Month: October 2014

My sister has given me an assignment and it isn’t palm trees! Sarah gave me a large cardboard box that I deconstructed during the Dolphins football game. I then used two pieces in a "flower" painting… you will see it in the Keys. She paints with a lot of found stuff including cardboard collaged on… So this morning Sarah gave me a picture of a beach with an old wooden walkway (looks like the panels off pallets we get at Home Depot and throw away) (oh how many of those I have thrown away!!!!!). So my assignment is to paint the beach walk with sand and footprints (circles) and the dune we are walking towards. It’s cool in Jacksonville. We have the sliding door open and I can hear the cars woosh by on the road a few blocks away. The beach is about 5 blocks to the east and…. I hope to take my nieces there today. God bless us today! Love Sue

I drove up to Jacksonville yesterday after 2 ½ hours of Yoga and after a quick shower, and I arrived in time to share a glass of wine with my sister “the artist” and then we were off with niece Jennie and friend Fred who helped build Sarah’s space at the gallery. Last night was a black light party at the gallery and people were painted, and the gallery was in full party! It felt like “Artist’s in Paradise” on Big Pine Key. I am very excited about joining the local Big Pine key gallery and getting ready for a show. This morning Sarah had to work at the gallery and we moved her paintings all around on the “wall” that Jennie and Fred built where Sarah shows her art. After rearranging her space, I’m playing starving artist and “copying” a painting or two that I love. Later today we will paint at home. I’m staying close to Sarah as she does cool things like paint on old torn blue jeans … OH my gosh the things we have thrown out, for example old vegetable bags that Jennie says we can hang ornaments off… I say, paint over them on canvas. I’m afraid I will become a “tinker” or a “twanger” one who picks up bits of iron and copper from the streets as I see so much of it incorporated in Sarah’s paintings! I am having a wonderful time on an artist’s retreat!!!!! God bless us all!

We are in Miami on the lake and I’m not seeing all the exotic things my friends Kathy and Mickey photograph here. Ducks, little brown birds, water, grass. The Bentley and the Grady White wait wistfully to be put back in the water. For now they provide shade near the water for little creatures. When we left Big Pine Key a few deer peered at us waiting for apple cores, but they’ll have to wait. Here, I save my apple cores for the Big Pine deer as these ducks, whom my friend Leigh feeds and mothers, poop all over our walkways and are a bit of a plague. There is a new breed of big snails that the ducks can eat… and lots of grass and flowers so Leigh’s ducks will be OK.

All is well here, blood pressures should be normal as we had a scare free ride from Big Pine. I only huffed twice as it seemed we were about to be crushed. I try not to squeal so I just go puff ooooohhhhhh…. as we squeeze between two trucks or other larger vehicles. I now need to unpack and set up my desk, paints, laundry, etc etc and live here for a few weeks. God bless you island and northern friends! Happy autumn!

While snow birds pack to make the journey south to this little amazing weather island of Big Pine Key, we pack to go to Miami to launch Chuck into Georgia for 2 weeks of hunting. He will take chamo clothes and guns and go hunt very smart deer who know his every move! The weather here in Big Pine Key has been amazing and windy and rainy. I expect more of the same in Miami in the lake house where I will try to paint daily as I want to get a show together. Why not? Grandma Moses and Georgia O Keeffe did it in their older days! No comparison I know. They were GREAT. Oh well here comes "Palm Tree Susie!" Look out small world!

We have enjoyed meeting new neighbors on our street and our friend "the mayor" Michele came back from Michigan. Michele is the "broker" on the island. Need a rental house or trying to buy? Michele rides her bike every day and talks to everyone. She knows everything that is for sale or rent including houses, clothes and furniture. I got my living room furniture from her and we spend good times laughing together. Michele and I with several others paint every Friday. They are all water colorists. I am the acrylic oddy! After a 65th Medicare Birthday party for Michele last night, full of sugar and potato chips, I stepped onto the scale and vowed minus five pounds so I can slide into a slithery dress for cruising … My belly and butt need some disciplining! I will also try a Yoga Ashram in Miami for almost every day yoga to discipline muscles! Having a wonderful month and I hope you are also! I have encouraged Chuck to stay hunting if it is fun and I’ll man the Miami house yard on Hallowe’en and feed the hoards of ghosties and goblins candy, then we (or I if he is still in Georgia) will be back in Big Pine Key November 2 to 4. Not ever sure on the return date. Have a wonderful autumn. Enjoy God’s beauty and get into the joy of "the season!" God bless you dear friends and family! Love and kisses and again! Realize that God loves us very much. Be not afraid.

