Happy Spring!

Sorry, I am clean out of original titles. So, Jake will wish you a happy spring! Youngest daughter dressed Jake to greet the group of girls who were coming to help her celebrate sweet sixteen!

She dug up an old Hawaiian shirt foreshadowing perhaps her trip later this year? We purchased the hat and lei at the local Dollar store.

Jake looks comfortable on the front porch swing. (I can never get him to smile for photos).


We enjoyed the company of five teenage girls last night. They gushed over the super moon, watched the Road to El Dorado and Labyrinth, (for some reason, the latter has become THE birthday movie around here), ate pizza, tea sandwiches, hot brie and baguette, two pints of blueberries and Central Market cupcakes.

Morning activities included croissants and tie dye. No need to get dressed! By all means stay in your pajamas because we have no close neighbors.

I was surprised to learn that daughter's friends never learned to dip dye. (They've only tie-dyed with fancy squirt kits).


Well the purist old hippie art teacher has to show them how it is done.

The finished products are drying in the sun.

Today day and night are equal. The sun will soon be warming the earth.

Little green things are beginning to emerge.

Happy spring!

Dogs at the Beach Painting (WIP)

"Little Darling, It's been a long, cold, lonely winter. Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here. "

Here comes the Sun.

I think I am beginning to emerge from hibernation. The sun was out most of today. Long enough at least to dash out to my lair and snap a few pictures.

I have been painting, although sporadically over this nasty winter. Painting sun-drenched beach scenes refresh the soul in February.

I posted this on Facebook a few weeks back. I got a good response even though it was a terrible photo. I could not find a card reader and had to crop it through whatever default photo editing software that happens to have come with my laptop. I cleaned up the painting a bit, re-shot and cropped it on hubby's computer. I think you can get the gist of it. I have another "woodland" landscape that I may post soon. The sun was glaring too much today.

Why do I love back lit scenes so? They intrigue me for some reason but are a bear to paint. I kept going over the dogs, trying to get some detail even though I couldn't see much from my original photo.

Anyway, I have been painting a bit. I need to paint more.

Road Boating

Another boring day in Dover. We are expecting one to two inches of rain. A flood watch is in effect. The ground is saturated. The rivers are full. There is a creek in my yard.

I took a northward drive to New Cumberland to do a little shopping. The wipers were on high speed. I decided to shun the interstate and take back roads.

The drive north was uneventful. It seems that sane people stay at home.

On the trip home, many of the roads were slightly flooded with huge puddles. The meteorologists call this "ponding". I know well enough not to drive through any of the deep flash floods. A car could get carried away.

I noted that I could see the bottom. I could go for it.

Accelerate! SPLASH! A curtain of water covers the windows!

My oldest daughter is home on spring break. She was mildly amused.

I pick up the youngest who was performing at the spring musical. I told her the flooding had subsided but there were still major puddles to splash through.

We aimed, we hit. We splashed! The passenger side was washed in a sheet of water. Wheeee! Delaney laughed hysterically. "Do that again Mom!" We found another huge puddle and left a wake!

Delaney exclaimed "I always loved going through these puddles when I was little!"

I told her to stay a kid! We turned into our driveway.