After spending over 8 hours at my computer yesterday, I was frazzled and still exceedingly tired today. Though at temps in the upper 90s, it was too hot to work in the garden, it wasn’t too hot to enjoy it. The plants I overwintered in my plant room are starting to come into their own on the deck. As an added bonus, the daylilies are beginning to bloom. As their name implies, each of these magnificent examples of floral architecture only lives for one day. So much energy is put in by the plant to enable all this to happen for just one day. Thankfully for us, there are many buds on each plant, so some might not even notice that each day a new flower opens, gets fertilized by the pollinators, and then dies. Each morning, I walk into the garden to remove the dead blossoms so I can enjoy the new ones for the day.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City