In which Iris hides in the shade looking for the garden faeries.
It’s finally, blissfully, feeling like spring time down in our little gully and there is much to fill you in on.
In between things popping up out of the ground and being pulled from the ground (what is with all the chickweed this year??) and things being planted into the ground, life around here is running along at breakneck speed.
My youngest kid managed a perfect score on her driver’s test and is now able to run herself around to dance classes and social engagements. The hub and I are thinking this smells a bit like freedom. It’s the natural order of things, this growing up, and getting out into the world and I am so proud of her and tickled for her.
Meanwhile my oldest kid is due to graduate from high school here in a couple weeks. This just seems unreal. I have adopted a zen mindset about it all as best I can (the odd glass of wine helps as well) as he navigates the next few steps. He’ll be sticking close to home for college, attending University of Cincinnati’s esteemed College-Conservatory of Music. So he’s shopping for apartments and making his budgetary plans. We are thrilled that he is staying in town but also happy for him that he’s going to get on with his young adult life. This too smells a bit like freedom, perhaps not financially, but at least from a temporal perspective. Time is opening up for me, and not just by one kid leaving the nest and the other doing her own driving….
Last week I performed my last show with the Frisch Marionette Company. We closed out my favorite show, Hansel and Gretel, with a gig at Firestone High School for the Arts in Akron. Rumplestiltzkin, the other show I know, had it’s final booking last week as well and with the company moving forward into a new season with Wizard of Oz, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be doing any more shows. Wizard is a perennial favorite of Frisch fans and that will be the show that sells. So there it is. My commitment is fulfilled. It’s been such an amazing ride and I have a sense that Kevin and I will work together in the future on other projects. I feel so fortunate to have learned the art of marionette manipulation from one of the true masters in the art. I am now part of a lineage of puppetry that is written about in the history books. It’s an honor. On route to Akron last week, we stopped in at the Columbus Museum of Art where the show Strings Attached is on display. If you are anywhere near Columbus Ohio and have a vague interest in sculpture, puppetry, theater and the like, I highly recommend a visit to this amazing show.
Visiting these professional grade puppets seemed like a nice way to cap off my time as a puppeteer. I won’t ever be too far from the world of puppetry as I adore the art form and story-making in general. But as I’ve been saying for too long now, it’s time to make my own stories.
A beloved part of my story each summer is the Sketch Journaling Workshop to Taos NM. I am just weeks away from heading back there for the third workshop and I am so excited when I think about it that my stomach gets that delightful butterfly feeling! I have a small but healthy sized class of intrepid travelers and future illuminated-journal artists and there are new things planned to keep everyone’s eyes open and observant and their pens and brushes moving. I’ve already begun packing supplies to send ahead of my own journey out there….
Some other news that has me kid-level excited is that we finally, FINALLY have chickens.
We welcomed 2 Barred Rocks, Gladys and Mabel, a Rhode Island Red, Bernadine, an Easter Egger, Elvyra and a haughty little Buff Orpington, EmmaJean, into our home last week. We went to fetch them at twilight on an gorgeous Pink Moon evening and have delighted in their presence here with us. We get that they are chickens. Bottom of the food chain. Likely to be hunted by local predators and the like. So we are attached, but realistic about the keeping of chickens. That said, they are pretty darn fetching.
Iris is exceptionally interested in them.
But after awhile, even dogs get bored with chickens.
I however, do not. I could spend hours just watching them and drawing them. It’s almost like corn in Ohio. You can practically see them grow as you look at them. They have sprouted little wings and are beginning to work out who’s who in the pecking order. From my vantage point it all looks a lot like Jr. High School. I’ve been taking lots of notes, loads of pictures and getting drawings of them into my sketchbook as well. I’m looking forward to having them around, enjoying the eggs they will lay for us, and continuing to doodle them. They are fantastic, under-appreciated creatures.
You’ll be seeing loads of chicklet pics here on the blog more than likely. I frankly can’t get enough of them!!!
This is about all for now. As is often the case, the blog will get ignored in lieu of gardening. But behind the scenes here, there will be minor changes happening that will make this blog my online home. I’ll be phasing out the old website in the coming weeks and doing more to continue making this virtual space one that is fun to visit. While we are in crazy-time mode for the next few months with graduation, Irish Dance season and spring chores, I see time opening up a bit after that… Time to get on with making the books I want to make, building the Illuminated Journaling classes I want to teach and continuing to explore painting as a Fine Art form.
Hi Amy – I love your blog – so newsy and full of joy. I am happy/sad for you that your time with the marionettes is over, but delighted that you will have more time for your art. As for your beautiful children – it’s not only the chicklets that are growing wings!
Thanks Angie! Glad it’s reaching to the far corners of the World Down Under! Yes, many wings being sprouted here at Chez Beauguarde… including those strapped on by a certain Well Traveled Hamster of Much Regard.