Please look before you sign on....;-)

Oddly enough I've had 4 new followers since I announced I'm closing down this blog....

Moving on....

As I thought about this some more over the last few weeks I have decided to just concentrate on my nature blog Cape Cod Art and Nature

and

Mary Richmond at Open Salon for my essays and writings...

You can find more of my photos at Cape Cod Art and Nature on Tumblr

so stop on over!

Putting the art, writing and nature all together...

for a small exhibit at the Green Briar Nature Center in E. Sandwich.

I was asked to fill in for someone who canceled and since I didn't really have much in the way of exhibit quality work or a budget that allowed a lot of new framing I decided to gather up some of my sketches, photographs and writings and show my process.

The exhibit runs through July 24 so if you're on the Cape, please stop by.

Busy Days

Getting back in spring and summer mode always seems to take me by surprise. One thing about living in a seasonal area, we get used to our quiet winters and then all of a sudden we have to get our groggy selves back in gear again if we're going to make it through to next winter. It isn't just the weather that is seasonal but most of our incomes as well. If we don't make hay in the summertime, well, too bad about next winter...

Everything is so hopeful and positive at this time of year. Our dreams are like this little bud...will it open and flourish or will it be mowed over, struck down in its prime? Maybe the dog will just pee on it...

I am busy making my summer schedule for classes and nature tours and am also beefing up my online presence, connecting everything to everything else and making myself and my business more visible in internet searches.

If you'd like to see what I've been up to...

I have started to post at Squidoo about Getting the Kids Outside in Nature and have started a fun picture and link blog for Cape Cod Art and Nature over on Tumblr

I am continuing to post essays on Open Salon and my latest actually was an Editor's Pick and landed on the front page. Bin Laden knocked it off, go figure. You can read my Mother's Day When Mom is Gone essay if you'd like.

Anyway, that is what I've been up to this week...what about you?

Living with cats....

I come from a long line of pet lovers and have always had cats and dogs. I've had a few birds, a rabbit and countless fish as well. It used to be I called myself a dog person that put up with cats.

But over the years the cats grew on me. Even ole grumpy gus here, also known as Zeke. This old guy had a feral mom and is not fond of being handled though he has always let me handle him. He's very sensitive to touch and will let you know if you have overstepped your bounds but he follows me around the house like a puppy. No matter where I am he is close by. I had been drawing here at the table and you can see he just joined the party.

Here is his compatriot, Smudge. Smudge is as sweet as Zeke is not. Having said that, Smudge is not the brightest of the bunch, if you catch my drift. He is also quite large which makes his lack of foresight and intelligence, well, more noticeable. He is always miscalculating and knocking things down or making a mess somewhere.

These are not my first cats but they are probably the first cats that have made me laugh and admit that yeah, maybe I'm a cat person as well as a dog person after all....

How about you? Are you a cat person? A dog person? Neither? Both?

When our online friends leave us...

One of the things that has occurred with the rapid influx of the internet into our daily lives is that we have made online friends. We have never met them but in many ways they are quite close. So what happens when one of these online friends gets sick and then dies? There is a separation of reality and empathy for there can not really be closure. Most of us are not going to travel great distances and intrude on families we've never met and yet, there is a grieving process that is hard to explain or share. The people in your 'real' life don't quite get your very real feelings of loss so we end up turning to our other online friends, who we also haven't ever met. It's a funny world out there in internet land.

For those of us on Etsy, the loss of our dear friend and compatriot, cheerleader and supporter, Kathy Kroll of Four Dog Day has been both shocking and saddening. We got word of her passing on Saturday. Most of us knew she was sick and over the last few weeks it had become obvious that she was not getting better, but still.....it seems almost surreal, especially since we never actually met her. We have been missing her cheerful comments and funny stories for months now but the finality and silence are settling in to stay....

I wrote more about this a week or so ago on my Open Salon blog and you can read it if you'd like.

The edible landscape...

Do you forage out in the wild for greens to add to salads, for berries and nuts, for leaves, twigs and roots to make teas or other concoctions? I do a little bit and each year I am learning more...Remember Euell Gibbons? I was always intrigued by him but also a bit nervous about picking all that stuff in the wild and eating it....

This winter I took a class about edible and medicinal wild plants and over the years I've gone to various workshops, including a few on edible mushrooms. This year I am hoping to do a lot more with this. After all, I have an organic yard full of food ready for the picking right now...

I have a LOT of young dandelions--you have to get these early, before they grow flower stalks or they will be pretty bitter. Right now they are perfect for adding to salads and are also good steamed with other greens.

Shepherd's purse is pretty common as are common violets and both are quite tasty added to a salad but get them while young and tender.

And of course there is wild onion and garlic grass--quite common popping up in yards at this time of year. The wild onion is preferable to the garlic grass but both can be used, especially now before they get too tough. We have a lot of this in my yard and from the descriptions it is the garlic, being tubular, rather than the onion, which has a flatter blade. The garlic grass can be very strong but if you just trim the tips to add to a salad, scrambled eggs, dips, etc. it is quite lovely.

Can't wait to get out there and learn and do more! Am still taking classes and am looking forward to making some sassafrass tea and lemonade soon.