S-P-A-M

I'm sick and tired of this nasty pesky spam, so I've turned on the word verification feature for comments. I know, it is a pain in the neck, but probably less so than reading about exercises to enlarge certain body parts that I don't even possess.

Sheesh. And do they ever leave you a way to spam them back, or call them at 4 in the morning, or tie up their secretarial staff with annoying questions that just waste THEIR time??? NO. They do NOT. (Otherwise I would DO those things and several others that I could think of real quick like.)

Hmmmph.

...now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Fishing Trip - We're Back!

We're back from our fishing trip in the woods of north - eastern Ontario. This has been an amazing and wonderful week! After flying to International Falls, Minnesota on Thursday, we spent Friday driving to Woman River Fly In Camp in Ear Falls, Ontario. Saturday morning we were flown into the wilderness in a little plane that landed on the lake and dropped us off at a cabin, leaving us with no electricity, phone, TV, radio, or other such annoyances until we were picked up a week later.



The days were spent fishing, and I figured out pretty quickly that you just can't manage a fishing rod, a rocking boat, gusty winds, and a sketchbook all at the same time. Well, at least not successfully. I tried to take a little bit of time every day, though, to draw something from the cabin. The little rocky point (above) was one of my favorite morning views, as were the boats by the docks. . .


We had propane for lights at night and for hot water, and a solar powered pump that brought water into the cabin from the lake. The one thing we did not have was indoor plumbing. . .

The OTHER little house in the big woods. (The outhouse, also known as The Waldorf...) Can I let this count as the EDM weekly challenge for "architecture"?

GONE FISHIN'!!!

Well, tomorrow in the VERY early a.m. we leave for our fishing trip. Finally! Why is it that four or five major things always come up in the two weeks just before vacation? Or is it that everyday life is that busy all the time, and we just don't notice?

Anyway, in the meanwhile, while looking under the bed for a suitcase I found this old watercolor that I did probably 15 years ago. I've never been able to decide if I like it or not -- I mean, I like it, but can't decide if it is hangable. It's kind of moody, don't you think?

Well -- I'm off to catch the big one and do as much drawing as I feel like! Be back soon!

Books: EDMWC

I could only take a few minutes to sketch the EDM challenge for this week -- draw a book. We're busy packing for vacation, and I have this stack of sketchbooks and watercolor pads sitting on the table, ready to go. We're going to the true wilderness and have a weight limit, so I have to trim down my supplies quite a bit more!

Ode to a Tomato

My first tomato in the patch out back, ripening on the bush, drawn for the Everyday Matters Weekly Challenge. It was pointed out by another EDM group member (who also drew a tomato for the vegetable challenge) that tomatoes are actually fruit, not vegetables. Oh well.

I was really taken by the play of light and shadow when I saw this, and did the underpainting very quickly in the back yard. The rest of the sketch was completed later on in the week at the breakfast nook table, and I think I lost the freshness of what I'd originally intended. It looks incomplete to me, but it also is beginning to look muddy and overworked, so I quit painting and am now just, well, considering things.

Meanwhile, this tomato in real life was viciously attacked by hungry non-human creatures just as it turned truly red.

Other stuff this week: We finally got high-speed internet. I've spent more time than I care to tell surfing around the net and reading old e-mails from friends who send links to sites with funny videos. I could never watch them before, so now I've caught up.

I read The Painted Garden, a great art / gardening journal sent by L, and am truly enjoying the inspiration. Thank you so much!

We found a great peach ice cream recipe -- very easy to make, fast, and light in texture since a custard isn't used in the making. Not the recipe for you if your favorite ice cream is a heavy Ben and Jerry's flavor ... it will be more to your liking if you tend to think ice cream is just a bit too rich.

2 1/2 pounds peached sliced
3/4 - 1 cup of sugar (to taste)
1 pint half-and-half cream

Puree the above in batches in a blender or food processor (I like the food processor -- it leaves better "chunks"). Pour the peach mix into a gallon ice-cream freezer container, and add:

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 - 3 cups whole milk (as needed to fill to the fill line)

Freeze according the ice cream freezer instructions.