Moss Whispers

More work to do on this painting. There were three fireflies, but somehow two flew away before they settled into the painting! There’s a lot going on in this scene. Also posted are some photographs of the real places in The Hillock. Lots of learning for me behind the scenes in this painting! Probably more learning going on for me than for Martha Julia Agnes Adele!

Needed a weekend breather from fine motor work…though gross motor was a bit more challenging at age 70 than writing and ink n watercolor! Grateful for my cheerleader in the background! And her wises advice to my question of “what should I do next?” Her answer, “maybe it’s time to stop!” Good move! Back to Martha Julia Agnes Adele’s shoe hunt tomorrow!

Can you find the visiting Ladybug who landed on todays painting? She landed once on the fairy’s nose, but then found a bit of nature that she like more! I’m finally getting enough of a painting done to move on! Tomorrow’s page got really complicated. Be ready for some paste-ups! Hurray for finishing early today! Now to push ahead!!! I’m worried Martha is going to get blisters if she doesn’t hurry and find her shoe!

Thought I’d encapsulate the first stages of the first 18 pages of Martha’s Journey to Find her Shoe, just as a way to view them altogether. There will be changes, but for now, this is it. Still have about 12 more pages to finish drawing and painting.

Getting going again with this seems harder than before! The story is finished all 29 or 30 pages! Just always more ways to edit. It’s the drawings and paintings that are taking so long. Just to get a drawing done took me most all of today! So painting will need to be tomorrow. (Learning to just STOP for a day, even if I’m not finished.) That’s really hard for me, but I’m too good at wearing myself out doing it the other way! Learning when enough needs to be enough. Hopefully, in the end it’ll be worth it to not burn out. We’ll see!

Have you ever lost a shoe for 5 whole years?! Well, that’s been how long it has been since Martha Julia Adele has been looking for hers! (actually it has been 6 years since she tripped and fell and started searching in The Hillock for her shoe!”

I took a really long sabbatical from working on her story to help find her shoe! I COULD chalk it off to letting distractions like Six Wonderful Grandchildren being added to our lives! or all the other writing and creating I’ve been doing without posting. Thank goodness Martha Julia Agnes Adele is a timeless soul whose foot doesn’t outgrow the shoe she is seeking!

If you’ve forgotten the plot of this story and want to follow it, I invite you to go to my categories list and click on Martha Julia Agnes Adele and start reading it ‘backwards? or should I say forwards? from my first posting to the present…pgs 1-17. Don’t worry, Martha Julia Agnes Adele….I’m back on the journey with you at The Hillock, and WE WILL FIND YOUR SHOE!

Martha Julia Agnes Adele
Your adventure’s on hold, so sit for a spell.
This writer’s hands got busy and full.
With Life’s awesome moments of push and pull.

My focus has become quite kaleidoscopic….
It’s been very hard to stick to one topic.
With grandchildren nearby, it’s been time for playing
And …tweaking the studio where ‘Grandmom’s staying.’

Diapers for young and diapers for old…
Clothes to wash and clothes to fold.
Stuff to organize and people, too.
Suddenly there seems SO much to do!

I’m keeping a lookout for my ‘writer’s pen…’
Somewhere underneath this life that I tend.
The brushes and colors that give you your life
Are somewhere hidden ‘neath each joy and strife!

Martha Julia Agnes Adele…                                                                                Please wait my return as you sit for a spell.                                                            I’ll meet you someday & we’ll find your shoe!                                                 Right now I have this LIFE to do!

The unknowns and losses you’re pondering there                                                                                                           Are no different at all from the ones in my hair!
As I unravel these moments beyond all belief,
I know it’s the stuff of a writer’s relief.

For under it all we are learning to trust                                           When the time is just right, we’ll see through this dust.
The words will come clear, the brushes will show…
That the shoe that you lost is what’s helping you grow!

All that we need is what’s before us today
To guide us and glide us towards our path on our way.
Meanwhile …practice tying your other shoe! And I’ll practice the things that I need to do! Love, Mossy Me!

