WATERBABY'S CIRCUS

The annual camping trip happened last week. Every year, my sister and I go camping, accompanied by various children, grandchildren, friends and occasionally a husband/boyfriend. But mostly it's just us girls. And always it involves some kind of water to play in. This year we went to Scotts Flat Lake Campground in California. Hot, lots of trees and wildlife. Besides the usual birds and grey squirrels and ground squirrels, we saw deer and ducks and geese. The best part was the night that a baby bear ransacked our coolers and got away with some of our food. The worst part was he got into the Hershey's chocolate bars! Luckily, he either got scared off by my sister waking up, or he just had his fill and left, leaving a trail of food into the woods. We found most of the box of chocolate the next morning, but some bars were so full of disgusting bear slobber they were beyond being salvaged. The stump sketch above is posted especially for an artist whose blog today also includes ...

Sunrise Beach Park, Gig Harbor, WA 8"x8", Acrylics When I went to Washington a few weeks ago, I looked for artists who also liked plein air painting, and after a few googles, discovered there was a group located very close to where I was staying on Fox Island: the Peninsula Art League. Anne Knapp let me know that members would probably be at Sunrise Beach Park, located a little to the northeast of Gig Harbor. Although the weather was unusually hot, I found a cool place to sit under a tree that gave me a great view across to Vashon Island. I really enjoyed my first visit to Washington and look forward to next time.

Acrylics, 8"x8" Sitting across the road from this ranch on a sunny California day, painting plein air. I wanted to add some of the great oreo cows they have at this ranch, except my cows look more like dogs, and vice-versa.

At Moonshine Campground

Last week while I was in Washington, we took the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle. It moves along pretty quick, so my sketches had to be fast too. Spent a few hours in the Seattle Art Museum. Would have liked to loiter a bit longer, but there was still a stop planned for Pike Place Market. Too much good stuff to see there, but the day was moving to a close. So we decided to stop a few blocks away at the Ipanema Grill for a caipirinha (the official cocktail of Brazil) and appetizers before catching the ferry back. You know I love my caipirinhas! Just one complaint though. They make them the Martha Stewart way, using simple syrup instead of plain sugar. Feh! It's just not the same without that gritty undissolved sugar at the bottom of the glass. Then back to the ferry to Bremerton. A very good day!

Nene ' P.S. You can vote for me in the Animal Rescue Site's Cutest Cat Contest by clicking on Nene's photo above. Help out our furry friends!

I've been visiting my friend Abby this past week. She moved to Fox Island, Washington a couple years back and this was my first time seeing not only her beeyootiful home, but also a bit of the state of Washington. She took me for a whirlwind tour that included not only Fox Island, but also Gig Harbor, the Hood Canal, Sequim, Port Townsend, Bremerton, Tacoma, Seattle, and much more! I squeezed in some time for a few sketches. The view above is of an old pier near where we stopped for a snack on the deck of the Nifty Fifty's Soda Fountain . The weather was mostly in the 90's during the week, so I enjoyed being out of the foggy Bay Area for awhile.