pics from my day

Trog came over for a play date with Angus today! Yay!




Angus is pretty funny looking when all his face parts are flapping. ;-)

Gorgeous sunset tonight with a sliver of moon. That's kind of a Cheshire Cat moon...






Reflection on the swimming pool:

chilly sunsets are the best

There's some atmospheric reason for that, right? Or is it just the clouds making things pretty? Sunsets in cold weather are awesome. These are some pics I've taken looking out across the back field on two recent evenings. The sky in the second set of shots blew my mind. These are not digitally enhanced at all.

sunshine, rain, rainbows, and big earthworms

One of my absolute favorite things is the time in the early evening on a rainy day when the sun drops below the clouds and shines in sideways. The sky is dark, the land is bright, the rain is coming down, and there's a rainbow in the east. LOVE IT. It feels magical to me.

I went nuts taking photos in and of the rain yesterday evening. Brace yourself...

pics pics and more pics

I've taken a bunch of random pics here and there around the place, but I keep forgetting to actually post them. So I'll do that today.

If the person who won my chicken art 9 days ago fails to contact me in the next almost-24-hours I am going to pick a new winner. I think 10 days is sufficient for someone to check back in here. So, if you entered to win, DO check back after 10pm tomorrow, mkay?

Today I took a bunch of artwork to Franklin Ranch Pet Hospital, where it will be hanging for 3 months. I like that place, and the people are so nice. They remembered me from last time. :-)

I also washed chickens today, a whopping two of them. State Fair here I come! (Well, soon anyway).

Okay, pics in no order:

I framed "American Bison" and sent it off to a scrimshaw show in Rhode Island. Wish it luck!

The young chickens:

The cutest cat in the world:

When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle. Okay, so for me it's usually somewhat after sunrise and I only make them on special occasions:

The young chickens roosting up against the chicken wire at night:

Pretty Shylah (who not only loves tomatoes, but also bananas, with the peel on them!):

Prelude to wrestling:

The sunset tonight. Darn my hot wire thingies that go over the gates kinda impede the view:

Still smells like rain a little bit.

It rained last night! Not a whole lot but it all came down pretty quick. Shortly after dinner the thunder and lightning started, and that kept up for a couple hours. Now it's warm and humid. The horses are getting fuzzy, and the sure sign of fall is hearing the Sandhill Cranes fly overhead. I'll have to venture down to the wildlife preserve some time and watch them when the migration really gets heavy duty.






This was a pretty fun weekend. Saturday I went to a gourd festival in Folsom and looked around. WOW. It's amazing what people can do with pyrography! There was quite an array of stuff there. I bought a couple little gourds to play around with, but I definitely don't foresee getting big-time into that aspect of the art world, I'm already doing too many other things!

Sunday morning I left here pretty early and drove 3 hours north for a surprise birthday party for J (not the same J I went to Nevada with). She was definitely surprised! :-) I'll be nice and not say how old (I mean young) she is but it's one of those milestone years that warranted a big to-do. On that note, I think I am experiencing cheesecake overdose. Not that it's a bad thing (except I'm pretty sure the "get in shape" effort is going to suffer, again...) but holy cow there's been a lot of cheesecake going on. I baked a chocolate peppermint cheesecake for the party, and got sent home not only with leftovers from that, but about a third of the OTHER cheesecake that J had. Mmmmm, cheesecake...my weakness (well, one of many!).


On the artistic front, I am of course still plugging away at chicken drawings. It's pretty much impossible now that I will finish them on time, but given the lax attitude when it comes to communication with me (ahem!), I'm thinking this might not end up being the end of world. I still need to shoot to get as many done on time as I can though.

I ordered some canvases (they were on sale) and according to the tracking they ought to arrive tomorrow. I still say I'm not a painter, but the fact is I need to get some original stuff done for the Auburn show so I can fill the wall space, and I can paint quicker than I can draw, so that's my only option.

I'm also working hard on getting an online store set up to sell my images printed on shirts, mugs, coasters, etc. It's actually quite a bit more work than I realized, just in terms of the time commitment, so I've been sitting around on my butt working on that for a really horrendous amount of time and I've barely made a dent in what I need to do. I figure I will start with maybe 4 images, and then gradually add more as it begins to be profitable. Well, hopefully it'll be profitable!

I need to go feed the horses now or they will hunt me down and stomp on me. Or not, but they do get pretty cranky if I'm late.

Random pics of the day:

Homer under the bed.



A cool bug.