Magnolia Big Band at Anchor Pub

John on Bass

We had an absolute ball sketching at the historic Anchor Pub in Everett yesterday. The Magnolia Big Band was playing and everyone was so gracious and welcoming to the sketchers. The food was good, the music was great, the band was charming.And I got to meet one of my sketching idols, Gail Wong, a member of Seattle Urban Sketchers.

Max V. Irwin (V. is for Varmint)

And best of all, we got to meet the charming Max V. Irwin, an 85-year-old dancing fool and fan of Magnolia Big Band who showed up in hopes of a dance floor. I would have danced with him except (a) I don't know how and (b) I'm 6 inches tall than him. But I sketched his portrait instead. If you'd like a dance with Max, he'll be dancing at the Sons of Norway in Everett every Thursday afternoon!

Max with the lady sketchers

Anchor Pub & Magnolia Big Band

I never thought of myself as a Sunday afternoon Pub person, but Magnolia Big Band changed my mind.  We had a terrific time meeting other sketchers from Seattle (Gail Wong in particular) and listening to the most enjoyable music.  Loud, but it didn't blow you out of the room.  Prior to the band playing the Pub played Tony Bennet music.

Listening to the sounds!

Our model the dancing man Max!

View of the lower bar.

Three guys and a speaker!

Dia de Muertos Festival

Had a great time sketching at the Dia de Muertos Festival on Saturday in Seattle.  Wish I could have stayed longer!  So much to sketch.  Happy Halloween today and Day of the Dead on wednesday.

Fabulous altar at the festival.

This dapper chap was taking a break from his street musician duties.

peep

The new batch of silky peeps arrived a little over a week ago and are now ensconced in a pen in a corner of the greenhouse, a heat lamp keeping them warm. If all goes well, they ought to be old enough to start laying eggs in March or April. In the meantime, they're awfully cute!

The Beginning Of The End ::: The Move

Here I goooooo.............................

Winter came before fall could end.....

XoOXoOX

Winter's Approach

WiFire Apparitions

My first ghost sighting at Whidbey Telecom's WiFire Coffee Shop... 

Happy Halloween!

Backyard Color Riot

View from the deck

I had to try to capture some of the outrageous color in my own backyard before it's gone. I can no longer remember the name of the bright red shrub, but I bought it years ago at this time of year, specifically for it's red fall foliage. Below it are Autumn Joy Sedums, behind is a purple smoke tree. In the background, rose hips, a Japanese Maple and a Pin Oak also contribute to the joyous palette.

Kudos to Whidbey Telecom

The Whidbey Island Sketchers experienced  Whidbey Telecom's state-of-the-art Customer Experience Center yesterday. Our little phone company really knocked it out of the park with this space. What a great showcase of local artists' works and great resource for the community. I was particularly blown away by Tim Leonard's metalwork and Kim Hoelting's woodwork, both of which were used in this counter. Joe Menth's mural-sized photography of vintage Whidbey Telephone switchboard equipment is also a must-see.

Bye Bye Luck Cabin

I have been preparing to leave the Luck cabin.... not just for the winter, not for a vacation, not for a weekend.... forever.

It was not an easy decision after everything i put into it, but i guess i am living up to the Gypsy nickname my parents have given me. A slow nomad, going from forest to forest... and then...

pass it on.

Each one.

Passing it to the next runner. The family who is taking over the Luck Cabin could not have been anymore perfect... they have a great respect for the forest, as a whole, and as each organism that comes together to make it function, that makes it what nature intended it to be. They will cherish this micro climate, with all its rare plants, and invisible animals (who only leave evidence of their lives rather then show themselves)...

............

I will leave my goodbye at that. So much could be said, it could be its own novel - but i have cried enough tears saying my goodbyes, and now I look into a open future again.

Searching for another place, to call home.

A search that has already lead me to many secret & strange tucked away places -

and each one holds bit by bit a puzzle piece to the whole i want to take root.... a bigger picture, my own personal perfection. And i have made the lists ..... the lists, always come to fruition, for better or sometimes for worse. And that is why.... before making wishes, be sure you want to get what you want. I made two this week, with two pennies - and just went ahead and repeated the first wish twice. Insure my intention.

