Yesterday was another quiet day, for the most part. I spent the majority of the day holed up in my room working on Darien’s redesign, which is coming along quite swimmingly.

In the early evening, Stephanie (one of the visual artists here) and I decided to go for a walk up toward the Tepee Circles. Her walks usually take her in that direction, but she explained that she usually takes the path that leads away from them when she’s walked on her own. So, we hiked up there, and I got some pretty cool pictures of the area, even though I already took some photos when I was there on the ranch tour.

Today’s been a pleasantly productive day thus far. This morning was devoted to filling out applications to MacDowell and VCCA for 2010, as well as writing postcards to friends and family. In between that and figuring out which films I’d like to see when Darien and I go to the Woodstock Film Festival a few days after I get back to NYC (I intend to go up a few days late so that I can take a moment to breathe when I step off the plane at LaGuardia on the 28th), I’ve also managed another two solid pages of sketches for the ‘violent’ section of the orchestra piece. I scrapped the few measures that I’d sketched out last week, and started over in a new vein, which has been quite fruitful, and seems very promising.

I suspect I’ll be working up until 5:00 today, unlike a few days last week when I couldn’t wait to leave my studio and get back to the residence, so I’m feeling particularly good about the start of Week 3. Also, the new people arrive today, one of whom I’ve already met, so a fresh feeling of creativity has been injected into the atmosphere – always welcome!

The only negative thus far is a new wariness – almost jumpiness – I have while walking along certain paths. Late last week, I encountered a very large snake on one of the routes to the studios. I’m not terribly frightened of snakes (unlike my father), but this was almost certainly a rattlesnake, so I had plenty of reason to shout and run away. But although I’ve been a little jumpy (the next afternoon, some wild turkeys startled me in a really big way), I’m still quite keen on doing more exploring and walking around the countryside.

Here are a few of the photos from yesterday’s walk to the Tepee Circles:

A receding storm cloud.

Me! Photo by Stephanie Ognar.

One of the tepee circles – the rocks were used to hold down the edges of the tepees in heavy winds. This was a hunting camp that would have been used every year.

Irrigation in one of the alfalfa fields.

Stephanie looking pensive.

The trail that leads up to the Tepee Circles. To have missed this shot would have been criminal.