First, in case you were wondering, there are actually 5 rivers here, all part of the Kaweah drainage. Marble Fork, East Fork, Middle Fork, North Fork, South Fork, all part of the Kaweah river. “Kuh-WEE-uh”, in case you were wondering further.
Second, we don’t have a river view; we opted for mountain views, since they are less expensive.
Third, why am I not working and showing you progress? Because it is really pretty out right now, and I thought you might enjoy it.
Moro Rock and Alta Peak, with its signature elephant.
I’ll stop bragging about our sunshine now. Here’s Jackson, the least friendly and most fat of our three felines.
Jackson and Pippin, put away for the night, watching me leave the studio. Tucker is safely inside too, just not staring at me.
*“Light” meaning the sun was shining and also meaning I didn’t do much work.
Let’s get the work part over with, and then we can enjoy some photos that might shock anyone who lives where there is real winter.
Three new sequoia gigantea 6×18” paintings are now on the easel.
Next, I battled with Adobe InDesign for awhile. I bought a couple of book design templates, and they aren’t working correctly. Rather than keep tinkering, I emailed the company where I bought them to ask if they still sell such items. They are probably all lying on the floor laughing at the idjit who thinks that something 10 years old SHOULD STILL BE WORKING!
Then I got the bright idea of going to Lulu, a book printing company that Louise Jackson and I used for her novel, Only the Living, last fall. We are about to publish her second novel, and I don’t want to waste any more time fighting with the wonky book templates.
In order to mitigate the irritation and frustration of all the tech hassles, Trail Guy and I took a walk. While it is pea-soup fog down the hill, we have had brilliant sunshine.
Today I expect to be painting in Ivanhoe on the west-facing wall of the library. If my website is functional, I’ll post about it for you to read on Monday.
Thank you for sticking with me through this techno-chaos.
Stem & Stone, a neat little shop in Three Rivers, sponsored a beginning drawing workshop. Their store is too small to accommodate a big table with people around it, so we used the Bequette House at the Three Rivers Historical Museum.
I love old buildings, with all sorts of architectural details lacking in modern structures. Although I’ve seen it for many years, Sunday afternoon was my first peek into this quaint little house.
The large table easily sat the six participants and could have handled two more.
The rocker in the far left corner is calling my name.
Out of respect to the attendees, and because I was too busy teaching to don a photographer’s hat, I only took photos of the building.
A good time was had by all. Now I’m wondering if I can just go into the Bequette House and sit in that old rocker by windows with excellent light and just read or knit and enjoy the atmosphere, away from the annoying intermittent tech troubles.
Have you heard that people prefer experiences to possessions? Some do, some don’t. If you know someone who does, here is an idea for a Christmas gift.
In case you are wondering, the workshop will take place in Three Rivers, at the Bequette House which is part of the Three Rivers Historical Museum. I am doing this workshop in conjuction with Stem & Stone, a little store here in Three Rivers. Hannah, to whom you RSVP, is one of the owners.
November means the end of colored leaves. The promise of spring in a few months will keep me from descending into the Slough of Despondence, as will the fun of learning new things, completing commissions, working on a mural, and resuming drawing lessons in January.
1. There is lots of disrespect on the road when driving an old vehicle. While I was on the freeway getting to the mechanic, people tailgated and roared past, without regard to the fact that I was keeping up with traffic. And yet, when I got to town, everyone I interacted with expressed great interest in and respect for the Botmobile. A bonus thing learned is that our Botmobile is the same model featured in the movie Back to the Future.
2. It matters who you get at the post office counter. It cost $4.50 to send 2 packages of notecards to Northern California, and then it cost $2.44 to send the same thing to Southern California. This is the result how the postal worker interprets the contents, and how he/she labels it – media mail? large envelope? small package? So, while I am always happy to see all the employees in my PO, I do tend to favor some over others.
3. Mystery writer Robert B. Parker died in 2010. His books had an appealing offbeat sense of humor, but I’ve long since stopped reading murder mysteries. I was puzzled to see three different authors’ books in the library titled “Robert B. Parker’s [title specific word]. Apparently Parker’s estate has granted permission to multiple authors to continue his various series. They even copy the same typestyle that Parker used on his books.
This photo is in a branch of my bank. I photographed the photo because it is Farewell Gap in Mineral King!
4. This Evergreen Home is a thoughtful blog that I’ve mentioned here before. A recent post, Save Your Money—26 things to stop buying in 2026, caused me to almost break my arm patting myself on the back. This is the way I have lived for decades. Gold star, please!
