Friday 19 August 2022

August 19, 2022 Chautauqua

Beth's Ponderings

   August has been a ridiculously busy month, and looks like it will continue to be right to the end.

   The month started with the end of my art show in Donalda.  It was a great experience, and I’m so glad I said Yes to it.  I especially enjoyed sharing my artist journey and art process with the people who attended the Meet and Greet on July 23rd.

   Of course, the garden is producing.  I didn’t get many raspberries this year, as about half rotted before I could pick them as I ended up sick in bed the last week of July (when we had the extreme heat and humidity).  My poor crabapple tree - which honestly we thought was dead a handful of years ago - produced a bumper crop this year (I’m not sure how exactly!), but I had to pick the crabapples early as the tree is rotting from the bottom so has to come down (actually it should be down by the time you read this) - it’s bittersweet as that is the last of the trees that my parents planted in the yard when we first moved to Mirror in 1979.  Needless to say, I’ll be processing a LOT of crabapples in the coming days.  And I’ve had two large pickings of rhubarb that I turned into juice.  There is nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than a cold glass of rhubarb juice.  I also had enough tomatoes to make some tomato soup - I tried that last year for the first time, and it worked so well, I had to make more this year.

   Also this month, we are working on the edits for my 10 songs for my music album.  Hard to believe that the 4 month program will be wrapping up the first week in September!  I have trusted friends reviewing my songs and giving feedback, which has been very helpful.  At this point, my album release is set for October, but there is a tiny possibility that it could be released sooner.  Part of that timeline is dependent on whether or not I have my book - based on the artist journey structure I used for my art show in Donalda - ready to be printed/published in September.

Beth

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