Life is what Happens...

"I wonder if I have been worrying so much that the worry muscles in my brain are now broken, permanently sharpened to a point of attention that is useless now, an ambulance siren for no one."

Jill Kolongowski from the article "Tart" in the March 2025 issue of the Sun magazine

The last few years have been challenging to say the least. Now, I realize that for several of them I had been going through a major, years long depressive espisode with its accompanying anxiety.  Sometime during the winter, my head finally poked out of the hole in the ground it had been in. Trouble is, I came up in the middle of a war zone. Between the crap the current administration is pulling that will directly affect my life and the lives of those I love and a lot of personal stuff, it is very tempting to crawl back in the hole. But, that isn't possible this time. Or, maybe like the above quote, the part of my brain that incessantly over thinks, is worn out and broken. Good.

My husband has had a stroke. He is doing pretty well all things considered. His vision being the biggest issue. He can see, but not well enough to drive or do the things he needs/wants to do. So, my life will change dramatically (already has) and so my art and the way I sell it will also. I ask for your patience as I figure this all out. It would help if the medical system in the US wasn't such a mess. Our first order of business is to get therapies for him to help with his sight. Due to a simple paperwork issue (by the hosptial and it took me a week just to figure out that it was an actual problem) this is taking much longer than it should, time being of the essence with his vision. Once that is scheduled the rest of life can be set up around that.

I see my life online expanding and am pondering what that will look like and the steps to get there. In the meantime, I could use your help. If you are in Spokane, please think of me and Pottery Place Plus when picking out gifts. We are at 203 N Washington in Downtown, next to Aunties books. If you are in Moscow Idaho, I have restocked Essential Art Gallery and Fine Gifts with my work and it should be available soon. My Etsy shop is filled with handmade buttons and pendants, as well as eco printed paper and fabric-with more to come. Oh, and a few scarves, if that is what you were after. Remember that you can click on the item and "send the seller a message" if what you see is close but no quite-I am happy to send pictures of things that are waiting their turn to be out in public, one way or the other.

I can still do classes and events here in town, I just can't be gone for days at this point so I have cancelled the Richland Art in the Park for this year. It makes me sad because I like that show a lot. If my class at the Spokane Art School on August 9th fills, it will go on. As far as scheduling other classes goes, until I get his therapy appointments in place I can't do much right now.

Thanks in advance for your support, it means the world to me.

I have been getting some paper done, along with a few other things as time permits. This is for the paper sets I sell on Etsy as well as my own work.

The Studio in Winter

 " A vision without execution is hallucination."

Accredited to Thomas Edison or being an ancient Japanese proverb. It's a good thought either way.

So, at this time of year I am not only wrapping up the old year (inventory, taxes etc.) but planning what  this year will look like. With everything that is going on the vision is pretty cloudy to be honest. I am thinking about what art fairs I will do, classes I will teach, and what art I will make. The only thing set in stone at this point is a solo exhibit at Pottery Place Plus, of which I am a member. We can rent out the guest artist space for a body of work that differs from our normal work we show in the gallery. I am thinking smaller accessories that may drift into some jewelry items, but we will see. My method for deciding is to make piles of materials and see what ideas come of it. A great activity for cold, gray afternoons. I watch the goings-on at the bird feeder while I sort out the fabrics that remind me of the sunny days they were made. I have until October to be done with the work for the show; It seems far off, but will be here shortly. 

In the meantime, if I am going to be able to do fairs this spring and summer I do have to get work done, even though it is the dead of winter here and there isn't much fresh plant material to work with. I was asked for an interview with our local weekly paper, the Inlander, so that was another poke to get busy! They needed pictures to go with the article. I started with yellow onionskins on silk. This is a method with rusty nails as a co-effector that creates something that resembles an animal print. This was a way to have something colorful in the background of the photos as most of the prints with dried and pressed leaves give fainter color than when they were green leaves. They can be overdyed with other natural dyes, which is what will happen to the pieces I did as soon as we are just a tad warmer outside. Stomping around in the outdoor kitchen in 32 degrees Celsius is much better than the teens and twenties we are experiencing now.

 So, I am also spending sometime at the sewing machine making new ideas for what seems like a ton of eco printed fabric piling up around here. I guess in this case the execution mentioned above is coming before the vision and at some point it will all come together.

