"Like" letter.

Dear Janet,

Though we have never met I consider you a friend. Your comments make my day and I appreciate you more than you can know.

Please send me your address so I can send you a "little something", I think you need a present.

Hugs,

Maren

Thinking

It is nearly two in the morning. Once again I accomplished nothing today other than a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

My much loved daughter/friend came by to "hang out" she left around eleven tonight. Husbutt breezed in a round six announced he had a pre-sentence report the judge needed asap and he was going back to work. He grabbed a cookie changed clothes and left.

Son number two and daughter/friend and I went to McDonald's for dinner, son number one was at work, son number three, gone all day with friends.

Though I am still supposed to be off the broken leg and ankle nothing is getting done around here, so I have decided it's all better, I am just going to do what needs to be done, it might take me a bit longer since I still hobble with a confining boot-cast, and I look like a decrepit ninety year old, but oh well, "poof" all better.

Anyway, I have been thinking tonight about how I thought as the kids got older I would have more creative time, and in a way I do but also as old as they are, they still consume a great deal of time and energy, surprisingly so, I did not expect it. In fact now they are older I cannot send them to bed and have the nights to create, they are up all night too!

Sometimes I have to remember it is the people who matter, they are the priority. My wonderful sons will not always be here, they will marry and have families of their own, Husbutt will always be addicted to his work and I will have time and more time.

Perhaps it is an excuse for being profoundly lazy, maybe I am more lazy than I thought, but there are an awful lot of demands on me, Husbutt, three sons, five dogs, six cats a couple dozen chickens and ducks, an amazingly demanding Starling, the house and yard, hmmm the fact that I am seriously handicapped in the organization dept might be problem too. How do other people do it all? Its a serious question I really want to know.

There is a time and a season for everything. Perhaps it is a matter of patience.

Once upon a time.....

Illustration done in prismacolor pencils.

Tigger

Wow. I cannot believe I am putting pictures of Tiggers garbage on the Internet, but here it is.

Little stinker sleeps in one bed and keeps his toys, bits of stolen garbage and pilfered cat food cans in the other.
Sometimes he sleeps with his toys and tucks his cat food cans around him. It's hysterical, we think it is so funny!

See the one can with the holes in it? it looks like it was shot up and used for target practice? that is the one Rogue chewed on. Her huge canines go through the tin like it was paper.

They are so naughty about stealing garbage.

Haven't been getting much art work done, it is difficult to work at my desk and keep my broken leg elevated. I have had a lot of nerve pain in the ankle where it is broken on both sides, it has been distressing to say the least.
Hopefully I will have some new work to show soon.

Also I need to get out in the garden to take pictures of the six teeny tiny new ducklings!

It's about time.

Well it is only a month later than ususal but here is the Austrian Copper in full bloom. I love her she is one of my all time favorite roses.

The air in my front yard is thick with her fragrance, and the branches are even thicker with more buds. She is glorious this year.

One of the branches has a yellow sport, right above Minimee's nest.

Comfortables

Tigger. He has one bed for sleeping and one bed where he keeps his toys and pilfered empty cat food cans.

Yoda. And here I thought I had put my yarn up where nobody could get to it, top shelf, fat cat, should have been impossible. Not.

tonight

from my front porch.

Nesting

Sweet little hen tucked in her nest of old leaves, she talks to her babies while they are in the egg, they know her voice before they are even hatched. This one it Metoo. I think she has half a dozen eggs.

Then there is Minimee, her nest is in the iris and daylilies, with an overhang of old roses, very picturesque. She is a fierce little mom, I have seen her launch herself at the dogs when they even look too closely at her babies. It is obvious she is terrified but she puts her own life on the line to protect her babies. Of course she is in no danger but she does not know that.

Babies should be hatching soon!

super sucky.

Took the dogs for a walk with Tim and the boys, it was a glorious evening, not a cloud in the sky, could not have been more perfect.

We took them down to a little pond to play, a nice gentleman was there with his exuberant and very large yellow lab. The dog was plunging in the pond to fetch sticks, he was having the best time. When he saw our dogs he ran towards them at top speed, thinking he had new friends.

He was so excited and totally fixated on potential butt-sniffing, he did not swerve around me but hit full force.

He broke my leg. Seriously. Broke my leg.

Thank heavens I spend a lot of time on my butt at my desk because I am off of this leg for quite some time.

Stupid dog.

C.R.Gibson

I love this company.

C.R. Gibson does absolutely beautiful well-made products.

This is a recipe binder with one of my rooster images embossed on the front. It is a metal insert on a thick faux-leather binder. It is really nice, the card inserts and extra pages all in plastic sleeves also a folder in the back for clippings, it's really well put together.

I have done a couple of projects with them and have always been incredibly pleased with the final product. They do a great job.

They will be available at Costco, and I think other retailers too but I don't know which ones.

Icelandic wool

Last night I prepared some of the Icelandic wool for dying. The skeins are tied and ready to go.

And here is the scarlet wool, dyed and ready for knitting.

It was supposed to be a darker fire-engine red but I was too anxious to let it soak in the dye pot any longer, that's ADD for ya. I really love the color and I'm glad I didn't let it soak any longer, it is a great, watermelon red, like the inside of a really ripe melon. The Icelandic yarn has a slight sheen to it.

All in all I am pretty darn happy about it.

It seems though, that I cannot get the scripture out of my head, the one that says, "though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as wool".