Apr30Art

While cooking pork ribs on the grill tonight we watched a mockingbird, bully a little bluebird.  I've seen a bluebird several times this Spring, I think it may be time to put up a bluebird box.  I think they are so beautiful.

Apr29Art

I watched a video this morning by CoCo Bee Art, she painted this really cool loose whale.  I had to give it a try. Click here to see the video.

Apr28Art

Vacuum packed 9 days worth of clothes for my trip coming up in June.  Found this African Proverb that I liked and used my rainbow pencil to doodle some spirals and stars...

Apr27Art

I held him in my arms, and told him he was a good boy, as the doctor gave him the drugs.... he passed away peacefully.  It is never an easy thing to do, and the last dog I held like this was my Border Collie Crispin UDX.  A sad day for me, and for Ron.

J.E.B. Stuart - 2001 - 2017

THE BEST PLACE TO BURY A DOG

"There is one best place to bury a dog.

"If you bury him in this spot, he will

come to you when you call - come to you

over the grim, dim frontier of death,

and down the well-remembered path,

and to your side again.

"And though you call a dozen living

dogs to heel, they shall not growl at

him, nor resent his coming,

for he belongs there.

"People may scoff at you, who see

no lightest blade of grass bent by his

footfall, who hear no whimper, people

who may never really have had a dog.

Smile at them, for you shall know

something that is hidden from them,

and which is well worth the knowing.

"The one best place to bury a good

dog is in the heart of his master."

--- Ben Hur Lampman ---

Apr26Art

My oldest dog Jeb is 16 years old, he's at the emergency vet clinic tonight.  I think he had a stoke, or something, he is having muscle spasms in his back legs and isn't able to walk.  All his blood work came back normal, and they are giving him muscle relaxers and valium and will watch him tonight and we'll see if he's doing better in the morning.

Apr25Art

Apr24Art

Not sure what got me thinking about Miss Adams today, nor the little ditty she made us memorize to keep us from carving our names in our desks.  I still remember her fondly, she used to read us the Longfellow's  poem, 'The midnight ride of Paul Revere'... I loved to listen to her read and that poem was a favorite.  I even remember how it started... Listen my children and you shall hear.  Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the 18th of April, in 75; Hardly a man is now alive....

Apr23Art

Rode up to Georgetown, SC today. Whether threatened rain, but we never got caught in it. Perfect riding weather, not too hot, not to cold... just right. Supposed to rain here tonight, hopefully it will give us some free water on the pepper garden. This page was inspired by all the Dandelions blooming yellow in the fields on the way to Georgetown. I used a dip pen and white ink to draw the Dandelions.

Apr22Art

Worked in the yard today planting peppers, and flowers.  The day slipped away so fast... no time for a ride.  Tomorrow we're going to take a ride up to Georgetown, much easier than digging holes and planting stuff.

Apr21Art

Long day today, picked up my motorcycle, she has a new front tire and a new hour... sounds very impressive now.  I do hope the weather holds and we can get a ride or two in this weekend.

Apr20Art

Forecast was for rain today, but it never happened.  Thought I'd do something just with watercolor today, using a real brush instead of a water brush. I like it turned out.

Apr19Art

Rained on and off most of the day today.  My motorcycle is getting it's 20,000 mile check up, a new front tire, and an upgraded horn (watch out people you'll hear me now).  Getting ready for another cross country trip with the Women's Freedom Ride, we're raising money to buy and train a Golden Retriever as a service dog for a wounded female veteran.  If you're interested in supporting our cause you can find out more and donate here. http://www.womensfreedomride.org/

Apr18Art

I wanted to try something today,  I have a pencil, a Prismacolor Ebony that I wanted to try to draw with and then use watercolor over it.  I wanted to see if the lines would hold or the color would run or muddy the watercolor.  Other than the large black door/window areas that had a bit of color shift, the rest of the lines stayed put and didn't smear.

Apr17Art

My sea salt grinder was sitting on my desk, so I took the opportunity to draw it before taking it back to the kitchen where it belongs.

Apr16Art Easter Sunday

Ron and I had a Happy Easter today, spent the afternoon with our friends Ken and Julia, and their daughter Lisa and a few of their neighbors and friends.  Julia is a fabulous cook, may take me several days to work off all the food.

Apr15Art

Did a lot of shopping today, and cooked some chicken on the grill tonight.  Looking forward to Easter Sunday tomorrow.

Apr14Art

Hope your Good Friday was blessed. 

Apr13Art

Pre-painted background, used some white gouache for the flower and the lettering.  Good Friday tomorrow, and Easter this Sunday, hope everyone enjoys the weekend and time with friends and family.

Apr12Art

Sometimes the mundane stuff in front of me catches my eye, so today I sharpened my rainbow colored pencil,  and the shaving called out to me. On the domestic front I'm still working thru the mounds of laundry but the end is in site, maybe one more load tomorrow and it's all done.

Apr 10-11 Home Safe and Sound

Home Safe and Sound, laundry pile getting smaller, bit by bit.  Pink Moon tonight, isn't really pink.  It's called that because it's the first full moon in April, and some pink flower (I forget the name) blooms around this time.

Apr 08 - 09 Heading Home

We got good news on Ron's medicine, so we decided to head back to Live Oak and not waste 4 or 5 hours going to Alexandria and then having to spend another really long day on the bikes.  Instead we left Lafayette after breakfast and stopped in Diamond head Mississippi, rather early and got a good nights sleep.

Apr 07 2017 - Longest day

We rode from 8am to 2am... it was foolish, and it was fruitless, and we will never attempt to do that many miles in one day, ever again.  So lesson learned, we are not young and we have medical issues, and so must stop more often than younger folks.  We took a huge detour and lost basically 2 travel days due to the storms on Wednesday,  setting us up for an impossible journey on Friday.

Start of our HOG Rally trip... or why we didn't get to Atlanta April 5

Headed to Atlanta, made it to Columbia SC when the skies opened up and it started to pour down rain.  When I turned off the camera, I didn't know that just ahead we'd run into knee deep rushing water.  Lucky Ron didn't fall, as his bike got turned sideways by the water, I was pushed a bit, my only concern was the bike stalling, someone behind us ramming into us because they couldn't stop in the deep water either.  We managed to get out of the deep end and up on a hill pulled into a gas station and started calling motels, to find a room for the night.  We found one only 3 miles down the road and called it a day.

 

I managed a simple drawing that night, but didn't draw anything the rest of the trip, but I did write down our trials and tribulations.  On the good side, we stayed safe, had some great fun, met some good people and enjoyed the riding.

Apr04Art

Headed to Louisiana tomorrow for a Hog Rally, house is quiet as the dogs went to camp Heike today.  Missing my fur kids already.  Posting may be sparse for the next few days.

Apr03Art

Weather all over the place today, a bit of sun this morning, cloudy by lunch, and a downpour happened while I was in the drug store for a few minutes tonight.  Spring in SC... gotta love it.

Apr02Art

What a great day today, took a little ride this morning.  Rays won in overtime against Orlando.  I drove Ron's new diesel truck (getting ready to take all the dogs out to Cottageville to Camp Heike).  Dinner at Chilis and watched the SC ladies win the National Basketball Championship.  

Apr01Art

Hope you don't get FOOLED too much today,  gorgeous weather, headed out on the motorcycles for a ride.

Book 43 - Title Page

Moving on to a Global Arts Watercolor sketchbook, landscape orientation size 5" x 8".  This is my favorite sketchbook size, and since Ron and I are headed to Louisiana in a few days, I needed to downsize to a book I could easily pack and carry.