So hot on Farmer's Market day that my camera lens was fogging up. What do cactus leaves taste like? Do you boil them? Fry them? And how do you not get prickers in your mouth? Did I just write that?
It is raining, torrential cloudbursts of much-needed rain, accompanied by a tiny bit of thunder and very little wind. I am wearing an old fleece jacket I fished out of the hall closet because I refuse to leave the screened porch as I am all tidied up with painting journal, the newspaper, and two sleeping dogs. Finally, the rain gets heavier and the wind picks up and it's either abandon the porch while ye may or risk a laptop disaster, so I go.
Not far, though, just into the living room, to the wicker chair pulled up by the fireplace. I look at the fireplace and notice the cobwebs behind the grate and contemplate pulling it all out for a good cleaning, but resist the taxing job as today is get Art and Writing Done Day because the next few weekend will be busy.
Or maybe...the lens had a smear? I would have this for lunch but there is NO food in this house today.
(My phone is buzzing like crazy in my pocket. Good thing I stopped typing to look at it. The National Weather Service somehow got my phone number and is texting to tell me that I need to take cover immediately because of Extreme Weather in our area and Tornado Warning. Hmm. When did I sign up for these warnings and if I did not, Big Brother has truly reached into my pocket. In any event, the sun is out now, so I have a feeling the tornado warning is a tad late (as so said Dorothy....i)
I don't think I've sat in this chair all summer. In fact, I don't recall the last time I sat in the living room. I use the porch for eating, lounging, reading, painting, and on the hottest nights, sleeping. Mr. Pom put the baseball game on low and if he sits on the porch sofa, he can see the hideous large screen TV that dominates the living room, and he keeps me company.
The rain is pretty cool today. We haven't had any in ages and the hydrangeas, despite out best watering efforts, have begun to dry out into brown seed heads.It is the first change-of-season day, that day that makes you put on fleece and feel all snuggly, pull a package of lentils out of the cupboard and make the first soup, and sit in your living room and decide that you need more red things in here to cozy it up.
No, it definitely was the heat. Makes the berries and peaches look all dreamy...
It may even be the First Tea Day, though I don't usually inaugurate Cup of Tea Day until late September. Do you drink tea in the summer? And not iced, but hot? I have this biological aversion to hot tea from mid-May to the end of September. I drink coffee, hot and iced, but always hot in the morning all year-round. In winter, I make several cups of tea a day, especially after dinner, leading to a checkered night's sleep interrupted by numerous trips to the bathroom. In summer, I am hot coffee in the morning, iced decaf by afternoon, and either hot or iced after dinner. I just can't stomach a cup of tea with the fans on. It doesn't make any sense, I know, but I am slave to my desires.
Last night, K and I traveled into the city for a rare Friday night Art & Girls evening. We slapped glazes of acrylics on tiny canvases and thought of words to emblazon courtesy of the delightful and charming Seth Apter, and Michele Luxenberg our lovely hostess of Little Bird Creations. It was a challenge to work small; I think I need to make a bigger mess to get back to the practice of layering acrylics. There just wasn't enough surface mass to work with, though I did a good job of getting paint everywhere. Working in acrylics after almost of year of watercolors was like running across an old friend on the street: you are thrilled to see them but wonder what you are going to talk about. After awhile, I remembered how they work and though most of what I did turned out muddy, I was glad for the refresher course and now must steel myself NOT to play with my various collections of Goldens acrylics, tube and fluid, cause I am supposed to stay FOCUSED on the books. So although I am lusting after a bottle of Micacious Oxide, it must wait until October.
We all agreed last night that "mixed media artist" is just a pseudonym for "Wanna Have It All". I am trying not to buy any art materials, fabric, paper, or books. We have declared September to be The Month of Austerity. And our trip to Dick Blick for a drawing slant board and various tubes of gouache and beautiful decorative paper and 10-inch letter stencils did not count because it was on Labor Day, the End of Summer Holiday, and thus we couldn't possibly be austere.
Austerity Month wouldn't be so bad except I told Mr. Pom about it and now he will hold me accountable. He likes to pop up from downstairs in the evening and catch me surfing Etsy or Zappos or worse, Amazon, and then I sigh and click off the tab, knowing full well that my cart will remain there for as long as I wish.
But what do I really need? Nothing more than a rainy Saturday, an old fleece jacket, two sleepy dogs, coffee, and
Oh yes. I ordered it before the Austerity Month pledge, though it came afterwards, so it doesn't count. I dare you. In fact I double dare you NOT to buy it. Warning: if you succumb, cross off the delivery day for you will get nothing done except run for your sketchbook and #2 pencil and paints and there goes the day. It's that good.