small things

 by Rain Trueax

Here I am again with nothing to say that I feel is positive. I am not happy, but why should I be given the world situation as well as what is closer to home? Like most of you, I am doing the best I can for where I am. I am trying to think ahead to a future that will be brighter instead of writing about what is going wrong-- in my opinion. Why depress others by writing about my own negative situations right now? If I wrote what I am thinking about politics, half of you would agree and half be offended. Besides which, does anyone think what we write in blogs or on FB convinces anyone? I doubt it.

I did find one interesting thing this week in terms of how we decide what is worth believing, how do we figure out what is truth. It was that we need to look at our own cognitive biases. What in our experiences has us wanting to believe or disbelieve something. The theory was that we all have cognitive bias and need to be aware of it in terms of how we read what is out there. That is followed by confirmation bias, which basically says we tend to go where we already are comfortable and what will reaffirm us. The point was watch out for it when we assess something that we recently learned.

 Other than that, I finally got the new blogger. It works for me, but I can't say I like it. It is not the disaster for me that it is for my blog partner, Diane. She can't format or add photos. For that and other reasons, she may need a break from blogging. We're trying to work that out. IF we try to take this blog back to legacy, will that continue to be supported? I am uncertain from what I can research.

So, how about some more desert photos of the cacti? Better than what I am actually thinking ;) Nature is also life and right now the only real consolation for the pain the world is experiencing. The lesson from nature is that life goes on...

 One thing about these late summer cactus-- watch for them. A day later, the blossoms will be gone. Something to think about where it comes to valuing small things.

by Diane: favorite pictures of the week.

The chill of winter has arrived.
 Only a few surviving roses linger.
Light comes late and darkness early.

In a refrigerated atmoshere

 the roses hang on through frost and mist

day after day.

By the warmth of a wood fire,
 I review photos of a sweet spring and summer.
Sweet because one of these years our beautiful view will become an urban development.
I loved the ground cover under the redwood tree.

My phone takes amazing pictures all of which are different from how I see our neighboring fields and woods. I could not capture a good picture of the doves sitting on the iced over bird bath, or the flock of robins completely deneuding the holly bush of what was going to be my season's trimmings. I could not capture the robins' flight.  White from being back lit wings flutter and tail turning downward as they flew in to a perch on the birch tree. But my camera's frame helped me to appreciate small vingnettes of the whole like the ice in our birdbath. The rock being one of my on going painting themes.

tribes

by Rain Trueax

"Tribe-- a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader." Dictionary definition

Do you think much about tribes and what they mean? There have been times in history where you belonged to a tribe or you died. Breaking the rules of the tribe could send someone into a solitary life where it was impossible to survive. An example was the Apaches where an unfaithful woman was banished and had her nose cut off in punishment. How do I know about this? -- Research and regressions... Tribes are cultural and not just Native American or African. They also are not just about friendships. It's more about a common purpose, I think.

In today's world, people tend to move around; so communities aren't static tribes; they might think they are with those moving in and out. Tribes might be about careers, but when it is, the tribal connection often ends when the job does. Churches and political parties are the same way-- share the beliefs or you're out the door-- by choice or otherwise. I have not been much of a joiner, but clubs could provide a tribal experience. They require having a common interest, which could last a lifetime like say gardening.

by Diane: Collaborative husband / wife flower garden

My husband and I love our flower garden especially this year when Don is  not feeling like fishing. Hopefully he will recover in time to go for limited fishing the middle of August. He is getting his gall bladder out this Friday. He will be restricted to lifting no more than 10 pounds for 6 weeks. The surgeon says he can go fishing but I have to reel the fish into the boat and carry it. Not my thing. Rather be painting. Luckily, Don has a good many fishing partners and his 18 year old grandson to accompany him.

