We have Snow!

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I had almost forgotten the pastel portrait I did of my dog, Max. It hangs in one of the downstairs bedrooms that I seldom go in.

Here, Kitty, Kitty

Kasey read herself to sleep today. She chattered and chattered, turned pages, and the next thing I knew, she was asleep.

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What happens when pumpkins drink

A friend of Barrie's e-mailed her this photo today. I think it is pretty humorous.

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I babysat Kasey today - Barrie forgot to show me how to use the new fangled diaper, and I guess I figured it out OK. Things like diapers have sure changed since I used them. Kasey tried to chase the kitten, who hid from her at first. But later, the kitten let Kasey touch him and pat him a little. Not too much, but a little.

When Barrie got back, I was going to fix pork chops and mashed potatoes and gravy. The pork chops didn't smell very good, so they got pitched out and I took some frozen hamburger out of the freezer. I am so out of practice cooking - it took me forever to make a meal.

Is it winter yet?

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I didn't used to take pictures of (or paint) still life. The Yahoo photo group I joined on the Internet has kind of forced me to be more "creative", and set up some photographs.

A Halloween display at the Homestead Living Center in Riverton - edited with some special effects.

I'm sure everyone recognizes this old building - the old gas station in Daniel.

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I enjoyed watching it snow today, but none of it stayed on the ground. It is supposed to snow more tonight and tomorrow.

Barrie is going to run her dogs tomorrow, and is bringing Kasey to stay with me in the morning. WooHoo! What shall I do to spoil her? She has been afraid of the kitten. And the kitten is becoming very active. He has learned to run, and attacks my feet. But he also sleeps a lot. I think Kasey will soon be holding her own with him.

Lynn mentioned watching the movie "Bucket List". I have this movie, and still haven't gotten around to watching it. I need to. Earlier this week, I watched an "oldie moldy", "Peyton Place". Tonight I am watching another oldie, "Where the Boys Are" - not the remake, but the old one from when I was in college. The students in this film bear little resemblance to the students i knew at the U of W, and I never knew anyone who went to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break. When I watch a vintage movie like this one, I realize that all the actors and actresses are now as old as I am, and probably some of them dead. How depressing!

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Cool Weather

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Good Bye, Falers.

I haven't been in Ridley's for a while. But the last time I was in there, I noticed all the animal mounts on the walls were gone. I asked the cashier about it, and she said they had been sent out to be cleaned. After I came home, I started thinking about her answer, and really began to wonder about it. Somehow, it didn't sound plausible. I wonder if all the help was instructed to tell customers that if they asked. I will be surprised to see the "cleaned" mounts up again.

Here are two kittens I had the summer before last. They both seem to be gone now. I think these were both toms, and toms seem to disappear faster than the females.

This dog lived next door to me, well, actually, across the street. He was left alone all day, and they left this upstairs window open for him. He immediately knocked the screen out, and tore up the blinds so he could see out. An interesting group of kids lived here. Sometimes there were a dozen or so standing out on the deck, smoking pot. And sometimes the cops stopped by and confiscated the pot. I never saw anyone get arrested. The young men who live there now all seem to go to work every day, and aren't nearly as entertaining!

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I sat up way too late last night reading. I got a new sheet of watercolor paper taped off into four sections and decided to practice painting quakie trees. I used torn masking tape to mask out the trunks of the trees in each section, and that is as far as I got. I'm sure tomorrow will be a better day for painting!

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Wednesday

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This was taken a year ago in the town park - the first snowfall of 2007

Grass in my back yard, which never gets mowed

This the quilt I made for Leslie and Bobby (my stepdaughter). It started out on the back of the couch, but I think she told me it is on a bed now. The drawings on the wall are Indian portraits I did years ago.

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I taped a sheet of watercolor paper into four sections yesterday and did some small studies of fall trees - very loose. I tried wet on wet, wet on dry, and one with some of my Daniel Smith Primatek colors. I put it up on the wall at Rendezvous Pointe today without photographing it.

Today I want to try some skies/clouds. I could go through dozens of sheets of paper for that!

I bought some cat litter today. The kitten doesn't have a clue, but it would sure be nice if he figures it out soon. He also doen't seem interested in the cat food. Maybe he isn't as old as I thought he was. Or maybe he's retarded. Or maybe he hasn't had his mother's guidance and teaching. He is starting to play, and discovered a sunny patch on the floor today and I thought he might go to sleep there.

