Homemade Pickles, Broken-Hearted Birds, & Watching Paint Dry

Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me About Britian's Landscape Artist
of the Year?

You love the Great British Baking Show. Maybe you also got into the Great Pottery Throw-Down. But did you know about Landscape Artist of the Year? I did not. How has this show been on for seven years and I missed it?

Yes, that's right, you can watch grass grow AND watch paint dry at the same time. It is beyond soothing to stretch out on the couch and watch some nice British people paint the bucolic English landscape. Everyone is cheerful and polite. Sometimes there are ducklings. 

This incredibly restful show is in its seventh season, and you can find it on YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Tubi. Once I run through all seven seasons, I might switch over to Portrait Artist of the Year, or I might just keep re-watching the landscape painters for the rest of my life.

Pictured above is a little British landscape I did in my sketchbook. But would it be enough to impress the judges? Stay tuned.

This Month's Question:
Do You Quit a Book or Keep Going?

This month's question comes from Susan in Forestville, CA, who asks,

I agree with your analysis of the Overstory except that I couldn’t even finish it. So my question is: do you always finish reading books you start or are you willing to say screw it, I give up? The older I get (63) the quicker I am to just stop reading a book that doesn’t grab me in the first few chapters.

I am completely, 100 percent in favor of bailing out on a book if it's not for you. My dad was a jazz musician, and for many years he had a job in an office where he had to listen to a co-worker's awful music all day long. He told me that listening to bad music made his playing worse. He had to go home and listen to Miles Davis for hours just to get that nonsense out of his head. I believe this is true for writers as well: reading the wrong sort of book can really throw you off.

But even if you're not a writer, why waste time on a book that you're not enjoying? If it feels like a chore just to get through it, I'd put it down. I'd rather go back and re-read something I loved years ago.

After all, the pleasure of reading comes entirely from the experience you're having in the moment as you read it. There's no prize for getting to the end of a difficult book.

Having said that...I can think of several times that I've picked up a book I'd abandoned years earlier, and realized that I'd entirely misjudged it the first time around! Sometimes you're just not in the mood for a particular book at a particular moment...but that can change.
 

Please send me your questions!

Would you like to win a free book? Do you also like to ask nosy questions? Then please enter my "Ask Me Anything" giveaway. Here's how it works:

Go here to ask me a question. Could be anything at all! Questions about art, writing, my favorite brand of socks...it's up to you!

And if you've asked a question before & I haven't answered it, ask me again! I love all your questions and I'm happy to see repeat entries.

If I choose your question to answer in the next newsletter, I'll send you the book of your choice.

Only 14 people entered last month! Your chances are good!  Get over there and pick out your book.

Maira Kalman is Amazing
and So Is This Podcast

I adore Maira Kalman's art and I especially loved this interview with her on the 70 Over 70 podcast. Go listen to that, and then maybe listen to all their interviews with people over 70. They are lovely podcasts to listen to while you take a walk. Also, it is very easy to search for "Maira Kalman" in your podcast app and find about a dozen other interviews with her that also make for great company while you take more walks.

This Guy Brad Makes Me Want to Ferment Everything

I stumbled across Bon Appetit's Brad Leone recently, and now I want to put everything in a jar and ferment it. I was looking for a recipe for half-sour pickles because I cannot find anyone in Portland who makes them (how is this possible, we even have a minor league baseball team called the Portland Pickles) and I found Brad's video on half-sours.

My husband's been making preserved lemon lately, which led me to his video on fermented citrus. 

And...well, folks, there are 98 of these charming and goofy videos available. I sincerely hope you are inspired by one and that you make some weird fermented thing in a jar. Enjoy!

Look At These Beautiful Bespoke
Rubber Stamps

We moved to Portland four years ago and I'm still hand-writing our return address on envelopes. No more! I am totally ordering one of these rubber stamps. I follow Jenny Bloomfield on Instagram, and that led me to this wonderful business she runs with another artist. You can even have them hand-draw your very own house for your stamp! 

Surely you know someone who needs their very own personal rubber stamp. Go visit their shop and look at all the lovely things they make.

In Case You Missed It...
There Was Some Bird Drama

Speaking of bird cams, as we were last month...OMG there's been some drama. So these two peregrine falcons have been together for YEARS and always made a nest together and made babies together...UNTIL...these other young punks show up, BEAT UP the dude, who ends up IN A TRASH CAN of all things, and goes to the BIRD HOSPITAL, and when he gets out? His girl has hooked up with one of those young punks who BEAT HIM UP! 

And he's all, "But I've been in the hospital!" And she's all, "You're a bird, idiot, we don't have hospitals!" How does he convince her?

Somehow he does, and then she took him back!  But does she even deserve him, after what she did? 

Go here to read the whole sordid tale.

I Teach Lots of Writing
and Art Classes Online

I'm in a busy, hunkered-down period as I'm working on my next book, but I'm happy to have this whole roster of art and writing classes that are always available should you be interested.

I Can Send (Some) Signed Books to You

Would you like a signed Kopp novel? I have small quantities of a few titles...or rather, my husband does. Supplies are limited, so get them while they last, and thank you sincerely for your patronage. Go here to browse and order.

What Are You Reading?

Right now I'm working my way through Elizabeth Fair's  old-fashioned and light-hearted novels. I've been in this "I can only read old-fashioned and light-hearted novels" phase for coming up on two years now, and I keep thinking this phase is about to end, but it hasn't yet. Besides, look at this charming cover. I pick them entirely for the covers, and I haven't been disappointed yet.