The villagers tell me this is the most beautiful spring here in Durfort France in the last 21 years.  I leave the house each morning at 7 AM to do my morning walk. I walk by the small cobble-stoned streams that make this village unique. The streams run right down the center of the three village streets.

Durfort has been making copperware since the 14C. The lovely houses that now line the streets of the village were once copper studios and the streams were made for parts of that process- i.e quenching the copper to cool it off. There is a fascinating DVD in the Copper Museum here in the village that shows the whole process.

I walk out the back of the village and follow the road up the Montagne Noire (Black Mountain), against which Durfort is nestled. The river Sor and the early morning birds provide a beautiful musical accompaniment to my walk.

There are several houses on the way with gorgeous meadows and old ruins on their property. As I approach house number four there it is. My, well not really mine, cherry tree– in full drippy juicy readiness. The cherries are bursting off the branches. I have been picking cherries from this tree, under cover of darkness, for the last two years. I feel a little guilty of the thievery, as there are cars parked at the house, on the other hand, I have never seen anyone here and noone else, besides the birds, seems to be interested in the fruit. So they are mine, all mine! I found a recipe today in a medieval cookbook that I’ll try my hand at tomorrow. Sounds a bit like a cherry crumble from what I can translate.

My art for the last week has consisted of my daily drawing in pen (so I cannot obsess about an eraser and being perfect).  These will serve as inspiration for future fabric collages with polymer clay embellishments. And I’m shooting a photo a day with the macro lens, exploring closeups not necessarily for the actual image but for composition, texture studies.

Here’s a fabric collage from my Cafe series.