Strawberry Rhubarb Overnight Oats (Vegan Recipe)
It is not too sweet, and has a pleasant texture. Plus, it is all ready to go, right out of the fridge.
Polly Castor
Motherhood a Gift (New Poem by Polly Castor)
I am so very grateful for this gift that keeps on giving. Festooned with so many ribbons…
Hearts of Horses (Book Review)
The term “horse whisperer,” but it wasn’t always a thing. Up until this time men generally beat horses into submission, hobbling them and bucking them until they “broke” them. During the First World War, when women began to do this job, things changed, and a more empathetic approach proved much more successful.
Gardens at Hill Stead Museum (Photos)
In this post, you can follow along and appreciate with me all this cultivated beauty.
I’m in this PSME “Pastels Only” National Show
These shows tend to be highly representational, but I doggedly keep submitting abstraction. My work sticks out as a bit alien, painting ideas instead of things, but I hope to make room for others to be more adventurous and creative.
Do We Perceive Everything? (Alan Kay Quote)
A frog’s brain is set up to recognize food as moving objects that are oblong in shape. So if we take a frog’s normal food — flies — paralyze them with a little chloroform and put them in front of the frog, it will not notice them or try to eat them.
Hans Hofmann Show at the Yale Art Gallery
I have long appreciated Hans Hofmann’s work as both an artist and an influential teacher to an early generation of abstractionists.
Blue Zone Minestrone Soup (Recipe)
This has a lot of ingredients but comes together quickly and easily, and you’ll have lots of leftovers for your effort.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 (Movie Review)
Andy (the writer played by the likable Anne Hathaway), who at the end of the first movie left the fashion magazine to write real news, returns to the magazine, this time to write features. She and Miranda Priestly (played by the incomparable Meryl Streep) face down several crises together.
The Perfect Loaf (Cookbook Review)
After reading the rather extensive explanations in this book, my husband made the best bread I’ve ever eaten.
Goal Achieved: Master Pastellist Status!
I am delighted to report that since I have just gotten my fifth painting juried into the elite IAPS Pastel World Show, I will now receive “Master Pastellist” status.
Bits and Clips for April 2026
I hope you find something among all this artwork, photography, memes, links, and quotes that spurs you on, informs, inspires, supports, educates, encourages or motivates you.
Maximum Strength (Poem by Rosemerry Whatola Trommer)
Starting the long drive home, I do not turn on the radio to hear news of the broken world…
Grace Notes #62 (with Photos)
I am furthering my ongoing goal of appreciating such a continuous, overflowing abundance of random good.
In the Fairy Wood (New Pastel Painting)
This painting is of early spring in Huntington, in a different color way that makes it look like out of a fairy tale.
All Around Us is Holy (Quote by Teilhard de Chardin)
By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and molds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, whereas in fact we live steeped in its burning layers.
Hike Photos from Huntington State Park (April 2026)
I am so grateful to live so close to this wonderful place and to have gotten to know it intimately over many years.