Bundles of yellow onion skins and rusted nails steaming in the outdoor kitchen, this can also be turned olive green with a post dip in an iron pot .

This one is on my Etsy shop. While I am taking a break from ceramics to create space both physically and mentally, I still have a lot of buttons and pendants to post, so keep checking!

All the News that's Fit to Print

Hello! Just to catch up, here is what is going on in the next little while. I will be at Art in the Park in Richland Washington this weekend the 29th and 30th (yes, it is a Friday, Saturday show). It will be very warm, even for Tri-cities Washington, so I will be opening the booth up early, as are many of the makers in the show. This show is open until 8:00 PM on Friday and 7:00 PM on Saturday, so late shopping is also an option.

Next week I will be heading off to Anacortes Washington for the Anacortes Arts Festival, August 5th, 6th, 7th. I hope to see you there.

I am teaching two eco printing workshops this year at Urban Art Cooperative. One is Sunday August 21st and the other is Saturday September 10th. You can get all the details at www.urbanartcoop.org click on "sign up for classes" and scroll down to the workshops.

It is a busy summer and I hope to catch up with you in person!

I will have shirts in additon to scarves at both Art in the Park Richland and Anacortes Festival of the Arts

Zen and Cats

 "I have lived with several Zen masters-all of them cats."

Eckhart Tolle

I have been rereading Pema Chodron's When Things Fall Apart, an advisable book in the middle of a pandemic that seems never ending. It is tempting to keep thinking that things "will get better when fill in the blank". I keep doing that to myself over and over. Not long after the year began I was reading an article on the Black Plague in Europe. It started in 1346 and faded out by 1351, or about 5 years give or take depending on who you ask. This may seem somewhat depressing, as it did to a friend who said something to the effect of-"But that was before modern medicine and electricity!!" But, really, I found it to be helpful. Especially with all the talk about lack of enough vaccine doses (for the first time in a very long time I am "too young" for something) and now teenage mutant ninja virus variants and all the rest. This isn't going away anytime soon, so it seems to me that it is better to have that expectation than to be constantly disappointed that things don't go "as planned".  There are just some things that are out of our control, and the pandemic has pointed that out in spades.

I especially started to put this altogether when I read the chapter in Ms. Chodron's book called "Nonaggression and the Four Maras". As to what is a Mara, the story goes that on the night when Buddha was to attain enlightenment, he sat under a tree. While there he was attacked by the forces of Mara (basically demons) but when they shot swords and arrows at him, their weapons turned into flowers. The Four Maras are described as Devaputra mara, seeking pleasure or partaking in activities that kill pain in a detrimental way, such as addictive or compulsive behaviors for instance; Skandha mara is our reaction to having the rug pulled out from under us; Klesha mara is reacting emotionally to a situation in a way that makes whatever bad thing happen even worse; and Yama mara is basically thinking that if you just do enough, you will be in control of your life, and when totally uncontrollable things do come along, like the death of a loved one or plans change due to a pandemic, you basically bring the other maras crashing down on your head. Read her book, she says it a lot better than I can.

So, while I was pondering all this I decided to work on some small collage pieces to be placed into Pottery Place Plus. I have some small stretched canvases (9" x 12") that were calling to me. I started with enough eco printed fabric to "slip cover" the stretched canvas, and let it go from there. There was a lot of digging around in the studio, not to find anything specific, but to see what looked like it wanted to be together. So these were a meditation of sorts.

I am also trying to take a page from this little sentient being. When I feed her in the morning I sometimes ask her what her plan for the day is. She tends to blink slowly at me as if to ask "Plan? Who needs a plan?" If the weather is good it might be a day to go have a walk about in the yard, if the weather is bad it is a day for sleeping on the bathroom rug in front of the heat register. This day she saw that I was changing the sheets, one of her favorite activities! Never miss an opportunity to chase the sheets around! 

I guess the takeaway here is that I am not sure when we will have art fairs again so focusing on my online stores is the way to go. I do have work in several galleries, which are hanging in there, so I have to keep them stocked. Soon it will be time to order silk to have things ready to go when the fairs start back up again, albeit fall or beyond. One day at a time.