Gardening is more fun when we do it together usually. When one of us is first to see another flower opening it is special news between us. I love how the flowers have evolved the past 34 years that we lived here. Mostly they are volunteers surprising me where they pop up like the sunflowers, California poppies, glads, lobeilia and many more. If the previous owner visited, they would see many of the same plants they had. The dahlias and lilies we collected over the years. We are making plans for adding chrysanthemums this Fall. And wondering how to make it better for hotter drier conditions in the future.

My vision of an inspiring garden is a jungle like in Henri Rousseau's 1910 painting, " The Dream".    Don is not comfortable with any weeds. Even plants that have some weed-like character like California poppy and cosmos after their prime. Lilies still look great after they are done. He prefers seeing dirt  paths  between the plants where he can rototill. The robins and blue birds like his dirt.

Don likes clean color areas with strict borders without any plants falling over the border. His aesthetic is more like a Mondrian.


Is it possible to bring these two aesthetics together?
My good man allows me to be the boss of most of the decision making. He pulls out the rototiller and I run to guide his way. At the end of the day the resulting arrangement flowers in front of our house is the best we have ever had.

Last year with a carpet of weeds.

My husband's clean vision for our front yard that is completely clean of weeds still has enough variety of forms and color to be a catalysis for paintings I hope to paint next week. My hope is making a painting like  Rouseau's "The Dream".

Just a taste of Arizona

by Rain Trueax

There are several elements to a book that must be considered before setting out writing. One of them is setting. Does the setting work with what happens in the story? How much do you know about the location? How important should it be to the plot?

For me, setting is one character in all of my books. I set them only in places I've spent time or better yet-- lived. I like that sense of reality for my stories, which are otherwise fiction. Mine are all set in the American West. Some are contemporary and some historical, but they all have ground under them where I know what the soil is like, how the wind feels, when it rains, what kind of vegetation, and even who are the people who live there.

Spring and the Crow Moon

by Rain Trueax
 

We spent this week still waiting on the carport permit. This is so frustrating as it's about length of nails, amongst other things, a not understanding all the rules before getting into the game, and a city that doesn't appear to have enough employees to cover those needing permits getting them in a timely manner. If we were in the county, as we had been when we bought this place, the contractor would already have the carport built. As it is, process puts him and us on hold and not a thing we can do about it as any rushing the gun and starting to build without a permit and inspections would lead to a $500 fine and maybe having to undo what had been done. The power is in the hands of those who have no reason to worry about our schedule. 

Enough whining on that. We had two things interesting-- to us-- happen this week. One happened to everybody. The other was just for us.

More on yesterday's thoughts

by Rain Trueax

 shared this morning by a friend on Facebook

Yesterday, I posted a blog and hope you will read it as it's about the New Zealand shooting, our problems with getting a building permit for a new carport, and the university scandals. I called it Slippery Slope because so much can be. We can't fear the slippery slope or we can't be nuanced. So many people fear doing anything based on it. We do though need to be aware of it in our decisions.

The post above is about where I think we need to concentrate to feel good about life. Whether we have problems in our own lives (most of us do) or see it in the world, we can't dwell on the negative and expect to find inner peace.  An example of that is below. 

When we look at a beautiful sunset from our Arizona home, we look beyond the power-line wires to see it. In a photograph, the wires tend to distract from the long-range view. I have a tool that lets me take them out to make a photograph more accurate to what my eyes actually see. 

This is how I see our lives have to be. Deal with the power-lines as in be aware of them, don't let them ruin the picture. In turbulent times, such as we certainly are living within, it's not always easy. It's however, I believe, the key to living a peaceful life in the midst of a time where a lot is not.

not as I expected

This has been a week where nothing went as I expected. I had written a blog for today and then because of other circumstances, it's not a good fit. I'll be next Saturday. 

With grandson here this week, my mind isn't operating on full cylinders, and today seems like a good day for photos. These are from our farm and this summer. It seems hard to believe it's more than halfway gone. Since out here, we all need rain, that's not a bad thing.

popular or not

by Rain Trueax

Sometimes I dream something and wake with an associated idea-- sometimes only roughly associated. It happened this week. My dream had taken me back to high school relationships and one particular one where the dream mixed real life experience with fiction. 

