Neverland

I’ve never seen more hornbeam hedges in my life than here in Bavaria.

Maybe not quite Neverland, but one of the joys of painting en plein air or any other creative effort, for that matter, is stepping entirely  outside time. Both yesterday and today, somewhere in the midst of trying to portray on a tiny 2 dimensional panel how I felt about  what I was seeing, I couldn’t for a moment remember where I was. Within a split second, I thought, for a moment, I was in France…then Germany…or was I home painting the covered bridge? Reality takes on a dimension apart from space and time, when painting. It’s pretty delicious, as our friend Anne would say.

And speaking  of delicious and Neverland(I digress to the profane), I found strawberries in the tiny market around the corner today, like I found in a tiny town in the Perigord last summer, the likes of which I hadn’t tasted since I was a little boy on my grandmother’s farm. The same color inside as they are on the outside and delicious, through and through. I’ve already had some for a snack and will finish them off after my late afternoon painting session with a glass of my new favorite wine: Blauburger. Something old and something new for this somewhat weathered boy. Most of all, something to really look forward to after another trip with brush in hand to  Neverland!