The sounds of the birds singing joyfully met me as I woke from my dreams. It was 5:30 and as I rose from my bed I felt gratitude for being rid of the severe pain from the last two summers. Stepping outdoors it was a perfect summer morning. Star and Vanilla both looking happy in the coolness that would soon vanish in the sun and become too hot. Flowers everywhere were blooming happily after the many rain showers and the heat. Raspberries and blueberries are quickly ripening.

The virus that had plagued us for a year and a half had loosened its grip and people were feeling free again. And yet, things will never be the same.

I wonder, where did the time go? From when I was in high school doing my artwork and spending my free moments out riding horses, spending lots of time in nature, and enjoying the beach, on to college where I went to Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and majored in printmaking, later on to find it was a great medium in understanding the use of negative space in my batik art. Batik became my new passion, and I loved working with the dyes. I did tie dye as well as batik. I did many paintings and had shows when I was young, only to put it to one side when my husband Richard and I married and had a dairy farm and enjoyed time with the friendly Jerseys, the pastures, and daughter Jaka, who always helped doing all she could from a very young age, and now.

I had so many wonderful moments and of course there was many tragic and sad incidents as we were on the farm, but there was the excitement of seeing things grow and taking care of the land and the animals and coming together as a family to make sure everything got done. I enjoyed having the sun on my face as I would spend time taking the cows to pasture and working on the fences, training the heifers how to navigate the alleys and fencelines for their pasture grazing later in their lives, the sunsets, the early morning dew, the severe snowstorms, rain, hail, thirty below zero. All of those things are etched in my face now that I’m older. And I still love my art. And finally, this year, in the warm months, I do plan to get out and get some batik done, something I could not do the last two summers, and I hope I can stay strong and get a lot of my art done.

I am planning on taking a short vacation from my Etsy shop in July so that I will have more time to get my waxing and dyeing done, and ironing things out. So I hope you will bear with me as I stumble back into my creative space.