The Christmas cactus I bought as a tiny plant last year in honor of my Mom’s (which died because I left it outside in the hot Ohio summer sun) is blooming and it makes me happy.
I’ve been going on hikes here in Asheville, and there’s a great little trail just down the road from the house. Somebody’s been building cairns and it’s been fun to find them because they’re not always right on the trail. Sometimes they’re tucked away off to the side, or nestled in the greenery. I think I might make some for my garden next year.
At home, John and I have been baking bread and I LOVE the way the kitchen smells when there’s a loaf in the oven. So homey! John got an easy no-knead recipe from a friend of his, but it’s pretty similar to this one from Mark Bittman if you feel like giving it try. I couldn’t believe how easy it was! Plus I love that we’re using my Mom’s old cast iron dutch oven to bake it in. There’s just something so satisfying about eating a slice of fresh warm bread (with lots of butter!) and knowing that you made it yourself.
Following that thought, the same thing goes for things you eat that you’ve grown in your own garden. My sage, thyme, and rosemary survived Columbus’s first autumn hard frost and I was able to pick enough to use for our Thanksgiving turkey. Yum.
Flying Adventures finished its run at the Springfield Museum of Art and is now packed up safe and sound, ready for wherever it will travel to next. I’m happy to take a bit of a rest before I get back to work on figuring all that out.
I smile every time I think about having had my very first museum show. I reached one of my “What marks success for you as an artist?” milestone goals: to see my name in vinyl letters on the wall of my own museum exhibition. I am pretty darn proud.
Here I am giving an autograph — no joke! — to two kids who came to the museum’s “Come Find Art” Day, where I was the featured artist. The little guy with the hat ran over to his mom and shouted, “I got an autograph from a real artist!!” Does it get any better than that?
A snow day comes pretty close. Now that I am spending four days a week being a visiting artist in schools, it was such a fun treat to get a text on the morning of the first big snowfall: “No school today! Enjoy your time off!”
I most certainly did. And it reminded me of all the winter mornings my brother and I would sit glued to the radio hoping we’d get to stay home :-)