It’s been years since I had a drawing tablet, the computer kind, I mean, not the paper kind. I had one back in the days of the beige box Macs, but nothing since the USB era. I kept meaning to get another one, it was just never a pressing issue. The work load lately has made me get off the stick. Behold my first illustration using my new tablet. She’s probably not done yet…but she wanted a peek out into the world.

Edited: Okay, now she’s ready to see the world. She has a crown. Clearly that first posting was premature.

Also…my friend Athena has a piece nominated for a weekly artisan challenge. So please go here and vote for The Raven and Lenore. Just scroll down until you see the box with the titles, her piece is the first one, then click and vote. I just had a look, and right now the piece that is out in front looks like it was dragged behind a car…

We are doing a bit of renovation here, extending our patio the length of the house, and covering a troublesome area of the lawn. It’s green and lovely until May, then it shrivels in the sun and becomes a dust bowl, until it rains, when it transforms into a mud pit. I tried valiantly to garden there, but it was never very successful. So here is a view of my old flower garden, soon to be replaced with concrete. Every spring and fall I would stuff it full of perennials, watch them wither and die in the heat, and then wait until next spring to see what had decided to give life another try before being burnt to a crisp. We dug up everything that poked it’s little green head above the leaves, bunged it into a pot and plopped it into the new garden.

This will be my new flower garden. It’s a bit Sanford and Son just now, but most of this stuff will go into the ground and I’ll find  other spots for the planters. I have traded demons, though. I have gone from digging roughly half an inch before hitting a rock the size of my head, to digging half an inch before hitting a root the size of my arm. A lot of the placement here will depend on where I can successfully manage to dig a hole. This spot has the added bonus of being visible from my studio window.

Also…I confess an almost unnatural love for the spiral goodness of an iris bud. Is this not perfection?

Definitely. Perhaps I just don’t function well in the rain?

My friend Jane (that’s her in the sidebar, under Inspiration, as Jagosaurus) takes the most mind boggling photos in the rain, of the rain, of dampness in general. Seriously, if there has been rain in the Eastern portion of the country, trust that she will post a photo that just stuns me speechless. Don’t believe me? Look here. And also here. And here. Thought I was kidding, huh?

Anyway, every time it rains, I dash outside and try like hell to take a photo like that. Thus far I have blamed the camera. Now, however, we are using the same camera. So yesterday I stood out in the wet, and came away with two photos. Two almost adequately composed, almost focused, photos of rainy foliage that will strike no one speechless. It is clearly not the camera.

Okay…Sharon has gone home, the holidays are over, (Ahh, bread, welcome back. I have missed you so…), and it’s time for me to get started on a huge and thrilling project that has come my way. I am going to be immersed in Belle Epoque history and ballet for the foreseeable future. More figure drawing than I have had to do in a very long time. I’ve been sketching a lot lately, trying to get my drawing chops back. In the meantime, I give you photos of spotted dogs enjoying the spring sunshine.

The last few weeks I’ve been getting ready for a visit from my girl Sharon, who lives in Italy. It’s been nearly three years since she left to take up art restoration in Florence. We were planning to surprise a few friends who had no idea she was coming back. It made posting a bit of a trial, since I nearly let the cat out of the bag several times. But she’s here now, and we pulled off the surprise. Our former co-workers were shocked speechless when we turned up on the doorstep, ghosts of employees past.

She joined us for two Seders, and then got in a bit of painting. This is too big to fit in her suitcase, so we are looking for an appropriate home for His Holiness. Apparently overdosing on matzah and our special brand of hardcore Hebrew silliness sends one straight to Buddha. Until she brought out this painting, we never noticed that the husband’s Uncle Leon looks an awful like the Dalai Lama.

If you know anyone who wants to gaze on the face of ultimate tranquility (or Uncle Leon, who’s 102, and no slouch in the wisdom and tranquility department) every day, drop me a line.

Now Sharon has born up pretty well under all the food and wine over there, but truly, a person can hold out only so long before she starts dreaming of Goo Goo Clusters, fried okra and bar-b-que. I did what I could. That’s the Bar-B-Cutie Cornbread sandwich, with an extra side of fried dill pickles. As my child would say, “Man, that’s some good eatin’, there.”

We have covered a lot of junk food ground, everything from greasy un-authentic pizza to chorizo quesadillas at La Hacienda, washed down with micheladas the size of goldfish bowls. She’s only here for the rest of the week, and we still have to fall face first in an all-you-can-Chinese buffet, and hork down a couple of double jalepeno cheeseburgers and chili-cheese tater tots.

Then we’ll stop on the way to the airport and buy her some bigger pants and some Dexatrim.

I’d been reading reviews of new cameras for a while, and following Jane’s glowing review of the Olympus 565, I took the plunge. The opinion of a woman who takes more pictures than me must be given due respect. Especially given the stunning quality of her images. It’s so handy to have someone I trust out there doing the exhausting product testing.

The camera arrived Monday, and I haven’t really had a chance to test it properly. Last night I tried out the indoor light and portrait settings on the closest subject at hand. And folks wonder why I don’t post more pictures of my family.

The camera is brilliant…this has to be blamed on genetics and upbringing.