Tuesday, and we’re already off to the races because: a) Mary has her painting class, and b) I had to wait for Home Depot to deliver a new refrigerator.
While I was working in the garage, I had some time to think — always dangerous — and today my thoughts wandered to my sons and grandsons. And you know what? I’m really proud of those guys. They may not keep the refrigerator running, but they’ve turned out pretty cool anyway.
I am proud of my kids and grandkids; they are good boys!
Mary went off to school, and I worked in the garage, adding many items to the donation box and getting the old fridge ready to be moved out and replaced! The garage shop is looking pretty good, but I still have a ways to go!
When Mary returned, she gave me a rose! She has been wanting to paint a rose for months now, ever since Dianne got her Christmas presents, five roses for her new flower bed.
Mary has not named it yet!
Fun facts about the beautiful art of watercolor painting
- Watercolor is one of the oldest painting methods, with roots in ancient cave paintings and Egyptian manuscript art.
- Traditional watercolor paint is made from pigment mixed with a binder, usually gum arabic.
- The white in watercolor paintings often comes from the paper itself, rather than white paint.
- Watercolor became especially popular in Europe during the Renaissance for botanical and scientific illustrations.
- Famous artists who used watercolor include J.M.W. Turner, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Paul Cézanne.
- Watercolor is known for being difficult to control because it relies heavily on water flow, paper absorbency, and timing.
- The technique of painting wet paint onto wet paper is called “wet-on-wet.”
- Painting onto dry paper is called “wet-on-dry,” and it usually creates sharper edges.
- Watercolor paper is often made from cotton because it absorbs water well and resists warping.
- Many watercolorists use masking fluid to preserve white areas before painting over them.
- Transparent watercolor allows light to pass through layers of pigment and reflect off the paper, giving it a luminous effect.
- Some historic watercolor pigments were made from unusual materials, including minerals, plants, and even insects.
- Gouache is related to watercolor but is more opaque because it contains larger pigment particles or added white pigment.
- Watercolor paints are available in pans, tubes, and liquid form.
- In the 18th and 19th centuries, watercolor was often used by travelers to quickly record landscapes before photography became common.
I of course instantly framed it using my handy dandy ImageFramer software,
I need to teach Mary how to use the software; she would make MUCH better frames than I!
As she rolled in from her painting adventure, I was still out there putting things away and pretending I had everything under control. Naturally, she took one look at the situation, changed into work clothes, and came to assist me—because apparently “standing around looking confused” is not a recognized home-improvement strategy.
We be a team! A slightly sweaty, mildly disorganized, but highly effective team.
Later in the day, we celebrated our productivity with a gourmet feast: homemade cucumber salad, corn on the cob picked DIRECTLY from the garden—so fresh it was probably still gossiping with the stalk—and the old reliable classic: wieners and sauerkraut. Fine dining, backyard edition.
And the reduced-calorie meals must be working, because I have once again dropped below 196! That means I’m officially lighter, healthier, and still emotionally dependent on hot dogs.
While Mary got ready to go into the pool, I pranced around the yard with my camera ready to shoot the next Academy Award-winning still life.
Old Gray, Bambi, and Foxy told me they would stay still. Not for me, but to assure Mary’s wet paint would not be affected. I got them just in time before they all scampered off to their usual resting places.
Old Gray, Bambi, and Foxy love their new paint jobs!!
The new batch of apples is coming along well, and in a couple of months we will have fresh apples to pick!
Fun Trivia Facts About Apples
- There are 7,500+ varieties of apples grown around the world.
- Apples are part of the rose family, along with pears, peaches, cherries, and strawberries.
- The science of apple growing is called pomology.
- Apples float because they are about 25% air.
- The crabapple is the only apple native to North America.
- Apple trees can take 4–10 years to produce fruit, depending on the variety.
- The world’s largest apple-producing country is China.
- A medium apple has about 95 calories and is a good source of fiber.
- “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” first appeared in a similar form in 19th-century Wales.
- Apples come in many colors, including red, green, yellow, pink, and even nearly black-purple varieties.
- The seeds contain tiny amounts of amygdalin, which can release cyanide, but you’d have to chew and eat a large number of seeds for it to be dangerous.
- The famous “forbidden fruit” in the Garden of Eden is often shown as an apple, but the Bible doesn’t actually name the fruit.
They are just babies now.
The whirlygigs are still spinning, and these old timers have turned four years old! Mary may have to get her paints out again and spruce him up a bit.
Turn turn turn
The Sun is setting, revealing pink clouds to the West of us! Venus will be visible in about 30 minutes.
It was still in the 80s at 8:00 pm!
High above Fred’s house, the pink clouds seem to be floating around, enjoying life!
Sunset was at 9:58 pm today!
As I swung the camera, the Moon seemed to grow larger!
I felt like breaking into song, but I was strongly encouraged not to!
As I departed the pool, Mary was reeling in the creepy-crawly so it would pick up some leaves on the bottom of the pool.
The water was nice and warm and felt wonderful after a hard day of piddling around.
After drying off, we headed to the office where Mary shelled a mess of dried green beans and added them to our collection of emergency beans. I played with the computer, cleaning up some oldies and goodies from days gone by.
At 11:00 p.m., we took a vote and headed to bed!
