A Day

I awoke yesterday morning feeling punky in the stomach and punkier in the spirit. I have felt that the days are slipping through my fingers with little of substance getting done. This day looked to be another scattered collection of moments, betraying the scattered aspects of my mind. And so I began to record:

Brief strength training

Rinsed silk that I had dyed yesterday and put it in wash

Grabbed breakfast as I read the local paper

Rinsed silk final time and hung out to dry

Printed out a few Clarks Pond Watershed Association flyers to hang from doorknobs of new home                owners

Went to Newburyport Literary Festival: lecture by Stephen Greenblatt on newest book on the           

              Adam/Eve story

Watched Tom take part in Tai chi saber demonstration on waterfront

Ate less than spectacular lunch ( not good for the punky stomach) and spectacular scones from  

              bakery in Tannery

Listened to Ramie Targoff talk at Newburyport Art Association about her new biography of Vittoria                Colonna, an unknown to us but influential Renaissance woman, and saw Lit, a beautiful 

               exhibit by Sue Charles

Took silk off line and evaluated color

Discovered hostas coming up

Checked on peach tree with its first year of blossoms

Walked to town to sale at health food store

On way home met new owners of house around corner that we had been wanting to invite to join our                pond association

Talked to another neighbor who is going through a tough time

Helped Tom carry kayak down to pond

Walked Terra and met and talked for a while with owner of house around another corner who is

              usually walking unfriendly dogs so we don’t talk

Put out hummingbird feeder

Wished daughter and son-in-law a happy anniversary

Stitched on monster project while spaghetti cooked

Ate dinner

Answered emails while Tom did dishes

Stitched while watching The Post

Typed this list up

And the plan is to meditate, shower, read more of Ordinary Grace and then to sleep. . .  .

The list does not mention all the meaningful/meaningless exchanges that Tom and I shared nor does it mention the Great Heron on the pond that distracted me as I set up to do strength training and sent me searching for my camera so there are many unrecorded moments woven into this list. But perspective counts and laying out a day like this, observing this day changes perspective. Even though many things I planned to do did not happen, like raking the leaves off the bed in the side yard or clearing part of the pile of papers on my desk, the scattered aspects began to take on the look of a Christmas tree not filled with matching ornaments but full of a multiplicity of different ornaments each with its own story that made up a glittering, colorful whole. It was a day I lived not a day I wasted. My stomach and my spirit were much less punky at the end of it. And now let's see what this day brings.

Opening

Works of Art

One of the highlights of the past couple of years for me was my joining a new fiber arts critique group. There are seven of us (Betsy Abbott, Tarja Cockell, Sue Colozzi, Janis Doucette, Anne Kimball, Alanna Nelson, and me), who all live north of Boston about a half hour at most from each other, allowing us to meet once a month to talk about work we have brought and generally cheer each other on in our endeavors.

This month we took our very different styles and techniques and put them into a group exhibit, Art of the Stitch, at the Memorial Hall Library in Andover,  a beautiful old building that poses its own set of challenges for hanging artwork. Usually the artwork they hang is framed paintings by one artist, but after bringing in stacks of quilts and spending an afternoon trying to get the right balance and color flow we thought we had something that would work weaving between computer screens and exit signs--on a strong green wall. And after the library staff got the work up on the walls we were pleased. We had created another work of art from all our disparate pieces!

The photos I include require some imaginative connecting on the part of the viewer since there were few good vantage points to shoot from.

We also were able to fill a glass cabinet with smaller works and were surprised again with how well the works fit together:

On Tuesday we celebrate our work and our compatibility with an Artists Meet and Greet at the library. Seeing this exhibit in person (like seeing fiber art) is definitely preferable to seeing it in photos:

Linking with Off the Wall Friday!