July 2023, Week 28, Day 196

After all the rain we've had in New England, I expect in the news will be reports of mosquito activity. Already, not a day goes by without reading a headline about a diseases ticks and mosquitoes carry. 

It is a serious issue.

Be Safe. 

Use bug repellant, long pants and when you can, a mosquito net hat. 

Alas, I have high hopes that August will be a summery summer month.

After watching on YouTube the UK art series for Portrait Artists of the Year, and Landscape Artists of the Year, my enthusiasm is on the rise. 

The contestants are given 4 hours to complete their artwork of a model or place. If I give myself an hour, then I might be encouraged to finish paintings.  

Torenia

I'm still writing poems, but no new poetry blog as yet. When I have a good name, I search the Internet as well as the domain name availability. Using the name of a poem for the blog name is the what I am going with.

Meanwhile, today is dust, vacuum, wash floors, shred papers, and laundry. 

Have a spectacular weekend!

Make something out of cardboard

Pack a sandwich lunch 

Have lunch outdoors

Read about celery

Sing to a flower

Draw a set of stairs

Day dream about a beach cottage

Study local wind currents

Handmade Paper: First Slurry

From bowl soaking overnight, I squeezed out a small bunch cut cotton to pound into slurry. Otherwise, the excess water will splash each time the cotton is pounded with the pestle.

 

In addition to pounding, I moved/grinded the pestle in a swirling motion inside to mortar. 

After pounding the small amount, it is obvious to me that the process will pound the fibers small enough to become slurry when water is added.

Inside the mortar after adding some water, the slurry is seen in the middle. The amount in the mortar is about 1 tablespoon. of rough cotton fiber slurry.

Conclusion for This Process:  

The amount of pounding required is too high to make creating cotton fiber slurry this way practical, for me. At the rate of 1 tablespoon per pounding session, about 5 to 10 minutes, the process is better used as a muscle building technique than making  paper slurry. 

However, I will finish the batch I started. At a consistency that will not drip through a drying screen, I'm guessing there may be enough for one small greeting card. 

The Arches watercolor paper that I use is made from 100% cotton, and, is acid free. All the old watercolors I've saved for reference will be reused. I can also buy sheets to make slurry.

For comparison to scale, the tiny white area is the slurry poured back into the soaking bowl (upper right).

After the Thunderstorms

The sky this evening had a golden glow*. There was more blue and silver lining some of the formations, mostly the fractus pieces. A large thunderstorm system passed through this lower elevation of Vermont. The thunder rumbled, but wasn't as severe as I expected in my local area. 

In the Montpelier area and the mid section of Vermont had a severely devastating flooding this week. 

Wherever you may be

Stay Safe

Enjoy your weekend

Pray for Peace

Embrace Summer

*The original golden glow photo is replaced with the bluer one.

Edited to reduce yellow
Original photo posted

Handmade Paper: First Try Soak

To be clear here,

this is my first attempt to make homemade paper, using strips of old cotton or any material 

for that matter.

I am not using instructions.

This method is based on what I have read about the process from various sources (none in particular).

When cutting up the strips, do it over a bowl pointing the cut edge downward into the bowl. 

If you don't, then the cut bits

can pop out into the room.

The bowl I am using is

hard plastic. It is smaller than I want, but it is good enough to act as the mortar I will use to pound the soaked cotton 

into, I hope, slurry.

The next step will be about the slurry making.

 

Later this afternoon, as a thunderstorm system passes over darkening the sky, a few notes.

I pounded a very small amount using a marble mortar and pestle to see how the fibers react. For sure, it will take a considerable amount of pounding to turn the cotton into slurry.

Splashing as I pounded was an issue.

And one more thing, I don't remember the last time doing an art project I felt like such a clumsy slob. Threads and bits of cotton everywhere, Water all over my shirt.

Slowing Down July With Art

2015 Dry Corn Husks

In 2015 I had a fascination with dry corn husks. Found objects have a way of capturing my attention in ways that result in small stashes of things that I have yet to decide what to do with. A recent closet dive turned up a plastic bag of dry corn husks, none of which have a tint of green.
 

More Dry Corn Husks 2015

My current interest is handmade paper. This morning I tore up a piece of an old cotton sheet. I will cut it up more with scissors, and then try my hand at pounding it to make a paper slurry. I have good pounding stones. It is the mortar that I need. I'm thinking an older microwave bowl is  sturdy enough.

Then, I saw the photographs of the dry corn husks as I was searching for a photograph. Hm? Handmade paper and corn husks? A quick Internet search tells me dry corn husks are good for making paper!

If you are busy, then time can fly by faster. However, if you are engaged in creating art, when your art concentration spell lifts,  it is amazing how time feels as if it stood still.

Now I wish I hadn't thrown the bag of dry corn husks in the compost bag.

Pondering the Subject of Clash

Mother's favorite colors were various shades of pink and orange, together, the brighter, the better. One might call the combination loud.

In my fifth or sixth grade year, she made a cotton semi flared (poofy) skirt of swirling flowers in those colors...for me. I did actually wear it to school, feeling if on a florist's trash pile, I could almost disappear.

