Easter 2025

I hope everyone had a nice Easter Sunday. It was a beautiful day here in every way...perfect. The baby bluebirds have hatched in the nesting box on one of my pine trees, and Mom and Dad are feeding them furiously, so wonderful to watch. I did see a black racer in my front yard near the sidewalk so I hope they are vigilant. It's that time of year. Snakes can slither right up a pine tree.

My daughter came for an Easter visit and brought me the biggest Easter Lily I've ever seen! 

We were amazed that the blooms had no smell. Is that normal? But the white against dark green is so striking. It's basking in bright light on my back porch, looking beautiful.

I was up early (early for me), cleaning and filling the bird feeders and birdbath, sweeping the porches, and shaking rugs. Then a shower and then, getting together the ingredients for a crustless spinach quiche which is loaded with cheese (8 oz of cheddar and 6 oz of feta). But that was to be our main course so what the heck. It was Easter. I took it out of the oven just before the front doorbell rang. Perfect timing.

Erica and Murphy (a Corkie) were Easter pretty, Murphy with his silky fur and little tail going 90 miles an hour! 

He has the vitality of the Energizer bunny, always moving, hopping up on my lap, wanting an under the neck scratch, or running around and smelling everything even if it has no smell. I think that is the nature of Corkies. And if there is anything remotely related to food....well, it's in his mouth and swallowed. So, he has to be watched like a hawk. We tried to wear him out by tossing pieces of his dry food for him to retrieve (uh, eat), but that little dog cannot be worn out.

So for dinner/lunch we had the quiche, a tossed salad, and sweet potato rounds with pecans (which Erica brought), and then, we had no room for the watermelon that I had for dessert. 

Coffee sufficed instead. I cleaned up and Erica took the Murph for a walk. Then, we enjoyed the back porch some more, me in the swing. Several butterflies and dragonflies were buzzing around over the grass. It has been so dry here, I thought it a little unusual, and I wondered if some of the butterflies had escaped from the Butterfly Rain Forest at our local Museum of Natural History, which is closed for some construction. Maybe? They are mesmerizing to watch.

And too quickly, it was time for Erica to go back home. As she was putting Murphy in his crate, we saw my neighbors and their little dog, Gizmo. They came over and said "hi" and I got another Easter hug. They were having an egg hunt for the special "golden" egg. Erica had about an hour and a half drive back home and texted to say she arrived safely, and we decided both of us were ready for a nap, a perfect ending to a perfect day.

And, then, early this morning I awoke to hear the sad news of the death of Pope Francis. I turn on NPR as soon as my eyelids open, sometimes before. He must have used up all the strength he had to make it through Easter. What a lasting impression, may his legacy live on.

One Weird Storm

My truck now has new tires! They are so pretty and they make me feel so much safer. I like the tire place and may go back there for my oil change, forgot to ask how much...later. I feel I got a very good price for the tires, and it only took one hour and ten minutes total. And it's under 4 miles from home.

There was an unusual storm in my neighborhood yesterday around 5 p.m., an ice storm! Suddenly, I heard this banging on my roof like someone throwing a thousand balls on it at one time, ran to the door to look and hail the size of quarters was coming down at the fastest rate ever! 

There was no warning, no rain, no thunder, no nothing. It just started with the sun shining, lasted about 5 minutes and quit. After, steam rose in huge clouds from the sidewalk and driveway...with the sun still shining. Weirdest thing I have ever seen. The ice beat down lots of twigs and leaves and such so I have some cleanup to do today when it dries out. I wonder if the birdies knew ahead of time...hope so. They are back this morning as usual.

A huge art festival is going on this weekend within a couple of miles of me. I was going today (until the ice storm) but will wait until tomorrow after I clean up outside today. It's at a community college (Santa Fe College) and there is plenty of available parking which I find wonderful and inviting. There are many extras if anyone is interested at the college, a planetarium, a teaching zoo and inside art galleries. I feel so lucky to have such interesting things nearby.

Last night I started my 25th book by Ken Follett, yes, I like him just a little! This one is titled Triple and is about Egypt developing a nuclear bomb...and that's all I know for now. 

Hobbies and such

  I have always been drawn to making things, forever inquisitive about the “how” and with any inkling of success, I surge forward with a “can do” attitude. Needless to say, I have tried many many things that most people including myself would consider hobbies. Sometimes I have succeeded in making whatever it was that caught my fancy, sometimes goals have remained partially completed and sometimes after several disappointments, I have given up.

A few things that come to mind right away are macrame, embroidery, needlepoint, latch hooking, beading/jewelry making, crochet, knitting, candle-making, journaling, calligraphy, writing stories, and others I’ve probably forgotten about. I could show you the results of some of these joyous adventures if you visited my home. And at times when I’m at a loss for something to do, I’ll pick up one of these hobbies again.

But the one hobby that remains constant in my life is art, especially drawing and watercolor painting. I might go for a few days without picking up a pencil or brush, but I always come back to it. It is the one pastime that gives me the most joy and with all the tutorials on YouTube, I am never lacking for inspiration. The closest I’ve ever come to structured study is a couple of community college classes, but I am one of those people who need to draw or paint alone with no one watching, no one around so class-taking is not high on my list of things to do.

Around 2012 or 2013, I met an artist named Terri Regotti. We were attending a Writers Alliance of Gainesville Sunday program and were introduced to each other when both of us inquired about critique groups for writers. We went on to attend some group meetings and eventually formed our own group, both of us novice writers. But Terri was an artist, and I’m sure my heart did a little flip flop the moment I discovered that. We became friends.

Terri taught a Community College art class, and with some encouragement, I signed up. It was enjoyable, and I learned some new things (painting on glass, how to make a portrait more lifelike, and scratchboards). The painting on glass did not speak to me but portraits were a lifelong interest. And scratchboard caught my attention as well. I ended up making a pretty cool dragonfly which I gifted to my granddaughter one year.

I was already working on a portrait and with my new knowledge, I continued to work on that in class. I drew from a copy of a picture of Edgar Allan Poe, and to my delight, when completed, Terri thought it good enough to include in a gallery show she was curating for her class. I was excited and even sent out email invitations to the opening reception. We had a large turnout with the normal fare of finger foods and drinks. Sadly, Edgar was not as interesting to others as I had hoped, and at the end of the exhibit, I took him back home. But the experience was one I will never forget, and I’ll always be indebted to Terri for her graciousness and extensive knowledge of art that she so readily shared with me.

A few years later Terri moved to Oregon and we lost touch, but I’ve never forgotten her and her kindnesses. In her kitchen high above the cabinets hung canvases she had painted of kitchen veggies. I particularly remember the gorgeous artichoke. And on her living room wall there was a beautiful collage of broken things titled Repurposed. She introduced me to the Repurpose Project which now resides near Satchel’s Pizza place. She made me two tiny Christmas trees from uncooked macaroni, unbelievably beautiful and unique. I put them out every Christmas. And there was a wooden chair in her home painted in a crazy geometrical design with all the colors of the rainbow. And a huge magnolia blossom, a work in progress, on an easel upstairs destined for the Oak Hammock Art Show. Terri was the real thing.

Because of Terri’s encouragement, I painted canvases two years for the Annual Auction at the Harn Museum, both of flowers, one a poppy and one a cosmos. Happily, both were purchased. Sadly, the Harn stopped having the auctions.

Although I’ll never consider myself an artist, I will continue to make art as best I can. I must because it gives me so much joy.