Watercolor Dreams
R.G. Ryan is a new author – to me. He has written several books, but I just discovered him yesterday.
We follow each other on X. (He is @RGRyan777) He writes. He plays in a band. He phrases it that he lives with his ‘first wife’ – since my husband does the same, I was immediately intrigued.
Since my funds are limited, I used my Kindle Unlimited membership to obtain the first book in his Jake Moriarity series. In the series, Jake is quite irritated when he is referred to as a ‘private investigator,’ preferring to describing his work as ‘finding lost people or things.’
In “Watercolor Dreams” Jake is looking for a young woman he feels might be in trouble. This isn’t something he has been commissioned to do by a client – he just feels in his gut that something is terribly wrong and he needs to find “Vanessa.” He and his long-time good friend Aaron work together to try to do this.
The story here was good. It kept my interest. I started this book yesterday afternoon and read until I finished it, stopping to feed animals and humans, clean up, etc. plus handle nature calls, but non-stop, otherwise.
I loved R.G. Ryan’s sense of humor and wit sprinkled throughout. His appreciation of irony, his understanding of his strengths and limitations, and laugh at himself, added interest. His description of the bond between Jake Moriarity, the main character, and his friend, Aaron, was moving.
I cared about the characters. I want to know them better. I’ve ordered Book 2 of the 6 book series.
I highly recommend R. G. Ryan.
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews
Waiting for Tuesday
All my life I’ve been waiting – for something.
As a kid, I waited for Christmas, or my birthday, or…
I waited for school to be out.
I waited for summer.
When I fell in love and my to-be husband was in the Marines, I waited for him to come home on leave. I waited for weekends. I waited for him to get out of the Marines. I waited for him to go to the same college as I did. I waited for him to ask me to marry him. I waited for the wedding.
I waited for our children to be born.
I finally decided that I was wishing my life away and that it probably wasn’t the best way to live. I decided to try to live more in the moment, cherishing all that I have.
Now I find myself waiting again. This time it seems kind of silly. I’m waiting for Tuesday. Why?
Our weather is supposed to get above freezing. Things are supposed to start to thaw out. That means we can finally get down our driveway – and back up again. It means freedom to plan our day around what we’d like to do, rather than making the best of things.
My life is a good one. We have gotten through this cold spell, stuck up on our hill, just fine. But I’m WAITING for more – being a greedy lady.
Filed under Challenges
No Lunch Bunch Today
Barn owls are my favorite, and this photo simply takes my breath away.
___________
We had to call our friends and tell them we would not be able to get to Lunch Bunch today. :0( It’s 11 degrees outside right now and the ‘stuff’ on the driveway is solid and quite slippery. We MAY get above freezing Sunday afternoon.
I’m hoping to see if we can gather and drive our trash down to the bottom of the driveway Sunday afternoon before we’re due for either ‘ice and rain’ OR “5-7 inches of snow” Monday, depending on who you’re listening to or reading. Can we have a third choice, please????
We ARE supposed to get a significant warm-up Tuesday. HOOOORAAAAAY! My goal now is to hold everything together until then. We are still fine up on top of our ridge line. Our water pipes have not burst, we have electricity and heat, food, etc.
I woke up to standing water all over the counter around the double sinks in our bathroom upstairs. I called down to my husband. He came up and said something to the effect that, “that’s the setting where it does that” about the faucet we’ve been leaving dripping in his sink during this cold spell. I’m reading this to mean this has happened sometime in the past and he just didn’t say anything. Anyhow, we can’t get anyone up here now. He helped me sop up the water, throw ruined stuff away, and wipe off and put back the salvageable things. Not a great way to start the day…
My husband is enjoying taping and watching some truly awful movies. He enjoys ‘action’ movies, which HE defines in “body counts – the more dead in the most gruesome ways possible, the better.” Needless to say, I’m enjoying computer time, listening to music, reading, playing some in my art room, etc.
I hope that you’re managing to stay sane, dry, warm, and safe during this active winter.
“Every winter has its spring.” ~ H. Tuttle
Filed under Mother Nature, Seasons
More Mosaics
The beauty of these just fills me up. I really can’t believe how mosaics have evolved over time into almost a different art form. This is just amazing.
