Ice-scapes...

I've been having fun studying icicles up close... pretty stuff... we have plenty of it after the Nor'easter dumped over 2 feet on our hilltop acre on Thursday...and it's still snowing...it hasn't really stopped...dang.

Our friend's garage fell down yesterday afternoon because of the weight of the snow...be careful out there!

I've been deep into the final proofreading of The Fractured Hues of White Light and have reached the halfway point...I'm reading the whole proof backwards so I'm in chapter 14 today, and hope to be entering chapter 13 by tonight...not "going with the flow" really helps me catch the last stragglers that I want out, or if I'm really unhappy with a sentence, I'll rewrite it on the spot. I'll do my best to make it as 'squeaky clean' as possible before she is printed...

I'm putting up two copies of Dusty Waters: A Ghost Story for a giveaway at Library Thing, starting today I believe...I didn't see it on the list yet, it was still pending as of this morning...

Please enjoy the photos of the "Ice-scapes"...there's critter pictures at the end...

I'm a sucker for the vertical orientation of these shards of ice... I tried a few horizontal, but enjoyed them more as verticals...





This is "Pinky 'Possum' who has been visiting our bird feeders for about a week, she's not very big (that's why I think she's a she, the lady opossums tend to be smaller than the boyz.) She is quiet and doesn't seem to mind us much, I have to keep Max on a leash while she's there, he's soooo excited to make friends, but I don't want him to tangle with the little fur ball, make her play dead or anything... I just love that little face (and she does wiggle the little ears, how funny!) I'm sure, there will be moments when she'll become a nuisance critter... if necessary, I'll trap her in a have-a-heart and release her so she can be happy somewhere else.



I caught a rather blurry shot of a crow landing on the snow, I loved the open wing...I'm fooling around with it in Photoshop, this is what I have so far...

Last but not least, my faithful dog, the Best of Good Boys, Max! (The day after the snow storm, after my Fred dug out the driveway!) For ONCE he looked at the camera with ears in full bloom!

It's all in the details...

The small things...whether I'm writing, drawing, painting, or taking a photo, I'm looking for the right 'thing'...one of those...

well, you know...the things I don't have words for...

I start with this big thing...

Then I work it out...
I play...and suddenly, it's there...
Some times I wind up with something so bare bones, it's almost silly that I had to go through so much to get there...

Part of the fun is the journey...

Don't forget to have a good time.

We will never forget...

Picky-Picky...born, late summer of 1997-died, today, February 9, 2010, with her family around her after a long illness. She came to us feisty and so cute she was heart breaking, she left us just as full of life, love, and determined to beat the odds. We will miss her.

When we first found her living outside with the rest of the barn cats in the fall of 1997, she ran around only by the power of her front legs... we weren't sure if she was a cat, she moved so fast, tumbling off the porch and disappearing, we'd look at each other and ask..."What was that?"

When we finally captured her the day before Thanksgiving 1997 (as I recall, it was a very snowy and bitter cold autumn that year), she entered our home fighting, and certainly not wanting any part of people... our son caught her in the midst of the barn cat feeding frenzy on the porch that morning, handed her off to me, and I tucked her inside my coat, where she fought, hissed, clawed, and bit... I dropped her off inside the bathroom while my Fred was getting ready for work, the bathroom was warm and steamy from our showers, so she warmed up, and once she got a dish of food all to herself...she changed her mind about people rather quickly. Within a few hours of being inside where it was warm, her little hind legs began to work, and she toddled about, and found "lap" very acceptable.

Her first trip to the vet, she was declared to be a 'unique little kitty' and we were cautioned that she might not live much beyond her first year because of her various physical handicaps.

Just the tiniest of paws...

At her prime, she might've tipped the scales at 8lbs, she never got bigger than a 6 month old kitten. Her spine was severely curved with scoliosis, and her hind quarters were crippled, she crab-walked in an odd gait with her tail whipping around like a rudder keeping her going straight... watching her run was a sight to see, the little hind legs would swing wildly one way, the tail the other...
A Picky on my shoulder! My what big green eyes she had!

The last five years, she slowly went blind from glaucoma, and her hind quarters were becoming weak, she'd tumble over very often, and kept within a small territory of the kitchen and dining room area. A urinary tract infection and chronic constipation due to the weakness in her hind quarters became a quality of life issue that we could not overlook, we didn't want her to suffer, so today after treatment with antibiotics, our vet advised us that we should put her to sleep... it was the kindest thing to do. She lived a long life with lots of love, and she made us so happy. A unique little kitty.


Picky-Picky's first Christmas (sleeping in Gramma's lap)


Picky-Picky loved taking walks on her leash... how many cats do?

She loved finding the sunny places...


Picky-Picky was very often described as being shaped like a bowling pin...not usually a very good model for photographs, she was very busy...
This was the first photo...she was famous for moving at the last second...


A linocut from October of 1998...

She was always a treat to draw...I thought about a children's book at one time... a Halloween tale "Scare D. Cat", this was a preliminary pen and ink drawing... I didn't get very far with the story.


I cannot begin to tell you how much I will miss my little girl.

Sunday evening...

Milkweed pods
I really love these little pods, their shape and texture is gorgeous.

Tangled Wood
Another old maple on our property with a tangle of saplings and such...

Shard
An ice cycle outside my window...

Winter Tree, Winter Sky
My old maple friend caught my eye again, the frosty February sunshine on the silvery bark was so beautiful...and I love the contrast of the old limbs and the spidery twigs against the sky...I was amazed that I was able to keep a touch of blue in the sky...

I've been busy doing a little bit of this...and a little bit of that...this is some of what I've been doing today...I love creating black and white photos with a tint...I have done a bit of exploring marketing ideas for my little book, Dusty Waters...as you can see, I've added a "Buy Now" button in the side bar, various things will wind up attached to that...not just signed copies of my book, eventually photo's and artwork will be part of this...but one step at a time...there's much to do, I'll get there. I've been on a "break" from working on The Fractured Hues of White Light, but I guess I need to get back to it, the new proof is in hand and I'm feeling more like revisiting it now...