Z is for...Zwinger

I had a lovely day in Dresden one December, wandering the streets and seeing the history and experiencing the Christmas markets.  As evening fell, I walked through the Zwinger where people all about and nearby on the steps a violinist fed the evening air with a lovely melody.

Y is for...Yonder....and Yikes

Talleras Prairie, Kansas

I stood on the prairie and gazed over yonder at the bison grazing the hills.  I set down my pack and pulled out my sketchbook and painted the scene.  The sky was blue, the grass was green, it was a beautiful day on the prairie.  I had talked my friend into hiking out to see the bison, despite her sore ankle.  On our walk back, my friend suddenly jumped to the middle of the path and looked suspiciously at the high grass and said "I heard something".  Sure enough, I looked and there was a Speckled King Snake.  She never got tired of telling me that I "tried to kill her."  Just for reference, they aren't poisonous but they do shake their tail when startled - which is probably what she heard.

Yikes...Speckled King Snake

Bison over yonder.

X is for....X Marks the Spot

Truth be told, I had a different sketch in mind for today inspired by my friend Sara—she gave me the line “X Marks the Spot” and the idea for the sketch to go with it…and I post it, just not today.  I will post it sometime in May, as this week has just gotten really busy and I am running out of time to get things done, and that picture wasn’t uploaded and my mind is racing with everything I need to get done to much to refocus on another task, but that is okay, because today you get a piñata.

Captain America with his arms and legs spread out like an X, waiting for some child to strike him open so he can spill his candy all over the ground, to the delight of all the waiting children.  

There are a few other things to note about this picture—the roof of the building is lined with gutters, which run to the back right corner where a section of spouting takes takes rain water that is collected into the large blue reservoir in the background for the town’s supply.

Also something of interest that you can’t see in the picture, is the flour that fills the piñata along with the candy and when it breaks open the unsuspecting partners get sprinkled with flour along with the expected candy.  Good memories of Mexico.
 

W is for…Walnuts

Fifty pound feed bags filled with walnuts waiting to go to the walnut broker.

 There are three walnuts trees in my parents back yard, that are testament to my younger self.  I begged and pleaded that my parents wouldn't cut down all the walnut trees that had grown between the edge of our yard and the neighbors field, I think I even cried a little.  They left three in a little alcove behind the shop and hung a place for a hammock.  My mother refers to it as my "tryst".  Don't get me wrong, I would still probably cry if they cut them down, but sometimes I feel a little guilty that my mother, who just turned 80 this year, has to pick up walnuts every fall for weeks on end.  

My writing desk is made from walnut wood that was harvested when the large walnut tree, that was the cause of all those young saplings that I cried to save in my youth, fell in a storm one summer day.  

V is for … Volterra

 

One evening as the sun was setting over Volterra, we sat on a restaurant terrace overlooking the city.  I sketched away while my new friends chatted.  

Volterra is an old walled city in Tuscany.

Bonus: Here is a little video from a visit to Volestra, a small village in the Cinque Terre where I spent some time hiking after my visit to Tuscany.  I mostly took the video to capture the group of German's who arrived while I was sitting outside the church painting.  You can hear them singing inside the church which is directly behind me.

U is for…Unwanted Guests

One morning when I walked out onto my porch I found sawdust on my flowers.  I looked around and at first I couldn't find a source of where it would have come from.  Then I noticed a perfectly round hole in my porch post plant stand and was more confused.  As I proceeded to investigate, sawdust started falling out of the hole, followed by the back end of a bee.  As much as I like insects, I didn't want a bee living right outside my front door, as well as the fact that I am allergic to bees so I try to avoid unexpected encounters with them.  It was fascinating though so I spent a little time watching the carpenter bee work before I zapped him with some insect spray and filled the hole up with putty.  In that poor bees memory though I made sure to take time to sketch the little home it was working so diligently on.
 

T is for …The Thames

This is another memory that I painted at the scrapbooking retreat in 2018.  This time I was floating down the Thames on a river taxi with my brother.  We took the taxi from near the London Eye east to the O2, where we walked around and looked at the fun atmosphere with its indoor streets of restaurants and large theater where there was an international film festival going on.  In the end, we found the tube and headed back to Muswell Hill without seeing a movie or trying any of the restaurants because we had planned to eat supper with my aunt and uncle that day, but we did enjoy seeing Big Ben, St. Paul’s, and the London Bridge as we floated down the river.

