why I’m foggy lately

 

Not much sketching going on around here. Yesterday I drew a mugshot of one of the culprits: the live oak trees that line our long drive have been very full of catkins, releasing pollen into the air — and covering our red pickup truck with a fine yellow dust. 

Heavy head and sinus headaches, but Springtime is still gorgeous! I found these photos from the Texas Wildflowers group on Facebook (taken by Paul Nolan Broussard) — bluebonnet time is just beginning (a bit late this year) and I hope to be out there in a week or so to sketch some.

another wee succulent

 

This is another of the tiny succulent plants living on my kitchen window sill. I’m not sure what it’s called; the “stripes” are thick ridges and it’s beginning to turn red in the sunlight. The plastic pot it came in is a perfect fit in the enamelware coffee cup.

I jotted down the quote from Corrie Ten Boom after we rewatched The Hiding Place, a true story of her family’s time in Nazi-occupied Holland and later in a concentration camp. In this case, the movie comes close to being as good as the book.

window gardening

 

We have a very wide window sill, 3 windows wide, over our kitchen sink giving me a wonderful view of the farm. Even though it faces north, the light is very bright and consistent (except heavy fog mornings like today!) so I’ve put together a wee window garden — succulents, mini cacti, some pinch pots our kids made when they were in grade school, and a few “pet rocks”. I think this fuzzy plant is a vertical leaf senecia. So soft, I caught myself petting the gray-green leaves!

Sketched with a Fude nib pen and turquoise ink in a continuous line.

waiting for tea to steep

 

The time it takes for tea to steep is a perfect time to begin a quick sketch. But not enough time to add the watercolor . . .

Loose-leaf teas are my favorite. This one recommended by my daughter is yummy Purple Chocolate from Justea.

I often jot down quotes from one of my favorite books, He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen. Wayne has generously made a copy available free-of-charge on his website, lifestream.org — click HERE if you are interested.

color play

When I fully wake up and it’s still way to early . . .

I brewed myself a mug of tea. Waited for it to get light enough, then went out to take care of the farm animals. Took some mail down to the mailbox for pick-up.

Still too early. So I brewed another mug of tea and played with my paints.

(After posting this, I tried one more mix to replace jadeite: green apatite + ultramarine blue. Turned out a much brighter cool green!)

an old homemade horse shoot

 

When we moved here, there was a fenced horse arena in front of the barn — a large sandy oval track with this homemade horse shoot used to practice calf roping. The area was also used at one time to practice barrel racing.

Bit by bit, Bill has been dismantling the inner fencing and repurposing fence posts. We let grass grow back in and have fruit trees planted in one section (several were lost in last month’s extreme cold but are being replanted).

After that unexpected freeze killed much of the landscaping (the prickly pear cacti became a soupy mush!), the kids piled heaps of dead sego plants into this old horse shoot to dry out. Today, Bill set fire to the whole mess — creating LOTS of white smoke, as those dead plants still retained a large amount of water. Eventually we will replant something else in this area — perhaps some blackberry vines to cover that cast iron piping? And perhaps a crepe myrtle tree and lantana for the hummingbirds and butterflies.

rain lilies

 We miss the spring bulb flowers that grew everywhere in Kansas. Bill loves red tulips; my favorites are crocus and hyacinth. They just don’t do well in our warmer climate. But after every shower, wee rain lilies pop up everywhere!

eating out

 

Today we drove to Beasley so our daughter-in-law Carrie could do our taxes. After discovering we were missing some of our tax info, we ended up going out to eat Cajun instead, in Needville. I sketched our son Jason and granddaughter Jayna while waiting for our order, using a Lamy Vista pen and Diamine Earl Grey ink, washing out a bit of color here and there.

(My perspective is way off with Jason who is a big, tall man — I was drawing directly in ink and got his arm too short! Jayna is also tall but was right next to me. Both were fiddling with their phones.)

The Texas governor has decided that Covid-19 safety measures are no longer needed and will discontinue them next week — we strongly disagree, so this may be the last time for eating out for a while. Meanwhile, Bill and I were able to get the first of our vaccination shots, though we had to go all the way to Columbus, TX.

dog trot cabin, Old Baylor Park

 

When we lived in Washington county, we often drove to Independence, TX — site of the original Baylor college, Sam Houston’s homestead, the Antique Rose Emporium with its lovely gardens to stroll through, and this old dog trot cabin. This site of the women’s college was my favorite place to sketch wildflowers.

I put together a mixing Demi palette to go with one full of color — then thought, why not add some warm and cool blacks and whites? This sketch was a trial of just the shades of gray from that palette (at the moment, it also holds my mixed “glacier green”, which is more of a blue-gray). 

are we Texans yet?

 

Three of our four kids and their families live in Texas, and all five of our grandchildren were born here. Yet our daughter, who came here 24 years ago, told us that they aren’t considered real Texans until three generations have been born and lived here.

Our local electric coop had a different view in a recent magazine article: if you drive a truck, wear boots, keep livestock, attend the rodeo, etc., then you can be called a real Texan.

Last week we went to buy Bill some new shoes . . . and came away with his shoes plus a pair of boots for me. Now if I could only wear them to the Texas Livestock and Rodeo. Especially since our granddaughter is showing her cow this week. Only one person is allowed to go with her; we’ll have to watch it online.