"Time must have a stop"

 

 

I'm not the first to borrow Shakespeare for my own mundane purposes.  You can check out the source here but try not to get drawn into all the warfare violence.  My issue is simple  -- not enough time.  There's not even a hint when I look at my wrist – my sentimental old watch keeps slipping out of sight.  My fitness tracker goes dark – although it wakes up with two taps.  And the braided band is there for I.D. purposes.

 

No time! – even though I'm moving along with my game plan:-- Pause/paws to reconsider where and how to proceed with the East Side Storeys series, and then – back to the drawing board.

 

The next house in my series was intended to feature "step sitters," as I called them in my photo files. It took some sketching and playing around to decide which house might work best.  With the choice made, I reviewed my file of sitting poses:

 

Then I laid in the base green colour.

 

I was putting in a good couple of hours every morning, but – it takes a long time to build a house!  And a lot of weird stuff was happening around me in April.  I don't want to pick up T.S. Eliot's April vibe – my stuff was not "cruel," just weird, or unexpected.  Consider this:-- my medical referral to a cosmetic dermatology clinic (who, ME?).  Located near the Harbour's seaplane base, the clinic made an adventurous destination for me -- but I couldn't help thinking "when worlds collide." Luckily, my results were benign (the staff were medical dermatologists, as well) – but, alas, there was no free ride on a seaplane.

 

 

Then there were the sudden new demands on my schedule, as my garden shot up all at once and the first semester of my Beginner Italian classes began.  In March, it had seemed a good omen when I found this used book for a mere $5.00 – but I hadn't factored in the required hours for either gardens or Italian, as pleasant as those hours would be.

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And now, the delightful surprises in my own garden.  For a sunny place on my porch, there's a gift just hand-delivered from friends who are garden experts.  They've nurtured its "mother plant" and shared its offspring with me, and it's already budding. 

 

It's prime time now for one of my favourite B.C. wildflowers – Youth-on-Age – vigorously doing its thing, which is to be fruitful and multiply.

 

I thought this year's super-cold weather had destroyed the Solomon's Seal originally given to me by friend G, but it's come up more widespread and vibrant than ever.

 

All of this is wonderful – too wonderful to get lost in stress and overload.  Taking a cue from the Wisdom Department (Hello. Solomon), I decided this very morning not to be frazzled about my usual month-end painting deadline – but to proceed with measured pace and take time to stop, breathe, observe, enjoy if possible.  And then get on with it.