Category: Personal

Random Thoughts

Random is a good word for unrelated items piling up in my head.

Thank you for visiting my other blog this week. I hope you poked around and discovered things that interested and entertained you a bit while over there.
Most of my sunflowers escaped the ravages of the voracious deer in the neighborhood.
The same flower looks different at different times of day. I think there may be 2 paintings in this flower.
I looked out the living room window and saw this:
i looked more closely and saw this:
My herb garden is a source of inspiration and a place of solace:
I am in need of inspiration and solace these days while we navigate rough waters as a family. Here is a link to a video of my brother-in-law talking about his future: Neighborhood Church Facebook.

Steve made the video around August 1, but I have been taking refuge in drawing and gardening rather than talking about reality. (If you know him, you probably already saw the video.) Thank you to all who have been praying and expressing your kind concern.

A Little Bit Too Hard

Sometimes I paint things that are a little bit too hard for me. They are not commissions, nor are they subjects that I think will sell.

Instead, they are things that I just want to paint, in spite of my lack of skill or experience. After I have completed paintings that need to be done for sale, working on these types of paintings is my “reward”.

Wow, is this ever difficult!! This is my great-niece, and I think of the painting as The Flower Girl.

The girl is from this photo.

The flowers are from this one.

The girl feels too difficult, so I am now focusing on the flowers. It is fun to find and mix all the colors, and if I get the petals a bit wrong, it isn’t critical like the face is.

Success on the flowers (still not finished) gave me confidence to paint a bit more on the girl.

Her hairbow is better and her arm is a little chubbier. This might need to rest for a month or two while I build my confidence and skill on paintings that don’t matter to my heart quite so much.

This will need about 10 more painting sessions, a decision on the background color, and a whole bunch of do-overs.

But I’m learning. That is what happens when one pushes through something that is a little bit too hard.

Okay, it might be a LOT too hard.

A Very Happy Day

This will be a very personal post, not about my art or Tulare County or Mineral King or Three Rivers.

In the past week or two, I have alluded to a family crisis. In short, my brother-in-law has been diagnosed with a glioblastoma, the very sort of brain tumor that took out my dad 15 years ago.

His oldest daughter had her wedding planned for August 1. She made a very mature and exciting decision on May 3 to have the wedding on May 9. Yes, a wedding was planned in SIX DAYS, and we even received an invitation in the mail so we could ask Mr. Google how to find the location!

There was a team of AWESOME people who made this all happen. Words cannot express our gratitude and awe and admiration for those who pulled off this incredible event.

So, I’ll show you a few photos. Just a few, because this is the World Wide Web, not a private session of friends sitting around my dining table.

setting

The setting was the most stunningly beautiful and perfect private backyard I have ever had the privilege to experience.

audrey and steve

This is the moment that undid the entire group of those of us in attendance.

My niece, grand-niece and new nephew. No words. . .

creative people

And, lest you think my nieces and nephews are normal, nope. They are uninhibited and creative and full of fun. Used to be 5 of them, now there are 7, plus 2 more in the next generation. (Some wise adult protected them from this moment of foolishness and frivolity.)

Thank you for listening, reading, looking and caring.

Love,

Aunt Jana

Special Interruptive Post

Please excuse me for bombarding you with 2 posts in one day. There are two pieces of news that cannot wait:

The book printer notified me that the book binder will be shipping the books (The Cabins of Wilsonia) to me on Friday. That means they get loaded onto pallets and into a truck on Friday for a long road trip from Tennessee to Three Rivers. Maybe. Anyway, it is the first definitive news I’ve had since I sent the book to the printer in JULY!!
Today my dear online blogging friend Cheryl Barker is featuring my art on her blog in a give-away. She and I have so much in common and would probably be attached at the hip if she wasn’t in Kansas while I’m in Central California. Here is the link to her blog post: Cheryl Barker.

