For the folks back home

Sabbatical update photo essay!  Huzzah!  I'm one week in on the big trip, and all is going super well.  I'm traveling this leg of the journey with my friend Liz, and we are getting along like peas in a pod.  Really, I even sing in the car in front of her.  We've been experiencing the blessings of the road, serendipity and hospitality and happenstance.  I'm writing right now from Durango, Colorado, and it's time for a quick tour of the trip to this point.

We had two great visits with friends in Pittsburg and Goshen, IN, but the photos only get interesting  once we cross the mighty Mississippi.

Then we had a great night in Iowa.  Really, all my preconceived notions of Iowa as a flat corn-riddled wasteland were shattered, it's a beautiful state full of rolling hills and big skies.  And llamas.  We stayed with Becky and Brian in their cool geodesic house and got up at the crack of dawn to walk the llamas in the Iowa sunrise.  I now love llamas.  Becky and Brian are fantastic hosts.

Even though I named my cat after Nebraska, the less said about this next leg the better.  We drove through a whole of stuff that looked like this.

But then we got to Colorado!  Spent a few days in Denver catching up with friends, work, dinosaur tracks, altitude and sleep.  And exploring Red Rocks!  You can see the famous amphitheater in the middle distance, and we also took a hike around through the rocks.  Bonus to the beauty was that a three-day Grateful Dead "Further" concert was about the start, and the place was hopping with a dose of Dead culture and it was pretty entertaining.

And then off through the mountains, where the aspens are peaking RIGHT NOW and the mountainsides are bursting with incandescent golden craziness.

Bonus serendipity was a random stop at a place called the Pony Espresso in Jefferson, CO, where the lovely women who own the shop decided on the spot to carry my notecards!  I can't fill the order until I get home, but am excited to have a presence in CO in such a sweet place.

Tomorrow, on to Mesa Verde (a life-long dream) and points west.

The year in preview

The calendar is done!  As you know because I kept harping on it, I've been pushing for the last few weeks to get this new series of paintings done.  Here they are...and they are at the printer even as I type.  Lord willing and the creeks don't rise, I expect to have them on my website and at the market this weekend.  Which is your favorite?

Autumn creeping in around the edges

Well hello there September.  Where did August go?  I was just having a nice conversation with summer, but he seems to have left the room.  It's suddenly September, with little leaves on my running trails, and I needed socks yesterday.

Happily though, I haven't been blogging because I've been creating.  August was a busy month.  Remember those 360 wine glasses that needed to be painted?  The LAST load of them is cooling in the oven even as I type.  I'm concentrating on getting my 2013 calendar paintings done, and have the lofty goal of getting the calendars to the printer on Monday.  I'm in Handwork now.  And I'm leaving in just over a week for my mini-sabbatical and need to get cracking on the packing.

Sabbatical!  YES!  I wanted to do this a few years ago, and it didn't come together...but now the stars are aligned and I'm taking off across the country in my shiny red car to see the world outside of Ithaca.  I won't be back until early November, so many stray ducks also need to be aligned along with the stars.

 Here are two watercolor paintings for the calendar, Miss February and Mr November.

PS- I've had some inquiries about the baby chicken...sadly, she disappeared one night a few months ago.  I went out in the morning to let everyone out, and the front door of the coop was wide open.  It's a mystery.  The flocks is doing very well though, the new hens are laying now and they are friendly and hysterical.