Sunday, September 18, 2011

End of Summer-2011

I'll do my best to recap the summer. It is a way for me to feel ready to move on to the fall and winter which will be much quieter and more focused on art.

Family--The Highs

Posted by Picasa

Grandchildren were a huge part of this summer.

They lept over tall objects.




Posted by Picasa


 
Posted by Picasa
They rode horses.


They sat in our kitchen for breakfast.
Posted by Picasa

Family--The Lows
My mother's physical health declined to the point we had to move her from the memory care facility she's been in for the last two years, to a nursing facility. The move has increased her mental decline. Most visits now, she asks me who I am.
Posted by Picasa

Around the Place


I love this shot of a small snake surprising me in the garden.







Once again we took down the 30 or so swallow houses,


Posted by Picasa

emptied out the nests and chased off yellow-jackets,
Posted by Picasa

Posted by Picasa

found creepy baby bird mummies,

and kept records of each nest.

Due to a cold spring and late summer, we had many fewer successful nests.
Posted by Picasa

Art--High

After reworking parts of this painting, it was accepted into the Watercolor Society of Oregon Fall 2011 show.



Posted by Picasa

Art--Lows

I had 3 other paintings rejected from other art competitions this summer.

I roasted at the McKenzie Art Festival--95+ degrees, and ended up in the red financially.
Posted by Picasa

My classes at the Vida Community Center Ended.

Rogue River Rafting


We felt fortunate to be invited on a Rogue River rafting trip this September, since we did not get a permit ourselves.



Kayaking Mike displayed one of the many dead salmon we saw on this trip.


Posted by Picasa

This heron was one of several we saw.
Posted by Picasa

And the bears were out, although we never saw one in camp. This guy has a salmon nearly as large as he was, and further down river, many salmon remains lay on rocks at the river's edge.
Posted by Picasa

Our friend from New Orleans, Julie, enjoyed being rafted into a small waterfall--a nifty way to cool down!
Posted by Picasa
And the take-out: all that was left was packing up all this stuff into a trailer, driving 5 hours to home, cleaning and putting away the raft gear until next year.
Posted by Picasa

Next on my to do list is putting away art fair stuff and cleaning my studio. I will be happy to have that behind me and paintings ahead of me!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Margaret: It was fun reading about all the activities you managed to orchestrate this summer. I know family activities top the list. Now you can get back to your art. Congrats on getting into the Fall show. See you at convention hopefully.

Diana

Ruth Armitage said...

Looks like a great summer Margaret! Congratulations on getting into the WSO show!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Margaret, I so enjoy your web site and blog. I learn from looking at your beautiful paintings.
keep paining outside,
brooks

Anonymous said...

What a full summer you had! I love your "highs" and "lows"--nice way to look at life. Things do balance out. Thanks for sharing.
Liz

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for sharing your summer activities! I love seeing your growing family and hearing about your travels and art endeavors. So sorry to hear about your mom. Here's to a wonderful fall!
Shari