Peculiar Sights | Cabin Art

Short Mural Break

Two workdays per week are already scheduled to the point that working on the mural at Mooney Grove cannot happen.

One of those days involved taking a walk around a park in Exeter. It was a little bit boring (I am ruined by Mooney Grove for big empty-ish grassy lots masquerading as parks). To keep my interest, I listened to a fabulous interview on Donald Miller’s Storybrand podcast.

I also photographed wildflowers in the lawn, along with other items (non-volunteer) of natural color. These are weeds within a lawn but it doesn’t really matter. They get watered and mowed, and they add green to the landscape. This appears to be a squirrel and gopher-free park, so the grass is quite well-maintained.

First, the “weeds”:

Now, the planted colors:

And one weird little imposter: I thought this might be an aberrant red leaf even though there were several. When I enlarged the photo, I saw it is a piece of woven fabric, such as a petal to a silk rose. Ha ha, fooled me. A peculiar sight indeed!

Later that day during drawing lessons, we had an event worth sharing: a student finished a drawing and signed it! Way to go, Jane!

drawing lessons lessons

A Funny Walk at Hume

There is a funny walk at Hume, which most of the residents call a “hike”, but this ain’t Mineral King, folks. (What a snob I am!)

The walk is best enjoyed in photos. Let’s go!

I believe this qualifies as a Peculiar Sight.

Hume Lake little brown church

Plein Air Painting in the House

A teacher once called me a “maverick”, because I kept testing the boundaries of the assignments. Gretchen Rubin would classify me as a “Questioner”, one who wants to know why and only does things that make sense.

Last week we were admiring the view out of the living room window. While standing outside, the view is a bit different, and there isn’t enough room on that particular terrace to set up an easel. So, Trail Guy suggested I set up in the living room and paint the scene out of the window. Since it was a 95° day, that sounded like a good idea to me.

Whoa! That’s a bobcat! Are the grandkitties secure in the workshop?? Where is Scout? Where is Tucker?

Beginnings (and an emergency photo on the screen of the computer, on which I am listening to a podcast called “What Should I Read Next”).

I can’t figure out where to stand to show you both the view and the painting in progress.

This one is looking sort of “meh” to me. I do believe it will require another session, preferably when the temperature is lower and there isn’t a plumber in the house (because distractions do make a difference in my ability to concentrate.)
Will I add pink roses? Red roses (also visible from the window)? The birdhouse? This is why we are supposed to do sketches before beginning to paint.

Redbud Festival on Mother’s Day weekend.

Sightseeing in Georgia

After class on day 2 and before class on day 3, I went driving around, looking for things, taking in all the sights. I love exploring!

There is always time to look at wildflowers.

Laurel told me this church, which was in the Eugenia Price novels, was a must-see. When she said Eugenia is buried in the adjoining cemetery, I asked for directions. Something was happening inside the church, so I didn’t go inside.

I wondered around among the graves, but didn’t take many photos. It was tempting, because I saw a plot called “Graves” and another one called “Coffin”. There was also one called “Outlaw”. These were people’s names, of course.

I met someone who showed me what I was looking for.

The next morning I drove through the Victorian neighborhood of Brunswick, just being a looky-loo. It isn’t often I get to see such fabulous houses or such a variety of architecture, so I was definitely gawking.

For sale. I wonder how much they are asking. I ducked it (DuckDuckGo is my preferred search engine) and saw there are 800-1600 homes for sale there. Not gonna find this one easily.

Churches on every corner. I didn’t have time to capture them all, but none were the plain-Janes of Tulare County.

I couldn’t figure out the meaning of this. Finally my host explained it to me. It means that bridges ice up sooner than the roads do.

These flowers were profuse and beautiful. I bought a wildflower guide to learn the name. None of the people I was hanging out with had much interest in wildflowers, definitely not the way we have been going gaga in Tulare County this spring.

Marsh, marsh, marsh. This is one of the draws of the area. What’s the difference between a marsh and a swamp? Do people go wading out in the marshes? Are there wildflowers out there? wildlife? Do people drown? So many questions.

My wildflower guide was grossly inadequate.

But, it did have the name of this beauty, an unfortunate moniker of “Spiderwort”. What??

More Heart Rock Walk

Should that be “Rock Wock” or “Ralk Walk”? Isn’t English weird?

This is the first one I ever noticed. It is the only pink one and appears to be a broken heart.

But the sun makes the hills in sunshine look weird and washed out. This is another beautiful decorative gate (remember yesterday’s? Probably the same mason.) We seem to live in a gated community.

Doesn’t this make you wish you got up in the dark to go walking in Three Rivers?

Heart Rock Walk

My walking partner and I walk several roads in our neighborhood, often so early in the a.m. that we need flashlights. (We’ve learned the traffic patterns, cross the highway carefully and listen for cars–thank you for your concern.) A few years ago we began noticing heart rocks in the asphalt on one particular road. On Sunday, I took my camera and we found 10 heart rocks! Today I’ll show you five, along with a little bit of scenery (yep, trespassing again.) The rock photos were taken after the scenery ones, on the way back home when the light was better. They are all about an inch high in real life.

The blurry photo caused me to keep this one small for you. We debated on whether or not it qualified.

This is early in the morning, so the light is not very conducive to great photography. But oh my, what a beautiful fence and entry gate!

At least with the poor light, you won’t know where I was trespassing and turn me in!