S is for … Sunrises

 We woke up early to watch the sunrise most days on our trip through Arizona and Utah.  This was the first morning of our trip and we went up and found a spot on the rim to wait for the sun's arrival.  I got comfortable and pulled out my sketchbook and paints and tried to capture the scene as the sun rose and made the colors dance across the rocks.  What a beautiful morning.

R is for ....Rest and Relaxation

At Shenandoah National Park, I hiked down to Rapidan Camp  where President Herbert Hoover once found rest and relaxation, a reprieve from Washington DC.  You can read more about it here.  While there, I found a peaceful spot on the far side of the creek to sit down and sketch facing back towards the Brown House, were Herbert and his wife Lou would stay while they were there.

Bonus:  While in Mexico, Mari took us to a swimming hole one afternoon to rest and relax.  You can see Mari sitting up high on the rock overlooking the swimming hole.

Q is for....Quince Bakery and Cafe

 In the town near where I live, Quince Bakery and Cafe was a favorite stop for lunch with friends.  It was a wonderful little stop.  It stood next to the fire department and owned the building, so when the fire department decided to update their building, it was set to be torn down.  A week before the demolition started I went up and sketched the two buildings.  They owner of Quince opted not to reopen in a new location and I miss having a local bakery in town, but we have a brand new fire department building which takes up the whole corner and I am sure will be a blessing to the whole community.

P is for....Panic

 In March of 2019, I took a road trip with my friends Beth and Sara through Arizona and Utah and then over to Las Vegas to fly home.  I had carefully made a sketchbook with watercolor paper that I liked and fitted to slide into my leather notebook that my sister had "gotten" me for Christmas.  (Truth is I wanted the leather notebook, so I bought it and had it mailed to my sister's to give me for Christmas.  I had forgotten all about it and when she handed me another gift to open, I was all confused at why she got me something else.  We both laughed once I opened it and saw what it was.)  

One of the stops we made on our trip was at Arches National Park.  We stopped at the Double Arch and I decided I was going to do some sketching while they went ahead and hiked up to the arches.  I enjoyed my time sketching and painting and then packed up my things and went up and investigated the arches myself.  We did some more hiking and then were ready to head out of the park because we had our trip jam packed with stops and wanted to get a start towards Bryce Canyon where we planned to visit the next day, but before we left I wanted to get a stamp on my picture I had sketched there at the park, so we stopped at the visitor's center on our way towards the exit.  My friends were casually perusing the gift shop, while I went to get my stamp and soon my heart was plummeting and I was in full panic because my leather notebook was nowhere to be found in my backpack.  I was sure I had lost it - my precious leather notebook and all my sketches, my postcards and postage stamps and thought I would never find them again.  We talked to the ranger and I filled out a lost and found slip in case anybody turned it in and then we decided to go back to the last place I knew I had it, at one of the large rocks along the path to the Double Arches.  

My friends graciously drove the car around the parking lot since the parking lot was full, while I walked down towards the arches and there it was sitting on the rock where I must have inadvertently missed putting it in my bag as I stowed things away.  People nearby had seen it and were hoping that whoever's it was would miss it and come back for it and were glad to see when I came.  And I was very thankful to have it again.

My friends were kind enough to make one more stop at the visitor's center for me to get my stamp and then off we went to our next adventure---I try to remember to put my address in my sketchbooks now, so just incase I mislay one, I might get it back again.

O is for....Oak Alley

One summer, my friend Sara and I hopped in the car and took an epic road trip.  We drove to Saint Louis, Missouri and then south through Arkansas and Mississippi down to Louisiana, before turning back East and eventually north again.  Returning through Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and finally back to Ohio. 

 One day while we were in Louisiana, we snacked on Zapp's potato chips we had gotten free from the visitor's center while we visited several plantations along the Great River Road.  I wasn't much of a sketcher then and this sketch was done several years later, but if I went again I would probably be itching to spend time sketching.

A broader view of the same sketch, including notes from my sketchbook.

 

N is for...Neglect

This house sat up on a hill overlooking my childhood home.  When I was young my neighbors who lived here had several children.  The older girl would babysit us and the younger girl was one of my few neighborhood friends, there in the rural countryside, and the boys would drive us to Bible school in the summer, that is, until they moved away when I was 7 or 8.  Then it sat empty for a number of years, until another family moved in around the time I was in high school.  They stayed for a few years and then they too moved away and it sat empty even longer.  The owners of the home lived in a large city about an hour or so away and the house had been passed down through the generations.  They couldn't agree to sell it, but they didn't spend time keeping it up either.  

