What I pack first

When going on a vacation to a part of the country where there aren't going to be a lot of stores, packing gets to be more complex. Usually wherever I go, I can buy anything I forgot. In Eastern Oregon there are a lot of places where the basics are available but specific needs aren't so easy to find.

The first thing I pack are books. Sometimes I end up not reading anything I brought because I get busy with other things, but I bring quite a few just in case this or that mood strikes. This time I am particularly aiming myself toward feeding one element in my personal life. I want to paint more effectively than I have been.

Improving my painting was also helped by something else I did the week before I left. I had several stacks of my favorite western and art magazines. Some went back to 2005 so that lets you know how long I had been putting off sorting through these for the ideas I wanted to keep. A visualization, of being one of those little old ladies with many cats and stacks of magazines that forces walking through their homes like a maze, was part of my impetus.

As I went through the magazines, tearing out articles about artists I admired, studio ideas, paintings that were particularly interesting, something I could use for a motivational collage, I realized I was feeding my inner vision with a flow of images.

There were stories of painters who had done what I'd love to do; stories of people and their horses; some tragic stories of lives lost; collections of cowboy movies that I mostly have seen but might want to see again; reminders of old western televisions series; and homes I'd love to have in the mountains. It was a feast for my senses.

Hopefully that feast, besides sending the magazines to recycle, will help me to do better at painting on this trip. I am heading for a part of the state that has vari-colored mountains, canyons back into fossil beds, a wild river that winds through it all, and a cottage with a garden (if it hasn't frozen yet) that looks like a place an artist could paint for a week and not run out of subjects.

Because we are renting two different houses for the week, I figured I had more time to spread out a little at each place. Renting houses is something I particularly like to do on such trips as it cuts way down on a need to eat out-- not that there would be a lot of nearby restaurants in at least one of the places.

We have a nearby neighbor looking after the cats, cows and sheep; so I feel confident to leave. Sometimes it's important to go away and this summer it's been hard to do. I might get online at one of the homes but it will be sporadic if so.

(The political rants come next. I moved them up. I have some things I feel I need to say but then I want to get it behind me. I don't know if you are like me, but until I say what I know is important to me, it will bug me. I think with those three, I will have said it all at least for awhile-- I hope.

So if you cannot stand politics, come back the 19th, which happens to be our 45th wedding anniversary. Wow, it just seems like yesterday-- no, it doesn't. Anyway that blog won't be about the anniversary, we never make a big deal about them, but about the farm.)