Mary Richmond Design

Days of Wonder

I can't get enough of these days. Days at the beach looking for horseshoe crabs, letting hermit crabs tickle my hands, watching kids discover new things under every rock.

This summer has simply been wonderful. One beautiful day has followed another and this one was no exception.

I only have a few more days in this job. Then I'll be on my own again.

I will miss moments like these in this incredible place but my plan includes days like this in other incredible places so I will not mourn any losses quite yet.

Whether it's holding  young horseshoe crabs for little people to examine or identifying shorebirds for retired people with binoculars this seems to be part of my destiny.

I am spending hours with pen and paper writing down my plans, my goals, my hopes for new programs. Next week I will begin in earnest.

There is much to do and I am excited.

Remember the huge cecropia caterpillar? The kids named it Peter (though we have no idea of it is male or female) and it/he is now in the process of metamorphosis. The caterpillar spun this cocoon or chyrsalis and attached it to the side of the little aquarium.

It will winter over in this form, exchanging chemicals and changing form. It will emerge in the spring as a beautiful moth with a wing span of about four inches.

I love this metaphor for what is going on in my life right now....

Will I too emerge this spring with newly minted wings?

Making Decisions, Making the Leaps

Some days you can't see the forest for the trees. Everything looks and feels the same. It isn't until you sit and let the world around you quiet down that you see the wonderful beauty and singularity in every living thing around you.

Ferns are one of the oldest living plants and there are thousands of varieties found all over the world. I love ferns. They represent coolness and water and clarity to me. They are full of order yet also random. They at first appear shy and discreet but they are actually quite bold and daring. They go where they want but they make sure the conditions will support their efforts. I love how nature provides the metaphors and how it's just a matter of watching and listening to find them when I need them. Maybe it's not true at all. Maybe I just make up what I need when and how I need it. Whatever. It works for me.

This will be my last week in my day job. I'm a little nervous about stepping out once again completely on my own but I think my plan is a good one.

The most difficult thing for me is staying focused when there are so many temptations around me.

I will be dividing my time between writing, drawing and painting and my naturalist/educator work. It will all be nature based to some degree. I have several book projects I'll be working on, lots of illustrations and of course a tile installation here and there so the bills get paid.

And the biggest leap of all is going out on my own to offer educational programs for schools and organizations that will combine nature, art and writing. I will be creating the programs themselves as well as the website and starting a new blog. As part of this I will also be starting what I call The Green Lunchbox Challenge for area schools. More about that later.

I feel like these buds. Ready to pop. And there's so much beauty in the stages of preparation and anticipation. I think I like the planning and the strategizing as much as the doing.

There are two blog posts I'd like to offer you here. One is from Christine Kane's wonderful blog and is about tweaks and yammers. You'll just have to read it to understand the way she uses these words. You can read her posts here. The other is from Cynthia Morris's blog about her travels and the huge changes she has made in the last few months. You can read her inspiring post here. I also found her latest newsletter essay really thought provoking as I prepare for my own journey. You can link to that here. Scroll down a bit until you come to the main part of the letter. I don't know these women except through their blogs and yet feel like they are good friends with supportive and inspirational things to say to me each week.

Who and what inspires you to make changes and make those big leaps?

Etsy Questions

I joined Etsy just about two years ago. My first year and a half I had very few sales, my pictures were terrible and I knew nothing about promoting myself in the forums, etc. I almost gave up this spring but decided to give it one last shot.

My sales improved, my photos improved and I have just opened a second shop to separate my ceramic work from my works on paper.

But is it worth it?

Some people do really well on Etsy. My sales come in dribbles and drabs and I feel I spend an inordinate amount of time for what are really lack luster sales.

When do you decide enough is enough? Do I keep my work there to maintain an online presence? Do I keep things there and see how the holidays go before making a decision?

Newly listed work on Etsy is buried within minutes, sometimes seconds, of being listed. The trick seems to be to constantly renew your listing so your work continues to show up in searches done by customers but at 20 cents a shot, inexpensive items don't seem worth promoting this way, such as my cards.