Speaking of, you can see my eco printing HERE and my handmade supplies HERE. My work is showing at Pottery Place Plus in Spokane and Essential Art in Moscow Idaho and hopefully this summer at Entree Gallery in Nordman Idaho. 

Decision Made! Well...Maybe, I Don't Know, Let's See What Happens

"This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it."

Dorothy Parker

and/or

"What fresh hell is this?"

Also credited to Dorothy Parker

There is not much eco printing going on since it is still pretty cold and the plants are keeping their heads down, as are we all at this point. I have been spending so much stressful time on the computer, that by the time I get around to this blog I am worn out and haven't been keeping up with it. Here is an update of life in semi-isolation.

Adding things to my Etsy site, next week's task is to explore other selling options. If nothing else, by the time this is over I will have a much better online presence. With everyone at home, and finances uncertain, I don't expect tons of sales, but at least I will get a lot of things done I should have been doing all along. Thanks to all who have been buying, even small purchases help a lot.

These two images are of a series of works regarding the effect of textile production. The series is called "Unraveling: The Effect of Fabric on our Environment, our Culture, and our Health". Or some such thing. It is scheduled to show in September. I will be writing more about it over the spring and summer. The top image is for a piece called Worry Dolls, regarding child labor (yes, this is still, unfortunately, "a thing") and the bottom is about what happens to first world clothes when they are dumped on the third world. If you donated clothing labels, this is where the lion's share of them went. Still trying to decide on that screaming pink thing dead center in the middle-may have to de-emphasize that.

 Life around the house goes on as normal.

Lots of wandering around, both in the yard and over to the river and back. 

Mr. Man is getting ready for gardening season. His health is good, we are trying to keep it that way by staying home. I am learning all kinds of new digital web skills because of this! (imagine frowny face here)

Buddha excels at self isolation.

Anyway, needless to say, I don't know what will happen with the show season or my intended class schedule. With no crystal ball it is hard to tell. Galleries, like the Pottery Place Plus and Essential Art will eventually open again and classes can be put together at the last minute, while not ideal, it is possible. The art fairs are another matter. Are they being held, is it worth the expenditure during a year like this, are all questions with no answers at the moment. 

I want to thank my friends and local art community for all the help thus far, you guys are the best!

Snow Dayz

"Snow is covering us. Close your eyes and dream. This is one story. There will be another."

Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods

Unlike a lot of my artist brethren I tend to shut down at this time of year. I have no interest in running around pelmel in order to get that last sale in during The Commerce, I mean, Christmas season. I did about 20 years in retail and can't say that I enjoyed one winter season ever. It was appalling. I can't be sure if it was because it was so busy, so much emphasis on acquiring, or if it is just that while I enjoy four seasons, my body and mind tend to feel that this is the time of rest and being in the mall for many 12 hour days in a row is anything but. Not to mention that left to my own devices I am a pathological introvert and that is just too many people for me to deal with all at once. You would think I would have a better attitude since this has not been one of my better years financially. But I also take to heart the saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. So, I choose to use the down time to ponder what changes need to made.  I was encouraged by my Etsy sales and the summer shows and I am grateful to everyone that supported me. I feel the need to do over the blog, it has been awhile since I have done that and I don't take advantage of all the things it offers. In the meantime, it isn't like I have been laying on the couch for days on end either.

I have been working on a series that at this point is being called "Unraveling: The effect of the garment industry on our health, culture, and the environment." (subject to change). I picked up this old style projector at Art Salvage in order to enlarge drawings onto fabric itself or to make paper patterns. Having no AV cart and joints and muscles that will only bend so far for so long I had to improvise-the history of art comes in handy for so many things!

Today we woke up to snow, since the temperature is to remain above freezing and the rain will begin this afternoon I decided to go out and take some snaps while it was still enchanting.

A favorite piece of garden art made from a pitchfork and bike chains, among other things.

Brick patio on winter break.

Siberian Iris pods wearing snow hats. I didn't pick them this year as I have so many saved already. I would like to learn electro forming and do something with them some day.

We brought the porch cat inside for the winter as she had developed a sneeze. She has turned into a pretty good little house mate- uses the litter box and hasn't seen any reason to climb the Christmas tree so far. Here she is trying to sneak out to kill a few birds for a midday snack. Sorry darling, the cold and wet might bring back your sniffles and needless to say the birds are enjoying your confinement.

