Cris, Artist in Oregon

Animal Wednesday and a trip to Urgent Care Monday

2009-11-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

Took this picture today.

It was lovely out after a nasty day yesterday.

I loved the clouds showing in the water. I am so happy my camera captured it here.

They posed so nicely I just HAD to take their picture.

We see him/her at the duck pond all the time now. She/He was hunting for fish.

A few of these guys came swimming by. At the moment what they are called escapes me.
Standing in front and to the right of me was a couple with fancy smancy cameras I would LOVE to have... getting such great detailed photos.
I need a new camera.
I want DETAILS.
:))

I looked down and found a flock of Pigeons looking up at me wondering where the food was.

This guy decided the engine was nice and warm so he sat there awhile watching me.

ON the way home we followed this guy.

I am always bummed to see Dogs in the back of a truck.

We got close when we stopped and I could see he was at least tied up to a rope in back.

He was so cute I had to get his picture.

Paint a black spot on one eye and he could be the Motorola dog from the.. what.. 50ies?

LOL
Yesterday I ended up going to Urgent care for an ear problem.

It has been plaguing me for months and it finally got to bad to cope with.

Ear wax.

Anyone suffer from that?

I have NEVER had to go get it dug out before.

Ugh.

It doesn't feel great. I tried everything to get rid of it but it just wouldn't budge and it blocked the ear canal to where I thought my head was going to explode. I felt like I was under water.

I couldn't sleep because of it and finally yesterday I gave in and went to get some help before I got an infection in the eardrum.

I REALLY didn't want to go to the urgent care with the flu season upon us and there were lots of people in the waiting room ..sick. After sitting next to some woman for some time and having just moved to another seat to see the TV better, another woman walking in recognized her asking her what she was doing there. She said. " I am here to see if I have the flu before I see patients tomorrow." OH WONDERFUL, JUST WANT I NEEDED. Groan. They supplied lots of hand sanitizer at least and I keep a small bottle in my purse. I almost drank it. LOL We waited an hour and half to get in. I forgot to take something to do.. read or draw.. the time can really go slow with out it.

Finally I got in only to sit awhile waiting for the Nurse to come in after the PA said YEP ITS WAX. Duh.

Funny thing was the nurse that came in to take care of it had just come from doing another person with the same problem. She said it is quite common.
Another 40 minutes and we got out of there.

I had a raging headache and the ears hurt today from all the water gushing and prodding with the plastic stick she put in to scrape it out. Now I pray that woman didn't have the flu!!!

We spent some of the day raking and cleaning up leaves in front. What a mess it was. So bad we found a business card on our porch drumming up gardening work. :)

We have filled 25 HUGE BLACK BAGS so far and AT LEAST that many more to go.

I just love Fall.

:))

Beautiful colors Nature paints & another Video I took

2009-11-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

Con and I went walking this morning around our area

We knew it was going to get bad and windy so I took my camera with me.

This was a must show and tell photo.

I LOVE the color of this beauty.

Then I focused the camera in front of me. and got more color.

I am on the road behind our house.

This is on another street we walked up.
There used to be a house sitting on that patch of land.

It used to be there not to long ago.
we haven't come this way for a little while as we have gone to the park but it hasn't been that long but some time in that period of time someone came and stole the house. . ?
Look at the swing tire still there.

Why didn't we hear this going on? Its not that far from us.
We couldn't believe it. We can see it as we leave our road to go to town.
It wasn't that small.

Struck me funny so I had to post it.

Today I went out to video Annie in the front yard with leaves falling.

we didn't bother to rake leaves today as they are coming down faster then we could rake.

At one point in this video con tosses the ball to Annie. I couldn't see what was going on as I had my eyes on the camera when I played it back I could hear a little snort and a squeak of her ball from here.

Be sure to look at the two posts below for my 06 and 09 tour of our front area if you haven't seen them. You can see how much has grown in 3 years.

***

Fall 2009 tour of our yard by Moi as requested by Lisa

2009-11-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

Well Lisa I went out and took a short blurry video of our front yard as it is now.

It was a bit late in the day and the sun is going down in back & blurred things a bit but the sun took for ever to come out today & wind and rain is expected tonight. I need to find out how to get things closer in the video. The colors are pretty right now but instead of Spring this is Fall. Still lots of pink.

I also did a really quick one of Annie which I will post soon

I need to read the manual if I can find it.

You know as in; IF ALL ELSE FAILS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.

LOL

Last time I did a video I didn't have dial up and it took me forty five minutes to down load and about that long to upload to send. needless to say I quit doing them. then when I got Faster service my computer got bad and wouldn't down load the videos.

This time they down loaded really quick and it took about seven to eight minutes to upload on here.

Now I might just go crazy here.

:))

Be sure to check out the one I posted yesterday that I did in 2006. Things have changed and not just the season, but the size of plants and trees.

***

A Video I did in 2006 of our front yard.

2009-11-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

I hope this works.

I took this little Video April of 2006

Our yard has changed a lot since then. for one thing we have lost our apple tree and our weeping cherry tree due to some kind of bug. That was a real bummer. then other thing is that our plants and Fairs have grown considerably.

I am talking here too.

I have some cute but short pix of Annie around this time too I might show if this works out.