The clash.

I'm not much of a loud bright colorful clothes person. I sense that I was born with the wonderful LLBean vibe of Earth colors with a hazy summer tone. 

Pink and orange don't clash. The taste for color in clothes between my mother and I did. 

Looking back, how often does what you want in life clash with reality? Your choices versus your love ones? Common sense collide with passion?

On a positive note, not all clashes are negative events. Extreme sports, for example. The only time I will fly through the sky is on a plane, no matter how much fun hang gliding might be.

What clashes have you had? 

Thoughts On a White Cosmos

Cosmos 2023

Like a faerie among the green,

a cosmos petal pushes a leaf 

out of the way, 

to see the white summer sky.

At peak Summer time,

the few weeks ahead are the days we should be out enjoying the season.

Don't  miss your summer.

July 2023, Week 27, Day 189

 

Dusty Miller & Petunia

Nearing mid July, we will be at peak Summer here in this Northern Hemisphere. 

I still have a sense of waiting for summer to arrive. 

On the bright side, Neutrogena* Beach Defense sunscreen SPF 30 doesn't irritate my facial skin (applied lightly).

Mosquitoes I've seen this year, haven't reached a high level due to regularly spraying repellent before I go outdoors, especially my foot area. I read last year mosquitoes are drawn to the odor of feet. Mind you, feet can be clean and still have a scent. That explains  why my feet were bitten so often when I got in my vehicle. 

Last week I was reminded of website glitches. Walmart, for example, (using a cell phone), sends verification codes that are rejected when I'm trying to change my phone number. On my computer, I can't log in because Walmart requires sending a code to my old phone number. No other option is provided. Contacting and, sending feedback about the problem has yet, in I think a year plus, helped them fix the glitch.

In order to have correct information on my Walmart page I had to open another account. Imagine a business with duplicate accounts. 

The glitch is not unique. There are other websites I've used that have similar problems. To their credit, Google is not one of them.

To be fair, human glitch. I couldn't find my phone. Using the Google Search, I found my phone on the phone stand right beside me where I put it. The problem...I also put a paper in front of it to cover the lens.

Ugh.

The more I shop online, the more I love feet in the door at a real live in person store. 

How was your week?

*Not a sponsered post

Photograph of the week

Pink Grapefruit
 Achillea (Yarrow)

The Middlebury Agway Farm & Garden had a nice sale for buy 3, get 1 free. Perfect timing because I wanted a special flower for my tiny deck garden without spending a lot of money. 

I've loved the perennial, yarrow, ever since I read a 1980s article in Woman's Day Magazine on how to dry and dye a yarrow bouquet. 

The Pink Grapefruit Achillea Yarrow has an enchanting magical vibe. In full sun it will be planted to give height. Torenia and snapdragons will be layered in front of the tiny pink blossoms.  One achilllea will  over the years will spread to fill the space.

~~~~~~~~~~

Have a pink lemonade weekend! 

Read about the biosphere

Baked stuffed zucchini

Try on a temporary tattoo

Draw a bouquet

Make rope sandals

Sing to your sunscreen

Write yourself a funny letter

Mail the letter to yourself

Weather & the Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm Weather Symbol

Weather

Earth's mood swings

Atmospheric goings on

What's it like outdoors?

Wherever we may be,  there is weather. We plan for it. We dress for it. We pray for it. 

What surrounds us under the sky is our background. 

This morning  I step outside to a gentle breeze, warm, dry, comforting. The biosphere is embracing the beauty of summer, and me with it.

The National Weather Service meteorological forecast  indicates rain and possible thunderstorms mainly after 1 PM EDT in Vermont today. 

I haven't counted the number of days we've had a similar report, but I guess it is well over a dozen since late May 2023.

Looking Towards the Southwest

A recent thunderstorm system moved directly over Vergennes. It was huge from north to south, nearly horizon to horizon.

Looking Southeast

Safety. The rule is that if you can hear thunder, then lightening is close enough to strike you. 

Get out of the water!

When we heard that command at the town pool or beach, we got out of the water.

Thunderstorms may be beautifully dramatic, but they can also be tragically fatal.

The Moon, Writing & Reading

Northern Hemisphere 
Over Vergennes, Vermont, 2 July 2017

 Identifying a photograph is important as adding the 

who, what when, where and 

sometimes the how to an article. 

For the Moon photo, I added the 

where and when in the caption. 

The  photo was first posted 

on this blog on 7 July 2017. 

~~~~~~~

Thinking back on writing, I've taken more writing courses in my life time that I have art courses beginning with journalism in high school to experimental writing in college. I could not tell you in a conversation the technical terms of grammar, techniques of writing or even the define the types of writing with good accuracy.

Over time we can develop habits. For example, I use but, and, sometimes, and thus too often. Keeping our writing skills fresh can be done by reading, fiction as well as non fiction.

Twice a year, I make a summer and winter reading list that is mainly books recommended by bloggers. I also subscribed to Good Reads.

Today I will be reading, doing laundry, staying indoors, and, washing floors. At the moment, it is time to make coffee.

Have a wonderful day!