You Asked, I Answer!

Sometimes blog friends ask questions -- and I try to respond personally if I have an email for them, but otherwise, they sometimes end up in the ether! And lately, I've been negligent in responding to anyone (that will only get worse in October when I'll be on blog break!)

So, I thought I'd answer a few of them!

About the Cottage 

Erin said, "Wow, I didn't realize that your family actually lived there."  I probably wasn't clear. We never lived at the lake full time -- only in the summers. From the time my mom was a kid, and through my teen/college years, we would spend summers there. But didn't live there full time.

Beach time with the cousins, c. 1978

Erin also asked, "Do you ever stay up there for fall?" We sure do! It's nippy at times -- we have a fireplace and space heaters and that's it! But it's gorgeous. You can see a couple of posts with images from up north in the fall here and here.

"I wonder why you only stay here in the summer. It's such a beautiful place...I think I'd live there all year long," Deb of Readerbuzz said. Beautiful, yes. But it would drive me nuts. The town doesn't have much to offer in terms of culture and the arts and I'm definitely not a winter person or into winter spots. Also, the community is extremely conservative. I fear I would go politically insane! (And, as I mentioned above, we don't have heat!) So fall is as far as I go!

 

Other Things!

What kind of bird is Harry? asked Judy (but no blog listed!) Harry is a Great Blue Heron. He hangs out at our neighborhood pond (called The Ditch) from spring until fall. Last year I saw him well into November. Harry North (and his partner) are also great blue herons but are seen up north at the cottage.

Carola asked: how do you use a fork when working with watercolor? And the answer is: Very badly. Part of the challenge I was doing was to use tools you never used for art before. (Examples, bubble wrap for texture). I used a make-up sponge, a straw and a fork. The fork was least successful. I thought it might make for nice snow dots but they were all too "in a row." I tried scraping some texture in but watercolor is so transparent, that wasn't very effective either. Finally, I just globbed on some gouache and made snow on the branches. I don't recommend it!

Jean from Misadventures in Widowhood wrote: "I also notice you had a straw with your paints? One of the ladies here was experiencing with putting paint on the end of a straw and blowing it around the paper. Didn't turn out very well, in my opinion, but she kept trying to prefect the process."

The straw was also part of that class challenge with three or more "new" items. It actually worked pretty well for adding snow to branches and small line details.

Carola also asked: When are you leaving for England and how long will you stay? Will you be staying in Bath the entire time?

 We leave for England on October 2 and will return on the 24th. We'll be in Bath for a week (doing side trips as well as enjoying the city).

The Roman Baths

We're especially excited to be staying in a lovely house a few miles out of the city. We stayed here before and it will be a wonderful and relaxing way to begin our trip.

Morgan's Forge

Then it's on to London for the remainder of the trip, with a road trip in that time! 

Steve from Shadows and Light asked: I wonder what Viola means about paying for "3 or 4 slats in the Venetian blinds"? Is she trying to say it was expensive or cheap?

This refers to the vintage postcards from the lake on this post. Viola wrote a note on her postcard about paying for slats in the Venetian blinds and was not at all impressed on the restaurant. I tried to find prices of Venetian blinds in the 1940s online with no luck. But my guess is she was saying it was expensive. Anyone have an idea?

Thanks to many of you who weighed in on the "bald" cardinal from this post. The general consensus seems to be that he is moulting. Makes sense to me!

Finally, I will be off blog for our trip and sadly, not visiting you. I doubt I will post we're gone but will look forward to catching up with you when you return and have all sorts of fun photos to share! I hope I don't miss TOO much here! Thank you again for all your comments. Hopefully after we settle back, I'll be able to get more in my practice of replying more directly to your comments.

Have a lovely fall and I'll see you next month!