In high school, I'd had a friend, the kind we did things together, had sleepovers-- and then one day I went to school and she was no longer talking to me. She never told me why. I never asked. To this day I don't know although I could hazard a guess. More interesting to me would be-- why didn't I ask then? I didn't and won't ever now. Her loss was painful for me as I didn't have a lot of school friends. The dream encompassed this real life experience but gave it a different ending-- think Hallmark ending ;)

When I woke, it was with this thought-- I am not a popular person. Is that why my books are not popular? Do they even relate?

A dream painting commission

A 24" x 48" oil painting for a daughter and son-in-law who know I like to paint large

A daughter of mine wanted a painting I did from Church Lake in Washington State. It sold 17 years ago.  A few weeks ago the owner brought it back for painting over repairs to a tear mended by a conservator.




Looking at the results surrounded by my other paintings, I wanted to do more like the daisies. It was a memory painting of Church Lake but I tipped the background to make the distances closer and more dominate as though the painting was in a canyon.








 I have done one other landscape painting in which the foreground drops into a hole in the middle ground.
I am happy to paint a commission for my daughter especially since I already wanted to do the subject. But she wanted it larger and a longer panoramic view.








I found a photograph taken from low on the ground which makes the snow peaks appear higher and gradually creating a hole in the middle ground. The picture was taken on the Coffin Butte Trail near Iron Mountain in Oregon.  Photographs are one thing my paintings another form of expression.


I like challenges and do not want to repeat a past painting. The requested a 24" x 48" size made it more difficult to keep the juicy oil effect all over the canvas than the smaller one my daughter liked. The representation of the photo was not my goal making it more difficult to know when the painting is done.














 I wanted the energy feeling as though I was painting "a la prima" on location. So I didn't look at the photo as I began laying in thick oils to the upper left corner then working all over. So I needed to keep up the rhythm of my first "all over the canvas paints. The painting could have been done the first day except the paint wasn't all thick and juicy all over. So the next day I did a sketch trying to firm up in mind the placement of visually recognizable flowers, driftwood, rock and mountains then just as it was almost complete I sketched again to warm up before I began for the two hours it took to finish the painting.  Maybe this painting will stand up to the test of looking at it for a few months before it is hung in my daughter's and son-in-law's home.

 

 

 

More on Aging

by Rain Trueax

Recently, we watched a three part series on Netflix-- [Five Came Back]. Take the time to watch it as it was excellent. Yes, it has some brutal segments about WWII (if you want to think Nazis were okay you definitely need to watch the Holocaust photos). It reminded me how much each generation is influenced by the time in which it has grown up. The archival film is of five successful directors of that time and not only their participation in the war but also what they brought back from it in terms of the films they then made.

Born in WWII, I know it impacted my life in a ton of ways-- not only by it but the aftermath for what people learned from it. Because my family had gone through the Great Depression, and talked about it, it also was a factor in what I was taught growing up. This is one of the benefits of reaching old age-- we've seen a lot.

Along with aging's reality of loss and deterioration (biology-wise), there are benefits that I don't think many consider. In the United States, sadly the emphasis seems to be holding onto youth. What about considering the benefits of a long lifespan? Why do so many demean old age? 
 
In some primitive cultures, the old are revered. They are the ones who remember the dry seasons, what might matter when the herds travel another route, diseases that came through and proved devastating. 

Do we really believe that a seventeen year old today knows more than someone who has lived seventy years? Can life wisdom be valued instead of demeaned as so often happens with the elderly thought of as being selfish or senile? Could it be that having seen so many cultural shifts, the old have something to share with the young? This will only happen if the old value what they have experienced.

Culturally, we, at least in my generation, have lived through a lot of changes. I was born when communication was newspapers, mail, radio, movies, and party-line telephone. News was gathered from limited sources and mostly we knew our own community and family for sure-- if that. Living through a time like that puts a unique perspective on a time like ours where news is from so many sources that many end up victims of ADD (attention deficit disorder). Today, we are bombarded by info-- or what defines itself as such.

