Transitions

by Rain Trueax

Rain Rock Casino-- Yreka, California

Holy Mackerel, what is going on with time? It seems we just got home with a blog to share but now, time to write another one. Ack. 

Mostly the days after we got home have been about unpacking (a lot goes between homes) and then rearranging the house. When we are gone (with current agreement), our son lives here sometimes with his boys. He takes care of the livestock; and although in town, he has a duplex, he tends to be out here the most due to the needs of the animals. He then, of course, arranges things to suit himself. We come home and have to arrange it to suit ourselves. This business of sharing a home may not work long term for him or us. We are all feeling our way through it. One way or another, change has to come.

Watercolor Class at Oregon State University with Oregon Fish and Wildlife Hatchery and Research Center Fall Creek Arts Festival

Saturday, November 4, at the OSFW Fish Hatchery and Research Center Arts Festival I enjoyed a morning and an aftenoon class of enthusiastic painters. Adult sisters assisted me and painted too. There were children accompanied by parents and one family included a grandparent, also some individuals with their caregivers. Everyone became engaged. 

Only have pictures of  a few of the paintings from the class.

  Attempting to be inclusive of painters in every stage of development including children and adults who knew what they wanted to paint. They were encouraged to go for their vision. For those who wanted a challenge or idea to start, I had an assignment for them.

My teaching exercise was on the techniques of  laying down a general compositional plan while being open to allowing the character of the paint to suggest new directions. Of course the creative process includes being free during the course of painting to reject somethings that are not desired. My goal was to disprove the widely held belief that watercolor is difficult because once a mistake is made the painting is ruined.  One reason watercolor is a workable medium is that the white of the paper can be restored by applying opaque, acrylic absorbent ground.

  

Lesson plan: With just two hours to paint, the assignment must be quickly explained leaving most of the time for the hands on exploring of watercolors. My challenge is great because students are four years old to ninty. Some had limited English language skills.  The basic need is to be simple and clear but still have enough meat to hook the most experienced painters.

Lesson: Very important! The placement of your subject within the picture is very, very important!   Deciding how much space surrounds the subject is your first step in making your painting expressive.   Whether tiny or popping out, whether placed to right or left top, middle or bottom determines the shape of the surrounding areas.  Whether the subject is small or large, the main subject and surrounding space project feelings and stories.

The size of the bird is significant as well as the central location. Top bird shows dominance, to be feared. the middle bird smallest with wings up in surrender. The bottom bird relatively big but is perceived as small because it is intimately close.

Student example of work using the technique of first painting negative area around subject while being mindful of allowing enough surrounding space to contribute to telling a story with emotion;

 

Whether the subject is recognizable or more abstract, the placement in the picture space is important to expressiveness.  My sample I cropped to make it more expressive:

 

A student's watercolor painting is  a  good example of the paint doing what it likes. Allowing paint to move and dry as it likes leads to happy accidental effects that if not fought can suggest a fun carefree ride to new imaginings. Watercolors have character in uneven coverage that painters can come to happily accept it's surprises.

 

In the next blog Wednesday, November 15, a demo will be illustrated and explained.

 

 

 

things change

There have been years where I went all out on Christmas decorating with a tree, greens, candles, angels, Wise Men, Christmas and Santa villages, nativity scenes, etc. I'd start right after Thanksgiving and take it all down New Year's Day. I enjoyed doing it, but it was a lot of work. 

I am fond of Christmas villages. Set into cotton, they look like places I'd love to spend Christmas. At night, with the lights off and their lights on, it became a kind of mystical world. 

There were several problems with doing the villages. Where they would go had to be cleared out. Finding safe places where the removed items could be put for a month got more difficult. I could probably improve that if I cleaned out our hall closet, but the thought of that makes me feel stressed; so...

The last time I put out the villages was 2011. The years after that became a time to head for Arizona and get the Tucson house ready for renters. Sometimes we'd be back for Christmas with family, and sometimes spend it there. I never decorated Casa Espiritu, what we call our Tucson home, as it just did not seem worth it given we'd have to have it all taken down before we left. 

When the snowbirds headed south, we'd be heading north for lambing and heavier hay feeding. It's not that we didn't like the idea of being in the Southwest for Christmas, but we have family up here, who weren't interested in traveling so far at a time when schools and other activities were at their height.

So this year, we are here for the holidays, which is complicating getting the Tucson house ready for its seasonal renters; but with the outside/inside cat adoption still not proceeding smoothly, there was just no choice. We can't leave them, and the four aren't yet ready to travel as a family. This meant I actually did decorate our farm home for the holidays. 

Much as I used to love doing a Christmas tree using old family ornaments as well as special ones I'd collected, we are allergic to the fir or whatever conifer we tried. We consistently got sick from it. Although I've seen lovely artificial trees, we haven't yet felt inspired to buy one-- where would we put it? A few years ago, I did though get inspired to buy artificial greens (again due to allergies) for the fireplace mantle and around the house. 

