The Hike

I have taken up Carolina's challenge to change my daily habits and began with a wondeful 2.6 mile hike around Killan's Pond.

I visited with the locals,

and enjoyed the lovely scenery

I also brought along a rock I had crocheted a cozie for the night before, and I was obsessed with the idea of photographing my rock on a nice bed of moss.  I will spare you the billions of photos I took and just show you a few favorites,

Here are some cool tree roots I saw

Yes, I actually took a few pictures without my rock.  In fact, I ended up leaving my darn rock somewhere and I had to backtrack to find it.  I thought about leaving it for someone else to find but I couldn't do it.  Maybe I will make more to leave as gifts but I just couldn't part with my first one.

I finished my time at the park painting on the terrace of the nature center.  I'm making color mix charts of all my watercolors.

I probably didn't make much progress in the exersize department but it was so much fun I can't wait to go again.  And hey, next time I won't have to stop to take 7000 photos of my rock.

My Sweet Ride

I used to put on my rollerblades and Jim would pull me around behind his bike, but now I have this sweet ride (please tell me I don't have to explain the Napoleon Dynamite references).  Yessiree, I love to feel the wind in my hair and the bugs in my teeth.  She's not a Vespa, but she is retro and beautiful. Come on, I know you want one.  I had a guy (on foot) chase me down the street once, kinda scary but I stopped, and he just said "ya gotta tell me where you got that!"



I love it when Harley riders give me the motorcycle brotherhood handwave.  Mostly they just chuckle.  But hey, she gets a hundred miles to the gallon!  Now if I can just figure out how to get my chicken to ride in a milk crate on the back.  Can't you see Rosie with a scarf blowing back, maybe little goggles? 

Violets on my windowsill



I think I received my love of violets from my grandma.  She had glass shelves in one of her windows and they were always loaded with violets, she even named one of her daughters Violet.  I love that you can always count on them for a splash of color during long, dreary winters.  I have pretty much given up on house plants,  I am so busy the poor things tend to die from neglect.  But I can count on my violets; put them in a self watering pot and they happily produce flower after flower and even I can manage to water them every month or so.  Here is a quick ink sketch of one of my favorites.