It has been three months or more since I posted here. My sense of time in the large scale (days, weeks, months) is rather poor. I am shocked by how long it has been. Sigh.

Life has been eventful as usual – trips, quilt shows, illness, deadlines – in the past few months. I have been pondering, too, whether to keep my ‘diary’ in a different way than with a blog (since I seem to be having so much trouble posting regularly). I have considered some kind of visual/daily art journal on paper … have rejected the idea of a text-only by hand journal as my hand control is wavering into total chaos now – between little practice and my hand trembling issues, I can barely write (I can ‘draw’ to write but with no flow and not much stamina).

I am pretty much reserving my hand strength for embroidery and visual mark making/journal making now. Knitting and crochet do not require such fine motor skill as writing … nor does weaving or machine sewing. I am learning to adapt my skills to my ability. Shrug.

I _think_ I have finally decided to go back to this blog keeping with a post-daily challenge to myself. I find my life extremely boring in its repetitiveness … but if I don’t push myself for a daily post, time flows over me like a river.

Of course, I’ve been hurt by trying to keep a diary online once already, having lost all my posts from Feb. 2006 until Sept. 2025 when TypePad shut down. I will have to be more vigilant with saving this blog!

The picture I shared above is a hawk that flew right past my car window as I parked in our driveway Friday. It sailed along the side of our yard and landed to keep a fierce watch over our neighbor’s back yard from the railing on our deck. I’m not sure if it is a Cooper’s hawk or a RedTailed or Red Shouldered hawk – all three are common here. Hopefully it is taking up close residence – that would keep the small rodent population in check. 🙂

I spent several hours yesterday at my brother’s condo on the north side of Columbia. My paper art supplies and work station are there … and I wanted to spend some time playing with mixed media goodies. Here are two collages I managed to create in my large sketchbook:

I _think_ I was viewing these as contrasting images but not sure how well I managed that. Shrug.

Tomorrow I am teaching more embroidery stitches to the evening group of my ‘traditional’ quilt guild. Looking forward to that – now that I have decided what to teach.

🙂 Linda