At Home, between Teaching Gigs

It seems like I just got home from teaching at Peters Valley, and it's time to leave again! I'm teacing starting tomorrow at Valley Ridge Art Studio near Muscoda, Wisconsin. I made a blog entry in June, in which I wrote all about Valley Ridge and showed cool pix of it.


Jimmy's great-niece Tazia, (Lisa's daughter, and Karen's granddaughter) is showing a big interest in learning to draw, and every time we get together,  she wants me to help her with her drawing progress. Here she was drawing the horse she'd trained with all week, at riding camp.


Jimmy's been working hard on the He-man Woman Haters Club clubhouse, aka our shed. last year, when a tree messed up the roof, after Hurricane Gustav, Duane put a new roof on the shed. And now Jimmy's painted the shed and replaced some rotting wood along its bottom sides. It's looking pretty spiffy, sez our friend Emerson.


Sunday evening, August 2, Jimmy and I drove up to Lakewood, to see GEM (Gretchen, Eva, and Mike) and took a picnic to Lakewood Park, to hear a big band. Here's me and Gretchen, and behind us, Mike and Eva. Lakewood has a whole series of free concerts every summer, and the last one of this year's season was yesterday. Now we've got to wait til next year!


Gretchen and Eva snuggle on the picnic blanket, and we enjoy the music. Eva's school is next to the park, and the girls go swimming at the big pool here at the park, all summer. The park and school are both right at the shore of Lake Erie, which looks like an ocean, by the way! It's beautiful!


The band was Cleveland TOPS Swing Band, made up of many professional musicians who are now retired elders, but who keep active by taking their great big band sound around, and entertaining us lucky listeners. The oldest guy is 93 now, and used to be in the Boston Symphony and then the Cleveland Orchestra! They were HOT! My dad woulda loved it! We sure did!


Jimmy and Eva listened to the music and told each other stories.


GEM snuggled on the blanket in a sweet little family heap. And then pretty soon it was time to go home. We went back to GEM's house for a little bit, and then made our hourlong drive home. How I miss my Panny Nanny days and being a couple of short blocks away from GEM's house, in my granny pad for part of each week!


This is the most recent sketch for my next big piece, "Two of Cups." I hope to start it after I return from my teaching trip to Wisconsin.

One more thing: You can go to YouTube and watch the movie I made as my very first ever video: Jimmy Cleans his Glasses, made August 7, the night I got my Flip video camera. :)

Enjoy yourselves! Love, Lucky