If I don't see you before then, Merry Christmas!

The Only Constant in Life is Change

"Man cannot discover new oceans  unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

Andre Gide

Low tide

High tide

"Free" Shipping?

This is a bit of a rant, so I will counter that with some nice pictures, I promise. Recently Etsy announced that they will only let sellers rise in their search engine if they offer free shipping. They encourage sellers to "adjust" their pricing to cover the cost of the shipping. Meaning, the shipping is not free, but included in the price. 

New Work

This raises some questions and issues.

1. A brief explanation of how Etsy works. In addition to taking a percentage of the sale of the item, they also take a percentage of the shipping charge as well. Due to the increase in postage in the last few years the amount I charge is usually about on the nose for what the post office charges me and doesn't include the price of packing materials (in my case not that big a deal since I use recycled whenever possible) or the time it takes to pack it up and take it to the post office. I could go on some tirad about what my time is worth-but that aside, look at it this way. If I had to hire somebody to help in the studio I would be paying them, so their wage would be going toward packing up your order. I decided that I was better off to make the shipping charge look reasonable than to actually account for the all expenses involved, so I am not charging what it really costs to get an item to a customer as it is.

Taking pictures in the garden and fiddling around with the filters on the phone.

2. Let's say for the sake of argument that I just go ahead and raise the price of each item the amount I am charging for postage now which is about $3.95. So, a customer orders one button or pendant. No biggie, they are paying the same they would have anyway. But, if a customer buys several items they would be paying that added cost on each item, way more than they would have since up to this point I do a flat fee. The boxes I had to buy for the ceramics to ensure they reach you in one piece hold several pieces and the added weight is minor, so it is a way to encourage people to stuff that pup full! Why not keep the price of everything clear? To have "free shipping" all the time also doesn't allow me to use it as a marketing tool, instead my only options are to do some sort of discount on the already over priced item. Again, why not just be clear that there is a value for the item and a value for the shipping?

Here are some of the students of the eco printing on paper class I taught at Art Salvage.

3. Speaking of pricing. I started up this version of my shop in February and after a fair amount of research came up with a pricing plan that covered the cost of expenses and labor and was competitive. So when you search "ceramic buttons" or whatever you type into your browser you will see similar pricing for similar work not only on Etsy, but out on the web in general. Adding to the price only makes me look like I am charging too much or think a whole lot more of myself than I should! My inclination as a shopper is to not click on the Google listing for the higher priced item, meaning, I may never see that the shipping is included. Then there is the whole matter of refunds. It may seem like semantics but there are actual laws regarding what you call things in advertising. When something is called free, it is supposed to be free. If a customer wanted to return something in the past then the normal procedure is to refund the price of the item, not the shipping, as it was shipped after all. But if you call it free shipping than technically speaking you weren't charging them for it to begin with so they get the entire purchase price back regardless of the fact that the money was spent at the post office and the item delivered.

This studio helper gets paid in cat food and treats. That being said with non-opposable thumbs she isn't much help in the shipping department.

I tend to be an over thinker, so I will close this by saying a few things and be done. When I put scarves or other higher priced items in the shop it is truly, honestly, free shipping. You hate the thing when you open it up, you can send it back (following my return policy) and you get the price (all of it) back. It is just cost prohibitive for me to do that on $6-15 buttons. Etsy's new policy applies to things over $35.00 so it shouldn't make that much difference items priced under that amount, in theory. I guess my problem is that it is just another way that people don't understand the actual value of an item or person. People working in the small studios are not the same as Amazon. We don't have those resources. If somebody paid me a hundred bucks a year for no other reason than to pay me a hundred bucks a year, then yes I would give them free shipping. Hey-now there's idea! I will let you know where to mail that check. It is one thing to have the rest of the world devalue your education and skill, but then to have an organization that is supposed to be supporting the arts devalue you, it is very disheartening. Etsy should quit worrying about trying to compete with Amazon and go on education campaign about how things are made, along with the time and skill it takes to make them,  and why it is better for the economy and the environment to shop small.

Everyday Life

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

"Artists are not exempt from that truism. Fix Breakfast, do the laundry, write a poem: That is the real life of an artist."

Ted Orland, The View From the Studio Door, referring to the Annie Dillard quote above.

