How do you measure your wealth?

In Eureka, we used to chuckle about measuring our wealth by our com- post piles; we had three of them--rich and deep!  Having lived in our house for 20 years, surrounded by so many big trees, hedges and bushes, the compost piles frequently overflowed to friends' gardens along with an amazing community of earthworms.

 
Here in Hawaii you could easily find a bumper sticker saying "Compost Happens" because it does, and quickly.  Consequently, the single pile grows and shrinks, grows and shrinks, so we have concluded that we need another measurement for our wealth....but, something equally.....poetic!

It didn't take long to find a suitable replacement for our retired status.  What we have now, rather than three compost piles, is THREE HAMMOCKS!! 

We have a hammock in the recently cleared woods (seen above.)  Up near the house, under the ohia tree, there is another one, that, although purchased many years ago, is covered with tropical flowers.  Finally, the third (a lovely one from Guatemala) is a queen bed size, hand crocheted in deep wine and forest green that goes perfectly in our art studio where it suits the room full of breezy windows.

Thinking about how a hammocks feels (not just on the outside, but the inside too) I decided to try an draw not only how they look, but how it feels to lie inside one - cradled, rocked, safe and cozy.  These two little sketches are from  the art journal I doddled in while we were first getting settled-in.