Tomorrow I’ll show you the rest of the heart rocks and the rest of the walk in better light.

Trail Half-Day

Yesterday I promised to show you the hike my walking buddy T and I took one morning instead of our usual ground-pounding fast walk. (This qualifies as a hike because we carried food and water.) We drove about 10 minutes into Sequoia National Park, a little ways past the entrance station in order to walk to Shepherd Saddle.

This was our view when we started around 8:30. Sure felt casual compared to our normal meeting time of 6:00.

We were expecting rain and wanted to test our new parkas, but Sycamore Creek was the only water we saw besides some puddles and a few water troughs for the stock.

Now here is a peculiar sight. Have you ever seen a horse with a perm?

The clouds obstructed most views of the mountains except for a tiny piece poking out.

The manzanita were almost the only flowers we saw.

The clouds were beautiful looking down the canyon.

And here we are, at the gate on Shepherd’s Saddle. We are on National Park land; the other side is a mystery as to ownership.

T gave me a tangerine, and it was so pretty I photographed it before peeling it. We left the emergency M&Ms unopened – please be impressed.

Going home was much quicker. Duh. It was all downhill.

We wondered if it had more water flowing on the way back down, but didn’t pursue the question.

Okay, Central California artist, get to your easel and start painting.

Memorial service for The Cowboy
Bert Raymond Weldon, May 21, 1956 — January 8, 2019
CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND RECEPTION Friday, March 15, 2019, 11:00 a.m. CrossCity Christian Church, 2777 E. Nees Avenue, Fresno, California 93720

Shepherd's Saddle Three Rivers

Learned in February

Did I learn anything in February of this year?

Maybe.

Spectrum is giving Huge & Rude a run for their money. We want to switch: landlines, television, internet. As with everything, it is easy-peasy when you talk to a salesman but muy complicated in reality. So far, we are still with Huge & Rude, and our phones have been out multiple times in 2019. Plus, the internet is too slow to send my wildflower book to the printer.
Books are never quick. Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names is supposed to be in hand for an April 27 signing. No matter how many times I proof or pass it to someone else to proof, another error gets found. And it got bid as a black and white book instead of a full color one – ouch.
Parkas aren’t waterproof – nylon, goretex, nope. 4 different ones within the past 32 years. Polyester might be waterproof. Probably not. My walking buddy and I have had lots of opportunities to test various parkas during February.
Seaglass is getting harder to find and the pieces are smaller. This decline in availability will continue. I learned this from reading The Ultimate Guide to Sea Glass by Mary Beth Beuke.
In order to better publicize a book, authors should have a website (oh-oh, my books are hitch-hiking along with my art sites) with a media kit. It took almost an entire day to write all the little parts and pieces required for this, but now I have one on my other website, The Cabins of Wilsonia. This is all required in order to be considered to make a presentation to the Fresno County Friends of the Library about my book The Cabins of Wilsonia. Yeppers, I have a Media Kit page on that site, which will serve as a model for Mineral King Wildflowers.
I am a Questioner. This is how I learn. Here is a question: Who wants to go from Bakersfield to Merced, or the reverse direction? That’s what California’s infamous bullet train is now reduced to. I will probably ride it, if they allow 100 year olds on.
Did you know that corn will kill us? I got snagged into one of those click-bait websites with the line of “which vegetable do you need to stop eating immediately?” Then the dude talked forever about his various credentials before finally saying it was corn. Sure, Mr., thanks. I saved you the temptation of following that link and waiting to hear which vegetable will kill you. You’re welcome.

Now I need soothing, and perhaps you do too. In fact, let’s change gears entirely and I’ll show you a lovely late afternoon of feeding cattle from the back of a little ATV with the Captain.

They heard the machine and all headed right toward us.

Can’t remember (or tell from this photo) if this was The Bull. I was so enchanted by the golden late afternoon light that I forgot to be scared. Besides, don’t bulls have horns?
I know nothing except that cow poo is very slippery.

I’ve been warned many times to not trust Brahma Mama, and now that she has a calf, to be especially careful. Not sure what that means when standing around tossing flakes of hay toward her.

Look at these little beeves! (Is that the plural of beef?)

This blondie might not have any teeth, which is why she prefers eating the little bits that have fallen into the back of the machine. Her ears look soft, but she doesn’t want them touched.

My view from the so-called “safe” place inside the machine. I love this light.

And thus we conclude another February, a month that I find way too short here in Central California.

Early Spring in Three Rivers

February is my favorite month around here. It is the beginning of spring, with apologies to my readers in less temperate climates, who might be a little less enthusiastic about this month. Sometimes I take a break in the middle of the day to enjoy Three Rivers during this exciting weather period.

Upstream view of the middle fork of the Kaweah River from the Dinely Bridge.

Before retirement, Trail Guy wore green pants with a gray shirt. Now, he wears the opposite.

A regular peculiar sight on the Dinely Bridge.

Primary colors in my yard, and some bright sunshine in the middle of a rainy day.

Back in the studio, listening to pouring rain on my metal roof.

The flowering quince outside the kitchen window attracts birds. More accurately, it is the bird feeder that attracts them.

Here is a different kind of bird. I am more interested in flower names than bird names.

Every year I ask this unanswerable question: Why can’t February have 31 days instead of August?

Three Rivers

Field Trip

Trail Guy and I took another field trip. If I call it that, then it sounds as if I am working. I am always working if I hand out a business card or take a photo that might be worth painting.