This the first weekend in three or four where I've been able to get up at sun up at home and go outside with MacBook Pro and catch up on the beauty of a sunrise in our backyard, which I dubbed "Kari's Paradise" last year. This is the garden I've spent so much of the past winter and spring working on. As you might recall I started with a series of miniature picket fences to keep Molly, our Great Pyrenees out of strategic areas of grass because she was digging in them. That then progressed to bulding the well in the garden area of the pool near our gorgeous rock "weeping" wall, that springs water from the pool over them and back into the pool. Then came the pergola and bench/fence wall across the back of the yard in the deep end. Then came tons of flowers; some bulbs, some from seedlings we planted in the garage in trays and grow light areas, and then plants. Some of the bamboo I planted late last June is just going nuts, which was the plan. And then we planted some Texas Hibiscus, some Texas Lavender, and some Carolina Jasmine. It's all come togeter to the point now of where I can just bring MacBook Pro out here with me and take it all in without having the desire to get out the tools and head to Home Depot to do more. That's an incredibly wonderful feeling. Peace. Satisfaction.
So here I sit now at 6 A.M.on a Saturday. I'm taking my beautiful wife into Dallas for a "Getting Started" workshop offered for new Mac owners. Last night another image that I'd contemplated many times and even wrote about here happened. As Ashleigh and I played in the pool for about an hour, Kari sat on the chase lounge with her MacBook and got things done she could not have done if she'd still been strapped to that archaic PC she had running WinDoze.
Molly and I are enjoying a beautiful sunrise and as I sit here under the fans, the temp is pretty nice for a summer morning in Dallas in June.
The work I've done out here in the past 12 months offers such an infinite variety of color to enjoy. We have established structural focal points that are complimented by the elegance of the flowers we've added. There are purples in several shades, pinks, reds, yellows, whites, and oranges. Coupled with the colors of the rocks, the greenery, and complimented on the color wheel by the blue of the pool water, there is a visual feast for the eyes out here.
It is mornings like this that I wish my maternal grandfather was still around. Grandpa would have enjoed being here this morning and no doubt would have been sitting here with me, or out on the pergola swing. So many of his artistic influences are upon me and visible here in the garden.
It is amazing the times I spend remembering him and wishing he still were around. I've said before here in this space that I didn't realize the level of influence he has had upon my life until he was taken from it. And I miss not being able to pick up the phone and tap into his wisdom.
When I began my work in oil painting, I was setting up florescent lighting for working indoors. I was asking about what kinds of light to put in them, as there are more than one types of this lighting. ONe is a warm rich light, the other is a brighter light. Both offer different benefits and instead of using one or the other, grandpa solved the question--get one of each and put it in the same light.
He is the one who instilled in my life the philosophy of looking at life from more than one angle. When we would look at art, he'd challenge me to turn it sideways, even upside down to see what could be seen. Maybe that is why I can look at a problem or opportunity nowadays and see things for what they can be rather than for what they are.
I've been on a steady diet of Mozart and Bach lately. Mozart has joined us in the garden this morning. Divertimento in D is our entertainment. This music just fascinates me in the aspect that a couple hundred years ago someone had the time and ability to construct such heavenly themes with so many instruments, no tape recorders to be had, and to be able to write such wonder.
Kari has spent the better part of the past couple of days seeking out the appropriate carry bag for her MacBook. This morning after the workshop at NorthPark Center I think we'll hit the Super Target off Northwest Highway in Dallas. We've been to the Apple Store, Best Buy, Wal-mart, and looked online. Last night as she sat out here, she said that maybe we should try Target.
I just completed a visual survey of the yard. It's hard to believe I once used to walk through this entire lot when there was nothing here but tall grass and dirt. Then came the house and a mess. Then came sod and trying to water it as it water logged. Then came the mess from building the pool (preceded by days of waiting for the pool people to show and get started.) And then came the clean up afterward. And now this. All in just two years. Now that's amazing.
Okay, time to get moving.