I had the computer NERD guy come out to my house today to work on my computer. He was such a nice guy. He was here for 3 & 1/2 hours working.. it was that bad. I thought I had something on my computer taking care of things but some how I got a virus.. not one I can pass on.. but one that jammed up my computer so I couldnt even defrag it. took me four hours to defrag when he left.

He said it was close to crashing. Gulp... Now he says it should last me another five to ten years If I keep up with the tools he put on my computer to defrag and get rid of spy ware etc. I can!!!

He put more Ram in. I knew I needed it and he put on a router that also helped speed up my computer. It boots up so quick now. :))

So anyway enjoy this silly little video. I hope it works.

*****

More Fall & New Painting in Progress

2009-11-02T16:22:00.000-08:00

It was beautiful out today.

We went for a walk at the park today.

We have had one day nice and one or two days dreary and rainy off and on for a week now.

Today it was lovely.

We still have some colorful trees around in spite of the rain.

This is a liquid Amber tree.

We have one in front of our house doing this same pattern of turning colors that I show below.

Geese were happy being together

This is what I am working on at the moment.
It doesn't look really great at the moment.
But I wanted to let everyone know that I am working on something.
I have a LONG way to go yet.
Its been hit and miss with time to paint since I feel guilty playing with my paint while Con is out raking up leaves.

Here's our liquid Ambur turning now.

I took this a couple days ago on a gloomy day.

It hasn't begun to lose all its leaves yet.

We will be bagging till December.

the trees in back haven't lost all their leaves yet either but they are further along then this one is.

It will be many trips to the dump to put in their compost bins before we are done wit this chore.

My Hydrangea flowers have turned a pretty red now. They were white with blue centers at first.

One lonely Honeysuckle flower I took today

One pix with flash and one with out.

This morning we spent over an hour cutting back fairy roses, from our neighbors side in back, out of our photinas and false bamboo plants. What a tangled mess. It will grow back next summer. It was a lot of work. I love this bush so don't complain about it. Once a year cutting back isn't bad for the beauty it puts out in summer.

I then drove some Miracle grow food spikes in the ground around the photina bushes I am trying to get to grow for privacy to work its magic during winter. I did it last year and they grew a bunch.

I have some one coming tomorrow to look at my computer.

It has been acting up on me and needs some TLC.

I hope his estimate isn't to high and I can get it fixed.

I haven't been to every ones blogs like I was doing because of my computer freezing on me and my deleting what I can before he comes.

Kind of like cleaning house before the house keeper gets here.

LOL
*****

Rainy day blues...& reds & greens...

2009-10-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

We don't have to go far for Fall colors.

This is next door to us in Fairs yard.

Her trees in back keep changing. soon they will all be empty.
She will have a new view for winter.

Our Fruit & Veggie farm and stand.

You can see some pumpkins in the back ground.

This was taken from our friends home.

That mountain you can see is the same mountain we look out at. if you go just past the trees and go left you will drive on the road we look at. its on the other side of the river. That is the valley that is over the mountain.
Enlarge photos.

That's whats over the mountain behind us

This is farm country in the foreground.

This is how it is looking around here lately.

I just turned the camera. This is a cattle farm

We went to the duck pond on Monday and I saw this white Nutria.

I had to zoom in so it isn't as clear as I wished it were it was pure white.

The white egret had just flown over and I snapped some pix before I realized the blue heron was standing there too. He blended in so well.

Geese flew in to land. I love to watch their wing lower as the glide into the water with a splash.

I cant help taking there pix. I just love seeing them.

Finally got a close up of this Egret.

It flew to the other bank just after this.

This cormorant flew in as the egret flew off.

Lots of these everywhere right now with all the rain we have been having.

Lots of leaves everywhere too. It's to wet to go pick them up right now.

Been walking up our street instead of going to the park.

Everything is greening up

This is one of our side streets we walk down.

Another street we walk up.

If we looked thru the backyards on the right hand side we can see our back field.

Its turned cold and wet and I am trying not to sit all the time because of it.

So walking in between the showers is helping.

I am working on a painting at the moment too but its not ready to be shown yet.

Soon tho.

****

Busy like Ants...But still time for some sketching.

2009-10-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

We have been busy, but not to busy to enjoy the lovely fall colors that seem to be more vivid this year. We were taking dinner over to a young couple who had just had a baby Boy 8 days before. As we came up the street and saw this I had to get a shot of these gorgeous trees. They live just beyond the trees.
I was sitting on the bed and Annie was laying at my feet. She was in such cute positions I wanted to capture them, but didn't want to move to disturb her so I just grabbed some lined paper and an ink pen on my nighstand and started sketching quickly before she moved. I actually captured her poses. The last one was so funny. She kind of rolled over and hunched her rump in the air and tipped her head to lay it flat on the bed. I didn't get to finish it as she moved to quickly.

Con got a new toy.
He has had his eye on this electric saw on a pole for awhile and it went on sale. It's for trimming tree branches up high.
I wasn't to thrilled for him to have something else dangerous, but the trees did need trimming and he was determined.

Look at the end of this thing he holds up to trim the branches.
arrgh.
I said fine but I wanted him to only use it if I was there guiding him
No more surprises.
It worked very well and cut them without hassle.
We have to many big trees that need to be maintained.
Leaves are falling fast now, so he got out the blower and had at them.
Annie thought it was fun and was trying to catch the wind come out of it.
Silly dog.