For now (while moving), i am going to roll with the adventure part. Maybe not even roll with it, but roll IN it, Eat it, breathe it, love it, let it scare me, let it soothe me, let it open itself up to me. Let it make me laugh, let the giggles come, the horror, the disappointment leading to more unknown. I will take it all, exhausted or smiling. Cause i can't stop watching.

Xoxoxox

Whidbey Island Winery

Better late than never I guess. I loved our day at Whidbey Island Winery. The weather was sweet and soft and the sketchers were scattered around the grounds. One of my favorite kinds of days.

quack

the merry band of crazy ducks

The ducks are eight weeks old, but I'd be surprised if their brains were bigger than a pea. Crazy is what they are - nuts. The more I'm into farming and raising animals, the more I realize there are very good reasons for many common terms. In this instance, ducks are daffy. Living cartoons. Looney-tunes, as a matter of fact.

On the upside, they are maturing rapidly and in another two to three months should start laying eggs for market. Duck eggs are excellent for baking and custard-making. And since (like my chickens) these girls will be living on pasture, they're more nutritious than any you could ever find in a store. Not that you're likely to ever see duck eggs in a store, but that's not the point. The point is, they're good for you. And just plain good. Rich and thick, with deep orange yolks.

The Happy Tractor

It's living a long life, now admired. Here's mine...
















And this is Vern, Lisbeth's very first patron. I sketched him at Coupeville Coffee and Bistro. OKA, Miriam's. He's a good model. Great beard, wears glasses, strikes interesting poses and sits still.

Winthrop and the Methow Valley

My birthday usually falls at the peak of fall foliage season. This year we headed for the Methow Valley for my birthday getaway to find some fall color and sunshine. It was our first family trip with Duncan, the dog, and we found a cabin on the Methow River that was perfect for us. Duncan did great.

I only had one day of sketching, but could have used several more. I was uber-inspired by everything around me. Everything on the other side of the mountains is just breathtaking this month. And Winthrop is so kitschy. I'm inspired to organize a sketchers' retreat in the Methow Valley next October as soon as the shoulder season rates go into effect. 5 nights, 4 days. Seriously.

The Methow River, right behind our cabin

Pearrygin Lake State Park

Sherry's Sweet Shop

Shafer Museum

Old Schoolhouse Brewery

For those of you who just can't get enough of my birthday (I'm milking it for all it's worth this year), Dan posted some photos of our trip on his facebook page.  http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.304971256186811.91835.100000218183963&type=1

Sherman Farm Pumpkins

For my birthday, I gave myself a full day (and evening) of sketching.  And who deserves it more than me? :-) This was my best of sketch of the day.

Did you know that Sherman Farm is the only commercial grower of heirloom Sugar Hubbard Squash in the country?  AND that they supply all the Puget Sound area Whole Foods Markets with cut Sugar Hubbard Squash? Well, now you do.

Tall Trees

Pumpkin Time at Sherman Farm

Sketching pumpkins on a cool, sunny Fall day was a treat.

Langley Village

I enjoyed sketching Julie who was also sketching among the beautiful flower pots.

Last of the honeysuckle berries

This honeysuckle vine was peeking out from the branches of the native evergreen plants along the side of the road while I was out for a walk.   The berries are so bright and inviting to sketch with watercolor.  I took the challenge.

Sketching Around Ebey's Prairie

I've been wanting to sketch out at the fabulous Sherman Farm - pumpkin and hubbard squash capital of the world, in my book!  Yesterday was a sunny, warm, perfect Fall day to head out to Ebey's Prairie for sketching. 



Old tractor at Sherman Farm

Quick stop at the new Coupeville Coffee & Bistro

Lovely Afternoon in Coupeville

It was nice to tackle something simple for a change. This charming scarecrow was standing against the window at Tea & Treasures in Coupeville. It was a very congenial sketching venue, complete with complimentary shortbread from the owner and a view of the very charming Coupeville High School homecoming parade on Front Street.

