I'm back!

Well, I don't know how back I am, but time to at least say hello. I am finally through all the illustrations for the third adoption book. The name of the books has been revamped to "Without a Home." This made a major improvement on the books apprearance. This book is for little furry critters. There is a hamster, chinchilla, rat, (Reggie), bunny and ferret. This set was a bit more challenging, but enjoyed the work. Here is a preview on one of the illustrations:

This is Bonnie and her new friend. Or she thought it was a new friend, and then realized that she was a friend from way before. She ended up with a very special new home.

I am going to be looking into making a few prints of the illustrations so the author has something else to offer when advertising/selling the books. Also, and this is pretty scary for me, I have entered Reggie the rat into the annual Society of Animal Artists show. I certainly didn't think a domestic rat would be subject matter for that show, but was strongly encouraged to enter ... so ... I actually did. I won't hear until the end of May if the drawing was accepted or not, but it's getting to be "nervous time" already! I'll be sure to let you all know how that goes. Very prestigeous show, and I have not entered any of my art work in it for years. Mostly because I hadn't been doing much art work. So, we shall see. It has been so long since I made an entry for this annual show, I'll bet they have to look up to see if I am actually a member!! (Sad isn't it!) I have an old commission on my drawing table now, and one I want to do for the next SAA show. Wish me good luck. I'll need it.

I have been enjoying my PoetrySoup web site. It is so good to be surrounded by supportive like minded people. I have some poetry going around in my mind and looking forward to writing more again soon. But ... there is the spring raking to get done first, darn the luck.

I got a new little trailer to help me out with the yard work. Now I won't have to beg a boy to help me get the camper shell on and off the pickup just to do the work around the yard. And with the trailer being a lot lower to the ground, it will be easier for me to fill and empty it back on the burn pile. Plus, it has a ramp on the back so I can get my lawn mower to repair if I need to, or haul a few bales of hay. I'm pleased and lucky to have the new good tool.

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The weather here has been pretty crazy. Wind, cold and a little bit of rain one day, and then sunny and hot the next. I really don't want to look like I'm complaining though. The cool/cold is nicer for me than the hot, and we need all the moisture we can get. It is soooo dry here. The pasture is almost to the point that it will feed the horses and I won't have to. Soon I'll be free to take care of all the medical maintenance I want to get done, and then the motor home trips I want to take. There are three. To visit my artist friend in Boulder, Wyoming, my quilter friend in Story, Wyoming, and the valley where Hans' ashes are. It is a beautiful area, and I can't wait to just hike and photo and sketch to my hearts content. Of course the trips wouldn't be right if I didn't have my Gizmo along to keep me company.

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Until next time ... enjoy your spring.

"We are all different expressions of one reality, different songs of one singer,different dances of one dancer, different paintings - but the painter is one." -- Osho, Indian Spiritual Leader

"His Funeral"

I cannot believe that a month has gone by already since my last post. I'm sorry about that and will try to do better. However, I'll be in a marithon for the next 3 weeks to complete the last of the third adoption book. But I'll try.

The title is odd here, but it is the title of a poem I wrote in honor of Hans' 68th birthday, April 9, 2008. It is a limerick. Actually I don't like limericks. Seldom read one I liked. However, when I started this poem, it sort of began to fit the meter of the limerick, so I ran with it. Once I checked the rules for a limerick, it went pretty fast. So ...

"His Funeral"

That he planned his funeral is factual

And being a prankster quite actual

He prerecorded his voice

So when we kneeled on the joist

He said, "Hi there! Don't I look natural."

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~*~

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This has been getting a lot of good and fun reviews. And the fun part is that this really was something he talked about doing. He used to laugh and laugh at the thought of someone coming up to his casket during the viewing and hearing him say that. Sometimes he would think of another phrase to add, but this one was his favorite. He never got as far as actually recording his voice, but he really enjoyed planning it!

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There has been another snow or two since the St. Patty's day snow. One about 3" and very, very wet. Was the first real moisture we had this spring so far. Today was 77 degrees. Brought out buds on the tulips and the graphyesenth.

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My son Hans has been working on Mom and Dad's old camper, and it is running like a top. Now for all the little nuisence quirks. Like the gas tank gauge not working. Worked fine when the engine didn't work, but not now that the engine does. Go figure. It will take a little time to find all the little stuff. Going to have to look for an owner's manual for the camper part. Hope I can find one on line. Wouldn't want to do something wrong starting the heater or the fridge etc..

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I am looking forward to loading up my art supplies, camera's and laptop and go someplace quiet to draw or write. Where I plan to go probably won't have internet service, but oh well! I'll just have to "rough it." I'm expecting that Gizmo will get quite used to his new and small home. We'll have a good time I'm sure.

