My stash of frozen tomato sauce was parsed out over the winter and spring, and I defrosted the last jar just as the new tomato crop started to color.

I want more jars of sauce in the freezer this winter, and planted twice as many tomato plants, but we’ll see how many tomatoes get into the sauce pot once leaf spot diseases and tomato sandwiches have had their way.

Thank goodness there’s always the local farm stand.

Mornings are the low point of my day. I have wisps of dreams and their strange worlds left in my mind and it takes me a while to get going. The best approach is to move slowly, and to “take the day gentle”. When I do, I notice things. Moments of light. Subtle, constant changes that bring me into the current moment.

Seems the shadows aren’t only in my head, but moving all around me.

Click on image to read signs.

I’ve had a batch of old metal sunray-shaped findings stashed away in a drawer for years. Every so often I’d take them out and think how I wanted to make something with them, but instead they’d end up back in the cabinet.

Last week, I gave myself some time off to refill the creative well. I went to the library and chose randomly inspiring books on Andy Goldsworthy, Shaker furniture, Antique Jewelry and William Morris. I scribbled ideas in my sketchbook. I wandered off and washed a couple of windows. I tidied my desk. Eventually I dug through my drawers of materials… and there were the findings, waiting.

So I made something that isn’t strictly anything, and had a wonderful time doing it.

Now this blanket-curtain-whatever-it-is is hanging on the wall, catching the light in its old metal shimmery way, and delighting me. I want to make a GIANT one if I can hunt down more of these findings. The bagful is all used up.

“It doesn’t matter who you be, just be who you be. Be different.”

The Hudson Valley is packed with artists and it’s exciting to discover who is just down the road. I love these guys.