Zen Cat Art

Napping...

A rainy Sunday...

What else would you do but nap?

This is a picture of our kitty Shayna sleeping off her lunch of babyfood lamb--a special treat for an old lady. 

Father's Day

I sure do miss you!  I hope if you are watching me, you're happy with how I am turning out. I hope I'm brave enough, adventurous enough, and joyful enough to be a chip off the old block.  You taught me lots of things, but probably one of the best things was how to be friendly with life.  You knew how to enjoy it to the fullest and took everyone you knew along for the ride.  Rarely complaining, always ready to lend a hand, problems were challenges and tough times only built character.   It showed.

You could captivate an audience telling one of your stories - young and old would hang on every word.  "Tell the one about when you..." we would cry.  If there were someone new in the room we would ask you to repeat the favorites "...about the time you..."  A raconteur of the highest quality. 

And you would listen with the intensity that most people reserve for speaking.  Always there, sorting out the latest tangle I had gotten myself into, patient until I could see the solution for my self. 

And whether I was heading off to grade school, or heading home from visiting you in Florida, your last words were never be careful or take care, but have fun. You enjoyed every minute and were grateful for each new day.  As I have been grateful to have you as a dad. 

Happy Father's Day!  And although I'm sure you are... have fun! 

Turkey Trot...

 These three lovely ladies were in our yard early one morning.  We like seeing them in the yard - they eat ticks.  Ticks left by the deer that come into our yard that we also like seeing.  It works out pretty good for everyone. 

One morning there was lots of loud gobbling sounds.  Scanning the landscape we saw this proud fellow strutting around making quite a show.

It wasn't long before the competition showed up...

Super models don't do this much strutting coming down the runway showing off the spring collection. 

But the boys were into it. 

As a matter of fact, they forgot to pay attention to the girls who got bored and wandered off. 

I am sure there is a deep moral to this story.  You can probably come up with a few on your own.

As for me, I just like the idea of these guys strutting around in my backyard.  There is something to being reminded that the wildlife was here before us and they will still be strutting around when we have moved on.  I'm grateful these guys are willing to share.

For more information about wild turkeys in CT click here. And here.

Starting...

 

I read art blogs on the internet almost everyday.  They are wonderful and inspiring and intimidating.  So many people pumping out great amounts of creative endeavors with apparent ease while I sit here and procrastinate for yet another hour. 

Jude Hill from Spirit Cloth posts new work almost every day and quilts on the train commuting to work.  Her work is personal, delightful and fearless. 

Elizabeth from Be...Dream...Play is also prolific - it's a treat to see her art journal pages sing out  - her photography is grand!

Thousands of artist pumping out art everyday and posting it for all the world to see.  How do they do it??

I spend time thinking I don't have enough time to do art, then I walk around thinking that I don't have the right supplies, that my idea isn't good enough or has been done before, I make tea, read some blogs and put in some laundry and before you know it, hours have passed and I am still shying away from doing the "work."  It's the useless inner chatter that stops me dead in my tracks.  The mini-quilt above has an Eckhart Tolle quote on it that says "All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness."

No-mind.  Don't think.  Step up to the canvas.  Let go of the end result and begin.  Play, enjoy the process.  Just do it! 

**Some good news!  If you have read the post before this one about Smudge and have been picturing him running - keep up the good work!  We have had some leg stretching and tale wagging - good signs!  Run, Smudge, Run!

See Smudge Run...

The web is a wonderful place.  I have made some grand friends sitting here in front of my computer.  This is one of my friends - his name is Smudge.  He lives in VT and needs a little healing energy. 

Now, I know that you have never met Smudge, until now.  And some of you might not be "animal people" or "dog people" but that really doesn't matter.  To tell the truth I only know Smudge a short time myself but Smudge is special to someone who is special to me.  And isn't that how the world works best? 

When we can expand our circle to include others, our world becomes larger, richer, more joyful.  When we can extend our hands and say "how can I help?" we improve our own humanity and our own lives as well as that of the world.  A warmth comes from that is a good kind of global warming. 

So here is what you can do.  Smudge was in an accident and they are saying he might not walk again - and I'm going to ask you to do a very simple thing - imagine Smudge running.  Yup, just that.  No sending this to seventy people in the next two minutes and you'll get a million dollars (however if you try it and it works, please, let me know) but in your mind - see Smudge run! 

Of course, If you feel sending this around - with no obligation beyond friendship and kindness - feel free! It will widen your circle and warm your heart - just maybe in no time at all - Smudge will be running all around the world. 

If you would like to find out more about Smudge and his friends - please click here to see the website of an incredible artist friend of mine Elizabeth Bunsen at Be...Dream...Play.

Hugs to all of you!  >^..^<   

Dog, Cat & Rat... Just to cheer you up!

I just thought this guy had the right idea.  If they can get along - why can't we?

I just love it! 

I'm in the Window...

Torrington has a wonderful art gallery on Water Street around the corner from Trinity Church.  Artwell.

Every year they have a show for local artists and invite other galleries to come and see it.  There are artists in the show that are well known, have established careers and a following.  Others are emerging artists that will, thanks to ArtWell, be seen by 30 plus gallery owners and have a chance to be selected for a show in those galleries.  
I went up this afternoon to see the show and much to my delight, the painting I entered was hanging in the front window.  And I am in pretty good company!