Real winter weather is forecast for this weekend. I probably should locate some of my winter clothes. I know my winter coat is still in the basement, and I think I know where some boots are.

Monday

Three photos I like:

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This is the gate on the horse corrals at Green River Lake. I like this photo. I like gates, I like wood, and can just see the bored horses standing in the corral chewing on the gate.

This is St. Huberts church in Bondurant. The photo had nothing going for it - pretty blah, so I applied a filter from my collection to give it more interest.

This was a rock formation where the Wild Horse Tour Road meets the Interstate - called the Pilot Butte Exit, I think. It's not far from Green River, and there are so many beautiful rock formations around Green River. I wasn't able to get the whole scene into one shot, so I took two pictures and merged them together on the computer.

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I finished a watercolor yesterday, but am not impressed with it. It is going to end up on the floor of the shower, where I take the hand held shower head, turn it to the hardest spray, and wash off all the paint I can. Then I tape it down to a board and try my luck with the other side

I have taped off four sections on a sheet of watercolor paper, and am going to spend some time on practice - sky, rocks, water, etc. and not even try to complete a painting for a while. I will be spending more time with my pastels.

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The little orphan kitten is growing up - he"s ready for a litter box, and I don't have what I need. He stays awake longer, and likes to play a little. He seems to like the canned cat food and tried to eat some today from my finger, so it won't be long until he is eating on his own.

Sunday

Click on images for a larger view. Herd of Buffalo in Yellowstone

Hungry Baby Robins

Sleeping with the Monkey

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We have had a couple of days of nice rain, and it looks very much like rain again today. Probably not cold enough to snow, but you never know.

I watched the movie "Peyton Place" on TV Friday night. It was filmed in 1957, and I clearly remember the reaction it got. People were shocked by this film!! My college roomate's parents took us to Denver for a weekend, and we saw the movie. Her parents did not go with us, and I'm not sure they even knew which movie we were going to.

By today's standards, the movie is pretty old fashioned. We now have commercials that are more explicent, and certainly a lot of new TV shows and movies have more sex and violence than Peyton Place. Makes me wonder what kids will be weatching 30 or 40 years from now.

I have not scanned slides for several days now, and need to get busy at it again. I did get more than half of my upstairs windows washed, and the view is so fabulous that I am sure I will finish them. I haven't yet ordered the microfilm cleaning cloth, but intend to get some. The downstairs windows are dirty, but I don't know when I will get to them. I spend so little time downstairs, so don't spend time looking out the windows.

"Titanic" was on last night. I watched part of it, but not the whole thing. It is a wonderful movie, but just too long - especially when you've seen it before. I always chuckle at the part where some guy has a "nit comb" and is checking some of the passengers for lice. The well-to-do Americans were not checked, because of course they didn't have lice!!

I remember when I was teaching kindergarten, "horrors of all horrors", head lice were discovered in the elementary school. If a child had head lice, they had to go home and stay home for a day and have their head treated to get rid of the lice. I got sent home the first day!! I shampooed my hair with this special shampoo and enjoyed my day off. Parents freaked out, some of them shaved their little boy's heads, and the Retirement Center would not allow child visitors. Poor kids were treated like they had the plague. Most people did not realize that lice prefer clean hair to dirty hair.

We spent weeks checking kids' heads every day. I actually got so I could not walk into a room of people without haveing this overwhelming urge to check their hair for head lice!

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Cats in the Basement

Yesterday, Barrie went down to the basement and garage to look for something she thought she might have left in the pickup. She said a cat was in the garage, so she opened the garage door for a while, and thought she got it out. Last night, I heard meowing at the basement door. When I opened the door, two cats were there. One ran into the kitchen, then into the dining room, and seemed really upset. She forgot to be wild. I got her outside, and she wanted back in the house. I wondered if she might be the mother to the kitten I am raising on a bottle, so I took him down to her. She sniffed him and hissed at him, so I guess not.

The cat who was still in the basement was her kitten from last spring, so maybe that was what she was so worried about. I left the garage door open again, and saw the young cat on the front porch later, so I think (hope) all the cats are out. I have two broken glass jars on the basement floor, and cat poop on the garage floor. I haven't checked any further to see what else they may have done.

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This was taken when we lived out of Kingman, AZ. Tracy's Grandad and Grandma LeClair were there, and Bud brought these two sets of huge elk antlers from Wyoming. They drove a big long Cadilac, must have had them in the trunk.