Then there's the amount of time spent packing and shipping. Etsy sellers seem to think it's normal to ship the next day, wrap your item like a gift and send a hand written card and a free gift. Yes, this makes it nice and I do it. And, if you start to sell in any volume I can see this becoming a big, time consuming headache that really doesn't have much of a payoff. Does this make me sound like a customer service scrooge? I hope not because I really do appreciate my customers. I just also need to be realistic about time and costs.

Do you Etsy? How are you doing? What are your thoughts? Please share.....

You can find my shop Mary Richmond Design here and my new shop, Mary Richmond Tile, Etc. here.

New ACEOs

I've been having some fun while not feeling so hot. I did a bunch of these little ACEO paintings while thinking about some illustration ideas for some children's books I'm working on.

These little animals are a little goofy but I think they could be developed into some fun characters.

These faces just pop in and out of my head and have since I began drawing way back when. It's funny how my work bounces back and forth between the nature and the faces. I used to worry about it but now I just let what comes up show up. Who cares if my work isn't all the same? I don't. And it's not like I have some big group of collectors out there!

And since I'm apparently a bit unstable at the moment here is yet another side of my work....landscapes!

Oh well.

I love doing these tiny paintings. They're fun, they're quick and I get to try out ideas in a short amount of time without using too much paint and paper.

And yes, they're for sale at my Etsy shop here.

Healthy Decisions

Thanks for everybody's comments on my last post. I am feeling much better today!

And here are some of my casual observations....

One person mentioned homeopathy and although this has always intrigued me in theory the two people I know who use homeopathy regularly always seem to have headaches and runny noses.....

Several people I know swear by macrobiotics. One always has a cold of some sort. She always seems to have a runny nose, a sore throat, a headache and chills. Another has achy joints and very bad skin. They also have bad breath and body odor but that may not be because of the diet.....

One friend has suggested acupuncture, which I may try. I've always been curious about this and it seems to have helped her a lot.

At the moment I take no medicines (although I did just take an antibiotic for a bad infection) and would like it to stay that way. I am somewhat hypertensive and seem to have developed this sinus issue so I would like to lose more weight and get my health back in control. My weakness is sugar and breads. I eat lots of fresh veggies, especially dark leafy greens as well as brown rice, tomatoes, blueberries, raw nuts, etc.

Here are my decisions to live by for at least the next 6 weeks to see how it goes.

No sugar, no caffeine, no dairy, no white flour, no red meat, no alcohol, no mushrooms (in case it's candida)

Limited whole wheat flour, poultry, fish, sweet fruits.

Yes to acidopholous, both in yogurt and in pill form.

Meditation twice a day, yoga three times a week (to get me back into it), walk twice a day, resume my morning pages.

Sound like a plan? Feels like a workable plan to me.....wish me luck!

When You Feel Like......

Cr*p.....it's hard to get motivated to do anything except lie around and feel sorry for yourself. I know that some people can break both legs, have 3 chemotherapy treatments in the same day and still be ready to conquer the world, but I am not one of them. I'm not a whiner but I do know when my body is saying, hey Mary, you need to rest....

I woke up on Friday morning with my cheek blown up like a chipmunk's and my teeth and mouth hurt like a son of a gun. There was no way I could go to work. Not only did I just want to lie down but I would have scared the small children.....the look on my husband's and daughter's faces were enough to convince me of that. I think they really didn't know whether to laugh or cry....

I've been having some odd sinus symptoms this summer and it was decided that this was in fact another sinus issue, not a dental issue. I was given a very heavy dosage of an antibiotic and told to rest and drink lots of water.

So of course I've spent the last few days checking out all sorts of info on the internet. Having had two invasive surgeries in the last five years that have left me missing rather important body parts I do not want to go the surgical route that is often recommended for sinus problems. My reading has convinced me that changing my diet and changing some other simple things may be all that is needed.

