aaaahhhh - the days are getting warm enough to be planting food, warm enough for mosquitoes to know we ARE the food, and warm enough that everyone seems to be happy...humans and insects.. or it is just so nice down here everyone/everything IS happy..
So, yesterday I'm at the library, making my art, and I apologize to the librarian for smelling like campfire/smoke all the time.... and she says - "really? - I thought you were big into incense" I'm like 'really? for real? Are you kidding? Or just being nice? 'Nope' she says.. "I just thought you liked incense a lot....maybe it's that wood your burning?" Hmmmm, so even the wood down here is nice then? I'm guessing it must be. Or at least I really hope so. And then people are just cool. Relaxed. Chillin'. Fishing. Oyster roasting. Or thinkin' bout doing that when they get off work. Or wearing really amazing boots to the library like a lovely lady I happened to meet.. Bought 'em in Asheville NC - she said. And she welcomed me to the island like I was her long lost cousin.. beautiful woman..wish i could remember her name, but I know i'll see those boots again. Driving on the one road everyone seems to take everywhere, (hwy 21) my eagle eye happened on some 'haint blue' wood pieces being thrown out, from the old Blocker's General Store on St Helena Island, which is undergoing a renovation, (hopefully not gentrification)..... I'm gonna use those for framing my paintings. Most definitely. Blocker's General Store was a white family who farmed the land for many decades. After them came a man who sold fruits and vegetables for about a decade. The builder who is doing the restoring told me all this. I believe him. A local. My partner in primitive everything - Forrest - comes in one day with a plant that looks edible, and is growing all over the island. Put pic on FB and find out from the 'Ancestral Plants' experts it is edible. Known as Daikon Radish. This means I have greens. Free. And radish. Everywhere. Wild harvesting is the way to go. I am realizing Loquats are considered more of a 'decorative' tree by newcomers here, and for businesses they seem to be more of a landscaping strategy. Talking to the locals though, it is something they grew up with and ate a lot of. Speaking of eating a lot of, I went to the local supermarket and found a section of strictly Caribbean foods!! Wickid!! Highlight of the highlights? I think so. Well maybe not. I would say the haint blue wood for framing is the winner. Low Country niceness for real. And the wonderful church bus that I wish I could buy and turn into a mobile arts workshop for under-served communities/schools in the south east. Keep on dreaming....everyone..set the short term goals to make your dreams a reality, and it slowly becomes real....really. Ain't nuthin' to it but to do it, people. Peace, Positivity and Progress.
0 Comments
|
the artistand the journey ...... Archives
January 2019
Categoriesall images and products copyright ©2015 Monique de La Tour and protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
|