October might be the best weather here on Big Pine Key, although October can also be the time of the great hurricanes. The weather man said yesterday that we now turn our eyes to the Caribbean for hurricane formation. It’s not over yet… November 1 is the "official end" of hurricane season. This month, October, has seen wind from the north, east and west. Every day is dramatically different! I sat outside on the dock last night and watched the high tide lap the sea wall (high tides from the Super moon activity). I have been witnessing amazing sunrises, and just glorying in the "cool" days. It’s not really cool, but the breeze chills one down. Well, not exactly chills, rather, the breeze dries the sweat! I love to hang laundry on the line and watch it take off and flap! Had to bring in the flag to keep it from self destructing. Happy autumn.

Good morning from sunny Big Pine Key. Chuck and I were up and out on the porch at 7am to watch "Mr Sun" rise. A big nasty cloud formation coming in from the north looked like it was on the attack, and a smaller cloud formation on the south looked like it was on the retreat and then in the middle, right over Marathon was a clear space for Mr Sun. I thought of the Son of God coming in glory to vanquish sin and darkness… He’s being attacked on one side while many are retreating from the whole battle … Chuck said something brilliant about the skirmish that I would love to share, but I forgot it and he forgot it too. You had to be there I guess. What a splendiferous morning! Why is the horizon always covered with clouds at sunrise? And why is there usually a clear space for us to watch? Other Saturday morning tasks are take out the garbage and chat with the garbage man … drink coffee and plan the day which stretches out in a day full of possibilities such as painting and doing cruise research and check in information for 3 cruises in May through July 2015. No burgers at the Moose today as they are having some special group in and the tiki bar won’t be making burgers…. Busy busy. Hope you too are busy. Love and God bless! Sue

I have not written since Sept 22! My days are full, yet all the same. I am out of bed by 7am. I start the coffee and look out at the sunrise and usually praise the amazing glory of sunrise. Even with heavy clouds, the colors appear, rose, salmon, red occasionally, finally out from that cloud cover comes "Mr. Sun" blazing and glorious and banishing all but white, grey, blue. By 8:30am, I wonder if I really saw all that dawning pageantry in the pure blue and white of the mid morning sky. I have been hurrying off to church every morning by 7:30am as all the Sacristans are out and I’ve been setting up the altar for daily Mass. One day I led the Communion service as our priest had to go on an emergency trip to Marathon. It felt a little like a Protestant service, a woman greeting, preaching, and distributing Communion! But no, the priest has to consecrate the hosts which we keep in the tabernacle and a Eucharistic Minister can only "distribute".

I’m under full sail with planning for 3 cruises in May and July of 2015 (Tampa to England, a Scandinavian cruise and the return to the states on the Queen Mary 2.) We are planning for 33 days on the ground in England visiting friends we have had for about 25 years! The children now have children of their own. I spend a lot of time planning routes, cities and towns to visit, National Heritage sites, gardens, B&Bs, and where we will meet our friends. Usually I plan and gather a lot of information and we change everything when we get to the local information centers!

I am going to Yoga again and am enjoying the feeling of all my joints and tendons stretching and getting limber again! It is amazing to actually feel the body resisting and then settling into the stretch. I’m also going to enter a juried art show in February here on Big Pine Key at the Artists in Paradise and have to come up with a wonderful, imaginative, and original idea that fits into the "Keys atmosphere". I have a plan…. and I will reveal as it shapes up. God bless you with a beautiful autumn!