Spring Has Arrived

Seems like the year just started and we've leapt into Spring already.  While March truly came in like a lamb, with the wind and rain of late, it may just leave like a lion.  No matter, it's warmer, and that's a blessing.

Lately several of my good friends have been dealing with health issues, and our neighbor of 20+ years just told us he's selling his house and moving in with his girlfriend.  While he's not leaving the immediate area, we sure will miss having such a fine person up the street from us.  He took care of our cat, Nugget, when we went away and we took care of his cat, Ramona, when he went away.  Good neighbors are hard to find.

In working in The Documented Life Project, the theme for March is "Making Your Mark" (marks and doodles).  I've now down three spreads, One sort of created itself, the others took more time.

This was the first one of the month.  I used my Gelliplate for mark making then cleaned the plate with packing tape, added some more color to that, and used it on the pages.

This was my next one, and was done as a result of all the issues going on with my friends.  A reminder to myself that change is inevitable and one needs to roll with the punches and grow from the experiences.

This one practically made itself.  I've been exchanging mail art with a woman named Honi C. in Freedom, New York.  She sent me mail that included some very cool tyvek painted with acrylics and the awesome "Rorschach test".  I sprayed Dylusions coffee ink on the page, then dabbed on the gold.  After that I grabbed a Gelliprinted black piece of paper and did one of my favorite Zentangle patterns, Henna Drum, using a white Signo pen.  Cut the oval leaves out of the tyvek and then was able to create the little creature out of left over pieces of tyvek.  Thanks Honi, I like this one, a lot.

Today I decided the sketch a photo I took out my kitchen window yesterday.  A friend gave me the bicycling frog wind gizmo a few years back.  Froggy really gets going when the wind blows, and has carried the pot off the deck twice this month.  And yes, it's almost as big as Nugget.

HAPPY SPRING!!!

Keeping Healthy

I'm a believer in colonoscopies.  I had my first at age 50.  Polyps were found and removed.  I had another colonoscopy five years later - it was clean.  I was told I needed to have my next one ten years later.

That finally happened this week.  The preparation is always worse than the procedure and this time was no exception.  I had to limit myself to a liquid diet the day before the procedure.  As the morning progressed I became quite grumpy, especially when I got out of the shower and smelled the bacon my husband had cooked for his breakfast.  I hauled out my sketchbook and sketched a cactus.

I had to drink the final 4 glasses of laxative 4 hours prior to the procedure.  That meant I had to set my alarm for 6 am. While knocking back that lovely lemon-lime concoction I decided to document the day by drawing the stuff I'd had to consume in preparation.

When my doctor came in to see me, she asked me what I planned to have for my first meal post procedure.  I didn't have an answer but told her I was definitely hungry and looking forward to whatever it might be. Everything went well, in fact better than the previous colonoscopies I've had.  I must have had less anesthesia.  I was alert, peppy, with no desire to crawl into the car and sleep all the way home.

I told my husband I wanted to go to the Totem Restaurant, a place up the road where my son and daughter-in-law took us for Mothers Day.  It's close to the clinic.  They have really good bacon and that appealed to me.  We sat down in a booth, got coffee and placed our orders.  I took out a tiny sketchbook I carry around with me and proceeded to draw the place's namesake totem pole.

All told, it was not a bad day at all for me.  If you are 50 or older, and have never had a colonoscopy, GET ONE!  The life you save may be your own.