Aubergine

February 7: Feed me.

There is a morning cat ritual in this house.  When Riley hears Lisa in the shower, he comes into the studio and jumps up on my desk (a habit I'm not fond of, as he has a lot of hair, much of which he leaves behind).  When she gets out of the shower, she dotes on him for a few minutes, cooing and scratching and talking to him.  This is really the only time he likes to get pets.  Then she gets dressed, and heads for the kitchen to start our coffee and make the cats breakfast - Widget gets daily medicine, so Riley gets wet food too.  He jumps up on one of the dining room chairs, where he has a good view of where she's working, and waits.  Not always very patiently.  Can't you see the impatience in his face?  He only graced me with a second of attention before he went back to staring at her.

February 6: amaryllis

My friend Laura gave me two amaryllis bulbs for my birthday late last year.  When we left for India they were in bud, and I was so afraid that I'd miss the flowers.  But we turned off the heat when we left, which slowed them down.  They were just opening when we got back, and they are glorious.  The red  of the petals is even richer than they appear in this photo, and they are really stunning in the early morning light in this room.  Thank you, Laura!

February 5: Monday

Wrenching myself away from my comfortable nest this morning, back to the marathon of my work week.

February 4: a gathering

I made a pretty spot in my studio today.  I cleared off the top of a bookshelf and gathered together some things that make me happy.  An old painting, a favorite photo of me and my mom, some collections in tiny jars, a recent antique store find, my one and only hand-made doll, and a bunch of jasmine from the yard.  This small spot is making me very happy.

February 3: Roots

I am following Soulemama's lead for dealing with February funkiness.

February is a hard month for me (haven't I said that about a few months recently?  I have a hard time with winter months in general).  But February tends to be additionally frustrating, as I can feel the winter funk starting to lift, but my energy level is not caught up with my desire to do.  I'm starting to get excited about life again, but I'm to tired to actually engage, so here I am on the sidelines, trying to stay inspired and not too frustrated until there's enough sun to get my batteries fully going again.  But taking pictures, that's about my speed.  I think it will be interesting to see where my attention wanders this month, and a nice record of what I was thinking and doing.

Unfortunately, that energy thing is going to make it hard to keep to the daily post, so I'm resorting to backdating the posts to the days I take the pictures.  Bending the rules a bit to fit the reality of my life.   So, here is the first day of February that I recorded.  Not the first day of the month, but the third.  We went to the farmer's market, a ritual that we've been sorely missing while traveling.  It was so nice to be recognized by some of the vendors.  The lady at the charcuterie booth called out, "Hi!  Where have you been?  We haven't seen you in weeks!"  I love our neighborhood market.

I spent the rest of the weekend nesting, putting down my roots again in this time and place, so this photo from our market morning seemed appropriate.