This year, I decorated with those greens, pine cones I have collected through the years, angels, and tiny birds. The house looks festive, ready for Winter Solstice and Christmas. Many of the decorations went over top of what was already there.

I enjoyed the years of decorating everywhere, just as I enjoyed the years having big family dinners here, but change is part of life. Like other cycles in life, this is good too.

a new month and the last of the old

Western Oregon had a particularly beautiful May this year as is obvious from photos I posted earlier. It is a good thing too as so many things were upsetting in May that I ended up having a bout of depression, which I am trying to ward off with thinking of all the good things that also happened. Although I am not big on hashing over things that upset me, I try to come up with why I might be feeling dark inside. I ask myself questions like-- 

What has gone wrong? 

Was it real?

Is it something I can fix? 

Am I letting little things get to me that I should not?

If they are big things, and I can't fix them, what can I do to make my life better anyway? Sometimes what's gone wrong is within my zone to fix, but I am not doing it. Sometimes I have to release it, as it's not something I can change-- anxiety attack time. May's depressing events were/are real. They aren't however health issues in my life or my husband's-- so that's a positive. They are mostly impacting those I care about. That is upsetting but also out of my arena of control. To beat off the depression, I need to think positive.

What particularly frustrates me is when a day's upset is followed up by nightmares. Come on-- that's not fair. Instead of dreaming of beautiful blue oceans, I am dreaming of car troubles or one dream was about investigating a murder scene and then going back to watch it happen. Ugh! I woke up before the murders, but knowing they couldn't be prevented. It left me, at 2:45 am, with a very upset feeling about violence-- gotta quit reading the newspapers!

This is the beginning of a new month. Summer is here. The days are incredibly long. My son and husband both have June birthdays. I have gotten a start on my next book and so far so good.

One of the beta readers sent me back her take on Book 1 in the Hemstreet Witch series. It was a relief to read because you really never know, and beta readers aren't guaranteed to like what they are given. I was so happy she liked it. 

"Sometimes we have the opportunity to read a book like none other than you have ever read. This is that book. It has mystery, heroism, strength of character and written with heart. I can say without a doubt that the subject matter reached right into my mind and would not let go until I finished the book. It is paranormal with witches, a little mystical and focus on what is, what may be and what could be. Denali Hemstreet, her sisters, mother and grandmothers work to solve crimes that appear to be out of the norm with strengths that cannot be understood by the Police. At the heart of the investigation is a former SEAL, Nick, who is confused about what is happening in his life as an artist and angry that he can’t seem to control the outcome. Without a doubt, this book will long remain in my mind and I loved it. I was given this book as a beta reader and am happy to leave this positive review."

She and my other beta reader were very helpful with the mistakes and typos that they found. Both were reading outside their normal realm and doing it because they had liked others of my other books. 

Where it comes to these books finding those who read fantasy, I have to come up with the right tags. Originally, I thought the five would be urban fantasy, but after reading a few, I don't think it will fit. Mine will have too much romance-- although it has the mysterious also. I am not quite sure how I will tag it, which has been why I'd delayed releasing it. 

Time though to delay no more, as I get my promo pieces together. The Enchantress' Secret will be out June 4th (also the new moon for June) on Amazon. and I hope the other sites-- not sure when it'll get to paperback. If you want to know about new releases, sign up for my mailing list in the upper corner of this blog. There will be no spam. It's only for new releases-- or a sale if I ever have a sale. I don't do that often.

As a tease for the new book:

  

Below are photos from the last part of our Eastern Oregon vacation. We were camping-- if you can call being in a 26' travel trailer (with big windows and a slide-out) camping-- on the Williamson River. We enjoyed more nights there than we originally planned, which required twice moving the trailer as reservations from others made staying in the same sites impossible. I remember when in Oregon, first come first served but these days reservations have changed that many places. Plan ahead-- what happened to serendipity???

I still don't have the trailer well set up for writing. I've got several ideas. One would be a small portable desk where I could sit on the sofa and type. Another would be to replace the table with a desk which both Ranch Boss and I could use. No firm plans for now. It would matter most if we were to be out a month. This was under two weeks, and some of it with friends, where writing (a solitary activity) doesn't work for me.

It's called high desert, but it isn't what many expect with the word desert as Oregon's High Desert varies depending on elevation and how much rain.

   
This beautiful pine tree is a good example of how we can have these hollow places, which do hurt, feel sad, are damaged, but don't have to stop us.
  

One more post next Wednesday about what we discovered on the last part of our trip.

It was a still, full moon night

Old Fred Astaire movies were on TCM, and we had been watching the beautiful full moon rise. Farm Boss went outside to photograph it. Then I heard what sounded like firecrackers and him yelling for me to get outside the house NOW! Without the cats? I yelled but went out.

So there I stood wearing only my nightgown and in bare feet in our new garden asking him why the heck I should get out and repeating what about the cats. He said our big oak tree was falling on the house, about to destroy it, and it going down was the sound I heard. I can't describe the feeling from hearing that, as it's as if your world is safe and mundane one moment; then the next-- could it all be destroyed?

