while they are away in Greece . . .

Not much concentrated sketching time this week. Our eldest son Jason and his lovely wife Carrie are out of the country, leaving their three very active young children with us.

This past spring, Jason was informed that his contract with the private school he taught physics at for the past 15 years was not being renewed. There are many ongoing problems with the administration; teachers, students and parents alike were enraged that Jason was being let go. But the Lord showed that He was in control --- a week after getting this news, Jason was informed that he had been selected as one of only 20 science teachers from the United States to attend a science conference in Greece, all expenses paid. And very soon after, he was quickly hired by another school system closer to home --- no commute time via freeway! And they had the extra  money for Carrie to go to Greece with him; while he attends the daily sessions, she goes on long relaxing walks by the shore, takes photos, and sketches. Later, they see the ancient sites together.

Keeping up with Jayna, Josiah, and Judah is a bit distracting for me! Too busy with them to get much drawing done, but last night I just started sketching a few things from the shelves. The wee tea cup belonged to Bill's grandmother as a child; one of the metal Scotties is from our first Monopoly set. The Lego artist figure "paints" a Toulouse-lautrec poster on a box a friend once gave me. They stand in front of a few of the books I have by other artists.

garden cleanup

On a recent sunny morning, before the summer heat rose, I cleaned up our rose bed a bit. My experimental planting of herbs among the roses was a wash-out . . . literally. Spring rains drowned the sages, bee balm and marjoram, and nearly killed the oregano, in spite of a new drainage system. I noted that herbs in terra cotta pots survived, even thriving. So I dug up the barely-alive oregano and placed the two plants in pots. Hopefully they will come back strong. The basil and bay laurel came through the flooding just fine, as did the mints in pots.

I also cut back the roses. Since the spring floods, wild animals had eaten all the leaves, their normal grazing areas being under water. Former owners of the property had strung tiny fairy lights just inside the patio roof, giving off just a wee bit of light. We sometimes leave these on instead of a porch light, giving light without excessive bugs. We discovered that if we leave these lights on all night, animals leave the rose leaves alone. So I cut back the bare stems, fertilized, and watered them (we are in a hot, dry period now). It seems to have worked; we are now getting some blooms with lots of healthy leaf growth.

Afterwards, I sketched my garden tool bag -- I liked the shadows! That crumpled bit of blue in the bag is a very large IKEA bag that I use to gather cuttings into. Makes it easy to carry them to our burn pit without getting nicked by the rose thorns.

ink scribbles

We are participating in another evening Bible study with friends, continuing our focus on praying effectively. During last night's meeting I did random sketches with a Lamy Safari fountain pen loaded with a dark brown ink. My tea had a coffee undertone in taste due to the water being heated in the coffee maker after coffee. Tasted nasty! I love the smell of coffee but hate the taste.

an unexpected surprise

I vaguely remembered my dear friend Kate (also known as Cathy Johnson) mentioning her having an article in an upcoming issue of Watercolor Artist magazine, but did not remember the details. On Friday night, I looked up the current issue online, then scrolled down to the "featured artists" list looking for Kate's name. 

And instead, found MY OWN NAME! . . . Wait, what? 

Not having any place locally where the magazine can be purchased, we had to wait until we could drive to College Station. Where we went to Barnes & Noble and began flipping through the pages --- Bill found my sketch first, one of seven artists sketching scenes or details in nature. 

The images (and possibly the text?) in the article are taken from Kate's new book, Artist's Sketchbook. I am one of over 20 artists whose work was included in the book. I signed a release for the publisher to use my submitted art in the book; in exchange, they agreed to send me a complimentary copy of the book. Sadly, I have yet to see it though many on Facebook are posting that they already have theirs.

Bearcat moping

We "cat-sat" for our son, Jeff, during a recent trip he took with his college class. His cat, Mist, does not like other cats and never allowed our Bearcat to get close to her. That did not stopped Bear from hoping that he would eventually befriend her. He's a very friendly cat by nature.

When Jeff took Mist home, Bear moped in the loft for a day or two, making sure we could see him peeking over the loft edge. Didn't want to waste a good "pout", like it was all our fault for letting her get away.

Sketched with a mixed dark sepia ink (Noodler's polar black and polar brown inks) and white pencil on Mi-teintes toned paper in a hand-bound journal.

Thursday morning coffee (and tea!) group

Bill meets with a few other guys nearly every Tuesday and Thursday morning for coffee. This Thursday, Ms. B.J. and I joined them. We decided to meet at an earlier time; unfortunately, the cafe hadn't opened quite yet, so we chatted and laughed together in the parking lot.

After opening, everyone else was served coffee in good time, but it seemed a challenge for them to find a mug of hot water for my tea (I carry my own tea bags with me because so many places offer none). Pastor Gary finally went to the kitchen door and brought me some hot water. So I did this quick sketch while joining in the conversation.

Taking photos of my sketchbook using an iPad or iPhone has such better color and clarity! Much less editing needed than when using my camera and computer. Just a bit of cropping to eliminate unnecessary background images and maybe straighten the alignment. My camera images require adjustments in lighting, color (for some reason, photos turn bluer than the actual sketch), cropping, and alignment.

But Blogger seems to prefer the camera, allowing those images to be clicked on for enlarging when viewed on a computer while iPad images cannot be enlarged. Perhaps that's because if they are in turn viewed on a pad, they can be enlarged by a finger span swipe?

another flag & a wee froggy

Last night, comments during church led me to sketch one of the flags.

Then there's this rotting log next to our grill at home . . . A frog has moved in to the 'cave' formed underneath. Ceilidh loves to bark at him.

happy birthday, America!

This morning we arrived at church to find Independence Day decorations in the front windows and inside. So I sketched a bit of one in a yellow "Sweet Tooth" Field Notes memo book using de Atramentis dark blue ink. Watercolor and white gouache added later at home. I decided to post this tonight instead of tomorrow; what originally started as inviting 3 people over for a cookout on the Fourth has grown to about 20 and I'll be too busy to post anything.

salsa and a bit of Scotland

Bill is having an abundant year in his small salsa garden -- as the larger tomatoes ripen, he blanches, peels, and cuts them up to pop in the freezer. Then, when there is enough, he makes the most yummy salsa! This year our granddaughter Mikala donated limes from her baby lime tree to add. Much of the finished product is given away to family and friends --- Pastor Gary is notorious for downing half a jar at one sitting!

Three years ago, our daughter and her husband went to Scotland with two other couples, renting a private house along Loch Ness together. While there, she bought me this Celtic knot pin with a Heather gem in the center, to pin my tartan shawl. But it is usually a bit warm here in central Texas for the shawl, so I also wear it on a chain. Heather gems are compressed stems of heather dyed, cut and polished into gorgeous 'gems' for jewelry.

I recently wore it to church . . . then decided to sketch it on the page where I jotted down notes.

Macy

Before the service on Wednesday night, I began to sketch one of the young ladies of our church, but then the guy in front of me leaned that direction with his arm blocking my view. So I quit.