Dot shows me the way

During the hot summery days of August our daughters gave us a party for our 50th wedding anniversary.  It was a glorious time.  Our daughters were all home at the same time along with an assortment of grandchildren.  I didn’t want to miss a minute of it.  At the big party I danced and danced (square dancing is our choice) and tried to talk just a little with everyone.  It was a wonderful evening.  I didn’t want to miss a minute of it – or did I say that already.

So many of our family came a long way for the party.  Anne and Bob even came from Pennsylvania just for the party.  I had a house full of company and I loved it.  I didn’t want to miss even a minute of it.

So, the day after the big party, we had a family party, and our families were all here at the house.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to cook with so much going on so we chose our favorite foods and brought them in from our favorite restaurants.  The kitchen counters were full of good things to eat.

So I did have time to visit with everyone.  The smallest and cutest member of our families is a tiny girl nicknamed Dot.  She’s a tiny little dot of a thing, but full of fun too.

By the time I sat down to talk with our guests I was so very tired, but, you know,  I didn’t want to miss a minute of it.  So I sat and tried hard to make intelligent conversation.  I wasn’t fooling anyone about how tired I was.

Then little Dot held her hand up to me and led me up the stairs, across the veranda and into the kitchen.  I wonder now if she had plans to put me to bed.   She’s a smart little girl.  Once in the kitchen, she just looked around a bit, then led me outside again.

Someone took a photo of Dot leading me up the stairs.  I look so big and so bent over and she looks so tiny and in command.  I didn’t know about the photo until Dot’s mama put it up on Facebook.  I was struck by Dot’s tiny/tall person leading my big lumpy person.  She seems so in control for someone so small.

So I painted it in watercolor.  It is what it is – a good memory from our big party.

Marilynne

I have watercolor class and lab on Tuesdays – all day. I spent the day getting a 0.2 ounce brush full of water or paint and applying it to paper. So, why am I exhausted?

In part it’s because I get so absorbed in what I’m doing that I hardly move. After a while my back starts to complain, but it doesn’t stop me.

For a break, I joined the beginners to make a collage with colored tissue paper and laundry starch. The hardest part of that was finding some laundry starch and tearing the tissue paper into bits. The most fun part of that task was tearing colored tissue into odd shapes and slathering on the starch with abandon. There are not that many things one can do these days with complete abandon.

Right now it looks and feels like a kindergarten project, but I have some ideas on how to improve on it.

I hope you had some fun today. I know my husband did. Because I wasn’t home, he spent all day working in his vegetable garden. He puts his seedling under a cloche or bell-shaped plastic cap. That keeps the seedling warm and protects it from the rabbits. We have lots of rabbits. However, something, and I suspect it isn’t the rabbits, is knocking off the cap and eating the seedlings. That doesn’t make him happy. Right now, he is outside planning bigger barricades.

We’ll see how the week goes. I hope your week is going well.

Marilynne