March in Three Rivers

When we get some rain in February or early March, it is so beautiful in Three Rivers that it almost causes physical pain to leave. The brilliant spring days are just a tiny blip on the year long calendar, dominated by heat, drought, and brown. 

The flowering pear tree in front of my studio is pretty 2 times a year. It is a leaning tree, and I wonder if that was caused by 13 years of Perkins scratching his claws while pushing on one side of the tree.

Look at these blooms up close.

Stand beneath the blossoms, get little white petals in your hair, and admire the “lawn”, which isn’t irrigated or green any other time of the year.

What else are we seeing? Flowering quince in the yard, and poppies across the canyon.

Yeppers, poppies!

I love March in Three Rivers.

P.S. Adventures in Boy Scouting

The book “blurb” (certainly there must be a better word for this) is the brief summary on the back of a book. Here is what is on the back of Adventures in Boy Scouting: Tales Told by the Old Scoutmaster.

It’s the third weekend of the month. Where did everyone go?

Start reading and find out. Maybe Boy Scout Troop 323 is kayaking of Point Lobos, scuba diving off Big Sur, camping on Case Mountain, or maybe even at Kirks Creek searching for their inner selves in the “seven pools of enlightenment”. You know wherever these intrepid scouts are, another adventure is sure to follow. 

What is so glorious about sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag during a thunderstorm or a blizzard? You’d have to be there to know, or you can skip the discomfort and read this book to bring the adventure to life.

Do you know this old scoutmaster and newly published author? If you see him, congratulate him, hand him $25, and be the happy owner of the fun new book, Adventures in Boy Scouting: Tales Told by the Old Scoutmaster. 

P.S. Max the dog will be in the back seat of his pickup, along with Jasmine and Violet.

A New Book!

There is another part of my business that I call Cabinart Books.

After I published The Cabins of Wilsonia (2014) and Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names (2019), I had acquired some skills using Photoshop (for repairing and preparing photographs for publishing), InDesign (for book formatting), along with knowledge of how to get a book printed.

While I was painting some indoor murals in December, my customer told me he was writing a book. I asked a few questions, and when he realized that he didn’t have the necessary skills or a plan, he hired me to be both his editor and book designer.

The book arrived yesterday!

This was a fun project! Bob Kellogg is the most eager person I have ever worked with on a book. We had a conversation about the project in mid December, and now the book is in hand, in mid March.

Bob was a scoutmaster in Three Rivers for 12 years, and the book is a collection of stories about the rambunctious troop’s adventures and shenanigans. If you have been a boy scout, had a boy scout in your family, or like books about local people and places, you will enjoy this book! (Or if you just appreciate fun true stories).

Right now the book is available at the Bookbaby Bookshop, and from Bob (rkellogg@kelbro.com) or from me, $25 includes sales tax.

February is Over

I don’t have a Learned List for you this month. I learned some things, but they don’t belong here. Instead, here is a list of things for which I am grateful in February.

  1. February remains my favorite month, because it truly is the beginning of spring around here. 
  2. We have access to some fantastic oranges, which are very fun to glean and to share.
  3. Sales of my paintings continue.
  4. Our three cats are still alive and well, 4 years for Tucker, 3 years for his nephews Jackson and Pippin.
  5. My catalytic converter hasn’t croaked.
  6. The wildflowers are terrific.
  7. We had some snow and rain.
  8. We have fantastic friends who step up during times of difficulty to help.
  9. The daffodils are steadily blooming and will continue for awhile including in places that I forgot I planted.
  10. Knitting is a great pacifier, a healthy and productive alternative to smoking. I started and finished one sweater, finished another sweater and a baby blanket, and began a new baby blanket. 

Now, let’s just enjoy some spring time in the foothills of Central California.

The poppies are barely visible below Comb Rocks but I know those are poppies and not fiddlenecks. (In case you care about such details).

Learn, Schmearn

I accidentally took black and white photos on a day full of beautiful bright natural colors. This became an opportunity to learn how to use the colorize tool on Photoshop Junior (actually Photoshop Elements).

I am not impressed. 

Let’s try it with another photo.

Better, but still nothing to get excited about.

Now I will use the tool to adjust color.

This isn’t very good either.

What did I learn? That if I mess up and accidentally take black and white photos, it is a waste of time to try to make them look natural.

How about if I just stop messing up when the pictures are important?

Good idea.

Not on Purpose

Remember in the olden days when we took photos and didn’t see them until our film got developed?

We have gotten used to looking at them instantly, which is great in theory, but what happens when you are outside in the bright sun and cannot see the screen? Cameras rarely have eyeholes, and the ones that do are small, blurry, inadequate, scratched, or just dirty.

Additionally, if you cannot see the screen, you cannot see the controls on the screen. Sometimes this creates accidents.

