Endless Rain, Damp Paper

Today began with rain and is ending with rain, and in between it has never stopped raining.  My sketchbook feels soft and cool and slightly damp.  At the top is a drawing of my Vermont weasther stick, which points up if sun is predicted and down if rain is coming.  It has been stuck in the down position for so long that I wonder if it is even capable of turning up any more.  Since the rain was relentless, I decided to ignore it and went outside to pick breakfast blueberries.  The berries were dripping wet and plentiful.

This afternoon my grandson Jacob and I went to work out at the Y and then over to Dobra for post-workout bubble tea and pita bread, goat cheese, olives, and tomato plus two powerful round balls called Chocolate Medicine.  Jacob ordered those because they promised to deliver a buzz of some kind.  He quizzed the server about the hemp seeds, cacao nibs, cacao powder, bee pollen, shredded coconut, various other kinds of seeds, pau d'arco (?) and a few other unusual ingredients.  The balls were about the size of table tennis balls and he said they tasted mainly of chocolate.
At Dobra you can choose to sit at a table or on a bench with a low table, or you can go into the beaded curtain area and lounge without shoes on pillows while you eat and drink your tea.  We always choose the lounge room.  Sketch 103 is of someone lounging in the area next to us.

Back at home, the rain still falling, I wrapped up the day's drawing with some desk objects-- one of my favorite new pens, a Pilot V-Ball that I got in Paris and that is truly every bit as good as the old V-Balls I used to get but that have become inferior and leaky as Pilot has fiddled with the design.  I think they've finally hit on one as good as the original.  I'm glad I bought a bunch because I haven't seen them in the US yet.  I've had the claw foot for a while, don't remember where I got it.  And the stone knife Jacob's father found a dozen years ago when we were walking in a cornfield that was adjacent to an archaeological dig that I was working on as a volunteer that summer.  David reached down and pulled this lovely little stone blade out of the soil.  I took it to the archaeologist the next day, and he said it wasn't useful to him because it had been found out of context and I could keep it.  He said he would informally date it at around 8000 years old.  David gave it to me and I treasure it.