Ah, Spring...

Here is my red poppy plant. First up.



Gosh, I have gone and done it again. I've let 2 months go by with out a post. Nothing to say? Hardly...maybe just a change in focus and not sure I wanted to write about it. This has been a very long, dark, dreary winter and I, for one am glad to be done with it. So on to spring and I am grateful. I need light. The woodstove has a new purpose holding the San Marzano seedlings.



I started a drawing class in a private studio in January and the second semester began March 31 and goes through to May12. It has been a great experience, one I look forward to weekly. I have been drawing and sketching all my life and even took a number of classes in college but this class is being taught in the classical way. There is always more to be learned and understood. I have been introduced to some interesting music as well, which has been a bonus and will write about at another time. We are a small group of 5 women being taught by artist, Sally Caswell, in her studio. It has been wonderful experience for me. I feel like a sponge every week, just soaking it all up.



My daughter is planning landscape changes. A need for some privacy is pressing. So we visited a nursery and she was told some of her options. I have been pressed into using my drafting degree from years ago to plot her yard rather than having the nursery staff do it which will save some cash and she took her own photos which helps as well. It will be fun to see what the designer comes up with because it is a challenging yard. She feels like she is in a fish bowl...



Well this was a start. I hope to be more faithful to posting. Have a great day and thanks for reading...

Good boy, Cosmo, good boy...

Cosmo
1998-2008

This morning we said good bye to a dear, gentle soul...

And The Cow Jumped Over The Moon...

One of my favorite animals after the dog of course, are cows. Love the cows. Love all animals actually, but love those cows. But unfortunately someone designated them as dinner...So watching the news and seeing the cows in feed lots, stumbling, unable to walk to their demise just undoes me. I cry, say horrible things to the man on TV news who was prodding the cows to move. There is a little blurb on the front page our my local paper today that directs the reader to the story on page 2, that states "The U.S. Department of Agriculture recalls 143 million pounds of frozen beef-the largest on record-produced at a California slaughterhouse..."-The Providence Journal, February 18, 2008. Now there's a nice thought, getting your dinner from a slaughter house, nice gourmet touch...I can't go to a farm, pet the animals, then eat them. Can't do it. Don't want to do it. I get my protein from other sources. Some don't like to think about where their food comes from, others just don't care one way or the other. I personally don't care what others eat, none of my business. I have my feelings about it, but they are my feelings. But I do speak up when animals or humans are being mistreated, not that it does any good. But why would I expect animals to be treated in a humane manner when we are unable to even treat each other as such...Middle East, Africa, United States, here in our own neighborhoods...

Bon Appitite

Have a good day. And hey, just consider some alternatives...a non violent way of eating.

Thanks for reading.

Birthday Thoughts

Well, today is my birthday...One I was not happy about, a big one, a decade changing one...one I have been watching creep up on me ever so quietly. Stomping my feet, no this can't be. Where ever has the time gone. Just last week a program aired on TV about the Blizzard of '78, thirty years ago. That bit of information caught me up short! Thirty years...

But as this week began and it was now imminent, just hours away, I slipped into grateful acceptance. I was reading a blog I enjoy, Pomegranates and Paper yesterday, another birthday girl. Loretta said she was grateful for having arrived at her birthday intact. That statement caused me to think. Yes, I too have "arrived intact" and very grateful, also grateful for my family, husband, children, grandchildren, cousin,dear friends who are like family and all the animals in my life...and very grateful for my health and general wellbeing. My life is full...

I started my day at 4 AM because my daughter needed to be at the hospital for an out patient
surgery and she just needed her Mom. I could not find any coffee ( Dunkin Donuts) open at that awful hour not to mention the stinken snow and ice on the roads...So I was my usual grumpy self before coffee. But my very grown up daughter with three children of her own just smiled and humored me and told everyone in ear shot that it was her Mom's birthday. How can you stay grumpy...impossible with everyone wishing you happy birthday. I started to think about the little ones who were entering the world while I was waiting for her to come out of surgery and recovery as we were in a ob/gyn hospital. Yes, I was getting quite philosophic. Ended that train real quick. Did some drawing, some more thinking, news watching and settled gently into this new number while I waited. I am still me, don't feel any different but maybe a little wiser, realizing time is not to be wasted on what ifs or squandered on meaningless things. I still look forward to each morning with anticipation and I have a twisted sense of humor that serves me well, gets me through allot. So I look forward to the rest of my day wherever it takes me. I am content with wherever or whatever, I am OK.

Now if we could just fast forward to spring...no, that is kind of a what if...so I will enjoy this time to be in and dry and warm and settle down to doing something I enjoy or maybe just a nap with the girls...they have started without me.


