Animal Wednesday - a great Saturday at the Farm

On Saturday - a gorgeous day - we went to "Woolapalooza" at the local Audabon Farm. I was a bit surprised that DH agreed to go, as he is not a huge farm animal fan - but it was a lovely day and perfect to watch sheep dog trials, sheep shearing, see baby animals and just enjoy the sunshine.

The sheepdogs were awesome, darting around like black and white streaks - low to the ground and so agile and swift...and talented! They could sift out one sheep from the herd and bring it into the fenced in area - with just a whistle blow and a hand signal. They were truly fascinating to watch and I stood there for hours enjoying the sights.


Of course there were other animals to see also. It's lambing time, and the tiny babies were tottering around baaing plaintively.



A few slightly older ones were grazing with their moms...

and a few others were enjoying the sunshine and having a bit of a nap.

And the goats! Wow - this is mom...
and her two babies. Can you see the one yelling MAAAAAA????

Then there was the chicken house, with chickens from around the world. I didn't get too many good pictures of them all, but a few struck me as photoworthy...

....particularly this one - who is a Polish something or other Chicken.
And this classic chicken pattern - I can't for the life of me remember what they are called...



Then there were the pigs....I could not believe the size of these animals - no little pink porky pigs at this farm.

It was a lovely peaceful day and that is...

....the end!

Happy Animal Wednesday everyone.

Finally on line again

Got our internet service back on line again after much drama. I hated being out of touch, and resorted to my tiny screen blackberry to read posts and comments and send emails. oh yuck, it was not much fun.

So, of course, today we are going to try for a bike ride in the cold weather, and maybe later I'll get to show you yesterday's adventure to "Woolapalooza", at a local Audobon site - they had sheep shearing, and sheep dog competition, and chickens and cows - the perfect day!

Hurray for technology~ and hurray also for our wonderful hard working gardening crew who is giving us the big old spring cleanup today. Goodbye to pebble in the grass from the pebbled driveway, and goodbye to all the sticks that came down in the latest storm. I love these guys!!!

six word saturday

Miss Em has no internet service!!!


Don't ask!! Hopefully Mr T will fix it today - I feel stranded without it. And posting
From a Blackberry is yuck.

Animal Wednesday - a frog and some...snakes???

I know that this frog could use more shadow under his chin but I decided to post him anyway - because for a few reasons.

1) I like his googly eyes
2) I copied him from a photo of a frog...not a picture of a photo...or an independent drawing

I am getting better at drawing from photo's of real things which is a great step forward for me. Next is from live things - wow, can't wait.

Think I could get a frog to do a 20 minute life drawing pose? Wouldn't that be cool?
Now this next drawing started out as snakes. It really did. It morphed into something else and I'm not going to even try to interpret what that is. I'm no psychologist and I'd deny it anyway.


I'm happy it's Tuesday night cause I feel pretty good. I got sick on Sunday night and had a tiny baby fever and all. I required lots of drinks, and cold cloths, and pats on the head and attention for about 24 hours. Then I started getting better, and there was no hiding it.

Please welcome our newest Animal Wednesday member - Brigitte from the Netherlands. Gorgeous artwork, and adorable hamsters!!

Happy Animal Wednesday everyone!

Note; in the middle of the day, the top text on this post disappeared. When I reposted it again, it disappeared again. I am now moving it to under the frog - it was originally OVER the frog, so as to introduce the amphibian - but blogger is being cranky.

Six Word Saturday

I Heard the Peepers Last Night

Everyone in New England knows that Peepers are the first real harbinger of spring. We might have some cold days left...we might even have snow!! But the Peepers tell us that spring is really coming.

It's a lovely sound, full of hope and the promise of good weather.

Ya gotta love the Peepers

Here is a link to last year's peeper chorus jubilee

Miss Em and the Crow

Miss Em woke up one day feeling a bit sad and lonely - but when she looked out the window she saw a beautiful crow flying straight towards her window. (She thought it was a crow but maybe it was one of those fancy crows called raven; she really didn't know the difference). The crow finally made it to Miss Em's house and while she seemed a bit tired, she also seemed very glad to be at that house.



