The Pippin Show

As usual, I have a whole lot of adorable Pippin photos to share from the past week (and adorable Truman, too).  But first, you have to look at the art.

Once again, it was too cold to venture outside to sketch (and it SNOWED!!).  Luckily, the utility pole replacement team was out in force directly across the street and I had a front-row seat at the living room window.

They spent two hours up there, moving one wire around.  Then they left for the day and haven't been seen since (this was Wednesday).

The City has been busy replacing this pole for about three months now.  It's great to see my tax dollars at work.  My favorite moment happened when, after carefully marking all the places they should not dig, they proceeded to dig there and broke a water main.  At least it wasn't mine.

I had more indoor sketching fun by drawing from photos, which is not my preferred method, but can be good practice.  This is from an old 1920s postcard of the Smith Tower and Colman Dock.

Tina and I planned to draw at the UW's Neo-Gothic library on Sunday, but a mishap occurred which kept us indoors at her house drawing from random images online instead.  I liked these trees, which seemed to be having a battle:

Next we chose an abandoned boat, which had lots of rust and algae on it, making for fun colors.

Okay, enough of the art.  On to the Pippin Show!

Truman, who is miffed that he no longer stars in The Truman Show, loves to wrestle Pippin to let him know who is the boss.  Here he is performing a classic wrestling take-down move:

I'm not entirely sure that Truman won out in the end, though....

Pippin made his second trip to the beach this past week, this time to Golden Gardens park with his friend Winston.

I managed to get in a minute of birding while there -- these are Brant geese, one of our elegant Winter visitors.

It was a tad breezy (and COLD), but at least the sun was shining.

Back home, I asked Truman and Pippin to pose in a dignified manner for me, and this is what I got:

Oh, well.

As I may have mentioned, it SNOWED, and it stayed in the yard for a whole day.  Pippin not only doesn't mind the snow, he enjoys eating it and sitting on it and just generally hanging out in it.

And he enjoys playing with Truman in it.

Here he is showing Truman who is the boss:

Finally, in very exciting news, our next-door neighbors got a puppy!!  Her name is Piper and she is eight weeks old.

As you can probably tell, she is not a dachshund.  She's a German Shepherd, and I'm sure Pip will enjoy play dates with her for another month or two until she becomes Monster Dog.  She's ever so sweet.

That's all for now from The Pippin Show!

Springing Into Winter

Every February we have a faux Spring here in Seattle, with temperatures in the mid-50s and hints of sunshine, and camellias in bloom.  We had that for about a week recently, during which the hardy Seattle folk brought their t-shirts and sandals out of storage and pretended for a few brief shining hours that they actually lived in Phoenix.

Well, truth to tell, I see people here in t-shirts and sandals on 40-degree, rainy December days.  Just not quite as many as you see during the faux Spring.

Alas, it always ends with a shocking 30-degree, snowy reminder that February is still Winter.  I did not get outside to sketch.  I huddled inside my car at Magnuson Park:

And I huddled inside my living room and stared out the window:

And I huddled inside an antique mall:

I spent two hours on the drawing above and then I was tired.  Later, at home, I decided to try adding a bit of shading to enhance it, and I can't decide which version I prefer.  Of course, now I can't take the shading away, as it's in ink -- which is why I always take photos before I ruin a drawing.

On Sunday I huddled, along with the Seattle Urban Sketcher group at their monthly get-together, inside the U.S. Bank Centre (yes, they spell it that way...) tower in downtown Seattle.  There were sculptures and fancy glass work all over the place, most of which I utterly failed to convey in any way worthy of sharing.  I sketched some glass vases inside cases, which looked like scribbles inside wonkily off-kilter boxes.  I sketched a huge arty glass sculpture thing that looked like dinosaur ribs, but which looked like a chicken carcass on my paper.  It was not pretty.

And because I always sketch directly with pen, I couldn't erase the wonkiness.  I may need to re-think that strategy.

