Random chatter and Fiona Friday

Just out of curiosity, is there anyone out there who remembers when I used to regularly post bird and flower photos? I haven't done that in a while. I was inspired to grab my camera by the red-headed woodpecker who has begun to regularly perch on our lamppost. I've only been able to snap him from the front door, so far, but isn't he pretty?

So . . . explanation about this post . . . I'm having the kind of week when you open the blog, load a book image, and then just sit staring at the monitor thinking, "Uhhh," and nothing comes. I could have taken off and just pre-posted my Fiona Friday cat pic but I really never write about my everyday life, anymore, so I thought I'd write a little about that and just tuck in a few pictures. Maybe writing about nothing much will loosen me up a bit and help break the problem I'm having with writing reviews.

We have mums growing. I'm loving the fiery burst of color:

We also have tomatoes, thanks to the spouse's optimism. After the first couple of years of planting things in pots on our deck and watching the squirrels strip even the flowers to the stems, I confess I gave up trying to grow anything at all in the backyard. We'll see if the squirrels run off with our tomatoes the moment they ripen.

Yesterday, my best buddy and I went to a monthly event sponsored by our town. We ate lunch in front of a local artist's studio while he painted and talked about . . . well, everything. He basically told us his life story with focus on how he became a successful artist, why he's a plein air painter and only paints from life (never photographs). His name is Wyatt Waters. Here he is, sketching:

Below, he stopped to talk a bit, possibly tired of sitting and talking. My friend and I had to cut out early and he's a meticulous craftsman, so what you see on the paper is the last we saw of the painting he was working on, before we left:

He painted the street in front of him -- a building and cars. I would have happily watched him all day (but only if there was some shade available; the sun was brutal) if I could have. I was fascinated by his careful attention to detail. I have a tendency to get so excited when I paint that globs go flying.

Speaking of painting, I don't remember whether or not I mentioned that I've just recently started painting. I painted in oils before my second pregnancy but quit when I found out I was expecting because I didn't want to expose the Kiddo to nasty chemicals. This time, I'm painting with acrylics because there's less fuss. I have no training, apart from a handful of workshops taken back in my oil painting days, but I'm having an awful lot of fun. Unlike Wyatt, I'm most comfortable painting from a photograph. I'm mostly dipping into my own files and I guess this guy (from a picture taken on my deck) is one of my favorites, so far, although an abstract that Kiddo named and has asked to have for his apartment wall (!!!!) is my runner-up:

Anyway, hopefully, this post will have purged my mind a little and I'll get back to writing reviews, next week. One of my favorite cat photos of the week gets to be today's Fiona Friday. This is a phone shot of Fiona. She was thinking about jumping up onto the couch but right after I snapped this, she got distracted, batted at something (neither of us know what) and accidentally knocked over an empty soda can, which hit the floor with such a resounding clatter that it scared her right out of the room. Crazy cat.

Happy Weekend to All!

©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.