Tantivy

For better or worse, I'm back. Someone asked this week what was with the blog and I have to say that I don't quite know. Suddenly I wasn't drawing or blogging either one. I was reading, so maybe I can blame it on Louise Penny, whose ten books I read in about a week. I also went to Tullahoma and to the doctor with Dean and I have done some work on the house, changing things around once more and...the time just flew.  What has been done, though, is this. I moved dishes and other stuff around in the kitchen. It seems to take living with things for a while before their best places can be found. When we had the family over for DH's birthday I discovered that earlier in the summer I had put too many glasses up way too high to be used so that cabinet was rearranged. The upper and lower cabinets on the other side were also rearrange slightly so that now the pantry is a little easier to work in.  I also took another shot at gettin...

When I read about the summer snow in the northwest I hoped that we would get some of that cool air and today we did. It is such a welcome break from the hot and humid days that we have been having. It was so nice, in fact, that I cut the grass and did not pass out from the heat! I also went to the grocery store for a few items, put a quilt on the frame, did some laundry, finished a book and took the car through the carwash. For me that is a busy day. Tonight I have opened windows (the ones we have gotten open) and I am looking forward to a cool night's sleep, smelling the air scented by the Mars plant. I think they are baking the cookie part of TWIX. About the book I finished. I read a mention of author Louise Penny and have since then been devouring her mysteries. The hero is Superintendent Armand Gamache who has thoughtful brown eyes and  non of the brashness usually associated with crime solvers. Set in Quebec, the stories are peopled with a variety of characters who develop t...

 The big boy dog is gone. According to the poems, etc. that we got from the pet crematorium, he is waiting for us at the rainbow bridge and when we get there we will all cross together. It is kinda sweet, I guess. And it is kinda hokey, too. It can, if I think about it, make me tear up, but I no longer cry.  This box is labeled so no one will accidentally open it! I can't decide what to do with it. Eventually we will bury it in the back yard but a lot of work has to be finished there so the burial will have to wait. He is now on the end table.  Would the coffee table be a better place? I would like to plant a box of grass and put him in the middle because he like grass so much, but I think that might not work too well for very long. Decisions, decisions! Maybe a box of grass on the back porch until it gets too cold. DH suggested the mantel but I vetoed that.  Our painting class this last time was looking at the impressionists and doing a pain...

Back to the real blog soon. Jackson has not recovered and he is being sent on tomorrow at 10:00. It is hard to say goodbye to what our neighbor called "such an amiable" dog. Tail always wagging, ready to play with anyone, person or dog, no matter what size. Always gentle although sometimes rather stubborn, Jackson has been a beautiful, blonde baby. He is sometimes aggravating as he wants to be petted constantly, but I never heard him growl. When he was awake, his tail was in motion but now it is still, he is skin and bones, and it is time. When I get my feet back under me the blog will start again.  All is well, and all will be well,  XOXOXO Caroline

It has been well over a week since I have posted. Two weeks? I really don't know and I don't even have any photographs to illustrate what all had been happening.  Sara came here and helped her dad with the fence in the back yard. We now have fence all around although on two sides it is only horse wire heeled to metal posts. That will all change, but at this time I am just so glad to be able to let the dogs out in the yard without having to be there holding their leashes that I do't even care about how beautiful the fence is. I see it as lovely! Jackson also had knee surgery, began a nice recovery, had a failure of the surgery, had more surgery with its associated risk of infection, opened the wound, and refused the 10 horse pills a day without a real set to between the two of us. At that point I began giving him injections of antibiotic every day, trying to keep him from licking, etc. That guy can lick a would even with a cone around his neck and can remove any ban...

It has been a busy week. Sara is here helping DH with the fence.  There have been a few problems so not as much has been done as they hoped would be by now, but they continue to work and hope to get it all done. I have been drawing as well as working in the house and taking another painting class. I try to get one thing or group of things put away/taken care of/hauled off every week. Today I made a trip to GoodWill with several bags of things and also trimmed some more bushes and some small dead limbs out of the dogwood. If I do a little every day or week, it will get done. A little drawing for Liz Steel's online class at Sketchbook Skool.  A sketch of the bell tower of our church. I had never realized how detailed it is until I started to draw it. Obviously I did not use a ruler. The line in the upper right sky is a detail of the bricks. I think I will be drawing this or parts of it for a while.  Following a suggestion to use pictures of yourself to draw f...

After moving all the furniture I decided that I missed the table in the kitchen so I moved it all again - by myself this time except for some help from DH with the big table.  I THINK that I might leave it this way for a while. DH and I decided to give up the cable TV ; that gave us more room in the living room. We have a small antenna that we can place in the window upstairs and there is a nice but small TV up there (in fact the larger one is there ,too) so I think that we will be able to go up there and watch anything important. Tornado warnings, Downton Abbey, you know what important stuff is. Here is the end where the TV used to be. There is seating for six and there are lamps for reading and a coffee table. At the other end is my work table where I draw and a chair where I read. It is more or less my office when I am not in my studio.  This table has been replaced in the kitchen. I moved the rug in there for Jackson who is having more surgery for his knee. T...