Good Things In Life

It's been a pins and needles summer for me, even when I try to hide it. Unseasonably cool weather, oral surgery, waiting for results from my medical re-testing and wrapping up things at WKAR as I anticipate retirement last month. Life in retirement will be easier with social security! 

 

I'm 62! Better discounts, more flexibility, looser schedule on the horizon.

I'm also scared to death!

But, amidst all that, there are plenty of good things in life. I've been thinking about a few things for which I'm very grateful. Like Lizzie Cosette.

She'll be adopted a full year a bit after Labor Day and she's mellowed (most of the time) into a pretty delightful cat.

She's even a good traveler, though you wouldn't know it from this photo!

There's Rick's garden, giving off its harvest in spurts to spread the joy.

And his delicious homemade bread. He improves with every loaf!

There is an abundance of beauty and I'm loving this summer's flowers.

Lovely summer dinners on the patio -- good wine, good food.

And good music. I loved spending my birthday weekend at the Great Lakes Folk Festival. This is Irish-American singer Cathie Ryan. I'll post more about this event soon.

Rick used flowers instead of tissue-paper frou-frou in my birthday bag and I felt lucky that he would care enough to take the time to be extra creative!

I have wonderful friends and family, great blog buddies and no matter what happens later this month, I know I will be all right. Because really, I have enough of the good things in life to make even the challenges a little easier. 

Even a purr therapist!

Thank you.

Art Catch Up

I am way behind on my art challenge drawings, but I had time to do a few on vacation -- and a few NOT part of the challenge. Like this one, from a photo taken at the Tuileries.

The subject for this was "Over There" -- taken from one of my photos from the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.

"Cool" was done straight from life, sitting on my beach at the lake -- sigh!

"Small Pleasures" is a piece I started LONG ago -- a peek at a window with its delicate lace curtains. You will never know how I struggled with this -- it just looked blah.

Then I read Vivian Swift's "Le Road Trip" and noticed she had made her lace curtains by making the background VERY dark and then the white tracery of the lace actually showed up. I tried it here using a white marker for the lace and while my work will never look like Vivian's -- it is a start. (You'll learn a ton about painting at her terrific blog with a weekly painting lesson!)

"Flowers" is neither from life nor drawing nor photo. It is from my brain as I was playing this week. I may cut this into pieces for bookmarks.

 

Try this version of "Flowers" instead -- sunflowers from a photo taken at one of last summer's farm markets!

For "Hunger Pangs" I went back to the France photos. I had been so motivated by the beautiful macarons Carol draws in her Paris Breakfasts blog. I had to try.

Somehow Carol's look like macarons. Mine look like pink blobs. But I still had hunger pangs! Here is the original.

"Wishful Thinking" again finds me in France -- this time in Giverny at the famed bridge. I don't know HOW I was able to get this photo without people in it!

Here's how it translated to my drawing.

 

Here are a few others -- the problem children, I call them.

 

The one above was my neighbor's little well (actually it is a faux well that hides some sort of outdoor thing). As you can see, I was having trouble with the perspective as I hit it from an odd angle that I just couldn't make right.

 

This one is from the Medici Fountain in Paris -- a tight shot of the sculpture. Oddly, the woman on the left looks like a man, and the man on the right looks like a woman, specifically like my mother. I think it looks more like a woman holding a child instead of her man. Try again (although I like it in its own way, just so long as I don't think about what it really is!).

 

And this one is from some photo I nabbed and for the life of me can't remember where! It's not so bad. I'm thinking the path leading to the beach at Myrtle Beach.

I call the one above "Road Trip."
It was done from this photo as we drove through Normandy several years ago.

Well, I'm caught up! What's next? Wait and see!

Minisa: A Short Video

I wish I'd had this video by my friend Mike Lewis when I wrote the last post. Dinah Washington's "For All We Know" to our Minisa vacation. The short "Play or Download" will disappear in a few seconds -- don't hit download.



It's three and a half minutes of memories.

(A new post very soon -- wisdom teeth are healing!)

Minisa 2013

It hardly seemed a year that I had met many of Rick's aunts and cousins at the family reunion on his mother's side. We recently gathered at Minisa, the family summer cottage on Torch Lake.

Torch is a very large, very cold lake.

And it is as blue as one can imagine -- even on a less than perfect day.

Minisa is more than a cottage -- with five bedrooms, this log cabin built in the 1920s is more of a summer home, and the perfect place for the Acklins to gather.

I dropped Rick and his mom off on the first Sunday and caught up with some of the cousins. I knew that when I left, I would be missing the renewal of Jim and Becky's vows for their 50th anniversary. They had spent their honeymoon at Minisa -- now they were there with their children and grandchildren.

When I returned the following Friday, all of Rick's brothers were there. It was the first time we'd had a photo of the five boys in years, this time with their mom.

Terrific meals on the big table on the porch.

Crossword puzzles, where everyone chipped in.

The fireplace and living room are empty in this photo...

...but it was pretty nippy later in the week. That meant stories by the fire -- both read and told. (There were lots of fires in the huge stone fireplace!)

Time for grandmother and grandson...

...and for lots of catching up. Rick and his brothers are spread around the country -- it was good to be all together.

The family pulled together a very long family tree on a very long roll of paper.

Later Rick and his cousin Kim (there were lots of Kims here!) recreated part of it for the "book."

And everyone had to sign the log book -- there are volumes of notebooks going back decades.

Everyone loved it when the dinner bell rang, because we knew we were in for a treat!

There was a shopping trip into the village of Alden with Rick's sisters-in-law and niece.

The town was charming and I couldn't resist a couple of photos of the shops...

...and gardens.

This fence was so "up north" pretty!

And this is northern Michigan during cherry season!

Of course we couldn't resist a market...

...or two!

Kim picked up some blueberries for blueberry pie.

It was the best any had ever eaten!

There was time for Petoskey stone hunting, too (we had some luck at that!).

And of course, there was always an unexpected discovery!

There were lots of photos -- I liked this one...

....and this one, too! (It was hard for us not to laugh!)

But I think my favorite is this (thanks to Olivia, who had a timer on her camera!)

As the weekend drew to a close and people headed back to Arizona, Missouri, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts, Indiana and Minnesota, there was Rick -- last to leave.

And leaving the way he loves best!

Another gathering past. May we meet again -- for all the best reasons and in a spot we love!