More recently, they must have agreed to sell it because my parents told me new owners had bought the land.  The house with its lovely woodwork and beautiful bay window that looked out over the valley was no longer worth fixing though and a few months after the sunny afternoon that I spent doing this sketch, the new owners tore it down.  So now that spot on the hilltop with its neglected house sits empty waiting for someone else to use it.

M is for...Madrigal

The high school I graduated from started doing a madrigal sometime after I graduated.  I remember going with some friends soon after I had graduated from college and was living in the area again.  It had been a few years since they had put one on and this past December they did one again.  Several youth that I used to have in youth group were in the choir that puts it on, so I decided to go.  I tucked my paints and a sketchbook in my "purse" --if anyone ever decides to steel my "purse" they will be sorely disappointed that it is filled with paints, pens and pencils, some sort of sketchpad, and my Bible, there is rarely any money in there, but I would be bummed --so, don't take my "purse".  

Anyways, back to the madrigal, I pulled out my sketchbook between courses and sketched different scenes  going own, the choir singing, the carrying in of the boar's head and the decking of the halls.  It was an enjoyable evening and fun to see the youth display their talents.  

L is for ... La Bolsa

 The small village of La Bolsa in Neuvo Leon, Mexico will forever be in my heart as a special place.  I was only there twice for a few hours and I know very little Spanish which didn't allow me much communication with the people.  However the couple in the picture on the left touched my heart as they watched while we came to their village and cleaned out the little church - the green building in the middle of the page.  The church had been not been used for 13 years.   

Usually the groups that would come and serve with the mission would meet in Texas and they would drive them down to Neuvo Leon in vans, but our group was planning to go and visit the home of one of the girls from our youth group whose family lived in Mexico  after our time serving with them.  In order for this to work, we had flown into Mexico and they had picked us up at the airport, which gave us more time in Doctor Arroyo where they were based and so we were able to join them this evening in La Bolsa.  Here is an excerpt from my journal:

"We had lunch and then we learned some songs and a Bible story and then we went to La Bolsa where once there had been a church but it had closed in 2006 and we were going there to have a service as a man from the church in the morning was feeling called to open the church again.

They had 30 children and 20 adults come to our church service this evening and they plan to have church on Tuesdays at 6:30 starting this week.  I pray that God would bless that little church and that town and the people there."

I still pray for that town and those people and that little church whenever I think of them or flip through my little sketchbook from Mexico.

(Please excuse the terrible punctuation in my journal entry-I don't worry too much about punctuation when I am writing in my journal, because no one typically reads it.)

K is for ... Kansas City

Kansas City BBQ...I will let my words tell the story, while my mouth salivates on memories.

 

J is for ....Joy

Joy, delight, and admiration for Auntie Joy.  Her two young friends didn't want to waste anytime that they could spend with Joy during our short visit.  It was such a sweet scene as they sat gazing out the window while conversing with their friend.  

Bonus today: I couldn't entirely decide between Joy and Japan House, so I am posting them both.

I got up early and walked my 5K that day to the park where the Japan House was, and then I sat on a grassy knoll and sketched, until my friends came and picked me up.  

 

I is for...Idyllic

 

This was such an idylically pleasant day, capturing these spoon carvers at various stages of the carving process.  I had heard that my high school choir teacher was hosting a spoon carving in his front yard one spring day and I asked him if he minded if I would come and sketch.  It was a nice afternoon and the turkey, Smokey strutted around keeping an eye on all the proceedings.  

H is for ...Hiking

I am always, well most always, a sucker for a good hike.  This sketch is one I did while I was hiking a short section of the Appalachian Trail.  I am much more of a day hiker than a through hiker.  I did do a weekend backpacking trip once and had aspirations of doing more, but that never transpired and now I my body doesn't tolerate sleeping on the ground as well as it did when I was young.  

This section of the Appalachian Trail is in the Shenandoah National Park.

G is for....Givenry

 

Though I was in Givenry, France in 2014, I sketched this picture in 2018.  I was off work at the time because of a recent back surgery and was still recovering.  In order to get out of the house and to enjoy a weekend away, I signed up for a scrapbooking weekend--however I hadn't prepped many pictures to do scrapbooking with and ended up spending most the time recreating scenes from past travels.  

This day in the French countryside will always be a cherished memory for me.  Seeing Monet's house and gardens were delightful, and visiting the church there was peaceful as I stood in awe to think that believers had been coming there to worship for almost 1000 years.  And then there was the church in Vernon that I watched on the horizon as I ran back to Givenry while my companions took the bus.  It rained as I ran, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and couldn't resist  a quick duck into the large church when I got there as a refuge from the rain. 

