In Between the Rain Showers

I managed to get outside at least once every day over the past week, but it wasn't exactly inspiring or even that enjoyable.  Mostly I dashed out for quick dog walks in between the showers.  At least one day it rained so steadily that there were no breaks, so I pulled on all of my waterproof gear, let the dogs stay comfortably snuggled in their blankets, and went for a walk on my own.

Guess what the weather is doing right now?

Five-day forecast:
MON  High of 51; RAIN 100%
TUE   High of 46;  PM SHOWERS 40%
WED  High of 44;  SHOWERS 50%
THU  High of 46;  RAIN  80%
FRI  High of 52;  SHOWERS  70%

I might be able to take the dogs for a walk on Tuesday morning.

I've been contemplating a retirement relocation move to Richland (where I grew up).  Here is Richland's five-day forecast:
MON  High of 57:  AM FOG, PM CLOUDS
TUE  High of 53;  MOSTLY SUNNY
WED  High of 52; PARTLY CLOUDY
THU  High of 49;  MOSTLY CLOUDY
FRI  High of 56;  AM CLOUDS, PM SUN

Looks like good walking weather every single day.  Sigh.

Sadly, my good friends here refuse to move with me.  Oh, well.

Here are the usual weekly photos of cute dachshunds and a few sketches, plus a bonus fallen tree from a windstorm.  Exciting times!

Pippin with Chloe

Winston, Pippin, and Truman

Pippin looking adorable...does he ever look anything but adorable?

Well, possibly when he's barking...recently he discovered his vocal chords, and has been using them vigorously:

Okay, he's pretty adorable even when barking.  I imagine that won't be the case when he is fully grown and has a deeper voice.

Now for the fallen tree:  we had a very windy Saturday, so windy that a tree fell at the house two doors down from mine.  Luckily it did only very minor damage to the structure, and nobody lives there anyway.  Whew!

I actually drove in the windstorm, just to Nicole's house, carefully choosing the routes with the fewest tall trees.  Tina met us there, and we had an enjoyable afternoon sitting around the dining table working on practice pieces.

This is rock-painting practice from a book called The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook: Landscape

Tina brought a library book with black and white photos taken in Russian Jewish cemeteries, which were fascinating.  I decided to paint part of a grave marker using gradations of only one gray watercolor shade:

Finally, I drew what I could see from Nicole's dining table.  They are connoisseurs of fine wine.

That's it for the past week.  I borrowed several watercolor instruction books from Nicole -- I hope the exercises in them will help me survive the coming week!

Is It Monday Already?

Goodness, how time flies when you're not doing anything.  I seem to have posted all of my photos last Wednesday and Friday, and don't have enough new ones for a new post.  Maybe next Monday there will be more, if the weather cooperates.

I did join the Seattle Urban Sketchers group at Third Place Commons in Lake Forest Park on Sunday morning, where I spent most of the time drawing what I could see from a comfy armchair just inside the bookstore, looking back out towards the restaurant area.

Quite a complex scene -- I was happy to be in a very comfortable seat!

Other than that, I did some birding (but it was too drizzly/gray for photos), and took the hounds for long walks during the rain breaks.   Here is the required Cute Puppy Pic for this week:

Can you tell that Pippin is a little scamp?  And that Truman is Not Amused?

Once again, there is a lot of rain in the forecast this week.  Maybe I will try to do some indoor drawing.  We shall see!

Catching Up, Part 2

Last weekend we got a mix of rain and sunshine.  On rainy Saturday, Tina and I ventured up to the Aurora Antique Pavilion in Edmonds for some sketching.  This place is HUGE. 

It has 30,000sf and nearly 200 vendors and it takes hours to look through.

There was way more stuff I wanted to draw than I had time for, obviously.

Plus, I also wanted to do a bit of shopping.

Eventually, I got overloaded by the sheer volume of stuff.

So I just sat down randomly and drew whatever was in front of me at one particular booth.

We couldn't use paint inside the store, so I snapped a photo and added watercolor later at home.

We definitely need to return -- it was a great place for rainy-day drawing,

But here is what you really want:  more cute Pippin pics!

He and Truman are getting along just fine.

Chloe, however, is still not sure about him.

It was sunny on Sunday, so I popped down to the Montlake Fill, where I spotted this Red-tailed Hawk:

It heard Pippin squeaking (he squeaks/squeals when he's bored, which is whenever I stop to look at something), and did this:

Maybe the bird thought Pippin was an especially big rat.  We quickly moved on.

Later that day, Tina and Nicole and I went sketching at Gas Works Park, where the temperature broke 60 degrees!  Very pleasant to be able to draw outside.

It was also warm and pleasant on Monday.  I took the hounds to Green Lake Park, which is very popular with walkers and joggers and cyclists for its 3-mile loop trail. 

Pippin got lots of socializing practice in, and though I stuck him in the stroller for photos (otherwise he doesn't sit still), he did walk about 2/3 of the way around.

There was a big flock of American Wigeons on the lake, which decided to fly up just as we reached them.

A beautiful day for a 3-mile stroll.

I paused about halfway around to take a little rest and sketch break.  Of course, neither dog wanted to sit in the stroller while I sat there -- and it was a bit tricky to draw while they were on my lap.

But I managed!

Now I am all caught up, and will return to the regular once-weekly Monday posts.  Have a happy weekend!

Catching Up, Part 1

After an unexpected delay caused by a certain adorable puppy chewing up a laptop cord, I am finally able to blog again!  I have forgiven the adorable puppy.  I just hope we can get through his teething phase without further mishaps.

So these photos are from the first week of the year!  Next time I'll post stuff from the second week, and then we'll be close to caught up.  Whew.

On New Year's Day, I took the Hounds to the Montlake Fill -- it was Pippin's first visit there.

He loved the smells.

I introduced him to the concept of sitting still while I looked at birds.  We practiced on this lovely Wood Duck.

Pippin took his cue from Truman and waited patiently for me to finish.

Afterwards, I rewarded him with a visit to a pet supply store.

And then made him go to a bookstore.

Back home, he crashed on the armchair...I may need to get a bigger one.

He is now nearly four months old and has grown from 3lbs to 5lbs.  He's doing very well on training, and knows "sit", "stay", "come", and "roll over", and is making progress on "leave it."  As for housetraining, he's had one accident over the past 16 days.  Yay!

He has a gazillion toys to play with, such these:

Yet his favorite thing to play with is an old shirt that I tied knots in:

He also enjoys Thursdays, when Winston and Chloe spend the day here.

Winston likes Pippin, while Chloe kind of tolerates him for short periods.

They really love their back yard, either for running and chasing, or for digging.

Okay, so I didn't spend all of my time hanging out with the hounds -- I did manage to get out for one short sketch outing with Tina at the Woodland Park Zoo.

The next weekend, we sketched at an antique mall.  I'll post an update on that (and more adorable puppy pics) next time!