Long ZZZZZZZ, But We're Back

(1) Rambo often prefers the coolness of a garden stone for a nap..

(2) Lady Lacey loves napping on the aromatic and cushion comfort of creeping thyme.

(3) And sometimes Rambo enjoys a warm lap...

My Muses took on a long break! Getting them corralled is always a challenge when so much is going on. Wonder Woman I'm not. Downsizing seems to monopolize our lives. While my guy does his projects I've been painting (walls, not canvas) and continue to sort miscellaneous into piles for charity, keep, and not-so-sure, and now I'm going through the not-so-sure. It gets confusing when remembering what I've packed and where it's located.

Summer at the lake was especially fun this year with family and friends visits. Many pics are posted in my Facebook photo albums. If you're a Friend you have no doubt already seen them ; ) My camera has seemingly been clicking non-stop. It's a good thing that my digital file folders are well organized to accommodate the keepers. While hubby was gold prospecting I gardened and kept company with my creature friends around the shallows of the lake. Sometimes they'd stand still long enough to capture and shoot.... with the lens of course. Rambo and Lacey typically lulled in the garden in the morning sun, but sought shade trees or more often joined me on the covered porch in afternoons when the temperature soared into the 80's F. We happily retreated to the cool indoors when temperatures crept into the upper 90's. It's been a great summer at Watsonwood East.

To be continued...

Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox greeting

My Muse is Back

Hey Casey! Happy Birthday Sis!


















I miss you, but always feel your presence, especially as the bones creak and I wish I was still your age! Love You!

July and August were a whirlwind. There was little time for art in July as we spent the month downsizing and getting the exterior of the house painted, but August offered more opportunities for painting and corresponding with artist friends, as well as with family and friends for mining, fishing, dining, and great conversation.

August was a great month for capturing lots of great scenes with my digital camera starting with this one in our driveway. This mama mule deer actually had two fawns but I loved this closeup which will become inspiration for a future painting.
























August brought us a new family member, Lady Lacey, a year old black female poodle whose beginnings are unknown as she is a pet rescue dog. She has become a great companion for Rambo and we are delighted to have her in our lives. She's quite skittish but is coming around.














August included a visit to the lake by our grandsons and their other set of grandparents. What a great time we had! Here are our grandsons with G'ma Candy.

















I managed to get a few paintings completed and this is one of my favorites, an 8x10 watercolor on 140# Arches paper entitled Cia's Porch.

The Santuary

Well, it was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears but the memorial garden is almost done. The spot I chose is located a few feet from the top of the 5 steps that descend to the lake at the NW end of our yard. It just seemed like the perfect place to create a place to pause a while and remember. It has a great view of my gardens between two sections of blooming perennials beds. They provide several weeks of spring and summer delight as well as my special escapes. It's rewarding, kneeling among the sturdy stalks laden with a myriad of leaf shapes to pluck away the weeds that poke up between the plants. Those pesky weeds taunt me to the garden and dare me to find them. And, I do.

Eager to get the project moving, I spent hours digging out grass from the site and raking the exposed dirt to level it. Then we brought in a sturdy metal garden bench which I had refurbished earlier. It's 4 feet wide with a built-in trellis overhead. Ron helped me level the bench and the planting began. I planted lemon thyme under the bench, 3 lush green jumbo hostas at the back, and young bright red trumpetvines on each side of the bench whose plant labels promised to grow rapidly up the trellis. (Despite loving Alaska, Jeff also loved visiting tropical Hawaii.) Then Ron moved in my reclined deer statute, a gift he gave me over 10 years ago which we brought over from a garden at our other property on the coast. He placed it in my bed of pinks, blue iris, and white carpet in the garden to the left of the bench. It seemed so appropriate for this little memorial garden.

What began as a solemn day began to improve as the garden developed. In the late afternoon and needing a well-earned rest and escape from the heat, we went to the nursery to pick up a few bedding plants, a few colorful annuals that would complement the theme. While there I noticed a bright blue gazing ball on a pedestal for sale. It was very shiny and lifted my spirits as soon as I saw it. It was a bit of happy whimsy that I thought would be a perfect addition to the garden, a special gift for our son's birthday.

And so it was! We brought it home. Now it puts a smile on my face, just like he once did. The next photo is the completed garden. The surrounding ground remains bare soil for now as we have to collect large flat rocks for the floor of the tiny patio in front of the bench. Between the rocks I'll plant creeping thyme, harvested from between the rocks in the existing paths elsewhere in my garden..

Our Santuary...
I know that we will have many peaceful visits with Jeff in his special garden. He would appreciate the rustic setting at the shore of the lake where he and his father last fished together in the summer of '98. He had came down from Alaska to help us get started on our new digs, the lakeside fixer-upper retreat. He was thrilled for us. That visit was wonderful despite all the hard projects they tackled. Father and son spent almost every exhausted evening in the boat fishing at the hot spot near the island where they caught lots of rainbow trout and took video of the eagles when they swooped down to pluck their dinner from the lake. That summer, in the very hot month of August, was also the last time we enjoyed our boy's company, shared meals over chatter about the next day's projects, and sufferred (but fondly) through his sense of humor and wry puns. He was so busy in Alaska he didn't have time to return home for another visit. We were extremely close and talked to each other every weekend by phone, and had plans to vacation together in the spring of 2000, but in February 2000 our boy was suddenly gone.