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Time for bed me thinks. See you the next time I get around to it.


All art, poetry and writings are copyright & cannot be reproduced in any form without written permission from Judith Angell Meyer --

St. Patrick's Day Snow

Well, I guess this should end all that "Spring" talk I've been doing!

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Took this from my dining room window. Not yet willing to get out in it.

This taken from the front window facing North.

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I have even been working on a poem about the brown leaves, flattened by the drifts of winter and all that kind of stuff. I guess that will have to go back on the shelf until I can see the smashed and dirty brown leaves so I can accurately discribe them.

The snow started late last night, and I don't think it snowed much past midnight. The temperature is up to about 38 degrees now, so this "spring" snow won't last long. March is the snowiest month in Colorado anyway! Sigh. This is good though. There hasn't been any snow or moisture to speak of since the first big storm of the season. The mountains have record amounts, and it snows all the time, but not where I am. This will help the Iris and the Grapehyacinth's as they are already trying to peek out.

Looks like I am going to work at getting the camper fixed and ready for summer. Will be nice to have it at the ready. It is a Toyota, (1983), but I'll bet it has better mileage than my car. I'm looking forward to loading it up for a run. Get all my portable art supplies, camera's and laptop readied for downloading the pictures. I have always, so far, waited to download on the desk top at home. Have a couple of friends up in Wyoming that I want to visit again this year. Again for one of my friends, and it will be the first time I visit the other one.

"We are all different expressions of one reality, different songs of one singer,different dances of one dancer, different paintings - but the painter is one." -- Osho, Indian Spiritual Leader

Senior moment.

Saturday night was concert night. I was looking forward to it. The program was the Spring Pops Concert. They were playing Leonard Bernstein's music. One of the sets is the Westside Story, composed in 1960. Should have been a good evening, but when I went to the bathroom to get ready, there was this strange noise. I finally found that a pipe had burst and water was leaking all over in the crawl space. And that is exactly what it means too. A crawl space. A Halloween decorated crawl space. The plumber found that there was a shut off valve close to the break and that worked. The line was for water to my studio, and I'm not using water in there currently, so ... done and done.

My son Hans is out back working on his car. He had bought himself a very bright yellow VW Bug. He needed something that wasn't going to cost him $50 every time he drove to his place out in the country. Anyway, he was screaming that little Bug down the country road, and hit a Jack Rabbit. I can just see this yellow blur flying down the road, and the Jack Rabbit only having enough time for his eyes to get big before the hit. Really messed with the plastic grill and fog lights. He thought that was all it was, but discovered that it dented the air conditioning coil just enough to rub up against the radiator. I think he finally managed to get about a 1/2" clear between them, without damaging the coils, so they shouldn't rub anymore. He'll be keeping an eye on it for a while to be sure. Doesn't need those kinds of problems. They wouldn't be cheap, and he cannot afford the expense right now.

Time to tell on my own self. Had a senior moment today. Well, yesterday AND today really. Yesterday I spent a lot of time cleaning and dusting and moving storage boxes out of the living room so it would be presentable. I had an appointment for 11:00 this morning here at the house. At noon I finally called to find out if everything was okay, and found out her appointment is for tomorrow at 11:00, not today. I had in my head that today was the 13th and continued with that assumption without checking it out. Like, before I made the phone call. Then, she said why don't we meet at a restaurant, and we can do our business over lunch. I said that would be just fine. It would have been dusty again tomorrow anyway!

~J~

Chicken CPR

A fun video was sent to me from my friend Lynn Thomas. It is a clip from a Jay Leno show. His guests are Terry Bradshaw, and a lady from Arkadelphia, AR, to tell her story about giving CPR to a chicken.

This is hilarious, if only for watching Terry unable to stop laughing.

Enjoy!

God Bless Colorado

I just have to laugh. I don't know why people have to control their lives. (And I'm one of them.) (Be quiet Wayne.) Colorado shows us everyday how futile that is. Yesterday we broke a record high of 75 degrees. No wind, just afternoon sunshine that felt hot on the skin. What a pleasurable respite from winter.

Amazingly, I must have automatically decided for my body that the day was the norm, because here I am freezing my self clear to the shivers. Today the temperature is 32 degrees, and the wind is blowing with a purpose, AND, there is snow covering the ground. I am absolutely unable to get warm. The furnaces are set at the very same setting they were yesterday, but today they too are grumbling and growling and seemingly not getting the job done.