Making wreaths from pruning in my own yard, and enjoying my cats are definitely frugal activities.
5. I mowed the lawn. Well, I started with some careful instruction, but Trail Guy took over. I only allow one mowing on our little lawn per year in an ongoing attempt to get it fuller, via self-seeding and roots (no idea how it actually works) and transplanting clumps from the back of the house which was lawn a quarter of a century ago and still produces a few clumps a year. So, the annual mowing is a bit of a project.
Tucker loves the tall grass.
6. I learned (AGAIN!) that participation in small bazaars and arts/craft shows is probably more trouble than it is worth. However, with low attendance, there was abundant time to visit with each person who came into my space.
7. This personalized license plate caught my attention.
8. Through another blog (Hi Elisabeth!) I found a wonderful recipe for Lasagne Soup. As someone who views recipes as just suggestions and guidelines, this one seems to turn out great no matter how many things I just substituted or tossed in or did without.
9. Two great new words: pecksniffian and snollygoster. Look them up!
A friend and I took a walk around her neighborhood. It is the only traditionally laid out group of homes in Three Rivers, often referred to as “the suburbs” for its resemblance to typical neighborhoods in the non-foothill towns of our county. (Yeppers, we are special here.)
Check out this house! That is a wooden tree, made in four custom panels to fit each window.
Blossom Peak is visible from the ‘burbs, and it looks so different depending on where you stand. (See? special!)
Because this blog is supposed to be promoting my art, here is a painting of the most common view of Blossom Peak, which is actually 3 peaks. One friend has corrected me on the moniker “Blossom Peak” as the name of all three; apparently one is Blossom, one is Britten, and one is a why bother.
And here is a view from the ‘burbs looking up North Fork. It took us a minute to discern that we were actually seeing up the canyon of the North Fork of the Kaweah River, and then I remembered that when one is standing on the Airport Bridge (there used to be an airstrip near the North Fork), Blossom Peak is visible.
Let’s have another visual aid, another oil painting, of course.
Finally, since the point was to enjoy autumn in Three Rivers, here is a final photo of splendid color, Virginia creeper this time.
I had a job about 100 years ago at a vocational school. It was a terrible job, because one of my duties was to collect on unpaid student loans. One of my few good memories of working there was meeting a student named “Autumn Eve”. I didn’t get to know her very well (fraternization was discouraged between students and hired help), but I never forgot her name.
But I digress.
Let’s take a look at some autumn pictures in Three Rivers.
The flowering pear tree outside my studio is The Champion. (Not interested in hearing about native and non-native trees during Autumn, but thank you for your concern.) Chinese Pistache trees are also stunning this time of year. So there.
That was fun. Let’s do this again in a couple of days.
Looking upstream on the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River.
Looking downstream on the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River. There is one almost indiscernible red tree in the distance.
I painted that view with that tree about 15 years ago.
Naked ladies, still going strong. Odd.
There is a yard that we can count on to have wonderful fall colors each year.
Comb Rocks.
This is a deep canal for discharging water when the power plant makes electricity. I think they are not operating any longer. Personnel shortage was the reason we heard.
Jimson weed (looks like giant morning glory minus the vining capability)
This is where the water goes when SCE isn’t making electricity.It ends up in the river, and the people with this yard get their own personal stream.
Looking downstream, this time from a slightly different angle, which shows another red tree.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JB! (IF YOU ARE STILL ONE OF MY TENS OF READERS AND EVEN IF YOU AREN’T)
I have become (and am becoming) friends with a group of bloggers from all over. Elisabeth in Nova Scotia puts together something called “Cool Bloggers Walking Club” each October, and the participating folks send her photos of their walks each week. Her idea is to get us all moving our bodies for a minimum of 10 minutes a day. I am the only blogger I know in real life, and it helps me to get to know other folks who blog regularly. It is good to have other people to learn from (and occasionally help, but they usually know much more than me.)
Today and tomorrow I’ll show you some photos from recent walks. (Yes, I am still working. . . but there isn’t anything bloggable about it at the moment.)
Hmmm, mine bloomed in August. Why are these just now showing up in October?
The Catholic church has such peculiar architecture. It is one of my easy walks.
In the storm last week, the elephant appeared on Alta Peak.
Hurry up, Time Change. It used to happen around this time of year; now it doesn’t happen until November, so my neighbor and I walk by flashlight many mornings. Yes, two churches in our neighborhood, and we go to yet another one 2 miles down the road.
That’ll do for now. Sorry it isn’t about Mineral King. That’s a seasonal topic, and that season is over for this year.
