"Monday FUNday" - Everything AND the Kitchen Sink

Have you ever packed so much into a weekend, 

that it's like Christmas, Fourth of July, 

and your birthday - all rolled into one?

Whew, it's exhausting....but ridiculously fun! 

We've become a 2 bicycle family now, thanks to LLBean's bike sale the other week, and some birthday money saved from September! Hubby and I have been out scouting out more places to ride....and plein air paint! Saturday we hauled our bikes up to the "Airline Trail" in Colchester, CT and  rode about 25 miles! No I'm not kidding, that's twenty-five. It's an old railroad bed with an incredibly level grade, which makes for a very pleasant ride. Mostly in shade, which helped make it easier, too!  Lots of beautiful views along the way - I felt like I was on vacation! 

So what's the best cure for sore, achy muscles? A stop at Salem Valley Ice-cream on the way home! Well, it sure didn't hurt, and was worth testing that theory. 

Now the "Motoring Secretary" at Roxanne Steed Fine Art was not content with a four hour bike ride and ice-cream, so we did make a stop close to home at Whittle's Farm Market in Mystic for some fantastic tomatoes, corn, and PEACHES! 

  Whew, all this and we haven't even made it to Sunday yet!  I was in for a nice surprise when I found out we were going sailing with some friends out of Mystic! What a wonderful treat! And I think I have some good reference shots for future paintings! The weather was perfect, I couldn't imagine a more ideal afternoon! 


Thanks to Darby and Dave for a really fun time!

(Darby, left; me, on the right)

And now for a last bit of 'multi-media' sketchbook fun! I've taken several pages in my sketchbook and made some simple underpaintings...and some not so simple. This one happened to have a simple green wash underneath, graded with a deeper value on one end, and layed in rather 'sketchy' - leaving some white - not a continuous wash.  It was nice and dry and ready for my "great idea" that came later.  I was inspired by a brilliant stand of Queen Anne's Lace on our bike-ride Saturday. The sun was beaming directly on it, and the woods all in shadow behind it made for a stunning back-drop.  I was particularly attracted to the strong abstract shapes of darks and lights, the flower heads of varying heights bobbing in the breeze. The loose watercolor sketch allows me to 'doodle - out' this idea and consider whether I'd like to perhaps try a similar design in oil.  Click on the image for a closer view.

So a successful weekend - involving back to back fun; good fresh food, and lots of new painting inspiration!

"Monday FUNday"- Everything AND the Kitchen Sink

By my way of thinking, summers are meant to be enjoyed. 

Even between our routines and daily work and necessities, 

sneaking in a bit of fun should be something to aim for, 

plan it, do it, make it happen! 

Even if it is not a BIG deal, those little bits of fun here and there, 

add up to some mighty fine memories. 

So, leave the kitchen sink behind....

grab a sketch book if you're so inclined. This is in my back yard, a small stone lantern we added to our garden this year.  Makes a nice light on the patio as the evening turns to dusk.  The sketch is another 'multi-media' bit of fun. The under layer is a poem, written with a brown Tombow felt tip pen. The ink is water-soluble, so once you've written down your thoughts/poem, etc, you can take a watercolor brush to the whole page and make a soft wash of it. This poem is, "Between the apple blossom and the water".  On top are little sketch doodles (in permanent ink & watercolor) of the lantern, some hosta blossoms, and some yellow green Japanese ornamental grass.  Click on the image to enlarge it.

Now, depending on where you live, your summer might be much hotter than mine. It's been pretty decent here, I must admit. Okay, downright delightful.  That is the New England payback for tolerating a long winter.  We get the good stuff right now! All the local farms are having "u-pick-em days".  I spent a nice morning with my neighbor picking blueberries at Holmberg Orchards, in Gales Ferry last Thursday.  So what do you do with all these berries, you might ask? Well, besides putting them in your cereal or oatmeal or yogurt at breakfast, I made a big frozen smoothie with about a cup full of blueberries, a ripe banana, a large dollop of vanilla Greek yogurt, and ice cubes. No recipe here, just kept adding ice or yogurt until I liked the consistency. Easy enough. That's a lot of antioxidants in that glass, and the banana adds plenty of sweetness, so you don't need to add sugar. And the ice....well, that's perfect for a hot day.  And, from a fellow berry-picker, she puts them right into a big zip-loc freezer bag, and freezes them as soon as she gets home. Doesn't wash them until she's ready to use them.  She says she'll pick enough to last through May of next year! Wow, now that's an idea (and sounds like a good way to eat my way through winter!)

 On Saturday afternoon I went on a five-mile hike with my hubby. I hadn't been on this part of this trail before, just the beginning (and a different section) of it. It was part of the old Groton-to-Stonington Trolley line, now partially paved....perfect for biking. But it goes through a wooded area, and in most wooded areas in CT there are wild turkeys.  Well, one mama turkey waited until we were almost right up on her to cross the path in front of us. I could hear all this peeping as she stepped out into the path...followed by almost a dozen babies...too many to count. I'm sure there were at least nine of them. They just kept coming out of the brush to follow her to the other side. So we waited and watched. There's always a little brother straggler! 

(no this photo isn't mine, but Michele Kelly's photo in Frank Picchione's  wonderful blog of animal conservation. Thanks for permitting me to use this photo, Frank! ). The babies we saw were a bit smaller, and more of them. But they were all lined up following mama!
Now, did I do all this on a Monday? No, this was all fun from last weekend. I was fondly remembering this while I was finishing up a large oil painting today.  That's just part of the fun of Mondays, thinking about what you did last weekend...and having five whole days to plan for the next one! 

Hope your summer is full of FUN Mondays! (and all those days in-between!).