On 01.02.02, I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Too late for surgery, I had chemotherapy, which failed. In May the chemotherapy was changed and I was soon in remission which was celebrated and welcome and lasted nine years - until October 2011. There was progression in 2011 so more treatment was indicated and I am now back in partial remission. But I'm not only a cancer patient - I also enjoy my family, walk my dogs and am learning to draw and paint. Life is good!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Making it through

You can tell I'm running on empty when I start drawing "Gamboge Girls," my name for rubber stamped images on a gamboge wash. For the life of me, I can't think of anything better but I can't skip days because, well, I just can't because then things will get even worse.

We've just come through an intense hot spell - back to the summer we missed - but with a cool-down beginning. It's not summer, it's not winter, it's..... fall in northern California. Most of the crush is complete now, I'm not noticing wine scented air or seeing double trucks of newly plucked grapes. The final tally of the crop hasn't come in yet. More than ever, when a movie scene shows a bottle from a classic year, I get it, how the vines ripened at just the most perfect temperature and cadence, how things were at their quintessential best with soaring temperatures -- but not too high -- came on the days they were most needed and the dips and lows were timed with awe in mind as well. That's life in the vineyards, something I didn't appreciate until we moved here in 1995.

2 comments:

  1. I hope it cools off for good for this year. You did more on this page than I have done lately!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If only the weather didn't affect us so much!

    ReplyDelete

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