OK, ketchup (LOL) time!

Swan 4X5 watercolor

I did this a while ago, trouble is I cannot recall the source. It was a photo, I think. Apologies and gratitude to whoever took the picture, I can't remember. (Embarassing.)

Last Flight 5X8

What a day, this was done while watching the Last Flight of the Shuttle on live feed. It flew all around Sacramento, so I was able to find a local TV station's feed from that part of the flight, then later went back to the broadcast from the escorting jets. Wow, I wish I had a pilots license.

Lunch at Applebee's 4X5.5

This was another treat. I took myself to Applebee's for lunch and dragged my kit in with me. These were the ladies at the booth near me. The one never got off the phone. And yes, that upholstery really does look like that.

Don Edwards Regional Park plein air 5X7

This was another Friday. I left out the city scape that is tucked in between the marshes and the hills. Artist's License in hand, we can paint what we want, right?

Roses 8X8

Again, a mystery source. I may have been watching a painting show on PBS, but I don't remember! Sorry. It was good practice of a technique I should keep trying. It's dated 2011, so I barely remember the fact that it was I who painted it!

Japanese Fountain 8X8

This I remember! Yeah! It was last summer at my brother's house. We were sitting on a wooden porch swing and it was very shady. It was my plein air kit, so I had trouble with the values, all dark. Lots of mossy areas too. The red/orange spot was a leaf floating in the bowl. The weeping spruce is too regular, I need to mess it up a bit.

Good Grief.

Major screw up. First, cheap paper. I got carried away and I was using a sketch pad so it's all wrinkly. I finally had to give up because it got too wet and I couldn't do any more on it. Maybe I should have stopped long before this stage! It was a bleak scene as I was watching a documentary on PBS.
  Then, of course, I forgot all about rotating the picture! It seems my H-P Photo(not so)smart C4580 refuses to talk to my new (2011) laptop. It will grudgingly print, but it won't even recognize the scanning function. No help on line. I had to resurrect the old (2006?) PowerBook G4 laptop to scan these pictures, put them on a flash drive and dump them on to the new one. What's up with that? (*&^%+#@$!) Such language.
OK, I should be grateful I have both, and that I can do it at all.

Pancake Day and The Great Cinnamon Heart Hunt

Glass Heart on Lace - watercolor, 5X6

Actually, today is Shrove Tuesday. Which is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. (?)I first heard of this while living in Merry Old England. Suddenly there were all these adverts on telly about Pancake Day. They were for "Jiff", which confused me because here that's peanut butter. In England it is all things lemon. The Pancakes to which it refers are what we would call crepes. 
   Fortunately I was living with a group of wonderful elderly ladies that were a rich source of information on all things England. There is no better way to get to know a people and a country! I was full of questions and they were delighted to fill me in, we had great lunch time discussions. As a special treat Cook made pancakes for us for lunch!
   Shrove Tuesday is just before Lent, so to hold off temptation and not let anything spoil, this is the day all the rich stuff gets cooked and eaten. Hence Pancake Day. You make a stack of crepes, excuse me, pancakes, and get a bunch of lemons (this is what brought up the questions in the first place) and sugar. Castor or Superfine sugar is best. 
   Place a pancake flat on your plate, sprinkle it with sugar and then lemon juice to taste, roll and eat. Free style. Amazing! It really is delicious! Other popular toppings are berries with sugar or Golden Syrup. What's that? Well, it's not made from corn, so no Karo. It's similar to honey, but man made. It is a sugar syrup. So if you don't have a Cost Plus or other supplier of the unusual near by, use honey.
  Now for Valentine's Day. I'm going out after this to find those large cinnamon jelly hearts I love so much! After I've had my Pancake Day pancakes for lunch.
(Contented Sigh)