April 21 ::
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Maria and I traveled home from Houston on Easter Sunday. It was such a happy scene at the airport, meeting Geoff and the boys. We had lunch at
Pop Pie, then walked around the lagoon, where we saw lots of bunnies, flowers, and a mother with her ducklings... all lovely and soothing, and quintessentially
spring.
April 22 ::
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It's always a bit odd when after traveling and being in a completely other world...
like a massive robotics competition in Texas, chaperoning high school students, watching fire works in a stadium with R2D2 and then the very next morning everything is back to routine, to
normal. Maria didn't have even a day to get out of Central Time, before it was back to school, and catching up from missing 3 days of classes. On the way back from taking Max to his dorm, I stopped to appreciate all the wild flowers still thriving along our coast. Wherever I travel, near or far, it keeps me balanced, and thankful, when I can slow down enough to look around and recognize the beauty of my surroundings.
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Speaking of
back to routine, while Maria and I were away, Mike was still repairing and in some cases rebuilding our home. In this case finishing the backside of the job Geoff and I tackled in the kitchen when we found a couple of plumbing leaks. We replaced our faucet, but bigger problems were lurking in the wall...
and this is the cleaned-up view!
Maria needed to catch up with her classes, and sos did I. I realized that it was all of the home projects in the house that were keeping me from doing painting homework, so I took my supplies out to the workshop, and dove into the assignment... impressionist-Monet style water lily painting. And I took pictures of each step, following the lessons about layering, about values, and medium, the oil/paint/turpentine ratios. I appreciate stepping back and seeing how the painting begins and develops. However beginner-bad my final painting is, I think seeing how it evolves makes the end result more interesting.
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And of course, with oil paint, I can't keep working through. I have to stop, let the paint dry, before I can move forward. So, laundry, cooking, and happily...
slowing down to look around, recognize the beauty of my surroundings.
April 25 ::
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William and I went to visit all of the signs of spring at
Quail aka
San Diego Botanical Garden. Thank you, Moments.
April 26 ::
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Next time I decide to paint water lilies, I think I will leave Monet at Giverny, and I will sit at Quail for inspiration.
(Back-blogged June 27, 2019.)