just for fun

The above thought came to me as I was watching a recent sunrise out the kitchen window . . . so I jotted it down in my journal. Then sketched the obvious choice: a paint palette.

This limited set has Prussian blue instead of the more common cool blue choice of phthalo blue. I find that phthalo blue tends to overpower every mix I try to make with it. I’m just not very good at using phthalo pigments!

But I quickly discovered that Prussian blue (and any mix containing it) strongly stains any surface it’s mixed on! Now I’m going to have to re-spray the lid of this paint box.

After posting the sketch on Facebook, Kathleen Swanson Roush shared this Rudyard Kipling poem with me . . . so I added it on the next 2-page spread.

view from the pool

Up until the last couple of weeks, I would swim in the late afternoon, sometimes into evening as the sun was setting behind the tall trees. As the sun disappeared in the west, this is the view I saw from in the water looking towards the south. The setting sun regularly painted the lower sky and clouds in pearlescent shades of pink, coral, and purple.

Then the water became too cold to get in the unheated water. The last two times I was in the pool, this froggy thermometer said it was 75°. That first plunge was quite chilling! I don’t think I’ll swim any more this year . . . unless our son-in-law goes ahead with his plans to add a pool water heater.

Sketch With Me: CHANGES

Real in-the-flesh sketch crawls were so much easier! A group of like-minded sketching friends used to meet together at a chosen monthly location where we would each draw whatever caught our eye or imagination, then meet together somewhere and share our work with each other. No distractions or need to share the time with other stuff. These virtual sketch crawls are harder for me, seeming to always fall on days with other things already on the calendar. And since none of my local friends or family sketch, I’m pretty much on my own in trying to fit some drawing time in.

This weekend’s Sketch With Me theme was “changes”. I had already decided what to sketch but we would be away from the farm. Saturday morning we had breakfast at our daughters Houston home, then I spent the morning hemming an FFA skirt for Mikala. In the afternoon we attended her band competition. I drew a bit here and there between times.

Sundays find us back at the cabin — we attend church and spend the day doing the weekly laundry. But today was also “Snack n’ Yack / Movie Night” at church. Again, I worked sketching in here and there as I was able.

My “changes” show some of what Bill has been up to here on the farm. Bill and son-in-law Michael tore out the two old tack rooms in the SW corner (where our bedroom will one day be). And now Bill is using the reclaimed wood to build inside walls and ceiling to the small shed. He is also adding electricity and insulation (that’s insulatieon rolls in the car).

But as long as the theme is “changes”, I also switched the limited palette in my Demi Palette to one that mimics Cathy “Kate” Johnson’s favorite limited palette. I choose different primaries and add a convenience green. And of course that meant changing the color card inside my clear phone case!

a bit of unexpected gold

Now that the excessive heat has calmed down (it’s now in the 80s) , I am once again trimming and weeding the landscaping around the pool. But the planting beds in front of the barn have been totally neglected. I happened to glance that direction as I was returning from the mail box (a very L-O-N-G distance from the house), and noticed that a shrub that used to be around 3’ tall now towers over our heads! It is covered with these yellow trumpet-shaped blooms, so thick that the top is leaning over.

I looked it up online: it’s called Esperanza, or Yellow Bells, and is related to trumpet vine.

an odd apartment building

As we were looking for an alternate way to drive to Navasota, we came upon this odd 6-sided structure on Highway 105. The shape reminded me of the ancient tower houses of Scotland and Ireland but built of wood instead of stone. Apparently it has 3 studio apartments, one stacked atop the other, with an outside staircase. The realty company that owns it also uses it as a huge billboard, though some of the banners are faded.

an oak tree limb

I was wondering about outside today. After last night’s rain, there are broken twigs and bits all over the place — this one from one of the taller oaks has wee nubbins of immature acorns on it. I don’t remember ever seeing acorns before they’ve developed before.

old hitching post?

This curiosity is next to a small metal building on “the farm” that the former owners called a “shop” — it’s more like a small shed with a big porch. We assume this was used as a hitching post for their horse? But in front of the posts is a shallow wooden box full of gravel. Maybe it’s extra gravel for the long driveway? If so, there’s not nearly enough.

