Nature is at its best when I reflect upon my tranquil Japanese garden. In my back yard, there is a stone waterfall that rushes into a Koi pond below. There, my beautiful koi play to their hearts’ content, bathing under the waterfall, schooling around the pond, and resting in its depths. As I relax on a bench near the pond, my mind parallels the motion of the fish, until my thoughts skip to the dry lake. At ease, I move over there, spending some silent time raking the tiny rocks into my version of a sea. When I finish, the raked ripples of rock look just like the waves of a beautiful, orderly sea that is interrupted only by stepping stones and a grassy island.

I dream of times past -- of an ancient culture pretty much obliterated by the industrial revolution. Still, in my tranquil Japanese garden I can revert to an imagainary past, experiencing both the goodness of my peaceful inner nature and the lovely natural surroundings.

In the pictorial quilt Tranquil Moments, I build the beauty of nature, of tranquil time spent, and an imaginary, past world.
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Quilt history: Shown at  American Quilt Society Exposition, Knoxville, Kentucky, 2010. Tranquil Moments was one of eight quilts initially chosen by The Woodlands Area Quilt Guild to enter in this competition. The quilts of eight guilds selected from eight-quilt-entries of guilds across the nation were shown at the Exposition. Tranquil Moments featured on official exposition video. Third Place, Walla Walla Valley Quilt Show, People's Choice, September 2011.