It’s the end of June; the 4th of July weekend is upon us. June has passed incredibly quickly. Temperatures have either been high or low, no averages. Barely any rain. Things seem abnormally stressful, and I wish I could just let go of everything and enjoy the weather and the season and life. Any suggestions for how I make that happen?

I did finish the koi print, above. I’m pleased with how it turned out. I drew the image free-hand on the wood, then carved it and printed it. One of the things I like about carving the wood blocks is they are a bit of a work of art themselves, compared to linoleum. If you would like a printed copy of this koi piece, just email me and I will snail mail it out to you, free of charge. I’m not sure what else to do with the prints? I had said when I finished this piece, I’d go back to drawing/painting, but I have a bit of fear about that. What image will I choose? There’s just a complete fear of the blank page. I’m at my best mentally when I’m doing an art project, so I should start something. Last night I put myself to sleep thinking of Zines, so maybe I’ll do that in the meanwhile?

We’ve had almost no rain, so the garden is struggling a bit. The grass is turning brown and it’s hard to water enough to keep up. We have some green tomatoes, little peppers, and a tiny eggplant. We are trying to work out some watering solutions for Mom’s garden. It takes forever to water everything. As always though, her gardens are gorgeous and everything is three times the size of mine at home. I’m so glad I put the little water feature in this year. If anything, I’d have made it a bit larger. There’s something so peaceful about bubbling water.