waiting to be toasted

The weird low-fiber diet I’ve been on for three months is lacking so many good things, but at least I can enjoy cinnamon toast! I keep the bread in the freezer, breaking off a couple of slices to toast whenever I want some.

I combined my limited palette based on 19th century watercolors and what I call my “Texas gulf coast, prairies, and piney woods palette” in the same Folio palette, separated by plenty of mixing spaces.

🎉🎊🥳 After sketching this I had a virtual follow-up visit with my doctor — he took me off the silly fiber-free diet and now I am free to eat anything! Woo-hoo! Bring on the fruits and veggies! 🥕🥬🫛🥒🍅

(Drawn in continuous contour line with a Kaweco Supra fountain pen.)

a soggy mushroom . . . and post-cancer thoughts

We have been having several weeks of rainy weather off-and-on. Early one morning as Butters and I walked the front pasture I came across this lovely brownish pink mushroom with a very frilly edge. But as I touched it, the edge bits began to crumble off due to too much absorbed moisture.

This past week has been extremely challenging for me as I continue my post-cancer healing. On Monday I had the final surgery to reverse the ostomy. The cancer is completely gone, the ostomy bag is history — I naively thought this would be the end of it! But after 14 months of being “off line”, my colon and sphincter muscles have to relearn how to work. This has proven to be a frustrating and often painful process. (How very often I wish that I could go back in time and have that timely colonoscopy that would’ve detected cancer early enough to have avoided all this!)

Each day at times feels week-long as I struggle through this process. But then a comment on a previous blog post or on my Instagram account captures my attention and reminds me of just how far I have come. As a very dear friend just reminded me, “God brought you through we know He works according to His time. I  can imagine Him saying. "I'm not done with you yet my child. A few more months is necessary for me to accomplish my will for you."

I’m still here . . .

This coming Tuesday is my brother’s birthday. With everything that’s been going lately, I lacked inspiration for sketching his card this year — until I happened to see another sketcher’s Instagram post of a silo with his friend’s initials, age, and birth year on it. (I regret not remembering that artist’s name so I could give him credit.) 

I had snapped a photo of a grain silo in the Kansas Flint Hills 1 1/2 years ago so I used that to paint a similar card for my brother, finishing it a couple of weeks ago.

On Monday I underwent the final surgery reversing the ostomy I’ve lived with for 14 months. A simple, short surgery this time but now a long time of healing follows as my body relearns how to function normally. No hospital sketches were done due to a IV once again placed in my right hand. Returning home the next day, I gave no thought to sketching at all. But today I think I will maybe get back to drawing something. Moving forward, with much thankfulness, is a good thing.

waiting & sketching

We left very early today for my CT scan, knowing Houston’s morning rush hour traffic would be bad. And it was! Yet we were still too early so I sketched the waiting room. Several people left before I finished but I managed to capture a few of them.

This visit was just routine as they prepare to finish the ostomy reversal begun three months ago. Then I will continue to have CT scans and bloodwork for 5 years to make sure that the cancer does not return.

yesterday’s sketch, updated

After returning home yesterday, I was wondering what I should add to my depot sketch — today I added a sketch of one of the historical reenactors from a photo I had snapped. She seemed to add to the page in a way that the nearby caboose or other building did not.

Our granddaughter Jayna sometimes works as a reenactor at George Ranch. Like the lady in the sketch, Jayna loves to play dress-up and sharing historical facts with the many visitors.

today’s sketchcrawl

Today I finally made it to another sketch crawl, this time in nearby Tomball. It must be over 8 years since I last met with the Urban Sketchers Houston group! Several of us avoided the Farmers’ Market crowds and chose to draw the 1906 train depot in its peaceful park setting instead. After adding the USk stamps, we headed home before the rain began — Bill had some wood in the back of the truck for a new building project and we didn’t want it to get wet. Later on, I’ll decide what else I want to add to this 2-page spread.

playing with color, again

Recently, a comment was made on a blog entry I wrote in November of 2011 after reading a past issue of Watercolor Artist magazine about pigments used by artists in the late 19th century. At the time I came up with my own version of similar colors using quinacridone gold as my yellow — the original single pigment quin. gold that is no longer available. (The new version, while close in color, does not work the same in mixes!)

So this week I’ve played with my current paints, putting together an updated version of this limited palette, sketching it in my tiny sketchbook. Then I tried it on completely different paper (a blank refill for my passport size Traveler’s Company notebook). And then I painted a swatch card to see what mixes can be made.

Playing with my watercolors and pocket palettes makes me happy! 😊 

(And yes, I managed to sneak in a turquoise! It’s my favorite color and I figured it can substitute for the greens and cooler blue that were originally used. The original pigments artists used are listed on the left-side page of the Traveler’s refill.)

Indian paintbrush and bluebonnets

This year the Texas bluebonnets have been a bit sparse, at least in our immediate area. But the Indian paintbrush have been abundant — even colors of coral and yellow have bloomed among the usual orange-red.

This photo was taken in the same area as the above were sketched from by my friend A. just one year ago:

sketching wildflowers

This past Friday, a friend and I got together to sketch and chat. She lives on land currently covered with windflowers — I drew some bluebonnets, a primrose, and false dandelion in a glass yogurt container that were sitting in front of me. 

This crazy jumping spider kept coming near me so I added him (her?) to the page.

The local bluebonnets have been outdone by Indian paintbrush this year. Oceans of orange have overtaken the usual blue. A. and I both took photos (her iPhone camera is newer and much better than mine!) — I plan on trying to sketch a landscape of wildflowers later this week.

This is a photo I took looking towards a neighboring farm . . .

And this is a photo A. took recently. I absolutely love Texas wildflowers!

a bit of lantana

Today we drove to south of Tomball to buy new lantana plants, which the hummingbirds and butterflies love. Afterwards, we ate at Goodson’s Cafe — their pot roast is wonderful! (and so is the pie 😋)

On some of the walls are art items for sale. I liked how this Texas star seemed to be made of old car tags — then Bill looked at the small price tag hanging from it: “Made in China”. 😳