This time of year seems to roll around so quickly. Just when my impatiens are doing so well, its time to pull them out and plant my pansies. Its hard to do but they wont last much longer. The first freeze, which is usually around Halloween, or soon after, they will be a soggy mess. I wasn't going to put any pansies in this year since I couldn't find the ones I loved but then I did, so I gritted my teeth and pulled away.
:(
But first got that picture of them.
We have slowly been winterizing things.
Pansies are in.
They really should be put in before the first freeze anyway to get acclimated.
The screen is for keeping out the digging critters till they are established. I am not sure what is doing it. But I am having trouble keeping them from digging up all my bulbs I planted not long ago.
We have had to put chicken wire on the ground to keep them out.
If it isn't the deer its something else.
sigh.

Our awesome view from our sun room and kitchen right now.

I decided that the other iron critters we painted last week looked so good that we took this down and spray painted it white. It was all black except the window frame. we couldn't even see it.
Now it has pink tulips with green stems and blue birds on top.
Oh and that's con behind hooking up the lights for the eyes at night.
:))
We still have some Quail that are black.
What realistic color can I do them?
Gray?
You cant even see them now.

Be sure and enlarge all the photos.

Here's where we put the sheep.

We spray painted the bird blue here too.

Every thing is greening up so nicely out back.

One would think it was spring and not Fall except for the fall colors.

Have a lovely weekend.

*****

July 19 1924 to October 22 2003

2009-10-22T00:09:00.000-07:00

My Dad and I

5/6/84

Today is the 6th anniversary of his death.

You never quit missing them.
****

Fall is here in flaming colors & A can of white spary paint lightens things up.

2009-10-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

Flames of Fall.
I saw this along the River where we walk in the Park and had to go check it out. Looked like flames shooting up doesn't it?

I was in awe over this color.
Be sure and enlarge these photos.

Had to get a close up. Such a pretty setting.
We have lots of color coming on now. Lots of rain that is knocking off the leaves early too.

A walk thru the woods to find interesting colors.
This is a madrone Tree and its bark turns different colors through out the year.

Thought this was so pretty.

Wasn't long ago that the trees got their leaves now its time to lose them again.

My new colorful rubber boots I got recently.

I have to keep up with the color you know.

Bought a couple cans of white rustoleum spray paint and had at it. Painted the swing out front and what every else was white once. Then looked at our iron garden art we have been buying at the Art Festival each year we have moved up here.

Everything was rusting and painted black it just didn't show up so,

Chickens are now white and red.

Egret is now white

And our new iron sheep we got this summer was rusting so bad that we sanded it and now its a white sheep with a pink face and a black bird on its back. which con wants to paint blue to show up.

So now every things shows up nicely.

Fall colors up front and you can kind of see the Egret in the flower bed.

Annie blends in right now. :)
She is drinking water from Fairs hand after playing with Anabelle. she was so hot and needed some water, after watching Anabelle she decided to try it.

This is the same day in Fairs outback. This tree was really a bit more yellow and bright.

In Fairs outback. She eats the leaves.

At the duck pond.

This too was more brilliant in person.

My camera tones down the color in certain light.

Loved the reflections in the water.
We are expecting more rain today but it seems to be warm out.

The newspaper said yesterday that we, in the Northwest, are in for a warmer winter this year. El Nino is warming parts of the Pacific that affects weather world wide.

We will probably be dryer then normal and California wetter.

The Midwest & Northern USA are likely to get a warmer winter, while the Southeast can expect just the opposite: cooler and wetter conditions.

It will be interesting to see if any of this pans out.

*****

Met Fellow Bogger Suzanne Smith today & Duck pond pix.

2009-10-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

Con and I had a delightful 2 1/2 hour visit with Sue today who has the blog;

http://abrushwithcolor.blogspot.com/

She has a delightful blog so do check it out.
She lives in North Carolina and was in Eugene for her job for recruiting students to Duke University in NC in forestry & land management ..I hope that's right Sue...and was driving south thru our town on the way to her next College to visit in North west California.

Annie claimed her as her friend first thing out of her car and seemed to bond with her right off.
LOL

We talked about everything. I gave her the tour inside and out. She said it was like she already knew us so well even tho we had never met, and I felt the same way, and she said it was like she had walked into one of my photos .
What a great compliment.
I first talked to her on the phone and I think the first thing out of my mouth was; I thought you would have a Southern Accent coming from N Carolina. :) But she told me she didn't grow up there.
She turned out to be just a sweet and wonderful as her blog.
I loved meeting her.

Sue, I am so happy you took the time to come and meet us and visit.
I know you had a long drive ahead of you.
Thank you!
Come back anytime if you're passing thru again someday.
I am sure Annie will remember you.
She couldn't quit hugging you.
:)

Later in the day we took off to the Duck pond to feed the ducks since it turned out to be such a beautiful day. We met a friend and her Grand Daughter feeding the birds too. So I joined them.
I finally got that shot of the wood duck in Full Fall plumage.

He was gorgeous

He almost looked like a wooden duck someone had painted and put in the water to float.

But he was ducking and diving after the bread being thrown out.

These two came to feed too.