Despite our greatest loss, we know that Jeff is only a breath away, and in his new garden we will share whispers in the wind with him.

Remembering Jeff on his Birthday Today

Born on June 18, 1964, our only son would be 44 years old today, but instead he is "forever 35".









Today my artist's muse and motherheart are busy dedicating a memorial garden to our adventuresome, fun loving, nature boy whom we miss every day. Yet we have him with us everywhere we go, everything we do, and all we hear and see:

through the beauty of nature,
observing the creatures he enjoyed,
visiting the places he loved,
hearing familiar sounds like his laughter,
his corny puns,
rythimic heartbeats of drums he played, and
through the music we listen to that we once enjoyed with him.

We remember it all, Jeff! Rest in peace sweetheart.

This is a watercolor painting I did of Jeff on his (would be) 40th birthday in 2004. It's not a very good painting for this novice - I've learned so much about technique and perspective since I did this.

The inspiration for this collage was to capture some of the favorite things he enjoyed in his short life, the creatures in nature that had special meaning to him, his piles of books, his antics, his sportsmanship and love of adventure in the vast outdoor world in both Washington and Alaska. He loved to hunt, fish, climb mountains, hike through forests, SCUBA dive in the cold bays, snorkel in warm oceans, prospect for gold in quiet streams, raft down raging rivers, build forts in tall trees, row a canoe in Lake Union at night, cook over a campfire, and sleep under the stars. He loved browsing through libraries, reading books, going to movies, listening to all genres of music (except country-western of course), playing the drums or his harmonica, going out dancing with friends, and playing soccer. He loved drinking very strong coffee and sharing pricey microbrews with friends. He enjoyed eating out, but was himself a good cook. He was very clever and a "Jack of all Trades" because he never quit learning and delighted in learning new things. He was capable of doing anything he wanted and usually did! His imagination ran rampet and his resourcefullness and ingenuity was often astounding from the time he was a little boy. He had many memorable experiences in his short life but had experienced more than many a man could dream to do. And, despite the heartache from his loss, he leaves us with his legacy for an adventurous spirit and deeper love of life. At the same time our profound loss cautions us to remember that each of our spirit's may sometimes be humbled, become tender and even compromised, which if not respectfully and aptly cared for can break even the strongest heart. His lasting gift to us was to teach us to love and respect life more than ever.

He remains very close by every single day - after all, he's just one breath away.

January Watercolor Sketchbook Entries

Media is graphite, ink and watercolor (mostly Daniel Smith)
Paper is a 8 x 5 Moleskin Watercolor Journal

Early January we left home, from what I like to call "Watsonwood West", to our part-time digs across the state. Our typical six hour journey begins with a ferry ride across Puget Sound, but because of the winter weather and recent snow storms the trek took 8 hours. The morning we left, the sun was trying to break through the overcast and I noticed an airplane flying in the distance above the ferry, heading for SEATAC airport while the vessel was heading for the dock. It inspired this watercolor journal entry. The ferry wasn't easy to draw with all of the windows and antennae until I remembered that all I had to do was simply capture the essence and it will be recognizable, especially to you readers in Washington State. (Please tell me it is so ;)

After crossing Puget Sound followed by a short drive northeast through Monroe, our journey proceeded to Highway 2, crossing over the Cascade Mountain Range. It's always spectacular no matter what time of year. The late morning sun was quite striking as we began our trek towards higher elevations and Steven's pass.

"How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains".

John Muir

Remembering Ray

As we drove east through the slowly rising foothills of the Cascades through forests I couldn't help but be awed at the passing of thick groves of maple trees cloaked in yellow, green, and gold moss topped with the high contrast puffs of cheery white snow. I knew I would have to paint them. However, come time to put paint to paper, this became quite an effort as the layers of watercolor washes got darker and darker. Darn, I had "ditzed" (overworked) it to death, so typical of me. When I finally stopped, I realized that I had not planned nor provided "white" for the caps of snow which had collected on the mounds of moss. Duh me! So what you see is what you get! Let's just pretend it's a memory from summer.

It was such a delight to arrive at the lake house which I have dubbed as "Watsonwood East". The roads were hard packed snow and ice but with common sense and our 4-wheel drive the roads were quite negotiable, especially with diligent road crew maintenance. This is our "get-away" home which is being transformed by a slow remodel. After replacing all the windows and doors, we re-sided the exterior, board and batten style, with cedar milled from our own trees from home which we hauled across the mountains in a rental truck "The Truck from Hell".

We love our mid-winter visits!

Rambo is our delightful Pomeranian/Poodle who is the light of our lives. He goes everywhere with us and provides endless inspiration as well as companionship. What a darling and well-behaved little guy he is! Here's a favorite photograph of Rambo and me at snooze time.

Arbor Visitor

Watercolor, 8x10, "Arbor visitor"

I painting this as a gift for our other grandson's grandmother. It was inspired by my visit last summer and to my delight I was able to get several photos of their beautiful gardens. But the most fun was watching this deer pass under their rose arbor to get at a more enticing lunch of blossoms.