Hellooooo! Knock. Knock. Anyone home?

In case you’re wondering where I’ve been–’cause I certainly haven’t been here posting on this blog, well, in case you’re wondering I’VE BEEN EXPLORING!!!

Boots-on-the-ground–ok, in my case sandals, eyes-wide-open, following-the-muse-into-the-wild EXPLORING.

A recent visitor called my new home, Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, “magical.” And I gotta say…she’s not wrong.

I’ve been oohing & ahhing and oh-wowing at beaches that aren’t made for swimming—they’re made for awe. Sea stacks! Gulls! Tide pools filled with the tiniest, weirdest, most wonderful critters that look like they should be characters in Saturday morning cartoons.

And then there’s the forest. Lush and moody, with ferns, moss, alder, conifers and maple. Wildflowers–so many wildflowers! And nettles–the wasps of the plant world, gotta watch out for those suckers!

I’ve become a full-on bird whisperer wannabe with the help of an app that identifies bird calls. So far, Swainson’s Thrush–a bird I NEVER EVER KNEW EXISTED— is the one most likely to wake me up, chat all day and keeps going on well into the evening. I don’t need an app for the ravens though. You hear a raven, you know it’s a raven. Same with owls.

OH—and because apparently I now need to know everything—I downloaded another app that tells me what ships are cruising past on the Strait. Marine Tracker–you can find it in the app store. Where they came from. What they’re hauling. Where they’re headed. Is it a luxury cruise to Alaska? A container ship from Shanghai?

Or something way more intriguing like the big-ass yacht we saw down at the pier one night. James Bond level of intrigue.

But bigger and fancier than anything in a Bond movie. Multiple decks. Blackout windows. Sinisterly slick. Mr. Spouse swore that it had to be a small cruise ship. So I looked it up on the app and sure enough, I. Was. Right. It was indeed a yacht. But the who/what/where/when details–INCLUDING THE NAME–were locked. Imagine that! Goes to show money has it’s privileges.

But locking me out doesn’t stop me from making shit up. Yoo-hoo, Elon–if you’re looking for Mrs. M’s hubs, you’ll probably find him hanging upside down from a tree in Forks–y’know, the Twilight town just down the coast. Where his kind hang out drinking blood over ice.

But I digress. I was speaking of Mr. Spouse before I got distracted by wealth and vampires which are actually one and the same–before I got distracted I was going to tell you what a trooper Mr. Spouse is, playing chauffeur on spontaneous road trips and stopping–STOPPING–whenever I spot a photo op. Which, surprise! happens a lot these days.

So I’m taking lots of pictures on the road but really–most of the magic shows up right outside my door on the daily dog walks when the light changes, the clouds shift and BAM–there’s a whole new painting in the sky.

And speaking of magic… I’ve been going over plans for the new studio!
Yep, it’s happening!!! Stakes in the ground, drawings being refined with plenty of room to paint and teach. And OMG, plumbing! For the first time ev-ah I’m gonna have a studio with a sink and potty!!! It’s my very own slice of someday creative heaven.

See right here (arrow pointing down) this will be my studio

So yeah… that’s where I’ve been. Out soaking it all up while letting the muse feed to her heart’s content.

And now I want to pass that magic on to you.

This week’s Creative Prompt:
Go exploring. I don’t mean hop a plane to Bali (unless you’ve got the miles—then by all means, send postcards). I mean go local. A walk around the block. A gaze out the window with intention. Notice the things you’d usually ignore. Take a pic, make a sketch, write a haiku. Let your everyday become your muse.

And hey—when you find something cool, weird, or delightfully unexpected, I wanna hear about it!
Drop it in the comments and share your everyday magic.

Until next week–