Filed under mosaic
Cat Love – Lea Roche
“Cats choose us; we don’t own them.” ~ PC Cast and Kristin Cast
“There is, incidently, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person.” ~ Dan Greenberg
“But there was a kitten on my pillow, and it was purring in my face and vibrating gently with every purr, and, very soon, I slept.” ~ Neil Gaiman
“Cats, as you know, are quite impervious to threats.” ~ Connie Willis
“Meow means woof in cat.” ~ George Carlin
“What greater gift than the love of a cat.” ~ Charles Dickens
Filed under animal paintings, Favorite Quotes, L. Roche - artmajeur.com
Thawing a Bit
We’re finally getting a bit of thawing! The schools are still closed, showing our roads are still bad, but we have another good day where we’re above freezing before we have another round of colder tonight and more snow on Monday.
My husband actually drove down the driveway yesterday to get our mail. He said our Blizzaks (snow tires) worked well. I will wait until the driveway looks a bit less like a ski slope and the schools are open before I try it.
I pride myself on always showing up – usually a bit early – for appointments. Suffice to say I HATE not being able to get to ones I’ve scheduled because of the weather. I really don’t like to disrupt other people’s schedules because I can’t get down my own driveway – and up again. The fact that the local schools are still closed this time helps a bit.
I’m ready for spring.
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Mother Nature, Paul Willson, Seasons, Tim Scanlan
The Art of Lynne Davies
Lynne Davies Art - @LynneDaviesArt on X
Filed under animal paintings, Lynne Davies Art
Erzsebet Szilajka Pebble Art 2
I love the way she mixes media in these. She creates a whole story to go with whatever she has made with the stones or pebbles. She paints the background, and maybe even parts of the pebbles – whatever helps create the mood or message. She also uses twine, branches, glass, wood as accents. I think she is a master of pebble art. I just love what she does.
Filed under Erzsebet Szilajka, Stone/Pebble Art
Wednesday 1-17-2024
There might be a bit of light at tunnel’s end today. We’re forecast to get above freezing this afternoon and the sun is shining. Maybe we’ll start to get some melting today.
The schools are closed again, telling me that the streets in Arkansas aren’t much better than our driveway at this point. I’ve had to ask to reschedule a couple of appointments this week. I hate that.
Though I enjoy staying home, it would be NICE to be able to get our mail, take our trash down, keep appointments, drive to town if we wanted to. I’m feeling very lucky, though, that our water pipes are still doing fine, we still have electricity and heat, and we’re doing fine on food for our animals and ourselves. In case you’re interested, I still have the petition asking that the rest of the winter be canceled and that we move right into spring.
I worked on a pyrography piece in my art room yesterday. I’m still experimenting on which tips to use, but I made some progress on a small sign that has an image and a quote. I’m still at the stage where I have little clue what I’m doing, but my interest is building as something I do actually works. My little ‘thumb and two finger’ gloves are working marginally. The tool heats up enough to use and then my fingers quickly get uncomfortable. I’m trying to learn to modify my technique so I can work longer and not burn myself. It’s fun.
I LOVE the way some peoples’ minds work. I snorted when I found this. I want to meet the people who think this way.
I hope you are somewhere safe and warm and that your weather is good, or will get better soon.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Wonderful Mosaics
Filed under mosaic
Weird Start to Our Morning
Besides being 4 degrees (update – we’re now up to 7 degrees) with a wind chill of -22 this morning in ARKANSAS – this has been a weird morning BESIDES the robocall we just received.
When we came downstairs this morning, I made a quick check to be sure our animals were good and that the water was still dripping in our sinks. Our security system was beeping a rhythmic beep. I went around checking doors and windows and couldn’t find anything wrong. The beep was driving me nuts. I didn’t see anything listed on the system control pad, so I just started pushing buttons. I finally got the system to be quiet, but that was followed immediately by the phone ringing – our security system folks.
I was able to remember our password and my name (always a good thing) and assured her we were not under attack. She wanted to know if she should send someone out. I told her that the only way someone could come and SEE us today was if they came in via parachute (explaining about our steep snow and ice covered driveway.) We agreed that we should all not worry about anything and get on with our day.
It’s good to know that there really ARE people on the other end of our system and that they WOULD send people to try to help us if we either didn’t answer the phone or couldn’t give the password.
This morning I’m going to make sure I have the emergency number in my cell phone and that I find the emergency necklace they provided – just in case.
Filed under Challenges
Irony
My husband and I are in our office, each working at our computers. His cell phone rang. He never answers it. He doesn’t keep it with him. He almost never uses it, but was adamant that he have it. Since I want to be able to call HIM – or receive HIS call, if necessary – we do it. It sits, plugged into his charger, on the table beside his computer, gathering dust.
