Pears, pears and more pears!

First, I need to correct something I said in my last blog post. Our new rooster and hens were given to us by our FRIEND, who also happens to be Jon's boss. :) The friendship has gone on much longer than the working relationship, however!

Our neighbors have a pear tree that has produced abundantly this year. They have been very generous with the fruit, and we all worked together to make pear honey a few weeks ago. While we had all these wonderful pears around I decided to do a couple of fun paintings with some of them as models. I also had some long, slender mats my mom had given me, so I painted these to fit the mats.




I'm going to be in another art show this weekend. This time it's a Christmas sale featuring a lot of local artists and craftsmen. I participated in the first one last year and had a lot of fun! It will be tomorrow (Friday) from 4 to 8pm, and Saturday from 10 to 5pm, at the Jan Dempsey Art Center in Auburn. Please come out and do your Christmas shopping, and come by to say hello to me!!

Eggs!!! Camping and Art

Out of the 11 small Barred Rock chickens we got for David's birthday, all but 3 were killed by a pack of dogs two weeks after we got them. Sigh. So, the following week Jon's boss gave us an adult rooster, and sent 2 older hens along with him. They were no longer laying eggs, he said.

This Saturday, the small brown hen laid an egg!!! Then another on Monday, another on Tuesday, and a 4th today! We are surprised and thrilled. So was the former owner, who was really shocked. :)




The last weekend in October we went camping with a group of friends we've known for years, most of them, anyway. New ones, too! The campground was Roosevelt State Park in Georgia, next to Callaway Gardens. So, we spent Sunday afternoon at Callaway. We enjoyed the whole weekend! It was beautiful weather- beautiful!!





Our tent and campsite:


After leaving the butterfly house we saw a Great Grey Heron as we were driving over the bridge, heading to the Raptor Show.



At the Raptor Show they were demonstrating the owls! They were so cool. After the show the handler stayed up front with this adorable Screech Owl!



While we were at the campground relaxing, I began a set of small paintings that I ended up really liking as a single unit!



I'd like to invite any of you who live in the area to come do a little early Christmas shopping on Saturday. I'm participating in Shop It!, a fundraiser for Youth For Christ's teen moms program. A portion of all sales will go to them, and there will be a lot of vendors there, like Mary Kay, Tupperware, and Southern Home. It is from 9 to 2 at the Auburn Chamber of Commerce building, which is at Glendean shopping center in front of Hastings. Please come out! I'll be there, and painting to draw a crowd. :) We'll have to see what kind of crowd I'll draw- maybe I should try juggling or something! Anyway, it should be fun and for a good cause. I hope to see you there!

New Artwork and New Chickens

Well, I have let several months go by without posting! It's been pretty busy, but I have managed to get a few small paintings finished that I'm pretty happy with.

First, here's a picture of our sweet, silly chickens chillin' on the swing about a month ago:



About a week after I took that picture something got into their pen and killed every single one of those chickens. They were due to start laying eggs sometime this month and were most certainly pets for us. We were really crushed to find them all dead that Sunday morning! Gosh, it was sad.

A few days later, our neighbor gave us some new chickens for David's birthday! They are now about six weeks old. They are Barred Rock chickens, which are one of the few varieties of chickens that you can tell what gender they are by their color when they are tiny. We have ten hens (pullets) and one rooster (cockerel).



A couple of months ago, the friend who gave us our first chickens gave me a photo of one of their roosters- the father of several of ours. I really enjoyed doing this little painting from that photo- what a beautiful rooster!



Several weeks ago, David and I went to the northern part of the state and spent some time there with my parents. Jon was sick and had to stay here! One day while we were there, we went down to the river and let David swim. The rest of us sat in chairs by the water and chatted, and I painted this little painting of a boathouse across the river. I loved doing this painting and am really happy with it!



A couple of weeks ago, I did this little painting based on a photo I took several months ago of some flowers in a flower show. I can't remember what they were, and I've changed them quite a bit. I love the colors in this!



I hope the next few weeks will be a bit more relaxed; I hope to do some more painting. I have to say, though, that I have painted quite a bit more this year than I realized! It has been a blessing.

Have a wonderful October!

Deer, pickles and a bunny

Deer in the back yard on Saturday! If you look carefully at the last one, you'll see six deer running out of the yard. :)




Last week we made pickles with cucumbers from our garden, added to those our neighbor gave us!! YUM!!




Monday the three of us went for a walk on the land behind our garden. We came upon a rabbit before the walk opened up to a beautiful view of a field. What a beautiful world we live in!





David found an overlooked zuchini. Wow, look at the size of that! :)

We've decided to let him have his own blog and he created his first post today. Please visit and let him know what you think. And if you know how I can change the profile on his and still keep it connected to this blog, please let me know!

http://snakeman-david.blogspot.com/