august heat

the spent madder dyebath waiting for me to pour it into the perennials

started to grow some other life forms

and then i noticed the spoon.

 the bowl and half the handle took a refraction bend 

and created a non-shadow shadow.

 and became disassociated from its reality

 i mistakenly got some watercolors on something and used them as finger paint

and a little bleeding from the last of the big orange day lilies.

 left in my full sketch book

(thank you Sarah Bryant)

 indigo dyed shifu on a piece of flax pigment colored Hark! paper

as it becomes another book cover (maybe my next sketchbook)

 this hot august weather makes morning mist

 which burns off

HOT

 and then there were some new neighbors visiting.

this lady came by and surprised me.

she seemed contented and happy to have new eating

so i tootled down to my neighbor's where i thought she lived

and was met with an ornery response

"those aren't my cows.

see-there are mine"

i must say 

 there was a little herd, actually, where she pointed.

and a few minutes later her son came along on an atv and took the cows home.

the north country orneriness sometimes rubs me the wrong way.

not a word of thanks, instead an accusation.

the cows were very pretty

wonderful browns and roans, my favorite cow colorings.

i would be happy to have these ladies

across the road every evening,

if only they weren't loose, because of that hazardous

55 mph road between their usurped pasture

and my place.

a potential disaster.

i know. 

i watched another neighbor's loose horse be put down

after a car hit her, broke her leg

one winter morning, years ago.

i'm feeling a bit haggard and ragged because of this humid heat.
~~~
so, 
in other news,
i received a wonderful bit of travel funding for my Maiwa trip
professional development!
and i had yet another nail in a tire
almost 2 inches long,
necessitating a new tire (thankfully i didn't have to buy all 4,
because with 4WD all have to be the same and this set was new)
and my vacuum broke,
meaning two (so far) trips to the repair shop.
60 miles away or so.
it's a summer of little joys and a few issues.
the summer feels like it's changing, almost over except for the heat, 
it's really only just turned the corner
towards autumn.