Tuesday March 6 2007

Sandhill Song

12x12 Oil Painting

by Lynn Thomas

A quite nice thing happened today. My painting Sandhill Song was chosen in the wildlife category by a group of my peers to be one of several images to promote the upcoming Women Artists of the West Show in Chicago. The show will open next November. The cranes were painted from photo reference taken right from the studio window of the cranes we have in our field each year. I watch them a lot with and without my spotting scope. They provide quite a lot of enjoyment every summer and have our field and slough staked out as their territory, raising one or two babies (called colts). They are my neighbors. I love to see and hear them. They come right around the house and yard. The dogs never bother them. In fact the resident cranes should be appearing within the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted on that.

It was nearly 40 degrees today, so that's the warmest since winter set in. Calm and sunny. Joe had to dig a trench through Big Kahuna. Iit had gotten so big he was having trouble getting his snowmachine in and out of the garage. I know he must have been nearly tipping the machine over before he dug the drift down some. He has also been running right over my big wild rose bush. That's never been necessary before.

Pinedale's dog musher in the Iditarod, Matt, moved from from 54th place to 32nd out of 82 racers yesterday. Our area has a big dog sled race that goes for about a week in early February. It used to run pretty close to our house and I would ride the snowmachine up to watch the dog sleds go by in Irish Canyon. Buster used to go with me, riding on the snowmachine seat and was perfectly behaved . He was quite interested in what those dogs were doing.

Today I finally got my bills all paid and all the paperwork that had been sitting in untidy piles and stacks all filed away. I read the last three weekly papers. I even worked for a while before dinner on the new pastel still life that I had started at the Mixed Media meeting. A little housecleaning and fixing salmon, pasta alfredo and green beans for dinner pretty much rounded out the day. And I won a game of 2 suit Spider. It was a good day.

Monday March 5 2007

Horses Running in Snow

3x13 Oil Painting

By Lynn Thomas

AUTUMN IMAGES
Lynn Thomas
Big Sandy

First snowfall of autumn covers mountain and meadow
With powder, deep and soft.
Robin egg skies, cerulean shadows under the pines
Chickadees flit through boughs that cradle snow
And puffs of misty white are released in mini avalanches
To tumble down through the tree.
Diamond crystals twirl through clear air.
The last of the aspen leaves
Lay on the new snow in many shades of gold
Bare limbs wait to embrace winter’s storms.
Snowshoe hare trails curl over the windblown drifts
And intertwine with moose tracks.
Around naked red willows
Summer’s seed heads stand above the snow
Encrusted with silvery frost.
The horses all have turned from slick to fluffy
With the changing season.
They paw through the snow to the grasses beneath.
Each one carries a coating of ice on their backs
And their frosty breath
Creates a mist around the herd.
The beavers strengthen their dam and
Carry limbs for winter stores.
Their brilliant wake on the pond scatters
Reflections of snow-covered peaks.
Cold starry darkness, good for the elk hunt.
Every night the ice on open water closes in tighter
Long icicles hang under the eves
Transparent, sparkling, dripping
Twisted at an angle by the storm winds.
Sunny warmth both creates and destroys them
Fence wires are frosted with hoary crystals.
Wind moans through branches
Accompanied by bulging challenge of the herd sire.
Carrying armloads of firewood
frigid air takes your breath away.
As night falls it’s a comfort
to lay with my back to the fire
Dogs stretched out nearby, their fur drying.
Steam rises from wool clothes, boots and gloves.
We listen to the silence……
And to the crackling logs.

~

Sunday March 4 2007

Bobbi in the Corral

Snowdrift about 8 or 9' Tall

A quiet day, sunny bright and calm. Got to about 25 degrees today, but very nice. Was surprised to see Joe has a living room window open.

Had a nice visit with Betty on the phone yesterday. We always get all the worlds problems solved. Her yard is really showing lots of improvement. Also heard from Judi - being a snowbird. They have been in Arizona about a week and leave Tuesday for Texas. Sounds like she's having a good time. Today I talked to Charm about her trip to Jackson Friday. She did enjoy the gallery visits and went to the National Museum of Wildlife Art for the shows there and lunch in their cafe. That's the trip I had to take a rain check on.

