8-8-26 ~ A Walk up on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Sunday I drove a hiker up to Thunder Ridge on the Blue Ridge Parkway to make a day hike. After I let her off (about 7:30 AM) , I couldn't resist taking the 10 minute scenic walk. Boy, was I surprised at the views. It was like I was flying above the clouds at times and at other times the clouds looks like a frozen lake.

Well, I know what this is!!!!

I watched for this nasty stuff with every step. 

Now that mine is finally healing, I definitely do not want any more.

There were lots of huge rocks as well as the beautiful view on my little walk.

The Views from Otter Lake

The James River Car Bridge, Footbridge, and Picnic Area

My Last Overlook of the Beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains

 This post is linked with:

Our World Tuesday

Good Fences

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

8-7-16 ~ It's Sunday and Time for Tom's Barn Collective

Come and join us at Tom's Barn Collective.

All of the following pictures were taken as I was driving Through Stuart's Draft, VA, to watch and wait while Buddy run another  crazy marathon....5 times up and down the same mountain. All I can say it is one killer of a run and only 50% finished....and my buy did it! I am SO proud of him. He can barely walk today, but he will be back hitting the pavement tomorrow. Like I have said...he is my Ever Ready Bunny that just keeps running, biking, and hiking ALL the time.

Clover Hill Farm ~ Stuart's Draft, Virginia

...And Here Are Some of the Race Pictures

It had to be 100 degrees. 

8-5-16 ~ Summertime on the Creek

 It was not such a hot day today so I decided to take out my watercolor paper and my Koi paints with a rag and a water brush. Got me a chair with a table on either side for all of my stuff - and tea - and started painting the grass in front of me, the creek, the bank, and finally the tree with its leaves and sky poking thru its head. Just as I was really into it, the skies got dark and the rains returned. Inside I went having to depend upon my memory. You can see the sky peeping through as well as the sandy  back to the sides and under the big tree, and you can see the creek and the grass on the side where I was sitting. I still need to work on my profiles. They are so hard for me. Every time I go and sit out here, I really do marvel how I have one of Nature's wonders right in my front yard.

Here some photos from summer and winter 

of what we call "The Beachhead" where I was sitting.

If you look closely, you can see the reflection of the tree in the creek.

My Etegami Paintings This Week

How Much Do I Love You

I Love You a Bushel and a Peck


The Sky's the Limit

Looks Can Be Deceiving
Purple Sweet Peppers from Bud's Garden

Climb the Fences of Life with Gusto, Determination, and Resolution.

Love One Another

This post is linked with:

Art Journal Journey - Nature's Wonders
Paint Party Friday
Weekend Reflections
Sunday Sketches from England~ Week 2

8-3-16 ~ Show Your Face ~ Right vs Left Hand Sketching

Well, I have finished sketching my 25 faces in pencil and then sketching over them with Micron pen using my non-dominant left hand. The pictures are a bit out of order, because I did not divide the page into sections before beginning. Consequently, some were taller than others. This was SOSOSOSO hard to do, and it took me ages to do it. I had to concentrate so hard.

I should have posted the non-dominant hand to the the latest link-up, so I am reposting this page again correctly. Please excuse the error.

This post is linked with:

Show Your Face

8-2-16 ~ Let's Go Fly a Kite

Let's Go Fly a Kite

With tuppence for paper and strings

You can have your own set of wings

With your feet on the ground

You're a bird in a flight

With your fist holding right

To the string of your kite

Oh, oh, oh! Let's go fly a kite

Up to the highest height!

Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring

Up through the atmosphere

Up where the air is clear

When you send it flyin' up there

All at once you're lighter than air

You can dance on the breeze

Over 'ouses and trees

With your fist holdin' tight

To the string of your kite.

Oh, oh, oh! Let's fo fly a kite

Up to the highest height!

Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring

Up through ther atmosphere

Up where the air is clear

Let's go fly a kite!