The phone made its annoying noise. (He won’t put his phone on vibrate, either.) It stopped, only to start again immediately. This happened THREE times – back to back. The fourth time I got up and answered it. No one said anything to me. The calling stopped.
I had written down the number and looked it up on my computer. It turned out to be a website called, “RoboKiller” (888-365-5742). It wants you to sign up with them for a fee to stop receiving robo calls.
Hahahahahaahahahahaahah 😂
Filed under Grin for the Day
Art is Emotion
I appreciate art work of all types. I can look at a painting and appreciate the expertise that went into it, its inherent beauty – but unless it SPEAKS to me – makes me FEEL something, it isn’t really ‘art’ to me.
I want to REACT when I see a photo, a painting, a sculpture. I might want to TOUCH it to fully appreciate the 3-D-ness or texture. I might tear up. I might smirk or laugh. I might be so touched I feel as if I melted into a puddle. I might wish I could BE there. I want to BE different because I saw it.
Filed under Favorite Things
Erzsebet Szilajka Pebble Art
I love the way she combines painting, pebble art, and story-telling. A true artist.
Filed under Erzsebet Szilajka, Stone/Pebble Art
Oh… SNOW…..
Officially, we got about 2 inches of snow. I say, ‘officially,’ because official statistics usually don’t apply to being on top of our ridge line outside of Greenwood, which is outside of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
However much we got, you can no longer see that we HAVE a concrete pad in front of our porch in the front of our house. You can no longer see that we HAVE a driveway at all. The temperature was 1 degree this morning, according to the local weather office. It’s 8 here now with a wind chill. Even if the sun came out and the temperature went above freezing (not expected until at least Wednesday) our driveway will be the last thing in the city to thaw.
(To the left of the woodpile in this photo is the top of our driveway. 650+ feet down the hill is the street. This is on the north side of our property.)
We are very lucky because our water pipes are still good and haven’t burst. We learned the hard way on that the first winter we were here, with the pipes bursting under the utility room bathroom. We had to have the floor dug up, the pipes repaired, etc. Expensive, well-remembered event.
Now we run a steady stream of water in that bathroom sink. We keep the cabinet doors open and have an electric heater that turns itself on if the temperature goes to a certain level. We have two other bathroom sinks in the house that are in jeopardy and do the cabinet doors and running water thing there, too. Our water bill will be astronomical, but much less expensive than burst pipes.
We have an electric heater in the well house that turns itself on, as well. We noticed a lower water pressure this morning. Usually, I wash my hair in the kitchen sink, with our tankless water heater making the water hot toward the end of my wash. Apparently the water pressure was low enough the tankless wasn’t sensing properly. Anyway, I had a really eye-opening hair wash this morning before the water finally started warming up.
I’m very thankful that we have intact water pipes, running water in the house if we want it. We’re warm and dry. I can complain as I refill the bird feeders on the deck, then come back in to the warm and cozy. Since we’re snowed in until further notice, we’re as well off as anyone could be.
I checked on significant people in my life this morning and all are well. Life is good (but I still have the petition here to sign if you want the rest of the winter scrapped and to move right on to spring.)
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Ronnie Gould Ceramics 2
Filed under ceramics, Clay Art, Ronnie Gould Ceramics
Karla Schuster Paper Art
Filed under collage, Karla Schuster Paper Art, paper art
Balmy 9 Degrees
Our local weather station in Fort Smith is listing 1 degree now, but OUR thermometers are showing 9, so we’re breaking out the swim suits and are preparing to enjoy the balmy weather.
I feel guilty when I whine, so suffice to say this cold is unusual for Arkansas. We’re dripping water so hopefully our water pipes don’t freeze. With snow predicted to start at noon and continue through tomorrow, my articulate comment is “UGH.”
My husband asked if I would make my hamburger casserole, so I’ll do that today. Unbelievably, our dog, Amber, is still shedding at a fantastic rate, so I’ll put vacuuming the tiled areas on the list for today, as well.
I’m planning to spend part of the day in my art room, experimenting and scheming, if not actually trying to produce something with my new wood-burning (pyrography) tools.
Another thing I was forced to notice, since we’re running water in the bathrooms and keeping the cabinet doors open, is that I need to clean out the under-the-cabinet areas in the two half-baths on our first floor. They are embarrassingly jammed full of ‘stuff’ that I’ve been ignoring for far too long. With the doors open, I can’t ignore them now, so that will go on the list for today, too.