I took these next two photos of the Nutrias eating bread that little Jara was tossing out. Her Grandma asked me to get some photos for them. I was happy to oblige. lol

Be sure to enlarge all these photos.

They really are kind of cute but I noticed the Geese give them wide berth.

This goose stayed right by me with its beak open begging.

I handed the bread to him ONCE and after he about ripped my finger off getting the bread I TOSSED it to him from then on. OUCH.

We were actually surrounded by these geese and pigeons

Well I am tired and heading off to bed. It was a wonderful day.

I had to blog about it.

Now I have met two delightful fellow bloggers who just happened to have been passing thru my town going elsewhere.

It really IS a small world we live in.

Especially in Blog land

****

Package From Fifi Flowers came Monday, More birds on a walk today

2009-10-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

I just fell in love with this painting that Fifi did and I bought it.

I also bought a book mark she did and had on her blog for sale.

She has more for sale too.

http://www.fififlowers.com/

And I WON a book, She did some art work in, of Coco Chanel quotes.

So Monday they all showed up in the mail.

Awesome treat to myself.

Today I went to Michael's and bought this frame for it in the clearance bin.

Can't get no betta'.

Here they are all together. I hope you can enlarge them to see them better.

The book mark blurred of course. I loved the colors and the French feel of the cafe. I used to go to a cute little Restaurant in CA called Mimi's Cafe and I loved the french feeling to it. Kind of a new Orleans French theme but this reminds me of their little sun room are I used to love to go sit in.

This is the book I won."The Quotations of Coco Chanel.

She sells these on her blog too.

You can see Fifi's background painting of Eiffel Towers and she did different French and Coco Chanel themed paintings through out.

This is the back of the book mark. she leaves nothing undone.

She even signed it.

I liked the Quote Coco once said;

"When accessorizing, always take off the last thing you put on."

I have always remembed that and applied it.

Took another walk in the park again today.

The sun came out and it was lovely at 69.

The birds were in the water doing something none of us has ever seen and I missed it. my camera kept clicking to late.

They were playing in the water.

You can see a bit of one of the Geese at the bottom of this shot I totally missed. They would start flapping wings and take off a little and then land back in the water splashing water like crazy. There were several just frolicking in the pond.

This was right after landing in the water and swirrling around. Everyone was commenting on them playing like that.

I guess we aren't the only ones who enjoy a lovely warm day.

Others were Sun bathing

Look at all the Turtles sunbathing.

We are to have some nice weather in the day time till Monday. Cold at night tho, but then cold rainy weather will return next week. So I did some painting outside. We sprayed our white Iron swing in front white again or finished what I started before we got the rain and ran out of paint, and I took out a little wicker chair in the sun room and sprayed it white.. again.. and then I finished off the can of spray on anything white that was rusting outside.

I also painted a frame con made smaller for a painting, I gave to our ex neighbor, of him riding/training my favorite horse. They couldn't find anything they liked that fit, so Con made one they found, at a garage sale, smaller. Its about done and ready to go back to them.

A lot of painting going on, but just not on canvas yet.

:))

Painting framed and a Walk in the park

2009-10-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

I found a frame I had for my Rose painting that I like on it.

But I had issues with my painting so I fixed a few things I didn't like and now I like it much better.

That's the nice thing about Oils. :)

I wish I could get a photo of it not blurring tho. As it looks much better in person.

We are back to walking as often as we can. The heat being gone makes it easier to go in the afternoon now if we don't go early. The Egrets back too.

I talked to a man I see around shooting photos of the birds with a really really nice camera. Wow do I wish I had that. he said the white Egret had just come in and the Blue Heron flew in after it and they got into a big fight. I missed that. The blue heron thinks it is king but he flew off to the pond right next to this one. Look at the Turtle coming up on the raft.

Some of my photos wont enlarge and I have no clue why they wont. I didnt move them around. I just posted them as I usually do. Some look much better enlarged too.

Sorry

Here was the Blue Heron fishing in the next pond.

Finally got a spot to sunbathe

This was a first for me seeing several of these guys up on land. There were half a dozen on land and two or three in the water. They are cute in an ugly way. They were eating the dandelions.

Looks like a big rat running on land

Has a sweet face tho. They cant see very well so they smell everything.

This duck is always here. We keep thinking its a cross between a Turkey and a duck.
Very Unique

This looks so peaceful.

These guys just sat here watching us as we walked by with Annie

Got the two pix out of order below

Annie waiting to get the ball thrown and Annie fetching and the geese in the Field behind us.

We see these same geese at the park. Usually they have plowed these fields to play rye grass for next year but they haven't yet and may not. I read that the grass seed from last year didn't sell well and that the economy has even affected grass seed.

I took this one for Lolo. The Crows are back in town

There was a family of five in the Park. I love how they stay in families.

One male was crippled & Fair got all excited as we used to have a crippled male here raising babies for several years, but he didn't show up this year. She wanted to get a closer look because she said, Trooper, that's what she called him, had three gray feathers on his shoulder and sure enough This bird had the same gray feathers and bad leg. So he must have just moved on from our area.
This was part of his family but not him. I had a hard time getting photos of these guys due to the sun light.

Saturdays walk. It was chilly and cloudy

But we went anyway. Even Anabelle was bundled up.

