Endings and Beginings

I created a collage, or vision board as they are called these days. This is a photo of a section of it. Below is another. (BTW you can click on photos to see larger image). I have been so interested in the visual arts these days and I just signed up for a workshop at a multi-media art conference that takes place in Phoenix each year called Art Unraveled. Here's the link: www.artunraveled.com

Summer in the east

These are a few photos from my recent trip east and below them is one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite poets. Enjoy!

The Summer Day

Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

The East

I covered three states in seven days on my trip back east: Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. I am so acclimated to the uncluttered pastel desert landscape, that the curvy roads framed with overgrown green was quite noticeable to me on this trip and required extra attention while driving because the road ahead was not visible. Interesting metaphor. Out here in Arizona I can see for miles, which I have discovered is quite hopeful and relaxing.

Last fall I visited the Chanticleer Gardens in Pennsylvania. http://www.chanticleergarden.org/ I returned on this trip. All of these photos are from the gardens. If you go to my travel blog http://www.amandaowen.blogspot.com/ you can see photos from my last trip there. It is an amazing place. If you are anywhere in the area, make sure you check it out. I'll post more photos soon from my recent trip.