The painting in the window to the left is by Barbara Clark Kraut.  I first saw Barbara in a show at Oliver Walcott Library with four other artists.  If I remember correctly she sold every piece--not easy at a library show.  Her work is charming, well executed and a delight for the eyes.

Below is Patricia Carrigan.  A wonderful piece - she works magic with her brush!

Gere Gallagher's painting Girl in Pink Scarf makes me want to pull my collar up around me.

I love Thomas H. Hanford's tomcat - acrylic on paper mache!

Jeanine Molnar's Vernal Equinox - mixed media, mosaic.

This is a marvelous ceramic painting by Josephine Alessi Freeman.  She was in the gallery when I was looking at her work.  Josephine was one of the most enthusiastic artists I have met and we had an engaging chat about her art, the process, her technique, and direction she would like her art to go.  If you want to see more of her work she will be in Green City Council on the Arts Show Journeys in Clay, in Windham, NY. 

There are so many wonderful artists -- I could have stayed there all afternoon.  The show is only up through May 4th but go and see the next show.  Entities: Images and objects of a spititual nature.  I'll be in that one, too.

Thanks for looking! 

A Zeesen Pesach...

Translated a Zeesen Pesach means "a Sweet Passover" in Yiddish. 

If you look over at the left hand column, you will see the words "A Zeesen Pesach" and a picture of a seder plate.  If you click on the plate you will see pictures of our Passover Seder.  Click the first on and you can see all of them full-sized from there.

Enjoy...

I wish you all a Zeesen Pesach.

I wish you all a Sweet Life...

 

Millerton & the Ambassador of Tea...

Millerton is a charming town with painted buildings, antique shops and a "smoke shop" that also sells old-fashioned penny candy, cold drinks and flannel shirts.  It's just across the state line from Litchfield County, CT to Duchess County, NY.  It's also home to the Harney & Sons (Master Blenders) Tea Company.  It has a lovely store, and a delightful restaurant, albeit with a limited but delicious menu--and with some of the best tea scones I have ever tasted.

But, by far, the attraction that makes the trip worthwhile is the tasting room and the young man that presides over it.  Hillel, cheerful, charming, and with a superior knowledge of tea, will make your trip through the maze of teas entertaining as well as enlightening.

All tea comes from the "Camellia sinesis," an evergreen shrub that can grow up to 60 feet tall in the wild.  Tea plantations prune them to a height of about three feet for ease of harvesting--as only the top two leaves and the bud are picked--by hand.  The leaves are then processed by different drying methods to create the four different type of tea: black, green, Oolong, and white.

Harney & Sons boasts over 150 varieties of tea.  And they will brew a small cup of anything on the wall to help you select your favorite.  Tea is sprinkled onto the lid of a two pound can for sight and smell and then a small spoon of it is place in a cup to brew (timed with a timer) the perfect cup of that particular kind of tea.  We tried black teas and green, flavored and white, all of them delicious.  My favorite morning tea is there Black Current, and for decaf tea Midsummer Peach has no equal.

Their Indian Spice tastes more like the tea I had in India than the American Chai Tea that pretends to it.  Although green tea is not a favorite of mine, I couldn't resist tasting the one named Dragon Pearl.  It was good enough to bring home a small 2 oz tasting package. 

On the weekends, it gets so busy they ask you to confine  your choices to two plus the one on the counter but we were lucky to be there on a weekday and were treated to a plethora of tea pleasures.

We walked around town peeking in store windows and combing through the treasures in thrift/antique stores and considered where to have lunch.  In the end, we chose to go back to Harney's and try their sandwiches and scones.  The smoked salmon on my field greens salad was wonderful and the Mulligatawny soup was grand!

Totally saited, we headed home with our tea treasures.

Thanks to Tracy and Deb who made it the perfect girls day out!

If you decide to go to Millerton be sure to take Route 22 so that you can see the rock frog...

And when you get home... make yourself a nice cup of tea!

 

This Bud's for You...

Spring has arrived in Litchfield.  It took some time getting here but it has finally arrived.  I opened the backdoor and there they were in my Buddha garden right off the kitchen – bright yellow and looking as cheerful as a kid with a brand new box of crayons. 

By the way - that's a two-headed daffodil.  I've never seen two daffodil heads on the same stalk before.  Do you think they are as lucky as four leaf clovers?       

Even at the nature preserve the first buds were up.  I know Laura and her dad, Drew are going to know what this is—and if you would be so kind as to leave it in the comments everyone else will, too!  I only know that it’s the first signs of spring that I see every year in White’s Woods. 

And lest you think that the rest of my two-mile walk around the loop of Little Pond was without beauty check out this sky!  It was a warm breeze and the air smelled so good! 

It was wonderful to breathe in Spring.

And, since they take so long to get here and seem shorter every year--I'm going to take time to enjoy this one!

"Spring is nature's way of saying, Let's party!"  ~Robin Williams

Or for the more erudite...

"One impluse from a vernal wood may teach you more of man of moral evil and of good than all the sages can." ~W. Wordsworth