Settle in to Monday

Galileo's moon phases

And of course the name is derived from "Moon Day" and countless other references, but considering my penchant lately for the moon and night landscapes I think I will tag this day as my MoonDay.

I haven't sketched a single night landscape since the end of August, when storm Irene robbed us of both daylight and night light...closely followed by storm Lee with torrents of rain. Somewhere in there we headed to a new berth on Cape Cod and found that portion of the Cape was not dog-friendly until October...so we had less night moon on sand, water and beach grasses to look at. I suppose we could have snuck Rosie onto the night beach, but these same places were pretty strict about staying away after sunset as well. I will figure it out~ I must have my dose of moonlit beaches every year.

For years Donna and dog and I have headed off to North Truro for Halloween. This year we knew we couldn't renew the rental. When it was time to place our deposit Donna was still unemployed and we are both grateful she is working now, but common sense told us our lives had changed more than "same time NEXT year". We made a new plan and lo and behold when we would have been moonlighting on national seashore we were digging out from under the storm of the century here at home. 

from THIS October 30, 2011

To THIS November 20, 2011

What is typical for the month between these two photos is my father mowing the back acres one field at a time and the autumn colors creeping into the grasses and glowing gorgeously in the moonlight on my night walks with Rosie. This year relentless weather literally flattened the grasses and the fall colors just greyed out as the snow melted away and the green grasses kept staying spring-like.

And, spring like, there was and still is water water everywhere. Donna and I wondered when we went into as kind of storm coma. After a tense few days we finally figured out Saturday that we had been collectively holding our breath all of November. I had to admit that I had frightened Donna and my folks pretty badly by having the stupid seizure when they had no phone service and couldn't reach 911. Not only did I not want to hear about their experience, I had no interest in discussing the ramifications for me. I was supposed to have the busiest show season EVER. I had a big fat old 50th birthday coming. I also was not interested in a new neurologist and his demands and a new medication and its side effects. Hence my storm coma. I just grayed it all out and moved forward.

During Open Studio we heard some other storm-related traumas. Everyone has at least one story and it is surprising how many of them include explosions. Really. Explosions! As we packed up to head home last Sunday night the block of ice around our experience began rapidly melting into a new edginess. Other people began to speak their continued fears. Did we have any?

Refusing to be inconvenienced is one thing...denial of the facts is quite another. Somewhere my graying field grasses demarcated the line between  staying positive and staying delusional. And delusion is not to be nurtured. So here is my Moonday morning. Reality is shaping up pretty well~ into a new normal. Still here, but a little more real.

What is your Moon Day reality?