Forgotten
Lately I have been enjoying the poetry of W. S. Merwin. Above are a few lines from one of my favorite poems, Far Company. It describes a vague memory so perfectly.
I had fun making this brain out of plasticine. It was used to illustrate a talk about learning and brain plasticity that a dear colleague and I gave at NAEA this year (minus the poem and plus identification of the areas of the brain involved in learning and memory).
The plasticine brain was passed around and audience members were encouraged to change it by leaving their mark on it. My actual brain left the conference very much changed and full of new ideas!
Holy toast!
This loaf had two holes shot straight through from start to finish. No good for sandwiches, but fabulous for toast! It also inspired a bit of fun for this week’s weekword, glimpse.
While I am in the kitchen enjoying toast with butter and honey, let me give you a glimpse of what is in my cupboards.
Packing up the kitchen will be the most difficult part of moving for me. Not just physically (so much breakable stuff!), but emotionally. We cook and bake a lot in this family. The kitchen is where most of our good memories are made.
For quite a while we enjoyed the “wallpaper archeology project”. A few years ago I removed some cabinets and discovered layers of vintage wallpaper and paint that, to my eye, were gorgeous. Of course, when it was time to put the house on the market, the wall had to be “fixed” (harumph). But it was a fun glimpse into the past while it lasted!
We are going to have to search high and low for a kitchen in Kingston that can live up to our memories of this one.
Alright, that’s enough kitchen affection for one day, it’s back to packing for me! Head over to Heather’s lovely blog to get a glimpse of what others have posted!
Sloth
I chose the word sloth for the Weekword prompt this week after finishing my last day at work before our move. I thought I’d be writing about a very lazy week in which I took it easy, ate lunches out with friends, played cards and read novels. Instead, the week filled up with surprises, mostly pleasant, but requiring reams of paperwork and errands. Aw well, I am not a very good sloth anyway!
I recently completed illustrations for a fabulous new novel that takes place in the Amazon rainforest. The book, The Understory was written by Elizabeth Leiknes and will be published this June. I had the great pleasure of creating the cover illustration as well as little rainforest dingbats that were used to separate the sections and decorate the chapter heads. The first step, of course, was to read the book. It was amazing! But don’t take my word for it, check out the reviews on Goodreads. It was a lot of fun researching the plants and animals of the rainforest, especially the adorable sloth! Sloth faces have such personality. Above is a color version.
In the book, a little b/w sloth swings from the letter U in the word Sunday.
Take a look at the slothful fun others have had this week:
Sally at Sow and Sew
Jen at Timballoo
Emma at the Gift Shed
Katy at Misericordia
It’s nice to be back, thanks for the warm welcome! Now who’s up next? (tapping chin with finger)
Heather will pick our next word! Head over to her blog to get a glimpse of what’s to come!
50 is the new 30!
Ok, maybe this is the real reason we are moving to Canada ;)
After a long hiatus, I am jumping back into the weekword fun! Last week Sally chose the word travel. I will be doing a lot of traveling and exploring in the next year. Does anyone have any suggestions for interesting stops along the route from Maryland to Ontario?
I’ve been tapped to choose the next word. Rainforests have been coming up in conversation quite a bit in the last month. One of my favorite rainforest creatures is the slow moving sloth. Let’s see what your creative minds will come up with for the word sloth!
If you would like to join in the fun, please leave me a comment and make a post about the word sloth by Friday. I will post a list of participants along with my own slothful post.
Phase One has begun…
We have begun our big move to Canada! This move will take place in stages over the next year. For a while we will have two homes, an apartment in Kingston, Ontario and a house in Baltimore, Maryland.
The view from each is so very different.
Pi Day
We celebrated Pi Day with white pizza with mozzarella, ricotta garlic and rosemary…
Mad Housewife wine courtesy of Miss Brittany, bless her heart…
and a very lemony meringue pie. Fun.
Skating
Time flies.
Ten years ago at Rash Field, Baltimore.
Last week in Kingston, Ontario. I wish I had taken more pictures, but we were having so much fun flying around the rink!
coffee
This week the prompt at Illustration Friday is fuel. Coffee is the fuel of choice around here.
My barista-husband buys green beans from Sweet Maria’s and roasts them in the oven. Yum.
About four years ago I bought him a little coffee plant. This year it produced its first berries! I was told that in five years we’d have enough beans for one cup o’ joe. I can’t wait!