As always, whenever there are two little girls together in my paintings, 
they are my BFF of 50+ years, Weezie, and me as if we were children together.
For those who are unaware of our relationship, she now lives in an extended care facility  in North Carolina after suffering several strokes, and living with heart problems and RA. Is is heartbreaking to see her unable to walk and her hands crippled from the RA. I posted this picture from my last visit with her on my other blog, but I will post it here, now.


Weezie and Me

 Weezie and Buddy

This post is linked with:

Moo-Mania ~ Summer

Lunagirl Moonbeams - Anything Goes
The Pencil Case

8-1-16 ~ Summer Fun

Oh, how I would love to be floating in the water at the beach with this poison ivy. It would feel SOSOSO good. I am smiling thinking about it. Thank goodness it's better. I can actually go out in public ,and I am no longer itching. Am even sleeping at night. I still have a red color to much of my skin, but no rash. I can live with that as long as it is not itching. People.....if you are as ignorant as I am about this stuff...please go to the internet and print out pictures of Poison Ivy and Poison Oak especially if you love being out in the woods or digging in the garden. I am in an intensive self imposed course of teaching myself how to identify it during all 4 seasons because the colors do change. I do NOT ever plan to get this grim, miserable stuff ever, ever, ever, again.I sound like Terry Bradshaw on TV and that infomercial telling us all to get a shingles shot if we have ever had chicken pox. I do that!

Visit Try It on Tuesdays to see more pictures that make you SMILE.

7-31-16 ~Show Your Face ~ 25 Face Quick Draw

Show Your Face over at Kim Dellow's blog.

The prompt for July was Draw Quick Faces 

Last night after by chance seeing Kim's blog in a friend's bloglist, 

I paid it a visit and found something I need to do...learn to draw faces.

They are the hardest things along with perspective that face me.

She posted the cutest page of faces she had drawn and here is the link:

http://www.kimdellow.co.uk/search/label/Show%20Your%20Face

There are also some beautiful faces that other people have drawn.

Instead of posting a single picture of a face, she drew a page of little faces. After looking at hers, I got the idea to try to do something similar so I divided the left hand page in one of my art journals into 25 sections practicing my stippling to create the lines. Then I started drawing. Here is mine.

Now the prompt for August is a REAL toughie...

"Change Hands"

Use your non-dominant hand to draw faces. 

That would be my left.

I am going to use the right side page to see how I do as a comparison.

Wish me luck. Heaven only knows what they are going to look like.

7-31-16 ~ Happiness is....

TAKE A WORD PROMPT ~ HAPPINESS

This is my first watercolor on a wee piece of watercolor paper. I guess it would qualify as a ATC though it might not be the exact measurements.. I did google the internet stock photos for some references Never, did I think I would be able to do a sketch so small. It was such fun to do.

7-31-16 ~ It's Sunday and Barn Day at Tom's Barn Cooperative

Two weeks ago I posted pictures of my dear friend, Tracy's, old unused barn. I loved your comments where you could see that is was quickly going downhill. Well, you were right, and now I will tell you my secret. Those photos were taken probably 4-5 years ago...and what I had in my bonnet was to drive by now, take updated pictures, and post them for you. As I told you, she does not use that barn and it has continued to go downhill. Fortunately, as it was falling down, she found someone who wanted to buy some of the old boards to use with another barn. So.....these shots are what you see today...what is left. It was REALLY raining as I was taking the pictures so bear with me.

 Surprise-Surprise!

This is how the barn looked when I posted the older photo two weeks ago.

You all were right to be concerned about its future.

It was POURING cats and dogs as I drove up.

The funny squiggly thingies you see through the downpour is the barn today.

Needless to say...this was taken from inside the car :-)

And Here's What's Left

Look in the center of this shot. 

It looks to my to be a ghost of the barn rising from the ruins.

The remaining barn is being consumed by the trees and shrubs on the lot. I do not know if the gentleman is going to come and take away anymore of the wood, but I do know one day Tracy would like to sell her big old home across the road and build on this parcel. That would be wonderful for her. She and I taught school together from the time she graduated from college until retirement. She is the age of my daughter so you see...age doesn't make any difference between good friends.We have had some awfully good times together through the years.