There was a family that had five dogs loose here. one was this Husky/Malamute mixture

This is the husky mix trying to smell Annie's rear and she was having none of it.

We were chilly and Anabelle was chilly. We had walked a fast clip for almost an hour by now and this Gal is running towards us in shorts and T shirt.
Burrr

Annie finally came out from behind con here. We were almost done with the walk. The car was parked just beyond the pink offices.

We got home and the wind really picked up and the rain let go. We even had some HAIL.

I'd say we got home in time.
*****

Surprise Gift from Andrea in Paris, Flowers & other Gifts.

2009-09-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

I saw the mailman put something big in my mail box this afternoon and I rushed out to see what it was. Along with a bill was this package from Paris from Andrea.

I got so excited

What could she be sending me this time.

She had sent me a lovely Fridge magnet of the Eiffel Tower being struck by lightening in the 20ies which I love.

It didn't take long for me to open the package.

What spilt out was manna from Heaven.

Andrea had been to GIVERNY home of MONET.

Somewhere I have longed to visit.

How does she know me so well. :)

She sent me photos she took. Photos so good I thought she had bought them till I saw her name on them. A pamphlet of the area and Monet's gardens. and another Fridge magnet of one of Monet's paintings; Les Couquelicots. . . Poppies

She has seen this and thought of me and wanted to share it with me.

On a post card of one of her Lovely paintings That you can see in the picture, she wrote telling me that she had gone to see another Artist showing in the village. Joan Michells Paintings. Sorry Andrea don't know of her. But it sounded like you really enjoyed it and then she went to see Monet's Gardens.

Thank you so much, Andrea, for sharing this lovely experience.

My Fridge magnet collection is growing.

:))

I had to take some pictures of my Front porch potted Impatiens. The looked so pretty.
Soon they will be dying off. I cant believe it is about that time of year again. This year and warm season has flown by. Con made me the goose years ago while in California. I bring it in for winter.

I usually have pansies by now to plant in here before the frost hits by the end of October but so far I haven't found any I like, so I may not plant them this winter. I wish these would last longer I so love the colors. We have gotten most of the things done we have had on our list and then some. Rain has come and will be with us for the week off and on. Fall is here for sure now.

These were a gift to us from our Friends out in the country. C stopped by the other day and dropped these off.

We loved the cantaloupes but the little yellow ones I didn't care for as much. They are a green flesh melon called Venus. I shared with Fair. She loves everything.

Also in the mail this week came some Sand from Bermuda that a Girlfriends daughter got for me this summer. This is something my Girlfriend got me started on by going to Hawaii one year and asking me if I wanted something from there. I said, "YES SAND. Because that's the closest I will ever come to Hawaii." lol So from then on every where they went they would bring me back some sand or rocks or something. Black sand from Santrini Greece. A rock from one of the beaches in Europe.

I see the tradition still goes on. :)

This sand is very pretty. It has tiny bits of pink coral chips in it. You would think sand is sand but it isn't. It comes fine to course from black and white to pink and cream. I have displayed the pretty ones in little bottles around the house.

It's nice to be remembered no matter how they remember you.

Don't you think?

:))

Sketch of dog on couch in window

2009-09-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

Did this one for practice.

Having a hard time getting lines straight without a ruler and adapting to the colored pencils again. I feel like I need to warm up again after not drawing for some time.

I only did this much of the drawing, no cropping here.

Lynn said ....

2009-09-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

I sent Lynn a picture of my whole sketch/drawing before I cropped it, as I value her opinion.

She sent me this email back saying,

"Actually, In my humble opinion the tree and flowers give it more life. I like the whole thing. It is colorful and happy."

So I decided to post the whole drawing.

Below is the cropped part. I like it better. I felt the porch was to long and the building boring.. but decided to show the whole thing as is.

I think I am my own worst critic.

I'm not ready for warm weather to end.

So this came out colorful and summery.

:))

Read blog post below this one to read about this drawing if you havent already.

Ink and colored pencil sketch

2009-09-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

French Bull dog & Papillion

A summers day on the Varanda

Ink and colored pencils

Decided to try to sketch something while watching TV.

I am trying to get myself back to drawing & Painting.

This was a bigger drawing but I didn't like the rest so I cropped it.

****

I went to the Animal fair, the birds & the bees...

2009-09-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

OK so I didn't go to the animal fair. But we went for a walk in the park this morning.

Most of the Geese were over behind our place.

But this guy was sleeping by the duck pond when I came up.

He posed so well for me.

Things have cooled off in the mornings. Its also getting light later now.
I am thinking we will have to start bringing food for the birds. This guy came running out honking at me. He wanted food. She followed after him. or is it she and he. hmmm

I decided to get out of there after this shot as I wasn't sure it wasn't going to attack me since I had no food for it. Sure was honking at me.
:)

Met up with a few doggy friends.

This is Haley the Blue Great Dane.

Almost as tall as its master.
IS taller then Anabelle

Con wouldn't let Annie go smell but they had been nose to nose JUST BEFORE I snapped this photo.

We ran Annie in our field this morning.

We walked an hour around the park

and they were STILL playing on the ride home.

Daisy was home doing what I wanted to be doing.

But it was outside right away to get busy planting my 50 double tulip bulbs,

and eight Crocus out back.

