Slushy. Mix of snow and rain. Gray and wet, wet, wet. I go first for a walk with Charlie, not very long. We go to the trestle bridge to see the river. We do not cross. The river looks incredibly cold. Holding the cold. Letting the rain and snow have their way. My swim is energetic and I feel really good and it sets the tone for me feeling great all day. Foundational. A favorite thing today is storytelling with my listener of the back seat while I drive an errand: Three Billy Goats Gruff, told twice; The Three Little Kittens, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Ridinghood. I like how before I get the phrase completely out: “And they lived happily ever after. . . “ I have a loud urging from the back seat: Again! Once we are home, he spontaneously becomes one of the poor little kittens who has lost his mittens and will not get blueberry pie with ice cream until he finds them. My goodness, the blueberry pie from my story sounds good. I should make one tomorrow! I also get a bit of work done; I get the script finalized for the video and send that off. A journal, Persimmon Tree—an online magazine of the arts by women over sixty—has selected five of my ice images, but one of them isn’t available, so I take some time finding a substitute, which is fun, because the theme I’m following is Self-Portrait after Sixty, and this is a collection of images from the Charles and the brook and the wetlands, and I like it a lot, and so does the editor. So I find a few and she picks one that I titled: “Warrior Rising.” This spring they will be published. And I’m the featured artist today from the new issue of Synkroniciti, in their “Wild” themed issue:

From the editor at synkroniciti, Katherine McDaniel

Please join us in welcoming back Boston area writer and photographer Kelly DuMar. Synkroniciti's "Wild" issue features three photographs, images found in winter ice, water arrested on its way to the Charles River. "Winter Arch," "universe of now" and "Her Swim" are gorgeous abstract musings that inspire the imagination, monochromatic in hue but varied in texture and composition as the ice gives clues as to how it formed. Kelly wrote a delightful introduction to the set and I quote her here:

"There are so many times I tread the path of quite crispy brown fallen leaves, and the hardwoods are broken and blank in the wetlands and brook. Patience, my better mind says. Because, always, the weather whips up change and transforms the easel of water, soil and sky. Then, it’s as if the landscape calls me to see something new.

Or, is it my psyche, seeing something new, inspiring the landscape? This is how finding ice images thrills me. What will the ice allow me—give me—to see that will enchant me or reflect something my spirit is longing to know? The brook, the river, the wetlands, even a meadow puddle—these are places where I find spontaneous art and renewed imagination."

Order your copy of “Wild” to experience Kelly's insightful images and read more about her process and need for nature's wildness: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.