A few weeks ago, a friend offered me a book that she was passing on. It is a exhibition catalog from, I believe, a single artist. It's all in Japanese and the artist is a textile artist. They are wonderful and make me look at everyday sights from a new direction. Like this one:
What could be more homely and yet lovely than two towers of stacked wood? It makes we want to interpret things on my desk, in my kitchen, the cats in such a simple style. If nothing else, it will teach me some economy of line and shape.
I don't know much about Chips or Diego's early lives, but we can surmise a lot. I know that they each started out with lots of love and attention as neither is shy in meeting new people. Each was found on the street -- Diego here in Marin and Chips up in Woodenville, WA -- but Diego has a confidence that Chips will never have. I think that Chips had to live on the streets longer and was tired and thin when found and infested with a really bad case of ear mites. And I think he was kicked or stepped on. Perhaps that's where the kink in his tail came from. All I know is that when he is on the floor and I or Steve get up to walk somewhere, Chips rushes to get up on the stairs, or the bed or a chair. Diego doesn't have that awareness and as he is a black cat in a narrow house inhabited by people with aging sight, he has suffered for it.
Oh, well, he will learn or not.
It is celery central here. We have lots of lettuce and chard, but the celery is a hedge! The collards are coming back after the assault of the cabbage moths. I'm tempted to add more collards to keep us in cruciferous veg through the autumn. Meanwhile, braised celery and cream of celery soup.
Now that we have Nancy's website up, Steve has returned to painting. He hopes to get a few more clients' jobs done before the rain really gets here. I'm hoping a new job will be along soon.