three happy things

First thing:

This little postcard-size oil painting arrived from Scotland today.

The artist is a Canadian landscape painter, Roberta Murray.

My snap does not do it justice - it is a gem!

It was one of the donated postcards in the Twitter Art Exhibit 2019, which each year moves to a different location around the world, holds a gallery show followed by online sales, and each year donates the proceeds to a different charity. The postcards are all priced at 30 pounds, or 4 for 100 pounds, and this year I decided to treat myself to one by skimming the requisite $48.01 from the grocery budget.

Bonus: a week of innovative eating! I cleaned out the bottom shelf in the cupboard where many interesting things had been hiding, and also indulged a serious fondness for jello, which I had sort of forgotten about. So it was a big win, all the way around.

And I am giddy with delight at this painting!

Second thing:

If you've been following this blog for a while, you may remember one of the (supposedly) perennial plants I bought a few years ago - a rudbeckia with velvety almost-brown petals.

The plant did not survive the winter, unfortunately. I loved it so much I've tried to replace it each year since but have never seen it. Until today! One of the many nurseries that kindly emails hard-to-resist offers on what seems to be an hourly basis alerted me to a major sale on perennial plants today. For some reason, I decided to scroll through all the plants, pages and pages of them, even though many of them were already marked "Sold Out." And there, at the bottom of the last page, the very last plant in the perennial sale, was a plant that looks exactly like that marvelous brown velvet rudbeckia. It had originally been priced at $20, and the sale price was $6, so...I ordered four. I will plant them in different locations to see what conditions they will enjoy most, and I will try to keep at least one alive as a potted plant through the winter. I am so excited about this!

Funny note:

after placing the order I thought sternly, 

"I've got to get a hold of myself.

These self-indulgent weekends could become addictive!"

Then I realized it's Wednesday.

Third thing:

By some kind of miracle, I was able to buy another 30 bales of hay and put them in the roundtop today. It's first cut grass from 2018, and should see me through until first cut 2019 is available.

$245.

Makes the rudbeckia and the painting seem like quite a bargain, doesn't it?

~~~~~

june

I'm actively adding something positive to June, by participating in #growjune on twitter. It's a monthly art challenge; people try to post a new piece each day, with either a certain theme (like #growjune) or in a particular medium (like #paintSeptember). Running a hashtag search instantly displays everything that has been posted each day. The results are varied and interesting!

It's just a fun way for people at any level to share work and encourage each other. If you feel like jumping in, let me know!

I may not manage to post something every day in #growjune - but I will try. It's very satisfying to look back and see seven or twelve or twenty-five pieces in a month.

Would you like to see my first effort for #growjune 2017? It's this ink and watercolor sketch of a section of Solomon's Plume. And that's my actual thumb at the bottom, not a super-realistic painting of my thumb ;)

~~~~~

wordless wednesday

~~~~~

destiny

LOL for a Monday! http://t.co/ZSIr4wbLGA

  — Muriel B (@QuiltingMuriel) October 28, 2013

Reading this on twitter made me laugh out loud.

Which brought Piper charging across the room, tail wagging, to fling herself down directly in front of my chair.

 Enough said?

 ~~~~~

words change everything

I don't spend a lot of time on Twitter, but for about a year now it has been a very useful source of up-to-date information, and has provided a few good laughs as well.

Every now and then, a tweet really makes me think, or see something in a new way. I love that.


Today this popped up:

The tarantula is usually an elusive spider, but the males wander the foothills in the fall looking for mates.... http://t.co/XbTaM9iQ7A
— Sequoia & Kings Park (@SequoiaKingsNPS) October 17, 2013

Not the kind of image that usually comes to mind when I think of tarantulas.

Wandering the foothills in the fall, looking for mates.

I think it's the "wander the foothills" phrase. Those low, gentle hills, rising toward the mountains. From a tarantula-viewpoint, the foothills themselves must loom as high as mountains.

The rustle of drying underbrush and the clear golden autumn air.

I can see it, I can feel it.

I can relate.

Well done, National Park Service tweet-composer. You have changed my view of tarantulas. And in a good way.

Thank you! @QuinnPiper

~~~~~