Day in the Country

 Today we drove up to our friends' L and Bs house, a handmade house deep in the countryside in the high mountains north of Asheville.  We were going to spend a day with them and some of their friends decorating lebkuchen, cooking together, hiking, playing/listening to others play music, and relaxing in the comforts of their off-the-grid home.  One of my favorite things to do at their house is explore their collection of interesting objects.  On the right are a jug vase with a candle in the top and a very small ceramic cup made by a local ceramics artist.  The cup is much smaller than the jug, and its colors are blues, greens, yellows, and white predominantly.  I want one of those cups!

 We often hike through the woods that separates the house from L's studio and B's office, and I have never before been able to find my way through the woods without much help.  SO today I decided to draw a map as we walked.  L suggested I look with open focus to better discern the trail from the surrounding forest floor.  I took off my glasses, and was surprised at how much easier it was to notice where the trail went when I wasn't focusing intently through glasses.  I've been practicing going without glasses a lot lately, like the way it feels to have more open, relaxed vision.  So on the way home I led the group and didn't make a single mistake for the first time ever.

On the left is an old out building near the studio that seems to have a mural on its side.  It looks like ice floes in an ocean.  On the right is a quick sketch of a Queen Anne's lace flower that had its seeds held in a nest formed by the dead seed heads.  All of the dried QA lace flowers had this odd seed nest.  On the far right is one of the guests playing a dulcimer while several other people played fiddle, guitar, banjo.

This is one of what seemed like a hundred lebkuchen.  Decorating them with music going on all around us helped the cookies come out looking like dancing women!