She let the crow land right on her hand and they became instant friends - going everywhere together - friends forever. Her crow was funny, and sometimes baudy, but always loving and cheerful and direct. She seemed to know Miss Em inside and out, Miss Em wondered if she was real sometimes...how could a crow know so much about her? But Miss Em just decided to enjoy her new friend.

Every day, Miss Em would rush home from work, and talk to her friend. But after a while, Miss Em noticed that the poor crow was feeling sick, and needed some bandages and TLC.


She took the crow to the vet, who told her that a cage might help, and to keep the crow warm and dry...but otherwise there was nothing that he could do.


She gave her friend her a lovely cage to live in, but the crow got sicker and sicker. She was still a fun companion, and they still laughed together, and talked about all kinds of things - but it was obvious that poor crow was not doing well living with Miss Em.




Finally, Miss Em realized that she had to let the crow fly away in order to get better. She was sad but it really was all for the best, wasn't it? The crow agreed with her, and got ready to leave. She didn't have much to take with her....just friendship and love - which was enough.

She opened the window and the crow flew away high into the beautiful blue sky. Miss Em waved and waved and then just watched as her friend flew towards the sun.
xoxo

Animal Wednesday - doodling while talking on the phone

I doodle alot, and spent an hour on the phone with mom today - doodling away with an eye to Animal Wednesday in mind, National Geographic open in front of me.

A bird of some sort (damn that orange spec!!)


A Gekko foot or paw - whatever they are called! Supposedly they are very sticky.


This is a porpoise type animal, but made a bit pink by playing with my computer a bit.

Exactly what makes me nervous about drawing class

In blogging, I get to show you what art work I like, what I think came out fairly good, and what doesn't embarrass me. In life drawing class...it's all out there. There is no hiding the lousy drawing, the uncomfortable lines, the short legs and long torso. It has been making me a bit nervous, and I keep hiding behind "i've never done this before" - which makes people say "wow, your first drawing class? you're doing great"....which I like to hear. I think this is a pretty human reaction, and I'm not beating myself up over it. But this week something clicked and I stopped being nervous - somehow I felt if something was good...then great! And if it's lousy...well, it's a learning experience and that's what I'm there for.

Feels good to enjoy the moment, and not be uptight about "not being as good as everyone else". So, I will probably continue my Friday night drawing classes (I hope they go thru the summer) and keep learning.

That said...I'm still gonna show you the better stuff!


We had a woman model Friday night and did two poses - one standing and one sitting. The sitting on was very tough - and it is so uncomfortable to look at that I'm not going to post it.

I did two other 5 minute poses, but can't post them - my camera is still MIA and my Blackberry is out of juice after this picture above.

But there's still next week....

My nephews were over yesterday, putting up white tyvek on my basement ceiling, covering that pink insulation stuff and giving a much brighter look to the ceiling. They did a GREAT job and were a total pleasure to work with - and I fed them whenever they started to look limp. Since I had to take everything off the shelves and move a ton of stuff around, there is a major mess down there that I have to tackle today. It's still raining hard so I should have time to complete that lovely task. Afterwards we watched the movie "UP" - which was pretty good. Of course the best thing is just having the boys around for the day - talking about college and school and basketball and baseball and running. They have one more year of high school, and then I suppose, off to college. The down side of twins is that they leave home at the same time, leaving behind a HUGE hole. Part of me wants them to go to a great school and have a wonderful time far from home having new adventures. The other part of me wants them to stay local. Well, a year left to worry about it - but I've already told their mother that I expect to be part of the "going to see schools" trips if possible.

Life just keeps moving along - doesn't it?

Miss Em Wears a Hat

A good friend of mine is losing her hair. No...not from chemo - it just started thinning and coming out in clumps.

L has always had the thickest hair you can imagine, and since she is a full-of-energy type of person, her hair was often flyaway and wild and so much fun. About 6 months ago she noticed that it was thinning - and it's been all downhill from there. She and her family do have alot of autoimmune things going on, so maybe it's that - but it's tough for a woman - and a woman in business - to be losing her hair.

