Finally, pages in Cindy’s journal from the dark circle journal project. Cindy’s journal was one of two that got trapped in Australia when one of our group decided to stop mailing. This woman has claimed all manner of physical and mental ailments, and lack of funds, as the excuse for not mailing the books onward. She’s still holding one of them hostage, and after seven weeks with no sign of it moving on, we’ve decided as a group to call that book lost, and start another one to replace it.

It’s never good when this kind of thing happens. I’m not sure I understand the mentality behind keeping another person’s work when they ask repeatedly for it to be sent home. She seems to think it’s no big deal, and that we’re all persecuting her for not mailing, and not being compassionate regarding her supposed mental, physical and financial problems. I’m at a loss as to why someone who has any one of those things going on in her life would commit to a project that requires a steady stream of work and overseas mailings, or why, if they cropped up suddenly after the project started, she wouldn’t want to simply send the books back, and get that pressure and hassle out of her life. If anyone lives in New South Wales, and would like to go knock on her door and ask, please get in touch…

Anyway, the group is soldiering onward, and the books that didn’t get trapped in Australia are almost finished. Just in time for me, as I start turning my attention to holiday products at Ten Two Studios. Yes, on the hottest day of the year, I will be sitting here at my computer designing Christmas goodies. Or Halloween. My life has been on that sort of schedule for quite a few years, and yet, I still find it jarring to be looking for Christmas kit parts in the middle of June.

Meanwhile, in my non-art life, my garden is growing by leaps and bounds. I’m overflowing in tomatoes, and have a steady stream of eggplant and peppers. This morning, I picked the first okra. In fact, this morning, I picked all this:

These are big stainless steel serving bowls, piled high with tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cowpeas and okra. I also picked a whole colander full of basil for today’s pesto. I’m headed to a vegan potluck this evening, and decided to halve some Roma tomatoes, and fill them with basil-walnut pesto and a white bean cheezy spread. Rumor has it there will be veggie lasagna, roasted broccoli, and homemade garlic bread sticks as well. This group really knows how to put on a spread, and the food is always incredibly creative and yummy.

And now, I’m going to go back to the kitchen, and whip up those stuffed tomatoes…