In Bloom

Sometimes I have the overwhelming need to share some beauty with you that is not of my making. (I hope you know me well enough to not take that sentence as if I believe all my art is beautiful. Gotta stay real and humble here.)

What is this new-to-me wildflower, across the road and downstream from Reimer’s (the candy store in Three Rivers)?
So glad you asked! It is Globe Gilia.
The plant I pilfered a cutting from last summer in someone else’s yard is in bloom!
The Jerusalem Sage is in bloom!
The Spanish or French Lavender is in bloom; I’m inclined to think of it as Red-Violet rather than Lavender.
The Rock Rose is in bloom!
Look at the Honeysuckle! Too bad you can’t do a scratch-and-sniff on your screen.

Redbud Report 1

The 45th Annual Redbud Festival in Three Rivers took place on a very nice day, not crazy hot or cold as we’ve experienced some years. Today I’ll show you the beginnings of Saturday.

Trail Guy and I filled a vase of flowers from the yard before heading out to walk the 1/4 mile to the Memorial Building.
There weren’t as many outdoor booths as in previous years.
I felt happy with my booth and displays.
Clearly, flowers make me happy.
There was live music, most of it too loud for conversing with guests, but when Buddy (center) played a drum piece for me, I didn’t mind! (We used to be neighbors, and still are friends 20 something years later.)

Tomorrow I’ll tell you a list of 7 observations and experiences.

45th Annual Redbud Festival


There will be 4×6″ original oil paintings at the Redbud Festival, priced for $40 each instead of $50 as a SHOW SPECIAL! Here are 2 samples of the 8 available paintings:

Salt Creek Road
Poppies on Dry Creek Road

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.
When the sun is finally up, oh wow.
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!
Look at this fence!

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

Watching Paint Dry

When I show paintings in progress on my blog, they don’t cause people to comment. Comments are fun for a blogger, show that people are reading and care enough to say something, and provide a way for a bit of interaction. When I talk about places I walk or hike and show photos, the comments come in more often.

Funny how that works – it is more enjoyable for my readers to see where I walk and what I see than to watch paint dry.

So, today there will be a little bit of drying paint, and a little bit of scenery.

2 in progress
3 drying

Since switching to Spectrum, there is no longer a telephone in the painting workshop (or in my studio, but that is a very long, annoying and boring tale). So maybe it is time to erase the phone #s on the chalkboard. But this is long and boring and annoying, and I’ve promised you other photos.

The top of Blossom Peak as seen from a friend’s driveway. I want to go there but don’t know a good route. Besides, I have waited a bit too long. The grasses are tall so they hide the footing, and the snakes might be out. Next January, perhaps?

The 2 left points of Blossom. It has 3 parts as you can see in the next photo.
Like the power lines? Phone lines? Whatevs, the point is to see the 3 points.
Looking upstream on the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River.
Looking downstream from the same bridge.
Just loving the green with the fiddlenecks and popcorn flowers.

That was just a regular Three Rivers walk on a popular road for walkers. A friend who lives below Blossom Peak had neck surgery and has to walk a certain distance each day in a flat place. She got tired of circling her house, so I brought her to a flat place near my house to get in her steps. The pace was much slower than my regular morning walks, the light was much brighter, and it made everything look even prettier than normal.

There. Aren’t you glad you made it through the paint drying session?

Spring Walk in Three Rivers

About a week ago on a chilly afternoon with brilliant sunshine and puffy white clouds, Trail Guy and I went for a walk. Nothing much to say – just enjoy spring in Three Rivers with me.

Another Bridge Day

This represents a typical day at the easels for me, working on a few paintings, hanging out with my cats, taking a break to go see the river from the Dinely Bridge which crosses the middle fork of the Kaweah River here in Three Rivers.

I tightened up some details and began working on the Oak Grove bridge on the 6×18″ painting.
Then I switched to the other Oak Grove bridge painting.
Scout may be contemplating impending motherhood. Look at the pretty orange stripe that runs down from her eye. It will be fun to see what her babies look like.
Upstream view of the Kaweah River during a string of storms.
Downstream view. I love this kind of lighting – dark sky, bright sun, clarity.
This is a memorial bouquet which gets changed regularly on the Dinely Bridge: flowering quince, daffodils and rosemary approximate the three primary colors.

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.
Sycamore Creek already?
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