For the first time in years and years this blog's daily readership has dropped below 300 a day. I understand.
It's just that, well, the innernet is such a bore! Real life is just so much better than spending days hunched over the computer.
I'm sorry. I know you guys have been very, very loyal over the years.
But just to show that I'm not just swanning about wasting time, here's my latest painting I finished this week.
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| It was a new cover for an old book. |
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| The book spine |
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| That's Henry, leading some mice astray. |
The monks lent me a book for Lent last year. It was just a little cheap paperback edition of some desert father or other. As I was reading it, the cover fell off. So I made a new one.
It was just a fun thing, a means of getting some practice in and doing a few experiments with materials and whatnot. Having a bit of fun, really. The red pen work on the smaller capitals is OK, but it's all tilted wonkily. Could do with a bit lighter colour on the strawbs. But apart from that, I'd say it was OK.
I gave it to Fr. Benedict the other day after Mass. He seemed to like it.
And here's me raking my leaves. The sound of drums in the background is nothing to worry about. It's actually just drums. The Norcia drum corps practices every week across the valley and the sound carries really well.
I've got four large and very lively oak trees in my garden. They like to produce leaves. Lots and lots of leaves. The kitties had a ball all winter romping around in them, and they protect the wildflowers from frost, but if you leave them too long, they cut off the sunlight to the stuff underneath, and they also tend to encourage papatacci, a bug worse than mosquitoes, if it can be imagined.
It took about 20 tarp loads to get the whole garden clear. But I wouldn't trade it. I love outdoor work.
~
And here's me raking my leaves. The sound of drums in the background is nothing to worry about. It's actually just drums. The Norcia drum corps practices every week across the valley and the sound carries really well.
I've got four large and very lively oak trees in my garden. They like to produce leaves. Lots and lots of leaves. The kitties had a ball all winter romping around in them, and they protect the wildflowers from frost, but if you leave them too long, they cut off the sunlight to the stuff underneath, and they also tend to encourage papatacci, a bug worse than mosquitoes, if it can be imagined.
It took about 20 tarp loads to get the whole garden clear. But I wouldn't trade it. I love outdoor work.
~
10 comments:
I hope you continue blogging -- I enjoy reading it.
I hope you continue illuminating - that cover is dramatically gorgeous.
But in between letters, please continue blogging...
I think your work is very beautiful and kudos to you for doing this. By this, I mean Catholic art, Catholic thought, Catholic Catholicism!! I can't believe you and Steve are reduced to begging. What is this insane world coming to? Although the Holy Family was poor so it's no shame but it is a constant nagging kind of thing. Even though my husband is about to retire, and though we are not exactly going to be the globe trotters that we's like to be, we hope to have our needs covered and no more. However, if Ann is right, it doesn't matter what we have on paper. It can all be gone tomorrow. I guess this is where the lilies of the field story comes into play. God bless all of us and especially you, Mike, Steve, and Ann and all those who are trying to sound the alarm, keep us informed and our spirits up. Our Lady of Fatima, save us!
Of course you love it. According to this piece, dirt makes us all happy: http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm
It sort of explains how I can both enjoy gardening and be so bad at it.
I hope that you do continue to post. Your perspective is refreshing, for someone who works 6 days a week it is good to learn your thoughts, to think about possible eternal consequences.
Thanks Hilary, I always enjoy reading about what you're up to!!!!!!!
I have given up reading blogs as, like you, I find the Internet quite boring. And a waste of precious time. However, I do dip my toes into your blog every now and then because I find it so refreshing.
You are blessed. Better to live simply with grace and beauty than to be sucked onto the interminable treadmill of careerism, as many of us are.
Lydia
I am a new reader over the past month of this personal blog of yours and I enjoy it very much. The artwork, Italy, the monks. It's like getting to go somewhere new when you post and I read. I did not know a thing about the monks until you wrote about them. Since then I have found lovely chant online and photos of the beautiful monastery from googling, from wanting to know more, thanks to you.
What is happening in the garden? Peonies and irises are the only thriving perennials as the deer consume all others.
What is happening in the garden? Peonies and irises are the only thriving perennials as the deer consume all others.
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