As well as being VP of WAOW, this year I've been president of Sublette County Artists Guild, which is mainly a creative writing group. They also accept artists. There was some business to be done for SCAG today, and I think we have taken care of it now. History Day in the schools is coming up and we always give a Scholarship Prize as an award for the best project depicting women. We had to get an email vote from the membership to approve the money. Then I brought my address group list up to date for that group. We will have our business meeting in May and I will be out of office then.

I happened to stumble on the article about a Pinedale man who is running his team of sled dogs in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. If you go to pinedaleonline.com in the top right hand corner there is a place to click on to follow his progress. Today is the first day of the race. He is in 69th place out of about 85 or so. If you are interested in that kind of thing there are a lot of official links about the Iditarod, photo gallery and a lot of history articles. I have to go back to it when I have time to read more. Loving dogs I'm kind of a sled dog race fan. I would like to have a team of sled dogs to run around here, but Joe wouldn't go for it. So guess I will dream on. I will check in on Matt each day to see how he does.

I need to order Joe some new long underwear bottoms. He wears them all the time in winter. They are hard to find in his size with our limited shopping. He needs a tall size. I still have some of the bills to get paid. The connection timed out earlier (probably because I'm so slow) so I quit it for a while. We're going to have spagetti with hot italian sausage in the sauce for dinner.

Saturday March 3 2007

The photo today is of a pencil drawing given to me by the artist Judy Meyer.

It came in the mail yesterday. It is of my Aussie Buster who died about two years ago now. I love it and am so touched to receive this surprise gift. Its perfectly like him, the way he used to look at me. Even the little tufts of hair that stood up on top of his head are there. I showed it to Sparky and said, "See Buster". He sat and looked at it for a couple of minutes.

Buster walked all the way over to Bill Mayo's house one spring day to court Bill and Phyllis' girl Australian Shepherd eight miles away. When I finally found him I made him walk all the way back home. I suppose he thought it was worth it. They had puppies and Phyllis gave most of them to 4-H kids to raise and train. I always wished I had one of them. Soon after that he had to be neutered. Buster was a wonderful dog, very loyal and kind. He sure wanted to work, but refused to do any tricks. He came from Montana where Charilie Golden's daughter Pamela Clark was raising Aussie show dogs. Joe got him for me for Christmas. Buster had a beautiful long coat, and some of the hairs on his feathers were 12" to 18" long. I saved all the hair I brushed out of him and am going to learn how to spin it into yarn and make a vest or something so I can be head of the pack. I won't say head what of the pack.

This morning I really slept in. When I woke up at about 8:15 Joe was cooking his own breakfast! Its not normal for him to let me sleep, but he has been doing better about that. He doesn't cook much either. I'm not a very good morning person. In fact today I'm not ambitious at all, but did get the bathroom cleaned! Here it is already 5 p.m. and about time to fix dinner. I'm making thick pork chops with dressing.

There's a clear blue sky and no wind. Tonight should be close to a full moon. I've been able to watch the jackrabbits come into the yard for hay in the bright moonlight the last week. The dogs won't even chase them away any more. Guess they are resigned that they will never catch one so why make the effort. Also the dogs can't run much in the deep snow, the rabbits have no problem. At least there don't seem to be enough of them this year that they are eating my shrubs and plants.

The rest of this week is predicted to be above freezing in the days, so that is a definite change. The piles of snow may be on the decline now. Have taken a small walk on the snowmachine trail where its well packed, and done some more photography today. Checking out the drifts again. Decided they are indeed awesome. The depth of the drifts is unusual in the fact that Wyoming is a high desert. We only get 9" of moisture a year, sometimes not even that. In other places snow falls and melts off. Whatever snow falls here just stays until spring because its too cold for it to melt. For the last 10 or 15 years Wyoming has been in a drought. I'm not sure this year is going to be any better.

Joe was talking to his friend Frank in Utah a few days ago, and he told Frank we had the biggest drifts he has ever seen here. And he grew up here in the old days when there was a lot more snow. Frank is not doing very well. He has lung cancer. Another of Joe's friends from his job passed away a week or so ago.

Better go for now and pay some bills. I'm liking my new way of paying them online from the bank account. It works pretty well.