She got a wig recently and in all honesty, it looks gorgeous on her - an adorable cut and she really looked terrific. But she was off to babysit her first grandson and worried what would happen if he pulled on it and it came off - she didn't want to traumatize him. We talked about hats, so I went home and knit up two for her in soft, soft yarns. One is a pink recycled cashmere and one is a turquoise blue soft cotton. No photo's cause I can't find my camera.

She and her husband are great Miss Em fans, so of course, Miss Em is getting her wig and hat fix in the cartoon.

My nephews are coming over today to work on my basement ceiling and to just have some fun! Can't wait to see them and am off to the grocery store to stock up.

Have a lovely Saturday

post: found this in the Winnipeg Free press. Our friend.

TGIF

I don't usually like the thought of just looking forward to the weekend but oh man - this week has been a doozy! Too many meetings, late nights, international visitors to take care of. One more day, and then 2 days of relaxing. whew.

I got this sunshiny award from Susan - who is our newest Animal Wednesday member, bless her heart! She herself is a ray of sunshine, and incredibly talented artist - go take a look at her stuff. I should be passing it along - and am to all of my bloggy friends - especially those who loved Renee. She has been our ray of sunshine for a long time.

(hey..I wanted a row of hearts, but it doesn't work on a MAC! - any hints from my ever so wise, computer literate buddies?)

I haven't drawn anything in weeks! I'm behind on postcards, ATC's and Miss Em is no where to be found (hiding again, that little sneak!) I'm looking forward to a rainy day tomorrow where I can do some nesting inside, and maybe breakout the pens and pencils.

Enjoy your friday, enjoy your weekend...basically...just enjoy.

Animal Wednesday - a page for Lynn's book

I have been working SO hard these past few weeks, but it is all finally culminating in a two day meeting that I am running - today and tomorrow. So I came to the computer to tell you that I won't be visiting anyone for a few days while I get this done and start to get back to regular life.

But of course, logging on this morning I checked my blog roll and saw a post from Angelique entited "Welcome Home".

It's not like we didn't know this was coming, and coming soon and I am relieved that Renee is out of pain. But oh, so sad that she is really and truly gone from this world. She is one special lady and her "xoxoxo" and "har har" will be with us forever.

Love you Renee - you did more good in this world than you probably planned to. You changed people's lives and we will miss you so much.

(I wish I knew how to make a line of hearts like KJ does - so as to show a line/thought break. )

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

So...onto Animal wednesday! I preposted this last week so it may seem a bit out of date, but trust me - work has been all consuming for a few weeks!

Also, go check out this story on Jude's blog - I did a little donation for the donkeys.

Animal Wednesday Drawing

A Sweetness and Light drawing and then a Not-so-sweetness-and-light drawing. (don't take offence Deb - I don't mean that snakes are not lovely sweet animals - but just different than puppies and kittens...right???) These are for Lynn's ArtySoulSisters book have been mailed and (hopefully) received already.


I was going to post this for Animal Wednesday last week, but had such a good chuckle at the Dog-Eating-Dinner video that I posted that instead!!

Happy Animal Wednesday everyone! I hope all your animals are sweetness and light.

Spagetti Legs and Silly Me!

This was the scene last weekend when we went for a hike in the woods. It was truly gorgeous, with tunnels of snow covered laurels, deep quiet, and serene landscapes. But this week we had 50 degree weather and we decided it was time to go for a bike ride. Our local bike trail still has snowy icy patches so we decided to go south to Rhode Island. DH did all the planning as usual, while I spend the morning catching up on stuff, and I just got in the car and actually went to sleep for the ride to RI. When we got there, he showed me the map and oh my...we were right near Lolo's house!!! And I didn't have her phone number with me!!!! I felt such a fool for not having called in advance so tried to email - nothing was working.

The pond below was right after the start of the trail - I can imagine this in the spring with all the trees showing green. There were ducks and geese galore!


