I'm home and grateful to be here having a Gimlet in honor of Bailey Hale. Maryland snow starts early tomorrow morning and as much as I would like to spend the night and be there to wake up with and hang with Josie all day, I need to be here to get the final feed and water out to the animals before the snowstorm. Jay and Celeste are planning to be snowed in here, which will be fun. I spent all day out on the road doing the food shopping first, so other than a few things that I forgot, which Jay and Celeste will pick up, I feel secure even if we lose power. Wood stoves are a wonderful thing. If we don't lose power I'll try to post tomorrow night, otherwise I'll be back on Monday. Either way, enjoy the snow and your weekend.

I took Finn's finished portrait for his "mom" to view this afternoon. It gave me extreme joy to see and pet Finn once again. He is so stinkin' cute. Pam loved his portrait, but when I showed it to Finn, it immediately got his attention and he also approved. He really looked it over and then wagged his tail. Thank you Finn. It doesn't look nearly as good on here as it does in person. There's a lot of glare on the left that I darkened and the detail is lost in the white. After it dries some and I put a temporary varnish on it, I'll take a picture of it again and post it. I believe it'll look much better. I'm pretty wiped out after a lot of stuff today, but before I go, I need to wish my beautiful and brilliant niece Lauren, a Happy 21st Birthday! It was on the 24th. All my best wishes honey. I love you. Good night.

This snowfall feels nice. Almost insulating, even though I'm indoors. The enveloping silence is magical. I like it.

This morning I went to a different local post office. It was like going to a different planet. Seriously, my usual post office has employees that are as difficult and miserable as they come. It's a dark, depressing place, although the outside is kind of quaint.

Now picture someone's house that was converted into a post office and the host is there to greet and help you with actually packing your package, not only that, he does it with a grateful smile.

Then there's the addition of bright, cheerful light from curtained windows and table lamps and then there's beautiful, classical music playing and whimsical, witty signs that make you laugh, or think. So imagine my shock today when I went into the alternative post office and a woman with a baby in a car seat was at the counter and the gentleman--in the true sense of the word-- was helping her pack up two packages to ship. Not in any hurry or annoyance. Truly helpful.

Then I step up to the desk to hand over my 20lb. package. No, wait, "Mr. Lee" comes out from behind the desk to help me. Honest! I've already made a shipping label, so all that needs to be done is place the package in the cart, but I'm so thankful for this experience that I ran out to the car to grab a dozen eggs for Mr. Lee. I hand them to him and he becomes emotional and can't thank me enough for the eggs, like they were gold! I am so totally impressed that I can't wait to go back. Mr. Lee, where have you been all of my life? I love this place, but I am really pissed off that I've had to put up with so much crap from the employees from the other post office for all of these years. Oh well, I'm so happy that I now have a choice to go to Mr. Lee's post office.

Krista , Jeanie and I discovered Skype today. Boy, we're really having a lot of fun with it. Krista has me conversing with Josie's Barbie and Ken dolls. Trying to trick me into thinking that Barbie is really her. Krista, here are two hints, 1. you have to find a way to make her lips move and 2. since I'm your mother, I know you don't have blue eyes. Then the Johnson kids answered when we called Jeanie's house. All three of them talking to us at once. Jonah telling us his jokes from the joke book that he wrote, Isabella singing something and Gabriel being Ninja, or was that Isabella?

OK, my work here is finished for tonight. Enjoy the snow.

Bill Keim was 30 years old and a friend to Jeanie and Danny. He died about two weeks ago. A tragic, accidental shooting. He was smart and I always enjoyed his many times here. He was the kind of kid that was comfortable with people of all ages, so he and I talked a lot about photography and how to solve the world's problems. I went to high school with his mom, Peggy. She was always laughing, bright and cheerful. She still has that same sparkling smile. It just broke my heart when I saw her at Bill's memorial service. Jeanie came home way in advance of the services, so I spent a lot of time with her. As much as I love and miss her kids, we got so much accomplished and were able to yak it up without interruption. She left early yesterday morning. I'm already missing her. Last night Jay and I went to my friend Peter's house for a great party. The food was terrific, but the people were so much fun. I love being this age, so much of the bs is gone and the genuine in most people prevails. We laughed a lot. I really needed it. I'm pretty much finished Finn's portrait, but I don't want to post it yet until his mom Pam sees it. He's such a cute little dog. I also finished reading "Still Life With a Woodpecker". Once I understood the language Tom Robbins wrote in, I could finally begin to enjoy the book. I still think he's nothing short of a lunatic (must be why he's so into lunaception, he's most likely strongly affected by the moon) or he was just doing too many drugs at the time. Whatever. So that's it for tonight. Stay warm.

My nephew Patrick turned 21 today. Wow! Happy Birthday big guy.

I've been a fan of John William Waterhouse for as long as I can remember. Probably because my maiden name is Narcisi and I find his works of Narcissus so moving and emotional. To me they are beautiful beyond belief. I would have trouble choosing a favorite from his array of paintings.

I was prompted to think about him today from a link on Facebook. Thank you for sharing it Nadeen. If you belong to Facebook, go and look on my page, I posted it tonight. If I can figure out how to put it on here for you, I will.

Since I'm still working on Finn, I have no image for you tonight, but I'm really excited to show you my latest. I took photos of it the other day, but the surface paint needs to be coated with retouch so it's even and not so blotchy. I'll try again after Finn is finished, or maybe sooner. I'm going to bed now. Sleep tight.

Happy Birthday wishes to my brother Pat and dear friend Cine Braxton. Danny and Torri came home from CA. last Wednesday, we had so much to catch up on, I didn't post, then on Thursday I had dinner with Sue Silenzi at Georges', got home late and didn't post. I can't remember what happened on Friday, but Bailey Hale came up from the city for a chicken visit and we had a Vietnamese dinner along with plenty of Dark and Stormys (ginger beer, dark rum and lime) beforehand. We stopped for another drink at Georges' on the way home. A great night. Sunday we went for a belated birthday dinner at Village Whiskey. Every good thing they say about it is true. We went to Tinto's for a drink while we waited for our table. That was also very enjoyable. After dinner we headed a couple of blocks away to The Franklin Mortgage and Investment Co. for really unique and fabulous drinks. We laughed so much my jaws started to ache. So it was a party all weekend. Danny, Torri and I went for more Vietnamese on Washington Street tonight. It was much better than what we had on Friday night. I hope to go back soon. Jay Sr. and I went for a walk today to try to burn off some of the damage from the weekend. I think it'll take many more miles to make a dent in all of it. It was a wonderful day to work outside. The sun felt so good on my face. Danny and torri went grocery shopping at the new Whole Foods in Plymouth Meeting today and brought the egg pictured above home for me with the intention for me to paint a picture of it. I can't wait. It's an emu egg and it's huge. It's actually a dark green. I'm still working on Finn's portrait. Hopefully by the end of this week he'll be finished. I'm beat, so that 's it for tonight.

My sister-in-law Josie Chadwick sent us a big Starbucks gift card for Christmas, so I drew the coffee Thank You card pictured above for her and her husband Ken. Very generous, thank you Josie and Ken.

I'm still working hard on Finn, but he's really coming together now. I totally reworked the painting and feel much better about it now.

Celeste and I were going to make Fleur de Sel caramels today, but instead Celeste picked up some hours nursing and I worked on Finn and made chili for dinner. Sharon and Eric brought a bottle of wine down at 9pm, so we sat and drank and conversed for an hour and a half. Nice way to spend a chilly night.

The boys and Torri return home tomorrow. I can't wait to hear all of the stories.

Jeanie and her family are enjoying all of the good stuff that California is about. She found a sweet little organic grocery store close to her house.

The roofing guys came here today to figure out why the studio roof is leaking so bad. Oh man, it's really a mess. I haven't figured out how we're going to handle it yet.

Eric and I traded books to read, I loaned him "Duma Key" and in return got "Still Life With a Woodpecker", by Tom Robbins. It's very interesting so far, but extremely scattered. I'm sure Tom Robbins must be crazy with a thought process like that, albeit very clever and witty.

It's time for me to go up to bed and read some more of it. Sleep tight.

The night camera didn't capture anything and there haven't been anymore of the weird tracks out in the snow. I'm amazed that the chickens are surviving this frigid weather. They all have heat lamps, but still, the wind chill has been just brutal. Danny stayed at Saintsbury for a couple of nights. He's in a cabin on top of a mountain and Saturday morning a hummingbird flew into his window, looked at him as if to say "hi" and then flew back out. Pretty great. Took the Christmas decorations down yesterday while Jay was taking a nap, then he, Celeste and myself took a ride up to the Michener Museum. There is an Edward Weston exhibit that was wonderful. I'm especially loving his early work from 1911, along with the shell and rocks, and the tomato field. The peppers are still amazing. We also reviewed the New Hope artists that we've seen many times before, but each time I see them, they look better and different to me, all at the same time. I have a painting to show you, but I forgot to take a photo of it, so I'll do that tomorrow. I broke the window in the living room and then the glass door on the woodstove. I must be regaining my strength. Tonight we had salmon for dinner. It was wild-caught in Alaska. We joined an organic meat, fish, dairy and bread, buying club at Forks Farm, www.forksfarmmarket.com, so after watching FOOD, Inc. I'm feeling good about this salmon. It was just delicious. An enormous difference. Tomorrow Celeste is coming over and we're supposed to make Fleur de Sel caramels. That'll be interesting. That's it for tonight. Stay warm.

This morning's entry was my 300th. I believe the 18th will be my three year anniversary with this blog.

Danny and Torri have left for California. I'll miss them, but wish I was also going. Soon, I hope.

I did a lot of work on Finn's oil portrait today. It still needs much more, but has to dry to keep the colors clean before I add the next layer. I found this photo of Jay and I from my birthday party in September. John Novelli took it. Still crazy about my man.

The Cooper's hawk now waits for me to go out to feed and then lands on the net to scare the chickens. So I yelled at it and it just flew onto a branch which was close by. All chickens are in lockdown 24/7 now so it can't get them, but it's really stubborn.

I found some really weird prints in the snow today. I can't figure out what kind of animal or maybe a bird it is, so I put the night camera out. Hopefully we'll see tomorrow.

Since I was up at 5am, it's time for bed.

Good night and have a terrific weekend.

It's not even the middle of the month and I can't post an image. I don't think it's Blogger's fault this time. My computer has been giving me trouble for a couple of weeks and I can't figure out what the problem is.

Anyway, I finished reading "Duma Key", by Stephen King last night. It's long, but the last half of it is riveting. Thank you Sherry Bell for sharing it with me. I won't tell you what it's about but there's an artist involved. I don't believe I've ever read any of Stephen King's books before. I'm not a big horror fan, so I skimmed over those parts quickly since I was reading the book before I went to sleep. I could easily imagine it as a movie.

The snow that fell during the night is beautiful. maybe an inch. It's still dark, but with the sky starting to lighten, the effect is so lovely and peaceful.

I'm going to try the upstairs computer tonight to see if I will have better luck posting an image here.

In the meantime, enjoy your day.

We finally got to finish watching FOOD, Inc. and I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. It's disgusting what we feed ourselves and our children. Especially the meat and milk. I had no idea that a lot of the meat in most supermarkets isn't grown in the US. The animal protein by-products in your pet's food or if you have chickens, etc., is pretty much manure, unless you feed them organically. I don't want to get up on a soapbox here, so watch the movie and decide for yourself. Let me know what you think. One thing that you can do is to sign the online petition to have the government use our tax dollars to feed our kids healthy lunches at least five days a week. Use the link below. After you enter the website click on "take action". It literally takes less than a minute to sign. www.foodincmovie.com/

My painting tonight is from Chanticleer. They have quite a few groupings of co-ordinated chairs and trees. What a clever idea. There will be more to come. "Matching Chairs and Tree--Chanticleer", 11"x 14", oil on canvas board, $350.

I was posting some photos of my paintings today and found one that I think I never posted. It's of the ewe and her lambs that I painted a couple of years ago. This one is different, so I figured I'd post it tonight. "Fall Lambs #2", oil on canvas, 10"x8", sold. Jay Jr. just called from Lone Pine, California. He's driving Jeanie's car out to Petaluma for her. All he can talk about is how gorgeous New Mexico is....someday. The bitter cold is making my bones ache. I'm ready to move to warmer climes, like maybe Petaluma? I wish. Anyway, stay warm and take care, it's going to get worse as the week progresses.

I hope your holidays were the best and that this New Year brings all of us health, wealth, joy and the "peace that surpasses all understanding". I know I need it. Our Christmas and New Year celebrations were just wonderful. We went to my cousin Nicky and his gracious wife Leanne's for "the fishes" on Christmas Eve. Danny made the bacala, it was the first time ever that I actually liked it. Sorry Grandmom. We also had the usual suspects, smelts, linguine and clams, plus Nicky made an amazing seafood cocktail with polenta, two kinds of calamari, as well as eel, really delicious raw oysters with cantaloupe and prosciutto. They were my downfall. I ate too many and didn't leave enough room for the grilled Branzino and Cioppino. I did have the Cioppino, but I wanted more. My nephew Pat made a Caesar salad that I now crave everyday. It was so garlicky that I had aceto for the rest of the night, but it was so worth it. The entire night was very enjoyable and fun to see the littles who are now old enough to be able to understand and appreciate all of it. Thank you Lea and Nicky for your hospitality. Our new, three week old baby cousin was there and I got to give him his bottle. It's been years since we had a newborn in the family. Welcome Alexander and congratulations on your beautiful boy Marilena and Larry! God bless all of you. Christmas Day was the biggest treat for the adults, because the Johnson kids were living with us and we got to share Christmas morning with them. It's been a long time since Jeanie's been home on Christmas morning. We had a great dinner, including the Italian Wedding/Holiday soup. It was really, really good if I do say so myself. Jay Jr. made a timpano. Wow, what a feat! Watch "Big Night", it'll give you an idea of what it's all about. Krista, Carter and Josie came for dinner on Saturday and we did Christmas all over again. Double the joy. We spent early New Year's Eve having dinner at Georges'. The food was just terrific. I'm sad that chef Jeremy Duclut has left, but ever since he won "CHOPPED" he just got too many offers he couldn't refuse. I loved his food. For New Year's Day, Danny made the foie with a rose petal jam and Jay Jr. made pork belly, Gordon Ramsay-style. As usual it was fantastic! The cabbage and mashed potatoes that accompanied it were so good, even the next day. The belly was perfectly crisp on top and succulent on the bottom. The mashed potatoes just kept surprising me with every bite. I kept saying to jay Sr., "this is SO good" because it was. I ate most of the cabbage with caramelized onions and bacon. I can't wait to do it again next year. So now the sad part is that Jeanie, Derek and the kids moved to California. I don't even want to get started. My eyes are still puffy and at my age, I can certainly do without that. It's so quiet here...I'm not a fan. Danny and Gabriel had birthdays in December. Gabriel the 21st (10 years old) and Danny the 22nd (28 years old). HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS! The hawks are still coming around and the chickens can no longer free-range. In addition to the female red-tail, there's a Cooper's Hawk (photo above) that swoops down while I'm feeding the juveniles. It got one of my bantams. I've lost too many in the past couple of weeks, so I'm going to downsize big time. Between the weather and predators, I've had it. If the chickens aren't happy, I'm not happy. I took down my exhibit this past weekend. I sold 18 pieces. I need to recount, but it's very close to that. Thank you to everyone once again for their support and for coming out in the brutal weather. I am very grateful and appreciative. I've started back on Finn's final oil portrait. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be more consistent with keeping this blog and painting. I resolve to be more serious and more in touch, so stay with me and send me some comments once in a while. It gets lonely in the studio with just the Ninja turtles and the tree frog.

Just wanted to get in here real quick and wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. May you have all of the peace, hope and joy your heart can stand. The image today is the one on my Christmas card for this year. "Three French Hens, Again", oil on linen, 10"x10", $250. sold. xo, Jeanie

As always tons of stuff going on here. I was away for three days last week to do grandparent stuff at Gabriel and Jonah's school. Reading to their classes. Really a lot of fun. I read Tomie DePaola's, "THE ART LESSON". We have much in common. Sadly, I won't be doing that anymore, because Jeanie, Derek and the kids will be moving to California right after Christmas, for a few years. So it'll be Kristie's (Derek's Mom) turn to do it for a while. Derek will be attending seminary there--I know, I know, he could do it closer, but he's got some deal there because of his home church in Severn, plus some other thing with the GI bill. Anyway, it's got me pretty miserable, but Isabella is here with me keeping my days joyful. Jonah as usual, being the character that he is, wants a moustache for Christmas, so he can "be a man and not have to work". Nice. Our turkeys are being raised free-range and organically, by my friend and feed guy, John Fiorella. We get them next week. I saw them a few weeks ago and they were enormous then. I am so ready for Thanksgiving. Last week I had a weekend art show at the UM Library. It turned out to be very rewarding. I made a lot of good connections and sold a painting. After the reception on Friday, we went to Georges' for dinner. I must say the Chef Jeremy is really doing a fabulous job. His food hits the spot and you don't need to spend a fortune. We really enjoyed it. BTW, if you didn't know it, Jeremy was the winner on "CHOPPED"! He deserved it. Honest, his food is very good. Speaking of art shows, I have an exhibit with Jay Jr. and hopefully our friend Ute Arnold in December. We hang on the 6th of December and the reception is December 13th from 4pm to 7pm. This is my annual exhibit at the Gryphon Cafe', 105 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, PA 19087, Phone:610.688.1988 and YOU are invited. We'll be serving food/beer/wine. Children, friends and family are welcome to come along with you. I probably won't be posting much...not that I have been lately...until after the holidays. My plate is overflowing already. The exciting part is that Jeanie and her family will be living here for awhile before they leave for CA. I can't wait. The sun was so welcome yesterday and today. Jay and I took Isabella to a playground for a couple of hours yesterday. It felt tropical. She and I worked outside in the chicken pen/ swamps today. The sun felt so good. Jeanie, Krista and Josie have all had the flu. I'm desperately trying to avoid it. I'm outside working every day, rain--mostly rain-- or shine and drinking a lot of flu-fighter tea. Jay got it for me last year when I was coming down with something and it knocked it right out! Seriously, it did. Chickens are all doing OK. Some of the girls that hatched last spring are starting to lay their eggs. Very exciting. The boys are doing their jobs and chix are hatching out regularly. The fox still visits every night. She looks good and is getting her winter coat. My friend Eric, up the road, is the master raccoon, Hav-a-Hart trapper. He's caught two recently. That is two less I have coming here now. Thank God. His girlfriend Sharon is bringing treats for the chickens almost everyday. They're like junkies now for the whole-grain oat bread she brings for them. I let the Splash, Blue and Black Copper Marans out today to free-range. It's the first time in weeks. They were just yipee yiaying it up! The hawk still passes overhead, but up very high. I don't think she was looking for them today, since it's been so long since they've been out. I'm going to visit my friend Bailey tomorrow on a chicken mission, it'll be on my way to or from Pearl for my art supplies. Last week Danny took Jay and I to Nectar for dinner. Torri was working, so we sat at the bar. Man, was it terrific! I can't give you a blow by blow, you just need to go and try it for yourself. Chef Patrick came out and talked with us for a while. Such a great, down-to-earth guy. No pretense, just real. The restaurant atmosphere is fabulous in the sense that it is very open and spacious, but with a cocoon-like sense of coziness. Krista took me for Mother's Day about five years ago and we sat upstairs. Looking down on the room and the bar, the big candles give you a Zen/John Singer Sargent/Maxfield Parrish, feeling all at the same time. I had my first foie gras sushi there. I'm reading "The Woman in White", at bedtime and just finished "The Careful Use of Compliments" in the car. I really enjoyed "The Careful Use of Compliments", but am really struggling through "The Woman in White". It's like reading "Lady Chatterly's Lover". The same point, being painfully made, over and over and over. So that's it for now. Enjoy this fine weather while we have it. The dreariness will be here soon. I'll pop in now and again. Be well and be in touch.

It was a good, busy weekend. We went to Eric Barbuscia's gig at the Gryphon. His main squeeze Karen, was there. Great show. John Galla opened for him, which was also very enjoyable. We all went to Christopher's after and that's always fun, especially if my boy Dan Kane is there. I love that kid! Yesterday Jay and I both worked outside since it was a gorgeous day. Then we went to pick up feed at the Fiorella's. I love going to their farm. So much room. They are growing our organic, Thanksgiving turkeys for us. I saw them a couple of months ago when they were babies, now they're already enormous and they still have a few more weeks to go. Last night we went to Eric and Sharon's for dinner and had some comfort food, it started with a great dip, but Eric had soaked some pineapple cubes in vodka which was a great warm up. Dinner started with a nice spinach salad with Eric's pickled eggs in it, followed by rolled meat loaf, stuffed with prosciutto, provolone and arugala, then some mac n' cheese with broccoli. The dessert was Sharon's famous flourless chocolate cake, just wonderful. A really good time. Today was another terrific day to be outside. Danny made dinner and wow, was it good. He made angel hair and clams. I have to say that I haven't had any that good in years. Just perfectly done. I think I need to go up and get some more, not before I tell you about Finn's color study. I'm waiting on more instruction for the background, but it's pretty much finished. I have added some other touches to it since I took this photo, so maybe I'll show you that tomorrow night, but maybe not. Again, this is just a pastel study, so his fur looks a little more wiry than the oil painting will describe it.

Jonah was allowed to take a book to school the other day. He asked if he could take "The Restaurant Guide to Baltimore". He's 7 years old, maybe he's spending too much time here? Nah. When we were getting ready to leave there last Sunday, he wanted to come home with me , but Jeanie said no. So he turned to me and asked since I was her mom, could I please force her to let him go home with me. Just two more reasons why I think Jonah should come and live with us. Honestly, I am just so sick of all of this rain. It's just too much. Tonight's portrait of Finn is the third sketch. His owner asked if we could do the vertical portrait, the head shot, with "his tree" in with him, so I tried this composition, which I think was hard to imagine. I'm really tired and getting cranky, so I'm going to bed and read "The Woman in White", not my favorite. Have a great weekend.

The next sketch of Finn is of him sitting next to his favorite tree, surveying all that he owns. If you met this dog, you'd know that he is king.

I'm working on a pet portrait of an adorable guy named "Finn". I'm painting him from photos. This is pretty much my process when painting any type of portrait, so you can watch me as I go. I started with a very rough pencil sketch of Finn, to place his pose, features and expression, as well as getting a general value study. I hope you're enjoying this wonderful weather. Jeanie's starting to feel better. Whew!

We went to Jeanie's on Sunday for Derek's birthday. I made Lasagna for the first time in years. It coincided with probably the worst stretch of memory impairment I've experienced since it all started about two years ago. It was the worst lasagna I've ever made, let's face it, it's pretty hard to mess up, but when you forget to add the layers that are right there in front of you, that's when it becomes awful. I was able to make it just OK. Gabriel, one of my biggest fans thought it was terrific. I love that kid. So we brought Isabella home with us and joy has reigned here for two days. Now she's having her piano lesson with Pop-Pop and she wants everyone to know that she played the piano all by herself and sang too. We worked outside, went to the toy store as promised, had dinner with Aunt Celeste and after dinner we sketched and painted. Jeanie called me today to let me know she has the flu. So that means that Isabella gets to stay. Tonight's painting is of a coral-colored dahlia from Mrs. Gammalinda. I painted it on the day Senor died. "For Senor", 6"x6", oil on gessobord, $50. framed.

I'm still not really satisfied with the quality or color of this egg demo photo, but here it is. So to sum up: my goal was to model an egg, by using value. Color wasn't really important to me, but since I was painting a Marans egg, which is pretty dark brown, I used browns. I started with the dark background at home and took the small panel to church to paint the egg from life. I painted the egg shape with the darkest darks and the slight reflection on the bottom of the egg, along with the shadow, then I started layering lighter values with the four highlights. It was at this point that I took the painting home. During the demo and at home the painting fell a few times and the paint got damaged. Now at home, I decided to change the composition to a more diagonal one, by changing the light source and shadow. I started the repair, changed the shadow, which meant I mentally changed the light source. The florescent light just wouldn't do. I no longer painted the egg from life at home, just from memory of paintings from the past. The next day I finished repairing the back ground, reshaped the egg slightly and started losing the back edge of the egg. I lightened the table and added a ledge. Next I completed the egg by again by adding successive and smaller layers of lighter values until it was time to add the diffused, final highlight. That's it. If I missed something, or if you have a question feel free to ask. "If You Can Paint an Egg", 7"x5", oil on gessobord, $50., framed.

Even though the painting of the egg is finished, the photo of it leaves a lot to be desired, so until I can shoot it outside, when it stops raining, this one will give you an idea of what it looks like. I think the thing that's most distracting is the glare on the left, but you can see how the egg has developed. The way I did that was to paint successive layers of lighter values until I painted the highlight on the egg. Notice that I changed the position of the shadow and made a ledge on the table. I also smoothed out the dark bands of color where the damage occurred on the background. If you're just tuning into this blog, this egg is a lot darker than you're used to seeing and certainly a lot darker than a store bought egg. If you follow this blog at all you'll recognize this egg as a Marans egg, which is the darkest egg laid by a chicken. Marans are French chickens. The Marans eggs do come darker than this. Some ducks lay almost black eggs and I believe emus lay a very dark, almost black/ green egg. So if everything goes according to plan, I'll post this painting again on Monday. In the meantime have a terrific weekend.

Back to the painting from Monday night's demo at church. I quoted N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth's father and art instructor. N.C. told Andrew that "If you can draw an egg, you can draw anything". I don't know if I totally agree with that, but then who am I to argue with N.C.? It has certainly helped me with my inclination to paint egg-shaped objects like lemons and fruit. So, in the painting above I've covered over the boo boos with a very dark brown, because they kept showing through, leaving the the fingerprints at the top left after swiping them a few times with a brush. I also took away some color away from the table with turpenoid, which I'll redo later. Not only did this help remove some fuzz and dings in the paint, but I wanted to change the shape and size of the shadow, which I will do more of to change the light source. Those overhead florescent lights at church won't do. I also reworked the back, behind the egg, to make it darker so I can begin losing that edge so that the egg emerges from the darkness. I may be able to finish this by tomorrow night, especially with all of this rain and cold making me want to stay indoors.

Huge Happy Birthday wishes going out to my nephew Pat (10/13) on his 30th birthday! I was in the labor room with his mom, pushing my knuckles into her back until I got blisters, because she had back labor and then in the delivery room taking pictures of him being born. I was such a wreck that I dropped the camera on the floor and the batteries rolled all over the place. I thought for sure one of the assistant nurses would step on them and roll and drop onto the floor, but they didn't. They did give me some dirty looks, but didn't kick me out of there. Then I got to go out to my brother and tell him he had a son. Wow, what a memory. Geez, 30 years ago, wow. And then there's my wonderful son-in-law Derek's birthday (10/14). I won't reveal his age but he's certainly getting better with age, like a fine wine. Happy Birthday again guys. On Monday night I did a demo for my art group at my church which is Church of the Saviour. I didn't finish it then, so I took it home, planning on finishing it last night and posting it, but I suddenly got really tired with terrible pain in my head and then the chills, so I went right to bed and woke up this morning feeling much better. Tonight I'll post the painting as I left it with a few more scars on it from the wind blowing it onto the ground when I was photographing it yesterday. So this will put it back a couple of stages and be officially stage two. Tomorrow will be stage three. Jay has been sick with an ear infection for over a week, has finished a Z-Pack and now is on another, stronger antibiotic. It seems to be working better. The chickens are all in lockdown and have been so since last Thursday when the local female hawk swooped over me when I let them out in the morning and then later in the afternoon, with Danny, Torri and myself standing right there, she flew into the forsythia and grabbed a olive-egger pullet. The pullet is fine, she just lost a few feathers and almost had the life scared out of her. It took her a couple of hours to come out from under the bushes. On Saturday, the hawk was swooping over the chicken pen in an effort to frighten the chickens and have them fly upward to escape, so she could bite their heads off or grab them. The net on the pen was too high and that didn't work. So she flew over to the maple tree near the pen and sat there. I ran outside and picked up a small stone and threw it at her and missed her by about four feet, but it landed under her. She didn't move. She looked at the stone, looked at me then pooped on the stone. Like she was laughing at me. Well she can laugh all she wants. She's not getting these chickens. I hope they laugh at her when she tries to scare them.

Senor was our Chihuahua. He was very old, totally blind, deaf and appeared to have cancer. For the past two years he has laid beside me in his heated bed here in "our" studio. He used to love to go outside and most times stayed close by and when he became blind he could hear me call him when he started to wander too far. Deafness changed all of that and so we used a leash to take him out. It scared him too much, so he went out with me when I could sit with him in the sun and hold him, or if Josie and I took him out. Josie loved him, she still does. He loved her, which is very unusual, because like some Chihuahuas, Senor hated everybody, except Jeanie, Danny, Josie and I. People would think they could pick him up because he was so small, but he'd poop on them. He was the big boss. He just appeared to be tiny. Danny put a huge rock on his grave yesterday when he buried him. He said it was because Senor always perceived himself much larger than he actually was. Your typical big dog in a little dog body. He definitely had a "Napoleon Complex". When Jay and Celeste got married, the tent rental company sent four Hispanic men to erect the tents and Senor ran outside to growl, bark and bite them. I followed him and was shouting at him in a very stern voice, "Senor, come here". "Senor, get over here right now!" Of course you guessed it, all four of the men stopped what they were doing and were heading my way, when I realized they all thought I was hollering at them I started laughing and really had them confused. I feel like we should have put him down-- "to sleep" sooner, but he wasn't obviously suffering, so we didn't. The boys would argue with me about his "quality of life", but I didn't want to hear it. Senor weighed less than four pounds, so when he did start to suffer, it was terribly pathetic. I would like to believe that our pets go to heaven. I know it talks about Jesus coming back on a white horse, so there must be animals up there. I also wonder if there are animal ghosts, because if you've had a pet for a while and they die, don't you sometimes think you still hear them in the house? I do think I hear Senor. A couple of times it has felt like he brushed up against my leg while I'm here at the computer. I look down out of habit to see him, but he's not there. I don't know what that is. I wonder and then I cry. The drawing above is of Senor 12 years ago. "Senor as a Young Man", graphite on paper. I thought Senor was 17, but the vet says he was older. That was a couple of years ago. I just can't remember. His portrait hangs in Josie's bedroom. She asked me last winter, when she was three, if she could have it. As I said, she really loves him, so do I.

Sharon and Eric from up the road stopped in, so I never finished my painting. It's of a dahlia from Mrs. Gammalinda's garden, courtesy of Enrico. Busy chicken day. More rain...the tarp is caving in on the chicken pen, so it looks like a busy chicken day tomorrow as well, only in the rain. yuck. Have a great weekend.

You know how you have a friend that is your heart? I have several friends like that. One is Susan Silenzi. She's just there with you, through the good, the bad, the ugly, beautiful, happy, joyous and all of the rest. She's trustworthy, real, low maintenance, can keep a secret and can bake like nobody's business. Before I get even more carried away, suffice it to say, she's an outstanding friend. She and her multi-talented, artistic son Chris, took me to Georges' tonight for my birthday dinner. Ah, 60, the gift that keeps on giving. Anyway, it was great as usual, well really, it was better than usual. Jeremy is getting the job done, but I miss Chef "Frosty". Thank you Susan and Chris! I love spending time with you. We never got around to watching the sculptor movie last night because our neighbors Sharon and Eric dropped by. After a glass of wine, they left and we just watched "Three Sheets" on FLN, which was pretty entertaining. Maybe we'll get to the movie tomorrow night. The painting above is an example of my thank you notes. This one is on ecru, fine watercolor paper. Others are on watercolor postcards. All painted with walnut ink, except for one that I did for Dan Kane. It was done with the really cool piece of graphite that Dan gave to me for my birthday, (along with a bottle of Veuve) shaped into a grapevine with grapes. It's going to take me years to wear it out. These walnut ink paintings aren't for sale, but if you want one let me know and I'll paint it for you.

Well I put the night camera out again last night. The raccoon showed up first, then the fox a couple of hours later. Then they both were here at all different times with the raccoon ending about 5:30 this morning. This is really fun. The painting is of one of the frogs in my pond. He wasn't as hard as I thought he'd be to paint. "Frog in My Pond", 6"x6", oil on board, $50., framed. Sold More chix are hatching and they're really growing fast. Jay and I watched KULTURE'S "Rossetti" last night what a talent and what a waste. He died young because he was an alcoholic and drug addict, so was his wife, well, she was a drug addict. His paintings are incredible. Tonight we're going to watch another movie about a sculptor. I'll let you know how I liked it.

Click on the link before you read the rest of my post. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?page=1&aid=124945&id=623327037 Someone on FaceBook posted this link, but it's not what I want you to see. You may have to be a member of FaceBook to view it. When you click on the link it'll take you to Ute's page. Scroll down a bit 'til you come to a link and click on that. Hopefully you'll see the video. If that doesn't work, go to my FaceBook page and scroll down 'til you get to posts from this morning. You'll see the square/rectangle for the video. Let me know if you need help. Being 60 and only knowing the Black Eyed Peas from the "Boom Boom" song and that, only because Isabella loves to dance to it. I've never seen what they look like, so when I watched the video this morning I thought it was ridiculous that a band that looked like they do, would be singing that lame song. Then when girl in the purple shirt started the annoying dance, I rolled my eyes and was about to turn it off. Just goes to show you what I know. Tonight I made rabbit, which I do a lot. I haven't made this recipe for many years. It has a tarragon mustard cream sauce. I also used wild mushrooms, pinot grigio and sparkling wine. I'm glad there are leftovers. I'm going up to watch an art documentary with Jay. Blogger won't let me upload images tonight...it is that time of the month for Blogger. I see a pattern/cycle here. Anyone else have this problem?

My sister Amy's birthday was on Friday. Yes, she's younger than me. Hope your birthday was wonderful Amy, many more. Jay sent this link in an email to me http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaf03z_dating-montage_creation what can I say? The weekend went fast with Jeanie and the kids. We went to Chanticleer, but mostly hung out here. Jay and I watched movies with the kids. It was a good time. We didn't want them to leave and they didn't want to leave, sniff... Yesterday morning when I went to let the chickens out, I noticed a lot of things out of order, that and the missing pig head concerned me, so I set up the night camera. The photo above is of our resident female fox. The aluminum pan held lobster and prawn shells from a delicious seafood pasta dinner that Danny made last night. I love the fact that the camera tells me what time the shot was taken the date, time and the temperature. I have a couple of paintings finished, but I'll post one tomorrow night.

Early in the spring, Jonah and I went to Pickering Valley Feed and Seed to get feed and water plants for the pond. They have a great selection so we got what they called "Salad" for the fish, which took them all summer to eat. Jonah spotted some tadpoles so we got three and put them in the pond. They slowly developed their arms and legs as their tails shrunk. Jay Sr. stepped on one in the path. It couldn't get away fast enough with it's newly emerged limbs, but the other two are doing great and have gotten really big. The watercolor above was painted over two months ago while we sat outdoors by the pond. I'm also working on an oil of one of the frogs. This one is titled "Frogs in My Pond", watercolor on Moleskine watercolor paper, apprx. 6"x8", $50. framed. Sold. Jeanie drove up from Maryland with her three kids and Josie to stay the weekend. The kids are all sleeping. One of the children in Gabriel's grade has been officially diagnosed with the Swine Flu. I think I'm going to go to bed to keep my resistance up.

I mentioned before that my Aunt Jeannie gave me the book "Julie and Julia" and that I was surprised that it was made into a movie. I didn't feel that it was a strong enough story. I realize that the actual blog/cooking thing got a lot of coverage from the media, which I thought it deserved, but I felt a movie was stretching it. The movie however, is more about Julia and I loved it. It intrigued me so much that I bought the book "My Life in France", by Julia Child and her husband's nephew, whose name escapes me right now, but the last name is the same as the Cajun chef, Paul Prud...something or other. I'm only a little into it, but I'm impressed with her writing and really enjoying the book. It's a fun, easy read. Just so you know, I actually am constructing paragraphs on this blog, but blogger just runs everything together. At least it's not inserting those weird A things anymore. The painting above is of white Saturn peaches. They were a pleasure to paint and to eat. "Two Saturn Peaches", 6"x6", oil on board, $50., framed. I have several pieces that I'm working on, including a pet portrait. There will be my usual exhibit at The Gryphon Cafe' in December and hopefully something in November. When we get a pig for porchetta from Esposito's they always bring the head with it. The head has a cross cut on the forehead between the eyes. They actually bless the pig before cooking it. Well, after the party it was left out and something took it. The head was pretty big, so I'm trying to imagine what could have carried it away.....scary. I hope whatever it was it didn't drop it and leave it in someone's yard!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER, MY SON JAY. He was born the day after my birthday in 1977. It was a brutal labor and delivery. During labor I asked for drugs and they wouldn't give me any because of some complications that the doctor wouldn't tell me about, so I told Jay Sr. to go out and get me some drugs. When he was down the hall I started yelling for him to "get back here"! I was slightly conflicted. They knocked me out right before Jay was born and when I woke up I was still on the delivery table. Jay Sr. had his head on me and was crying. He told me we had a son and I was so elated that I was trying to shout it out to the world, but from moaning for so many hours in labor, I couldn't get any sound out. That hospital was really creepy. While I was there, I woke up in the middle of the night and there were women of all ages, but mostly teenagers, standing in line out in the hallway with hospital gowns on whispering to each other. The staff was moving them along. It didn't take long to realize that the woman were mentally challenged. What was worse was that they were from a nearby institution and at the hospital for abortions. I try not to think about it, but it still haunts me. Anyway, the happiest part was when I woke up in my room after Jay was born and the nurse was at the foot of my bed holding a baby. I didn't realize that he was mine, but thought he was so beautiful and asked her if she didn't think so too. She said yes, then told me he was mine. I really felt like I won the prize. I still feel that way, but even more so 32 years later. Happy Birthday Jay, I'm so proud of you and I love you. We've had a lot of stuff transpire in the past month. I wouldn't say we're the better for it though. Dolores' mother passed away a week after Lisa's death. Then a friend Bobby Wolter died a few days later. He was 28 and Jay played music with him. Bobby was a drummer. He died from Cystic Fibrosis. I can't even go there except to say that there was a blog that he and another Cystic Fibrosis victim Brian had, called "Bobby and Brian Speak". So incredibly sad. I haven't had any revelations that make any sense of all of this. Sorry, no answers. I've spent a lot of evenings with Jay watching movies, it's a good escape for me and a luxury for us. Now that teaching is getting back into gear, I see much less of him. I read until the book falls out of my hand at bedtime. I can't stand to be still and awake enough to think. I pray, but eventually the horrors, both real and exaggerated, come seeping in and then I can't sleep until the sun starts coming up. Plenty of chicken stuff going on, new chix hatching, big chix going to new homes. Another raccoon has been around stealing chix and Chanticleer. I think I've gotten the pens covered securely, but he must have gotten them before they went to bed and were out unprotected. I went searching for Chanticleer at bedtime, but never found him. Such a heartbreak, he was a very sweet boy. New, local chicken friends are making the whole chicken adventure so much more fun. I'm a big fan of the urban chicken movement. I hear thunder, more rain. It pretty much wrecked the vegetable and flower gardens this year. The tomatoes rotted, the hot peppers were barely there. We got a few okra and cucumbers. All of it tasted delicious, but the combination of too little sun and too much rain, just messed it all up. I am grateful for what we had/have. Those tomato sandwich lunches are still tasty. We haven't been out to dinner too much. Trying to save for the big 6-0 birthday party. It was on Sunday. We had over a hundred friends and relatives come to share in the celebration. What a great time, it definitely made turning 60 worth it. We did our traditional porchetta/pig roast which we always get from Esposito's. We've never been disappointed. My neighbor Sharon works for Elegance Bakery and she made the buttercream cake. It had little rabbits, chickens and eggs on it. My next door neighbor took her cue from my email signature, which is a quote from N.C. Wyeth, "If you can draw an egg, you can draw anything". So she was dressed as a Victorian artist and was walking around drawing on an egg. I haven't even opened my cards and presents yet. I'm still putting stuff back where it belongs. I think one more day and it will be done and then I'll have to clean again. Isabella stayed and we had to paint, play and shop for toys, so that was an excuse, but I took her back to Maryland today. Marie and Steve Martorano came to the party and Marie took pictures. Jeanie decided that she needed to sit on my lap and Marie got the photo. So for tonight, I'll leave you with that. My eye is red because I was putting up screening on the chicken pen and I pulled on the reed fence and it hit me in the eye. It's much better now.

I have a painting tonight. I had to do it today for some comfort. It has a ton of hidden meaning and emotion on many levels, although I don't think that it really shows, especially if you don't know it's there. For safety's sake it's titled "Hatched Black Copper Marans' Eggs", 6"x6", oil on gessobord, $50. framed. Sold. I hope that apostrophe is correct. Lisa's funeral was just tragic. I can't fathom Dolores's pain. She's such a strong woman. My cousin Mimi spoke during the service and really touched my heart. The crowd was overflowing. I'm going to go to the dark side for a little while and try to process all of this. I know that God will guide me through it and I'll come out on the other side a better person. It's so frustrating to not know the whys and hows of this. I always feel like I need to understand and know so that I can protect my family, but because the murderer also killed himself, I'll never truly have the answers. I pray that God will give me the peace I need. Here's a link for you about restraining orders, with other links, there's a lot of the information about the murder-suicide.

http://www.app.com/article/200908171720/OPINION01/908180306

When unexpected death in the family happens it is so devastating, but when murder happens to a young, bright and beautiful 30 year old woman, it's absolutely horrific. Response to the situation seems so trivial. Almost ridiculous. Honestly, what can you say that will make the mother of the victim feel better--not a damn thing. Nothing. If I could make it better, I would. I'm helpless, hopeless and still horrified. God, please give comfort to Dolores, Lisa's mother. Lisa was her long-awaited daughter and her only child. Her life was taken by her ex-fiance', who just couldn't get past himself. A truly selfish and derranged person, not good enough to be called a man. He hung himself after he killed Lisa. He left three little boys and their mother, plus the rest of his family and ours to deal with his mess.The funeral is tomorrow, so I won't be posting, but would appreciate your prayers.

Last night I fell asleep watching TV. The heat and humidity really wiped me out. The kids made it to California OK and they were so pleased with their dinner at Bouchon last night, they went back for lunch today. After that they went to Honig Winery, which is a place we went to last year. They were so kind in addition to the wine being so good, but the part that I remember is driving down a road to exit from there and doing a u-turn with the trunk open and flopping up and down and passing a police car. Celeste and I had the load, but fortunately Jay didn't and he was driving.Celeste and I thought it was hilarious. Jay Sr. and I went to Stargazers Vineyards in Chester County today on some chicken business. What a beautiful place. I heard a woman saying how much it looked like Napa. Not even close to me. Yes, it looked like a vineyard, but it also looked so much like Chester County, Pennsylvania. We had a nice visit. Thanx Alice and John. I was taking photos of the chickens again out in the front yard yesterday, when my nemesis popped her head up about 10 feet from me. She just won't take the hint.

I'm so depressed. The boys and Celeste are leaving for California tomorrow morning. The good news is that Torri will be taking them to the airport at 5am. Thank you Torri! They'll be there in time to go wine tasting and I believe they're doing Bouchon for dinner. I don't want to think about when they'll be going to the French Laundry and Chez Panisse. Oh, never mind, I just found their itinerary. Yep, Bouchon is tomorrow night, Saturday is Dolce, Sunday they're cooking at the Fedrick Ranch, Monday is Dry Creek Kitchen, so I guess they're not doing the Monday night special at Chez Panisse, Tuesday is the French Laundry and Redd, Wednesday is A16 and Thursday is Bistro Jeanty. I'm not even going to get into all of the vineyards they'll be visiting. Oh well, next year. The photo is of the French Laundry vegetable garden, which is across the street from the restaurant. Perfection.

Another mosquito-happy day today with all of the rain, heat and humidity. Pretty quiet around here except for the electric sander, sanding the floors. I think the stain goes on tomorrow and tomorrow night we start sleeping in the studio. That should be really interesting. I'm laughing to myself as I type it, but I know it's not going to be fun. I'll be taking the kids to the airport at 4am on Friday, so I'm going to try to get to sleep earlier tonight and tomorrow night, in the hope that it'll be easier to get up on Friday morning. Right. Here's another photo from last year of the guys posing for me after a game of croquette. We were at Krista and Carter's house to celebrate the August birthdays.

We had guys moving furniture last night, getting ready to have the floors refinished in the dining room. Everything seems to take longer in the heat. We've just been spoiled by the cool, albeit wet weather. My garden is not very productive, the peppers are a joke, barely any. We've gotten about 5 tomatoes and 5 cucumbers so far. What we have gotten have been outsatnding though. Lots of green tomatoes, it's just taking them so long to get red. Right now, none are even pink. I put four okra plants in this year. There are two okra out there. One is ready to pick, but what do I do with one? I'll put some butter on it and shoot it in the microwave and give it to Jay. The hens have mostly stopped laying. Just getting a few eggs a day. The broody hen is still sitting on her eggs. They're due to hatch on Friday. Can't wait. On Sunday I went to trade chix with Bailey Hale. I got a Buckeye from him and gave him a little Cuckoo Marans pullet. When she knows this is her home and doesn't try to take off, I'll post a photo of her. Saturday we went to pick up feed at John Fiorella's. Such nice people. I love their farm. It looks like we're going to get a turkey or two from him. Saturday night we went to Enrico Gamalinda's parent's 50th anniversary. We had a really great time. They are 74 and just dancin' machines! They did a wonderful job of raising their sons. So many beautiful people in one room. Everybody certainly knows how to have fun. We were honored to be invited. Today I was out taking pictures of the chickens, so here's a photo of one of my speckled Cuckoo Marans pullets. She's about 10 weeks old.

I was very grateful for the sun today. I was planning to pick up feed in Roxborough, but Jay needed the truck so I just worked around here. I'm experimenting with giving the rabbits more unprocessed foods, fresh foods like plants, herbs, leaves, grasses, etc. The organic rabbit pellets are so ridiculously expensive, especially after shipping is added on, and the worst part of it is that they love to dig into their feed hopper and scratch the food out all over the ground. Fortunately the chickens will eat some of it, but a lot still goes to waste. The chickens don't need it, they have their own food. So this will help. It got me thinking of some cost effective alternatives, at least for the summer, which was pretty much the highlight of my day after I made tomato sandwiches for lunch. Jay and I have been watching "Kitchen Nightmares". The European episodes are good, but there's nothing like an arrogant, egotistical, Italian-American son, that can't get out of the way of his own, super-inflated ego to seriously run a business. You've got to watch the one titled "Sabastian's". Talk about dillusional on so many different levels! He was so irritatingly comical, trying to be very serious and angry. Gordon Ramsay had to practically bitch slap him back to reality! It was very gratifying. "Peter's" is another good one. The photo here is almost a year old. It's from the party celebrating August birthdays and Josie is the birthday fairy. Now she's the rainforest fairy zipping through the forest canopy. Can't wait 'til she gets home.

I didn't get to sleep until after 5 this morning. Jay stopped and got me a small milkshake on his way home last night. It must have had caffeine in it, because about an hour into laying there with my eyes wide open, I realized my heart was racing and I was having anxiety about not taking my vitamin E and Co-enzyme Q10! I should have read, but I was so tired, but not able to sleep. I just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Gill Blair gave it to me for my birthday last year. I really enjoyed it, but the humor and clever way it was written, distracted me from the horror that the story was really about. Thank you Gill. Heavy rain for most of the day threw my schedule out the window. So my day started by prepping rabbit for the freezer, cleaning the kitchen and then making dinner, mixed in with working outside when it wasn't pouring. I baked a couple of small chickens and fixed some potatoes with the purple and green beans that Mikey Hess's mom, Jo brought over on Saturday night, to trade for eggs. I was going to do the potatoes and string beans the way my mother made them, however, I'm embarrassed to say that I ran out of olive oil. I used butter instead which added a whole new thing to something already great. Man it was good. The chickens while small and not very fleshy--truly free-range chickens can be like that--were very tasty and tender. They're more like pheasant or a game bird, although not at all gamey. When Jay came home late from teaching we watched the Australian No Reservations which was fun, but made me crave Chinese food. The photo above is of Isabella a couple of summers ago at Chanticleer. I really miss the kids....they're not even gone a week.

Made it in late tonight. The day just flew by and I feel like I didn't get a thing done. But I actually did. I picked tomatoes and cucumbers and some herbs and sliced the tomato and sprinkled it with a chiffonade of garlic chives and basil, fleur de sel, pepper and the olive oil that we had imported from Italy. Jay Jr. and Danny are having a weight loss competition so after I tasted it I gave it to Danny for lunch. Then I made a cucumber salad, the first one of the summer. Danny, Torri and I finished that. After that I started dinner and made a healthy Quinoa, tuna, zucchini, onion, garlic chive, buttercrunch lettuce and sugarsnap pea salad. Jay looked at it when he came home for dinner and put a tiny bit on his plate. Well we both really liked it, 'cause there wasn't any left. It feels so good to eat fresh and healthy. I hate the heat, but just love this time of year for the garden. I don't know what we'll do about the garden next year. We're losing it to the shade and the tree roots invading the beds. Two Cuckoo Marans chix hatched today and I have two hens that are broody now. I have eggs in the incubator that I'm going to put under the Olive-egger tomorrow and they'll hatch next week. I'll leave the eggs that the Cuckoo is sitting on, under her, to hatch out in three weeks. My hens haven't been broody in years. I love watching the mother hen show the chix how to find food and how protective she is of them. I should be able to get lots of great photos of them. Tonight's photo is of one of my Cuckoo Marans hens.

We spent much of the day moving stuff out of the dining room to make way for the floors to be refinished. Later in the afternoon I had some chicken business, which I always love. It's wonderful meeting new people that have chickens. After dinner...I had a tomato sandwich from my garden and the tomatoes are really good this year....Jay and I watched a movie "Perfect Stranger". We both thought it was a good movie, but the ending was weak. Several weeks ago, Melissa and David Clark invited us to see Diana Krall. Apparently, a bunch of our friends went to see her "Quiet Nights" concert as well. Don't you just love it when you see people you know in a big crowd of strangers? Anyway, Diana Krall was just amazing and I really appreciated her sense of humor. I have many of her cds, but was shocked at how they don't do her voice justice. Seriously, it may be sultry, but it is big! There's so much depth and power in it. Also, as Jay will testify, she is an amazing pianist. If you get the chance to see her, do it. We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the show and the company. Thank you Melissa and David. Tonight's photo is a head shot of my Cuckoo Marans rooster, "Elvis". He is of Cottage Hill lines, which is owned by Ron Presley. He's the father of many, many chix. 'Nite.

We had plans to go to Pat Jordan's art reception at the cafe' on Friday night, but something tried to get a hold of me and my lymph nodes, neck and head started aching so we stayed home. Saturday we went to Ray's Greenhouses in Earlington, PA and got some chicken, plants and vegetables. We then went to Merrimead Farms for lunch. We sat at a picnic table in the gorgeous weather and relived the times we took the kids there. On our way home we stopped by Eve's and got zeps for dinner. After dinner, one of Jay's students and his father stopped by for a visit and then when they left, Mikey Hess's parents brought heirloom green and purple beans from their garden We trade eggs for veggies with them. So we broke out a couple of bottles of wine and sat around the table outside and told stories. Really fun. Yesterday we went to Maryland to surprise Jeanie and the kids with a visit before they leave tomorrow for Utah, Idaho, then California for almost a month. that's going to be weird. I don't think I ever showed you the actual eggs from my Black Copper Marans hens. Now that the girls are hens and not pullets, their eggs are even darker. Today I worked outside all day. I picked tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley and basil and now I'm ready for bed. sleep tight.

This week, for the first time since October, I believe, there are no hatchlings in the studio. There are three growing eggs in the incubator due to hatch next week, but I hope all of this humidity doesn't drown them in the shell. Even though it's not hot here in the studio, it looks like I'll need to pull the air-conditioner out of the shed to control the humidity. There are also no grandkids here. The Johnson's are preparing to leave for a trip to the ghost towns (where there are rattlesnakes!) and California and Josie is in Costa Rica riding 10 zip lines, a Tarzan swing and 2 repelling ropes all at 5 stories high, in the rain forest! And with a big smile on her face...my baby! I can't believe they would let her do that. Just say your prayers for all of them. i'm obviously a wreck. The photo is of the Johnson kids eating the spaghetti they helped make. Looks like they liked it. I have to remember to tell you about the Diana Krall concert we went to. Enjoy your weekend.

I had an errand to run in Telford today so since Bill Stewart's was on the way, I stopped by to see if I could buy those black swans there and on my way down the driveway I spotted Gussie waddling down to the pond. I stopped the car, put down my window and called out his name. He stopped and looked up at me. So I forgot about the swans and continued up the driveway and told Jamison that when he was ready, I wanted to get him back, but with a wife. Jamison said he'd let me know. I must be crazy. But I miss him. Working out in the heat and humidity really did me in today, so I'm going to make this short and say goodnight. Above is a photo of Gussie, not pretty is he?

This morning I went out and opened the gate to the garden where the "growing out" chickens live. When they see me coming they always start running to the gate, because they know they're going to be let out to free-range, then, as though they're planes on a runway, the ones in the back run and fly through the gate so they don't get left behind, one after another. It's a great and a funny thing to watch. I love seeing it everyday. But today, for some reason the whole scenario went awry. They saw me, started for the gate, first ones ran out and the rest did their runway flight, but then the first ones started squawking and flying, then they were all squawking and flying around the huge forsythia hedge straight across my neighbor's driveway and down into the creek! I can only think that the latter chickens in line spooked the first ones by flying at them like a predator would and they all stampeded. What a sight! I then tried to round them up and get them home, no such luck. They really liked it over there and didn't come home 'til it was time to roost (go to bed). The photo tonight is of my rooster "Chanticleer" flapping his wings...which is a macho thing for roosters. Kind of like a gorilla beating his chest. He's such a sweetheart. He lets me pick him up every night to put him to bed. He's a French breed, Black Copper Marans.

I really have a love/hate relationship with deer. The love part is obvious, they're beautiful, graceful and the does are so loving and protective with their fawns. I really don't hate them, I should hate what we humans have forced them to become. I won't get into it. My problem with having chronic Lyme disease is that I see them as giant tick carriers. I had a deer tick on me last night. It never ends. I also hate it when they eat my flowers and plants. This one cleaned off all of the buds of my daylilies while I took her picture. It was already too late when I went out and shooed her away. The driveway was directly in front of her, so she could have eaten from there, but no, she had to smash the other flowers beneath her feet. She's really big. There's another doe across the road. She has four fawns. Four, just what I need!

How embarrassing, I haven't posted since May. Well, as you can see from the photo, I've been very, very busy with family business. Like teaching the grandchildren how to make homemade linguine. We used the 9 egg yolk recipe, which yields, a rich, firm pasta. The kids have been here--one, two, or all of them--since early May and we've been having a great time, cooking, gardening, caring for the rabbits and poultry, catching toads, feeding the fish and frogs in our pond and going swimming. While they're here Jay Jr. and Celeste take them overnight and they stay up late, play video games, eat candy and drink soda with Jay and then Celeste makes them pancakes for breakfast. Danny comes home from work and wakes them up in the middle of the night, gives them treats and they roughhouse and watch movies until morning. Poor kids, no one loves them. We had a big graduation party for Celeste, celebrating that she is officially an RN now. We're very proud of her and I admire how steadfast she's been and how hard she's worked with school and two jobs. The party was so much fun. We got to see some of Celeste's family again as well as old and new friends. Speaking of parties, I'm putting it out there now as a save the date, I'll be 60.....ugh, how weird to say it...anyway, my birthday this year is on a Sunday, September 20th and we're having a pig roast, so put it on your calendar now. Jay and I celebrated our 31st anniversary on the first and Jeanie and Derek celebrated their 10th on the third. Congratulations! We had their kids that week, while they went to new York, so we went to meet them there and all of us spent the day together. We went to FAO Schwartz, Central Park and the Central Park Zoo and petting zoo--what an experience, it was more like a circus!--and finally to Isabella's for dinner, which was no great shakes, but they were very nice to us especially since Isabella has the same name. I've painted one picture since the last time I posted. A watercolor of the frogs in my pond. I'll post it, eventually. The garden isn't doing all that well this year, probably because of all of the rain and cold, but it looks like we'll get out first tomato/es, tomorrow or the next day. I have several real Italian tomato plants from Chris Boyd, my friend Karen, the "Orchardess's" brother. They finally have flowers on them, but no tomatoes yet. I cannot wait. It's such a great story. I'll get around to it another night. I've been feeling really lousy, a lot of pain and fatigue, so I've been going to bed earlier, but getting up later. One good thing about it is that I've been reading a lot more. Three, Ann Rule books, a D.H. Lawrence compilation of short stories, Alice Waters and I recently finished "Julie and Julia", or is it the other way around? Anyway, it kind of guilted me into getting back on here and writing. It's been made into a movie, which to me is odd, because even though I enjoyed the book, I didn't think it was all that. I was surprised that the whole thing got that much notoriety, although I did love how brutally honest and intimate about herself and her friends Julie was. It takes some real big ones to share that kind of stuff with the world. That's probably what did it. It's getting late and I'm sleepy, but just one more thing, if you get a chance, go to Alba in Malvern. If you like a creative and interesting slant on Italian, you will thank me. Seriously, we had a handmade, rabbit agnolotti with the pasta so small (as in the size of your thumbnail) and as thin as tissue paper, but firm and delicious with tasty rabbit inside in a savory, velvet broth. I was so impressed. It must take hours and hours for the girl that makes them to produce all that they'll need for dinner service. The foie gras, the Muscovy duck breast, just amazing. Go. OK, really, one last thing, speaking of Muscovy ducks, Gussie had to go back to the farm where we got him. Not only did he try to run away because we didn't have a wife for him....thanx for saving him Rich...but he also suffocated and crushed Frida and Beatrice by trying to have his way with them. Hopefully Jamison found a wife for him. That's it, I'll be back tomorrow.

I still can't figure out the problem with blogger. The new posts aren't coming up. At least not on my computer. There are two others besides this. Oh well, anyway, April 30th was Asser's birthday.

Happy Birthday big guy!

It was so good to see him.

How about this rain? Geez, everything here is flooded. I don't know how the chickens don't get stuck in the mud, it's so deep and swampy, yuck! Hopefully Wednesday it'll clear up and dry out a little, but it'll take more than a few days to dry this mess up.

I chose the photo of Jay Sr. at Jean Georges' for today's post, because it's bright from the sunshine coming in through the windows. It's such a nice place. Hopefully this will go through and get posted. Whatever. I won't be back tomorrow night because I'll be going to maryland tomorrow to see Gabriel and Jonah's spring program. I'll try to bring Isabella home with me.

I posted a blog last night, but it's not showing up on my computer. I just can't figure it out. Today was just an outright mizzy day. Everything ached, probably from lack of sleep, from everything aching. 

It's almost over now. Celeste came by this afternoon and just left. We watched "Soul Men". It was hilarious and sad at the same time. Bernie Mack was really funny. And how about Samuel L. Jackson? I mean how diverse is he? We just watched him in "Twisted" last week. Talk about two extremes. The photo is of jay and Celeste on the left and Danny and Torri on the right. We were in Washington Square Park. This was taken immediately after a drug bust to our left. I heard the guy that was buying the drugs say to the policewoman, "I'm really sorry". She and I weren't buying it. 

Well, I'm going to try to publish this one more time. If it doesn't work, I'm going to bed, I'll try again on Monday. Have a great weekend.

Right after we got off of the train at Penn Station in NY, Danny and Jay Jr. headed directly to the shoe shine stand. I love that they still do that...meaning that you can still get your shoes shined like that.

Today I met a new chicken friend Jen, in Churchville, just above Morgantown. We met outside of Shady Maple. I haven't been there in years, which is weird, because I used to go there a couple of times a month with Diane Komorowski and all of her kids and my kids, a total of nine kids, in my station wagon...before mini-vans and seat belts. We always had so much fun. After Shady Maple we'd hit Goode's for fabric and notions, to make "jams" for the kids. Hawaiin-type shorts that were so easy to put together and sew. Then we'd go to Hartz's Farm for whatever organic meat that I didn't raise. Like organic beef cubes, hot dogs and bacon and other pork products. Also cheese and other dairy, but not milk. We had goats for that. Well Shady Maple is all done up now with a separate smorgasbord restaurant that's like a Walmart. The food is different too. It's pretty much the same menu, but the mashed potatoes are fake. The broasted chicken was great. I wanted to go shopping there and also stop by Hartz's, but there was no sign there and I ran out of time. 

Found a deer tick on me today....ugh....I have to find a better way to repel them. I can't go through this Lyme disease thing again. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so hopefully some ticks will drown and I can work on the big paintings some more.

After we had Mojitos and a couple of great snacks at Jean Georges' on Sunday, we went back outside to stroll around. The weather had dramatically and thankfully cooled. I got this shot of the boys, but not the typical one of them holding the globe like Atlas, which was close by.

I started collecting the herbs and peppers for the garden this year and got a bunch of annuals today. I had to meet a woman about chickens in Newtown Square this afternoon, which also brought me close to Gentile's Market. I was thrilled to see the place loaded with flowers.

This morning I took Jay Sr. to the AT&T store to get him an iPhone for his birthday. Somehow I also wound up with one for Mother's Day. Smart, very smart. Really, it was, since we were due for an upgrade and they were on sale. We are both extremely technically challenged, but we're already having so much fun with these things. The photo quality is really impressive compared to our last cell phones. I'm headed out to Pennsylvania Dutch Country tomorrow on another chicken mission. I'm planning on lunch at Shady Maple. It's been many years since I've done that and I'm really looking forward to it. I'll give you the low down tomorrow night.

Since I'm prepping and working on some larger paintings, the paintings di giorno will be put on hold for a while and be replaced with photos. You'll get to see and know my family and even my chickens better. Thank God the weather will cool down tomorrow, albeit the rain will return, but I'll accept that instead of 90+ degree weather. Last night when I locked up the chickens, a fox ran past me. It was the local, dominant male. He was big and looked very healthy. I have mixed feelings about that. I'm happy that he's not sick and rabid, but I for sure don't need another big and strong predator around here. He reminded me of Winslow Homer's painting "Fox Hunt". He was running in that same position past me.

The photo is one I took at Chanticleer recently of an urn with the inside painted black, filled with water and harbingers of spring--daffodils and forsythia-- floating on it. So pretty and dramatic. They always have such good ideas like this.

Back in December when it was Danny's birthday, he said he wanted to go to New York. Jay Sr. said the same thing in March when it was his birthday, so we left early by train and went yesterday. Jay Jr. took care of making the restaurant reservations. We had Lunch at Bar Boulud, which offers a great charcuterie. We always order a lot of different dishes for all of us to share. The food was outstanding and we sat for at least two hours sampling everything.

Then we walked to Central Park found a seat and baked in the shadeless sun, until we left and went to Jean Georges' for Mojitos, which couldn't have been more refreshing. We also had a snack of tuna tartare and a bruleed fois gras, both of which were spectacular. The bartender, Justin, gave us his father's business card for a connection to his Italian restaurant and factory. Jay Jr. has all of the info, but I can't wait to check it out. I'm also really looking forward to going back to Jean Georges' for lunch or dinner. So after our cool down there, we cabbed to Washington Square and went to the park, listened to some music and just hung out. We left there and walked around. We discovered a mews where I took some reference shots in hopes of doing a painting or two of it. Very charming. Then we stopped by Otto, Mario Battali's place on Eighth St. It's a glorified (in a very good way) pizzeria, with a cozy, european, trattoria feel. We had some proscuitto, olives and bread there with some wine. Another winner that I'd like to go back to and taste more.

