seasonal coughing

 Is it just me? Or does everybody who coughs in public feel like they are going to be arrested? With all the worry over COVID-19, coughing is looked at with suspicion no matter what the cause.

I have seasonal allergies . . . to dust, pollen, ragweed, whatever. So I tend to cough a lot. It is not painful (except my head might hurt if I cough too much) and it is not contagious. I’ve had trouble finding something that will silence me but these lozenges seem to help the most currently.

I recently came across this bit of ancient Scottish verse. It reminds me of the words to “Wild Mountain Thyme” but is a bit different from what I know.

yesterday’s sketch

I suppose I should be sketching something by now . . . We are at the hospital waiting for them to prep Bill for his heart catheterization. But it’s a wee bit too early to focus so I’ll post a sketch from yesterday (and a few of the lyrics from a song we sang in church).

church sketching

A bit of sketching and verses from last night . . . and one of my favorite songs we sang. The fountain pen in my bag had brown ink, which does not show up as well as black on this red paper.

a couple of sketches from this week

I only managed to do two sketches this past week, being Very Distracted by itchy bug bites. We had such a mild winter that fleas, chiggers, and other wee bitey-things never died off. It seems every time I go outside, they find me to feast on!

I drew the above sketch during church last Sunday . . . just my purse, a fountain pen, and my iPod containing my Bibles. Years ago I signed up for Olive Tree's Bible Study app, back when it was on a PDA. The app transfers to each new device I get; I have many versions on my iPod, so whichever version is used at church (changes from week-to-week), I can follow along.

Then on Thursday we drove out to the Pastor's place, where I met these sweet beasts, Cheese and Crackers. Fell in Love with Cheesey! He loves snuggling up to people, then leaning his head up for kisses on his nose. Also loves his ears rubbed! Crackers is a bit more timid.

the end of the journal

During the long dry summer, we let our small garden die off. There was a burn ban throughout this area so we never bothered to clear out the dead plants and new weeds that popped up.

Now Autumn rains have been plenteous, the burn ban has been lifted, and we gathered the dead stuff for burning . . . and found these three large tomatoes! Oddly, they were the best tasting of the whole year. Made a great pot of chili!

Months ago I wrote out the words to my favorite hymn on the final page of this leather-wrapped journal, thinking that I would later add some illuminated decoration on the border. But now I think I'll just leave it as-is. Maybe I'll come back to it someday.

just for fun

I found this large, funny looking rock near our fire pit and decided to draw it just for fun.

It reminded me of our son Matt's comment when his family recently camped out at the lake. We were talking about music we liked --- Matt spoke up with a serious look in his eye, "I've been listening to a great new group . . . Simon and Garfunkle."

EDM #272 - a line from my favorite song

an Old Irish hymn from the 6th century, "Rop tu mo Baile" (Be Thou My Vision")
translated to English by Mary Elizabeth Byrne, 1905
versified by Eleanor Hall, 1912










Drawing a few more Everyday Matters challenges --- the entire English text in verse to this song was included in a recent sketchbook, shown below:

playing with "illumination"

I have never learned to do calligraphy but have always loved illuminated manuscript art, such is found in the Book of Kells and early church books. So I wrote out the lyrics to my favorite hymn and played around with it last night.

I didn't realize until it was finished that the quinacridone gold I chose exactly matches the bookmark ribbon I included in this hand-bound sketchbook.