Yesterday I recovered from a week of being sick with a virus that has been going around. Also the sun came out for the first time in over a week and it was my birthday. I had pizza with friends at the new restaurant and afterwards, JoAnn and I went up river from the Salmon River bridge where I painted this.

No Postcards today

This was one of those days when I just couldn't make myself pick up a brush. Not that I didn't try. I framed a painting of the beach that I did early in the spring and decided I wanted to paint some crows in the foreground. There were some there when I did the painting and I did some little sketches that day too, that today I couldn't find. I had walked to the beach this morning with JoAnn, Annie and Kathy. There were a lot of ravens there then, so I drove down to the dock around noon thinking I could put ravens in instead of crows, but not a raven or crow was around. Then I came home and googled crow images but didn't find much there on the first 3 pages that took about 15 minutes to appear, sketched a couple with pencil , but not ready to commit to paint or pen.

There were some other things I ought to have been finishing too, but as I said, it was one of those days. I did get a couple of buckets of chickweed out of the garden, the only thing that seems to be thriving.

I wouldn't be posting here tonight but for the fact that I'm going to finally put my name on the blog. This requires me to republish the entire blog and the only way I can figure out to get to that option is to publish a post.

I walked from 4-corners to the beach and back this morning with JoAnn, Annie and Carolyn and sketched from the dock while the others walked out to the end. I painted it this afternoon. Another overcast day, but I'm not complaining.

I visited Ken and Aimee today at Ken's house. Painted the guesthouse/library from the kitchen. There's been no shortage of rain the last few days, but it was dry most of today.... pretty cool and cloudy though. I've been working in the studio since I posted here last.... framed some things and yesterday painted some of the little arctic poppies that I got from Mossy.

I worked at the gallery again yesterday, and for once it was pretty busy, but as it was sunny I went outside when I could and sketched the building. I stopped by and painted it today. For the brown shingles, I used some pigment I extracted from clay that I found exposed in construction of the hydro road. I'd never seen any clay this color before around here. I've been told it might be from Mt Edgecumbe erupting some 12,000 years ago.



Last night I biked down to the mouth of the river to watch the sun go down. The sun was so bright that I turned to the east and painted the sky and trees. The sunset was quite beautiful but I didn't paint it. I met Kim on the road who was going down to the beach to watch the full moon come up. It was the southernmost moon in July until 2023 and closer to the horizon than the lowest winter moon. I stayed and waited for it until about 10:30 then biked home before dark. She told me today it was about ll:30 before it came above the island.



Right now the sun is about to set and making beautiful colors in the trees and sky outside my windows. I should bike down to the beach.

Kayaking and Camping

A. and I left Wednesday night, the 5th, into the Beardsleys for a couple of days, she in her row boat and me in my kayak. We didn't go very far, less than 2 hours of paddling from the cove to a small island between 2 larger ones.




This is the only thing I sketched on the trip... into a sketchbook that I took along... each page is about 4x6 Its of the little island from one of the larger one north of us which we were able to walk to at low tide. Our tent looks like an erratic in front of the clump of trees. We spent 2 or 3 hour hiking around the island north of us on Thursday where I almost lost my shoe in the muck.... for some dumb reason, I didn't wear boots. Spent the rest of the day lazing around and reading on a warm sandy beach. A pair of oyster catchers were pretty irate when we first showed up but we gave them lots of space. They seemed to have gotten use to us and paraded their 2 chicks by us the second evening. A black bear was munching away that same evening , probably on goose tongue in about the spot where I had done the sketch earlier, then wandered back into the woods.

TODAY IS THE 4TH OF JULY

I've been away from the internet for a few days. The last time I was on, it was so slow, I gave up before my email loaded. It seems to be a little faster tonight, maybe because half the town is celebrating the 4th.


On Sunday, Carolyn E. and I walked up the hydro road. They've gone a lot further with the construction than the first time we walked, back in April. The views are awesome. I sketched this while Carolyn climbed up past where the road is finished. It's looking out at Icy Strait and P. Island. The sun came out while we were walking.... finally after what has seemed like weeks of overcast and rain.

We went off the road on a bear trail up to a huge muskeg and ate lunch. We could have walked for miles in open meadow. Lots of flowers in bloom.


Last night (Monday), I biked down to the beach and set on the log near the orchids and watched the sun go down. This is the first little painting I did there.


....and this one I did, of Mt. Fairweather, just as the sun was setting about 10 o'clock. The real show came while I was riding home... pastel shades of blue and pink in the south.


I worked at the gallery today, 2:30 til 5:30. A few people drifted over from the festivities at the park. I set outside most of the time, read my book and painted this of some of the houses across the river.