Now, as an apology for bothering you twice in one day, here is a nice painting on which to rest your eyes:

Red Leaf, oil on wrapped canvas (ready to hang), 6×6″, $50

oil paintings

A Random List

While away over the weekend, I learned many new things. Here they are as they pop into my head:

Google Maps can be used to see photos of the road and Carol showed me how!
Single plied yarn knits up visibly different from multiple plied yarn (I always thought I was doing something wrong but it was the yarn – thank you Mendocino Yarn Shop!)
Acrylic painting has many additives available to layer and mold and make relief type paintings. (How could I have never known this before? Because I am an OIL painter!)
Seaglass is much more abundant after a storm. I read this; now I know it experientially.
Finished seaglass is rounder and translucent; the differences are subtle but they matter to the collector.
Most hot tubs are set at 104 degrees but 100 is still comfortable.
My cell phone is capable of texting but it isn’t necessary nor convenient in my life.
There is a new kind of dimmer on light switches that is so tiny one can (and did) miss it!
A song I love, Gabriel’s Oboe, is from a movie called The Mission.
The center of California is delineated on Hwy. 99 (already knew this but now know how to find it!)
ALWAYS have a map with you when you are on a road trip because there might be a traffic problem that will negate your Google directions. I knew this but was ever so grateful to have followed this wisdom.
ALWAYS have simple knitting in the car with you, even when you are driving alone, because you never know when the freeway will transform itself into a parking lot.
NEVER drink too much coffee. (see #12) (I sure felt badly for the woman in the white sedan.)
There is a specific (and odd) way of walking to increase one’s speed; Carol and I got a great laugh out of experimenting with this (easier to do when in a place where no one knows you.)
Abstract art causes me to think of yarn. (Many things do this for me.)

More on Mendocino

There is a popular book among artists called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It recommends that artists take field trips to gather new inspiration. So, I took a field trip to Mendocino. I believe that we absorb much more visually that we realize, and although I might not have immediate plans to paint scenes of the North Coast (no outlet for selling them – gotta be practical here!), the beauty, the colors, something I saw in one of the galleries (or the yarn shop), something I saw or thought of while on my 9-1/2 hour drive could be the seed of a new idea. My friend is as obsessed with seaglass as I am with yarn, and since she lives in the Seattle area, we don’t get to spend much time together. I learned of Glass Beach in Ft. Bragg, and we decided to meet there. Although it was a stormy weekend, it was ideal. The best time to find seaglass is after a storm, and we were blessed with a sunny Saturday for our foraging.

The waves were awe inspiring.

This just cracks me up – Seattle girl soaking up Vitamin D on a California beach in January, BAREFOOT in a place called “Glass Beach” and with Starbuck’s coffee in her hand!

We had shoes on for this part.

It was definitely what John Eldredge refers to as a “rainbow day”. http://blog.ransomedheart.com/john/

Ft. Bragg Glass Beach John Eldredge mendocino

California Center

I took a road trip over the weekend. On Monday, I drove NINE AND ONE HALF hours to get home. (It was worth it.) I might tell you about the trip in another blog entry, but this entry is to tell you about a curious thing. On Highway 99, north of Fresno but south of Madera, in the median is something that marks the center of California. It is a palm tree on the south side and a pine tree on the north! Someone showed me this a few years ago and then I couldn’t find it again. (My husband thought I just dreamed it.) Yesterday I stopped at a Starbuck’s in Chowchilla (I was dying of boredom by that time) and the server was chatty and helpful and told me about this! She brought it up, not me! Isn’t that cool?? here is the very blurry photo I took while driving (I think the big rig on my six was a little irritated at me – I’m sorry, Mr. Peterbilt)

The pine isn’t very large and is behind the palm because we are heading north.