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When I bought a wide angle lens for my camera last year, I walked out in the yard to take a picture of the house. I am so ready for snow!!

A photo taken from the boat in Fremont Lake, begging to be painted.

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Everything around my house is shades of browns, yellows, gold and oranges. It almost hurts the eyes! So many leaves have come down that the ground is a golden color too. It has been raining a soft rain off and on, and is overcast - which makes the colors even more saturated.

Friday

Finished (I hope)

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I'm not sure this is finished, but I am not messing with it any more. I tried to give the fur more texture and variation.

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These old buildings are located up close to the rim, near the turnoff to the Flying A. The exposure on this one was bad, and the colors were not right. I did a lot of adjusting in Photoshop, and was pleased with this result.

This is the old abandoned service station at Creston Junction at the Baggs Exit on the Interstate. I took quite a few photos of it, not even sure what I wanted. When I cropped this one, I realized it looked like an old mission church in the Southwest.

When this station was operating, I stopped there. A van full of gypsies was there. They were washing plums they had purchased somewhere. They offered me one, and I took it. It was delicious. When I got to Colorado, Tracy lectured me about taking food from strangers, especially gypsies. They were such interesting people.

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I went to the Animal Clinic today and got a new can of the kitten milk replacement formula. I was afraid we would run out before Monday. This is a powder that you mix with equal amounts of water. I can't believe how much he has gone through! He actually ate today without yowling and fighting me too much. Then he sat on the floor beside my foot and looked up at me like a real cat. I offered him a little bit of soft cat food, but he didn't seem interested. I think he should be eating a little solid food in the next week.

Two old photos, two new ones

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This is Tracy and her Grandad LeClair. We lived about 40 miles out of Kingman, Arizona at the time, and Bud and Esther had come for Christmas. The little red boots had been Sonny's, Tracy's brother. Bud and Esther had them made to order for him when he was born. Years later, after Sonny's and Judy's two sons were grown, I gave the boots back to Sonny. They seemed really pleased to get them.

How about these cute kids? This is Tracy - I think she was about two at the time, with her sister and brothers, Leslie, Marty and Sonny. I think maybe we lived at Ragged Mountain Colorado on a ranch at the time, and had come to my Mom's house for a visit. The ranch had no electricty, and I sewed on my Grandmother's old treadle Singer sewing machine, which I still have. I don't remember sewing for Marty and Sonny, but I made Tracy and Leslie matching outfits. It's a wonder Leslie is not bald, because I messed with her hair so much. I even put her to bed with a nylon stocking on her head!! Poor girl!

The cantankerous kitten.

Kasey checking out the kitten in its box.

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Barrie and Kasey were here today. I got Barrie to hold the kitten for me so I could get a picture. Kasey was scared to death of the kitten last time she was here, but she was much braver today. She would walk up to the box and say "hi kitty" or "hi baby". She even touched it once, but kind of grabbed it, and let go quickly and the kitten landed about 8 inches away. Kasey didn't really want to touch it again. It's funny how confident Kasey is around dogs, but a tiny kitten unnerves her.

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I don't know what I did with my time today. I intended to finish the fur on the pastel wolf, and haven't even touched it yet. I started a new watercolor at the art group yesterday, and have not finished it (along with at least three other watercolors I have started). I have a wonderful photo of a Herford cow and calf that Lynn took, and really want to paint that. Also a few pencil drawings I have started. It's a good thing I am retired and don't have to hold down a job!

Favorite Things Collage

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Quite some time ago, my assignment in a photography group was to take photos of "what makes me me". This collage is what I came up with. I usually do all my photo editing in Photoshop, but this may have been done with Paint Shop Pro, as I know the frame effect with the scotch tape is from that program.

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I think I used Paint Shop Pro on these two photos. I converted them to black and white, then applied a filter called "infrared". Now that I have seen them again, I want to try the effect on some other photos. Back in the days of film, you used to have to buy special "infrared" film. And maybe even use a special filter on the camera.

I started this oil painting at least a year ago. I really enjoyed doing it, and am not sure why I have never finished it. I wish my days were longer - there's just not enough time to do everything I want to do!

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The kitten had not been fed for four hours when I got home from art group today, and he was hungry and cranky. He had also pooped in his bed. He is growing, and seems very strong and healthy. I just wish he had a sweeter personality. I've had him six days now, and am hoping he will wake up with a happy face one of these days!! He likes to totter around the floor and curl up on my feet.