Maybe May weather often disappoints me, but we did have three miraculous sun-filled days in the middle of the month, perfectly timed for a visit from Lady and Lord B and their dad. We’d planned two nights in Seattle.
Then Joe Biden heard and came along! Apparently, because we never saw him – or the Beast! But we saw his welcome protectors, scores of Secret Service people and police, the streets surrounding the Westin hotel closed, even pedestrian access limited to one entrance with a metal detector. Much excitement.
We were there to watch Lady B, and her team from Alaska, climb rock walls in an indoor rock-climbing gym. I’d never seen one of those gyms – the high walls took my breath away, and the skinny, slippery looking holds for feet and hands (with names like buckets, jugs, baskets, and ladder rungs) look precarious – but she did a masterful job. I loved seeing her and all those sporty girls, hair pulled back, splash of glitter on cheeks, hands covered with chalk, roped in, and totally focused.
Lady B leaves elementary school this spring – and on to 7th grade! She has been a character here for so long – a newborn baby in a snowy Alaska winter. She’s still just as sweet and kind and smart as she ever was – just taller (she claims taller than I am).
It was so good to see her brother also – he carried around a huge sack of books and sat on the floor of the gym’s spectator spot (a small space crowded with people, participants, coaches, parents, gear) with his nose buried in one book or another. At pizza dinner one night, he wrote a story about the president’s visit, having learned his code name and other presidential facts – though not the floor of the Presidential Suite.
I appreciate friends who made the trek to visit the Miller Library show this month, it ends this week. But I received a surprise request from Bainbridge Arts and Crafts, would I bring the Miller work to them? Due to a cancellation, they needed an artist for their “Botanicals” show in July. And so, I will – not the prints, but books and paintings, and maybe something new. The two other artists who will be showing, Naomi Kusangi and Aaron Knight, make interesting work from the natural world! I’m excited – and glad the work will be close to home for a month.
May greened the trees, skeletal for so long, maple leaves expanded from tiny beginnings and gathered the four trees in the neighborhood circle into one quivering, huge canopy. Clematis and the old roses flash their strong colors against the green.
And now, summer begins – and it will go so quickly. It’s a fact hard to explain, but the 31 dark days of January last much longer than the 31 days of May. Daylit days fly!
her spirits rose... 
Such a happy orange rose. I can’t believe that Lady B will be in 7th grade next year. Time flies for sure. I’m glad you can continue your show on the Island. The other two artists look like good company for your art. Summer is certainly slow in coming this year, and these days of sunshine are such a tease. But the rose seems determined to take advantage of every minute of warmth. xoxoxo
Thank you Carol – and I’m trying to be grateful for rain in face of drought – soon we will be worrying about dry!
I can’t believe Lady B is going to be a 7th grader! I’ve followed her (from afar) but this has crept up o me.
I love the painting on the botanical page. Do you prepare the page in any way before painting on it?
Vicki – you have indeed been here since the beginning! Thank you! And the old pages – I don’t prepare them – but it might be better if I did – I tried once to put a layer of paint — but I was sorry to miss the words, but did make the painting easier. I am not using watercolor – but acryla gouache – and that has more ‘hold out’ than watercolor – but I tend to put too much water in it – so end by having to flatten very wibbly pages! Some of the old encyclopedias of plants have sturdy paper (libraries are a good source, they often discard them) – others not so much (but words I like!) You could do with w/c – if you used next to no water (a hard habit to break). Gouache also.