An experiment on 100% wool craft felt, something I had never thought to use before. I will take the next piece and tighten it up, or make it "feltier" if that makes any sense, with a denser surface the prints most likely will be more distinct.

Laundry both studio and familial.

Mixed up a concoction to relieve my dry skin.

First salad from this season's garden!

A reread of one of my favorite books.

And last but not least, my studio door!

Operating at Peak Efficiency!

Ok, the next time you feel like you get nothing done, remember this post.

This morning I went to coffee with some artsy fartsy friends and got so inspired I made a pass by my local big box fabric store for a few items and then dashed home. Had a quick sandwich and then put my new purchase to soak in the basement bathtub. As I was headed back out to the studio I saw ants invading the hummingbird feeders. I had purchased ant traps for them last year but had forgotten all about it so I had to dig around to find them. While I had the feeders down I might as well clean and refill-right? So as I am washing out the feeders I begin to realize there is water coming up the kitchen drain which is not how it is supposed to work. I pulled everything out from under the sink and unscrewed the trap. Nada. This means that there is a truly evil, smelly clog in the pipe over the dryer in the laundry room (this is not my first rodeo with the kitchen drain needless to say). Then I had the horrifying thought that my husband had gone fishing yesterday and had cleaned fish in the sink. Which means there is probably day old fishy smelling water in the dishwasher. Opened it, yep, there sure is, and slammed it shut. Mr. Man was sleeping to recover from said fishing trip but I woke him up to ask if he wished to help unclog it (two person job-somebody has to hold a bucket while the other person snakes the pipe) or call a plumber. Naturally when someone awakens you from a sound sleep to ask if you would like to have sewage rain down on you the answer should always be to call a plumber. 

At three in the afternoon on Friday there are no plumbers available. Anywhere. The ones that are willing to show up at five in the afternoon want several hundred dollars. Or to make an appointment for next Tuesday. Did I mention fish water in the dishwasher? Oh, yes I did, but I probably failed to mention 85 degrees on Sunday. So, no thank you, I will figure it out. 

Without raising my voice I made it clear that while several hundred for a plumber may seem high, it is lower than spending the weekend plus Monday and Tuesday at a hotel. He dashes (ok, saunters) out to the barn to bring in a bucket and proper tools and we head to the basement. Clog removed, dishwasher running to get rid of stink, mission accomplished. Oh, and hummingbird feeders cleaned and rehung with ant traps. It was about four by then, but I decided it was wine-thirty and the day is done. I will fix our dinner, enjoy my yard, and be grateful that Mr. Man is doing well enough to help with the clogged pipes which would have been unthinkable even a few months ago. It can all change so quickly.

Meet the newest porch cat, name to be determined. I think Buddha may be appropriate, as every time I am sitting on the deck worrying about something, the little beast brings me back into the present moment by biting my ankles. Kind of like the person at a Zen retreat that smacks you with a stick for slouching during meditation.

Thoughts

"In the land of "I know," there is always competitiveness, jealousy, pretence, pride and arrogance. It is an aggressive realm-the realm of the ego. I say refuse citizenship. In the land of "I don't know", the inhabitants move without conflict and are naturally quiet, happy and peaceful. The wise stay here."

Mooji

Bald sumac on silk dupioni with rust

Signs of Spring

Well, I was hoping to take lovely pictures of tulips peeking through the snow, buds on the trees, etc. Trouble is, we have so many drifts left in the yard that even a couple of forty degree days hasn't made much impact. No tulips as far as the eye can see and I just don't have it in me to trudge through a foot or more of rock hard snow to take pictures of buds on trees. But, after looking around, there are some signs of spring, if you look hard enough.

Fabric prep. You would think I would spend the winter doing this, but you know what they say-if it weren't for the last minute a lot of things wouldn't get done.

Our neighbor looking over the plant starts in the hot box. Next weekend it will be time to turn on the actual greenhouse. Actually, it is past time, but better late than never!

Not the most interesting picture you have ever seen, but the fact that we can get this door up at all and the snow drift that was keeping it shut is almost gone is one of the most wonderful things I have seen lately.

So, now, hopefully, there will be more things to talk about on this blog! I turned my Etsy shop back on, lots of ceramic buttons, eco printed paper kits, some destash items, and a few scarves. To visit, hit the Etsy Mini link on the homepage of this blog.