Con got busy with the chain link fencing

If you notice in most of my photos of con working you will see

Annie's pink ball.

I think just about every photo has a pink ball in it.

:))
He still isn't quite done. He will have to put some wire around the bottom to keep the little critters out since he needed the fence taller to keep the deer out. So we took down another wire fence out back that is no longer in need and he will use that wire. But when he did that we noticed the shed that houses the Riding lawn mower was in dire need of paint on the outside. So he got busy on that which he got half done, now he has two things half done. :O

I on the other hand got all my bulbs planted and done.

So I went up front to see what Fair was doing. The dogs decided to play some more.

She was busy planting her bulbs. and some plants she had gone to get today.

Then she got the idea to give me some bulbs off her GOOD fancy Iris'

So we looked at photos and her map of where she planted them so I could pick out what I loved and I came home with SEVEN of her lovely Iris bulbs and more work to plant up front in the bed we have been working on. It meant tearing out the old fashioned not so great ones my other neighbor had given me before she moved but I did keep a few of hers.

I got,

Swing time

Wild thing

Pink pinafore

World Class

Dusky Challenger

Jessie's song

Loyalist

I love the names they give these Jewell's.

****

Fall is here.. Lots to do before winter

2009-09-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

Fall came Tuesday.

Our fall temps didn't come tho

It was 100 degrees on Tuesday

Its about 90 today.

But I am in fall mode. I have my list going and things to get done before winter.

Lots have gotten checked off so we are doing good.

Fair says its best to replant Tulips yearly as they just don't do good the next year and even worse the year after so I decided to get some more to plant.

She went up to the big town above us that has a Cost co and got me these.

I wasn't expecting so many so will have to find places to plant all these.

Don't like to have them out front as the deer love tulips.

Most will go in my bulb box in back that Con made me a couple years ago.

Since Deer will eat Tulips it has to be in a fenced area.

I also have my paper whites in here and some Daffodils so I hope they fit.

I can see this from my kitchen window and its so pretty to see in Spring when nothing else is blooming yet and you are dying for some color.

We finally pulled out the Green beans. It was time.

We needed to fill the box with more dirt for next year so we also pulled out the sunflowers

They weren't pretty anymore so I cut the heads off to save.

We had enough dirt left over from our trip out to our ex neighbors for dirt, but we needed a few bags of top soil to put in too. We left the tomatoes in. Will see if they will finish turning red. Our season is about done tho. Even if we are getting hot days our nights are in the high 40ies.

I will let these dry out and feed them to the birds.
We find they are so lazy now that they wont eat from here unless we scrape them off.
Not kidding.
The chain link fence in the back on the new bed is slowly coming along.

About a month ago I told con we needed to get rid of the weeds that were filling the large bed and that little strip off the porch. He found out there really wasn't much dirt below in this little strip and that it was cement. so he scraped all the plants out the flower bed and the strip of dirt since it was more weeds then plants, full of snails and is hard to rake in fall.

And the other day we finally went to the nursery for three more pink tones of dwarf Azaleas. They will bloom in Spring and be ever green thru winter. We left in the Cherry tree and one Azalea or Rhoddy bush, cant tell and I forget what it was. Then I went to buy more bulbs to put in here for a spring splash . I got a bag of Crocus that had 50 small bulbs in it and put almost all of them in here. I got 2 bags of small double yellow Daffodils and one bag of yellow Daffodils with an orange center. Each bag had ten bulbs in it.
I dug circles all around in here and placed five bulbs in each circle, putting in tree double yellows and two with the orange centers. then I did the same with the crocus. I hope it makes a nice splash come early spring. I was trying for an Artistic arrangement. :)

Con decided to fill in the empty strip with bricks. we couldn't find more OLD USED BRICKS so we had to go with NEW USED BRICKS. ??

Annie decided to help con. I stripped off the window sill around our large front room window and repainted it white while this was going on.

He's getting there.

A nice back breaking job

Looks so much better and no more weeds. I was going to go plant those 50 tulip bulbs this after noon but my knee and back said NOT TODAY. So did the heat.

I hope to have these projects done soon and back to painting and drawing and getting to every ones blogs again.

Left on my list is,

Plant the tulip bulbs,

Con to Finish chain link fence in back. I need to help with the wire.

Call the heater man to come service our heater and AC

I say call the Chimney Sweep but con said he is going to do it ..? Maybe.

Paint the inside of the sunroom doors, con covered, one more coat of paint.

and last, but I am sure not least,

Clean the carpets

Oh there will be lots of raking and cleaning out of flower beds up until winter too. But that's small daily, kind of fun, things to do.

Do you have a Fall to do list?

*****

la tour Eiffel is PINK, ATC from Lynn & I finally ordered new Paint Brushes.

2009-09-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

I found out from Andrea in Paris, that the Eiffel Tower isn't one color dark gray but three tones of Bronze with it being the lightest on top. Since I couldn't figure out how to do the three tones I decided to paint it Raspberry Pink to go in my Art Studio because I saw one on Paris Breakfasts blog last week.

After all don't we Artists get Artistic Licence??

Fair's reaction to my painting it Raspberry was

BLAH

She didnt like the idea...

I can always spray it bronze at another time.

Right?

