The Journey Daybook, Inc.

May Alumni Adventure in Cedar Key

May 18, 2016

Pamela Barry’s journey daybook page

On Saturday, May 7, 8 of us gathered in Cedar Key at City Park for an Adventure that coincided with the Annual Small Boat Festival that happens every year on the first May weekend. The day was truly glorious – almost cool in the shade with a light breeze that caused the sails of the distant tiny boats to bob and flicker in the distance. We viewed the water through the  light green of the new sycamore leaves that were brilliant against the intense blue sky. Two of us remained in the shady pavilion to work. Lois worked in the Community Garden, a new gathering spot for Cedar Key residents. The rest of our group was spread around Cedar Key, viewing the small boats from a myriad of locations that were comfortable and presented a good view of the water. As always, we enjoyed our lunches and our group review back in the shady pavilion before separating just shy of 2PM.

Sue’s second CK page

Sue’s first CK page

Report from the April Journey Daybook Adventure at the Matheson Museum

April 27, 2016

On 22 April, about 12 of our Journey Daybook alums organized by Pam to draw and paint at the Mathson Museum, a downtown Gainesville Florida history museum. Afterwards, we shared a lovely lunch at Sweet Tea, a restaurant located in a restored Victorian mansion. What a beautiful and edifying experience we all had! Below are some of the pages made by participants.

Pamela’s page

Barbara’s page

Susan’s page

Peggy’s page

Journey Daybook Alumni Adventure in Cedar Key: 7 May 2016

April 25, 2016

Due to popular demand, we will again have a Journey Daybook Adventure as part of the 31^st annual Cedar Key Small Boat meet on Saturday, 7 May. If you are lucky, you will even get to view Holly Bird’s beautiful woodcut at Cedar Key Adventures out on the dock.

We will meet at the pavilion at City Park in Cedar Key where other suggestions for activities will be made. Those of you who have already taken part of this Adventure in other years may have your own ideas of places and subjects to include in your journey daybook pages.

This is our schedule: we will meet at the pavilion at 10AM for a few hours of sketching and painting. At 12:30 we will regroup at the pavilion and enjoy our own brown bag lunches. (These can be purchased in Cedar Key or brought from home.) At 1:30 we will conduct our review of pages, with the expectation of being finished no later that 2:15. If you plan to come to this event, please call or write Peggy Herrick at 352.278.6127, 352.543.6127 or at Journeyday@AOL.com by 1 May.

For the uninitiated: this event is completely informal. There are no planned events on the water; no signups or fees. Tides & weather ARE the organization. Colorful shallow draft boats of every description may be in Cedar Key for the weekend: rowing & paddling craft; catboats & multihulls; dinghies, scows, sharpies & sampans; prams, punts, pirogues, & pirates’ gigs. Cedar Key is renowned—being part of two National Wildlife Refuges—for its thriving food chain ashore & in the water. Among its offshore and inshore islands & saltmarsh, fishing, birding, bug swatting, tide and weather observing are as good as, or better than, many other marine destinations in the world.

We plan to have this Journey Daybook Adventure even in the event of bad weather. There are many opportunities to enjoy Cedar Key, to work and still to stay dry.

Fifth Journey Daybook Introductory Retreat at the Florida Women’s Reception Center

April 23, 2016

We completed training our fifth group of women inmates at the Florida Reception Center State Prison this week. The individuals of his group learned the same principles as do all of our “new” JDB participants – most of whom pay for a retreat where they learn journey daybook practice and principals. When the 7 unit program is complete, the inmate participants also become Journey Daybook Alumni. This week the prison participans “graduated” and received certificates from our non-profit that marked this milestone. Here we all are – the inmates, our JDB alum, Erica, who is our inmate intern, Sandy, a new alum from the “outside,” and 6 of our volunteers: Patty, Susan, Karen, Peggy, Barbara, and Pam.

Journey Daybook Adventure at the Curia

April 05, 2016

On March 19 a coffee-drinking group of alums (Barbara, Jackie, Mary, Patty, and Susan), met at a new coffee shop, gallery, and studio complex at 2029 6th Street in Gainesville. This is a charming site and the coffee house that is part of it, called Curia, offers wonderful coffee and wine as well as interesting snacks. Since I was unable to attend this Adventure, I have repeated the experience of visiting Curia by myself in recent weeks and I can attest to the charm of this place. Below are two pages made at this Saturday Adventure –

Barbara’s page

Susan’s Curia page

Patty’s Curia page

“Spring” Pages: Breaking the Spell of Summer’s Heat

July 27, 2015

A Friday Adventure to Manatee Springs was the perfect escape from July’s heat!   Drawn to the spring’s refreshing beauty, all three participants (Vicki, Susan TJ, and Patty) sat and created pages at the water’s edge,  Later in the day, before their pages were completed they reviewed each other’s first attempts, as shown below.  To their surprise and delight they discovered their efforts all shared a “spring-like” quality:  paintings of the cool, turquoise-colored spring water!  Please enjoy other JDB images by clicking on the Journey Daybook Pages page.

Join the Review of “Spring” pages.  JDB pages by Vicki, Susan TJ, and Patty

A Journey Daybook Adventure at the Haile Farmers Market

June 22, 2015

Lilliam hosted a Saturday Adventure on 14 June. Because she lives close to the market, the four other participants (Donna, Susan, Vicki, and our guest, Loueen) shared their lunches at Lilliam’s beautiful home. Susan took iphone photos on the spot, preserving the images for all of us to enjoy. Please enjoy the other images on the Journey Daybook Pages page.

Today’s Photo from Lacoste

June 17, 2015

Here is Barbara, our leader, standing by the side of the road near Lacoste, a village in the Luberon. In her Facebook post, Barbara says: A stop on the way to Lacoste to look at lavender planted around olive trees in someone’s driveway. I guess that’s as Provençal a setting as one can find. A beautiful day.

Journey Daybook Adventure in Provence – Week 2

Just past midweek with the second group of Journey Daybook alums – the five participants are exhibiting an eager commitment to illustrating and writing on their journey daybook pages. From left to right are Lauren, Barbara, Carolyn and Allison. Kaydie is the photographer. My thanks to Allison for whisking these images to me! As most of these pages do, these speak for themselves in terms of exploratory narrative and emotion, exhibited in part by color use. To me, they give a real feeling of the freshness and sunlit colors of Provence. Keep checking for more journey daybook pages on their own page.

Alison’s page made at the Pont du Gard –

Week 1 of Alumni Adventure – more images

June 13, 2015

Mary and Jackie sent more photos and some new journey daybook pages from Paris last night. These show many of the activities that they experienced this week with Kaydie, Barbara, Patty, and Sue. I am posting the photos here. Please click on Journey Daybook Pages to see the exciting pages that this group made. In the next days, we look forward to more pages from Paris from Mary, Jackie, Sue, and Barbara.