wee heiland hame

Scotland has been in my thoughts lately . . . . our daughter and her husband are going there in June and I am a bit envious! They are going with two other couples --- renting a house together on Loch Ness, then side trips all over, including a train trip across the highlands to the islands. How cool!

Meanwhile, I get to stay with their daughter in Houston while they are away --- We'll have to come up with our own adventures.

Saturday's sketchcrawl

On Saturday we drove to Kansas City, meeting friends for a sketchcrawl at the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center. Lots of areas to sketch, inside and out, but the wind still has a cold nip to it. (Goodness! They are predicting snow again in parts of Kansas this week! Will Spring ever get here?) This tableau was set up inside.

After doing very little sketching for over three weeks, I played a bit with my newest palette to get back into it. At first, I had filled this palette with as many colors as would fit --- now I've reduced them to some essential pigments, leaving room for some brushes. Surprisingly, my fat # 12 travel brush fits!

e-reading, even though I prefer "real" paper books

I haven't been sketching much lately but I've been reading alot instead. At the same time, I've been going through the excess *stuff* in our apartment, practicing "Discardia" --- giving away whatever we do not use or need. We have been talking about moving to Texas after Bill retires, in which case we would like to reduce what we would actually have to physically move.

Deciding to keep only books that are special in some way or will be re-read -- and with a small-town library that lacks much of interest -- I finally decided to buy an electronic reader. I love reading classics, many of which are free in this form. Easier when traveling as well.

old stone house

Last month we drove to the small town of Florence, KS to meet friends for dinner. Since they were non-sketchers, I took a few photos to sketch from later . . . . and didn't get around to doing it until now.

This old Victorian house may be older than the town itself. It sits in the downtown area, boarded up now. Mostly the same as it was when new, except for the odd wooden fence.

We passed this old grain elevator driving north along Highway 77, looking quite abandoned on the prairie.