playing with weeds

Actually, this bit of plant matter is not a weed — it’s a bit of very overgrown, out-of-control lantana that has reverted to the wild, growing on the edge of the pavement at our front door. I was sitting inside watching TV with Bill when I just began drawing whatever was in my line of vision. (I tend to listen to programs more than visually watching them as I draw or crochet or play a game on my iPad).

prickly pear fruit

Though we had just about given up, some of our prickly pear cacti have finally produced ripened fruit. . . . . Now we just need to know what we can do with it! (Besides sketching, of course.)

another barn view

A quick sketch showing another view from our barn-house, thus time looking west at what we call the south pasture (Michael calls it his putting green — with hazards). Only one donkey in view; not sure where the goats were. We’ve opened up all pastures since fixing the fence that was down during construction so they have several grazing areas available.

Last year I filled the Demi Palette sketched on the left with an urban sketching set of colors patterned after one Joan Blundell suggested on her blog, with a couple of changes. I find Indian red too opaque so I use lunar red rock instead — same pigment but more transparent. And I use monte amiata natural sienna instead of goethite and green apatite instead of sap green. (Mine look a bit paler than normal in this palette sketch because I wanted the color names to show through.)

Recently, Maria at art-toolkit.com started offering an Ultimate Sketching Palette  filled with Jane’s colors. A very versatile set of colors!

still more to do

We are now living in our barndominium — barn-turned-home + woodshop. But there is still a lot to do before it is finished. The gutter guy finally showed up a few days ago to install rain gutters, as seen in the above photo. That wooden fence in front is slowly coming down as we repurpose the wood elsewhere; at one time it formed a sheep-loading area next to a horse arena.

The overgrown planting beds need to be cleaned out and redone — a chaste tree or crepe myrtle in front of the windowless shop on the right for hummingbirds and butterflies. Cactus, agave, fountain grass and a tamed lantana or two with rocks spacing them out more than in this present jungle.

Today Bill is working on a huge floor to wall bookshelf for the library / office / studio, presently filled with boxes and clutter. Still lots more things to put away (and still storage areas yet unfilled!). Need to hang pictures on walls and get our bar stools from our daughter’s house.

Bill also needs to make the thresholds where the wood floor and stone floors meet in 2 doorways. And build a door for the utilities (water tank & furnace). And put up the phone signal booster — we get lousy signals with the metal roof and siding!

After being told by the only internet option, the same one in our daughter’s farm house, that it’s not available — probably because their tower is full — we were able to boost our daughter’s WiFi to the barn. So we’ll just pay half of their cost. That’s how we watch TV and movies now.

After following directions in installing the microwave / hood over the stove, we’ve decided it is too high for us. So it will need to be lowered with a false front above it. The smaller profile refrigerator we ordered is still on back order due to COVID-19 disrupting appliance factories, so we are temporarily using our older, larger one. Hooks for coats can’t be put up until the smaller one is in place, which will give us room for them on the other side of that freestanding cupboard.

Our HVAC guy set the inside unit way too powerful for 750 square feet living space! He thought it would be necessary with all the glass windows but the porch roofs front and back keep the intense sun’s heat out. He’s returning tomorrow to adjust it for us.

Bill’s design of a large walk-in shower with no doors works great . . . except the better-than-expected water pressure is strong enough to splash water on a small bit of the wood trim. So our glazier friend, Eugene, is going to install an 8” glass wall on that side of the opening. Still handicap-accessible if ever needed but water splash will then only hit stone.

The woodshop’s interior needs to be insulated and walled, then storage units and organizing added. Seating for the back patio family gathering spot needs to be built eventually, and my rock garden with herbs installed under the nearby oak tree. We also need to plant a red rose — there has been some kind of red rose growing at every single house we’ve ever bought.

Front room looking towards front doors

Back door with art room / office / library to the left

Another kitchen view; barstools will provide eating area.

Bedroom, with queen-size bed Bill built long ago.

