Sisters Reunion

my sisters and me

I'm so sorry for not being around much this month. My husband had the flu then gave it to me and for about 3 weeks, we only got out of bed enough to take care of the animals.

Then my sisters arrived from the mid-west this past Friday and left yesterday so we were very busy catching up and giggling and generally acting like we were kids again (minus the arguing! lol) Our brother and his family came from near Winston-Salem on Saturday and we had a big cook-out and even more giggling and cutting up. I'm sure our adult children who were there thought we were nuts but that's ok - how many people in their 50's and 60's get to act like kids again?

My sister, Sue, is a professional photographer and got to see a lot of our wildlife - maybe too much actually as a skunk came up into the yard one evening! We got photos of it but it was moving around a lot and we just weren't going to get all that close to it so the pictures came out a little blurry!

I'll probably show some of the photos I took in future posts but I do think that pretty much all of the wildlife we have here showed up at one point or another during their visit. It became our ritual to sit out on the back porch in the early mornings and evenings to see what wandered by!

Anyway, I hope to do better keeping up this blog now that life has settled down again!

Nicole Caulfield Giveaway

copyright Nicole Caulfield

I so apologize for not being here lately and I apologize especially to Nicole for not publicly acknowledging the winning of one of her wonderful paintings. Not long ago, Nicole said on her blog that she had some paintings that she had done in her classes that had been marred in some way and would give them away to the first people to post on her BLOG that they wanted one. I was fortunate enough to have been one of the first to ask for and receive one of her paintings.

I was thrilled as Nicole is one of my favorite painters! She's a colored pencil artist and I have great respect for her talent.

There's a story here that I want to share but first will tell you that I emailed Nicole to ask how she chose which painting to send to which winner and she said she packaged the paintings then mixed them up so she didn't know who would receive which painting. Then she addressed and sent them out.

I figure there was a divine hand in my receiving this particular painting. You see, my mom passed away several years ago and she loved the color red and because she was very tiny, she liked wearing high-heeled shoes. To make a long story short, this painting reminds me of my mother in a very good and fun way. It was the perfect subject and I feel very blessed to have received it.

Thank you so much, Nicole!

What Lurks in YOUR Apple Tree?

copyright
Jan Gibson

Today is my dad's birthday and I was on the back porch talking to him on the phone when I saw something streak across the back orchard and climb into the last apple tree before the hay field. I told my dad what was happening and he said to go get my camera quick!

I thought I'd done fairly well with the doe and twins that I posted the other day but conditions were so much better today that all the pics I took came out very well indeed and I took 31 of them! This is just one of the close ups - isn't he cute?

I'm not 100% sure but I think this is a groundhog or woodchuck as he looks like the guy they drag out in February to tell us whether we'll have more winter or not. Maybe not as fat and well-fed but with the same features overall. I've been told that they're just making their way into this area which is why they're being seen more often.

Anyway, I'm finally fulfilling my desire to photograph as much of the wildlife here as possible but I'm spending so much time with the camera that I haven't had time to actually paint anything in a goodly while! Well, it's supposed to rain a little later this week so I may get in at least one painting day!

In the meantime, enjoy our little furry friend here and the beautiful weather - he says winter is over for our part of the country anyway!