UPDATE:

The previous owners kept sheep. Someone on line thinks this might be for cleaning the sheared fleeces (over the gravel), then hanging the fleeces over the post to dry. 

Bradley the not-so-brave

Our buddy Bradley, who is actually afraid of the swimming pool, saw leaves in the bottom of the pool . . . and was sure his favorite frog had returned to play. Son-in-law Michael got to drive home a very soggy dog! Bradley is part Great Pyrenees, part golden retriever, and 100% goof-ball.

a simple kit

Because of my love of Pocket Palettes, I have quite a few plastic pans of paint stored away that never get to come out to play. Recently I saw an Instagram post from “sketchbyfay” of her travel palette, with everything but the water container fitting in a simple metal pencil box.

* Fay’s blog can be found here!

I made a quick sketch of Fay’s kit to remind me to try putting together something similar. I just happened to have a similar pencil box and all those forsaken half pans of watercolor . . .

Now if I could just find where I packed that glossy white contact paper — it makes a simple adhesive mixing surface for inside the lid.

bread & butter

Neither Bill or I eat much bread anymore so when we find a really special one, we treat it as more of a dessert. One weekend our daughter and her family brought some amazing Italian soup to share, and a rosemary bread she toasted under the broiler with garlic butter.

We found this rosemary sourdough bread at H.E.B. recently and we think it’s the same kind as what Kristen had brought. Anyway, it makes the very best toasted cheese sandwiches with a really good aged extra-sharp cheddar!

sunrise this morning . . .

. . . or my poor attempt to capture it.

The rose and purple bits were there when I painted the background wet-in-wet, right between the blues and pale gold, but disappeared after the paper dried.

Sunrise and sunset are beautiful here at the farm, but can only be seen through the dense trees.

preparing for an adventure . . .

. . . a very small adventure. I had written a letter and walked out to the mailbox for it to be picked up. But mail delivery comes very early here at the farm — often before 10:00 am! I missed her, though she did leave a box of loose leaf tea I had ordered.

So Bill and I headed out to find the actual town of Hockley to mail my letter — there really isn’t much more to the town than a post office. The real adventure came as Bill was trying to drive from Hockley to Waller, a few miles to the west and a bit north. He sometimes gets turned around in his mind here in Texas, being used to the square grid that Kansas roads are designed on — Texas roads can be any direction, not just east-west and north-south, and they often change direction while going by the same name.

Anyway, Bill didn’t realize he was facing mostly south and he turned left instead of right. Try convincing a man who actually does do everything right that he’s going the wrong way!

This antique metal high chair once belonged to Bill’s mother. His grandparents would sit her in it, tie a dishcloth around her and the chair to keep her from climbing down, and pull it up to the dining table. We didn’t want to disturb the crackly original paint so Bill sprayed a protective clear finish over it. There used to be a decal on the back but it has long since worn off.

my pool companion

When I am in the swimming pool at our “farm”, I often watch the birds nesting in a small birdhouse attach to a nearby pasture’s fence. There are several of these wooden houses throughout the property, as well as on a neighboring fence — all attached at roughly 3’ high.

I have finally identified the birds — they are black-capped vireos, an endangered species that likes to build nests in bushes about 3’ above the ground. One reason they are endangered is that cowbirds lay eggs in vireo’s nests. Their young hatches first and the young vireos cannot compete for food and soon die. So these wooden houses were apparently placed around to protect them.

My source also said the wee birds hang upside down from twigs for a moment before hopping to the next branch. Now that I’d like to see!

This is my oldest, original Pocket Palette, filled with muted autumn colors. Its metal is magnetic, allowing me to use a bit of a business card magnet to hold an additional mixing pan to the side. The pan and magnet easily fit into the same cloth bag that holds the palette. 

barrettes

I am not participating in Inktober this year. Really I’m not.

But yesterday was so busy running errands and taking care of business, I was too tired to bother putting a lot of thought into sketching. So I grabbed a fountain pen and the barrettes I had just brought back from the cabin and began to draw.

I planned on leaving this in ink only, but the turquoise beads began to cry out for color.