Next stop, Toby's, for a bite to eat and a glass of wine. These gentlemen sat at a nearby booth.

Big Buffalo

After a civilized afternoon of drinking English tea, listening to classical music and sketching a zen garden it was time to move across the street to sketch something much bolder and wilder.

"Catch-up" sketches

 I needed something to demo on Sunday afternoon at Bailey's so I hauled out the sketch I did at the M-C Ranch and added some paint and ink to it.  So it is a little more than a sketch, a little less than a painting.  Pretty happy with it, all in all.  Composition and focal point still a little "centered", but I attempted to fix it with light.  What do you think, Pat?

I also had this one in the pencil/ink stage that I found in the bottom of the old art pack, so it came out and got some paint, too.  This one was from way back at the Compass Rose in Coupeville.  It was an amaryllis on top of a cabinet in that fantastic country kitchen.

soon there will be more

Today I placed an order for twenty-five blue silky peeps.

Mr. South Whidbey 2011

I volunteer as a vote-counter at the raucous Mr. South Whidbey (a fundraiser for Friends of Friends Medical Support Fund) every year. We vote-counters sit at the very back of Freeland Hall tallying up all the "votes" that are cast throughout the evening in the form of dollar bills, scrip, checks, quarters, nickles and dimes.  It's not a great vantage point for sketching the doings on the stage, but I got a couple quick and dirty impressions in my pocket-sized Moleskine.

Brian Plebenek,in drag, belts out a song for the crowd. He didn't win, but he SHOULD have -  if the contest were based on showmanship and heart. A real crowd-pleaser. He gave us a great performance from beginning to end.

Richard Epstein, in the King Tut headdress, was one of the "six-pack boys" collecting votes from the audience in 6-pack cartons. He was a candidate in last year's pageant.

Randy Hudson, Michael McInerny and the Mr. SW candidates entertain the crowd with a song.

The crowd gathers in Freeland Hall before the show begins.

Masterpiece

Red Geraniums at Whidbey Island Winery

After a short tutorial from the world famous artist Phyllis Ray, Mary discovered the joy of color. She is now free. This is the resulting masterpiece. Thank you Phyllis. The next glass of wine is on Mary.

i'm back

I guess I pretty much took the summer off from blogging, but now that fall is here in full swing and things are happening at a much more manageable pace, you can expect to see more of me.

For the first time in my life, I took a two week vacation and went to a little cabin in the adirondacks. It was a much-needed time for relaxation and serious reflection. Decisions were made, soon to be acted upon.

When I left my hill for the mountains there were forty silky chickens in residence. There are now seven. Apparently there was a nearly wholesale massacre in broad daylight. Chicken carcasses scattered all over the pasture. Neighbor dogs are suspected. Nothing will be said to the neighbors, however, because there is no proof and I'd like to keep up good relations. And anyway, it could have been any dogs, not necessarily theirs. What is odd is that neither the sheep nor the geese were harmed. Perplexed is what I am. Well, that and very, very sad.

Thankfully the ducks were ensconced in the greenhouse on grasshopper patrol and so were spared. Yes, ducks. As in twenty-one Khaki Campbells. Just six weeks ago they were adorable little balls of fluff with shoe-button eyes, black bills and webbed feet - now they are a nearly grown, quacking mob of insect predators. While I've said I wouldn't get ducks again, these girls are for egg production and so should earn their keep. They'll be moved to their winter pen in the next couple of days so that the greenhouse can be seeded for fall/winter greens.

That's it for now. There's more going on here but I'll save that for another day.

Behind the Winery

I "set up shop" over behind the winery by the garden fence and this great "junk" sculpture made out of cast-off, rusty implements.  The vintners were cleaning out the grape vats in preparation for the harvest and it smelled so good back there - very grapey and like wine.  The corn was still high and on the stalks and all the flowers were still in bloom.  There were hollyhocks and dahlias(?) marigolds(?) and some purple flower I didn't know at all.  And there was a lovely marmalade cat . . . . .