California center

A Nice Walk

Ever been to Marble Falls? Until one week ago, I hadn’t. It is in the foothills of Sequoia National Park, and I’ve heard it is steep and hot; it isn’t that steep, and in January, it was pleasantly warm (low 70s) and very green. To get there, go into the Potwisha campground and drive to the far end where there is parking for a few cars at the trailhead. Walk along an interesting old flume for 1/4 mile, and then, don’t get so interested in the flume that you fail to notice the small “TRAIL” sign to the right.

This flume borrows water temporarily from the Marble Fork of the Kaweah, uses it to make electricity near Ash Mountain for Southern California Edison, and sends it right back into the river. Clean, established, historic, good!

Here is a photo of looking down while hiking – if you are prone to tripping or stumbling, sometimes it is wise to watch your feet. However, there is something else in this photo. Look at it here:

This is a tick. (Weird word in English – tick-tock, that ticks me off, this tick will bite you if given a chance, the worry of getting bitten is giving me a tic under my left eye, etc.) These little critters sit on the ends of grasses and branches just waiting to hop aboard an unsuspecting body as it passes by. The hike to Marble Falls needs to include stopping to do Tick Checks from time to time!

On the photo above, see the white near the bottom right that looks like a falls? It isn’t. Really! It is marble, but it isn’t water!

(photo above) These are falls along the Marble Fork, but they aren’t Marble Falls either.

This is Marble Falls, 3.9 miles up the trail. Couldn’t find a place to take a decent photo! The falls are most impressive if you are sitting on the marble at the top and seeing the water fall off into space.

The falls are below Eleven Range Lookout on the Generals Highway on the east, and at the base of Admiration Point on the west. This is off the Colony Mill Road (that you can no longer drive on), which connects the Crystal Cave Road to North Fork Drive.

And finally, here is a view of the trail on the way back and one more of the river back near Potwisha.

hiking in Three Rivers Marble Falls Potwisha Campground Sequoia National park Southern California Edison

You Know You’re A Dork When. . .

. . . you’re in love with a bridge.

We drove our bikes to the 3 mile marker on the Mineral King Road on Sunday afternoon and rode the 3.5 miles to the Oak Grove Bridge. It was up most of the way, but not horribly upical.

The light wasn’t great on the bridge, but it was quite fun to have it be our destination and to just hang out on foot.

Mineral King Road Oak Grove Bridge

Lots of Walking

Perhaps you have puzzled over the reason why I walk so much (or perhaps not. . .) I was training to walk the Lake Tahoe 1/2 Marathon, which happened on Sunday, September 27.

It was hot for Tahoe, and I was all jeezled up from finally arriving at the event after months and months of ground pounding. So, I made the mistake of running the first 2 miles. The second 2 miles were steep steep steep (they call it “Hell Hill”) so I just walked. Had great energy and strength, but couldn’t figure out why my feet hurt so much. By the time I reached the top, I knew I had major blisters, and it must have been the first 2 miles that caused them. I slowed my walk – they hurt. I sped up – they hurt. I jogged – they hurt. So, it seemed the best approach was to get it over with as fast as possible.

3 hours, 7 minutes after starting, I crossed the finish line. This was a great time for me. As I pounded out the miles on my sore feet, I kept repeating to myself, “Shoes off, feet in lake. Shoes off, feet in lake.”

My dear husband showed up to cheer me on for the last 1/2 mile and was surprised when I greeted him with, “Hi Honey! My dogs are barking!” He said “Walk as if you don’t hurt”, and that thought (along with “Shoes off, feet in the water”) pushed me to the finish.

I didn’t carry my camera with me because I knew it would slow me down AND I knew that the mid-day light wouldn’t be very nice for photos. So, here are a few photos from a previous visit to Tahoe.The day was bright and sunny like this. Walking across the sand to the lake was very difficult because of the pine needles!Within the last 2 miles I passed the beautiful Tallac estates (part of the National Forest Service). I said to myself, “Self, when I grow up, I want a house like one of these AND a car so I don’t have to walk 13.1 miles on blistered feet!”

1/2 marathon walking Lake Tahoe Marathon