We left there and searched on foot for Babbo. We found it, and went in where we met John at the front desk, who knew our name before we told him. He's from Bala Cynwyd. We were led upstairs and seated for the fabulous to begin. Mark was our waiter and Marla our sommelier.

Everything you've heard about Babbo is true, down to the nerve-biting music. I'd just finished reading the book, "Heat", by Bill Buford, so I already had a picture in my mind of what was going to happen, but I was wrong, really wrong. It was so much better than I had anticipated. I had read about the back of the house in Buford's book. I wasn't prepared for how great the service and the rest of the front of the house was going to be. The chef generously sent out the buffalo mozzarella with grilled ramps for the table. I still am craving those ramps. The mozzarella was an event in itself, being so deliciously creamy. Everything we had was above and beyond, but truthfully if you go, get as many pasta dishes as you can. I have never....please forgive me Grandmom...ever, had any, any better, anywhere. I mean I stood next to my Grandmother and helped her make fresh, homemade macaroni and ravioli. I've made it myself, but nothing near as good as what I had last night. Now I know why it's so good, I read the book, but I was foolish enough to think that it was going to be comparable to my Grandmom's or mine. Not. Now I'll be on a mission to try again, because not only do I know how to do it better, but I personally have the secret ingredient. It's what will make the difference. It's my obsession, it's the egg. The kind of egg that my chickens lay. The only kind that will work. So it's perfect that tonight's painting di giorno is an illustration to make my point. The fresh, raw egg in the painting has an orangey, well-formed, firm yolk, with a substantial, but not rubbery, white that doesn't run in the pan. It is literally, the best egg you'll ever taste. My Ameraucana hen laid that egg, that day, but my Marans and game hens lay the same quality and intensely delicious egg. I'm tempted to write a lengthy page on what makes that kind of egg happen, as opposed to eggs from the store or even some farm eggs. Instead of a comparison, I'll just tell you what happens here. During the day my hens that produce our eating eggs, run around the yard with no boundaries, they scratch around in the leaves for bugs...chickens are not vegetarians. They're omnivores and eat a lot of protein in the form of bugs, worms, and whatever meat, dead or alive that they can find. They also eat grass, greens, fruit and vegetables. We never treat our lawn or plants with pesticides or herbicides, nothing, ever. We have a creek behind our house, they drink from there and from the waterers (which have organic, apple cider vinegar with organic garlic steeped in it added to the water) that I provide for them. I feed them whole, organic grains, seeds and supplements. The chix get a starter mash, but again, it is totally organic. All of them get kitchen scraps. They don't get soy.

They're locked up after they go to bed and let out in the morning to do the same thing. Now if I'm not going to be home all day to protect them from the hawk, fox, etc. then they stay in their pen, but that's not often. This is the kind of egg that you need to get the kind of pasta, fresh or dried, that they make at Babbo. I'll try again. " Raw Egg on a Blue Plate and a Meyer Lemon", 8"x8", oil on gessobord, $150., framed.

Well there it is...an image. Same one I tried to upload yesterday and the day before. Who knows? This photo is of my dear friend Karen Morss aka the "Orchardess", aka, the Lemon Lady". She's the woman that has www.lemonladies.com in Emerald City, California. I've known her since high school. She's no bigger than a minute, but loaded with personality and a tiger packed in there somewhere. She makes me proud to be a woman. If you've seen the movie "Yes Man", she's a "Yes Woman", she's done it all. Notice all of the beauty and color around her. A very beautiful and colorful person in so many ways.  This photo is from when we went to visit her one afternoon while we were in California last summer. She made cold cucumber soup for us. Uh! Was it ever good. Then she made a warm plum tart for dessert. Amazing, just like Karen. 

My painting is finished, but I wanted to try this photo first, so I'll post it on Monday. 

Jay just came in from smoking his cigar, which means it's movie time. Enjoy your warm,summer-like weekend. 

Every year it feels to me, like spring will never come and then when it finally does, it's like boom, it's here. With the fall and winter and this past month so dreary, I have mixed emotions about it being 85 and 87 on Saturday and Sunday. I feel like with all of the rain, we'll all need blood transfusions with the swarms of mosquitos. Even with the chill in the air today, the sun felt good and the chickens loved it, so I went out and took some photos of them and Gussie, the duck. 

Let's see how Blogger feels about images tonight.

Well, not good I guess. It won't work. I'm happy that my painting isn't finished, it's more disappointing when I can't upload paintings than it is of photos. I'll try tomorrow on the upstairs computer. Hopefully the painting will be finished tomorrow. I used a different medium this time as an experiment and I can't put any more paint on because if I dab even the slightest bit too hard the layer underneath lifts off. I hate it when that happens.

A really busy day. Went to meet a student in Lansdale this morning that needed quail eggs for his African Egg-Eating snake. Wow, that sure brought back memories. I used to have a young one when I did reptile shows with my petting zoo. The snake partially swallows the whole egg, crushes it and drains the contents of the egg and then spits the shell back out. I believe other snakes just swallow the egg whole and digest the shell.

After that I went to a farm where I used to get all kinds of animals and supplies for the "Funny Farm" petting zoo. More memories. I still love that place.

Tonight I met with Cine to give her the painting she bought from Margot Pierce at the art show Friday night and she also bought the painting I did of eggs and their conversation about Henri's feathers. I really do appreciate it Cine, thank you very much. More Cuckoo and Black Copper Marans chix hatched yesterday. Today some seriously dark brown ones are in the process.

As my granddaughter Josie would say, "I'm wiped out"! So it's the 22nd of the month and I'm noticing that Blogger has big trouble uploading images this time of the month. I've already tried four times to upload. I'm too tired to fight, so we'll catch up tomorrow.

We have plenty of birthdays in March. Jay Sr. is 58, Krista is 36, Jeanie is 30, Isabella is 4 and Gabriella is 4. Happy Birthday everyone! As my father used to say, "I hope you live to be 100 and the last voice you hear is mine".

Krista, the hotel finagler got a reservation for a suite for the "girls"--Jeanie, Celeste, Krista and me--at the Ritz Carlton in DC, to celebrate Jeanie's big 3 0. It was during the Cherry Blossom Festival and even though the weather was miserable, we had a great time.

We got out to the lake for a nice walk and then went back to our suite to get ready to go out to Corduroy Restaurant for dinner. It was really, really good. I love an open kitchen, so we got to see the chef working and after dinner, he told our waitress to send Jeanie back to talk with him. Celeste went with her. He was very nice. The atmosphere is wonderful and the service was great.As we were leaving, Jeanie put on a hair demonstration for the table next to us. We had more fun than is usual for us. 

The photo above, right is of Jeanie and Krista among the cherry blossoms.

Right after Jeanie was born and Jay took me back to my room and the nurse took Jeanie to the nursery for clean up, a young man came into the room and just stared at us. He said that he just had to see the parents of the most beautiful baby he had ever seen. He said that he was in awe of her. I still am.

Thank you God.

I have too many chix happening here. They're taking up so much of my time. I'm a hatch-a-holic.

In all honesty, they're not the only things keeping me away from the easel. I've had the grandchildren here off and on for weeks. Truth is, they get a lot more painting finished than I do!

We've been having lots of fun. The older they get the more fun they are.

We had the March birthdays at Krista's house. It was the best time. Jay Jr. cooked for Easter here. What a treat! The Johnson grandchildren were here for the week and helped me make the Easter bread and Spetzatto.

Jay Sr. and I have been spending a lot of time with the boys, Jay Jr. and Danny, Celeste and Torri also. We've hit some really great restaurants....Parc, Cheifa, Heng's, Bamboo and Trattoria San Nicola, which was just OK. I can't remember the rest right now. Jay Jr. has done some incredible cooking here and now he's the sous chef at Firecreek Restaurant and Bar. It's only been open for a couple of weeks at the most, but it is really good and the appetizers are a great value. My favorites are the calamari appetizer and the pork ribs appetizer, but the others are very good also. Seriously, you could make an entire meal out of the ribs for $9. It's huge and comes with sweet potato salad. The ribs are saucy and tangy just the way I love them. There's tons of good stuff on the menu. It's a steak house in a rehabbed old building, which was a paper mill. It's the perfect mix of industrial and quaint. Cine, Penny and I went last week and sat at the chef's table. They make great margaritas...oh, and don't forget to try the apple cider donut, bread pudding. We're going to NYC this weekend for Danny and Jay Sr.'s birthdays. I can't wait.

I had an art show last weekend at Church of the Saviour and sold the star fruit painting. Lots of interest in my art these days, which is a real incentive to get back to work.

Jay Sr. and I went to see the Cezanne exhibit thanks to Melissa. Such a nice thing for her to do. thanks again Melissa.

I'm going to have to fill in the events as we go along this week since I didn't tell you about the Cherry Blossom Festival that we went to for Jeanie's 31st birthday....and the kids got me on Facebook, another thing I don't need, but I sure do like seeing people's faces and keeping up. My Aunt Jeanne has contacted our family in Italy. Sadly, they were some that lost everything when they were hit with the earthquake. They're alive though, thank God.

So today's painting is "Meyer Lemons, Key Limes and a Quail Egg", 10"x8", oil on linen, $250. framed. Sold. The bowl is glazed with blue. The Meyer lemons are really orange. I'm going to make lemon curd with them and also make lemonade on Saturday, since it's going to be in the 80's. Wow, hard to believe since it's 47 degrees and raining now. The Key limes will be for the Vodka tonics that my Aunt Jeanne got me thinking about, or maybe some caparinhas.

Danny had a big night last night down at the Crystal Tea Room. There was a fund raiser ( I want to say for the Liver Foundation, but can't remember) that he and Jay Jr. did last year with Joe Frost and Mayor Nutter. Last night one of the guests was Vince Papale. Danny said he's such a great guy and that his wife is really nice, which apparently is uncommon for wives of celebrities.

I must be going through a phase because the painting for today was another one that I found difficult to do. It's of star fruit and I found the nuances of the texture very challenging. Why, I don't really know. Maybe it's because I'm not feeling well (have a "cough in my mouth" as Isabella puts it) or maybe I'm out of practice. The interesting thing was that as soon as I got up and moved away from it I realized it didn't need anything else except for a few highlights. Maybe I was working too intently and close. In any case, here it is, "Star Fruit", 6"x6", oil on gessobord, $50., framed. sold I really like it.

I'm going to bed and try to sleep this bug off. 'Nite

To me it's still Tuesday, but the clock says it's almost one in the morning. Since I haven't been here since the 16th of last month, as usual there's a lot to tell. Most recently the snow storm that piled nine inches of snow on us yesterday. The beauty of it never gets old for me. Jay and I went outside on Sunday night while it was coming down heavy and danced in it for a few minutes. It was that sparkly kind of snow that looks like everything is being dusted with tiny diamonds. When I went to bed last night the icicles hanging from the roof over our bedroom windows were shimmering, but it was just from a single, very bright star in the western sky. It was weird but really lovely. Chix are popping out all over the place here. They make so much dust like snow inside the studio every day. Someone said it's their food that flies around and lands heavily on every single thing, every single day! Josie was here all last week while Krista and Carter were in Mexico. Boy, did we have fun. Last Tuesday we took Henri and my black Penedesenca hen up to Harrisburg to meet up with Betty and Butch, who live in Beaver Falls and are their new owners. Betty says Henri is enjoying his new home. We really miss him. For Valentine's Day Jay took me to "James". It's a very nice, cozy restaurant, with good food. The best thing I had was the Risotto with oysters. I thought it was nothing short of a religious experience. The next day we were given box seats at the Kimmel Center for The Philly Pops, Frank Sinatra Concert. What a phenomenal show! I always thought that like my parents, Frank Sinatra would live forever. We sat next to Selma and Sam Savitz and Selma and I played "Name that Tune". There was no one around us for us to annoy, so we really had fun. We've been spending a lot of time with the boys. Danny made dinner for us on Sunday night. He made lamb chops and a veal chop for me, along with risotto and really great sauteed asparagus. We had Ciao Bella gelato for dessert. I'm not a big fan of mint chocolate chip anything, but they make it so it tastes like fresh mint leaves are in there. It's all very good. My painting tonight has caused me much consternation and frustration. I've worked it and reworked it. It looks like it does in real life, but maybe that's the problem. The things I love about it are the seeds that look like caviar, and the color of the flesh. The skin just doesn't do it for me, but again, that's how it looked in real life. When I finally finished it, I cut it and ate some, it was nothing like I expected, almost tasteless. So that's it for now,"Red Papaya", oil on gessobord, 7"x5", $50., framed. Sorry about the glare on the right side.

There's so much going on that I almost didn't make it here again tonight. Last Monday, Jay Jr., Danny and Torrie, invited me to have dinner with them at "Blackfish" in Conshohocken. www.blackfishrestaurant.com Nina was our waitress and did such a great job. The food was everything I had hoped it would be after hearing Jay Jr., Celeste and Danny continually rave about it. It totally lived up to it's reputation. We ordered mostly for the table, so got to taste a good portion of the menu. Being a BYOB takes a little bit of the ouch out of the total. After we left there we went to Theresa's Next Door, which is a guaranteed good time. Jay Sr. joined us and took me home. The rest of the week was really busy with the weather warm-up. I was able to turn on the outside water and scrub out the waterers, etc. Then the 400 lb. feed delivery came and needed to be mixed up and put away. My muscles and joints were singin' all night after that. On a joyful note, our friends Gill and Ian welcomed their new granddaughter Leila into the world. I did a portrait of two of her brothers in 2003, I believe it was. Nicolas and Timothy are on the portrait page. Brother Ben wasn't born yet. Congratulations to the entire family! Today is Krista and Carter's wedding anniversary....I forget which one, maybe 7th? Happy Anniversary Kids! Chicks are still hatching. Two of my own Black Copper Marans chicks hatched. One of them is from my beheaded hen. I hope it's a little pullet. They're really cute. Jay and I took my exhibit down from Burlap and Bean. I sold six pieces which isn't much compared to the Gryphon, but I'm happy with that. The painting "Girls Gone Wild", which I retitled "Cowgirls Gone Wild" left on Friday afternoon. It was sold in December, but since it was an anniversary surprise, I got to keep it longer. I'll miss it, it was definitely one of my favorites. Sadly, our good friend John Lynch lost his Mother last week. She was 94 years old. The service is tomorrow. Finally, while staring at the painting of "Meyer Lemons and Paperwhites", I realized there wasn't enough contrast, so I reworked it. You compare, but I think the bottle needed to be a little more frosted and the flowers and a few more spots needed stronger highlights. I like it better. There's still a lot more to tell, but my brain is already dozing off without me. 'Nite.

I had another post planned for tonight, but Jay sent this video to me and I'm overcome with emotion. So I'll pass and give you something to really think about.

Have a great weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtweZxNGk1Y&NR=1

Five more chicks hatched between yesterday and today. The Black Copper Marans are really cute, one is black and white and the other two are the color of a sable mink, the rest of the chicks are Cuckoo Marans. I got a call from my friend Jim in Florida tonight. He was outside spraying water on his blueberry bushes to try to save the flowers from burning in the cold snap they're having down there. What a nightmare. He was up all night last night doing the same thing. It's scary when your livelihood depends on the weather. I remember when Jay used to plow snow and it didn't snow all winter. I'm glad he doesn't do that anymore.

The painting tonight is the same mango from yesterday and one of the avocados. The avocado was a little more difficult, because it's really ripe and not as smooth. I just turned the mango upside down for different colors. "Avocado and Mango", 7"x5", oil on Gessobord, $50. Sold.

Well I've gotta go candle some of the Black Copper Marans eggs. I'm praying that they're fertile, so that the poor hen that got killed on Saturday will live on through her chicks.

So we got at least eight inches of snow last night. It was sunny and bright this morning and breathtakingly beautiful. A friend was driving her grandson home from school yesterday and they were discussing how beautiful the snow was and Barbara mentioned how it reminded her of a snow globe when we shake it up. After a little while her grandson said that God probably shakes the world up for us to see it like a snow globe. Barbara reflected on that and decided to take his comment at face value, instead of thinking about earthquakes, etc. Just the beauty of drifting snow flakes, floating to the earth on a snowy day.

I was happy to get in from the bitter cold early tonight and warm up in front of the wood stove. I painted the mango that Jay brought home yesterday. Jay thinks it looks like an animal. "Mango", 6"x6", oil on Gessobord, $50. framed.

Patti La Belle is singing on the radio. Her music brings to mind Budd Ellison, her music director for many years and his wife Barbara. He passed away a few years ago. He was a good friend to Jay and an inspiration to all of us as he battled prostate cancer. Barbara deserves a medal for her dedication and devotion to Budd, not only through his illness, but throughout their lives together. I have to say that she definitely doesn't look any worse for the wear. The woman doesn't have a wrinkle on her face. She's amazing. We miss you Budd.

Well Glen "Hurricane" Schwartz got this one wrong and he was so certain on Sunday night that this snow wouldn't amount to anything. He actually said, "It's not gonna happen" in reference to accumulation. It's not a blizzard or anything, but we have at least four inches. It's gorgeous out there!

I got a phone call from a friend in Florida last night that stopped all painting. We had a lot of chicken stuff to discuss...for a few hours...part of the conversation was the incident on Saturday around noon when a fox came and pulled one of my hens' head off right through the cyclone fence pen. I can't figure out what this fox had to do to lure her, not only to the very front, up against the fence and the only six inch round spot that wasn't covered by net, but also what kept her from stepping back two inches where he couldn't reach her. It was horrific to find her that way. At least he didn't get to eat her. I found a dead fox in the creek yesterday, so I'm wondering if this is the same fox and if it is, could it have had rabies, which would explain it being out in the middle of the day, or for the same scenario, could it have died of starvation? We'll see if it is the same one that's been running all over the place here, marking it's territory and leaving tracks, tomorrow after the snow.

Saturday afternoon I met Mary in Quakertown as I mentioned on Friday. Wow, what an experience that was. I actually got in the trailer with the oxen. I was really scared....they were absolutely gargantuan! I mean the head of one was half the size of my car. Mary's husband, Abe is 5'4" and at least 74. He has these animals under such loving control. He told me to come over and pet the horns on one of the boys, I thought, "you pet his horns", but I did it. These animals are over 6' at the shoulder, the power they possess must be phenomenal. Mary and Abe took them to Quakertown for a lumberjack/logging event. I wished I had seen it, instead I was home shoving a chicken body and it's dismembered head from one of my favorite hens into a bag! Breaks my heart.

Sunday was so warm and beautiful, I went to Home Depot to get some cane fencing as a visual barrier for the pen. I put the headless hen's last eggs in the incubator yesterday with the strong hope that they hatch. We'll know in about three weeks.

Jay and I watched the Superbowl game on Sunday night. Really a great game.

Jay went to the supermarket today and got some avocados and a mango for me to paint. Never did an avocado before and I enjoyed trying to capture the bumpy texture. "Three Avocados",

6"x6", oil on Gessobord, $50. framed. Sold.

Jay just got home. I'm going to go have a glass of wine with him.

This won't be long, Jay is upstairs fixing dinner for me.

I did paint eggs. Quail eggs and it went pretty fast. I think painting all of those egg-shaped lemons helped. It felt good and the quail feather was fun too. I had a chick hatch today, but I hope it's not the only one. There are two more in there with him that should pop out as well. Tomorrow I go to Quakertown to hand over a couple dozen Cuckoo Marans eggs to Mary. Her husband is doing an old-fashioned lumberjack thing with oxen. I'll actually get to see them. The one is over six feet at the shoulder. I don't think I've ever seen a real ox before. I'm pretty excited about it.

OK, I've got to go. The painting di giorno is "Quail Eggs and a Feather", oil on Gessobord, 6"x6", $50. framed. Sold. As you can see I painted the nest and eggs at a different angle on the board so that it's in a diamond shape. I also photographed it so you can see how it looks framed.

That's it, have a terrific weekend.

I did paint another Meyer lemon painting today, but I think this may be the last one for a while, although there are no promises about that. I think I need to paint some eggs again. I mean painting lemons in a nest is probably a good indication. It was fun to shake things up and let the painting just happen. I loved painting the lemons. "Nest of Meyer Lemons", 6"x6", oil on Gessobord, $50., framed. Sold

The warm sun melted a lot of the ice today, which actually turned out to be a nightmare when it refroze. Even the leftover snow was treacherous. I like walking in relatively crunchy snow, you can get a good foothold and feel safe walking on it, but when it's too hard you may as well be walking on ice. I'm glad my work outside is finished. We're supposed to get some snow showers tomorrow. Hmm.

We've had the snow, about 3 more inches of it, then the ice that magically cloaked everything it touched in crystal, then the rain. Now we have the wind and that has started the power outages. Thank God the power is back on. The ice, as beautiful as it was, made working outside really difficult today. I dress for the cold, wind and rain, but the ice on my head was really painful, even with a hood on. Now I know better. The chickens don't usually mind the weather, but I could see that they didn't like the ice either.

Tonight I finished another painting of paperwhites and Meyer lemons. "Paperwhites and Meyer Lemons", oil on Gessobord, 6"x6", framed, $50. Sold.

I was supposed to have dinner with Cine and Penny tonight, but Jay needed my car, so here I am.

He's upstairs playing "How Great Thou Art". I just love what he does with hymns.

How many people do you think are using that phrase tonight? I'm dreading it. I have incubators going and heat pads, heat lamps and heated waterers for the animals, so the last thing I need is a power outage here. Please say a prayer for everyone dealing with this.

Jay Jr. and Danny went to a Bordeaux wine tasting in New York yesterday. They had a great time, with plenty of stories to share last night/this morning. I was envious of the places they stopped to have drinks and dinner, one of which was Babbo. Their descriptions of the food was torture. It sounded wonderful. My painting di giorno at right is titled "Meyer Lemons and Paperwhites", 5"x7",oil on Gessobord, $50., framed. Sold. The lemons are starting to shrink, but are getting more orangey. The paperwhites were a gift from Jay Sr. He bought the whole plant for me, but I cut this stem for the studio. The fragrance mixes with the aroma of the lemons and transports me into a sunshine-filled spring day. Great place to be during a snow storm.

Thursday night's post never happened because Isabella begged me to bake cookies for her. Now I haven't baked cookies for years, so it took so long that she lost interest and left me alone in the kitchen to finish baking while she left to go watch TV. Unfortunately for the cookies, I got a phone call from Dave, the friend in Ohio that I got Vincent from. So I burned a batch of the cookies and over baked another batch. One batch came out perfect. Isabella loved them. She went home on Friday. It feels strange without her here. She was so cute when she'd go out with me to "help" bring the roosters in at night. We'd hear the owls hooting and she'd try to imitate them. On the way in she made a "no"(snow) angel. It was so tiny it looked like one of the chickens made it. Josie will be coming to stay in a couple of weeks, she'll have this place hoppin'.

The weekend was full of small stuff. Mostly chicken related chores. The girls are laying big, beautiful, dark eggs, the chicks are hatching and it's like spring in here in the dead of winter.

My painting di giorno is titled "Meyer Lemons in a Treenware Egg Holder", 7"x5", oil on Gessobord, $50. framed. Sold.

Gotta' go, Danny and Jay Jr. just got home from New York and they have stories to tell.

I'm so happy to paint some Meyer lemons again. Of course they're from my friend Karen the Orchardess from Lemon Ladies in Emerald City, California  www.lemonladies.com It's been too long. I bought the little wooden bucket this past summer when we went to California. It was in a little shop in Petaluma. We got several nice things there. I wish I was there now. The cold never really bothered me that much. This year it feels like it's in my bones. Must be my aging. A new rooster came in from Ohio today to service my Black Copper Marans hens. He's only here on loan and for a short time, but is very handsome and very gentlemanly. Well Jay and Isabella are waiting for me to watch a movie with them.

"Meyer Lemons in a Little Wooden Bucket", oil on Gessobord, 6"x6", $50. framed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear friend Penny Bird. It was on December 27th. I knew her Father before I ever met her, which wasn't until high school. When I met her Dad, he said that I "had the devil in my eyes". I think I was about seven. He brought a mink coat for my Mother to approve before her initials were embroidered on the inside. After he left I went upstairs to look at my eyes and see if I could see the devil in them. I was happy that I couldn't see any devils, but looked for a sign of one for a few years after that. Snow in the trees today against the bright blue sky was inspirational. I went out to feed, water and collect the eggs, the sun felt warm. I thought about going out to paint en plein air, but my fingers don't work in the cold, they turn purple and yellow, yes, complementary colors, but too painful. The wind wasn't strong but blew most of the snow off of the tree limbs, leaving thousands of snow nests in the in the crevices of the branches. A really interesting effect. I try to go out hourly to get the eggs so they don't get chilled, so I was happy to finally be out of the weather tonight and went to the kitchen to gather some subjects for a still life. "Shallot, Garlic and Olive Oil", oil on Gessobord, 6"x6", $50. framed. I can't believe I've never painted garlic, as much as I love it.Enjoy the rest of your night. I need to go get under my blankets.

Yesterday I forgot to mention two events that coincide with each other, my brother Pat's birthday and the two year anniversary of my blog. Happy Birthday to Pat and also to Cine!

Isabella is here with me. She continues to paint the majority of her waking hours. I know I've said it before, but she really is something. Today we finally got a snowstorm that gave us more than a coating. Very beautiful and gratifying. So serene, I love it.

My painting di giorno is of a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne in an ice jacket. I love the color they use for their label and the ice jacket, so since this is my first painting of 2009 I thought I would toast you with some champagne. To our mutual, health, joy, peace and prosperity. Cheers!

"New Year 2009", oil on Gessobord, 5"x7", framed, $50. Sold.

Gabriels' 9th birthday was December 21st and Danny's birthday was December 22. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS. We went to Maryland to celebrate. Christmas was almost a month ago and today I finally got everything Christmas put away.

My family didn't want to let it go this year. Our Christmas was more than wonderful and really huge. The grandchildren are getting older and aware of what's going on, so it's a delight introducing them to our traditions. We went to my Godson/cousin Nicky's and his wife Leann's for the Christmas Eve fishes. Again, Jay Jr., Danny and Nicky did a spectacular job with everything.

They went to the fish market and got our usual, traditional fish like, smelts, soft-shells, scallops, crabs, octopus, lobster, mussels, etc., but this year they added a gar and a frog. I didn't get to see or taste the frog and the gar was way too nasty to even cook, it actually had bad breath. Everything was fantastic. Poor Nicky had his wisdom teeth coming in. He was very uncomfortable.

Christmas day we had a very fun day. The best part being the grandchildren opening their gifts. Of course the food that Jay Jr. prepared was perfect. For New Year's Eve Jay Sr. and I took Gabriel to Georges' for an early dinner. It was just great. At midnight we went outside and banged pots and pans. I guess everybody else around here punked out because of the cold, because we were the only ones out there and Gabriel in his bare feet yet! 

My show at the Gryphon was very successful. I sold 20 paintings! I'm just so thrilled. Thank you to all that have added to their collections of my work and to my new patrons, I'm very grateful. My new exhibit is now at THE BURLAP AND BEAN in Newtown Square www.burlapandbean.com

It's a cozy cafe', very inviting, with good food and drinks. Please stop by and check it out. The image here is of my French Birchen Marans rooster "Henri", who is like a puppy, he follows us around and eats out of our hands. He was my Christmas card for 2008. "Henri, French Marans Rooster", oil on Gessobord, 5"x7", framed. $50.SOLD.

I'm happy to be back, enjoy your day.

This could be the last post until after the holidays. If I have time to get in here, I will, but I already feel like I'm light years from being ready for Christmas. 

Some wonderful things happening; paintings being sold at the cafe', my new rooster "Chanticleer" is getting the "job" done just in time. My black copper Marans are laying those very dark eggs and they seem to be getting darker by the day. Very exciting stuff. I finished painting the image for our Christmas card and got the order in today. I won't post it since I don't want you to see it until you get it in the mail.....if I don't have your address, and you want one, just email your address to me and I'll send one to you. I had dinner with my good friend Sue Silenzi tonight. We went to Christopher's for an easy dinner and lots of catching up. Felt good to see her.

The painting is of the vegetable and flower garden across the street from the French Laundry in the late afternoon. The bench was so inviting. I did take a photo of the fam on it, but didn't paint it that way. I haven't hung this painting at the cafe' yet. Hopefully tomorrow. "French Laundry Garden", oil on linen board, 10"x8", $250., framed.SOLD

If I don't get back before then, here's to your best holidays ever, despite the economy!

I pretty bummed tonight. Vincent is on his way to Arizona and I miss him already. I totally have seller's remorse. Maybe the woman who bought him won't like him and send him back. I hope so.

I was 3/4s of the way finished a painting of a cow and calf last night and Danny and Jay told me not to finish it, so I painted over it. My brother Pat told me it's called seeing the south side of a cow who's headed north. So it's history. I do have a sheep painting that's finished, but I redid it and didn't photograph it yet.

I've been working on family photos for Christmas gifts tonight and thought I'd show you this one. It's of (left to right) my son Jay, his wife Celeste, my grandson Gabriel and my son Danny. Just before this shot they were hand-feeding the chickens...."you can dress them up".....to add to the irony they were all decked out to go to Le Bec Fin for dinner. I love my family.

This was a wonderful Thanksgiving. Everything was without a hassle, the traffic to and from Maryland, dinner prep and the company. Krista and I laughed like fools over our "Goldfinger" turkey and Salvador Dali digital meat thermometer. The skin on the turkey went from a golden, Goldfinger crisp, to a George Hamilton very dark leather. Simply because she didn't take my advice and tent the turkey. But the best part was that Krista didn't know that you can't put a digital thermometer in the oven and let it stay in there while the bird cooks. It was great when we took it out and it looked like something Dali would have painted. Even with all of that, the food was just delicious and  we were ready two hours ahead of time. It was nice to relax before everyone arrived. Poor little Josie had an ear infection, but you'd never have known it. She was so happy when Isabella arrived. They looked precious.

Vincent my Welsummer rooster leaves for Arizona tomorrow. I'll miss him, but he'll be living the good life out there.

I finished two of the four paintings over the weekend. This one is titled "Chanticleer Lotus",

8"x10", oil on linen board, $250., framed. sold It's a new favorite. The very early morning sun is just magical. I love it.

The painting above is one of my favorites. I painted it last year and put it up in my exhibit at the Gryphon Cafe'. I forgot to photograph it and it got sold right away. It's back for a final varnish, so I took the opportunity to post it for you. "House by the Lane, Chester County, PA", 11"x14", oil on linen, sold. I went to Maryland on Thursday night and to Grandparent's Day at Gabriel and Jonah's school on Friday morning. Krista met me there and filled in as the other grandparent because I couldn't be in both places at once. It was really fun, I loved it. All three of the Johnson kids came home with me after that, so it's been really hopping here ever since. I'm finishing up a couple of paintings, one of which should be finished by tomorrow.

Then I need to get seriously busy and start shopping for and making the holiday soup for Thursday. I plan on having the kids help me prepare it. Isabella has been painting with watercolors almost non-stop. I think she has so much talent. She's an excellent colorist. I realize that I'm her grandmother, but I'm totally impressed. One of my little, Old English banty hens laid her first egg yesterday. Such a pretty little pearl-colored egg.

Jay Jr. cooked for us last night. Danny prepared the cheese course which was reminiscent of summer, with heirloom cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella with basil leaves and good bread and olive oil. Jay then made marrow bones on garlic bread with sea salt, gnocchi with a rabbit ragout and a roasted pork shoulder, brussel sprouts and cheese polenta. Then Celeste made a pumpkin bar dessert with whipped cream. The kids watched Jay cook and tasted everything.

We had plenty of leftovers as you can imagine, so it was great the second time around too.

It definitely got too cold too fast. Last week it was warm and humid in the 70s. This morning when I went out to get the roosters their water was frozen solid, not a crispy crust, solid ice. So I raced against time all day to get everybody's water heaters connected. Most of them were already positioned, but the cords weren't cooperating with the outside extension cords. Well, most everyone has heated water now. Today's PT for my shoulder went well with a new therapist "Toni". Believe it or not she's at least two inches shorter than I am! She's great. All of the exercise went really fast while we compared notes on our versions of the Holiday Soup/AKA Italian Wedding Soup. We had everyone there hungry by the time I was finished. 

I'm waiting for Derek to get here and we're taking Isabella for dinner, probably to Theresa's next Door. I love that place. 

The chicks are pretty much finished hatching, so I'll get a final count tonight. Very cute. It was wonderful watching Isabella's reaction to them hatching.

I'm giving you a photo tonight, since I didn't have time to finish a painting in the past few days and totally forgot to photograph one that I painted before, but never posted. This photo is of the cross on top of the Sonoma Mission, titled "Bird on a Mission", black and white photo, $100., framed

It was an eventful weekend, starting with a raccoon that was here in the middle of the day (definitely a bad sign) on Saturday trying to eat my Sicilian Buttercup chickens which are right outside of my studio. I'm very concerned and we're all on the lookout for it. Sunday, Jay and I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Craft Show. Really interesting and inspiring. Thank you Melissa! I was having trouble walking with my aching knee. I think the problem could be the deer tick that Danny pulled off of me on Saturday night. Not good. I have a call into the doctor. The boys went shopping for dinner and Jay Jr. made steamers for starters and then a rigatoni/duck/olive and tomato sauce main dish that really hit the spot. Just great. After that we played poker, Danny won as usual. I went to Maryland yesterday to read to Jonah's class today. I told Jeanie to have the kids wake me up this morning with kisses. what a way to start the day! Reading to Jonah's class was such a fun experience. I brought Isabella home with me. She already painted about four watercolors. Speaking of four, my Welsummer x Ameraucana chicks started hatching today. A very springtime thing to happen on probably our coldest day so far. There was even a snow shower on our drive home this afternoon. The chicks are precious.

The painting I posted tonight is of a vineyard in Napa Valley. I miss California. This painting was challenging, but extremely gratifying when it was finished. "Napa Valley Vineyard", 14"x11", oil on linen, mounted on board, $350., framed.SOLD

I admit it I hate my iMac. I realize that if I'd been using one since 1995 as I have a PC, that it would probably be a different story. But that's not the case and I despise this thing. Those weird A things that show up in my posts and emails, the way AOL, or the mouse, or my external hard drive or printer, or wmv files or try to save or find files, or my fonts, never work right. I can only take so much of it in the eight months that I've had it. AOL doesn't work at all now, thank God I have my back up PC. OK, enough moaning and groaning.

As much as I hate this Mac, is how much I love this painting of more Sonoma grapes. The grapes really do look like jewels in this one. "Sonoma Grapes #3", oil on linen, 11"x14", $350., framed. sold.

I won't go through the sad feelings about Ardrossan again, but here's a painting of the Black Angus cattle down by Saw Mill Road. I think it reflects some of the feelings I have going on about the sale of the property. I plan to do a similar painting of this, maybe bigger, but in any case it will be different.

I mentioned before that I started four new paintings. Hopefully they'll all be finished before the next first Friday. I'm starting to enjoy the process. The most difficult one being the French Laundry garden. Who knows why? I'll figure it out, I always do.

Here's "Ardrossan Cattle", oil on linen, 11"x14", $350. framed. sold.

Today's painting is actually the third in the series, but I wasn't paying attention when I titled them. "Sonoma Grapes #4", oil on linen, 11"x14", $350., framed. sold. I like the lighting in these paintings, the backlit grapes and the shade from the leaves with the luminous late afternoon sun peeking through is what attracted me to this vineyard.

Physical therapy for my shoulder is going very well, but I'm knocked out tonight, so I'm going to cut this short. Have a great night's sleep.

Heads up, for the first Friday of December, the 5th, as I'll be hosting another reception, again at the Gryphon Cafe' in Wayne, from 5pm to 8pm. Jay Jr. was scheduled to show his photography, but it looks like he's overwhelmed at work. So if you missed last week's reception, here's an opportunity to get in and see the brand new paintings just in time for the holidays. 

The painting to the right depicts the olives still on the tree in Sonoma. I'm loving the colors of warm and cool, although looking at it on my screen the colors are more vivid in person. Come out to the cafe' and get a better look. "Sonoma Olives #2", 10"x10", oil on linen, $250., framed.

My oldest Black Copper Marans pullet, "Mademoiselle Pertilote", laid her first egg today. Her new husband "Chanticleer" is still too young to do his "job". She is one of the chicks that I traveled to upstate New York for last February.The color of the egg is beautiful, a rich brown with no speckles, but it was the size of her egg that really surprised me. It was an extra large on my egg scale and weighed 69 grams or 2&3/8ths ounces. Now she's a big girl, but that's a big first egg. Anyway, I'm super excited about it. She's nine and a half months old, which is very late to start laying eggs, but she's the one that I rescued from the jaws of the raccoon a couple of months ago, so we've got to give her some understanding for the terror and trauma. She didn't have a scratch on her, but I can certainly forgive the delay. I'll be painting pictures of eggs again real soon.

My painting tonight is titled "Chester County Cow and Calf", 14"x11", oil on linen, $350., framed. SOLD Again you can see the crisscross grain of the linen and glare of the varnish which diffuses the colors and contrast of the painting. I still love the backlighting on it though.

We had great weather, food and music for a wonderful turnout on Friday night. Jay's students were terrific as usual. Such talent, Matt and Allison Tufano, Scott and Ethan Kripke, Eric Margolis, Olivia Mullen and Jay Sr., just made the entire night so special. Thanx to all of you for coming out and being the hit of the evening! If I spelled your name wrong, sorry, just shoot me an email and I'll fix it.

I need to go back to the cafe' and record the paintings that were sold, but would sincerely like to thank all of my friends and patrons for your

support. It's immensely encouraging to have you there, in addition to being a huge incentive to stay at the easel. Painting pictures is such a solitary practice, that when I get out into the public with my work, I'm really apprehensive and anxious. I realize that most people would say that artists should paint for themselves and while that's true for some, for me it partly is, but only to a small extent. The larger purpose of my work is done for God and for you. It's my attempt to share with you, my experience, i.e., the visual, emotional and even spiritual aspects of it. I love it, I hate it, it gives me fear, peace, joy, uncertainty and it gives me confidence and as always it defines one, albeit a huge one, aspect of me. I love my life.

 I'm not resistant to change, as long as I'm happy with and about what's changing.... I particularly dislike the "end of an era" changes. I'm not talking about the national, international or  global changes, although I could include many of those for sure. In this sense, I mean the "closer to home", personal, local ones that will never, ever be again. Like when the last person of the previous generation in the family passes away. Such a strange, scary feeling. Definitely a reality check. Anyway, that's what the painting above is about. After a few major losses and changes, occasionally, I've felt as if I needed to record a place--some I know, some random-- in my paintings. Photos are great, but I feel like I can capture the innocence and beauty of a place by painting it. I can paint it without prejudice and just simply take it at face value because it's there and I feel a connection to it. Several subjects of my paintings, human and otherwise, no longer exist. The fact that I painted them made me feel as though I've done my job. My tribute to them.OK, after all of that here is "Ardrossan Cornfield--View from Chanticleer",oil on deep, gallery-wrapped canvas,14"x11" $350. framed. Sold. 

I've been to Ardrossan many times and have passed this particular view countless times. Sadly it doesn't look like this anymore. The dirt road is now paved, so that trucks with building materials and construction crews can build houses in those fields. The end of another era.

I'm so sleepy I almost forgot to post tonight/this morning. I worked on many, many, family pix tonight and started four new paintings today. Also trying to wrap up some details for the reception tomorrow at the Gryphon, for First Friday. So I'll be speedy here.

The painting tonight is of olives, "Sonoma Olives #1", oil on linen, 10"x10", $250. framed. Again this painting presents so much better in person because of the glare on the linen. I doubt that I'll post tomorrow night after the reception, so if not, I'll be back soon. 

Last night I had the experience of a lifetime. Two of the people that I hold nearest and dearest to my heart brought something extremely rare and special to me. What they brought was some of Napoleon's personal Cognac. This magical elixir sells for $1000. that's right, a thousand dollars a shot. No, not the bottle, just a shot. When a bottle of it is sold, it's delivered in an armored truck! Unbelievable and unbelievably good. Very smooth and smoky with a lot of complexity...it stayed in my mouth for a good 15 minutes. I am blessed, not so much by the cognac, which I am extremely grateful for, but for the extreme consideration, time and just going out their way to bring this experience home to me.THANK YOU!

I had the first session of my life of physical therapy today. Everything was going great until a man that had just had his knees replaced got on the mat next to me and started moaning. That was all I needed to start crying and asked my therapist to turn me in the opposite direction. It just opened up all of the suffering Jay Sr. had gone through again, and I couldn't handle it. What a sissy I am. It's ridiculous. Anyway, I did a pretty good job with my range of motion and will go twice a week starting on Monday.

Tonight's painting is another one of grapes and it's dull in comparison to the actual painting. I believe it was glare from just having put a temporary protective varnish on them. In any case, it's "Sonoma Grapes #1, oil on linen, 11"x14", $350. framed.sold.

I am so happy that the political phone calls and ads will be over by tomorrow. I did my civic duty and I'm not going to stress about the outcome now. God will just have to take care of the rest of it.

I went to the shoulder doctor again today and start physical therapy tomorrow. He gave me an another injection--or I should say injections in the top of my shoulder joint. He couldn't get the needle in the right spot. I had to ask him to stop. It REALLY hurt. So he said he would try just once more and I could feel that one just slide right into the right place and the cool medicine go in. But man, it's really been screaming like crazy since then. He did say to ice it. I'm due for some Motrin when I finish this, so this won't be much longer.

Tonight's painting is of a quail at the Fedrick Ranch in California. They're all over the place there. Scurrying about all of the time, very busy. This particular little guy was perched upon a fence post, on the lookout, however I just can't take him all that seriously with that cute little topknot.  "California Quail on Guard", oil on canvas board, 11"x14", $350. framed.

Today was an extremely productive day. I moved three chickens into the garden, but except for adding willow fencing as a wind barrier, they're not winterized yet. I got the big pen of chickens ready for winter. When it starts freezing enough to make ice of their water, I'll plug their water heaters in. I moved their houses to face south instead of north and added more protection from the wind. They seemed to like the added room and brightness when I took down the shade cloths. They'll love all of the sun.

Tonight I edited Laurie Shipley and Winnie King's photos that I shot of their installation at "Two Paper Dolls", www.twopaperdolls.com

They moved from Louella Ave. in Wayne to West Wayne Ave. What a beautiful job they did with the lighting, colors and comfort. It feels like you've walked into a friend's house, not a shop. They have the letterpress there, which is one of my favorites when it comes to stationery. The above is the first oil painting that I did after our visit to California. The grapes in Sonoma County are ridiculously colorful. I was so amazed at all of the different colors on one bunch that I did four paintings of grapes. The rest will follow. The contrast doesn't look right, it's not that dull. There's more dimension to the actual painting. "Sonoma Grapes #2", oil on linen,11"x14", $350. framed. sold.

Be back tomorrow after my appointment with the shoulder doctor.

Jay Sr., Jay Jr., Celeste and I went to install my exhibit at the Gryphon Cafe' last night at 11PM.

You heard it right. We were there until about 1:15AM. THANK YOU Guys. They...I didn't hang anything because of my shoulder....did the hanging and the boards with the small paintings always present a huge problem.  Last year they were constantly crooked and swaying and the paintings continually fell off. So Krista found a way to mount the paintings so that they stayed put. THANK YOU Krista and Jeanie found a way to back the paintings more securely. THANK YOU Jeanie. 

The walls are full and it's a great relief to be done with it for now. We went to Christopher's afterwards and got some snacks and drinks. On our way, we bumped into Asser! Wow, how great that was. I really miss him. Felt like old times. By the way, remember, the reception for this exhibit on Friday from 5PM to 8PM. I'm really looking forward to the party.

How about those Phillies!? The boys went to the parade and there were about three million people there. Literally, the trains into the city were packed and delayed for hours. Danny being the tallest in the crowd immediately around him, couldn't see, but he kindly lifted up a 76 year old man so he could. Jay Sr. played (he was the musical entertainment in the tent for NBC) at the 1980 World Series game. The whole thing is such a boost for us. A great thing in these dreary economic and political times.

I finally had the nuclear stress test for my heart. The anticipation was a zillion times worse than the actual test. Thanks in big part to my dear friend Penny, who had me believing that my heart was going to explode and I was going to die on the spot if I took the Persantine. Just wait until she has to have some medical tests.....(me laughing fiendishly). It was actually for the best, because there was really no reason for me to take the Persantine. I did just fine without it. Well, that's an exaggeration. The treadmill was an ordeal that made me suspect that I was on Candid Camera, or it could have been an episode of I Love Lucy. I'm only about 5' tall. I definitely do not have a long stride. So everything was fine until they amped the treadmill up to the last segment. My heart and lungs weren't in distress, it was my arms and legs. My arms holding on for dear life and my legs trying to keep up. I felt like I was going to fly off of the thing and shoot across the room! Honest! In any case I did it and the best thing is that the results came back "perfectly normal". Just lovely, beautiful words. Thanx for the prayers everyone. I do want to say to anyone that needs to have this test, no biggie, even with the Persantine, Most of the people there did need to use it for their test and not one had an event of any kind. Asser, who is a heart doctor told me that they do get a better reading if you don't use the Persantine. So, thank God that's over. 

Now, starting tomorrow, I'll be posting again with photos of the last 10 or 11 paintings I've been working on and hopefully more in the meantime. I miss doing the small paintings, but love the 11"x14" size too. 

The garden is closed for the remaining fall and winter. I'm working on the top of it to keep the predators out so I can put the chickens and rabbits in there to weed and fertilize. I FINALLY got that damn raccoon! He's outta here, but my shoulder is still really hurting. I go to see the shoulder doctor on Tuesday. I'll vote on my way home. 

Still need to winterize for the chickens, quail and rabbits with water heaters and more protection from the cold. The weather will be relatively mild this week, so it'll be a good time for that. Well then, until tomorrow, stay cozy.

As usual, tons of stuff going on and plenty more to come. I might catch a break in January. Whew. I have nothing to show you tonight except for a youtube video Jay Sr. sent to me. Rick Miller....what a talent. Enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06mZvsWHs4M

The other thing I need to do is invite you to my next exhibit. Here's the info--

Where: Gryphon Cafe', 105 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, PA 19087, 610.964.1988

When: First Friday, November 7th, 5-8pm.

This will be a very casual event, please bring the kids and anyone else you'd care to invite. We're working on having some live music. There will be finger foods, beer and wine and the menu that the cafe' serves--hot and cold drinks and desserts. I would be so thrilled to see you there.

So that's the main reason I haven't been posting. I'm painting like crazy, but I'm not going to let you see any of them just yet. In addition, there's been the myriad of medical tests, with the next two being nuclear stress tests coming up on Tuesday and Thursday. Then there are the injuries I constantly inflict on myself now that I'm fiftyfine, and, as my doctor told me, "wearing out". The nerve of him! He's the shoulder doctor. I got the MRI results and I tore the tendons on my bicep, rotator cuff, and the one down my back by my shoulder blade that I can't remember the name of, which also leaves me with fluid on my shoulder, tendonitis and bursitis. I'm a mess! Actually I'm feeling much better since he gave me a shot in the back of my shoulder. When I saw the needle I cried like a little girl. The doctor got pretty annoyed with me, so I took the shot and wow, the pain was gone in ten minutes. I'm supposed to be going for physical therapy, but they can't fit me in at the rehab. Everyone else must be wearing out too. The neck MRI was excellent. My lymph nodes are fine. TYG! I still haven't been able to catch that raccoon, but I don't think he's been coming around anymore. I just keep the traps ready for him. Two of my Cuckoo Marans pullets have started laying eggs. Their eggs are small and not real dark, but dark enough to qualify as Marans eggs. Very exciting. My nephew Pat and his fiance' Jessica were married on October 4th. Wonderful, lovely wedding. Happy Marriage Kids! Last Sunday we celebrated Derek and Pat's birthdays. Happy Birthday Guys. I made the braciola and fusilis. Pat and Jess brought the salad, the boys got the bread and wine and Jeanie made the desserts. Dark and white chocolate bread pudding with a brandy sauce and a grape cheesecake.BTW, she made a chocolate, caramel, fleur de sel cake for me for my birthday. Really, really delicious.

That reminds me, I made a mistake on the 24th of September. My sister Amy's birthday is not on the 24th, it's the 25th. Sorry Amy, duh. That's it for tonight. I'm going to paint some more and then go up and watch Saturday Night Live with Jay. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

I was able to get my card reader working again, so here is my painting di giorno, "Window Box Study", watercolor on Moleskine paper, $25. SOLD This is the painting that I did with Josie, Krista and Celeste. What a fun time that was. Josie's got the bug. She loves to paint and is great with color.

Well Vincent isn't going anywhere right now. The gentleman that was buying him back had his hen die on him. That's a bite. I can't catch that raccoon. I have two new, bigger traps, but didn't set them tonight. Maybe tomorrow if it's not raining. It sure is quiet around here. I had a very peaceful day of painting after all of the animals were taken care of. I've got Chet singing "I Fall in Love too Easily", which makes for a good vibe while I paint. Very relaxing, maybe a little too. I'm going to go to bed and start "The Shack" that Jeanie and Derek gave me for my birthday.

Sleep snug. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SON JAY AND TO MY SISTER AMY. Happy 2nd Anniversary Jay and Celeste. Jay worked a double for his birthday, which was on Sunday, so Krista took all of us to dinner at Le Virtu on Monday. It was a great time. Today is my sister Amy's birthday. Amy, I hope it's been your best birthday ever.As I said when I last posted, Jeanie and the gang were coming up to spend the weekend for my birthday. Derek went to California to surprise his Mom for her birthday, but he called to wish me a happy birthday and told me that I was "50-fine". I'll accept that...just wish it were so. Anyway, it was a great weekend all around. We had some serious QT and I had a great birthday on Saturday. Jeanie left on Sunday afternoon and Krista and Josie came on Sunday night. They didn't leave until this afternoon. Josie was extremely entertaining. She is obsessed with Senor, or, as she calls him "Enyork". He actually allows her to carry him around and walk him on a leash. He took naps with her and slept with her at night. Josie, Krista, Cine and I went to Georges' for dinner last night....the veal cheek cannelloni was extraordinary....and Josie put on a show for us in one of the windows. Dancing and shouting "shoot it out", as she shot her arm out in front of her. Good thing the restaurant wasn't crowded.

She and I planted lettuce yesterday and she helped with the rabbits and chickens. All of us sat outside and painted with watercolors, even Celeste, but I can't show the painting to you because my card reader won't work. So frustrating. I don't know anyone who has more trouble with computers than me. Looks like I'll have to go out and buy a new reader tomorrow.

I finished an 11"x14" oil today, the first of California. The other four are still in progress.

I'm thrilled to say that the needle biopsy of my lymph nodes was negative. Once again, thank you God! I still need to get an MRI of my neck and shoulder. I was bending a metal bar and did something bad to my upper arm and it really hurts, still. I've been living on Motrin, so I need to have a more serious look at it. If I can get a card reader tomorrow I'll be back then. If not, probably not until next week, since all of the kids will be here at the same time to celebrate Jay Jr.'s and my birthdays and I've got plenty to do to get ready, as usual. Can't wait.

Before I do anything else, I'd like to thank all of you for the phone calls and emails of encouragement and support regarding my last post. Thank you very much, I take it very seriously and it means a lot.

Isabella is still here with me and we're having so much fun that I'm not getting much done, but hey, she's a priority. I'm constantly reminded of how quickly they grow, not only with my four children, but now with my four grandchildren as well. And let me tell you, I'm not happy about it. I'm spending as much time as I can with her because like her brothers and Josie, she'll be in school and then I'll never have enough time with her again. It may seem like they spend a lot of time here to their mother's, but trust me on this one girls, it's not.

I read somewhere that caring for grandchildren ups a person's risk of a heart attack, well, I don't believe it for a nano-second. Having my grandkids around brings back memories of when my kids were little and makes me feel young again. 

So here's my two cents...and with the economy and inflation it's at least minus two dollars, please, savor every second of their baby and childhood and don't blink, 'cause it'll be gone. This is one piece of advice that I have total confidence in  and would guarantee agreement from every other parent that has teen-aged on up children. I remember being in the midst of four babies/kids thinking that I'd always be dealing with little kids. Man was I wrong! It sure feels that way at the time, but I will admit, it was difficult trying to adjust to the empty house, not having to cook, grocery shop, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love this time in my life, but I'd give it back in a heartbeat to live even the tiniest moment that I missed while struggling with all of the small stuff.

I am working on five paintings right now. I can't do the paintings di giorno  because of upcoming exhibits. I'm loving how I can go from one to another when the paint is still too wet on one to get the clean colors I love. I doubt that I'll be back before next week. Jeanie's coming up for the weekend with the boys and I'm going to take my own advice and put everything on hold so that I can spend precious time with them.

The photo above is of my Dutch, Welsummer rooster, Vincent, named after the redheaded artist Van Gogh. Since the raccoon got all of my Welsummer girls, Vincent is going home again to Ohio, where he is originally from. My heart is broken, I will miss him more than I can put into words.

My son-in-law Derek's mom, Kristy, is also my dear friend and it was her 59th birthday yesterday. She is exactly five days older than I am and damn, she looks good! Happy Birthday Kristy, from all of us here on the east coast that have been the recipients of your graciousness and generosity. 

Speaking of Derek, I didn't post last night because he and Isabella drove up, so that he could watch the Eagles vs. Cowboys game with Jay and Danny. Naturally, Derek is the Cowboys fan. It was a great game, even though the Eagles lost. The boys did the cooking, Jay fixed fabulous mussels and Danny made delicious soft-shelled crabs. I did the tomato salad and my orchardess friend Karen's, cold cucumber soup. Modi made the bread...mmmm.

My doctor called with my test results on Saturday, as promised. What a terrifying experience. I was so afraid to pick up the phone. It was a CA125 blood test, which is for ovarian cancer. I won't go into all of the reasons (I'll leave that in my memoirs) that the test was necessary, but it makes me sweat just thinking about it. Well, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU GOD, that the test was normal. 

The three days that I waited for the outcome seemed like an eternity. The first day I just felt like there was no problem. Then when things got quiet, I started thinking about the reasons for the test and on the second day I had serious doubts. By the third day, I was angry and could have told you why I was the poster woman for ovarian cancer. I believe my dread was exacerbated by having witnessed a family member go through it. My sister-in-law Shirley, died at the age of 54. She fought hard and lived longer that expected, but it was hell. On the other side of that coin is, that in addition to thinking about the horror that could be ahead, I thought about my family and friends. There was so much to consider, but suffice it to say, I don't have to deal with it at this point, so please allow me to remind you to count your blessings, every day, I definitely will. Right now, to my family and friends, I love you...know it, no matter what, I do.

That leaves the painting di giorno, of a watercolor of a flower pot in my yard. "Flower Pot by the Pond, watercolor on Strathmore, cold press paper, $25.SOLD

Isabella's here for a few days, so I need to go cuddle with her. P.S., I still haven't caught that raccoon.

Well I tried to trap the raccoon with a Hav-A-Hart last night and the trap was tripped this morning, but no raccoon inside. I set it again tonight. I'm already weary of this. It's so stressful and breaks my heart for the chickens. I checked the pen for entry points yesterday and reinforced anything even slightly suspicious, but there was definite evidence that it was inside the pen again last night. The chickens are safely barricaded in their hutches and Gussie, our Muscovy duck is locked in a dog pen--not an easy task and he's not happy about it. Even still, they must be terrified at seeing this monster in there trying to get at them. Hopefully tonight he won't be able to resist the trap. Since I can't find the entry or exit points, it looks like I'll have to rebuild the entire top. That'll set me back a few days, but at least I'll be able to sleep at night.

I came very close to posting last night, but couldn't get the photos to upload, so I just went to bed since I had another doctor's appointment this morning for more blood work. Got some good and possibly not so good news, but I'll just have to wait until the results come back on Saturday. I'll let you know what happens. After the doctor, Jay and I went for a walk at Chanticleer, where we're working on walking up a hill without having out chests blow out. Today was day two. 

All of my tax stuff is finished and I'm already starting to feel freer and unburdened by it. I still can't upload any images, must be that time of the month for Blogger. Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow. Good night.

It's just about 5:30 am and I'll finally be going to bed after I post this. When I went out this morning to let the roosters out, there were feathers all over the place and I immediately knew that my last Welsummer hen was gone. That's four hens in two nights, so I decided to wait up and sit with the chickens to see what I'm dealing with. I went out at 8 pm, covered myself with a blanket and sat still. It was chilly, but bearable. Jay came out at 9:30 to say goodnight. I fell asleep right after that. About 10 pm I heard something whining and it woke me up with a start, it was the fox and I really scared her when I lifted my head. She snarled and screeched and ran away. I went back to sleep. Danny came home at 2:30 am and went inside after a few minutes of conversation. Within no time I heard some chattering off in the distance and knew my predator was on it's way. It took about 20 more minutes for me to have to change my position and uncover my head. When I opened my eyes, I saw it and I thought it was an opossum at first, but realized that it was a raccoon. I wanted to see how it was getting into the pen, but it was already in the other side of the pen and had my best hen in it's claws. I jumped up and turned on the flashlight and yelled at it to leave my hen alone and then yelled for Danny. It stopped, turned around and tried to get out of the pen and somehow it did, but I didn't see how. I barricaded the chicken hutches. Danny stood guard for a while, but then had to go help a friend who was on the blue route with a flat tire. I kept watch until now. It came back one more time, but left in a hurry without coming back, when I shined the flashlight on it. My hen seems to be fine. It's a huge raccoon and stinks like a male. I'll put a Hav-a-Hart trap out tomorrow night and that'll be that. Good morning and have a great day.

Hard to believe that September is not only here, but almost halfway gone. Crazy busy for us as usual. We've been to North Carolina and back since my last post, which was very pleasant. Last week we went to Maryland to go to Krista and Carter's for the Sunday before Labor Day. Jay Jr. made a fabulous dinner here for Labor Day. The food was terrific at both events. This weekend my brother Pat came up from Florida. I don't know how much better the weather was here though. I've been running around to different doctors scheduling ultrasounds, EKGs, nuclear stress tests, MRIs, biopsies, blood work, etc. It's no wonder I dread going to the doctor. I always feel like I'm going to get more than I bargained for. No matter, I'm keeping my attitude positive. On the plus side, I'm going to propose keeping chickens as a way to be healthier. I just had blood work done and my hba1c was 6.1, cholesterol was 163. Liver and kidney functions were great and all of my other levels were great. Blood pressure was 112/78. This is a dramatic improvement since I started keeping chickens again. My stress levels would be better if it weren't for that damn fox and her bratty kids. I've lost five hens over the past month. I can't let any of the chickens out if I'm not right next to them. The fox is now coming before they are locked up for the night. She must have brought her kids with her last night because three Welsummer hens were gone before I got down to the pen to see what they were fussing about. That won't happen again.With all of this and some unfinished tax stuff, I haven't picked up a brush, except to varnish some previously sold paintings. So I need to get back to work.I'll leave you with an adorable, photo that my daughter Jeanie sent to me of her three kids saying their prayers. Goodnight, remember to say yours and include one for me. Thanx.

Well, obviously the image from yesterday didn't come through, but I was able to get Josie's birthday party shot uploaded for tonight. As you can see from the state of her hair that she was having a really good time. She was very concerned that hers was the only breath that blew out her birthday candles. 

Tonight we did S'mores outside with all of the kids. After that Jay played super heros with them. He was "Super Wash Rag", because that's what they needed after the sticky mess they were. He was hysterical with them. I'm sure the neighbors thought they were being murdered, the way all three of them were screaming. Needless to say Jay and his new knees are doing great. No more cane or prescription painkillers. He's teaching and even back to landscaping, part-time. He still has his rehab for regaining full range of motion, three days a week and a regimen of exercises. We've even started our walks again. Dr. Booth did a wonderful job, but he has a terrific patient working with him. These kids have me wiped out, between them and the chilly weather, which I totally love, I'm going to hit the sack early tonight. Can't believe I can say this in the middle of August, but, stay cozy!

My precious little Josie has turned three years old on the 14th. She 's the youngest of my four grandchildren. I went to Maryland on Thursday for her cowgirl-themed birthday party. There were pony rides and ponies on a stick, along with tattoos and yummy cupcakes. So much fun. I came home with three party favors--Gabriel, Jonah and Isabella. Josie is in Wyoming at a dude ranch. For real! Apparently it's an amazing place and I'll hear all about it when she returns.

The Johnson kids are keeping me hopping. We've had a great time with them here. Picnics, campfires, S'mores, movies, Gameboys, swimming in the "wimming pool, with her wimming suit", as Isabella says. I'm lovin' it. Josie's birthday pix are on my other camera, so I'll leave you with another image from California. It's of one the little quail that run all over the place on the Fedrick Ranch. "Lookout", 8"x10" photo--color or black and white, $75., framed.Sorry, I can't get this image to upload.

Cine, Penny and I went to see "Mama Mia"tonight.While it's a feel good movie, it made me feel like I was 100 hundred years old the way Merle Streep was running, jumping and bouncing around. Maybe if I took 50 Motrin I could do a little bit of her acrobatics,I'm just jealous. We really enjoyed the movie. After we went to Theresa's Next Door to see Cine's son Brian and to be one of the first to wish him Happy 21st Birthday! Whew, even I remember what a huge deal turning 21 is. Happy Birthday Brian.

OK, I have no idea why everything is underlined here. There is no underline option, so I can't figure it out. It must be related to that weird A thing that occasionally happens. Anyway, after that, I called Jay and asked him to join me for a drink at Georges' to see what the boys were up to. I knew that a form of Absinthe was available again, so in the tradition of Modigliani and so many other artists, I decided to try it. It's not like the original that is green, aka "The Green Fairy", nor is it derived from wormwood, but it was delicious. It goes down much easier than Sambuca, because it's much smoother. I got a tour of the kitchen, prep kitchen and bakery by Jay Jr. Rest assured that everything is immaculate. I was very impressed.

The image tonight is from the first morning on the Fedrick Ranch. This was the view from the guest quarters where we stayed. I'd like to do a painting of this someday.

We had a busy, but enjoyable weekend. Saturday, Celeste and I went to Jessica and Pat's wedding shower. Jessica's friends, Kim and Megan did an outstanding job of putting it all together. It was great to meet Jessica's family as well. After, Jay Sr., Celeste, Pat, Jessica and I all met up at Georges'. The food was really wonderful. The specials were just so good.

Yesterday Jay and I went to the Brandywine River Museum and saw the Alfred Munnings exhibit. I was totally taken with his work. I love his brushstrokes and colors. Jay didn't like his watercolors, but I sure did. I thought that he handled his watercolors like oils, in that he not only used a lot of white paint, but he also used it on top of his darks. In any case, I liked the way he handled it. To me it was very effective and moody.

The painting above is of the Agapanthus by the pool at Kristy and Ron Fedrick's house, where we stayed while in California. Agapanthus grows everywhere out there and is so strikingly beautiful. I saw it in several shades of blue and also in white.

"Kristy and Ron's Agapanthus", 9"x12"pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes paper. Not for sale, I left it as a token of our gratitude for their graciousness and hospitality.

This image is pretty typical of the vineyards you would see in California. Misty mountains in the background with a bright, sunny, comfortable day. Amazingly like the weather we're having here in Wayne, PA. This is wonderful weather for the "dog days of August". I'm lovin' it. 

Tomorrow will be a busy day, my nephew Pat and his fiance', Jessica's wedding shower will be held in the afternoon, so I probably won't get home until late, which means that I need to wish my Aunt Jeannie a very Happy Birthday! Hope your day is all that you could want. We love you and miss you. With that, I'll say goodnight and wish all of you a fabulous weekend.

Tonight I had dinner at Georges' with Cine and Penny. It was great to be with them and also to be back at Georges'. They changed the menu and the food was really good. Cine and I had the duck duo which we loved and Penny had the burger which is usually excellent as it was tonight. We just about closed the place. We had tons to catch up on. Cine has never been to California, so I was telling her about the landscape etc., and we got on to last night's blog about Trinity Road. I was saying that it was so high up that you could see the vultures flying around below. That's when Penny chimed in, "that's right, they're waiting for you to fly off the road and get killed!". I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Good one Penny. Above is a photo of Jay at Quarry Hill Botanical Gardens. It was pleasant, but it was the last thing we did before we got on Trinity Road, so now I associate it with the sadistic bitch who told us that we could take that shortcut. Just kidding. She was very nice and stressed caution on the hairpin turns and curves. I guess I need to let the Trinity Road thing go.

Ok, tomorrow I won't mention it.

'Nite.

Tuesday was my 200th post. It's been a great time sharing with people from all over the world. In that time, there have been 45,587 hits. Being that it's just me, that amazes me.

The image that I chose for you tonight is of a place close to the top of Trinity Road. We took it as a shortcut to Napa. I personally believe that the reason that it's named Trinity Road is because whether you are Catholic or not, you are constantly praying to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost while you are ascending into the heavens and melting your brakes on the way down into hell, that you'll be alive at the end of it. The trees in the foreground are higher than where the vultures fly. It's one of those California roads that goes over an entire mountain, where there are no guard rails and the drop goes for miles over the side of extreme narrowness with a zillion, hairpin turns to keep you awake, a wreck and nauseous. What sick, disturbed creature designed something like this for people to travel on? I had Jay pullover at one point because my lips were sweating and I felt like I was going to lose the lunch that I hadn't eaten yet! Anyway, as you can see, the view is spectacular. The lunch we had at the Rutherford Grill was delicious. A glass of wine never tasted better, was more deserved or needed. We visited Silver Oaks Vineyards after that for a tasting. We enjoyed their wine, the staff was very friendly and gracious. I'd go back for sure, but not via Trinity Road.

Enjoy the rest of your night.

Today is Jonah's 6th birthday.....really hard to believe. I was in the delivery room when he was born and cut the cord. He even smiled at me. Wow, six years ago.

I just got back from Maryland to help celebrate. Krista and Josie were there too. What a great day. Sunday was Carter's birthday, Happy Birthday guys, I love you.

I'm really wiped out, but I promised the story about Celeste, Jay and Danny in California. Totally unbeknownst to Jay Sr. and I, the kids have been planning a surprise attack on us while we were in California for the past six months. During that entire time, both boys have done nothing but moan and groan about us going to California without them. Well, on the Sunday after our arrival, Jeanie drove us out to where we had dinner reservations at Bouchon in Yountville. We checked in at the desk and went outside to wait for our table. Shortly after I saw something coming around the corner, moving fast---people don't move fast in California---and wearing suits---something else people in California don't do. You guessed it, it was Jay, Danny and Celeste (sans suit, but with a pretty dress on) crashing the party!!! They had just flown in from Philly to surprise us and boy did they ever! They had all of the staff at the Bouchon Restaurant and Bakery in on it. The staff at both places which are next door to each other, were hiding them and cued them to come out. Jay Sr. saw my expression of shock and awe and wondered who I could possibly know in California. It was truly a highlight of my life. Jay Sr. and I didn't have the slightest inkling. My kids are such great actors. Danny even called me when he was actually in California telling me how he, Jay and Celeste had been sitting around at the pool at Jay and Celeste's apartment complex in Malvern all day, since it was so stinkin' hot and humid in Wayne---another thing California doesn't have, humidity --- and that they were on their way to Theresa's next Door for dinner, but they were stuck in traffic because there was a peace demonstration on the corner not far from our house. I also spoke with Krista and she didn't give me a clue either.

We were so shocked, so surprised, so happy, so emotional and so embarrassed because I was blubbering like a fool and didn't have waterproof mascara on, but it was so worth it. Thank you Kids, for making our 30th anniversary the best yet. After the big scene, the general manager of Bouchon brought out sparkling wine--they don't call it champagne in California, because if it's made there and not France, it's technically not champagne, but it tastes just as good. We had a phenomenal dinner to follow all of the excitement. The service was impeccable. The night was just awesome. I still get teary every time I tell the story, so that's it for tonight, I really need to go to bed. Good night.

We're home from California, but not loving that fact. We've been there a few times before, but saw it in a totally new way this time. The people were so friendly and generous. "Attitude" just didn't exist. The landscape and views were more than spectacular. At one point Celeste and I (more about her and the boys tomorrow) were standing in front of the "French Laundry's" vegetable garden, which is across the street from the restaurant. It was early evening and the sun was low with it's rays slanting across the valley, rim lighting the garden in a golden, hazy halo, with the mist on the mountains in the background. We looked at each other and just knew that this is what we are all about. This kind of California embodies who we are. It was so moving that we stood on the spot and prayed. I'll be sharing more about it all week. Instead of paintings I'll be posting photos, as I need to start California vineyard and landscape paintings while the emotion is still so strong in my heart.

The painting di giorno was started before we left, but I couldn't finish it because someone ate the fruit....no, it wasn't me. The style is much more loose and impressionistic than usual, but I suppose that's a consequence of a renewed spirit. It definitely looks better in person. Better clarity and contrast."Regal Moth and Peaches", 6"x6", oil over egg tempera on gessobord, $50. framed.SOLD

We've been watching a lot of movies during Jay's recovery and tonight we watched "Disturbia". I loved Alfred Hitchcock when I was growing up. Those ironic, weird, twists and turns his stories took always caught my imagination. So while I thought the acting was great, the modern version had a little too much junk in it for my taste, but I still liked it.

The painting di giorno is another of Penny's hydrangeas, this time with a bite out of one of the plums. I needed it for the complement and it was tasty. Again, on my computer screen, the flowers are a little too blue. It must be something with the digital camera and the way it reads color. "Complementary Bite to Penny's Purple Hydrangea", 7"x5", oil over egg tempera on gessobord, $50., framed.SOLD I'm wiped out from working in the heat today. Jay's playing Chopin's "Valse" (Waltz) and it's lulling me to sleep. Just beautiful. Goodnight.

We watched "Modigliani" tonight after another hot and busy day. The movie was interesting, but annoying because of the lack of attention to blatantly obvious details, like the baby being the same age, in the same outfit, throughout the entire movie. I like Andy Garcia in just about anything. The disclaimer in the beginning was also a bummer because supposedly, even though it was titled "Modigliani" and loosely based on him, none of it was true. Jay is upstairs on the computer finding out the truth. In any case it was inspirational.

My painting di giorno is of one of the mop heads from the purple hydrangea bouquet Penny and David brought the other night. This bloom, while definitely having more blue in it than the last one, according to my computer screen, has too much of a blue cast and not enough purple hues. The Key limes were so cute and tiny. I've never painted limes before, so I put them in as a complement.

"Penny's Purple Hydrangea and Key Limes", oil over egg tempera on gessobord, 7"x5", $50., framed.SOLD

Well we're coming down the home stretch for our trip to California. I spent a good part of the day getting the chickens situated so that the person caring for them will have everything they need on hand and conveniently located. I still have plenty of work ahead of me.

The painting di giorno is of a moth that I found dying outside of the drugstore while getting Jay's prescriptions. It's a Regal moth and they're enormous. Her body is at least 6 inches long. They don't eat and only live for a few days, but she laid eggs before she died. She still is so beautiful and her colors were even more vibrant when she was alive. I think we found a Regal moth caterpillar about 10 years ago, but I've never seen this kind of moth before.

"Regal Moth", 7"x5", oil over egg tempera on gessobord, $50. framed.Sold.

The weekend came and went. Here it is Monday again. We had a very productive weekend. Friday night we were invited to a concert at the Woodmere Gallery in Chestnut Hill. It was hosted by Estonia Piano Company, www.estoniapiano.com and started with a young man of 10 years old, who has been taking lessons for all of four years. This child has the makings of a prodigy, with the moves of a concert pianist. I kept looking around at the rest of the audience to see if they were also picking up their jaw from the floor. This kid was fantastic! So was the next performer, an "older" boy of 12, who was really not so much a pianist, (could have fooled me) but a composer, very impressive. Then there was Dr. Laul, the 38 year old owner of Estonia. Wow, is all I can say! I was transported.The combination of music and art was a heavenly evening for me. I wanted to go upstairs to the balcony where they keep the Delaware Valley Legacy exhibit, but never got there, so we went back yesterday. While I looked at the paintings, Jay serenaded me on the pianos that were left there from Friday night. What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. It was the best exhibit experience I've ever had.In between those two events, we shopped and ran errands and I put together some chicken houses. It was miserably hot and humid on Saturday, so I had to take many breaks and check out gardening stuff on eBay.Last night we watched "Love Song for Bobby Long", which we really enjoyed. I think John Travolta gets better with age. All of the acting was good. Speaking of which, our next door neighbor Rich Alliger is doing a commercial these days to encourage Pennsylvanians to quit smoking without a bad attitude. He's the grump in the second skit. I love this guy. He's got panache! We had a busy morning and afternoon today, which means I started painting late, but was close to finishing when Penny and David dropped by with a gorgeous bouquet of mixed hydrangeas and Vitex. They haven't popped in like that for a very long time. We hung out and talked for hours. It was terrific. I really miss that. Just us, without distractions.

So that means that the painting for today will have to wait until tomorrow to be posted. I'll think you'll find it interesting.

We sure got a lot of rain today. I thought the storm we had would bring in some cooler, less humid air, but when I went out tonight to bring the roosters in, it was like someone had been making soup out there all day. Brutal, but at least I don't have to water everything.

Jay started back teaching today for the first time since his surgery. Both students came here and I could see how much he enjoys his job.We've been watching a lot of movies while Jay has been recovering and I'm still fascinated with Javier Bardem. He's so versatile and his characters are so different in every movie. Last night we watched "Death at a Funeral" and the night before "Atonement", both recommended by our British friend Gill Blair. The photography and costumes in "Atonement" were just beautiful, while we got plenty of laughs out of "Death at a Funeral".

As promised, above is the painting of Penny's hydrangea from our anniversary bouquet. The purple plums had the similar colors so I included them. "Penny's Purple Hydrangea and Plums", 7"x5",oil over egg tempera, on gessobord, $50., framed. SOLD--thank you Penny and David.

Wow, this past month flew by fast. Jay's surgery went very well. Both knees are working, even though he still has considerable pain. It amazes me that he can walk up the stairs, sometimes without his cane, or holding on to the railing. I can't even do that! He's such a show off ; ))

We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary on the 1st of July, but had a big party on the 29th of June. Chef Kenny, did some wonderfully delicious stuff with the rabbit. Jay Jr. made the best quail I've ever had and Tom Wolters did a really tasty, grass-fed poussin. Chef Joe Frost sent some rabbit confit with pappardelle that he prepared--not a drop was left. Joe and Ashley couldn't be here because Joe's grandfather was in the hospital. We're thinking of you and praying for your Grandfather, Joe. Lenny and Cine did fabulous desserts. Cine's son Brian brought great wine and he and his friend Lauren were a pleasure to finally have here. Our neighbors Pat and Rich gave us a beautiful Lenox Anniversary plate. My cousin Larry and Marilena brought a very nice bottle of wine and a gorgeous bouquet of roses that I would love to paint. The guys from Theresa's Next Door came with a terrific assortment of beer and my godson Nicky hauled a cake that must have weighed 50lbs and it was all good! He and Leanne also gave us an over the top present of a big, cobalt blue Kosta Boda bottle that is just incredible. Really. My Aunt Jeannie also went all out and gave us a magnificent and really heavy, cut crystal Orrefors vase that was perfect for the perfect, white gladiolas that my nephew Pat and his fiance' Jessica gave us. Peter Maggio came after work and brought some good laughs with him and laughed with us at Danny's crazy stories. It was a very good time. There was more wine brought and great food that Jay and Celeste prepared. We also got to tell everyone about Josh and Lauren's "bun in the oven". Congratulations kids! Rich and Dee Mattis came with a serious bottle of champagne and Lillian predicted that her very soon to be, if not already born, sibling, would be a girl, named Rose Red, but if a boy, Rose Blue. She's truly an amazing child who at two years old can tell you about lightning bugs and why they glow and taste bitter.

Penny and David brought a shrimp appetizer and flowers as usual. Penny's hydrangeas are always so beautiful and inspiring, so they were my first painting after being away from the easel for so long. They'll be featured tomorrow, since I finished the painting today. I felt rusty, but am looking forward to another painting tomorrow. I have been doing some sketching, which I haven't done for years. Since I've been taking Jay to Chanticleer daily for the past week for his walk, I figured it would be a good time to get some practice in.

Asser moved to Boston and we really miss him.

Today I picked my first tomatoes and peppers. The photo above shows my harvest. No great shakes, but it sure makes me happy. The raspberries grow wild here, but most of my strawberries were a little slimy from all of the rain and humidity, so I gave them to the chickens. We've already been eating a lot of them, along with the blueberries, but the good ones looked nice in the basket even if there were only a few of them. The eggs from the Ameraucanas look white, but they're actually light blue. The quail are all grown up and laying eggs as you can see. The brown eggs are from my Welsumers and are darker than the photo shows. Lots of new chickens here, but that's a another story for another day.

Sorry for not having posted, but the strep throat went into bronchitis, blah, blah, that I'm still not over, along with business travel, grandchildren here, still here, family here and now preparing for Jay's double knee replacement surgery, hasn't left me with time to get to the brushes and paint. That doesn't mean that there's a lack of inspiration. I have three gorgeous colors of bearded irises calling to me, as well as many other beautiful flowers and animals at this time of year. As always lots of excitement, the fox was just outside my studio door this morning when I went out at 10 a.m. That really shook the both of us up. Jay Jr. has officially been promoted to sous chef at Georges'. Congratulations Jay! We're extremely proud of him. We did get a day off on the 25th of May to go to Patricia and Adam's for a cookout and some of the best home-cooked food that I've had anywhere. Adam, who cooks for our chef's dinners here, was really in his element cooking at his and Patricia's home. Everything was outstanding. Such a hospitable couple...I should say family, because their five year old daughter Anastasia loves to have guests. We closed the place, leaving at 1:30 a.m., but you wouldn't want to leave either. It was a fantastic party. Thank you Patricia, Adam and Anastasia. I will try to get some paintings, or at least some photos posted ASAP. In the meantime, say a prayer for Jay on Thursday as he has his surgery.

I don't have a painting for you tonight because I've been sick in bed with a fever and brutally sore throat. I have a doctor's appointment in the morning. I know that you hear it all the time, but it's true, it really is a small world. During my last exhibit at the Gryphon Cafe', my painting with the Pepino melon and Hyacinth bean got sold by one of the staff. It always saddens me when they don't keep a record of who buys the paintings, because I get an empty feeling not knowing where the paintings went. Without going into a bunch of psychological self-examination, I'm sure you can understand how every painting I do, no matter the size or subject, is naturally an extension of myself and I'll always have an attachment to it. So, when I got a call from a gentleman saying that he had bought the painting and was interested in one on my website, it tucked that anxiety away. Now the small world part...Peter came to the studio tonight and before he bought not one, but three paintings, we shared our backgrounds, not knowing that they'd be so connected. We grew up only blocks away from each other. Probably only separated by the fact that we went to different schools. The recollections were warm, bittersweet and sometimes hilarious. We're already kindred spirits, our lives running parallel all of these years and now, bam, we finally meet and become instant friends. Don't you love it when that happens? I often say that "I'm living the dream", and on days like today, when I feel like shutting the world out, but let someone in, more of that dream becomes reality. I've gotta go, I can't wait to call my brother and tell him all of the good stories. I'll try to paint tomorrow with the doctor's appointment, etc. Good night and thank you for everything Peter .

I contacted Blogger for help on posting photos, since now I can't post older photos that have already been published without problems. Sorry again. I'll try back tomorrow.

I don't know who's responsible for fixing the problems with uploading and publishing, but thank you very much. I've tried for over an hour to publish the photo of the painting that I did today. Last night I had problems publishing yesterday's post, but I was able to get it on here even though Blogger said that it hadn't been posted. Today it's the image. So until I can figure it out or Blogger gets it corrected, I'll just keep trying and save the images for you. Say a prayer that it gets fixed by tomorrow. Sorry. 'Til then.....Marans chickens and their eggs are amazing to me. They are French chickens. I've been fascinated with them for a long time and painting them for about a year. I've learned quite a bit about them in that time and especially now that I have a small flock of them. The chickens are so nice and easy. They're calm and friendly and really big. The eggs feed into my "egg thing", big time. They really do look like milk chocolate eggs. Some have freckles and specks on them, like one of them in today's painting, but most I've seen have even color. The darkness of the eggs, is due to the eggs spending more time in the hen's body, where the application of pigment is applied to the egg. This means that the longer the egg is in there, the darker it will be, it also means that the color can be scratched off. There is actually a chart for egg color that runs from 1 to 9. With 9 being the darkest and most desirable. The black copper variety of Marans (there are several colors and patterns of Marans chickens) are said to lay the darkest eggs. The thing is, the hen usually doesn't lay consistently dark eggs throughout the season. Usually her darkest eggs are laid in the beginning of the egg-laying season. The hens that consistently lay the darkest eggs, for the longest period are the most desirable and their fertile eggs bring big $$$.

So, having said all of that, mypainting di giorno is of three, of the four eggs that my black copper chicks hatched from. "Three French Eggs--Hatched", 7"x5", oil over egg tempera on gessobord, $50., framed. Sold.

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back here. I can't promise it won't happen again, but I have missed being here.As always, so much going on, we've had adorable little chicks hatching, but they sure do stink up the joint! They're a lot of work but very enjoyable. Princess Leia/Senor went to be with her new husband since she turned out to be a girl and laid two eggs. She has been replaced by Frankie, a beautiful, singing canary.

I've spent a lot of time having all kinds of medical tests for the issues with Lyme disease. I'm back on antibiotics. I really like my new rheumatologist, Dr. Jennifer Kwan-Morley. She's really a blessing and I feel like she'll be able to help me. Isabella was here again for a week. She's my big helper with the chickens and the bunnies. When I took her home, it was the night for Gabriel and Jonah's Spring Program. I loved it. I got to see Krista and Josie also. We all had dinner together and Josie was very concerned about Isabella getting the correct beverage. She made it her job to keep the server on his toes. She'll be in upper management for sure. I predict Isabella will have a very bright future as an artist. Seriously, this child uses color and pattern in a way I've never seen. I know I sound like a doting grandmother, but honestly, she's got something special. I should mention here that I realize that my punctuation is all wrong, but if I make indentations, paragraphs or spaces, those weird "A" things show up. But the PITA part is that it doesn't happen until I'm finished and I publish the post.Mike Selverian turned 50 years old. Happy, happy birthday Mike! We love you. My Mother's Day was awesome. Jay Sr. and I went to the Italian Market and got Italian meats and cheeses, olives and tomatoes. We already had some special olive oil from Le Virtue, when we had dinner there a couple of weeks previous. Modi sent the bread, the prosecco and wine made it complete. We sat around the table and ate and talked for a few hours while we listened to Julius LaRosa, Frank, Dean and Louis Prima, then watched a movie. After that Jay Jr. made a delicious dinner of spaghetti and "gravy", seasoned with pork jowls. Very relaxing, just the way I wanted it.I sold a few paintings last week, which is always a shot in the arm. Thank you to my buyers. We had the first of our big chef's dinners on the 27th of April. There were several chefs preparing all kinds of rabbit, chicken and venison dishes. Jay Jr. did most of the sides and everyone else brought wine or desserts. Modi (sp?) made the bread. Oh man, what a fabulous kick off to the season. I can't wait for the next one. Penny, Cine and I had dinner at Georges' last week. We closed the place as usual. The food was wonderful. Jay had his student's recital yesterday, which is always a treat. We went to Maia in Villanova after. It was very good. He has to have both knees replaced and the date has been set for early next month. We've been watching movies on the weekends when we get a chance. "No Country for Old Men" left me with the need to see Javier Bardem in every movie he's ever been in. I'm so fascinated with his diversity as an actor. It's not a physical attraction, I just can't get over how he can play so many extremely, opposite parts, so well. It was Asser's birthday on April 30th. Happy birthday with our love, handsome!  

The "painting di giorno" or my painting of the day, is of the lovely, dark brown eggs that my black Penedesenca hen has been laying. She is the most difficult chicken I have ever owned. She just wants to be wild. After a month, I gave her the option to free-range with the rest of the flock. She decided to roam away all by herself to the neighbor's house...of course it's the only neighbor that would complain, so I had to go round her up and chase her home through a field of brambles and poison oak. She's lucky I love to paint her eggs.

"Penedesenca Eggs and Egg Cup", oil on gessobord, 6"x6", $50., framed.SOLD

I finished putting my garden in tonight, so I'll be back tomorrow.

