There's No Stopping It

Today was a spectacular first day of May. When I walk through my studio door, I am surrounded by my walls; there are skylights, and a glass door in back, but I can't see the day at all without stepping outside. I found myself going to the door and back quite a bit today, and it wasn't just for pleasure, but also a sense of some kind of moral duty, to watch the parade of flowers and birds and sparkling light, to cheer it on!

So we took an hour or two off and went to visit a local garden -- just someone's home, but he's a retired botanist who's been there for some 50 years, and has nurtured a very unusual garden on his 2 acres in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It is largely "planted" with mosses - Dave said he hasn't so much planted them as nurtured them. Every May he opens up his garden to visitors and walks them through, telling his story. It is an inspiration, both the garden, and the gift to the community; he stirs excitement in gardeners and makes a wonderful model of what good can be done, by one person, in retirement. On our walk with him yesterday, we were joined by a woman from New Hope, and four other visitors who'd come all the way from the Poconos!

After the garden, I returned to the studio. The twilight was very crisp and it was hard not to keep walking to the door to look out at the light and shadows. When I turned to face the painting I've been working on lately, it seemed that I'd brought that light and clarity in with me. It gave me a lift, and I turned to drawing for a few more hours, looking for the seeds and spores, the flowers and the fruit.

Detail of Work in Progress

[As always, if you click on one of these photos, they open larger in a photo viewer - try it!]