Homemade notecards

I have a dear ex-neighbor who's moved to a health-management facility in a suburb that's way out of my comfort zone for driving, so I've been writing

Heirloom and Cherry Tomatoes
on Paper Napkin

him notes in lieu of visiting. I'm always drawn to blank decorative note cards in gift shops, bookstores, and museums, so I generally have a huge supply of them on hand. I buy cards with little regard to "need," probably with the same urge that prompted Imelda Marcos to buy shoes.


Peaches and Pear Ripening
in Celedon Bowl

But now the nearly unthinkable . . . I have almost run out of note cards appropriate for my correspondence with him. So I'm making my own. He is enormously forgiving in terms of the decor on the cards. He probably wouldn't care if I wrote on a paper towel. In other words, I have a captive audience for some of my creative moments, so without fear of censor, I'm having a lot of fun.

Here are two cards I have created for him recently. The tomatoes are watercolor, and they look MUCH better in this tiny version here than they do in the actual size.

The other (Peaches and Pear) is tiny, decorated with colored pencils my granddaughters gave me for my birthday a few years ago. They are soft, wonderful pencils--the kind you can douse with water, if desired, to turn a picture into an ersatz watercolor. In this case I left the pencil strokes alone.

The fruit bowl filled with fruit from my local farmers' market, and was (all gone now) utterly delectable.