I started this blog in August 2007mostly as a place to explore thoughts on visual and martial arts.
A lot has happened, in the world and in my little corner of it, in the nearly two years since then.
I didn't know that a scant 6 months later I'd be starting a blog to document my move to a small town. What I do know know is that it's all one life: gardening, aikido, cats, painting, family, sewing. So one blog is enough. I decided to keep the other one as the active one for the simple and lazy reason that the layout/colors are what I prefer over there. This will stay here so any of us can reference it.
It's been a month since I blogged here, during which time I've not returned to the landscapes I started in March. A couple of custom sewing jobs and early spring gardening, plus some family stuff, have kept me from the easel. Between family stuff and a couple of migraines, I also lost some dojo time.
The good news is the sewing has been going very well and the last of the current orders is going to the post office tomorrow, AND I'm back at the dojo and physical complaints notwithstanding feeling very good about training.
I'm thinking that the time may be coming to merge my two blogs - this one and northleftcoastblog - into one. My life doesn't feel compartmentalized, so I'm not sure why my blogs should be.
In order to concentrate on custom sewing, the Nishoku line of premade bags has been marked down to the same price as a basic bag, $46, and with free shipping in the USA. Three new fabrics, pictured here, have been added to the color swatches page for embellishing custom bags.
Zanshin, literally “remaining mind,” is used in Japanese martial arts to describe an awareness or mindfulness that can be termed a state of relaxed alertness. It seems to me to apply equally well to the state in which folks create. Here I explore the links between fine and martial arts and discuss my training and practice, with an occasional foray into birdwatching or sewing.