Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Pileated Woodpeckers and Roosters



The day after I posted the last update we saw a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers come to the tree nearest the kitchen window, then fly to the back of the yard. They hung around that tree for about ten minutes, during which time we all three stayed glued to the window and kept passing the binoculars back and forth. How wonderful! The night before we sat outside and observed the beautiful lunar eclipse. :)

Since then we've had a quiet two weeks of school, fishing, and enjoying the outdoors. Today it turned cold, however! We woke to snow flurries and wind, and the temperature never got above 43. For this Alabama gal that is quite cold!



Our neighbors have two very colorful roosters, and they wander into our yard occasionally. They rarely come close enough or stand still long enough for me to do more than brief sketches, but I love seeing all the color on them! I'm going to continue to try to capture them in my sketchbook and enjoy the process. What beautiful birds!



Last night I roughly sketched my grandmother's very pretty bread board. The sketch doesn't do it justice, but it's got a ring of carving around the edge. I keep it because it was hers, but I don't use it. :)

I haven't done any actual painting lately, but I sure have been enjoying sketching!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Snow!

Well, today in central Alabama we had snow! They predicted anywhere from 1 to 6 inches, but we ended up with about 1/2 inch here. However, it was a lot of fun watching David and all the neighborhood kids play. They had snowball fights and built snowmen (small ones) and got really cold. A really fun day!



One night this week I did a quick sketch from a photo in the files of Watercolorworkshop to try to keep my goal of sketching every day this year. The blue in the sky completely dropped out of this scan, but the rest is pretty close. It was fun.



I also did a sketch of some cactus flowers, using a reference photo I took in the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham last year. I'm finding I like my sketches better when drawn from life.



Have a wonderful holiday!