12 Oakdale

 Another year of tiny paintings from Kristian Van Leuven: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 16 7 8 9 10 21 2 3 4 5 26 7 8 9 10 31 2 3 4 5 36 7 8 9 10 41 2 3 4 5 46 7 8 9 10 51 2 3 4 5 56 7 8 9 10 61 2 3 4 5 66 7 8 9 10 71 2 3 4 5 76 7 8 9 10 81 2 3 4 5 86 7 8 9 10 91 2 3 4 5 96 7 8 9 100

For some reason, I can no longer add my pictures to this blog. Google keeps telling me to sign in, which I am. Remove cookies. Done. Etc, etc, etc.   Maybe it’s Chrome. No, doesn’t work on Safari either. Maybe it’s just my iPad. No, doesn’t work on my phone. And I still haven’t figured out how to grab photos from Google on the laptop without downloading each individually. (Update 2/14: it is suddenly allowing pictures. I’m quickly putting them in before this magic goes away.) Next frustration up: adding photos of my watercolors to the bootcamp group. I’ve downloaded the Google Slide app, but can’t create a new slide in the group’s deck. I just want these things to work. In any case, I did all 30 of the bootcamp projects using the huge quill brush the instructor recommended. Not easy for me. However, I am proud I stuck it out. My plan is to redo all them, then bind the before and after into a book. I am also frustrated with myself because I’ve been eating like the Olympic cross coun...

It is 25° at our house. I fear for our bananas, but have done all I can do with watering. Now time will tell if they survived. No trimming for a month to see any green shoots. I am in California, visiting Mary for a week. Grant is home, managing plants. He moved the potted ones deemed cold-intolerant into the garage and put sheets over my bat plant. The vegetable beds are on their own. All of the native plants should be fine.  This our third round of cold weather, but the previous 2 only got down to the mid-30’s. This is the coldest winter we have had since we’ve moved to Windermere. I wore the sweater I made years ago from yarn  Betsy brought me back from their scouting trip to Australia in 1985. Grant is also caring for the turtles. Yes, plural. A couple of weeks ago, we got Robert, a 21yo box turtle from Matt, whose wife died 5 years ago. Matt decided time to re-home Robert and put a Free notice in our Nextdoor app. I fell for it. Robert is more red than William, so I don’t...

Since we have forsworn tent camping, I am pursuing staying at cabins in all the Florida state parks that offer them and visiting all the parks I’ve never seen, especially the new ones. First up: 2 nights at Lafayette Blue Springs State Park (became a state park June 1, 2005) near Mayo. (I did have to cancel our original first night so we could stay home and see UM’s heartbreaking loss to University of Indiana of the national football championship, 21-27, on an interception in the final seconds. Just like my Ga Tech did in the PopTart Bowl. Ah, well.) We were the only people in the campground for the 2 nights we were there. Nobody else in the other 4 cabins, no one in the 10 walk-in tent sites, not even the campground host around. Eerie, but nice. The second morning, back from our walk, we did see a park employee working on cabin stairs and said hi. There was also a car parked which I think belonged to the kayakers we saw off in the distance on the Swanee. We drove to the north entrance...

I knew eventually it would happen: my work pants finally wore so thin that a split across the thigh area appeared. Bought many years ago at Bass Pro Shops, these were my least favored pair because the zipper didn’t stay up and the pocket arrangement was meh. My favorite ones went on the 2019 Moroccan trip, lost when my suitcase disappeared between Madrid and Rabat.  But good enough pants for working in the yard. Into the trash, and another pair demoted (promoted?) to daily use in the garden, sprayed with bug spray when the mosquitoes get too annoying, washed periodically. I am keeping up with fertilizing by using the weakly, weekly, actually mostly biweekly, method, starting with the powdered mix, except for the strawberries. Those get 1/2 teaspoon tucked into their pockets on the plant stand. So far, only the white ones are producing. Flowers on the red ones give me hope. The papayas are flourishing, and the Roma tomatoes are growing well, with little flowers appearing last week. ...

At the macro level, our dear leader has abducted a country’s president, bad guy that he is; ICE has murdered an American citizen; and war continues in Ukraine. Empathy is out of style. The golden rule has been abandoned. I write my representatives and despair. On the micro level, my life is good. That also makes me despair because life is so unfair. What to do? Because the weather has been delightful, I can spend time each morning painting, rather than having to be in the yard at o’dark hundred to avoid the heat. I have signed up with another online teacher and am completing her 30-day beginner boot camp, committing to painting every day for a month. I bought the large quill brush she recommended and am getting much better in creating large washes and shading. Already I can see vast improvement in my work. I am continuing with this year’s 100 Tiny Paintings with my original teacher. Another macro and micro. I am using a list making technique of “Must Do”, “Should Do”, and “Don’t You Da...