Last of the Lighthouses?

I may be tired of drawing lighthouses.  I've done 30 of them now, and it's harder and harder to find views or styles that seem different enough to be inspiring.  Perhaps it's time for a break--though you still get to see the ones I did this past week.

But first, dogs!

On one of the few nice days, we went to Magnuson Park, where we spied this lovely Gadwall:

As you can probably tell, it was damp from a recent rain shower.  It's always damp here, except in maybe mid-August for a week or two.  It has either just rained, is raining now, or is about to rain, and nothing ever dries out.  Even when you are indoors, you can feel it out there, striving to come in...like a horror movie (remember The Fog?)...it's...[cue eerie violin music]...The Damp.

Well, anyway, we survived.  And there were birds!  This is a Golden-crowned Sparrow:

Then we went home, and then it rained again.  And again.  And then some more.  So I drew lighthouses.

Lots of lighthouses.

Even lighthouses with people!  Well, okay, really tiny people that are just small silhouettes but hey.  I was desperate for new and interesting views.

Or new and interesting materials--I did this one in sepia ink.

There were reddish lighthouses.

And stripey lighthouses.

And lighthouses with boats...this is one of my favorites.

And then I called it good and decided I wanted to DRAW SOMETHING ELSE.  ANYTHING EXCEPT A LIGHTHOUSE.

On Saturday Tina and I braved some light showers, a brisk breeze, and 50 degrees to go to Twin Ponds Park where we managed to sketch for about 20 minutes before caving.  We just wanted to Get Out of Our Homes.

Then we tootled down the road to a nearby Carmelite monastery which we drew from the parking lot from inside the car.  The arches turned out kind of wonky, but I was drawing too quickly in order to get it done before the next rain shower blotted the windshield.  Such is Urban Sketching in Seattle.

On Sunday Nicole, Tina and I looked at the forecast (showers/wind/cold) and very sensibly opted for an inside locale--the warm--nay, even toasty--environs of the Volunteer Park Conservatory.

I adore their cactus room.  There were other visitors who kept standing in the way of my view, but eventually I managed to get two decent sketches done.

This week's forecast has one nice day in it (today).  Whatever am I going to do????  Well, there are always dogs, who are capable of entertaining me for hours at a time.  Winston and Chloe came to stay the day last Thursday, and will do so again this coming Thursday.  Chloe hid under blankets in the back room the whole time, and didn't make the photo album.  Winston, though, was happy to join in our family fun.

Winston plays ever so gently with Pippin.

And here they are towards the end of the day:

So that was my week:  birds, sketching, dogs, and The Damp.  Now I must go do exciting Retiree activities such as grocery shopping, vacuuming, and weed pulling.  Don't have fun without me!