Today was a plein air day. I met up with some other members of the El Cerrito Art Assn. at a garden nursery in San Pablo called Annie's Annuals . Tho I'd driven by before, today was the first time I actually went in and was hugely rewarded for my efforts. Just tons of plants to look at and buy, but what I liked most was the planted areas. If only I could transform my square of dirt that I generously call my yard into something like these. I painted for a couple hours in my sketch book. Then went searching for some plants. Although there are literally thousands of plants and flowers to choose from, I eventually narrowed my purchases down to 4 or 5. My criteria are tough: must be able to withstand drought conditions (cuz you won't get much water from me); be able to survive severe to total neglect; have a natural repellant that discourages weeds, snails, slugs, and hopefully raccoons; and ideally, be self-pruning and gorgeous. I know, I demand a lot. But there are a few thi...
Aaaaaaaaaaaah . . . . That's just me heaving a great big sigh of relief. Even though I know that that year-end blitz of too-much-to-do, too-little-time is coming, and try to downsize and minimize the stress factors, I still get caught up in it. Cards never got sent, packages didn't get mailed til after Christmas (it's in the mail, no really, you know how the Post Office is), and now I want to finish decorating, while everyone around me has all their assorted holiday crappage thrown out/packed away/put out on the curb. I guess I just move to a different (slower) beat. On a lighter note, after two months of eating like a sumo wrestler caught in a burning marijuana-field downdraft, I've lost three pounds since Sunday, after starting to eat more sensibly. No ice cream, no cookies. No white flour stuff, pasta, pizza. Just wanna lose another seven pounds. Time to get in shape for the annual migration to Brazil. Gotta dust off the old bikini. Figuratively speaking, of course...
The house on the left behind the wall is where I've been for the last two months. A lot of work is going on behind that wall: plumbing repairs, patching and plastering walls, cleaning up a huge lot that was badly overrun with weeds, replacing broken and worn out ceiling fans and showers, getting the microwave and TVs repaired, adding a laundry sink in back, and an outside shower in front . . . . The list is endless. It's a great old beach house, but it's suffered from years of neglect. And anyone who's lived close to the sea knows how salt air damages just about everything. So that's my excuse anyway for not painting more often and/or posting. Not that I'm doing it all myself, but still, it's a huge time-suck. Oooh! And doing it all in tropical heat with no car! OMG! The horror! Would I rather be back in the winter of my American discontent? Not freakin' likely!!!
WOW, great picture! Is he smiling, meowing or attacking?
ReplyDeletehilarious! what a great pic!
ReplyDeleteI think silly Nene' was actually caught mid-yawn. Or she could have been laughing at the dog?
ReplyDelete