Happy Birthday G!

This was George's birthday card this year. This vintage style is everywhere right now and I love it!  Instead of going out to dinner George requested an evening of baseball watching at home. So we ate dinner by the fire and had cupcakes for dessert.  Happy Birthday G!

Spring Grove Beech Tree Sketch

My friend Christina and I walked at Spring Grove Monday and we stopped and sketched at one of my favorite spots.  I decided to sketch this beech tree because I love all of its gnarly bumps and ridges.  The bare lump and the folds surrounding it reminded me of an elephant knee.  Christina sketched the incredible fall color below.  You can see her awesome sketch here.

I have been trying to loosen up my sketching and watercolor a bit and I would like to take it even farther.  I am so inspired by the sketches of Marc Taro Homes... they are amazing the way they are detailed and loose at the same time. I guess if I aspire to improve I need to practice, practice, practice.  I wouldn't even have brought my sketchbook if it hadn't been for Christina.  She is good about prodding me to sketch but I am always torn between photographing and sketching.  I suppose both are possible and they support each other, so hopefully I will be posting more sketches soon. 

Rusty wrenches

When my mom and I were at the Springfield Antique show we came upon a table chock full of junky junk.  And what caught my eye?... but these wonderful wrenches.  For some reason I am completely drawn to old rusty metal objects and I was immediately in love with the curvy one shown above.  I noticed how beautifully the big wrench fits right into the curve of the curvy wrench and I started arranging them as I am wont to do.  The owner of the junk noticed my interest and approached.  Although I had no intention of buying them I asked, "How much for the wrenches?"  He replied, "Three dollars."  Without hesitation I said, "I'll take them!"  And that is the story of how I became the proud owner of these gorgeous wrenches.  

Heirloom Pumpkin Love

One of my absolute favorite fall activities is picking out a pumpkin.  When my mom and I were at the Springfield Antique Extravaganza I found this heirloom pumpkin that now graces my entry table.  It's hard to put into words, but something about those deep grooves and the squat shape of the pumpkin makes it insanely cute to me.  What that says about my personality I don't know, but I do know that every time I come down the stairs and see this pumpkin I am absurdly happy.

Spring Grove Sketch

My friend Christina and I walked and sketched yesterday at Spring Grove Cemetery.  We ended up sketching this mausoleum that belonged to the Robinson family (click to enlarge).  Christina is an incredible illustrator and never fails to inspire me.  Sometimes I just sit and study her beautiful watercolor sketches.  You can see her sketch here.  Thanks Christina for getting me out sketching!

Datura Pod

When I was on my walk the other day I did a double take when I saw these incredible pods.  For years I have walked by this same driveway that always has angel trumpets growing at the edge, but I never noticed the pods before.

When I looked it up on Wikipedia I found a few interesting facts.  The name Datura comes from the Hindi word for "thorn apple" and I can definitely see why.  It also belongs to the classic witches weeds, along with the deadly nightshade, henbane, and mandrake (remember that from Harry Potter?) and was a well-known, essential ingredient in love potions and witches brews.  Most parts of the plant contain hallucinogenic toxins and, if ingested, will cause an unpleasant delirium and possible death.  The white flower of this plant is as big as my hand, trumpet-shaped, and quite striking and is sometimes called Moonflower.

When I read all this I picture lots of little witches alighting from their brooms on a full moon evening in October gathering these seed pods for their potions.  I just know I won't be harvesting any Datura flowers for flower arranging this fall and I hope to avoid any such love potions this Halloween!

Tomato Joy

We've had a plethora of beautiful cherry tomatoes from Hazelfield Farms this year.  They looked so cute in this green pyrex bowl I had to take their picture.

Still hoping for some warm days but fall is definitely here.  I may just have to get my sunshine from these tomatoes which appear like little balls of sun.  Pure tomato joy!

Chicken Feeder Light

I am so excited to finally post my new chicken feeder light!  Last spring my mom and I came across this light in a booth at the Springfield Antique Extravaganza.  I liked it but I hadn't done any research about such things and I decided I could look around online.  I took the woman's card at the booth and put it in the bottomless pit that is my purse.

When I got home I did some research to try and see if I could make my own but I couldn't find any that I liked as well as the one I saw at the show.  Then I just plain got busy and forgot about it for a good four months.

Finally in August I came across the card in my purse and my birthday was coming up so I decided to splurge.  I called the number on the card hoping against hope that by some miracle the woman still had that exact light.  I guess it was my lucky day because she still had it!  Now this beauty lives in my basement thanks to a little handiwork from my hubby.

While I was downstairs today George came down and found me totally enraptured while taking photos.  His comment was, "I'm not sure I see it like you do."  I assured him that after I was done with these photos that he too would fall in love with the chicken feeder light.  I think that's why I like photography.  I want other people to see things as I see them...to see the beautiful lines and patina in a chicken feeder light.  I'm not sure if George fell in love, but I am totally smitten.