Do not be fooled by my writing here, as I am relatively confident that it is 4 km from Vernon to Givenry not 2 km as written here.

F is for...Family

I love this sketch.  I sketched as we sat in my aunt's garden room and my mom, my cousin, and my aunt chatted away.  It was during my last visit to London before my aunt became ill and passed away of CJD.  She became ill in the spring of 2020 and none of us could go visit because of Covid restrictions.  

When I look at this picture I almost feel like time stood still and I am back in this room and soon we will get up and go for a walk or figure out something for supper.  And then after supper we will play some scrabble or watch the English game show Countdown on the telly.

 

E is for…Entering the English Gardens

 

In Akron, Ohio there is a grand estate known as Stan Hywett, Old English for stone quarry.  The Hall was finished in 1915 and was the home of F.A. Seiberling.  Surrounding the Hall are numerous gardens, and one can easy spend an afternoon wandering around.  One of my favorite ways to wander is down a stone staircase that leads to a door that opens up into English Garden.  One Sunday afternoon last summer, I spent some time standing on the staircase sketching.

D is for...Dover

 In the small town of Dover, Ohio there is a museum.  The Ernest Warther Museum and Gardens.  I have good memories of visiting here as a child and in the fall of 2021, they had a tree that they were planning to take down.  However when the final decision was made, Ernest Warther's grandson, Dan, ended up carving it into what they call "The Sevens".  

Ernest Warther had become known as the World's Master Carver for his many carvings of steam engines that he did, but he was also known for carving pliers from one piece of wood with ten cuts.  He had also learned how to do more cuts to make multiple interlocking pliers, the largest of which was series of 511 interlocking pliers that opens into a tree and took around 31, 000 cuts to a single piece of wood to make.  

"The Sevens" is a series of seven pliers - three of which are relief cut and four of which open up.  I enjoyed a trip down to watch and sketch while he was working on carving the last of the opening pliers. 

C is for...Corniglia

     On the western coast of Italy there is a small town up on the cliffs called Corniglia. It is the middle town of the area known as Cinque Terre and in the late summer of 2021 I was able to stay there a few days and hike the trails of the Cinque Terre. Not far outside the door of the place where I stayed was a bench and if I sat on this bench I could watch the people come and go. If I looked out in front of me across the square filled with tables and chairs and their umbrellas shading from the sun and protecting from the rain, and brought my gaze up above the terrace, there an old church stood, there in the center of town. One morning as I sat on the bench, I pulled out my paints and sketched away as the people, locals and tourists made their way from one place to the next.   

B is for....Big Meadows

 

One last little hike out into the meadow to do a sketch before I headed into Harrisonburg to visit a few pillars of my childhood who had since relocated to Virginia but always offer open doors if I ever venture south-in those Covid days it was decks and patios, but wonderful visits none the less before my journey back north.

In June of 2020, I had a vacation scheduled, but with just coming off Covid lockdowns and still having a lot of restrictions and different protocols in different states, I wasn't sure that any trips were in my plans.  However, my adventurous self couldn't quite pass off the chance to get away a little bit and I ended up booking 3 days at Big Meadows Lodge at Shenandoah National Park.  I had a room off the opened up on the terrace and I spent my days sketching and hiking.  

The last morning, after checking out and before heading home, I carried my little stool out into the meadow and watched the bees buzz from one flower to the next collecting pollen and the butterflies fluttering here and there never quite stopping long enough to let me grab a good picture.

I had so much fun that I told myself I was going to come back again sometime when they were having stargazing in the Big Meadow.  I haven't made it back yet, but someday.

A is for....Ancient

A scene from the sketchbook I took to Mexico.

 There is a song that runs through my mind when I use the word ancient, Ancient Words.  We used to sing this at the church where I grew up and spent most of my adult years.  "Ancient words, ever true, changing me and changing you.  We have come with open hearts, oh let the ancient words impart."  

When I was in Mexico with the youth from church the summer of 2019, we were visiting the home of one of the girls from our youth group and she took us to the ruins of an old Spanish hacienda.  Each day we would have quiet time and this day we had our quiet time beneath this ancient Joshua Tree.  It felt a little bit like sacred ground.  How much went on around this tree over the many years that it has stood there.  It has seen much more life than I have and God has known it all.

"Holy words, long preserved, for our walk in this world.  They resound with God's own heart, oh let the ancient words impart."

Beneath the Joshua Tree