Visiting Dogs! Art! Flowers! Birds!

It was a busy week in the Atomic City.  On Monday I cleaned my house in anticipation of a half-day visit from Michelle and Steve, who were popping down on Tuesday from the happening town of Ronald, WA (where they have a lovely vacation home).  On Tuesday they duly arrived, with dachshunds Winston and Chloe, who are old friends of Truman and Pippin. 

I tried to get a good pic of all four dogs together but they absolutely refused to sit still.  They had a great time running around and enjoying each other's company.

I took my guests on a tour of the highlights of Richland, one of which is the conning tower from a Trident nuclear submarine.  This is the sort of thing that folks here find entertaining.

We stopped in at an antique mall and the used bookstore.  Here is Winston wondering why his mom abandoned him (she was just one aisle over).

A most enjoyable visit all round, and as soon as they departed, I was able to take everything out of hiding that I had put in hiding in order to make my house look neat, which it never is.

One thing I had stored out of sight was art supplies, which had covered the dining table.  I've been playing around with a set of watercolor brush pens made by a new company, Arteza.  The set I got has 48 colors.

You can get fine details or larger patches of color all with one brush pen, and you can blend them with water.  My first effort below is unfinished -- I was still getting used to how they work, and gave up on putting in details as I wasn't getting quite the colors or fineness that I wanted. 

I've been working from photos from a coffee table book about the natural world.  My second effort was more successfull.

I figured out the best way to blend two colors, and which colors to lay down first.

The flower wasn't as good as the butterfly, because I was getting a lot of bleeds in the colors, which don't dry anywhere near as quickly as regular watercolor does.  They were a lot of fun to play with, and I intend to test them out a lot more.

Here's a little leaf.  Next up, I'm going to attempt a bird or two.  Stay tuned.

In gardening news, the roses in the front of the house have bloomed!

There are seven of them, each a different color.

They all seem to be Hybrid Tea roses (not my fave, but pretty enough).

I would like to plant some floribunda roses, if I can find a place to put them.

Finally, a walk by the river with birds...this was yesterday morning along the Columbia, where one of the three riverboats that go from Lewiston, ID to Portland, OR was docked.

As promised, birds -- it's gosling season!

I was sitting here taking a little rest when a jogger slowed, looked at me, looked at the Hounds, smiled, and said, "Happy Mother's Day!"  I was amused. 

That's all from the retired life!