See how clean and non-snowy the trail is? It was a pleasure to ride on, but also very busy with walkers, roller skaters, bikers.

It is a 13 mile trail, and this is the beach near the end. By this time I was so hot I was ready to take a dip! We realized that it was getting late and we needed to get back before dark. Note: I had said "let's go back" at about the 7 mile point - I thought 14 miles was pretty decent. DH is a great one for pushing out that last tiny bit of effort and he "persuaded" me to keep going but by 13 miles I was pretty tired. And we had 13 miles back.
So yes...I did the 13 miles back - what was my choice? I kept checking my email to see if Lolo had responded, then maybe I could have stopped at her house and waited for DH to get back to the car and come and pick me up - but no email (sob, sob). The wind was in our faces the whole way back and it was getting COLD. But...I did it. First ride of the year - done!

So today I have spaghetti legs; sore as heck (but yes...they really do feel good). I took it easy last night and watched the Oscars and knitted.

Moral of the story? Call your friends before you are right near their houses! and be ready for a marathon ride when with Mr. DH Olympian.

Animal Wednesday - Good Laugh

I laugh out loud everytime I watch this!!!

Just trying to listen....to my body messages

( This is a bit of a whiny post, and after writing it I decided to go back and add these wonderful pictures. It's OK to whine, but really - I have a hell of a wonderful life and I really do enjoy most of every minute...even the stressful whiny times. )


Last weekend we went to the DeCordova museum in Lincoln, Ma - which has an outdoor sculpture garden, and I just wanted to share some of the photos. The one above is called "Pine Sharks" and is my all time favorite, the sharks are made of old appliances and they are wired between these pine trees. They swim above you, moving with the wind and are just amazing!
The one below is a great rock with the face on one side and regular rock on the other side.



Now the whiny part:

Last week was a very long, involved week at work - lot's of moderating, and facilitating and discussions and re-reading interesting things like statistical analysis documents. I was ready for the weekend! I came home on Friday night from my drawing class, which really is a bit of a challenge for me - it really is. I don't have confidence about doing this yet and that can get a bit nerve-wracking. On the way home I talked to mom about planning our trip to Italy this summer and who is going to go where etc. Walked in the house and DH asked about my night and my week and my discussions with mom and suddenly - boom - my back went into spasms. Clearly a case of nerves and a stress. I took some relaxing pills and started acting like a zombie and scared poor DH half to death.

So we took it easy on Saturday, but did go to NH for the Basketball game that a nephew was in (they won, and he played like a genius) and that was fun and great. Yesterday we went for a walk in the woods, thru gorgeous snow covered hills - it was a treat. We even got to stop at an antique store where I got all kinds of interesting goodies. Some photo's below of the walk thru the Mountain Laurels and proof that it is not yet spring here in the Northeast!!


An amazing ice formation over a huge rock. The color went from amber to blue - this photo is a bit out of focus but isn't it gorgeous?


Just some snow covered trees. I have been taking pictures with my Blackberry and it really isn't so good, I wish I'd had the regular camera.



So what is the point of this post? It's that I have to focus over the next month or so, and get a shitload of stuff completed and off my plate. I am mailing out (actually DH does the mailing, bless his heart) today 3 ArtShine books and a ArtySoulSister one; two Linus project blankets, a postcard and an ATC. I have to work on the recipe book for my cousin as his wedding is coming up quickly. I am relinquishing any control over this Italian trip - let my SIL and DH make all the plans but I want to brush up on my Italian. You can see that my focus is out of focus, and I must change that so that my back doesn't seize up again and put me down for the count.

Periodically I go thru this phase where things start to pile up and I get over committed. I do manage to get thru it and will this time also but something has to give. So, if you don't see me commenting or posting as much as usual, just know that it's because I'm:
1) going crazy at work - big projects, reviews due, new hire to train.
2) learning Italian
3) working on a recipe book
4) finishing committed artwork
5) trying to keep my neglected friends
6) traveling for work.
7) remembering that I really do enjoy it all!!!

oy.

love ya all my patient friends.