After nearly two hours of failing, I happened upon this upper-story view looking down at a hanging ring thing in the lobby.

It spoke to me.  It said, "You have half an hour left before the group meets up to share their work.  Surely you can draw a circle in half an hour!"  Well, I could, and I did, and it was 90% done when the fire alarm went off.   I ask you!  Is this fair?

Despite the fact that half the people in the building completely ignored the alarm, I dutifully trotted downstairs and outside.  A fire truck arrived, the alarm stopped, we all shared our drawings, and I went home and added the finishing touches from memory.

What can I say.  Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't.

Meanwhile, here is what you really want to see:  DACHSHUNDS!

Pippin is sun-hogging dog.

Oh, and remember how I said it was too cold to sketch outside?  As in 35 degrees for a high?  Well, did that stop the Hounds from wanting to go for long walks?  Of course not.  And did I bow to their wishes?  Of course I did.  They trained me well.

We went out nearly every day.  My favorite outing for the week was to Green Lake Park, where you can always find good bird life.  The coots were foraging on the grass, showing off their fabulous coot feet:

The American Wigeons were also chowing down:

Or coming in for a landing on the lake:

Pippin got in a lot of good socializing, while Truman did his best to ignore everyone but me.

They did actually walk most of the way -- the stroller is handy for photos, where they can be forced to sit still for five seconds.

This week the forecast calls for continuing Winter.  We might crack 40 by Wednesday.  I will be huddling inside of things, except for when the dachshunds make me go for walks.

At the beach

 Last Monday there was a brief clearing of the gray and the drizzle -- not exactly sunny, but close enough, so I took Pippin for his first beach experience.

He wasn't too sure what to make of the sand, but eventually he figured out that the beach smelled really interesting, and enjoyed himself immensely.

Truman enjoyed himself as well.

They were nicely pooped out afterwards.

On Thursday we had a visit from Winston, who is slowly adjusting to Pippin.

Pip has acquired a harness -- I was able to borrow one from Tina which will work fine until he is fully grown and can fit into Bodie's old one.

As for sketching, it was tough going.  We had mostly gray skies and drizzly showers all week long.  One day I just parked myself in front of my living room window and drew the house across the street, which is boarded up to deter squatters while the guy who bought it works to fix it up.  That's his teensy "smart car" in the driveway.

Yesterday the sun came out!  It was gorgeous!  And COLD!!!  So there was still no outdoor sketching.  Nicole and Tina and I drove around the Greenwood neighborhood for a while, searching for something to draw from inside the car, but gave up when we couldn't find any place to park.  We wound up at a coffee shop instead.

The view from my seat:

Random patrons:

The front counter:

Today it is brilliantly sunny again, and of course, far too cold.  I'm planning to drive around randomly to see if there is anything I can park near that is sketchable.  Someday it will be both sunny and warm. 

Today is not that day.

And the gray skies continue to be gray

Nothing much to report from the past week except another round of gray drizzly skies.  The sun popped out for one hour on Friday at noon, and again on Sunday...two hours of blue skies in one week simply isn't enough!  I spent both hours sitting on a lawn chair in my back yard.

I spent some of the rest of the time indoors going through my friend Nicole's watercolor how-to books. One was called "30-minute Landscapes" and I did a few of those, mostly in 30 minutes.  They were relatively simple exercises, but fun to try.

So other than that, I spent a lot of time trying to keep a puppy named Pippin entertained.  I bought him a dog bed for the corner of the living room where he likes to lie down, and he approved of it.

I explained to Truman that he could no longer hide from Pippin on the recliner (which Pip is too short to jump onto), and he'd just have to get used to sharing. 

I noticed that his tail is starting to feather out.

In between rain showers, I ran them around the neighborhood on brisk walks to wear them out.  Sometimes, it worked!

We are supposed to get some sunshine toward the end of this week.  I desperately need it!