Creativity

"One gets into a state of creativity by conscious work."

Henri Matisse 1869-1954

Hope, 2018 collage: paper, felt

Autonomy

"She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the Universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings." Ariana Dancu

Tune in later in the week to meet my friend Ginger Oakes!

So what in the world happened to May?

Well, first there was the hysterectomy and the rather alarming post-op infection. That  is over now so I have more time to do things other than taking a bunch of pills and watching trash TV. Here is an overview of the month.

Breakfast anyone?

My husband felt sorry for me and made this lovely birdhouse!  He also spent Monday digging about a bzillion holes in the ground to get my dye plants planted (calendula and bachelor buttons mostly)-who is this strange man and what have you done with my husband? Maybe I should get sick and pathetic more often.

This little guy stared at me through the sliding glass door for 15 minutes the other day, it seems the bird feeder was empty.

I went out to collect leaves today. We have had an inordinate amount of pine pollen this year. It was floating around in a puddle on the asphalt, leaving this fun pattern. 

I have to be the only one in North America that is excited that the knapweed is this big already. Finally! Back to making art.

Anyway, if you are in Spokane you can catch up with me next weekend at Art Fest in Coeur d'Alene Park, Browne's Addition, Spokane: June 2nd, 3rd and 4th. I have decided not to sell on the web for a bit, I need to ponder some things on that front-so check the show calendar and come on out into the real world and see me there!

What a Week

This week has been very disconcerting. When I feel this way I look to nature to remind me of the bigger picture. I have taken a very long walk each day. I see the river rising as it should at this time of the year, the leaves changing and falling, and, thanks to the incredible amount of rain, the mushrooms rising. My husband has brought home something new almost every day to identify. There was even an article in our local paper about the diversity of fruiting fungi this fall, some not seen for the last ten years.  

                                                                                                                                                        Watching the ducks paddling around in swirling water that I would be afraid to swim in due to its force, is comforting as well as inspiring. They are completely at home no matter the tempest around them. Or, maybe to my untrained eye, they know when to dodge the churning water coming from below that I can't see from where I stand. I wish I had the same knowledge about my own world. To know how to swim into the whitewater while avoiding the deadly whirlpools would be empowering.

While my sunroom would hardly be considered a nature area, it is soothing to see my Christmas cactus doing what they normally do at this time of year. The days shorten and they bloom. With all the gray days in October, they are a bit ahead of schedule.  They have adjusted to what is going on around them. 

                                                                                                                                                         Outside is another story. Our temperatures this fall have been abnormally warm. We did have a light frost in September, so the hollyhocks and other perennials died back. The annuals died off and it looked like fall was on the way to winter. Then we had copious amounts of rain and highs in the sixties with nighttime lows in the high forties for all of October and now for the first two weeks of November. Today it is a beautiful spring day. We started out with rain and now it is sunny and breezy. Trouble is, it is not spring. The snapdragons and even some petunias have reseeded and sent up seedlings, the perennials are coming back from the roots. They don't know it yet, but all will get a rude awakening later in the week when it is supposed to freeze at night. 

                                                                                                                                                                  I feel like the outdoor plants. I had been going along thinking I had at least a notion of what was going on, and now-I don't know what to think or where to turn. Society was not what I thought it was. I went to bed one night and woke up to a very harsh reality. It would be easier to live in some sheltered, hothouse world where there was plenty of time to make decisions and adjust. Truth is, life is not that way. I stay grounded by enveloping myself in a world that remains constant by continuously changing, the real world, the natural world. The plants will freeze, go dormant and be back in the spring and their lives will go on. While I can't go dormant entirely (wish that I could) I do need to rest, pull back and conserve my energy for whatever life delivers next.

Time Well Spent

I had a lovely time in Anacortes Washington, both at the show and at the campground. I got quite a bit of work done while there, using all the lovely plants that don't grow on the eastern side of the state. The campground is right on the water's edge with a lot of untouched forest. Thimbleberry, salmonberry, ferns, and bracken all grow among the old trees and make wonderful prints.

I also walked a lot and spent time thinking and not thinking. I came across this tree one afternoon and watched the passage of time in the tides.