A little over a week ago after a storm (not the snowstorm), everything was so beautiful that I laid down my paintbrushes and headed out with Trail Guy to see some natural beauty. The wildflowers!!

THEN, without knowing it, I had a camera accident.

How would I know? I couldn’t see the screen. When I put on some glasses and moved into the shade, I realized that the color was absent, so I randomly pushed the controls until color appeared again.

This flowering pear is the first to bloom in the neighborhood (mid-February) and the last to lose its color in the fall (sometimes late November). This photo might have looked okay in black and white.

It took quite a bit of button pushing when I got home to restore the normal settings. I don’t know how it switched to black and white and doubt if I could make it do that again, at least not on purpose.

Now I am going to experiment with something called “colorize” on Photoshop Junior. This is an opportunity to learn.

Schizophrenic Weather

Recently I have been enjoying the green, wildflowers, and daffodils, sharing them with you all.

Wednesday morning, February 23, this was how our yard looked.

I heard a radio announcer say, “The Sierra is celebrating much needed snow”. I’m unsure how a mountain range “celebrates”, but I know we are very very thankful for any and all precipitation here in Three Rivers. Probably in all of California other than the upper north end of our bizarrely diverse state.

It is too dark to photograph snow around here. It only looks great when the sun comes out, but the snow disappears almost immediately.

Trail Guy has such a soft spot for Pippin.

My flowering pear is in bloom at the same time we get snow? THIS is why I love February!

The yard doesn’t look quite as sittable as usual. I’ll just stand—thanks for asking.

My Favorite Month

Life hasn’t been all bad. February is my favorite month and it is beautiful in Three Rivers. There is always something good happening on my needles. Well, maybe not always good, but every project is another example of the triumph of hope over experience. Tucker remains my favorite cat. (Sorry, Jackson and Pippin, but not very.)

We have spring flowers in our very sittable yard. Would you look at all those mailboxes, just waiting for someone to fill them with thank you notes!!

Plus, we had a little bit of rain and some snow, both highly appreciated.

 

Elephants in Three Rivers

Yesterday, Blog Reader Sharon commented, “The Alta Elephant has a verrrrry long trunk today”. Another friend told me at “Images of Home” that he has never quite figured out what “the elephant” is. I didn’t want to take a Sharpie pen to my painting but tried to ‘splain it pointing with my finger.

Here is a visual aid for you all who wonder what I am talking about. “The elephant” is circled in green. His trunk goes down. (On a clear day, this typical Three Rivers landmark is visible from both Exeter and Visalia, although at a somewhat more oblique angle.)

My elephant is facing the same way, but his trunk goes up (and his ear is a lot bigger and his two most visible legs are matched and his feet are red and he has a tag and a longish tail and . . .)

Here is another elephant for you, also with an upward trunk. The pencil is so you may appreciate the preciousness of this guy’s diminutive size. (He also has a tendency to do a faceplant when not propped against something.)

Good grief Charlie Brown. Some Central California artist needs to get productive so that she has something relevant to share with her blog readers.

P.S. There is a 2nd public elephant in Three Rivers, fashioned from a blue tarp over the top of an old pickup. NEVER MIND! IT IS A PIG! Someone made it for the Burning Man Festival a number of years ago. It is not exactly elegant or subtle or classy, but we are an eclectic burg here in the foothills of Tulare County. Nope, I don’t want to waste any film on this one. Yep, I said, “film”; it is a euphemism for time and computer space.

Still Sort of Not Working Very Much

Is your Central California artist lazy? Nope. When it is overcast and cold, it is too dark to paint well and too cold in the workshop. (There is a heater, but I have to close the doors, and it upsets Tucker, Jackson, and Pippin.) When it is sunny, she doesn’t want to be indoors. This is not a true dilemma, just life in the foothills of Tulare County when it is sunny and green out. (And there is that immature and unprofessional attitude of having earned some goof-off time due to good sales in December).

We took a walk, and my slight leaning toward a Cat Disorder caused me to take this photo.

The Catholic Church has nice stained glass windows, which I had never really looked at before. I think those are poppies but they have the foliage of calla lilies, or iris, or some other bulb.

And there is the elephant* in Alta Peak.

Suddenly, I felt as if I needed to get home. I am in the midst of a stepping stone mosaic project, using a different type of adhesive than on my previous 10 or 12 dozen (Yeppers, 120, 144, can’t remember) because it was available here in Three Rivers. I need to use it up before it gets dry and has to be tossed out. My yard eats up stepping stones—some get buried by turkeys, some are so old that the tiles fall off, and as different areas of the yard get developed, it is helpful to not step in mud.

*The elephant is in profile, facing to your right. Here is a little visual aid, except that the trunk on Alta points down.: