I recently came across a term that I had not heard before; ‘woodshedding’. It’s a musicians term, usually used by jazz musicians, meaning to go off to practice or hone skills. It doesn’t have to pertain just to musicians, but includes creative people in general. It’s sort of a self-imposed exile which a creative person endures in order to reach his full potential. (Woop- t- do, right?) HOWEVER, I have planned myself a woodshedding trip…to Alaska…in January. I know what you’re thinking, but being from the South, I can’t say that I really know what winter feels like. I figured it was high time to find out. And, it seems that Alaska’s winter landscape would lend itself well to watercolor, a medium that twenty years ago I had a pretty good command of. You know what they say: If you don’t use it you loose it, and I fear that that includes working with watercolor. I suppose you could say that I will be watercolor woodshedding in a winter wonderland. Wow!

I will arrive in Kenai early on January 24^th and go to Nikiski where the Grouchy Old Woman Bed and Breakfast will serve as my woodshed for a week. I plan to take pictures during the daylight hours (such as they will be) and use them as reference for my paintings. The Grouchy Old Woman has assured me that she has proper outerwear to fit me. That means that I won’t have to buy stuff that the only time I would wear it again, would be if I went down to Parkway Grocery and sat in the cooler. She also promised that she will not let me get frostbite. I can only hope she’s right because, bless my heart, I don’t have a clue when it comes to surviving in those temperatures.

I’ve been looking at a blog by Patrick Endres who is a photographer in Fairbanks. Following are some of his images.

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Well, creation calls…I’m going…and those are the cold hard facts.

I had so much fun with Kerry at the lake Friday morning that I decided to do it again on Saturday…this time with Joel and the twins. Saturday morning before six Nikki sent me a text saying that the boys were up and dressed. We weren’t scheduled to leave until seven. Joel said, “Did you tell her to send them over?” I said, “Are you crazy? We’ll pick them up on our way out.” The way out took place about 6:30. As we headed toward the lake, Hudson said, “Isn’t the sky beautiful?” As we topped a hill, Denton said, “Wow, I can see Woodworth from here!” When Joel reminded him that we were in Woodworth, Denton replied, “Oh.”

After entering the gate at the lake, we stopped to pay the fee. Before daylight you are on the honor system. You get an envelope out of a box, put your money in and drop it in a slot in the door. While Joel was doing that Hudson yelled out, “There’s nobody in there!” I told him that we still needed to pay. Then he said, “You mean nobody controls this?”

On our way to where we would ‘set up camp’, we saw five deer. The boys were excited. They had brought with them guns that they had made out of sticks and blue painter’s tape. You see, they had already planned to hunt deer while we were cooking breakfast.

Joel started the fire,

and the boys ran to the lake. I heard one of them (it was dark and they were dressed alike) say, “This is the edge of the ocean!” The other one chimed in with, “Yes, and this is where the tide comes in!”

They had a grand time running along the water’s edge

and discussing the deer tracks that were in the sand. At one point, I heard Hudson say, “We must risk something to save our lives! Follow me!” Then he headed up the hill to the deer camp, which happened to be under the picnic table.

Just before breakfast was served, there was a disturbance in the deer camp. When I asked what was wrong,

Hudson said, “He made me get snot on my gun!” But, he wiped it off and went on. When breakfast was served,

Denton turned and said, “These are the best eggs I’ve ever had.” THANK GOD!

I’ve discovered that if you’re not intentional about visiting with people, then you probably won’t do it. So even though I am past fifty, I schedule ‘play dates’ with my friends. This morning EARLY, Kerry and I had one of those play dates. We met at the lake to cook breakfast and watch the sunrise, although we weren’t sure what time that would take place. We beat the sun to the lake by an hour, but that was alright because we had to build a fire and cook. It didn’t take any time to get the fire started, and soon we had bacon in the cast iron skillet. So…

we decided to walk along the lake shore, and we did, until we thought about the bacon, which by that time was well done. Setting the bacon aside (because we would be eating it)

we threw some other stuff in the pot to use as a clincher for our eggs. When that was done, we scrambled our eggs, mixed it all together, plated it up

and sat down to eat.

We cleaned our plates…crispy bacon and all. By that time, across the lake,

an orange glow could be seen slowly rising above the trees.

So we watched,

and we took pictures

as a day began that had never been before.

I was taking a picture of the view behind us when I heard Kerry say, “Turn around and take a picture now! There’s a cross!” That’s when it ceased to be the sunrise.

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Now it was the Sonrise. It reminded me that God puts His mark on each new day, whether we’re paying attention or not.

In case you were wondering how things went that Friday night that I stood down on 3^rd Street trying to make some extra money, I thought I’d better report in.

Of course I used my real name, but I added the title “Metal Artist”, to assure folks of what I was selling. (You can’t be too careful.)

I set up at my appointed spot on the corner of 3^rd and Murray,

which I thought was a pretty good spot. There was a little shade, and perhaps of more importance, there were bathrooms in City Hall, which was directly behind me.

I was pleased at how things went. I sold the “Heart of Stone” piece and the wind chimes.

I sold these two angels, and

I sold this piece based on Psalm 29:7 which says, “The Lord’s shout strikes with flaming fire”. Besides getting a nice orange t-shirt out of the deal,

I connected with some really neat people. If I had to do it all over again…I would.

Saturday evening we rode down Forestry Road where it parallels the lake. We took the boys with us. Nothing out of the ordinary happened…thank God.

They pretty much just hung out by the lake and explored a little.

 

 

They did pick up a few shells and

found some seed pods.

I walked across the road and visited

with the guys working the wild flowers.

Monday evening we took the boys out back

and let them build a fire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had a good time getting the fire started

and watching it grow.

Then they experimented with catching the cattails on fire that we had collected by one of the ponds.

They even tried branding the pine trees.

One of the boys walked over to me and said, “Mammy, smell this. It smells like roasted cat.” Now, I know that recently they have had trouble with a stray cat hanging around their place, and I feel confident that they didn’t ‘put him in a pot’. But it sure made me wonder…….

This morning while I was in the bathroom getting dressed I heard a gunshot. I pulled back the curtain and opened the window to find Josh with a riffle about to shoot again. Immediately I assumed that the hogs were back, but I yelled out, “What in the world was that!” Josh answered, “There’s a coyote trying to get your goats!” And then, BLAM, “I think I got him!” I quickly finished dressing and went out to meet Josh. Together we rode the golf cart around to check for any damage. The goats were fine and the chickens were fine.

But we did come upon a pile of guinea feathers, and the guineas were nowhere to be found. We then headed in the direction that the coyote was last seen.

Josh was right…he had not missed. It WAS a pretty animal. But pretty is as pretty does…right? Then we heard a noise, and a guinea flew out of a nearby tree and headed for the roof of the barn. Before long, another one joined it. Now there are only two.

Usually, the guineas travel pretty much the whole property. But not today…they’ve stayed close to the barn.

This morning Nikki had to be gone for several hours to some sort of thing,

and Josh had some planting to do in his daylily bed, so we watched the boys.

They came over in their super hero costumes which, by now,

had gotten a little short. Of course they wanted us to take them to the store on the golf cart, which we did.

Denton found what he wanted right away…

but not Hudson. However he did have a wealth of information about the products.

“You see this stuff?”, he said. “It will cause you to grow tall and make your legs really, really skinny.” At that point, I went back to the cart.

Before long, Hudson made his decision, and they came out to join me.

When we got back to the house, they played inside, they played in the shop, and then we went to the rabbit pen

where they played for a l-o-n-g time. They got pretty dirty and a little wet. At one point Denton said,

“Look, my feet are floating!” Sassafras had had just about all she could take,

so she got in a hollow log, which made Matilda very curious. The boys then decided to pretend that they were monkeys

and hung around in the fig tree for a while. Then, back in the rabbit pen,

Hudson said, “Woooooooo! This has been a hot day! We need to stop and rest for a while.” BUT THEY DIDN’T.

This morning before daylight I checked on Pauline and the chicks. She was still on the nest and the fourth egg still had not hatched. So, I let them be. Then after lunch I went back to the ‘birthing suite’ and found an empty nest.

Well, it was almost empty. Evidently this was not just a tough egg to crack…it was a bad egg.

Hoping beyond all hope that the cats had not discovered that the chicks were on the loose, I began calling for Pauline. Luckily she had not taken them far. They were just around the corner under the azaleas. I figured that the only way to catch them was to offer Pauline a snack. So, I brought out the meal worms.

Of course Pauline didn’t waste any time getting to the table, and the chicks were not far behind her.

It’s like she was saying, “See these things? These are meal worms and you’re going to love
them”.

While she had their attention, I was able to scoop them up.

They really weren’t even a handful. Then I scooped up Pauline (who wasn’t the least bit happy) and carried them to a safer place.

Pauline, one of the Malaysian Seramas, has been on a nest of leaves, beneath a fatsia bush,

under the cover of ferns for about three weeks. Underneath her were four little eggs. This morning when I checked on her, she got a little more “fuzzed up” than normal.

Then I noticed the egg shell next to her. I picked her up to find that there were three little chicks in the nest of leaves, and they were awaiting the arrival of number four.

Now, you can’t tell me that’s not CUTE! The chicks are very small and will weigh in at less than a pound when full grown. When the twins were younger, and I had new chicks, I would put one of the little chicks in my shirt pocket and walk over to their house. When I got inside, they would say, “Mammy, what you got in you pocket?” Then I would remove the chick from my pocket and let them hold it…good memories.

When baby number four makes its debut, I will move them to a safe place away from whatever might be coming through in search of a snack.

I haven’t been on the ‘air’ much lately because I’ve been in my shop getting ready for Artwalk. So I’d like to give you a little preview of what I will be displaying. This is just a sample.

I know that you’ve seen the angels before,

so I won’t bore you with them again…other than these two.

This one is the heart of stone from Ezekiel 36:26 which says, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh”.

I call this one Heart Set Free. I have a couple of pieces inspired by Psalm 29, like this next one.

Verse nine says, “The Lord’s shout bends the large trees and strips the leaves from the forests”.

If you live around here, I hope to see you at ‘Artwalk’.