A Helpful "How To"

To get the most from one's trip into the Botanical Gardens, one must:

A. Accompany one's eldest sister and her orchestra into the environs. This exempts one from, ahem, any pecuniary obligation to the establishment.

B. While taking a (what do the kids call it?) selfie, be sure to look at the camera and not at one's boots, as you see the young lady in the center doing. 

C. Step back and enjoy the light display while the sun sets.

D. Sit on the cold stone wall and wait for the camera's timer to go off. Try not to permit the smile freeze upon one's face.

E. Imperative that one visits the rose garden...even though the season might render the roses to better resemble sticks.

F. If no one's watching, do some ballet.

G. Do not carry along a laptop - not unless one wishes to have a dislocated right shoulder by the evening's end.

I...don't have a subtitle for this one. Ladies and gents - Katie!

And last but not least:

H. Relax as one listens to one's sister and her orchestra play seasonal songs. Huddle by the fire, avoid too much smoke inhalation, sip hot cocoa, sing and talk with one's friends, and smile at the passers by.

Follow all these guidelines, and one is certain to have a lovely evening, especially if one is riding home the same night to be reunited with family after a long separation!

Thank you for your patronage,

  

Yours etc, 

- callie

Chincoteague Crossing

Raise your hand if you've ever read Misty of Chincoteague! 

Anybody?

Okay, well, if you haven't read it, it's a neat book, based on a true story, about a foal named Misty...but I digress...

Anyway, so, I found this neat photo on Pixabay...Chincoteague ponies on Pony Penning Day.  Thought I'd have a go at painting it, and this time I remembered to take pictures in case it worked out.

I think it worked out, but, I mean...you can be the judge.

So, here's a step-by-step:

First, I do a detailed preliminary sketch to map out where my paints are going, then start laying on the color. 

Floating heads...

I use a lot of dark brown hues, trying to depict an afternoon sun that casts stark shadows. I put a little blue on some of the ponies, where water-laden hair would reflect the blue sky.

Time to paint the water!  I'm new to this, so it's kind of fun and kind of scary for me.  But I base my coloring on reflections.  As for the mini wave crests, I notice they follow a sort of "H" pattern.

The "H's" are in brown hues (reflected from wet and tired ponies) and the rest of the water reflects the blue sky.

More water!

I add some marsh grass, then add some extra ponies to that lonely left corner.

Is that one pony driving anybody else crazy?  You know...that one swimming behind the third one up?  It just looks wrong, somehow... 

Oh well.  Back to the painting: I make water bubbles by just dabbing white paint around the horses. Yeah, it's pretty easy...is that allowed?

I add the distant marsh by just swiping my fan brush over the area in up-down (and sometimes just random squiggle) motions.  Then I wash in a blue sky. 

Okay, yes, I eliminated that pony swimming behind the third one up because it was messing with the feng sui of the composition (we'll just say that pony swam ahead of the rest of the herd).

And...we're done here!  

Thanks for viewing!

Yours,

Callie

October Festival!

Okay, I know I missed posting Maura and Daddy's Oct. 1st birthdays, but this time I have an excuse: I was sick.  No, seriously, I was.  In fact, I...ahhhh...choo!

Where was I?  Oh, right. Here's their birthday sum-up:

They both got a year older, they had the world's best poundcake ever (which, ahem, Maura made), and about three days after her birthday, I gave Maura a hemp-making kit (smart move, BTW...she made me a bracelet ;-).

Maura's become really good at making hemp bracelets since.  She made some for the fair last week.  Here's a sum-up of...

FAIR DAY!!!

Emori and I set up a vending booth last week, and it was a lot of fun (at least, the part that didn't include getting up at five a.m. and rushing to get ready and almost leaving all my inventory behind.  Everything else was just great! :-)

Emori's pen art cards.

Emori's prep work...

...which wasn't over until midnight (I know this because I stopped snoring long enough to get up, squint at the clock, slur, "Need'elp?" get told "No thanks," then go back to bed).

Here's one of Emori's window paintings.  Don't you feel like you could walk right into this picture? I wonder if the inquisitive cow is friendly.

Hemp.  By Maura. 

Setting up!

This was the booth next to us.  All day we were smelling the sweet aroma of squeezed lemons and fried pickles!

A look at Emori's stuff:

Folks filtering in.

Some of my stuff.  Aren't those flowers lovely?  Katie and Maura took care of the decor.

Music!

Me and Emori

Anybody know that Emily Dickinson poem?  You know, about the clover and bee and...anyway, it's a cute poem.

We were so glad to have the E family come see us!

"Here's the plan.  I distract the guards, you four go storm the castle."

"I think I'll take...this one."

Daddy

Good pear.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yours,

Callie

In Which I Respectfully Disregard My Sister's Advice

     So, when I asked Maura how on earth I was supposed to catch up on my blog news, she said, "Well, you know those posts you do when you jam together everything that happens during the month?"

Jam together?  

 I said, "You mean, like, the collages?"

     "Yeah.  Maybe...don't do any of those."

Well, it looks like I'm just too behind to take that advice.  Get ready for some "jamming together."

I'll start with the worms.

Okay, they're really called Black Soldier Fly larvae. 

     I started raising them last year...in a sad looking little bin that I fabricated myself (hence the "sad" part).  But this month, Daddy built a great new worm (ahem...I mean, larvae) bin using an old stainless steel sink.  Although there are still a few tweaks he wants to make, it's working pretty well.

 Here's an up-close and personal picture of the larvae.  And they're not all that gross-looking. They're kinda cute, actually...

...okay, maybe "cute" is the wrong word.

Cute or not, the hens love'em.

 Here's a look at the new field, complete now with gates!  With the First, Second, Third, and Fourth fields stretching beside it, we've decided to creatively christen this one "Fifth Field."

 

 Here's a picture of the Fifth Field's retaining wall -  our anti-erosion mission involving old telephone pole segments, tee posts, and Mamaw's daylilies.

Here's Maura, putting a cover on her new mattress, while Katie (off-screen) reads Henry and the Great Society aloud.  Great book so far, BTW.

 

 And here's Maura's couch recovering project.  She's really been into sewing lately.

Here's our new pup.  Great Pyrenees. 

This is just a pretty sunset photo Katie took while we were walking.

Here's another one...

 Peanut harvest! The smell was sooo glorious that afternoon.

 Last random photo...promise.

 This one doesn't count.

You've finished my jammed-together post!  High five!

Yours,

callie