Fresh Bread24x36 Oil Painting
by Lynn Thomas
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American yew, which has poisonous fruit and foliage and is used extensively in landscaping around government buildings in Washington, DC, is known to botanists as "taxus taxus."
So did you get your taxes mailed off by the deadline?
It started off being a pretty nice day - but soon the temperature was dropping and the wind blowing about 35 mph. It was cold and nasty. There were 93 mph winds near Salt Lake today, and they had snow this afternoon and 50 mph wind around the city. The weird thing was that our Green River Valley was full of a dark and ugly haze that obscured the mountains, and it turned out to be dust blown in from Utah.
Went to town early this morning. First I stopped at the post office to get postage on some big envelopes and got them mailed. Debbie was there and had a chance to say hi to her. Charm came in, and she was also going to the meeting. Then got rid of the recycling in Pinedale. Didn't have so much as usual because every time Joe has a chance he dumps it in the garbage and burns it up. I keep thinking what a waste of my time and effort to sort and save it if he's going to do that. Then went to the safety deposit box and got things back in there that we'd recently had at home.
We had our Mixed Media painting meeting at the Rendezvous Pointe today and had lunch together there - BBQ ribs. There were six of us and I enjoyed every minute being with them. Bob came in for lunch and sat with us - it was nice to see him. I worked on my fall aspen scene with the road to Big Sandy and got pretty far along on it. It's very colorful and quite bright, but it might be o.k. when it's finished.
James and Kathy stopped by and brought PEE-CANZ from Georgia. Her folks have orchards there. Kathy picked them all off the ground and shelled them. I have only cracked the few you do at Christmas and get so frustrated at trying to get the shells and nut separated. She said they did have some kind of shelling gadget but I just can't imagine what that involves and she said they got 200 pounds of them! They must have given us about a gallon of them and they look beautiful/wonderful. They keep good stored in the freezer and will last us about a year. Thank you so much you two. Their family is all in Georgia and they go back a lot, but love Wyoming too.
When the meeting was over and I was packing my pastels back out to the SUV that awful wind snatched two of my 8x10 reference photos and blew them across the road and clear through Faler's parking lot ..... you know how you run but never can quite catch up and it just lays there and teases you until another big gust of wind comes along and takes it again. I almost gave up ten times and then they would lay still and I'd think I could catch up and get them. Finally I did. It was a pretty good workout.
Afterwards I went to the clinic to pick up my thyroid prescription, and saw Peg for a few minutes. Took the dogs for a couple of walks during the time we were in town. At the clinic we walked near the museum because its quiet with no traffic and a golden retriever? came out and walked with us. Lucky they all got along.
Went to Ridley's/Falers and since last time I shopped it has certainly improved. The shelves are all moved around, so I walked up and down all the aisles to get an idea where things have been moved to. They still are working and have a long way to go, but its looking promising for us to have a better store with more variety. I bought some Maseca Masa to make some homemade corn tortillas, and just as I was putting it in the basket a couple of Mexican guys came by. One asked me if I was going to make tamales, and I said no, tortillas, that I loved tamales but they were too much work. And asked him if this was the best kind of flour. He said yes. It seemed like maybe he was "homesick" for tamales - don't know. I didn't have too many groceries to get this time, and won't have to shop tomorrow unless we want to. I got the prescription filled too.
Wildlife watching was good today. First thing there was a bluebird in the back yard and also saw a robin in the tree yesterday morning. The meadowlarks are back singing in the sagebrush. The second hawk was in the tree down the lane when I left. It felt good that the pair of them are there now. There were large groups of deer along the way. There were lots of new baby calves this time. Also saw antelope, and all kinds of birds. several other kinds of hawks, ravens acting like raving maniacs, and ducks and geese. The very best thing today was seeing a pair of swans flying over one of the ranch fields heading toward the New Fork River. They were awesome. They were nearly extinct 30 or 40 years ago, and its neat to be in the place where they are coming back. There was a pair of cranes near our field both coming and going, and down on the Bousman's field there was a large flock of them. They gather there and do their dancing every year. So now I've seen my cranes.
We had leftover chili for dinner, and that was easy.
Judi and Rollie are back from Casper. They went over to help their son and his family move to a new house. She is blogging now too, so that is fun. I have about six on my list to watch and enjoy.
I talked to Cindy today about hiring her to clean the house. She is going to come over on Thursday and see what it involves and we'll talk about details and such. This will be the first time I've ever had someone clean for me and it will be a luxury.
One of the plastic side cushions on the nose piece of my glasses broke off last night and I haven't found it. It will need to be repaired.
Charm and I go to Jackson tomorrow morning. Maxine is going with us too, and we'll pick her up on the way. I will leave here before 8. I have to drink the barium stuff beginning at about 9 a.m. so will be drinking most of the way up to Jackson. Charm is going to drive both ways. My appointment time to be at the Oncology office is 10:45 a.m. and in to the CT Scan at 11 a.m. It never takes very long, if it goes as it has in the past. No chemo that day - unless they surprise me. It's my "off day".
Its supposed to snow 3 or 4 inches tonight. We've had several warm days and now that its time to get on the road its supposed to get cold and stormy for about a week. By Monday a few of the western counties had a flood watch posted, but not sure that's going to happen now. The last couple of days has melted quite a bit of snow off the fields here, and snow is all but gone around Boulder and Pinedale. Our road is just about dry.
All the cats have also appeared at different times, so am happy they all made it through the winter. The calico mother cat is looking older, but seems to be o.k.
Lately I have enough ambition, off and on, to clean up and organize messes I've let go for more or less time. Quite a few little paperwork jobs were accomplished Monday, and a few bills paid. I have a big pile of drug store receipts to organize yet, or even decide whether to keep or not - just trashing would be easy - but I like to know and keep track of what and when we have taken for meds. The neat file drawer of medical records feels good. If they have to, the kids will be able to find information, i.e. social security and Medicare stuff, past med. history etc. Have two more file drawers cleaned out down to the bare bones, and hauling more trash bags full of papers to the garbage. Funny/odd how I always thought I wanted or needed to keep all that stuff, and realize I've never looked at most of it for a decade or more.
Bed time!! Sparky has had his massage. Raven has gotten a biscuit stuffed into her chew toy to work on for a while. Did I say its cold and nasty out? I think those few nice days spoiled me in a hurry.
Princess Raven
