Lincoln Next to Our Delinquent

Just the title makes me grin ... these journal entries sound opposing but, actually both of these personalities are very strong and positive. Well, guess I'd better explain, right?

Thru the months of January and February we continued to find winter's warm entertainments. We had to go see Lincoln (pretty amazing ~ the reality of that war and the complexities of Lincoln and his strengths as well as his weaknesses). So, of course I had to honor him in portrait. Well, a fairly good portrait. The name tags come from a gathering of like minded friends ~ you can see I had the chicken and pudding while Roland had the Eggplant (and yes, the pudding too!). And once we'd discovered that on Mondays in Medford you can get tickets for matinees for just $5, we hit Les Miserables too! Wow, another dy-no-mite heart-breaker with powerful actors! If I had to choose, I'd favor Les Miserables. I'm a sop for tenderness.

Early in February I had a sweet reminder of a warm weather friendship. An elegant hand-crafted card arrived in the mail from one of our repeat participants in our annual Women's Journaling Alpine Retreat. Now Cookie is a lil' spark at our retreats, creative, ornery and a wizard at identifying nature for us (she's a park ranger, no wonder?). But she has also come to be know as our lil' "Delinquent" mainly for the reason that during our morning yoga on the lake shore, she's off taking photos or

identifying birds. And I've portrayed her in watercolor doing one of her "sit-on-the-big-rock delinquent poses". But we love her anyway and she's become an integral part of our kitchen prep, a possible "Sous Chef" I believe? Eh Izzy?

All that aside, the card was made by her and I delighted so much in the design not only of the cover but also her simple card logo. See the "simple sentiments" logo below the card. And inside ... what only an artist can appreciate, "May there always be time to paint". Yep, life is good with these kind of friends!