Rainy Day

My last post was over a year ago! Where does the time go? I can't say that I have done anything creative lately. The last "crafty" project was making a flannel quilt for Linda's birthday in Dec 2007. ?? I haven't done anything except journal and read...haven't even done any sketching. Haven't been anywhere exciting....... What in the world have I been doing? Life is passing me by and I can't even remember anything memorable we have done in the past year! SAD! We are such a fun couple, huh? Someone or something needs to get me inspired to get up off my duff and be a more interesting person!

With the downturn in the economy, DH and I have been very blessed not to have been affected with any loss of jobs. So many of my friends have been affected one way or the other. The cost of our heating this past winter is how it affected us. Another winter like this and we just may need to consider selling and moving to a small house or apartment in town. Monthly propane bills of $500 are a bit too rich for our pockets!
We are finally getting some much needed rain. It has made me feel renewed and refreshed. Warm weather is near....yea!!! Time to think about planting some pots of flowers for the deck. L.'s daughter is selling flats of flowers from the local garden center and I am thinking of getting some portulaca. That is one plant I had down in Florida, and loved all the colors. It was very easy to grow too, which is a PLUS for me, since I have a black thumb. I certainly didn't take after my big sister, Lorene, who was an avid gardener. I always have good intentions in planting flowers, but never seem to do it. We'll see.......

Dream Lesson

I had a very odd dream last night that I just can't shake.
I was in the bathroom, washing my flip flops in the sink as I sometimes do. They weren't particularly dirty, but I just wanted to wash off the surface dirt. Just as I thought they were clean, a large amount of dirt appeared and slid down the shoe and ran down into the sink. I proceeded to wash them again, getting them clean and more dirt appeared and slid down the shoes and into the sink. I thought this was very odd and started examining them to see what the problem was. I discovered that there was a big glob of mud and dirt stuck to the shoes that I didn't see. I proceeded to scrape and pick at the dirt which was very hard to remove, but it finally came off and I washed them again and they stayed clean.

Wow! What does this dream mean? I relate it to my walk in life (the shoes). I try to live my Christian life the way God intended and when I am focused on God, I have peace of mind (the clean shoes), but there are times that I let Satan enter my thoughts with worry and doubt (the dirt), taking my focus off of God and His promises that he will take care of me in all my problems and that there is nothing He can't do. I never seem to learn my lesson. Bad times come and then they go and I am at peace again. But it is a vicious cycle that Satan won't let go (the mud stuck to the shoes). Through prayer and faith in God I am able to break free of Satan and the doubt and worry (scraping and picking at the dirt). If I stay focused on God, my mind will be free of worry (shoes that stay clean).

It's amazing how God can teach me a lesson even in my dreams!

Early morning light

I had to stop and take this picture the other morning before heading to work. Wish I could get the date stamp off but I think it is there to stay! This is a portion of our back yard looking toward our woods. The birdhouses sit on a wooden bench that is on our deck at the back of the house. The tall one is my very favorite rustic birdhouse. It used to be in my sister, Lorene's garden....a fond remembrance of her.

Woodys & Nutties & Hummers, Oh My!

The feed I have been putting out for the birds is finally paying off! As I sat in the recliner this afternoon, I could see that Nuthatches and Woodpeckers finally found the thistleseed and suet I put on the big pine out front. But I was most amazed with all the Hummers that were dive bombing each other to get to the nectar feeder. One little, gutsy female was fighting off all the others....males included! She even took up a post on top of the shepherd's hook that the feeder is hung on, looking left and right watching for any intruders that would dare to try and sip from HER feeder!

As for my little monarch caterpillar (no, I didn't name him!) he is growing by leaps and bounds! Thankfully I have been able to keep him stashed with plenty of milkweed leaves! The girl that works next to me brought hers in to work this morning because it broke out of its cocoon this morning and once the wings are dried, needed to be let loose. We kept watching it from time to time as we worked, but the beautiful creature just hung from the roof of the butterfly box. Once we stepped outdoors to go home however, it came to life and started to flutter its wings. I had the priviledge to coaxing it onto my hand and take it out of the box as my co-worker is afraid of "insects". How beautiful it was to watch it take flight from my hand and gracefully flutter away! The one we let go was a female butterfly because it had dotted wings all around the edges. The male has solid black on the back edges. (At least I think that's what I read!) Now I can't wait for mine to get to the butterfly stage!

