The end of the line

 

For this one, it was sudden. I found it on the lawn. Out in the middle of the yard, unprotected. No damage that I could see. No cats or other predators in sight. I put my finger under it and thought I felt a grip, or those legs just have little grippy hairs. No flutter, response. I put it in one of the potted Swedish ivy, thinking, "Rest a bit, then move on." Hours later, unchanged. Gone like a summer day.

Last pool day, maybe.

Someone in the neighborhood felt the need for a fire. 

It's been in the sixties overnight and the water temperature in the pool is approaching "no can do". I've recognized it's what I say aloud on that hot, sunny day late in summer when I go down the later, and by mid-calf, I can't go any further.

 

Today, I pushed it and by the time I was standing on the bottom, I was largely numb. Not good, so I skipped the cleaning routine and climbed aboard the floatie. Skimming the surface was do-able. Weatherwise, I might have a few more days like today. It's a strange flavor of sad.
 

I may do more of these. Make them a page.  Reading the cards gives me a fine kind of buzz. Like there's more oxygen than I'm used to. Feels a lot like writing.

The blue I do

 

Imagine chasing a runaway creature. It zigzags across the meadow, you dig in and try to cut it off. It gains on you, then stops and looks back over its shoulder. Maybe even sticks out its tongue or waggles its ass. 

That's writing when you are out of practice. False starts and blind alleys. But an elusive taste is all it takes to pull me back in and it's been delicious.

This is the blue I'll be working with for a while.

The cloth and threads will tend themselves.

I'm prepping for a road trip. Does anyone have any audiobook recommendations? 

He's nearly mastered shuffling. The hands will grow and it will get easier. 

After this, there was no living with him for a few hands. 

We use imaginary money and the discussions are about odds, percentages, money management, and gambling addictions including a warning about genetic predilections.  

My advantage? When only two people play poker no one ever gets too far ahead. 

Full moon reading

I left my Tarot spread out on the carpet by the glass doors. The full moon was so bright that I woke up disoriented about the time.

You've simultaneously been under the spell of the past and the unknown future.  Overlapping ripples. 

If it were productive or fun it would be a drug, but it's neither. And so you are emotionally empty. Exhausted. 

But that's an open, receptive state. 

The Knight is doing what must be done. The steps are known and clear. Move forward with a heart open to the emotional relief that taking these steps will bring. 

I spent the morning posting new sets. Moving the colors around and auditioning quartets is a fine way to pass the time.

 

Wild weekend

 

I had to ask both my sons who taught them to skateboard? Both said, "Nobody!"  The best I could do was not watch, even when Colin came inside and said, "I think I broke my arm." He had. A greenstick fracture to the forearm.

In this sport, injury is inevitable. Charlie's getting a good start with all the necessary gear and came away from his first flight with a minor bruise and an appreciation for how hard concrete is. Bless those young bones.

With very little input, he was up and finding his balance point. All I could do was sit quiet, get a few shots, and keep my lip zipped. 

We left the skatepark to get to the adjacent soccer fields to cheer on Charlie's cousin in her first game. In minutes, the game was called for lightning! And we had a harrowing ride home, fortunately with a pro at the wheel of a big, safe truck.

My camera failed to catch the orange ball of the sun as it sank under that freight train of black clouds that chased us home.

Back home in the studio, the cloth that I left out in the rain kept a lot of its promise.

The marathon

My dear friend and foremost crit partner and I have been trading scenes and chapters for many years. 

There was some scratching, biting, hair-pulling...nah. None of that, maybe a few tears as we "killed our darlings" as writers must. 

No, it was straight-up, honest, sometimes difficult assessments of each other's words in the service of the stories in our hearts. A priceless exchange for which I will be forever grateful.

Now, Dee Mallon's debut novel, "The Weight of Cloth" will be available September 5, 2024. You can preorder it now.

I was on a plane with a sheaf of her printed pages, red pen in hand, intent on the work. As I turned the page over, the stranger sitting next to me said, "Wait. I didn't finish. It's really good." He was right.

Be proud and joyful, Dee!  I'll let you read more about it in her words.

 

Studio life

 

My staging space has been co-opted by the household security guard. I should have expected this because he's been camping out by my feet most mornings. 

Now I have a small stretched canvas balanced on my knees while I try to level the camera and work around the shadows flickering through the window screen. 

The hard light tells it true. 

Barriers

I believe he knows what's hidden under that piece of linen. 

I have been instructed to leave off with marketing for a bit. Attend to other matters. 

Who am I to argue with the 'Verse?

The players

 

A gray day today. The window to get these shots was very brief. Not a bad thing. I was sitting there waving hanks around trying to make them play nicely. Not so fast. This rainbow hit the blender. 

This is less than a third of the hatchlings. I don't know what else to call them.

There are at least two dozen that have three to four interacting colors. I promise to give everyone else first crack at these. My threadbox is overstuffed now. 

                                                          This is Opal

I will need to open some creative bandwidth to get all these sets gathered and named. I try for balance when I choose these groups. Should I include one of the stone ponies in some sets? Do people every want monochrome? This is going to take a while. 

The wait.. updated

 

This is the coolest thing. It collapses down to nothing and gets "misplaced" because I can put it away in too many snug places. 

I bought it a few years ago intending to dry my herb harvest, but luckily, I did a lot of research and this is not appropriate for the proper drying/curing of the Devil's Lettuce (or was that Jazz Lettuce?) Anyway, the flowers have a lot of sticky business, like sap. The more the merrier. It would have stuck all over the mesh ruining the crop and dryer. 

Turns out that High Hoops is the best way to dry hanks of thread and small pieces of cloth. Some of that will happen tomorrow. 

These have been hanging outside for most of the day. In about an hour, I'll bring the whole thing inside and get the new players into the lineup. 

There is a LOT of thread here. I'm going to sort these into color groups. 

Would Textilians trust me to put together sets of colors without committing them to groups just yet? So time-consuming!

If you trust me to dish up a rainbow of color plus one of the B&Ws, email me and we'll work something out. 

While we wait, some fun:

Hatched!

Stoned ponies

 It's been a while. This is my psychedelic, off-the-chain version of Jude's magic thread.  Black and white and barely in control.

When I was mixing up the colors I took a lot of time balancing the black for as neutral an outcome as possible. Not too blue, not too green, but a whole lot of pizzazz. There are a few little dirty glove fingerprints, but all in all, I'm happy with them. 

Just some of the Blues. Has a color ever been more joyous?