The quail started hatching on Tuesday, but they weren't supposed to until today. Once a few started hatching they were all popping out like popcorn. I couldn't stop watching them. I didn't even start a painting that day. The rest of them finished hatching yesterday, so I got them all set up in their little brooder box, with a heat lamp, etc. After that, I put a chair next to them and watched them, teaching them how to drink and sprinkling food around so they'd learn how to eat it...on and off all day. There are about 25 of them, I lost count when I was transferring them out of the incubator and they're so tiny and fragile that I didn't want to start over, so I'll do it again in a day or so when I put them in a bigger box. They are so stinkin' cute! They're about the size of a big bumblebee. They run around in their box, very busy eating and drinking. They're amazingly quiet, which is a good sign, because it means that they're content. I worked outside all day today. Cutting the forsythia back from around the old chicken pen. It's time to get the girls out of the garden. Just a gorgeous day here. The painting above was finished last night, but it was after midnight, so I figured I'd post it tonight. When I put the hatched eggs on the table, the egg cup was already there and it kind of reminded me of the eggs, so I included it in the painting. "Sure Sign of Spring--Hatched Quail Eggs", 6"x6", oil on gessobord, $50. framed. SOLD- thank you Cine.

We made it out to Vetri on Saturday night for our belated Valentine's dinner.Now I could sit here for a week and glorify our experience and it would be well- deserved. But I won't. I will say that it was one of the best dinners that I have ever had and I'll never forget it. I hope. We did the chef's grand tasting menu, with the wine pairings. We'll be talking about it for a long time. I took a dozen of our blue and green Ameraucana eggs for the chef, Marc Vetri, so he came out to meet us. Such a down-to-earth guy. We also met the nicest couple, Michelle and John. It was a pleasure to share the experience with them. Boy, would I love to eat there once a week. One of my favorite things about having dinner there is that they send you home with a goodie bag. The menu that Chef Vetri hand paints that day, the wine list of the pairings, some biscotti, a Zagat guide and our desserts that we couldn't finish were all included in a nicely designed bag. An Italian touch for sure. I never went home empty handed from my Grandmother's house. Here's a link, check it out. The photography is beautifulwww.vetriristorante.com

Yesterday we went to NYC. It was a wonderful time. We tried going to the Frick Museum, but everything was blocked off due to the Greek parade, so we went to the St. Regis Hotel, to the King Cole Bar for a snack and a Bloody Mary. It's where the drink was invented. The mural of "Old King Cole" by Maxfield Parrish is there behind the bar. It's always fun to hear Bob, the bartender retell the story about it. We left there and went to Les Halles on Park Avenue. It's the restaurant where Anthony Bordain worked for so many years. We were all really pleased with our food. After that we took a walk through Soho and wound up at Lupa, where we had phenomenal food and wine. We'll be going back there for sure. Then we walked some more and went to Vintage to try some flights of NY wines and their home made ice creams for dessert. Finally, Celeste drove us home. It was a happy and memorable day. Happy Birthday Jay.

I love pansies, so today I painted one that Jay Sr. gave me for Easter. The lesser celandine, which is a very invasive bulb that grows wild everywhere, was a good match for the pansy in the mini arrangement. "Pansy in an Antique Eggcup", 5"x7", oil on gessobord, $50., framed. sold

By now you may have heard the news on channel 6 last night. Georges Perrier has given back his Mobil 5 Stars and is transforming Le Bec Fin from very formal, white glove service, (which it has been for the past 38 years) to a more casual restaurant where you can wear jeans. He was very emotional about it, which made me feel sad for him. He was 26 when he opened Le Bec Fin. That's Danny's age. Wow! The news said he had to call his 97 year old mother to tell her. The interview showed him having some regrets about being so consumed with work. At 64, he's obviously rethinking the rest of his life. He said he wants to have fun. Good for him. Good luck Chef.

Last night and all of today so far, I've had nothing but aggravation with our computers. We couldn't get online. It's amazing to me how when there is trouble with them, the hours dissolve away. Dissolve seems too nice a word. Like it's happening peacefully. If you've had this experience, you know that peaceful, it's not, when you're ready to rip all of the wires out and smash everything with a sledgehammer, so that it all dissolves that way.For some reason, the clouds in the sky just cleared, it's sunny and we can get online again. No thanks to me and all of my efforts at all. Well, thank you Jesus!

Since I couldn't post last night, Jay and I watched "No Country for Old Men". The acting is just awesome, in the literal sense of the word. That Javier is indescribable. Where did he come from? How bizarre is he? I had listened to the book last fall on my trips back and forth to Maryland. I really liked it. I didn't even know that they made a movie out of it. The book helped my understanding of the movie. So read the book first if you can.My "yesterday's" painting....hmm, I may be onto something here, anyway, it's of Glory of the Snow flowers, which I saw on my way in from getting the mail. I planted them about 25 years ago. They're one of my favorite spring bulbs. They're a little bluer in the image than in the actual painting. I love them in the antique, enamelware, egg cup. "Glory of the Snow", 5"x7", oil over egg tempera, on gessobord, $50., framed.Sold--thank you Peter.Enjoy your weekend.

Spring is now official for me. Jay and I took our walk at Chanticleer this afternoon. Even though it's still pretty chilly, there are zillions of flowers up to inspire me, so I'm going to paint flowers for awhile. I'll include eggs here and there as well. Speaking of which, the first batch of quail eggs are due to hatch on the 10th. When I candle them (hold a concentrated source of light, like a mini Maglite against them in a dark room) I can see the veins developing and the chicks bouncing around. It is so amazing. I can't remember what else I had to tell you, so I'll close for tonight. Chet Baker is singing to me with his soft, soothing voice and it's making me sleepy. It could also be that I was up until 4:30 this morning reading "Soul of a Chef" and it's to the part about Thomas Keller and The French Laundry. I can't stop reading it.

"Purple Tulips", 5"x7", oil on gessobord, $50., framed.Sold...thank you Peter.

A week ago yesterday, was my Aunt Jeannie's retirement party. She seems too young to be retired. She looked better than some half her age at the party. The whole scene was impressive, but really different for me to see her in that light and interacting with so many people that weren't related to her. We always have the "fam" experience when we're together. I think the only other time I saw her in a similar situation was when she graduated from college, with the departmental award for economics. She made a speech, kissed the bishop's ring, etc. The difference this time was that she wasn't sharing the gathering with the rest of her class, it was all about, and only for her. She's worked for the government for about 30 years. It must have been a high security job, because I never actually knew what she did, but as she said, she made a lot of money and "it wasn't for making cupcakes". She received tons of serious awards, including having the flag flown over the capital and the St. Martin's. In any case, I was so proud and honored to be there. Now that she's retired she can go to Chanticleer with me. You ready Aunt Jean?

Chanticleer opened today. I was there in my heart, but our electricity went out and I panicked since I have incubators with eggs in them. It came back on in a little while but I decided to stay home just in case. Maybe tomorrow.

My UPS guy Ron, made a delivery yesterday and we were discussing what we ate for Easter. I asked him if he had spidzod for Easter breakfast and he said no, that they have it on other occasions, but not Easter. That's when I shared with him my dilemma about how to spell it and that I couldn't find anyone who knew and how we had the same discussion on Easter. Everyone tried googling it and no one could find it. Well Ron knew...almost. He said it was spezzado. When I typed it into google it asked, "do you mean spezzato"? I thought, wow, yes I do, this really is a word, this could be it. It was! There was a recipe for it and all. You're the man Ron! Thanx.

Today's daily painting was finished last night, but it needed to be photographed in daylight. Another welcome to spring, with the flicker feather turned upside down to see more of the color. "Flicker Feather and Quail Eggs", 7"x5", oil over egg tempera on gessobord, $50., framed.Sold--thank you Penny.

As you can see, March is really a big month for our family. Many important birthdays to celebrate. The past two weeks, since Isabella's 3rd birthday on the 16th have included--in chronological order--the following birthdays; my daughter Krista, who turned 35 on the 22nd, my husband Jay, who was 57 on the 26th, along with my little cousin Gabriella, who turned 3 on the 26th also, and today my daughter Jeanie is 29. Whew, they're getting old. Happy birthday to all!We'll be celebrating Jay Sr.'s birthday this weekend at Les Halles in NYC. Can't wait for that, or finally, for our belated Valentine's Day dinner on Saturday at Vetri.

I'm so happy to welcome Ann as a collector of my work. After you have two or more of my paintings, you're officially a collector. Thank you so much Ann! Our visit was so nice.

Easter was a treat with a full house for dinner. The Easter bread and spidzod were good and we now have plenty of limon/blood orangecello to last for a long time. Nicky brought his blood orangecello that was beautiful to look at and taste. Very smooth and flowery.Jay and Celeste really worked hard to put out a fabulous dinner of roasted lamb, pork and potatoes, along with ratatouille, polenta and gravies. Jeanie brought the desserts, Krista brought the appetizer, Nicky brought the homemade wine, Danny Kane brought the champagne, my brother brought the Remy, I am adding this later than this post because I didn't mention that Joe Frost and Ashley brought the bread, (I was distracted by the beautiful heather plant) so you know it was something else and almost everyone brought beautiful plants and flowers. Everything was just outstanding. We ate, drank, talked, laughed, had an Easter egg hunt, played cards and generally just had a great time.Finally, my daily painting is a welcome to spring. It was raining and chilly today, but my quail finally started laying eggs again on Saturday. Here, in this painting is the first one of the season, along with a quail feather and a crocus. I was able to adjust the color of the image. Now it's more accurate.

"Welcome Spring 2008", oil on gessobord, 6"x6", $50. framed. Sold...thank you Peter.

Happy birthday to Super Bella!

Isabella turned three years old yesterday, so we drove to Maryland for her birthday party. It was wonderful. Jeanie made a terrific meal and desserts, as usual. Isabella knew it was her special day and was ready for it. Just precious.We drove back and met Danny, Jay Jr., Celeste and Jeanne and Dan Welch at Georges'. The Welches are awesome people. It always does my heart good to see them.I don't see how I can get painting time in this week. But I'm so happy to say that I can't because my brother Pat is coming to town to stay for Easter and I'm going to have an extremely full house, especially for Easter Sunday dinner. In addition, I'll need to clean, shop and then make the Easter bread and spidzod...I have no idea how to really spell that and I can't find anyone who does. I tried to google it, but that didn't work either. It's like so many other Italian words, the spelling isn't even close to the way the word sounds, e.g.: pasta y fagioli, soppresata, aceto, etc. It's probably our dialect. If you know, please clue me in. Anyway, it's a dish of veal cubes stewed in a tomato sauce. I poach eggs in it and we eat it with Easter bread for breakfast on Easter morning. My father didn't do the poached eggs with his. He ate it with the traditional hard-boiled egg. I will also make little men (bigger than gingerbread men) out of the bread dough with a hard-boiled egg on their belly. The grandchildren will have one baked for each of them. My shortcut will be, that with the Ameraucana eggs, I won't have to dye them, since they're already green or blue.

Then there's the homemade limoncello and blood orangecello to finish and bottle. I'm going to try to get out of making the holiday soup, unless my brother really wants it. So that's my story.Happy Easter.

Danny's knees are healing and Jay's mouth is still tender, but they're on the mend.

Getting ready for the art show coming up at Church of the Saviour. That and having the whole gang here for Easter is already crunching my time, but today was beautiful, warm and sunny, so I worked outside in addition to everything else. My remaining Penedesenca hen has been getting picked on by the Ameraucanas, so I started playing a switching game with her and them to get them to stop. I put her in the garden, which is a big space, with just one of the Ameracaunas. That worked, since they're so social, so today I put all of them together. It was OK, but she (the Penedesenca hen) is so nervetic that she jumps at every little movement they make, which breaks my heart. I decided to try her with the chicks, supervised, and put her with the little Welsummer and Marans six weeks old chicks. They're pretty much feathered out. She was so happy when I put her in with them, she started clucking like a mother hen. So now we're all happy.Jay bought three flats of pansies for me, which he usually does for Easter. I got all of them in the window boxes and a few planters. They're beautiful.

My daily painting is of an heirloom pear, Meyer lemon and my old flicker feather. When I was arranging this composition, I knew I had to include the pear before it went bad like the other two Jay bought with it. I played around with an egg and the lemon, back and forth. The lemon enhanced the pear, but I felt it needed something else. The feather did it for me.

"Meyer Lemon, Heirloom Pear and Flicker Feather", 6"x4", watercolor, $25., framed.sold

Have a great weekend.

The grandchildren sadly....for all of us...left Sunday night. It was really quiet around here except for Monday morning when Danny fell running on the stairs and sprained both knees and tore some ligaments. So we spent Monday in the emergency room. At the same time Jay Sr. was having a tooth extracted. They're both OK, but whew! Danny's still supposed to be bedridden, but he's incorrigible. Jay Sr. is a much better patient.

In any case, I'm back to painting. The daily painting is of an Ameraucana egg that I broke immediately upon completing the painting.

I got the antique enamelware egg cup on eBay. I love it with these eggs. More tomorrow, gotta go...Danny's calling me.

I'm back sooner than I thought. The painting of the day is on Ampersand's Claybord. It's the first watercolor I've done on this surface. I do and don't like it. It looks dull to me and it's difficult to get good highlights, even when they're reserved. I think acrylic would be better suited for it. I'll varnish this one. I believe that will enhance the colors and clarity."Antique Enamelware Egg Cup and Ameraucana Egg", 5"x7", watercolor on Claybord, $35., framed.SOLD

I tried posting earlier but couldn't get through. This painting of a Meyer lemon and grape happened because I took the grandchildren to Costco yesterday and bought grapes. When I washed them there was a grape with a tendril of a vine still attached. Now I have some unusual dark pears that I had planned on painting today with a lemon, but if you've seen the first "Shrek" movie on DVD where the characters are jumping up and down saying "pick me, pick me", that's what this grape seemed to be saying, so I did. This week in watercolors has taught me a lot. I'm pleased that I didn't have to cheat once and use any white paint. I feel as though I effectively reserved the whites. In all of my still lifes and almost all of my paintings, except for portraits, or work that needs to be exact, I never do preliminary sketches, on the canvas, or paper. I like that exercise and challenge, therefore, as usual, I didn't do any drawing with these watercolors. Having never painting a grape, lemon or plum in transparent watercolor, I'm fairly satisfied with today's and this week's work. "Grape and Meyer Lemon", 6"x4", watercolor, $25., framed.SOLD-thanx Penny & David.

Enjoy your weekend.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. Jeanie, Derek and the kids arrived right in the middle of my painting and I had to stop. The kids are here for the rest of the week/end, which is a joy. Jeanie and Derek are in the Bahamas.

Happy Birthday to David Bird...yesterday andcongratulations to my Aunt Jeannie, in celebration of Women's History Month, for being nominatedWoman of the Year for the DSCP Federal Women's Program.Her category, is Supervisor/ Manager. Wow, what a huge deal this is! Aditi Roy from NBC 10 News Team will be the keynote speaker at the awards luncheon. Best of luck with this Aunt Jean, the nomination is great, but you deserve the award. It would certainly be the apropos way to cap off your retirement party the next day.The last plum appears above. It was interesting to watch the color of their ripeness develop and intensify over the past few days. The green totally disappeared by today.

"Red and Yellow Plum", 6"x4", watercolor, $25., framed.SOLD--thanx David.

I am really having fun with these watercolors. They're really a stretch for me, but I know that's always a good thing. To be truthful, I wouldn't be doing them if I hadn't run out of the little canvases and gessobord. I promised myself that I wouldn't buy anymore canvases of any size (unless commissioned) because I have so many, in so many sizes and I have to use them up. Anyway, I ate one of the plums last night when I was finished. They're really good. Here are two of them that were in a setup of three, but the two of them seemed like they were having a very serious private discussion and wanted to be alone in the composition so we have "Very Serious Red and Yellow Plums", 6"x4", watercolor, $25., framed. sold

Before I go tonight, I wanted to send my gratitude to David in Glasgow, UK, for his purchase of two "Yellow Dahlia" prints. Also to Penny Bird, my very dear, old friend and collector--wait, I should clarify that, the friendship is old, not Penny-- who bought "White Rose, It Is What It Is". And finally to a new collector, Chris from New Mexico, who already feels like a friend of many years, for her purchase of two paintings, "For the Love of Lemons" which I just finished last week and "Art Glass and Quail Eggs with Milk Glass Stone". Karen I sent her three lemons since she's never had a Meyer Lemon. I am very grateful to all of you and truly appreciate your support. THANK YOU!

Jay Sr. got these plums for me today. So different. I've got to dash, but will be back tomorrow."RED AND YELLOW PLUMS", 6"x4", watercolor, $25. framed.SOLD

On my screen, the painting at right is way too light and bright and there's no reflection of the yellow in the shadows around the lemons. This is the pair of Meyer lemons that I started yesterday. Now finished, it's titled "For the Love of Lemons", 6"x6", oil on linen, $50., framed. Sold--thank you Chris.

Karen, the orchardess from www.lemonladies.com would like everyone to know that she's got loads of beautiful, organic, big, ripe, juicy lemons. Treat yourself. You'll love them as I do.

Valerie Knight from WOGL FM, Oldies 98, dubbed Danny, "Champagne Danny" this morning on the "Breakfast Club"radio show. The tickets for the Georges' "Restaurant Deal" set a sales record on the show. I believe all 160+ tickets were sold within minutes. If you heard the show, you can tell that Joe Frost, Danny and the Breakfast Club hosts had a really good time. My favorite part was Danny's remark about not getting "a hat and t-shirt for finishing the 32 ounce cote de boeuf at Georges' ". It was fun to listen to for the few minutes that it was on.

I took Isabella to Maryland this morning and my day hasn't been quite as bright as when it started out this morning. That's when she told me that she didn't go poop in her night night. Which was a surprising statement because she's been using the potty for a really long time. Her night night is her bed. So that remark totally caught me off-guard before my eyes were fully opened. Then it struck me funny, so I couldn't stop laughing. I'm really missing her. 

Before I go, here's the SNOW CREAM recipe that I promised Karen.

Put a clean, large, bowl outside before it snows or as soon as you can after it starts. Place it out in the open away from trees, power lines, etc.

When the bowl is piled high, full of snow, bring it back into the kitchen and pour in two, 15.25 oz. cans of fruit cocktail in heavy syrup and one, 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk. I use Santini's organic, that I order from amazon.com. Stir gently just to barely combine the ingredients and serve immediately. Now this is Ernestine's recipe, you can be creative with the fruit, but I don't think you can skip the sweetened condensed milk. Of course you can double and triple the recipe if you've got a big crowd. It's always good to experiment. Let me know if you come up with something good or have another version. Karen, what's your recipe for snow pudding?Well, have a terrific weekend.

Danny and Joe Frost will be on OLDIES 98, WOGL FM RADIO'S BREAKFAST CLUB, tomorrow morning. The show runs from 5:30 am to 9 am. They do a half-price promo on tickets for dinners at featured restaurants and you guessed it, "Georges" is the featured place tomorrow. They start the ticket sales online at 8:45 am. I will be on it. I'll save a bundle, that's for sure. This is the link for the breakfast club and you can click on the restaurant deals to buy tickets.http://www.wogl.com/pages/76470.phpThe painting above is not finished, but I posted it anyway. It was just taking too long for the layers to dry. The colors start to look muddy if they're over mixed. When it comes to painting lemons, I really like the colors to be clean. I got my new box of them today. They're really big, like oranges and a warm, golden orange color as well. I'll finish the painting when I get back from Maryland. Isabella goes home tomorrow.

Well the fever, chills, aches, pains congestion and cough definitely got the better of me yesterday.I was a mess. Isabella would come over to the sofa, kiss me and say "I love you Mom Mom, you're my best friend". If that's not a good reason to get better fast, I don't know what is. When I got up this morning and was fixing breakfast for her, I was wondering how I would get through the day. I was barely able to hold a conversation with Jay when he came home around noon. He got a loose tea called "Flu Fighter", and brewed some for me. About half an hour later I started feeling better. Not drowsy and drugged, like a cold and flu medication, but more clear-headed (that alone is a miracle) and functional. My wonderful daughter-in-law Celeste, came by later this afternoon with flowers for me and candy for 'Bella. I still have a bad cold, but I made a strong homemade broth with ditalini for dinner. I used some beef bones that Jay Jr. had roasted to make marrow on crostini. I froze the bones, for just this kind of soup. It was perfect for tonight. Since I couldn't even focus enough to paint today, the photo above is of Gabriel, Isabella and Jonah on the 18th, when we went to Valley forge Park for President's Day. It was really windy, but unseasonably warm and sunny. I'm looking forward to painting tomorrow. I'm going up to the kitchen now for some flu fighter tea.

Goodnight.

Chef Joe Frost was on 10!, which is an NBC tv magazine on channel 10 in Philadelphia, this morning. He prepared a shrimp ceviche that looked really good. Easy and quick. Jay Jr. was there with him, but he was backstage. Jay said that the football player that was on, John, is it Runyon? I forget his name, is the biggest human being he's ever seen, but also a really great guy. Here's the link to the show. Once you click on it, click on "behind the scenes" and you'll see different scenes from the show. http://www.nbc10.com/10/index.htmlToday's painting is one that I had started from the last box of lemons. "Zested and Juiced Meyer Lemons", 7"x5", oil over egg tempera, on gessobord, $50. framed. sold--thank you Ann.

I'm going to bed, I have the chills and my head hurts so much from coughing, I've had it.

Shortly after the snow started last night it stopped and I was disappointed. Jay and Danny said they didn't think it would amount to much. It did start up again during the night. I don't know how much we got, but it was at least three inches, and that's good enough for me, simply because I wanted to make