Dancing with the Sandhill Cranes

Today has been an absolutely beautiful day. It was 63 at 5:30 this evening. I had to shed my flannel shirt while I was mowing the grass. I went for a three hour walk on the beach this afternoon and communed with the group of Cranes that were there. There was four pairs together, finding wonderful treats to eat in the sand. I of course had to find a few shells or the day would not have been complete. Beautiful days like this in Alaska are few and far between, yesterday it was wind and rain, but today....heaven!!
We can only hope it will be a glorious tomorrow. My tiny little "garden" is doing well so far, if we actually get any vegetables..well that will be a plus. I have so enjoyed puttering around. I think about the BIG garden we had in Oregon, what a joy when it was time to Harvest. Well, there was that one year when I planted way to many hills of Squash, and Manuel kept saying..you only need one..I believe I planted about ten hills. Sister Janna and I found every recipe we could for Zucchini..Relish, bread, cake, cookies, jelly, baked, fried, steamed, you name it we tried it. And I still had to set a box of them at the end of the driveway with a "Free" sign on it. If I get a mess or two of beans and maybe a squash or two from the tiny garden I will be happy. The only problem with days like today..nothing gets done around the house unless its outside. I can't bring myself to stay inside.
Now, if only our Children and Grandchildren were here to enjoy it with us. Well, I need to go back outside for awhile and enjoy the sunshine.
I made another pair of earrings from the pattern from Juanita, and when I get a moment I will post a photo. This pattern was the same as the other earrings, except the placement of the colors made a beautiful new pattern, I really love her patterns. Now back to the sunshine!

Beautiful Beads and Sunshine

Crazy summer weather again this year. One day its just beautiful and the next its rain and wind. Thats what it is doing today, so I finished a pair of earrings to match the bracelet I made yesterday. I purchased the patterns from Juanita Carlos who does beautiful patterns in many techniques. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Speaking of weather, Fathers day was the most beautiful day here. I helped with the Fathers Day breakfast at the Lodge and then made a run for the beach. Absolutely a glorious day. Jack and his friend Jan had breakfast at the Lodge then went up the road to Ninilchik to see the Traveling Wall..Vietnam Memorial. They had a beautiful day to go, although I'm not sure it didn't bring up old memories that were better left away. Anyway I am posting a picture of the Bracelet and earring set and also a picture I took out on the docks on Fathers Day.

May Bead Journal 2012

Hooray, I finished my journal piece for May before the month has ended. This month I put the beautiful Pheasant, that has been hanging around for the last month, on center stage. From all the strutting, and squawking he must be trying to attract a female somewhere near here.
May has been a typical Spring month. Some snow, some wind and quit a few rain showers.
Hope everyone is enjoying their journey with the Bead Journal Project. Happy Beading!

Both items have sold.

I found a great pattern to try for some earrings, the designer is Randy Drobny. They work up really nice. I made a pair to go with a cabachon necklace I made. I used Jade and Garnets. The center stone of the necklace is Ruby-Zoisite. I love how the colors look together. Then I made a simpler pair that look great also, just doing circular peyote.

March and April BJP

Finally, I am caught back up...for now. The piece for March features The fiesty little grey squirrel that thinks the bird feeder is his private stash and tries to run the birds off all the time. Tries, but they keep coming back and some days they gang up on the squirrel and he stays away for a day or two, but then returns with the same "I'm in Charge" attitude. April features one of the many Eagles that use our tree out front for a scouting post. They are all building nests now so the fight will be on with all the birds guarding their territories. Saw the Canada Geese yesterday and a friend posted that the Cranes are here already. I haven't heard them yet, but they usually nest in the swampy area down the road from us, so I'm sure we will see them soon. The moose will be dropping their babies next month, and the bears are out of their dens also, so.....mother natures family is on the move.

Spring is Coming........Right?

Spring really does seem to be on its way. The days are getting longer and we are having more Sunshine, and its even warm sunshine. It is 42 here today and its really beautiful. I have been working on two pictures for the Spring Watercolor show thats coming up in a couple of weeks. I think they are done....I just need to get them in their frames and leave them alone. I have finished a couple more simple necklaces for the Gallery, very simple. This is a fishing, skiing, outdoorsy town and the more intricately beaded pieces just don't sell, however, the tourists like them so I guess I should do a couple of more "Beady" pieces for summer. I just can't seem to focus with the sudden onset of Sunshine..I feel, well, almost frantic for some reason. I hate it when I feel this way....no direction, just scattered. I need to finish my March BJP before April is over..hate being behind...no one to blame but myself.
We went to the Lodge for Easter and watched the kids hunt for eggs, the snow was mostly gone out of the yard so they had a good time. We watched the Ravens watching the kids and when the Adults went to hide the eggs for the next group of little ones, one Raven decided he needed an egg too. He tried several times to get his beak around one and finally he just jabbed his beak into the egg and flew off with it, with the other ravens hot on his trail. It was such a beautiful day and the tide was a minus five, so a lot of people were down on the beach clamming. One unfortunate fella left his truck unattended and the tide came in and well, the truck disappeared under water. Don't know if he was able to get it out when the tide went back out or not. Well, anyway, I am posting my latest Watercolors and need to get back to work.

I am happy to report that both of these paintings sold this year.

January-February BJP

So I finally finished my February BJP which I call Hunger Moon..The young moose eating our Spruce tree..a true sign of the lack of available browse due to the depth of the snow in the higher areas. I wasn't real happy with myself for getting her nose so close to edge of the piece...but its finished. Now on to March...