Industrial ductwork to maintain ceiling slope

comparing brush pens

At the Bed & Breakfast, I was drawing with my Kuretake brush pen. Later, my order of an inexpensive Wing Sung 3009 brush pen arrived so I compared them on these two pages. There were lots of very old pecan trees on the property so I sketched a few.

Even though my Kuretake is the least expensive of the line (I think it’s a 13), it definitely performs with much more precision than the Wing Sung with a finer point and more expressive line. But the Wing Sung, loaded here with Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink, will be fun to use for shadows. I think I might refill it with watery watercolor mixes just for that purpose.

I drew Bill’s pair of binoculars after we had used them from our barn’s living room, watching a pilated woodpecker perched on a distant tree top. Too far to sketch, unfortunately — all we could see as his distinctive silhouette.

Just a bit of warning on the Wing Sung pen: don’t post the cap! I did so and it was a bit snug so I started to twist it . . . and got a hand-full of ink because it turned the ink filling mechanism at the same time!

a short getaway

We had wanted to take a trip somewhere for my birthday in July but needed to stick around during barn construction. When it was finished, we booked an Airbnb near Lake Conroe — but a few hours before check-in, we received an email saying we were refunded, that they had canceled our reservation. No explanation, no apology.

Then Bill found the Inn at Indian Creek out in the ranch country south of Burton and we finally got our mini-vacation! A wee stone cottage all to ourselves, no other guests in sight, and peaceful relaxing few days with no livestock to take care of.

Even though Burton is close to our old log cabin and we used to buy our meat nearby, we never knew it had such a fabulous Tex-Mex restaurant! I began the above sketch while waiting for our order but didn’t have time to add the center tables. Only 2 other tables were occupied, but we probably eat earlier than most people.

I love the pale Austin limestone that so many local old buildings are built of. This cottage was probably originally for farm workers to live in — there was once a 19th century farmhouse nearby but now there’s a collection of 4 stone buildings, 3 of which are offered as lodgings. Since COVID-19, it’s been pretty vacant.

(I cut the tiny photo of the cottage from their brochure)

decorating with found objects

As we walked through the barn last year, trying to imagine how the alley and tack rooms could be converted into our home, we noticed some things we could use later on — an old-time telephone sign, a Texas star, and a large tree stump that made a good seat now being used as such on the patio.

The phone sign now hangs on a cedar post on the covered back patio which is our family gathering spot. The star decorates the very tall pantry door.

Later, as I was cutting back one of the Very Overgrown lantanas, I found a deer skull with antlers completely hidden by the bush. What better to hang from the center support beam?

Studying the deer skull up close, I was reminded of Psalm 139:13, “For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” The seams of the bone actually do appear to be knit together!

a view from our couch

Sitting on the couch in our barn-house, I look across a portion of the south pasture that was once a horse arena for training barrel racers. 

Immediately outside the French doors is a small cement porch and planting beds that were here when we obtained the property. Very Overgrown and Neglected beds!

This is where our visiting mice and rat appear, chased out of the east pasture by goats and donkeys who are very happy to regain that portion of their territory. During construction, it had been blocked off.

This rough cedar post has only been here a couple of months yet the rampant lantana is already claiming it.

a bag with a brooch

I sketched my purse three days ago but with all the activity of moving from our daughter’s farmhouse into our new barndominium (an old pole barn turned into a house + woodshop), it didn’t get painted until today. There are things to still things to complete, like threshold strips between the wood floor and stone floors, a wall of shelves in the office / art room / library, lots of boxes to unpack . . .

I bought this bag a few years ago because it was plaid. Autumn just seems like the perfect season to bring it out once more. Since I very seldom where jewelry except for the occasional pair of earrings, I pinned my favorite brooch to the front side of this bag.

When our son Matt was attending Kansas State University, he worked part-time in a small art museum that sold a few gift shop items — among them, this brooch designed by my favorite Arts & Crafts era designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

It just as well could be a mushroom but I’ve always thought of it as a tree. Either way, I love it.