memories

Daily Graces Return #683

~ sherresartzone ~ Leave a comment
Yesterday as I was sitting outside enjoying a nice afternoon and my garden one of our smoke alarms went off in the house with loud blaring and saying “fire fire fire” again and again. For those who know my back story my husband and I had to flee from a wildfire that destroyed our neighborhood and our home 5 years ago in California. When we moved to Colorado one of our brand new smoke alarms did this same thing in the middle of the night. Apparently smoke alarms that are supposed to have a life of ten years can go out at any time. The one in our Oregon home was 3 years old. Anyway, this experience triggers PTSD for me thus today’s choice of quote. Although there was not a fire, the fact that an alarm is blaring that there is one is utterly frightening to someone in my circumstances. Both in Colorado and here in Oregon we asked for the fire department to come out to verify that all was well. Situations like this cause me to relive all of the nightmare of five years ago.

Painting is by me. Done for a Lifebook 2022 lesson.

Daily Graces Return #562

~ sherresartzone ~ Leave a comment

A stanza from the poem, “The Day is Done” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Was happy to find a vintage copy of The Oxford Book of American Verse at a great used bookstore, Smith Family Books in Eugene. So nice to own once again something I used to have. I also found one of my art books, a Mary Cassatt book that I also used to own.

Daily Graces Return #527

~ sherresartzone ~ Leave a comment
The quote used today is from the book A Painter’s Garden (Cultivating the Creative Life) by Christine Walker. I used to have this book prior to the fire and was thrilled to find another copy of it on Amazon which arrived today. At the time the author wrote the book she was living in Sebastopol, CA, which was close to Santa Rosa where I used to live. The rose tree is in my backyard cottage garden and is called “Sexy Rexy.”