Friday March 2 2007

I have learned how to size and post photos properly to the blog. And if you will go to the bottom of this page above the photo "Big Kahuna" you will see a rather obscure link titled older posts. This will take you to the beginning days of the blog. They are in the order of newest first. I have put photos in to illustrate each day. And for our Mixed Media Ski In Meeting on Wednesday 2/21 there is a new group of photos you might find fun. Although there seem to be some kinks in this process (or I just haven't figured it out yet), you can comment on a message and it will come to me in my email.

Sunny day, 5 degrees at 11 a.m., breezy...... those drifts aren't going anywhere yet. Joe fed the horses, brought in his fire wood and went to Pinedale for his eye doctor checkup. I saw the snowplow go by our mailbox this morning, so the road should be good for him. I hope they don't make the appointment for his second laser treatment until the weather gets a little better because we'll have to drive (100 miles one way) to Rock Springs for that. The oil field traffic is so bad on the highway any more I hate to drive down there even in good weather.

Joe has orders to get a 50 pound bag of sunflower seeds so the birds don't run out of seeds and die! Also there should be some boxes of checks at the bank. I have one check left. We will see how it goes, but I'm sure I'm going to have to take the sled out to where the truck is parked and haul in the bag of seeds. I'll do it tomorrow after he feeds the horses while the sled is still hooked up. Joe will eat in town. I toasted some biscuits and had clam chowder for lunch. The wind is moving snow again this afternoon.

About 2:30 p.m.: Joe just got back. He was plastered with the wind blown snow. The wind is VERY cold. He brought the bag of sunflower seeds in on his snow machine seat. What a guy. There were no checks at the bank although I ordered new ones twice. Joe said they dialated his eyes at the eye doctor and he thought he was going to have to stay in Pinedale all night because he couldn't see to drive, but he did come on home.

Judy Meyer's drawing of my dog Buster came today. I'm going to put a picture of it on the blog too. It looks exactly like him, just the way he used to look at me. The lemons my sister sent came today too, and they weren't frozen. She also sent some stuff to clean the marks out of my kitchen sink. I hope it works. And a Zane Gray book to read and return. I have a collection of Zane Gray.

Beverly called me in the evening and we talked for about an hour. It was good to hear from them. They are excited about going to Disney World for a family trip in about a month or so.

Haiku

Lynn Thomas

How quickly the warm Chinook
Blows winter's deep drifts
Into blue puddles

Thursday March 1 2007

Bringing Hay From the Haystack

Joe's gone out with the dogs to the haystack to bring in more hay on the snow machine sled. I made him some biscuits for breakfast and I'm reading email, drinking my tea and juice. I heard on the news about this new 12-step program for email addiction. Hmmmm.

A new month. Within the next few weeks the cattle will be coming back to these fields to have their calves and be fed from the haystacks dotting the valley. On the pinedaleonline page where I read the paper now it showed a newborn Hereford calf, born two weeks early at -18 degrees. Soon there will be baby colts and calves all over the county.

It's another glorious winter morning. Spectacular clouds over the hills, brilliant blue sky. About minus 5 at 10 a.m. There are bits of flashing frost floating through the air. Its not snow since the sky is clear. The snowy fields are also sparkling with a rainbow of colored diamonds. Happy first day of spring to you. I didn't realize it was the first day of spring. Especially since it snowed and blew like a hurricane again this afternoon. Funny day, bright sunny to snowstorm in 10 minutes!

I have an invitation to a ranch that raises Spanish Registry Mustangs over near Devil's Tower in eastern Wyoming north of Moorcroft. June 14-17 will be their 50th anniversary meeting. Anybody can come and roll out their bedroll, or set up their tipi, paint, shoot photos, or ride. The ranch horses run free in the hills, and a lot of the other breeders will bring their horses to provide a large cross section of the registry's horses.

Spent a lot of the day on housework, laundry, cleaned the bedroom etc. Made a casserole of hamburger and sliced potatoes for dinner that didn't get done, even though it baked for 2 1/2 hours. Next time I use the oven I'm going to put in a thermometer to see if its going haywire. Even the cornbread took too long. I lost the self cleaning oven part several years back, so that means its time for a new stove, doesn't it?