Canaan Valley, West Virginia

My friend Christina told me about a great app for the iTouch called Autostitch and I love it! I used it recently on a trip to Canaan Valley, West Virginia.  You can take as many pictures as you want and it stitches them together.  I can't say I love the quality of the iTouch photos, but you can get some neat panoramas with it.  Unfortunately the blog is not the best place to display a panorama, but you can click on it to make it larger.

This lake was near the house we rented and we biked around it and had some great hikes up in the Dolly Sods area.  We also visited Blackwater Falls State Park to see the falls and hike out to an amazing overlook at Lindy Point.  It was really beautiful country and reminded me of my old bear project days in NC.  No bear sightings on this trip but one can always hope.

Turk's Cap Cactus

One of my favorite inhabitants of St. John's was the Turk's Cap Cactus.  This cactus is native to the West Indies and is characterized by a large cylindrical cap called a cephalium.  When I did a web search I found it described as "grotesque, unusual, and bizarre," but I personally would describe them as incredibly cute.  If it weren't for those rows of sharp spines you might want to pick it up and give it a snuggle or punt it like a football.  It is also clearly a very tenacious plant, often barely clinging to life by a withered-looking umbilical cord emerging from a dry rock bed.  If I lived in St. John I would want my whole yard filled with these pot-bellied wonders.  If this drought continues here in Cincinnati my wish may come true because cacti may be all that will grow in my yard.

Concordia Eco Tents, St. John

This spring some friends of ours asked us if we were interested in going on vacation with them to St. John's in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  They had researched the trip and found a great place to stay called Concordia Eco-Resort on the southeast end of the island.  So this July we met them and rented two "tabins" as we liked to call them and had a great trip.  I've never stayed in a place that had such an incredible view!

The tabins were "eco" because all of the electricity was from solar power, the water was from rainwater, and the toilets were composting.  I was a little worried about the toilets, but they worked great and were totally fine.  Our main problem was our tent's location didn't get much wind and there was not any air conditioning so it got hot a night.  Our friends stayed in P11 and had an incredible breeze the entire time.  Our tent also had more mosquitoes because of this lack of breeze.  If we went again I would want to stay in any tent from P17-P11, although the edge tents might get a little too much breeze (see property map here). 

As you can see in the photo above the walk to the beach was short: maybe about 10-15 minutes.  The snorkeling was awesome at this beach and on the whole island.  I got to see a hawksbill turtle, a nurse shark, rays, tons of colorful fish, starfish, and really incredible corals.  I wish we had purchased an underwater camera for the trip because it was truly amazing down there. 

The photo above is of tent P10 and the photo below is the inside of P11.  We (I should say Ken) did a lot of cooking in the tent.  The stove was powered by propane and there is also a small solar-powered refrigerator.  The water in the tent is not potable, but the potable water was close by...you just had to fill up some water jugs and bring it back. One of the best features of the tents were the balconies.  At night you could see the Milky Way and lots of shooting stars.  

We had a wonderful trip. Thank you Ken, Susan, Ellie, & Ian for including us on your vacation!

Garden of the Gods

I wasn't going to post any more pictures from the Taos trip, but when I went back through I just had to post these Garden of the Gods photos.  The last day of the trip we drove up through Colorado to catch our flight in Denver and Christina (my travel partner) suggested we stop here.  It was a super hot and sunny day but it was worth it to see these amazing rock formations.   I love the color of the rocks and how their surfaces have been worn smooth. The second photo below was one of my favorites and reminded me of Jabba the Hutt. Oh, and if you look really closely you can see a climber in the photo above.

Taos Sketchbook

Now that you've seen all my photos from my Taos trip I thought I'd finally scan some of my sketches from my homemade sketchbook.   I'd say about half of these were done on the trip and the other half I did back at home.  I think if I had to do the trip over again I would force myself to do more sketching on site.  It was just hard not to take photos because I love taking photos and there was so much awesomeness to photograph. 

My goal is to keep this sketching habit up and to force myself to draw more.  It is amazing how much it informs my other work and how freeing it is to just draw...with real pencil and paper and no computer!  A bit scary at times...no "undo" button, but it forces me to be present in the moment and that is always a good thing.

Cowboy Country

These are the last of my Taos photos.  The photo above was taken of a driveway entry portal across from the Earthships near Taos.  I love when people take the time and initiative to do something interesting when they could have chosen otherwise.

The branch below and the Sacred Heart Church (third photo down) were both taken on the road to Taos from Santa Fe.  There is a highway between the two, but if you ever get the chance to drive the back way it is a wonderful scenic drive.

The two sunset photos were taken south of Taos at a rest stop.  One night our group went up there to take photos of the sunset and it did not disappoint.  I decided to spare you and not post all 100 photos I took that evening.  It was hard to narrow it down to just two because the whole sky changed so dramatically every minute. The following quote is from Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather and is one of my favorite descriptions of New Mexico:

"The sky was as full of motion and change as the desert beneath it was monotonous and still,—and there was so much sky, more than at sea, more than anywhere else in the world. The plain was there, under one's feet, but what one saw when one looked about was that brilliant blue world of stinging air and moving cloud. Even the mountains were mere ant-hills under it. Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!"