Always beginning. Always.

I started a new pastel, after a lovely mile and a half walk to the art supply store, where they were having a dandy sale on pastels, normally $5.50 a stick, now only $2.99. Just couldn't get any better. I picked up yet another white, an off white, a couple of yellows, a pale blue that is not on the turquoise side, stuff that will give a little pizzazz on top of other pigments. And then I spent a happy hour doing this mess, which I sort of walked away from, thinking WHAT WAS I THINKING, then looked at again and saw that the rudiments are coming up quite nicely, after all. It is destined to be quite loose, not a bad thing, and I will be needing stuff to keep me busy indoors because my 4 day forecast says it is going to be winter again for the next few days, with thunder and lightening, even. Okay. I can handle that. I can close all the windows that are now open to catch the warm afternoon breeze, and spread the newly-laundered towels on the rug in the backroom again to attempt to catch the dog's dirtiness before they disseminate it all over the frigging house. Aaaaarrghh! Couldn't it just stay SPRING for a while? Strange days in the little yellow house. And, with all this beginning, a dear friend is in the end days of her waltz with cancer. Four years of discipline and protocols kept her with us, even though she had stage four ovarian cancer when first diagnosed. I am watching her do it her way, preferring to be at home, where she is most comfortable and not in danger of being hooked up to a machine because her girls feel guilty. Hospice visits daily, bring nurses and spiritual moments of meditation. This is one shining soul. Perhaps this will be my homage to her spirit. We spent many happy moments together, my friend and I. And love given is never lost. She will live in me as long as I am in the world, for sure.