Speaking of Artistic Licence
Look what I got in the mail today from Lynn at;
http://lynn-nonameblog.blogspot.com/
One of her Positive Affirmative ATCs she made me.
This was on the front
Celebrate Life.
Snap out of it across the top

On the back side
Believe in Your self.
Something which she is always after me to do.
Thank you, Thank you Lynn.
I will hang it where I can see if often.

I also finally put in an Order on line for my Langnickel Brushes I love to paint with.

I haven't bought any new ones in years.

Cant find them in this town and for awhile couldn't find them any where so I looked up Jerry's Artarama and walla they had them and nice sale prices.

But I could have sworn I typed in Dick Blick and order from them.

So anyway I treated myself to these wonderful brushes for oil paints, with some of the money we got watering Fairs back field and taking care of everything else while she was off enjoying Europe.

This is the huge box that these little brushes came in.

Goodness.

Now I just need to get busy painting.

Have a great weekend.

****

Fair's home bearing gifts, Another project in works

2009-09-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

Our neighbors left on vacation almost three weeks ago leaving us in charge of their yard.

She said she would pay us and I said no and she said then she would get someone else so we accepted. A niece stayed in the house taking care of Anabelle who moped around something terrible.

But last Friday they got home and they had a ball in Europe.

Everyone, especially Anabelle, was happy to see them.

Con and I and her Niece, because we were worn out taking care of their property. Three of us worn out doing what she usually does in a day plus other things.

Her Niece said that she wouldn't want her Aunt Fairs life as she works to darn hard.

:))

Everything was in great shape tho.

She went to Rome, Florence and Venice with her DIL and grand kids

He went to England, Wales and Scotland with his Son.

He wanted to look up his ancestors history and found lots.

Fair said that Venice was her favorite place and that the Statue of David was her favorite Art Piece in Rome.

He found a book with his Great great great etc Grandfather
mentioned in it so he bought it. While reading it he came across quite a bit on his Grandfather that and some he had written almost word for word on his family website. His son said to check the back reference of the book and sure enough he found HIS name in the back listing his website.

I said he should have gotten the book free.

Fair brought me back a magnet for our Refrigerator of the Statue of David.

I LOVE IT.

She said it was so magnificent in person that she cried. That no book or photo could capture what she saw in person.

She gave me this glass Caterpillar made in Venice.
I love it.

She gave me a little tiny bird on a little tiny clothes pin from Florence
No photo of it as it is so tiny.

and of course she paid us.
I watched her unwrap all the goodies she got to give to her Sisters and keep for herself. That was fun seeing what someone would buy as a souvenir.

Now that we no longer are taking care of TWO places we got busy on our own projects again.
Con hooked up the trailer and we went out to our Friends Ranch with the Horses.
I had called and made arrangements to come out for some River loam that is mixed with horse manure for our second raised bed for next years veggies. We had decided we needed more space to plant in.

She came to check what we were doing. I was to busy petting the horses that I didn't get a pix of Butch dumping the dirt into our trailer so pretend this is it.
LOL

Coming in our back field getting a salute from the Pink Panther on the dash board..

Something my Mom bought for all our cars years ago.

I still have mine in the car.

She loved the Pink Panther movies.

Closer view out our field and where the other raised bed is going to be.

The two big trees in the middle of our yard will lose all their leaves before winter.

A Royal pain to get in and out of our back field. He had to go up the rock road and around to our road and back down to hour house. But at least we can get into the field like this.

Then there was the chore of getting the dirt out of the trailer.

left over was put into a pile for the other bed when it is cleaned out for winter.

It will need to be filled up more with dirt. The compost pile in the corner will be emptied into both beds to sit over winter before we fill it with this years fall leaves to cook till next fall.

But this took most of the dirt.

Next Con will be putting up the chain link fencing we have been collecting to do this.

Since we have deer that come in the field at night we have to fence in everything.

Speaking of Fall.

I think it has begun.

No wonder con was beat.

Hope you had a great weekend.

****

Rain drops on Roses & Geese in the field. Sunflowers & grape jelly & a puzzle to do.

2009-09-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

Rain came on Saturday. I was never so happy to see rain in my life and it rained nice and steady ALL DAY.

Left some lovely water drops on this lovely rose.

We have been watering the Back, Park like, Field for Fair next door since they left two weeks ago to go to Europe.

But it took four days and a dying front lawn to realize the automatic sprinklers weren't working and watering the front lawn and plants. It wasn't my responsibility to do the front but I saw it was dying and Fairs Niece wasn't doing much about it.

Took four of us four days to find where the box was.

That was Friday.

Hiding in plain sight by the back porch outside that NONE of us saw.

Even another neighbor.

But no one knew how to set it and why it was off.

Then it hit us that the electricity went off for a minute a few days before and came right back on and unset the auto part which is why it was blinking.

Then it poured on Saturday and sprinkled on Sunday and Today I went to check on the Automatic sprinkler box because we have to get it watered and green before they get back next week... I looked at it and pressed ON.

Its set now.

Just that simple.

Arrgh!

We got a treat on Saturday.

The Rain came and so did a huge flock of Canadian Geese.

They were spread out all over in the back field and behind the mound.

Its raining here.

A bit closer

Sunday morning when we woke up they were still there and more came.

