Movin' Out of December in March? What?

It's been an experience the last two weeks. I had hoped to have the nice month of March to catch up in my Journal, think of details for the Women's Mexico Retreat I'm teaching in April and have time to pack leisurely. Well . . . thought I had a bit of a cold but beat it. Then about a week later, it revisited. This time it brought luggage and moved in - for a week. An icky week! I surrendered and just gargled, took naps and expected it to "go packing". On the sixth day, I woke dizzy, nauseated and with a fever. I did not pass "go", I went directly to the clinic - and was diagnosed with a Respiratory Infection! I'm just not liking this as in about eighteen days I LEAVE FOR MEXICO!!!

But in between, I have taken advantage of some painting time . . . to catch up my Journal from way back end of December. These few pages and images are from a lovely trip we took up to Sisters, Oregon for a kind of "holiday gift" to ourselves. As we traveled en route, we were stopped, turned around by a road block and ventured through some adventuresome country to finally arrive at Sisters after five hours. My hubby had made our reservations at a rustic but opulent lodge with private little cabins called "Five Pine". It was magical.

Our next morning we coffee-ed at a local place. It was called "Sisters Bakery", charming, warm and the yummiest pastries and baked goods I've seen in a long time. We reserved a rhubarb (our favorite) pie, on the spot, to take home with us. Our attempt a show shoeing up near Camp Sherman on the Metolius River was detoured by the horizontal snow blizzard. But we dined in Bend and the next morning, picked up our pie and headed home.

The day was brilliantly clear and the fresh snow glistened as we drove by. But my favorite site along the trail home was actually in the rear view mirror . . . as I looked back at the magnificent Mt. Theilsen. With it's fresh coat of whiter-than-white snow now facing the sun and the azure blue sky above it, only to be framed at the bottom by the rich evergreen forest. It was like a crowning jewel for the end of our trip.

Can you tell I am finally feeling better? I swear to the amazing cure antibiotics are . . . but I'm in appreciation of the quiet time I've had to revel in my journal and travel to wonderful places in my pigments - - - and to share it with you. Happy trails and - STAY HEALTHY!

A New Redhead in Town

I'm just so excited about Spring approaching ... peering out my kitchen window this afternoon I finally captured "the new redhead" in town. She's (well, it's actually probably a 'he' since he has such bright colors) has been around for about a week now. Her bright red-orange head just stands out next to the other dark hooded finches we usually see during the Winter. With my trusty camera I caught her (him) before he flew, but also caught some other new smaller birds, new in town with lovely striations in dark and a yummy yellow too. Isn't Spring a joy to watch slowly overtake the chill and grey? I haven't pulled out my bird book to find out the proper name for these lil fellas - anyone want to take a stab, see if you can guess right?

That's all - just a silly, happy lil post I wanted to share with you all. Celebrate Spring!

Snowman When Daffodils Are Out?

Seems like a silly celebration - but I'm celebrating getting un-chained from the computer and back to the creative dance of painting in my journal. Yippee!!!!!

After nearly a month of working on my Women's Mexico Retreat Handbook, the over-fifty-page handout is printed, page numbered, collated and ready to pop into binders. I'd wanted to prepare a detailed explanation of all the instruction that my co-instructor and I will be presenting. So that after the Retreat, the participants will be able to look back for reference on how to do things. I've been typing out explanations, importing photos to help with details and finally numbering the pages in sequence. Damaris, my co-instructor, who is doing mandala presentations, mailed me her over-twenty five-page insert. And I finally got the pages scanned, enumerated and in order. Being sure to save out pages that involve exercises we want to distribute only after the process, I finally have THIS - the completed handbook!

And yesterday, I luxuriated in an afternoon painting a sweet Christmas illustration in my journal. I know it's w-a-a-a-a-a-y-y-y-y past December, but that's where I need to go to update my journal. I had the image sketched in and only had the fun part of layering and adding dashes of pink and alizarian paint over the top to make it pop. This is an adorable lil' holiday ornament I acquired last year (I'd purchased a set of six, sending the lil' fellow's brothers and sisters out to friends for gifts). So, he's the sole survivor of his family to reside here with us. Even thought the holiday season reeked with weird situations and disappointments (I know, "no expectations, no disappointments!"), this lil' smilin' snowman was one of the joys of that season. So, I'm wishing you - a happy holiday moment, even thought my daffodils are blooming!

Hey, you can ALWAYS find something to celebrate!!!