I had a short list of computer-y things to do this morning, which I briefly debated whether to do first or leave until after my creative time. Universe decided for me by shutting down the power at our house (the power company is working on the switch in our neighborhood and scheduled this outage) just as I was feeding the chickens.
So I headed out on my bike by 10am.
Another gorgeous, clear, warm, bright day on the coast.
Without all the weekend warriors clogging up the streets.
To cut to the chase, here was my output (not including some good pages of writing):
To go into some detail, first I stopped at a bench on the path and sat down to study some of the beautiful “cattails” I see all the time. When I try to draw or paint them from memory, they don’t feel right. So I wanted to just sit and watch them. The light, the way they wave in the breeze, the way they look like they’re suspended, floating in midair.
On the bike path
Study of cat tails
I had one stop to make (at the bank) before heading for my general destination of “downtown”.
My intention was to find a bench and sketch some things that drew my interest. I had always wanted to try drawing this church, or basically any historic building downtown with the hills and eucalyptus trees as background.
Church – in progress
Church with hills
Then there was Main Street. I sat outside this old jailhouse, noticing how the hills framed it, and the brightly colored flowers adorned the area around it. Not a bad place to be cooped up!
Jail – in progress
Jail
Finally, I found a shady bench and created my own mashup of San Benito House (no cupola) and Cunha’s General Store (has a cupola). Most of all today I was mesmerized by the SKY.
I wrote some decent pages over lunch, and came home to remember the gifts of today. The feeling of wandering is what I miss most from my travels abroad. I love having no schedule, and being able to follow my inclinations to create, record, sit, and move, eat and linger, whenever I feel like it. It feels so necessary for opening the creative door. Wide open. Today I gave myself that gift. And thanks to the power company, too!
5050 Art 
What dreams may not come?