Blizzard

It was a short one, but had more impact than the longer one earlier this winter. The long one lasted a few days and brought more snow, but my husband wasn't stuck in Florida for that one. Having cancelled his trip to visit his mother during the first blizzard, he didn't want to upset her by cancelling for a blizzard again. She's 96. So he brought in a pile of wood for me, made sure I remembered how to use the battery pack we'd retrieved from the boat for the first blizzard, and left. His mother was absolutely delighted to have him for a week. I tried to keep occupied. I finished the sympathy cards I was painting for all my cousins. My beloved Aunt Ginny died a few weeks ago. They took some oomph to finish. I chose to paint flowers I thought she would love.

Then I had to get more wood without being blown away. First, I had to find the jet sled, which wasn't where I left it. Then I had to tunnel under the tarp because it was too heavy with snow to fold back and then crawl into the cave and crawl back out with a log. Filling the sled took awhile. Happily, I discovered the jet sled fits through the front door, so unloading was easy. My snow dog enjoyed the whole thing.

Doing the flowers for the sympathy cards spoiled my plan for a submission to the Newburyport Art Association's upcoming show Field Notes: Art and Science. I had thought I would do the obvious - a blown up nature journal page. Nope. Way too sad a subject now. Then I thought of nautical charts and how they exist at the intersection of art and science, especially the old ones. I could add another layer of art by making a chart for a fantasy world. I wandered around the house feeling useless for awhile planning it before I could get started. Charts, to be realistic, require some drafting. I braved the wind again to retrieve my college drafting tools from the shed. (The wind wasn't enough to knock me over but it was certainly enough to bring a tree down on my head.) Mid day, we lost power and I was very grateful for the skylight next to the woodstove. Making up the geographical names was fun. I named one bay after my aunt and another after her sister, my mother. The whole project was a blast. All the inking was soothing. And the chart was accepted in the show! I framed and delivered it yesterday.