I knew these oak trees were nothing to take lightly as they are well over a hundred years old, one we know has an invasive rot at its base. At over a hundred feet tall, they have substantial weight. Such trees have killed the unwary when a tree suddenly falls for no known reason other than some crucial dynamics were finally met. I've heard huge crashes along the creek with absolutely no wind and only one possibility-- a mighty tree has fallen. When hiking in the woods or wading up a stream, pay attention to small sounds. They often are precursors.

We had been meaning to get an arborist out here to check on the one with the rot but just hadn't yet done it. We had also been meaning to have some of the big limbs cut off but again it's finding the right person as those limbs are way high and would be dangerous for the wrong person to remove. It takes an expert. We know people who were killed or crippled by a mistake where it comes to big trees.

To make a long story short, I walked down through the vegetable garden, which is on the safe side of the house, broke into our bedroom screen door, got dressed, and did what he said-- went to the trailer where he felt it'd be safe. He brought one of our three cats (the one he could catch) who thought it was a nice, if nerve wracking adventure as he alternately purred and bit me lightly.

About that time, Farm Boss decided the banging sound and his seeing the big tree trunk shaking had actually only been one big limb splitting, and it would be safe to go back inside for the night. Reality is that tree would only take out the kitchen, utility room and maybe his office if it totally split or became uprooted (something oaks can do especially very old ones).

So back to the house we went with the one cat, got the other one in from the garden, fenced yard where she had run when I left the screen ajar for her to get out if she couldn't be caught. The old one, who is on his way out of life, never knew anything happened.

Farm Boss was pretty sure the tree itself wasn't about to fall but just to sleep better, I asked him to turn the house power off. I figured if the tree did violently split in two or fall toward us, fire would be our biggest danger.

Anyway next morning we called our insurance (boy is that useless for such a thing unless damage to roof and structure amount to over $10,000 which means we should up our deductible to that, i guess) and then calling places who can look at trees for health and with the equipment to remove the biggest limbs-- like the one now laying on our roof.

I have treasured these oaks. I've sat many hours on the deck looking up into the mysteries of their heights. Their beauty never ceases to touch my heart. They are part of the essence of our property here. The house nestles into them with great naturalness and beauty. I have though never underestimated their potential danger. They say watch in the spring that all have the same time leaves first appear as that would be the first warning of a tree about to die.

Not long after we moved here, we heard how these oaks had had metal bands around them back when horses and wagons crossed the creek at the ford near our home. The metal bands had made sawing them down particularly difficult as the bands became part of the inner tree. The trees and this crossing have a history. Living on a pioneer homestead has these aspects.

Their history is important but so is life and letting them be this close to the house (two are twenty feet or less) is something that has to be evaluated seriously. The other aspect is they form a grove which means in a windstorm they protect each other. So take down one or two and what will that mean for the rest?

It will definitely require someone coming out to remove the heavy limbs that still overhang the house, certainly the one that split and landed partly on our roof; but this is the first time I have seriously considered cutting any of them down. Thought of a huge tree crashing into your home will do that for you.

Interestingly we have had plans to take the trailer on a little Oregon vacation. We have put off leaving for assorted reasons-- consulting work for Farm Boss, family fun, and ranch related responsibilities. If you didn't know, ranches, even the small ones, take a lot to get ready for owner absence. However, if we had been gone when this happened, it would have been a bad thing; so that's a good thing that we were here and can deal with it-- assuming we can get someone with the right skills out here. As for that vacation, it might just get postponed again...

Photos were all taken morning after the limb split. The one above shows the tree with the rot and you can just see the trunk of the one where a limb split and landed on the roof.

Colors of the Sonoran Desert

For people not familiar with the Sonoran Desert, deserts often seem desolate places. While there are places like that, the Sonoran Desert is a rich habitat with diverse plants and many creatures living well within its expanse.

Tucson is around 2000 feet elevation. Its vegetation is related to elevation and varies quite a bit across the valley. When the first pioneers came here, the valley was full of tall grass and the Santa Cruz River ran full with cottonwood trees along its banks. Overgrazing and human use changed some of that, but still it's lush and has many different types of habitat within its valley as it's ringed by mountain ranges. Some go up to the level of pine and fir trees, others are desert mountains.

Where we have our home, is a ridge off one of the Catalina Mountain's ridges. It is one of the areas where ironwood trees flourish as well as palo verde. For a very brief season, right around Cinco de Mayo, they often bloom at the same time and the colors are brilliant.

Ironwood trees are lovely, providing good shade but they also are slivery with the kind of tiny, nearly invisible slivers you don't see, but if you touch their branches, leaves or walk barefoot around them, you find them quick enough. I don't suppose many people would purposely plant them, but I love them for their shapes and that brief season in spring when they turn into cotton candy balls.

Most of the year, palo verde trees are a rather feathery green but as you can see, they have a spring season of intense color. When the two types of trees are in the same area, it's like a cacophony of color.

These photos were all taken of our Tucson yard. besides the many on our ridge, there are more in an area set aside for them called Ironwood National Monument.