Family expectations have changed in my 70+ years. I grew up when children were expected to be polite, where the world didn't revolve around them, where adults talked and children listened-- or went off to play. The idea of coming to a time where profanity is praised and someone who is nasty is admired is beyond me to imagine from the perspective of my own youth. Being old means I remember when nasty was not a virtue but a problem.

In my childhood, we were allowed to be a child and adulthood was something to be worked toward and hopefully achieved. Responsibility was taught  through chores and sometimes rewarded by an allowance. I don't know if that still exists but I do know receiving a small amount of money for doing a job teaches responsibility. Not having much money teaches the value of making responsible choices.

Another plus of being a child in an earlier era is we were allowed freedoms that today are criticized by some as they call such to be free range kids. We all were back then. 

Examples: I was able to run over open fields, go into the brush and lie there as

I stared up at the sky. I read books sitting in a big cherry tree, ran to a rock wall to escape a sheep that wanted to butt me. I had my first rifle at 12 because I asked for it as my Christmas present, because I'd seen our sheep with their sides ripped out by dogs and wanted to protect them.

One year, my father, brother and I went to a mountain stream. While they fished, I waded down that stream by myself, climbing over logs, finding spider webs everywhere and finally overcoming my fear of breaking through them. Although I was far from any hope of my parent rescuing me if something went wrong, I relished the freedom. When I wanted to learn to swim, it was on a river and I did it staying in the shallows until I could

feel confident I could swim across. When I did it the first time though, my father swam alongside me. The only time I ever saw him swim. From then on I could do it by myself. The memories of those times and reaching the rocks on the other side, they are always with me as are so many others from those years.

I am not saying children today couldn't experience such things. Some do... Just not as many as back then.

As an old person, I have seen societal changes. Nothing lasts forever is something the old understand better than the young. Having seen a lot of mistakes and successes, I don't think I know it all-- even if I am confident I know a lot.

Less is expected of me as an old woman. That's freeing. We can do what

pleases us more than in those earlier years. When we opt to take on challenges, it's our choice. When some of those challenges lead to failures, we can still feel excited-- like who knew we could do something like that in our 70s. At one time, being old meant moving in with the kids, to an Old Folks Home, or after Social Security, retired. Now it means anything goes-- at least that our bodies allow.

A few years back, I took some time to write my core beliefs. Recently, I came across them and looked them over. I wouldn't add to the list. Have you written down your core beliefs? The things on which you stand? I put them in a blog where I archived some of my earlier blogs (there was a blog before this one). If you're interested, they are at [Age Old Beauty]. 

That's another thing I believe-- that like fine wines or old roses, there is a beauty in old age. It's not the same as youthful beauty but it has a worn patina to it that I consider it's own beauty. If we don't do plastic surgery, our life shows on our face-- the good parts and the painful ones.

 The birds are all from observations at our Tucson home. We had to add the fence for when the cats are out as they regard the fountain as a 'moveable feast.' Watching birds is one of the joys that is possible at any age. I love how they migrate, how they instinctively know when to go and where. Life is really something.

Healing Times

by Rain Trueax

I've written often how much nature means in my life. I use it in my books as a secondary character. It is part of any creative endeavor to feel nature and let it fill me. I believe it's healing.

This blog by Susan Tweit was inspirational to me and thought it might be to some of you. It's not just about a conference she attended, a lot of driving time, but also about her creative friendships along the way. These are what I find especially rewarding-- creative connections, where a love of the same things is shared. Such relationships are also healing.

Susan J. Tweit-- Windshield time listening and making time

And in view of that, the rest of this blog is photos of nature here in Tucson, which I always enjoy on a multitude of levels. If you are stressing, and many are these days, take some time with each image and let it fill you as it would if you were here.

 soft

 sharp

 overhead

looking down

from the skies

It is a bountiful world. We need to keep it that way in all the ways we know.