wee bits

Yesterday I finally began sketching in this tiny ZigZag sketchbook from Hahnemuhle. It’s kept inside my bag for those times I’m waiting for Bill at the doctor’s or when he picks up supplies for building our barndo. In these days of social distancing, one of us stays in the car or truck while the other runs the errands.

I’m calling this my “wee bits” sketch kit: the ZigZag (only 2” square), a Demi Pallet set up in a smaller version of my primaries + green + neutral palette, a tiny mechanical pencil, my Kaweco Liliput fountain pen, and a mini waterbrush. Not yet sure what type of sketches I’ll fill this book with but it’s definitely small enough to keep me from niggling the details!

And speaking of wee bits . . . . Our granddaughter Mikala “caught” a calf at this year’s Texas Rodeo Calf Scramble. The Rodeo closed early due to COVID-19 before she could participate, but the commercial backers took the names of the kids who missed their chance and drew winners. She won a $1750 certificate towards the calf of her choice to raise for next year’s Rodeo. After much thought, she decided to go with a Shorthorn blue roan. At first the calf’s markings were red but now they’ve all turned a blue-grey. Meet Sierra:

fungi in our yard . . .

Just sketching a few of the mushrooms found in our yard this past week — interspersed with lines from a fictional ebook I was reading.

on the kitchen counter

When we renovated a 1920 apartment building in Kansas, the kitchen Bill designed for us was huge! Big enough for a work station in the center of the room. He took an old wooden table of mine that once held an antique cash register in my grandfather’s barber shop, and built a butcher block top that just slid into place on top of it. Two small drawers held knives and towels hung on the side.

Our kitchen in the log cabin was tiny so the work table was designated to the loft. Until it dawned on us that the butcher block could be slid off of the old table and cut down into a really nice cutting board! So that’s what Bill did and I love this big cutting board!

And Grandpa’s old table? Now it’s the table where I paint in Michael’s office. When we move over to the barndominium, I’ll have a small studio and the table will still be where I paint.

barndo progress

Our new barndominium home (combination little house plus woodshop) fashioned from an existing pole barn is coming right along. This is the north side of what will be the back door, kitchen and my small studio / office. Bill’s shop is the section to the left of the existing barn door. The oversized back porch will be under an awning supported by rough cedar posts — this will be our large outdoor family gathering area. From here, I can watch both sunrises and sunsets!

This is looking at the northeast corner of the woodshop. The east side of the barn was open with horse stalls inside and a lean-to awning for shelter; the whole area will be enclosed as Bill’s shop.

  

 

These are the cuts for plumbing pipes in what will be a bathroom and kitchen. The section of the barn that will be our living space already had concrete floors. That big square is a 4’ square shower. That pipe sticking up at the open doorway is where my kitchen sink will be, with a bank of windows above the countertop — lots of bright northern light!

This is a section of the trench for electric service as it comes to the front of our barn. There is a small porch already existing in front of what will become our living room — we’ll add a small awning over it for shade with French doors leading inside. Again, lots of natural light!

And this is the electric service trench heading across the south pasture to where the existing pole is. Our donkey, Tater, can’t figure out why I’m taking photos when I should be bringing her a carrot.

cactus bloom

We were wondering what color of bloom the many prickly pear cacti on the farm would flower . . . or if they would flower at all. Last autumn small buds appeared but they just dropped off.

Now they are covered with buds again, and bright lemon-yellow flowers open up, one at a time.

Though we were married in Arizona and visited the Mesa area many times in the past, I was never able to see the desert in full bloom. My mother-in-law often told me about it; I’m sorry to have missed it.

front door

Sometimes I sketch first and add text later. Other times, like in this case, I write something on a page and then find something to draw that goes along with the text. The quote is from an Easter newsletter I received from author and speaker Wayne Jacobsen that I wanted to remember. The front door of the farm’s ranch house just seemed to fit.

one man’s trash . . .

Bill was not happy about the magnolia tree when our daughter and son-in-law chose to buy this property. He calls them “trash trees” because there seems to constantly be something falling from them that needs to be cleaned up. (I do agree with him that the placement was not thought through very well — the tree overlooks the swimming pool so there’s always a chance of debris blowing into the pool, making additional work scooping it out.)

I happen to love magnolias and the lovely fragrance the flowers give off. I react negatively to perfumes but if this natural fragrance could be bottled, I’d buy it! The flowers are gorgeous and even the seed pods are quite interesting to look at.