Found this beautiful quote which I thought I would share with my animal loving readers. Which by the way guess who won at The Westminster Kennel Club dog show the other night. It would be a very proud Beagle by the name of Uno. My "girls" were quite excited, not...Only food has that power.



Dogs are our link to paradise.
They don't know evil or
jealousy or discontent. To sit
with a dog on a hillside on a
glorious afternoon is to be
back in Eden, where doing
nothing was not boring ---
it was peace.

Milan Kundera (1929- )
Franco-Czech writer; author
of 'The Unbearable Lightness
of Being."



Finished some chenille scarves.

Sorry if this was alittle disjointed, just where I am today. Have a great day and thanks for reading.
Peace...

What Is Art?...

I stumbled upon this video made by a group called Creature Comforts. It made me laugh so much that I had to watch it a few more times in order to hear the comments. So I have decided it should be shared... what with all the blues and funk we all seem to be suffering from. My favorite is the dog. Gee, no surprise there.

Another thought is to get your hands on a book by one of my favorite authors, Ann Lamott, called Traveling Mercies. Read the book of course but fast forward to the chapter called "The Aunties". Funny stuff, guys, funny, funny stuff...

Have a great day and I really hope this has made you smile and thanks for reading or viewing.

Inspiring Days

I was out looking for some enamel ware in the local antique and used shops. The enamel was just the excuse I needed to go on a hunt. I like hunts. A chance to go out alone and clear my head, no rushing, no agenda, just be...I thought some enamel bowls would make good water containers on my drafting table. I tire of looking at the cool whip containers...I was successful in that not only did I find two the same but they had covers. The covers are a good thing as my cat enjoys watercolor water and walking across the palette and leaving her paw prints on anything that might be on the table. This, of course, is without my encouragement, as with most of what Abby does. She is a cat after all. My beagles wouldn't dream of such behavior.

But sometimes one comes across something that they are not even looking for and at first glance, not even remotely interested in. But ah, your brain knows different. I purchased my containers and left the store but thought about the item I was not interested in. Strange...browsed through the next shop, right next door, and the whole time browsing I thought about the item in the shop I had just left. I thought how I had never seen one like it before. I have a small collection of them, very small. Not something I actively pursue. Thought I would love to draw it, maybe use it in a painting. The reason I was not interested in it in the first place was, I saw it had no use in it's present condition, I had put it and my thoughts in a box. I realized I loved the object and practically ran out of the shop, back to the first shop and walked, speed walked, straight to the shelf and picked that old enamel tea pot up and cradled it as I walked to the desk to pay for it. I brought it home and gently washed it and found it made me smile. It's shape is wonderful, the "short and stout" of the children's song I sang all the time as a little one ( I had it on a 33 and a third...Oh boy, there are people who don't even know what that is). The spout has a wonderful curve and the body of the pot is so smooth. I have sketched it twice already and I think of things to put with it in a composition. I am inspired by of all things, an old enamel teapot...One never knows when and where that spark will come from. I have learned to be open and ready to act on it. I have been given a gift today, in a few forms.
I leave with a sunset I stopped for on my way home.

Thanks for reading and have a great day being inspired and acting on it.

Hopeful Days

Just who are you? Maggie would be interested in knowing...


Then Amy comes up along side to investigate this new thing...do you have cookies?





Oh, whatever...I have things to do. Welcome.

The story about the penguin is kind of funny, I guess. Maybe you had to be there. I was having a conversation with a couple of my friends a few weeks back where I was recommending some movies, Eight Below
and the March of the Penguins
In the course of our talk we were talking about the penguins and the size of them. I thought they were my size. When you look at them, they are always against snow...I just always thought of them as people size. Well, our talk was being listened in on with some chuckles and we just looked at them like what is wrong with you all? Well we were educated although I still had my doubts that they knew what they were talking about. Little penguins, really. Sunday I was given a gift bag after church by my friend, Sue's husband. It was with great expectancy that he told me I had to open it there , on the spot, in the parking lot. So I reached in and what did I pull out, a "normal "size penguin I am told. Sue saw it in a store and decided I needed it for size reference. Paul and family enjoyed this so.

Thanks, Sue. He lives in my studio. I still think they are larger. It just doesn't seem right.I will leave you with this image I took tonight. As I was beginning to cook dinner this evening, I passed the window on my way to get something, when I saw this, dropped everything and ran outside with my camera. I just stayed outside and admired this beautiful sky. The weather has been unseasonably mild for the past few days. It was so nice to just stand outside and take in the sunset. Seed catalogs have started to arrive. Trying to not get ahead of myself but it is hard. I am in a funk, and can't get out of my own way. I need warmer weather, windows opened, and longer days. Tired of the dark short days, but I do see the difference as small as it is. They are getting slowly longer, minutely so, but longer none the less. Cause for hope. Thanks for reading and have a great day!