Usually, by the beginning of July, the Mossy Hillock is in full summer swing and has been tended and enjoys some extra mistings to get it through the July Jolting-heat! However, this year, the MossTender has been creaking along and staying more atop the mountain tending through her own jolts of tender aches and pains in more shady spots, working on hopscotch, swing areas and slides down the rocks for her Grand Guy and Girl! The Hillock has had to fend for itself! And I must say it has done a very good job on it’s own, even through these disastrous dry spells. Again I attribute it to THE RESILIENCE OF MOSS! and natural surrounds.
And now with the exciting news of being one of many moss gardens featured in my friend and mossin’ meimei’s upcoming book, “The Magical World of Mosses,” the fairies and mosses have appealed for my help! Thanks to my first ever ‘garden gloves,’ that I can stand (given to me by Cindy, my sister-in-law), I get on my knees and lovingly smooth all the fallings from the mossy carpet, and pull the many things that have rooted in it’s last holdings of moisture.
1/4 of the 200 square feet is done and back down to sweat and sweep as many square feet today as I can. And then, a little repair work to dwellings and amateur bonsai trimming. Lastly comes hooking up the miles of hoses and cleaning little inchworm measurers out of the misting spouts so magical mystical water can work miracles with its moss meimeis. The mosses then will not only come forth themselves….but they will call to it NEW LIFE from NATURE! On the display spread before them as brand new, they will all come! Enter Slug, Squirrel, Owl, Turtle, Snail, Snake, Worm, Butterflies will come forth from cocoons, and Damsel and DragonFlies will dance along with Toads, and Frogs and Waterstriders as even the Pond will teem with NEW LIFE! Worth a little sweat I should say!

Been working on a hopscotch area for our grandkids out under the shade of an old oak tree by the house.

The hopscotch from my Jingle Ring book is becoming more real! Here’s the Mock Up in the woods.

Lately my posts have been a little sketchy and sparse. Been spending a lot of time either napping through fatigue or out using my hands in ‘gross motor’ ways, since they can’t seem to do the fine things of painting right now. They work okay for sitting and crumbling dirt and sifting out roots and weeds, and working with the mosses, creating spaces for grandchildren to play. Not much driving for me, and I seem to drop      and break lots of things. That’s one way to thin out stuff.

It’s dawned on me that I MUST find a way to still post here…because books are in the making all the time and every day, thank goodness! The moss whispers a strong call for me to create! No matter how much pain or fatigue! So I’m hopscotching along with posting here and there!

Briefly I’ve come inside for a cool drink and to rest. I need to decide what configuration is best for the hopscotch blocks…though the great thing is that I can move them around. For a start, I want to create a safe, flat, place for toddlers to have fun stepping, hopping, and playing. Later, if they want they can get into the more complicated ones or make their own if they choose. This is just a starter.

I recall one of my favorite books for this when I was teaching:

Maybe someday they’ll be interested in this, but for now out here in the country, we’ll start with a small wooded hopscotch area made with cement stepping stones. We’ll need to save the chalk for city sidewalks or somewhere else for now.

I think I’ll go for ten blocks and the easiest hopping scenario which is probably alternating one block and then two.

How do YOU remember your hopscotch as a child? PLEASE send me your pics and comments.

I’ll also post later when it’s all finished. Must give fingers a typing break for now and go do some more ‘gross motor’.

Francklin is really the muse that makes moments come alive down at The Hillock.  Or at least he’s the ‘prime noticer,’ the one of bigger consciousness in the process. Nothing is out of his reach nor does it sneak by undetected. Having already defied the 4-legged rule for dogs by being a Terrific Tri-paw, here he is moving on up to a Two-paw stance to observe his lizard friend by the PondHole.

Meanwhile, I’m working away at pulling the weeds and working through the wild happenings of my life to sit long enough to listen to Francklin and the Mosswhispers trying to speak to me of what to write next. I miss my painting and work on my books. Writing has continued but not in post mode lately. For now, I’m readying for my next big posting period and forgiving myself for my lapses. All the while grateful for each precious Mossy Moment with my grand-children, grown-children, and great-parents and Alex. Grateful for spring and trying to learn to accept or at least deal with these ticks in our meadow. Gotta love the whole journey! all that’s in it!