Even Gizmo, curled up on my lap as I type, is only getting one small patch warm. When I stick my hand under his blanket, I get this dirty look as if to say, "What did you do that for, and get it out of here."

Well, I think I'll go now and get some cheese to go with my whine. Or even better, some hot chocolate, a lap quilt and a good book.

Have a good day. Til' next time ..... ~J~

"We are all different expressions of one reality, different songs of one singer, different dances of one dancer, different paintings - but the painter is one." -- Osho, Indian Spiritual Leader

Sun on my face!

Good evening! It is time for bed. It is hard to believe that this was the scene out front just a week or so ago, when they are predicting 70 degrees for tomorrow. Have been getting some sun on my face for days now. Yea! Need all the vitamin D I can get.

Tomorrow is breadfast with friends at the Double Clutch Cafe. A good thing to have to look forward to each week. This last week I wrote a poem for a poetry contest on PoetrySoup.com. The "rules" were that it had to be a 5 line vignette on a book author. I did mine on Dean Koontz. What do you think?

Fear

He draws you in
using compelling mental images
of atmosphere and entryways;
state rooms; glades; soft nudges.
Letting your fear flourish unaware.

All art, poetry and writings are copyright & cannot be reproduced in any form without written permission from Judith Angell Meyer --

Cat Story Number Five

This is the one you have all been waiting for. The last one. Well, maybe it is the one I have been waiting for! :-) Okay, Remember Tasha, the mother, taking the two remaining kittens into town where she knew she could find enough food for them. Well, they are in town now, and are found, actually outside of a shelter. The mother and the two kittens were in separate crates, and when they were adopted, it soon became apparent they were all the same family. They do have the same recognizable coloring. The three of them were adopted together.

The second illustration is a different story. They are two cats who were friends and spent the mornings sunning themselves on the fence. The owner of Jelly, the one on the right, built the ledge for them. The other cat there is Justin. He is the long lost son of May.

The cat's name in picture three is May, and she is looking longingly out the window of her adopted home. She had been separated from her son when he was very young, and spent hours at the window believing someday she would again come across his path. There is a cat in the distance where she is looking and as it turns out it is her long lost kitten now grown. (On the fence shown above, and barely visible.) She can tell he has a good life and a good home, so she can now rest easy and enjoy her own new home.

I have enjoyed sharing these stories with you. Thank you for your interest. I can save up all your wonderful compliments now for a cold and rainy day when I feel "abused." I'm so abused, can't you tell!

Now, to work on some poetry, and the illustrations for book three.

Love and appreciate you all. ~J~

All art, poetry and writings are copyright & cannot be reproduced in any form without written permission from Judith Angell Meyer

Cat Story Four

This is the story of Smokie. He is the one that was hit by a car. A good samaritan had picked him up and she took him to the vet. It was touch and go for a while, but he finally woke up from the surgery. Ali, the Dr's assistant wanted to take him home, but had two cats, and they were old and set in their ways. They laid around a lot and just knew that the new active kitten would not fit it, or would be shunned by the older pair.

As it turned out, with the injury to his leg, he wasn't so active and fit in well with Alexis and Athena. And he is no longer "The Little Gray Kitten," but has a new name. She calls him Apollo.

Ali had always been shy about a bad scar she had and never worn shorts, not wanting anyone to see it. But a scar didn't seem to bother Apollo, and he lived his life not caring what others thought. Watching him she thought that maybe she had been foolish and put on a pair of shorts and T-shirt and went out. The scar is there, but doesn't change who I am.

All art, poetry and writings are copyright & cannot be reproduced in any form without written permission from Judith Angell Meyer

Cat story three

This is the story of Lily. She is one of the four kittens who got lost. She was hiding under a car in a parking lot when she witnessed her brother Smokie being hit by a car. She ran away in fear and ended up taking refuge under a huge dumpster behind a store. She was rescued by a sweet man who took her home. But his apartment had rules against animals, and when Joe's girlfriend came over that night, she reminded him that he couldn't keep her. After a few days, he finally took her to the kennel.










His girlfriend noticed how much Joe was missing the adorable little kitten and finally decided she would go down to the kennel and see if she was still there. Her apartment allowed animals, so figured Lily could stay at her place. She was excited to surprise Joe. When she got there she spotted a kitten that looked just like Lily. His name was Grayson. He took to her right away, and she decided to adopt him for herself. The lady from the kennel, listening to her story said, "Follow me." They went to the back room where the lost and found was. There in the back was Lily.


She took them both home, and from that time on, much more time was spent at the girlfriend's apartment than Joe's. And the kittens got along great.

All art, poetry and writings are copyright & cannot be reproduced in any form without written permission from Judith Angell Meyer