I hope that wherever you are today, you are safe and warm, doing something fun with your day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Fun Ahead!
I’ve told you that I’m trying to learn how to do wood-burning, or pyrography. It’s difficult, to say the least, because you can’t hold the tool down close enough to the tip to allow you to feel in control, plus each tip does certain things best, and it takes a LOT of experimenting and practice to be able to choose the right one and use it effectively.
I have a tool now, and tips, and a holder, and safety stuff. I’ve been experimenting, and sometimes get excited about the results and many more times hit stumbling blocks. Example: I’ve learned how to transfer a design – should I choose to do something NOT freehand – but had a really hard time trying to do lettering around it. Needless to say, I have a LOT of practicing to do.
I got a fun package in the mail today – I ordered some different sizes and shapes of wood so that I have something to do the pyrography ON when I can –
I now also have a couple of different wood stains now, plus varnish.
SO – the only thing holding me back is
- courage
- practice
- ideas
- practice
- time
- practice
- energy
- practice
- learning – videos
- PRACTICE
Filed under Challenges, playing in my art room
Ronnie Gould Ceramics
Filed under ceramics, Clay Art, Ronnie Gould Ceramics
I Love David Zinn’s Mind
He sees a couple of gum spots on the sidewalk.
I LOVE the way his mind works. That he has the talent to share his thoughts with us is a true gift for us. :0)
Filed under David Zinn - Street Artist, drawings
Reprieve
Whew! It’s supposed to get above freezing this afternoon, so we’ll hopefully be able to get down our driveway to pick up two days worth of mail and scoot to the local grocery store for goodies before we get snowed in again.
The forecast is for snow starting tomorrow about noon and continuing through Tuesday morning accompanied by bitter cold temperatures for Arkansas throughout the week. The weather people sound really sure this time. With our driveway, we may be snowed in throughout all of next week. We’ll see.
I don’t mind being ‘snowed in’ so much as no one being able to get up here if we need help. The UPS and Fedex people leave our packages at the bottom of our driveway when it’s CLEAR. Emergency vehicles of any kind wouldn’t have a chance.
I have two people who have kindly offered to sign the petition I started to do away with the rest of this winter and move straight into spring. The petition is here, waiting for more signatures. I don’t know how many we would need in order for something to HAPPEN, but I’m ready. :0)
In the meantime, stay safe, dry, and warm.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Whine and Cheese
Our snow this morning turned out to be no big deal. Even with the temperature at 26, the breezy winds are causing the snow to break up.
The thing is, the streets are getting colder each day and it’s more likely that the NEXT snow WILL be a problem. Our steep driveway is a problem no matter what. We’ll watch and see how things go this weekend. We may be able to get out tomorrow and get some last-minute goodies that will make our enforced ‘housedom’ more bearable.
We don’t have any appointments until Tuesday, but that’s AFTER we’re supposed to get more snow Sunday and Monday, in particular.
I’m serving ‘whine’ with cheese in case anyone is having a pity party… :0)
Filed under Mother Nature
A Dog is a Dog For All That
“Everything I know, I learned from dogs.” ~ Nora Roberts – The Search
“Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.”– Orhan Pamuk (author, My Name Is Red)
“Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” – Agnes Sligh Turnbull (author, The Wedding Bargain)
“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” – Roger Caras (photographer and writer)
“Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses.” – Elizabeth Taylor (actress)
“The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.” – Charles De Gaulle
Thanks to AKC Staff (American Kennel Club) for these quotes.
Ooooh!
We’re having what is considered by many (myself included) to be ‘uncivilized’ weather here in Arkansas today – and until further notice.
It’s 24 degrees F. right now. I don’t know what the low was this morning, and it MAY get above freezing today. In fact, we’re supposed to get snow Sunday and Monday, with lows down to -2 one day next week, and only breaking above freezing for highs starting Wednesday or so.
We’re snowed in right now. I had to call my friends and tell them we weren’t coming to Lunch Bunch. Thankfully, we were all in agreement about the insanity of risking falling on our heads. Hopefully, we can meet NEXT Friday. David, the owner of The Pizza Barn where we meet, opens early just for my friend Kay. I called him to let him know we wouldn’t meet today. He said he was glad we weren’t going to risk it.
We’ll stay home in our cozy home, dripping water nightly in the hope that our pipes don’t freeze, and wait this out. I’m more than ready for spring.
Filed under Mother Nature, Seasons
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