We went out to throw ball for Annie in the field
Be sure to enlarge all these.
I painted sheep that were on this mound a couple years ago.

I liked the color of the sky peeking out here.

They came for the Rye Grass seed that was left behind when they harvested it.
We went over to pick beans and some one was out by the little airport flying a small toy airplane and soon the Geese decided to split.
At least TWO HUNDRED of them took off flying over head and around us to get away from that scary noise . They just kept coming and coming. What a sight & sound that was. and my camera was in the house.
Figures.

Our Sunflowers are so huge they hang down now.

So very heavy. Loved this shot.
Look at Cons hand compared to the heads.
we have been eating tomatoes like crazy. We have a few left turning red.
But things will be winding down soon.

Sunday morning we made up 16 jars of Grape jelly.
First batch came out a bit tart. I put in a very little lemon juice.
Not realizing the grapes themselves were tart.
But it is so good on toast that way.
Second batch I put in a TBSP more of sugar.
A bit sweeter.
Really gets the taste buds going.

Went to Michael's today to see if we could find anything to use the 50% off coupon for today only but I found nothing that interested me until I walked by the puzzle section.
I have always wanted an Eiffel tower statue.
So I saw this on top stack of puzzles, 3 flat pieces of wood stamped to press out and put together. I asked con is he would like something to do. :) He said OK.
He loves putting things together.
The best part is we paid all of $2.50 cents for it.
It came with minimal directions.
Put A in A slot and B in B slot.
But they didn't mark the pieces A B C or NADA.
But he did it. He needs some air plane glue to finish it tho.
I will paint it gray when done.
I think the Iron lady is Gray.
Andrea??
So that has been our long weekend.
****

My 602nd post

2009-09-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

September is here. How can that be? We waited all winter for Spring and summer and poof it's gone. Well almost. Time to go out and smell the last of the Roses that are still trying to bloom.

To see the Deer walking around looking for food as every thing is dried up from the not normal excess heat we had this summer. This fella has soft horns. Two of them come up from the River across the street a lot. I ran for my camera and got this shot and another one that blurred just before the trash truck came zooming by and it took off back to the River. I also got my LIQUID FENCE and sprayed a few of my plants so they don't become dinner for them.

Projects are getting done now that Con's hand is doing much better. Our sun room window sills were so bad we had to paint them yellow. the color of the walls. he wanted to paint all the wood white but its a huge job and I said window sills only and yellow as it will blend in.

The windows are old double pains but they still weep and pool up water on the window sills when the mini blinds are down so painting was a must.

We have two side doors on the sun room also. OLD side doors.

single pained that you can open barely and ugly. They also leak cold air and rain and one could break right through the window with a rock to open the locks.

We had to put plastic on the outside as storm windows.

Before..

he painted the outside doors the color of the building to make them blend in.

Inside before

I never opened the blinds.

We tried to buy some new ones but these are odd thin doors & expensive if you can find them and he didn't want to put in new door jams. So we decided to JERI RIG them . . . put plywood over.

One panel inside and one outside.
He padded with quilt batting.

Done.

We might put some more molding on the top for a design or something to take away the bare look outside but I can see me painting a window scene on here.. maybe.. but at least now it wont leak cold air and rain.
We have plenty of windows in there for light.

We still have a few projects going and today we just added one more to the list.

Our grapes were falling off and Con said we needed to cut them and make jelly.

I didn't think we would have enough.

I was hoping we wouldn't have enough.

LOL

We filled up this large bucket of them.

They aren't big but then they never are. I am not sure what kind the former owner planted but they aren't good to eat as is . . . they are rather tart but add sugar and they makes the best grape jelly.

So guess what we will be doing in the next day or so??

****

I have been blogging for two years as of August 2nd and I forgot about doing something special and now its my 602nd posting. I was going to do something special for my 600th posting but it came and went. Kind of like how summer & this year is going.

***

Added more lights and darks to my Rose painting.

2009-08-31T19:29:00.000-07:00

Annie is waiting for the unveiling of my painting that I worked on some more today.

I am finally finished to my satisfaction.

TA DA

I wanted it to pop more and I felt it didn't before.

So now I am happy with it.

This Rose bush has the palest Roses.

And it was loaded with flowers at the time I started this painting.

I love these roses because they end up looking rather old lace like and old fashioned when fading out.
Its called

HEAVEN ON EARTH

We are working on projects still but I just had the urge to paint.

I still have it so maybe I will get some thing else painted while I am on a roll.

****

An Impression of my Spring Roses

2009-08-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

Finished this today.

I think.

I think I do need to add some more dark's here and there for better contrast.

I tired for a feeling instead of total detail.

It's done in Oil

16x20

I was sitting in a chair right by these roses growing in my back yard when they first bloomed and I wanted to do a painting right then & there so I started a sketch, but it got to hot to continue, so I took a photo and have been working on it from that. Its still not quite what I wanted, but it's close. I need them to bloom again so I can get the colors right.
****

PS.. WORKING ON THIS MORE SO STAYED TUNED FOR WHEN I FINISH IT TO MY SATISFACTION.

No sneaking up on a Bird of Pray

2009-08-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

A close Friend sent me these photos that were taken today

Not sure what kind of Hawk it is...
But I loved this shot.
Wouldn't you like to look behind you this well?