What to do on a rainy day?

I'm still having an major love affair........with old barns! I just can't get enough of them and even came home from the library with 3 more books of them. That will keep me busy for quite some time! I even asked my cousin (a big farmer in this area) if he knew of any unique barns with lots of character around this area. He couldn't think of any at the time, but I could see the wheels turning in this mind. I am sure he will think of a few by next week! I just may be out taking pictures during the week I am off work this month!

I DO have a new "project" that I vowed from the beginning I wouldn't do, but the girls at work sort of drew me into it, and it all came about from tramping through our woods looking for milkweed! I am now the proud mama of a baby Monarch catapiller! The girls at work have been "harvesting" monarch butterflies all summer and was having trouble finding the milkweed that they feast on. I said I would look in our woods for some and in looking at the leaves, trying not to take one that was "occupied", I overlooked and plucked one leaf that had a baby catapiller on it. Instead of casting it aside (none of the girls wanted another one to care for), I now have my own butterfly box and am "nurturing" this catapiller through to the butterfly stage. That means I will have to go out and regularly find milkweed for the next month until it goes into the chrysallis stage. No problem. We have plenty at the back of our woods! Anyway, I just may do some sketching of my little fella ....so much more fun to sketch the process rather than take photos!

Its a rainy afternoon and I plan to sit and do some sketching. I have started another sketch like the one of the girl and lamb. The proportions of the first drawing was pretty bad and I love this subject enough to try it again. Here's  a poem that would go great with the picture:

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring Him a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
Yet what can I give Him? ---
Give Him my heart.

This week's sketches

The weather has been so beautiful these past couple of days! Last night we opened all the windows and enjoyed the cooler temps. After it had turned dark, we retired to the bedroom and DH promptly fell asleep so I had planned to do some sketching, but a noise from outside caught my attention...a sound that made my hair stand on end. I went to the kitchen window and listened...off in the near distance (probably on the other side of the field behind our house) was a howling...but it certainly didn't sound like a dog, and besides, there are no houses in the direction of the howl. This was a very high pitched, wavery howl.....the only animal I can think of in this area that would howl like that is a coyote. I slipped out the patio door and stood on the deck and listened. It spooked me so bad that I quickly came back inside and locked the door. I stood again at the kitchen window and hear muffled yelping VERY near. Got to remember to keep an eye on our dog Casey when I let her out in the middle of the night!!

This morning...another gorgeous morning... I had the pleasure of sitting on the deck listening to the birds chirping. Jays, finches, cardinals and the most distinct, the cry of a hawk down in the woods. I never realized they had two very different distinct sounds and wasn't sure what it was until it took off from a grove of trees beside the house and landed in a tree in our woods. There it sat for a long time, crying....

Didn't get much sketching done this week...just the two below. I stopped off at the library this morning and came home with an armload of books. Pen and Ink Sketching by Peter Caldwell; Drawing in Pen & Ink by Claudia Nice; Creative Pen & Ink Techniques; and The Drawing Handbook by Frank Lohan. This should keep me busy for a while!

(Seems these scanned darker than the original sketches so I tried to do a white "fill" on the picture of the girl with lamb. Looks like I missed a couple of dark spots! Oh well, at least you can get an idea of the finished sketch!)

Another Barn

I absolutely love drawing old barns! This one was sketched first in 2b pencil then detailed in pen and ink. I fell in love with the original 1943 lithograph "Barns at Glen Gardner" by artist, Wanda Gag when I was looking through some books on Barns and decided to include it as one of my art studies on old barns. It took me approximately 5 hours to complete. I'm beginning to love working with pen and ink and it is sooooo much easier than I thought it would be! I just may try doing another on larger paper so that I can frame it. The Pen and Ink Techniques book says that a pen and ink sketch looks better framed if the picture doesn't go all the way to the edge of the paper. Thanks to the EDM group for inspiring me to start drawing again! I hadn't picked up the pen to draw in 2 years until I found them. THANKS to everyone for the inspiration you have given me with all your wonderful art!!