe myrtles shed their bark every year. they also flower. this one is pretty dramatic about it. and it's in my yard an hour or so outside Houston, not Austin. Austin is where the workshop is I'm taking next week.

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    2. I'm from Mississippi so that I know what crepe myrtles are. They also grow where planted here in Oregon, but they don't get nearly so big, and they don't bloom for nearly so long. I suppose I didn't recognize your plant because it appears to be in dense shade, and I think of crepe myrtles as being sun-loving.

      As for where you live, I was relying upon my faulty memory.

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    3. this is an old one, white, and is planted between an oak and our house. since it's so tall, taller than the house, it gets sun from the other direction but because it's so tall the only reason I notice it's blooming is because I see the little flowers on the driveway. it also has two climbing roses that grow up into it. plus it was overcast when I took the picture.

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  3. The land of art. Yep. True. I've been there. Love the Mexican Bird of Paradise. I had no idea such a flower existed.

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  4. I've disliked the bird of paradise till I saw yours. I like it.

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  5. I just went outside and a coming storm is sending gusts of wind which was causing yellow leaves to fly from the walnut like some sort of crazy snow. Our crepe myrtle are peeling too. I think they're beautiful.

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  6. The flowers are beautiful! I never new the crepe myrtle shed its bark - sort of like a snake tree. I think I might be too challenged to revert back to my creative self. I cannot focus on anything longer than a nanosecond. Is your workshop related to your art? How nice to be immersed for three days in something you love.

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  7. Beautiful flora. I know what you mean about being immersed in a creative work product. When I am not working on the book, I am walking around appearing to be present but really I am playing with narrative connections in my head. It's when I feel the least unsettled in my being, so I don't mind, really.

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  8. crepe myrtle- what a cool looking tree- it sheds like madrona. The flowers are amazing, how do they stand the long hot days?? IT has edged up to 90 here, very unusual - so it goes and there we are...Loving your works ART is everything!

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  9. Those yellow bells .... is that the plant also known as Esperanza?

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  10. Gorgeous flowering plants. I am actually checking which ones would make it here. Our summer has been hot enough for them, but the winter?

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    1. we don't get extended periods of freezing weather.a couple of hours at night several times during the winter though last winter we had a couple of weeks of temps in the 20s - 40s but that is unusual. the flowering senna made it through as did the altheas but the yellow bells freeze to the ground as does the mexican bird of paradise. those two probably would not make it through your winter. the star of india is in a pot and I bring it in but I had a big one in the ground when I lived in the city.

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    2. Could I try the Mexican bird of paradise in a pot?

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    3. I don't see why not. given the right conditions, in the ground in sun they can get to be 8' tall and about as broad. mine isn't near that, about as tall as me but then it only gets a half day of sun and it froze to the ground this last winter. but surely I've seen it in a pot. you'd probably have to bring it in in winter cause snow, right? you get snow? anyway, I could send you some seeds if you can't find it there. Caesalpinia Pulcherrima

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    4. I just added another picture under the first so you can see what the whole plant looks like...that ferny foliage with the seed pods. the stems are covered in soft thorns and that tallest flower is taller than me at 5'4".

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    5. Thanks. I found a supplier for seeds and now that I see your plant, I am pretty certain I have seen it growing somewhere in this part of the world. It's similar to a mimosa? We can do mimosa, we just cover them in winter/moving the pot into the laundry. We are too close to the river, so rarely have more than 1-3 days of snow or heavy frost but everything is changing.
      I just love the colouring of your blossoms.

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    6. well, similar in the appearance of it's foliage but it's not a tree, just a large shrub.

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  11. Pretty flowers! I never get so involved in anything that I'm not also "in the world" - well unless I'm reading a good book. And Mike can attest that that is VERY ANNOYING to other people. Ha!

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  12. Definitely dog days here in Florida too! At least you have some impressive flowers to see you through. Bravo on the massage! A good massage makes everything better.

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