Notes from the Studio: A Dove, a Deep Breath, and What’s Next

Date: July 3, 2025

Location: My back deck, Springfield, Vermont

Visitor count: 1 (mourning dove, extremely photogenic)

After weeks of non-stop sawing, soldering, pressing, polishing, and packing for the Botanical Bloom Collection, my studio… well, it needed a reckoning. Tools were stacked in teetering clusters. My soldering block was practically a topographic map.

 There was a silver scrap pile trying to form its own zip code. But today, I cleared the table. Literally and mentally.

While I was taking a break on the deck — coffee in hand, still deciding if I’m ready for the next collection — this beauty showed up. A mourning dove. Round as a teacup, calm as lake water. She landed right in front of the camera, tilted her head like she had something to say, and then just watched. No pecking. No fuss. Just… present.

There’s something about birds that makes you slow down. (Also, she has better eyeliner than I ever will.) Studio is now clean. Tools are back where they belong.

My brain? Mostly too. And a new collection is quietly forming — something simpler, softer, still grounded in nature… but lighter. Maybe that dove was a little nudge to keep it peaceful.

Until next time, — Dianne

P.S. Want more field notes like this? Drop a comment or send me your own backyard bird moment.