Not Expired

Well, I haven't disappeared forever. We left Bastrop on July 4 and headed for New Mexico.

We arrived in Fredricksburg, Texas, just as the parade was starting so had to make a detour.



As we drove down the side street I happened to see this giant cactus. The driveway must be 10 - 12 feet wide, right? So the cactus is just as wide and just as tall or better. Gotta love Texas. :)

I won't bore you with all the details but we came on Interstate 10 to Ft. Stockton before turning north. Ft. Stockton is so bleak. I'm sure the history is very interesting, but that is another story.

I snapped the train station among the over 150 photos on the road trip.



The speed limit on Interstate 10 you can see here. Wow. I'm sure the usual suspects still speed and do 5 mph over the limit, don't you? Scary.



We arrived safely and hung my show on Thursday night. On Friday we went to play golf in Socorro and buy the food for the reception on Saturday.




I was snapping a photo of the water lilly on the right in this photo and the concentric ripples you see on the left about a third of the way up are where Gene's ball had just gone in the water. :) Interesting.

My reception was today, I am very tired and will paint in the yard at Peppers Gallery tomorrow, so will post about all that on Monday from Albuquerque.

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

Sorry we are not with you to celebrate the real deal. Hope your day is just super and that your new year is the same.

Joanna has never liked having her picture taken. She takes after her mother in that respect. She is the photographer, now. Look at those sunflowers and other great photos. Here are a couple of her from the past.



This was a school picture, when she was about six. She looks a little unsure. Can't say as I blame her with the lovely cut of her bangs. Geez, where was her mother? I must have been in a hurry or Gene cut them. :)



This was in La Paz. Must have been a party to go to. Joanna looks great! Ah, she does take after her mother. :)

Happy Birthday again, Joanna

I wrote Joanna's birthday post earlier and stayed up to post it at 1200 midnight for her birthday today. Blogger put it at the time I wrote it so it is dated July 3 and is not my latest post. Irritating!!!!! Please scroll down to see the birthday post!

Happy Birthday Joanna!

Happy Fourth of July to the rest of you.....

Oh, Happy Birthday to Cody and Jerry, too.

**Note on the 4th in the evening late:
I just deleted the earlier post and reposted so it would be on the 4th. Then I read Rose's comment. Too late. :)

Flowers for Katherine

In the spirit of Katherine Tyrrell's recent flower blogs, I'm posting this. If you know of any great books on painting or drawing flowers, pass it on to her. You can also read her informative reviews about her books and may find something you will like.

Here are two of my cactus flowers, old ones, I haven't painted any in a while.

Bloomin' Pears
Oil on board, 5 x 7 inches

Yellows
Pastel on paper, 5 x 7 inches

Hot, Hot, Hot, oh and...Hot.

My friend Leslie is frying eggs on the pavement in Tucson. Hot!

Which reminded me that we have not had the burning hot temperatures yet, but we have had rain and high humidity. 90 feels somewhat like 100 degrees with that old wet stuff added in.



Here is our Bastrop weather from Weatherbug, you can download a little bug to your computer and it keeps you up to date and beeps, well it sounds like a cricket, to get your attention for warnings. You might want to check it out.


Here is the weather in Silver City. It had been 100 degrees there last week and that is where we are going to get out of this heat!! Of course it is drier there and cools off at night so you can open the windows. It is also cool in the shade. But, still, it has been warmer there than you would think!

We shall see how we fare on our trip.

We got a lot done and are almost ready to take off for cooler weather .. we hope .. and my show.

Iquitos on the Amazon, Peru
18 x 24 inches, oil

And here is another hot spot for you, Iquitos, Peru. Jungle hot.

Pre Birthday Party

It was Joanna's pre birthday party today. We will be away for her birthday so we celebrated today. I decided to make a gluten free cake and fool everyone. Well, I 'sort of' doubled the recipe in the book and it came out more like carrot biscuits instead of carrot cake. Oh my. It tasted good though, but no one was fooled. I have the best regular carrot cake recipe in the world so this one wasn't close. At least I could get in on the cake eating. Gene cooked his famous brisket. Jennie and the granddogs were here and Larry. In fact Larry was the first one here .. he is usually late so that made the day even better. Ha. Joanna liked her gifts, all from her wish list and a CD she didn't have, so how could she not like them? And, as they say, a good time was had by all.

This evening I worked on my Peppers Art Gallery page on my web site and added some more of the paintings that are already at the gallery. I think I have most of my gear ready for our trip. That is a good feeling .. so what am I forgetting?

Peppers Window
Pastel 8 x 10 inches, plein air

This painting is sold. Thanks Marky!