Week flying by

I'm woefully behind in my reading already this year, but I do have this little one to offer. STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS, by Catherine Goldhammer, is a wonderful memoir of a difficult time in the author's life. Newly divorced and moving downward financially, mother and 12-year old daughter move to a decrepit house by the sea. Months of remodeling follow and taking up chicken raising does too.

This book caught my attention because, as I write, my own coop is being designed and built. Soon there will be a chicken coop in MY back yard! Ohmygod, I have no idea what to do with it and the more I read and learn, the more spooked I become. But I want the fresh eggs, I want my inner farm girl to have a chance to develop, but oh, I sense a plunge into the unknown just lurking.

I turned around and it was already Wednesday, a week half spent. This morning Steve and I worked on the community bike path. There's a one-block stretch, with our name on signs at each end, and our responsibility to mow, pull weeds and pick up trash and unmentionables.

The work comes in bunches. Months go by and we do absolutely nothing. And then it's spring and the weeds are three feet tall. It was raining when they were growing so we couldn't work then, and then we had our own scheduling snafus to deal with. So now we're dedicating Wednesday mornings to the task until we get caught up.

It was work, but fun work, because we saw and greeted a stream of moms pushing their babies in strollers, runners and walkers were doing their thing and a community of dogs was being walked.

I hope this little painting looks like a fox. I took the idea from THE CHINESE BRUSH PAINTING BIBLE, by Jane Dwight, but I didn't use her recommended materials, or her technique. Which is one way of saying that her example looks a lot better! I'm intrigued. I'd like to purchase the correct inks and brushes and see if I can learn this rather sparse way of depicting images.