SOLSTICE WAS YESTERDAY

..... and the shortness of daylight does indeed make for what seems like a very short 24 hours. Though we do have several hours of daylight, we haven't seen much sun lately. But I do find it a pleasant time of year. After 3 rather hectic days in the big city, I returned Wednesday and relished being here at home where the only requirement is to watch the weather rather than be out in it.... a few inches of snow yesterday and now a wind storm is suppose to come. Lots of wind on my trip to the city..... and rain.

I didn't rush back into the studio on my return, instead have dug out a quilt I started some years ago and hope to finish soon. The postcard paintings posted today are from last week.


These two were done on the 14th, snow and ochre sky, around 2:30



And this one the next day, a little after noon With hopefulness for a sunny walk on the beach,
I drove down to the dock and pretty soon the wind and snow got me back into the truck where I painted these looking across the strait:

DECEMBER 3, 2006, MONDAY

Short, cold days with some extreme weather last month... several feet of snow and some sub-zero temperatures, breaking records for this time of year. I've been painting quite a lot in the studio, but not getting outside and painting my postcards and feeling just a bit guilty, so resolved to finish off the year with more to show here.

Here's the view out the window on Saturday between snow showers,



and yesterday after the weather turned warmer and a lot of wet snow overnight. Some damage in town from collapsing porch and out-building roofs, and a few trees bent over from the weight. Our poor willow along the path to the house lost a couple of limbs.

We've had a steady parade of moose through the yard since the snow started. One day we counted 8. We quite often see them bedded down out in the snow in the morning.

I rode down to the boat harbor with Van yesterday at high tide and while he shoveled snow of the boat, I set in the truck and sketched the floats in the river.

Not too many postcards last month and as of now I've misplaced most of them. This one is the view out the window on October 27th.

Here's another older postcard, done in May of a sweet dog named Pearl. She passed away a couple of weeks ago and I gave the card to the owners but scanned it, so thought I'd put it here