Block-in Matlacha Gallery 5x7

Despite having my 8 and 12 (more like 14 and 16 if you ask me) year old grandsons here, I managed to get this little sketch done of a wonderfully colorful Gallery in Matlacha, Florida. The colors don't show up well here. The umbrella is much more red-orange and the green is intense. I'll post it on Just Painting when I finish it.

Wild Kingdom

Living here in Southwest Florida, we've got alot of company that we try not to think about, living very closely with us whether or not we like it. I saw this guy hanging out in the planter that runs the width of the front of the house under the louvered crank out windows that we , and the cats, love so much. I'm sure he and his kind were here long before we were.

Low Tide Solarized

There's a setting on the camera called solarize which separates the values in a dramatic way. This shot from 2nd beach in Parrsboro, NS. Canada is an example. It makes a dramatic scene even more so.

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Parrsboro Lighthouse

Sometimes just enough fog covers this lighthouse and the fog horn blows a high low tone, yet there is clear weather around it. Typical moody weather along the Fundy Shore.

Parrsboro, Nova Scotia

For those who came over here to see some photos of the Bay of Fundy I have some great stuff to show. I am a fanatic photo taker and digital photography has pulled out all the stops for all of us. No more wasted $$$$ on experimental or poor shots. I have been visiting Parrsboro annually for 10 years this summer. Here are some of the many moods of this special place. Depicted here: Morning, low tide, misty conditions, by mid afternoon the high tide has brought winds and clear skies. You can actually feel the wind shift at the tide change.

Check out the red in the water. That is not a photographic enhancement. Is that great or what?

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My other blog: Just Painting

http://marysheehanwinn.blogspot.com

Nizzy

This is a fluff post. I 've been painting all day and stopped to take a photo of Nizzy who was jumping on the screen in pursuit of a lizard. She couldn't catch him.

I love her eyes. They morph from green to aqua green and smokey blue green.

Procrastination

Why do artists procrastinate? It's not because they don't love what they do. I've got the studio up and am dabbling in finishing a painting of cows that I started in Tiverton in September, I think. The cows are in dappled shade and it is about 90% done. It's that other 10% that's so worrisome. Maybe it will be posted on my Just Painting blog.

There are also distractions here, like the pool and shopping for house stuff.

Going South

No one can fit more stuff in a car than I can. We're leaving at 3 AM which gets us to New Jersey by about 8AM. Then it's my turn to drive.

Until then I sleep.

Christmas Day

Anne and Colin Tommy and Ryan

Christmas Day always seems like a day that stands still in time. I figured out tonight that it's been 33 years since I've been driving to my mother's house for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

33 Christmas drives from Marshfield to Brockton and back. Really, I feel lucky to have had them.

Glad to have my family and especially glad for the new lives that Tommy's marriage to Anne (2002) brought. Ryan 3 and Colin 18 months. It was all about present overload today and two little boys who are the focal point now. It's a good thing and it was really fun.

Merry Christmas

My Dog Named Pooh

Since I haven't posted in so long it's now winter time and walking Pooh is a bit less strenuous (fewer people) in terms of gathering up the poo. But, it's still a minefield of risk.

We walked in pitch darkness a few nights ago but as soon as the proper time arrived so did some headlights waaay at the bottom of the street so's they'd be spotlighting us the entire time.

I'm dressed all in black fleece except my Nike shoes which glow in the dark and I carry a flashlight. Sort of invisible but not ;)

Luckily I had plentiful bags and bounties with me and Yes, I did pick it up.

These posts are dedicated to all dog lovers who cope with this several times daily.

Not for the faint of heart!

His name is Morey. There is no love like dog love.

Back To The Blog

Only 41 posts on this blog since I began it in October 2005. I'm gonna get back to it. Here's a photo to prove it. Merry Christmas everybody!

Walkin' My Dog Named Pooh

The heat wave continues. Temps reaching 100 in some places. Here by the ocean we've been fortunate the past two days to have a cooling seabreeze to keep the temps down in the high 70's low 80's. Just perfect for walking Morey, our 'it takes a village' dog, who belongs to Suzie and Jim across the street. He's a 90lb yellow lab and he poops like a circus elephant. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration but not by much. Walking him in the off season is much easier because I take him through the dunes and when he makes a deposit I just bury it real good and pile some big rocks on top so that no one will step in it. But, it's high summer and Sue & Jim went away for 4 days so 2 walks a day adds up to alot of poo. So I took a plastic grocery bag and some paper towels on our first walk and cleaned up the doggie doo but I forgot that he always has more and I had knotted the bag and now I'm walking on the beach carrying my bag of poop hoping that he's done. We walk way down and on the way back just as we're getting close to where we exit the beach, Morey drops into a squat and drops a load about 20 feet from a woman with several small children on a blanket. The kids gape as I wave my bag and assure the woman that I'm gonna clean it up but my bag is knotted and I'm out of towels so I troll up to the rocks near the dunes trailing Morey behind me and get a stick with which to dig a hole and so forth. This takes several trips and I'm pouring sweat but I neutralize the landmine and wave to the woman and the solemn preschoolers and head home. The next night I leave for the beach with plastic bags billowing from my pockets and a half a roll of bounties under my arm. I get him onto the beach and while no one's around he does his thing right near the wall so I can pick it up. Then we walk way down the other way and sure as um, shit, we're almost off the beach and doesn't he let loose about 15 feet from 4 women having happy hour in their beach chairs. They all look and giggle while I wave my roll of PTs and claim to have the situation under control. They can't keep a straight face and I have to really work to bag the stuff without either of us stepping in it as the dog tries to wind himself around my legs. I drop the now 2 sealed bags of poo into the third bag and wave to them and off I go swinging my bag of poo from one hand to the other just like you do when you walk a dog. So thankful that Suzie and Jim are flying in late tonight.

100 Degrees

OMG Despite a temperature reading that wouldn't find me even leaving the house, a moment of insanity led me to head up to the the beach around 2PM. It turned out to be biting fly day at the beach and they were relentless. Not the greenheads. Vampires that they are, they kind of zone out as they go for the chomp and you can actually smack 'em dead. Not so with these smaller flies which kind of look like house flies but aren't. After about 2 hours (I can't believe I stayed that long) I packed up and headed home to the air conditioners. Heaven in it's own way. (I tried to post this on Tuesday when it was fresh but e blogger wasn't having any)

It's Like A Heat Wave

I am revealing my boomer roots when I use old song titles for my posts. I believe that song was by Martha and the Vandellas. Circa the sixties. Well, today was a scorcher as they say. We are only a block from the ocean and it's usually a bit cooler here. NOT. 97* That's HOT. I have succumbed, happily I might add, to the New England version of central air conditioning which is multiple window units, and I'm usually quite content to stay inside with my creature comforts but today when I went out to water the plants, there was a definite seabreeze. I could tell that it was a beach day. I ran to the market to get the hot meatloaf dinner for the hubby. No cooking for this girl and I ran home to hit the sand. I set up my CVS umbrella (of dubious quality) and lounged in a beach chair for the afternoon with a book about Eugene O'Neill and the inception of the Provincetown Players. My hubby came to visit for about an hour before returning home to the King's chair and cable, while I stayed until 6:30 and then picked it all up and went home. By the time I made it down the street I was as hot and sweaty as I ever have been and when I walked through the door of my house, heading straight for the shower, I thanked the Good Lord for cheap air conditioners. Tomorrow, I'm going back.