Happy American Thanksgiving & Such

I completed another painting out in our backyard the other day. It's one of my largest works, involving the hose & 3 jars of severely watered-down paint. It was purely experimental, a lot of fun & a great stress reliever.
Yesterday I rec'd some lovely art cards I'd won from my Canadian blog-friend, Michelle. A truly uber-talented artist, I strongly recommend a visit to her site. Make sure to bookmark it so you can go back for more!
Today I swapped out some of my paintings for photos at Phil's Grill. Perhaps Black Friday will help get me out of the red (& garner some extra funds for art programs at local schools, which is what PHILanthropy is all about.)
A few hours ago I put Charles on a plane to go see his family. Not a big holiday person, I'm looking forward to some quiet days off filled with no shopping, major cooking or piles of dishes, but I already miss Charles.

Happy American Thanksgiving to everyone, wherever you are in the world. Take a few moments to set aside the stresses and frustrations of modern life and consider your blessings. Make sure that your loved ones know how you feel about them. Love is good for everyone.

(Full credit to the South Park people for
today's image of Gobbles, the turkey.)

Lake Ramsay & New Painting

We hadn't been there in a long, long time, so Charles & I went for a hike at Lake Ramsay the other day. Due to the denseness of the woods & the time of day, there wasn't much I could shoot without my flash, but we had a great time, anyway. I always love coming out in the restored pine savanna, which is the farthest point from the parking lot (if one can call it that.) We made it just in time for sunset, which meant a mad dash back to the car in rapidly fading light.




In other news, I completed another painting; "Morning on the Bayou." I've put many of my available paintings on sale & am now accepting orders for the holidays.

Birds, Art, Space & My Blogaversary

The chipping sparrows that Winter around our place started returning on Halloween, a bit earlier than normal. Soon dozens of them will take over the yard, forcing the "regulars" to share...grudgingly, at best. We've also had an Eastern bluebird or two plucking insects from the front yard. Yesterday & today an Eastern phoebe alit on our porch railing--a first here at the Hermitage. For a few days we had a couple of indigo buntings around. Like the blue grosbeaks I spotted in late August, they're normally seen here only in April, when migrating north. It seems like now they're starting to hit our yard going both ways.

In art news, I sold 3 paintings last night at Arts Evening (hooray!) and I'm now onto preparing for a solo photo show in Hammond, LA (details TBA.)

Astronomically speaking, tomorrow Mars is in conjunction with the last quarter moon. We're also in the middle of the Taurid meteor shower, which makes up for low quantity with high quality; long, slow-moving, potentially colorful meteors and sometimes even bolides (aka; fireballs.) Nov. 12th the moon will be in conjunction with Saturn. Get out there & have a look.

In blogging news, my 2nd blogaversary was Nov. 5th.

Arts Evening

Sat., Nov. 7th, 4-8:30pm, I'll be displaying/selling my art and photography at Arts Evening in Slidell, LA. Download the brochure here. I'll be at "Postal Plus," 155 Robert St.
Hope to see you there!