And so here is the question....how does one know? One diet tackles the idea that the ongoing sinus issue is related to a candida invasion. I don't really think I have the symptoms for this but it's apparently a common cause. The diet to eliminate candida is very intense and strict. Is it necessary?

Other diets dealing with sinus issues are also pretty intense. Has anyone done this?

One thing about using diet to change things going on in your body is that there is so much conflicting info out there. Everything agrees that I should not eat dairy. Well, I've been mostly there anyway. There is much discussion about any and all kinds of wheat flour, yeast, etc. and that's where I'm most hesitant. Not even whole wheat? No gluten. No sugar. No to most fruits. No to many vegetables. Some say no to all meats, poultry and fish.....

I can deal with the dairy, the sugar, the caffeine, the alcohol, the white flour, the red meat....but some of it seems pretty extreme.

Any thoughts? Ideas? Things that have worked or not worked?

I will say the antibiotic, the hot compresses and breathing hot steam spiked with herbs has been helping....and I still look like a chipmunk but a little less like one on steroids, if you know what I mean. My biggest problem right now is dealing with the antibiotic which is wreaking havoc on my innards. I'm allergic to many antibiotics and they end up giving me one that is famous for causing serious and uncomfortable side effects that I have to just hobble through. It does seem to be helping and yes, I'm taking acidopholous several times a day to counteract it....I know some people have issues with antibiotics and I take very few but this infection has been moving around in me for several months now. Hopefully this will help.

And thanks for letting me whine a bit but I figured it was the only way to get help from a wider community out here in blog land..... 

Namaste!

Namaste is a Sanskrit word that literally means 'I get out to you' and which is usually translated as 'I am your humble servant."It is most often said with folded hands and a bow of the head to show respect. I first heard it from a yoga instructor and have always thought it is a wonderful gesture that we should probably be using way more often than we do. Wouldn't it be nice if every encounter we had with each other began and ended with 'namaste' and a little bow of the head and our hands drawn together?

I look at a lot of blogs during the week but there are some I go back to again and again and Tameka's Tea & Honey Bread (she has other blogs you can link to from there also) has quickly become a must read for me. When she suggested a Namaste exchange, I signed right up. I have no idea how many people signed up but I painted a small watercolor to send to my exchange recipient in Austin Texas. I chose a humble plant with a humble and small butterfly as a reminder that there is beauty and worth even in that which we label weed and unimportant.

I received my gift from Charmaine Manley of High Desert Diva yesterday and it is just lovely.

This picture really doesn't do it justice at all. It is about 10" tall and I plan to hang it in my studio window where I will enjoy it every day.

  Here is a closeup of the glass piece.

and a close up of the metal....

Isn't it wonderful?

You can find more of High Desert Diva's work here. You can also find Charmaine's blog here.

Namaste!

Ah Summer.....

There's nothing like searching for butterflies on a beautiful August morning, especially if you can take a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds with you.

We also found grasshoppers of all sizes and colors and a few dragonflies and crickets.

We saw a young rabbit and kept our eyes out for snakes.

And then we saw a bush start to shake. We watched the movement go through the branches and then looked under the branches to see what we could see and this is what we found.

Eastern box turtles are a species of special concern where I live but this one location has a pretty healthy population and the kids love to find them here. The turtles patiently let the kids touch them and then we put them back where we found them.

Kids love turtles. They love big turtles, little turtles, sea turtles and land turtles. They even love snapping turtles. I think they like that little shiver down their spines when they think about really, really big snapping turtles.

Turtles are sort of goofy, you have to admit....

Who doesn't love a turtle?

Beach plums are almost ripe. Bushes are loaded with them this year. Box turtles will take their fill, as will many other birds and animals. Many people have their secret stash and all over Cape Cod people are digging out their jelly making supplies and cleaning out glass jars....

I spend a lot of time here at South Beach in Chatham, taking families out to look for seals in the surf and to do a lot of beach walking and beach combing....this view is from yesterday afternoon. What a day it was....

and it's one of the most isolated parts of the Cape still....ah, yes!

When I turned around, this was my view....

