Journal Page Purple Hollyhock (2)

Journal Page Purple Hollyhock (2)
Originally uploaded by MaryO 2

I had some more photos of the hollyhocks we used to have in the garden and couldn't resist drawing this beauty. I should do them on better paper, they look pretty washed out in this journal.
6x9" on handmade paper. Watercolor pencils and sepia ink.

Drawing again

I had been working on a couple of watercolor paintings recently, but they weren't going so well, so I've put them aside for now. I decided to simplify my efforts and just do some quick sketches for awhile to loosen up. These are a couple that I did this past week on some very "thirsty" handmade paper that encourages me to be less intense and wield my brush v-e-r-y quickly! These are about 6x9" in a journal I love but haven't used much because of the paper.

Are we in Kansas???

Has anybody seen Toto????
This was the aftermath of a storm that roared through our area Friday afternoon. We had 50 or 60 mph winds, but were luckier than some places west of us who had stronger ones with lots more damage. Roy will take his time clearing up these trees and give the larger logs to our neighbor who has a wood burning fireplace. I hate losing trees, but felt fortunate that nothing fell on the house!

Blubird Update July 16, 2009

This is my latest entry in my bluebird journal. Sad to say I don't keep it up as much as I should. There were so many sweet and sometimes poignant events in this nesting that will be forgotten as time goes by.
I've promised myself to do better with subsequent nestings...........

July 16, 2009

"I’ve been very bad about recording the nesting, but the pair of birds who has been watching the house all this time did indeed build a nest. She laid only three eggs this time and they hatched on July 4 or thereabouts. Could have been a couple of days earlier. I noticed at one point a third bird had joined them in the yard and a close-up check with binoculars identified it as an adolescent which I later recognized as a young female, probably from the first nesting of the parent pair. She spent a great deal of time in the yard foraging for food and learning to annoy other birds who got in her way. She was fun to watch in her daily rummaging around the yard. She also spent a lot of time peering into the bird house where Mama was sitting on eggs. Later when the little ones hatched, she spent some time bringing some of her juicy morsels to share with her new siblings.
Unfortunately, we did not get to witness the fledging of this group, which occurred just last night or this morning. I didn’t see any blues in the yard all morning and we were away for 3 or 4 hours this afternoon. I noticed Mama on one of her favorite perches (the top bar that holds the thistle feeder) later this afternoon. She did go over to peer into the nest box, but mostly just sat and looked around the yard. Not until she had been gone for awhile did we dare go open, very gingerly, the side door of the box. The nest was quite empty with only two small fecal sacs in the bottom. We’ve cleaned out the box, so it will be ready if they decide to nest again.
Mama was beginning to look very haggard, however, and I’m wondering if maybe she’s an older bird who won’t be nesting again. I’m not really knowledgeable enough to know about these things."