GARDEN MELON

GARDEN MELON
Originally uploaded by linfrye

Daily Practice
Plein Air
Journal

There is no finer time of day to me than early morning, especially when the cool of the night has yet to turn into the blazing summer daytime heat. Birds are chirping, bees and other insects are busy gathering breakfast, the leaves are often still wet with dew, and there is a wonderful stillness that I love. Morning stillness such as this, is like a prayer ...

Sunday, I found myself up early, and so took my coffee and sketchpad out to the garden to. Our garden faces south -- good for the garden -- and our house is situated so that the sun takes a good two hours or so to reach around the house to highlight the garden. I sat in the shade as I began to sketch, enjoying the smells of day breaking, and in the quiet of the early morning, the heady scents of the flowers that somehow are lost in the sun's heat. It was intoxicating!

I sketched our melons ... planted in one of our small raised beds that now tumbles over the edge and winds its way around the corner of the house. Bees were busy among the squash blossoms, and they flitted around me without pause in their morning rituals. By the time I got the melon drawn, the sun had found its way around the house and was turning my neck a bit red, so I went indoors for breakfast. I returned after dinner to paint, and though I lost the incredible shadows of the morning, that spirt-filled stillness had returned to the garden, and I could linger amid its magic once again.

I do so miss more of these times, and hope, if ever I can retire, to return to them with more frequency.

We've been having some much needed rain. In some areas, we've been experiencing heavy downpours; in others, like here at the office, we've barely had half an inch. C tells me that our garden got a few shwers, and so I'm grateful that our newly planted persimmon trees will have water during the week -- and these melons will be happy as well.

I hope your day is fruitful too!

Lin Frye
North Carolina