winter, winner, water (color)

Wednesday...It's supposed to get up to 72˚ today before it plunges to 40˚ tonight and tomorrow the temperature will rise only one degree and then three nights in a row below freezing. Of course, the woodland lilies are really coming into bloom.

The weather people have been warning of the coldest longest front for about 10 days now. First it was two nights below freezing, then one night, then three nights, then four nights, and now back to three nights in the mid to high 20˚s. I'm going to cover the porterweed but I don't expect it to survive. It's already frozen almost to the ground. And I'll cover the yellow angel trumpet in the big pot that's already putting out new growth and I think maybe the ponytail palm too. I plan to do that today instead of waiting til tomorrow when it will be mostly in the 30˚s and guaranteed to be windy from the north. (That chore is done. I covered the angel trumpet, the porterweed, the gardenia, the largest patch of the ground orchids, and the ponytail palm.) Other preparations are done as well...more bird seed, a suet feeder, and I walked down the road to a native pecan and filled a small container for the squirrels. My trees gave me not a single pecan for the second year in a row and there's just no food for them. Hopefully this will keep them off the bird feeder. Hahahahahahahahaha. I'm so funny.

Of course our republican government claims that the problem with the energy grid has been fixed and there will be no power outages like during the arctic vortex last year when people lost power for a week or two and many people died during which Texas Senator Rafael 'Ted' Cruz bundled up his family and took off for Cancun while his constituents froze and AOC in New York was sending relief supplies and generators to the people in Texas. Because freezing in the dark wasn't enough hurt, those that survived and had heat were hit with astronomical energy bills. Do I believe the powers that be fixed anything? No, I do not. Not in this anti-regulation state where profit is king. And now of course our governor is hedging his bets telling us that he can't promise there won't be any power outages because that's not really a priority for him. He's too busy taking bodily autonomy away from Texas women, sending our National Guard to the border for a non-existent problem and screwing them over in the process, forcing governmental control over private businesses and schools by prohibiting mask or vaccine mandates, and banning any school curricula and books that tell the truth about our country's history as it pertains to genocide, racism, and segregation because it might make those poor little white children feel bad.

The first of 8 watercolor classes was Tuesday. The sign up for the class suggested a one time donation of $35 to help defray the cost of the supplies but was not required. I got there first and placed my $35 in the donation envelope. I watched as several other people also donated. When it was time to start, one of the volunteers got up and passed around a sign in sheet, she mentioned that the donation would be appreciated but not required. A few minutes later one of the women got up and took her money back.

Instead of starting with making a color wheel and a chart of color combinations like last time she had us start right away with a winter landscape. This is the instructor Joy's (unfinished) example.

All we needed to do yesterday was draw three horizon lines and four lines that loosely delineate the two trees and paint in the sky and snow shadows. It was all loose and free. Aarrrgh! I don't do loose and free. All my artwork, from the etched glass to the pate de verre, is very controlled. I couldn't visualize the hills and mounds of snow we were supposed to be painting the shadows of. It's OK to make a mistake, it's OK to mess up she says. Don't over brush, don't over brush she kept telling us. Too late. I did just finally let go. Anyway here's my sky and snow shadows, yesterday's effort.

During class, Stephanie came over from the new house to tell us all hello and brought me a basket of goodies. At the open house there was a raffle for a chainsaw sculpture of a pelican by a local artist which I did not buy a ticket for and they had a drawing for 10 door prizes which I did put my name in for because, why not, and apparently I was one of the winners.

The basket, 2 large mugs, instant latte mix, and 3 hand embroidered dish towels. The dish towels are huge, 30” x 30” lightweight cotton.

In retrospect, we all would have been better served had I not won. I'm not a basket person and will never use it (it would be perfect for keeping yarn in but I don't knit or crochet), we will never use those large mugs, probably won't drink the instant coffee mocha mix, we're not big candy eaters but the dish towels will get used.