But to keep him happy and the pool water clean, I picked up the fallen leaves yesterday. Then sketched a few just for fun.

our barn, then and now

This is how our barn looked the first time I saw it in November of 2018. We were looking at the property next door; this property was not yet on the market.

And this is my sketch from a few weeks ago, as the fog was slowly lifting. The previous owners replaced the siding (very cheaply!) and painted it before putting the property on the market.

Today our barn looks a bit naked with the cheap siding removed as we get it ready for the carpenter and his crew. In a few months this will be our new home plus a woodshop.

for lack of yeast

I try to be gluten-free and avoid breads most of the time. But Bill still loves his bread, though he eats much less of it than he used to. For Easter, I wanted to bake something special for him, like old-fashioned cinnamon raisin rolls or perhaps try making some Scottish Baps (no doubt influenced by reading the Hamish Macbeth mystery series — they mentioned bacon baps quite a lot!) — but local stores had a run on yeast and there is none to be found in any form! I was lucky to even find flour, though our daughter-in-law had to bring us the gluten-free variety from Rosenberg.

So I added a bit of sugar, cinnamon, and raisins to my grandmother’s biscuit recipe, then topped the baked goodies with icing. Resulted in very happy husband!

first fruits

Where there was once a horse arena here at the farm, we have planted fruit trees. One day we will be enjoying homegrown peaches, pears, oranges, grapefruit, limes . . . and even avocados (though they are in large pots on the back porch instead).

The peaches and pears are already loaded with fruit — much more than the baby-sized roots can handle. So yesterday Kristen prune out some of the fruit to allow the others a chance to grow.

Then she brought some in for me to “doodle”.

So I did.


“In the same way, my brothers, through the Messiah’s body you also died as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another person — the One who was raised from the dead — and may bear fruit for God.”
Romans 7:4

a normal cup of tea

In these strange days of COVID-19, social distancing, and staying at home, it’s nice to have a very normal thing to do. Each morning either Bill or I brew him a pot of coffee and me a cup of tea.

This is my favorite mug and my favorite loose-leaf tea, Black Forest from the English Tea Store. Loose-leaf tea is extremely hard to find in this area unless I drive to the center of Houston — there’s a British import shop near Rice University. At least there used to be; we haven’t made the drive in years. Long before home deliveries became the norm, I have been buying my tea online.

I have sketched this particular mug many times over the years but never the back of the mug. There are abstract portraits around the sides, each depicting a mother and child. Bill’s coffee mug is more of a deep blue-green and his has portraits of a man and wife. They are hand-thrown pottery, purchased from The Spice Merchant in Wichita, Kansas.

That was one of my favorite shops when we lived in Kansas, an old historic building with the lovely aroma of whatever coffee they were roasting at the moment. I don’t like the taste of coffee but I love how it smells! Once the manufacturing plant for Mentholatum, the building was also where silent film actress Louise Brooks once tried to run a dance studio. It’s a very cool old structure!

 

school day, COVID-19 style

Mikala spent one day last week out at the farm — working hard at homework, as usual. Her class load is particularly heavy in this, her junior year. While here, she “attended” what sounded like a chemistry class on her laptop. That backpack of hers is clear, a requirement of her Houston school. She goes through two of them per year because they are not made very durable. And she says once she stuffs a hoody inside, no one can see what is in it so what’s the point?

Oh — and I finally remembered to add that bit of dark red stripe on the front piece of dark chocolate from my previous sketch!

for Carrie

Happy Birthday, Carrie!

Just a bit of etegami for our daughter-in-law, Carrie, whose birthday is today. An easy answer to not being able to go somewhere to buy a card. I tried a bit of metallic silver Gansai watercolor to try to capture the sparkly sugar of the Peeps; it actually worked in person but doesn’t show up in the photo.

Carrie and Jason are currently home-schooling their own 3 kids (hence the five peeps) as well as teaching their school classrooms online.

chocolate is always good

Before driving out to the farm one day last week, our daughter called to ask if we needed anything from the store. I replied “chocolate is always good!” — so she brought a large bag of these.

I thought I’d try out some metallic watercolors that came in my gansai set, to pant the shiny wrappers. Not really much shine or sparkle, and even less in a photograph of the sketch. But it’s fun to play.

Having just finished reading the Hamish Macbeth mystery series (as ebooks checked out online from a Houston library), this quote of Hamish’s as he interviewed a wee child seemed fitting.

(After posting this here, Facebook and Instagram, I realized that I forgot to paint the red stripe on the piece in front. Oops!)