April's Postcard of the Month
Nice weather for ducks...  

Little ducklings of hope; mother-love guiding the way.
A couple of Mallards - a migration respite - in the Hannaford parking lot!

This is an interesting time in my life - a lot changing.  Transitioning, transforming.  e.g.:
Who am I without Mum?*

**

 
And... Good-bye to my light, bright Richmond studio.  (see Addendum below)

And... Hello to our newly installed smoothly sliding door to the back deck!

Thank you Jesse and Mule!

Ch-ch-ch-change.

I've haven't taken a lot of photos - none of rain.
So... For your visual delectation I am instead sharing Linda Finkelsteins***gorgeous photos,
which she took a couple of weeks ago whilst visiting The City.

And, yes.  I did do a very similar April card just 2 years ago:

Bare-basics prototypes for this month's card!

Prepping the rain - Lake Champlain Chocolates foil:

the rain drops - Winston cigarette pack foil:

and the rubber-stamped mother ducks and ducklings:

The Fixin's

(or most thereof...)

The Steps: The Movie

The Steps

17 again this month

I got to this point: 

and realized that it still looked rather naked, unfinished.

So...

a nice vivid little piece of Chartreuse Origami paper!

And just a little black lace (paper) trim.

Panels of 15 of April's postcards

Fin.

 *About a week after Mum died, I got an email from Carolyn Smiles, the Co-Coordinator of the local Champlain Valley group of Amnesty International USA, saying that at the recent Annual General Meeting of AIUSA, I had been "recognized, in front of 600 AGM participants, as being the AIUSA member who made the highest number of Urgent Action responses this year!".

So, a few weeks later, I met with Carolyn Smiles and heard about her and her husband's lifetime of dedicated human service - inspiring uplifting, and humbling.

Carolyn (which was my mother's middle name) came for tea, and presented me with a Certificate of Appreciation.  :-)

Apparently, last year I sent out 450 emails to Ambassadors, Ministers, Governors, and other high-ranking officials around the world.  But I earned this uplifting token of appreciation with so little effort!  Writing a few emails every week did not take a lot of time or effort.

So... If anyone reading these notes wants to give me a run for my money... PLEASE!  I would be thrilled if others wanted to beat my 450, help keep me humble! SO EASY.  AI supplies all the information to be easily reformatted into emails.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/

**These 2 photos (other than my reflection in the new sliding glass door) are the only ones, so far, of me post-Mum (pM).  This second one is of my beloved 'twin', Camie, and me in a mirthful moment.

With pix of Mum in the background.  :-)

***I encourage you to check out Linda's wonderful, joyful art:

http://www.trunkfishart.com/Trunkfishart/Welcome.html

Addendum - Studio Denouement

After about 6 months of being up in the air re: whether I'd have to move out of my studio space,

(the building is on the market),

I finally just decided to preempt any future request to vacate and do it.

Move.  Out.

BIG decision!

I'd been in this space for 7 years and accumulated a LOT of 'stuff'.

Daunting.

And sad.

It was such a warm, sunny, light and bright space.

It was always such a pleasure to open the door and enter.

Here's a few turns around the studio:

Sad to leave it, but I am not unhappy to move the whole shebang (back) home.

(THANK YOU >> My moving muscle: Hero nephew Anthony, and sweet hero curmudgeon, Mule!!)

Temporary configuration, 'til I get one of my 'work' tables moved (back) in. 

 I'll be able to walk right out my studio door to the back yard and my gardens!

And hang with the 'Whoopsie Daisies'.  ;-)

It's been 8 years since I've had my studio at home.  My whole daily rhythm will change.

Amen.

March's Postcard of the Month

Late winter sun.  

Trying to come up with an inspiration for March's card in late February,

right after my mother died, I caught the sunset lighting the trees and hills on fire.

She'd been a red-head.  Seemed fitting.  :-)

Yup.  That's one year old me, with Mum, at the family place in Nelson, NH.

The Fixin's

The rubber-stamped trees, stamped on white tissue paper:

The Steps: The Movie:

The Steps

17 this month

Lake Champlain Chocolates orange foil 'hills':

Fish fin* 'Pine branches':

Panel of 15 of March's postcards:

FIN.

*Fish paper: 

Addendum - Mum

This was the photo we chose for Mum's obit:

It completely reflects how she just beamed!

My mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimers @ 12 years ago, and for the last 7 years of her life, she had lived at the Elizabeth Hughes Memory Care Unit, a part of the Alice Peck Day Hospital complex, in Lebanon, NH.  She was mostly very healthy and active, always so gregarious.  

I visited and took photos of her

and selfies of us

just about every week of those 7 years.  

We often drew the flowers that I brought her every week,

especially the vivid Nasturtiums that bloomed so prolifically in my gardens in late summer, early fall.

The colored pencils that we drew with were comprised of some Crayolas,

as well as 36 remnants from a set of 72 Derwent Watercolour pencils

that Mum had bought for me when we moved to England, in 1963.  :-)

We also colored in a variety of wonderful coloring books I found for her over the years,

and played with fabulous paperdolls!

This is a photo of Mum in her American Airlines Stewardess uniform @ 1950,

next to her 'Fashions of the 50s' paperdolls.

We also went on a couple of windy and dramatic cruises on Lake Champlain

And just had sweet times together.

Mum fell and broke her hip on the morning of February 21st, slipped into unconsciousness, and peacefully passed away 3 days later. My father, sister and I were able to be with her during these last days and breaths.

I cut up her blue pajamas and made little Lavender and Rosemary sachets for all her caretakers.

This is the last of the thousands of photos I took of my mother over the past 7 years.

Joan Carolyn Foster Barndt

September 1, 1928 - February 24, 2018

https://prod1.meaningfulfunerals.net/obituary/joan-barndt?fh_id=12873