Springtime Noodlings, and a Postcard for the Recovering "Queen Works-Like-a-Dog"

  Spring has finally come to northern Arizona. The sky is the most incredible blue I have ever seen. Penstemons are bursting from their winter beds, purple asters (a favorite wildflower of mine) are pushing up through the dry soil, and apple blossoms swell on the tip of every twig. Any day will bring horned toads and banded lizards sunning on the rocks in the flower beds. We spread a fresh layer of mulch on the pathways through our yard. I love springtime, and that's what today's journal page is all about.

  Noodling in the studio these days almost always involves mail art. Post cards and stamps, envelopes and greeting cards - I love them all! With the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in mind, I've designed two commemorative faux postage stamps. The one on the left, below, is from a favorite photo of mine, titled "Life on the Edge," taken at Hermit's Rest in Grand Canyon N.P. last winter. The other, "Whodat!" is a male banded lizard, shot on a hike through Wupatki National Monument last summer.

  More noodling around produced this little collaged piece, with a lovely monument valley envelope, and another stamp, featuring a digitally manipulated photograph of our dog Chamois, with a powdering of snow on her face from chasing a ball with reckless abandon headlong into a snowbank.

    

 

 

   One of my sisters, "Queen Works-Like-A-Dog," is recovering from spinal surgery this week, so today's musings and noodlings included a get well post card to cheer her highness' journey.

   The text reads, "I crawled across the desert on hands and knees, and fought Piranha Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death to steal these healing amulets for you. I hope they work." And I hope she laughs, but not too hard.

Thanks for visiting; come again soon.

Comments

[Barbara Hagerty]

I love the postcard, especially the hands! And your banded lizard photo is spectacular! You captured its personality. Even its feet are expressive!

[sharon]

thank you so much, barbara! the post card was a whole lot of fun to make. the lizard shoot was my favorite part of that hike into wupatki last summer, a completely unexpected and spontaneous occurrance. i got off a good thirty frames over 15 minutes before he got totally spooked and ran off. couldn't wait to get home and see if anything worth keeping came of it, and was both pleased and surprised to find eight keepers. wildlife photography is such a zen, "use the Force, Luke," sort of challenge. thanks! glad you like it!