brief glimpses
went bramble picking for this morning's breakfast last evening
a crepuscular hike together with Django
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'all I got was this leaf print'
spent an enjoyable Saturday afternoon in a nearby Heemtuin i.e. indigenous plant garden; first we had a tour with Paul Hoftijzer, who explained he knows almost all the edible indigenous plants and helped us identify them; his cooking website's Dutch but he has an English one of his artwork, link here
We ended up making eco-prints on paper, using plant based inks mixed with either rice paste or linseed oil, following friendly instructions from artist Ingrid Geesink.
I met new people and made new contacts with (local) artists, who knows where this could go?
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21 July finished this necklace, planning to make more like this for the pendants, although I find myself not actually making much these days. This particular one was a present for a Danish cousin; we saw each other at my parents' place two weeks ago. I'm spending a lot of time with my folks. Mum is still hanging in there. Despite having chosen the euthanasia-route about a month ago, letting go is not easy for her. Family and friends continue to visit to say 'goodbye'
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we had house guests: two Springer Spaniels Tommy and Springer, both very active; I made several ink drawings of Tommy pretending to sleep
just finished and thoroughly enjoyed Claire Tomalin's A life of my own, a fascinating, absorbing autobiography; a book I bought on a whim during our holiday two years ago in Yorkshire. Our eldest recommended Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency on Netflix, guessing I would like it: he was right, from the start I was hooked, it is a great distraction
I suppose there was more, but half my brain is off-kilter
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last but not least, a short video of young wrens chirping for food, a nest box on our porch!
this was 15 July
Comments
It's so, so good to see you here. I've been thinking and thinking about you. xo
Every day during those seven weeks, friends would come to our home to say their goodbyes, bringing food, flowers, laughter and music for my Mother loved to dance and even got up a few times to do so with me, before it got to be too much for her. Those weeks were some of the hardest in my life and also, looking back, some of my most cherished memories. May it be so for you as you move through this time of celebrating your Mother and her passage to come.
thx Liz, I sigh with you; a friend dropped by for a swim in the river this morning (we are experiencing a heatwave over here) she lost her mother almost a year ago, she mentioned how 'umbilically' connected we seem to remain to our mums until they die, I suddenly realised how true that is
thank you for sharing this memory Marti, your parents died young....it is indeed a hard & bittersweet time.....we three children are beginning to feel worn down by it all, that is the way it is
birds are medicine.