I've fallen in love with local food and the farmer's markets here. These tiny potatoes are a blue variety and they melt in your mouth. I love that I have to wash the earth off them and scrub them with a brush the way my grandmother did....

I bought some fresh onions and loads of garlic, too. The flavor is unbelievable. I don't know how I'll go back to store bought this winter....

This fall I will be planting my own garlic and I'll plant onions in the spring.

 

I had several kinds of fresh new potatoes and carrots, some wonderful fresh rosemary and of course the onions and garlic.

I mixed them all up with some fine olive oil, salt and pepper and spread them out on a sheet of tin foil on a cookie sheet. Cook for about half an hour at 400 degrees and oh my....

We had these with fresh caught bluefish....

Summer on Cape Cod doesn't get better than this.....

Unless it is to do this.....like we did last weekend with fresh caught lobsters bought at the farmer's market.....

Birds on the Boat

These little house finches are very excited to see Dad arrive with some long awaited food.

If you know house finches you know they will next just about anywhere. They nest in flower pots, boots left on a porch, pockets in old coats left on an outdoor hook. Sometimes they even nest in bird houses or in the branches of bushes or trees. They are very adaptable.

It's Mom's turn to feed the hungry brood.

These little finches were raised on a boat. The boat is one we use for tours of the marsh and cove. It is a fairly quiet and slow moving pontoon boat. It travels pretty flat and for much of the time it is at rest on its mooring, though it often makes 3-5 trips a day.

The house finches set up the first nest early in the spring and have now raised three families on the boat. All the young survived to fledge in each instance, a pretty amazing statistic in the bird world.

More than one male seemed to help feed the young. Was it one of the young from an earlier nest? You can see two of them here, waiting their turn to feed the babies.

When the boat was out on the water, the babies hunkered down in the nest and didn't make a peep. Most people on the boat were unaware they were there. The parents waited on shore and greeted the boat the minute it came around the bend toward the dock. They flew from boat to boat, from mast to mast, calling and chiriping and the young woke right up and answered them.

This handsome guy is waiting for me to move so he can get back to business but he didn't seem to mind posing for me one last time.

The four young in this nest have fledged and are doing fine. The original nest leaving took place on the boat and the little ones hopped around on the floor of the boat getting strong enough to fly. One little one joined the captain in the captain's area for a trip through the cove before flying off with its parents to the nearest boat when he returned to the dock.

And that's my tale of birds on the boat. I know, I have a tough day job.....

Any good stories to share?

Green, green and more green....

So often our greens get dried out and faded looking by now but this summer has had just the right amount of rainfall and all our greens are still lush and lovely, cool and refreshing. I'm on Cape Cod and we have not had the drenching rains or flooding some parts of New England have had. We've been very lucky so far. This has been one of the most beautiful summers I remember here and I've been here all my life.

The top picture is of pokeberry, also called inkberry. The berries will soon turn a deep purple and can be used as a fun ink substitute and dye. The young shoots of this plant are supposedly edible but the berries are toxic. Apparently not to birds and animals, though, because they chow down on these berries as soon as they ripen, leaving only the pink stems behind.

The second picture is of fox grape leaves. I walk by them every day and they make such a lovely pattern.

And who can resist ferns? There are something like two thousand kinds of ferns and I think I can name maybe two....and I'm not even really sure of those so these will go unnamed for now.

I believe these funky ferns are called Christmas ferns but I can happily be corrected if someone thinks otherwise!

Queen Anne's Lace isn't green but the white is sort of neutral and it fits in the green landscape so nicely I'm going to include it here. It's the plant that just keeps on growing and I love it. I've let it sprout here and there in my yard, much to the horror of one of my neighbors who always wants me to know it's really a weed, not a flower. Oh well.

And then there's this little guy....who isn't so little! This is a cecropia moth caterpillar and it is one big guy! It was found by one of our kids on a trail, just about at eye level. We all admired it, looked it up in the books and then took it back where we found it. Pretty cool, huh?

So what did you do today?