Dog Romp

In the chilly mornings, right after breakfast, is our gangs’ favorite time for a raucous romp. I like to walk out with my coffee and watch. I get many a morning chuckle out of this.

Most of the time I just try to stay out of the way. On this morning a few weeks back, I took my camera out to capture the shenanigans. One of these days we’re going to get a video camera, but until then, while you’re scrolling through these you have to imagine that at any one moment four or five dogs out of the six are barking their silly faces off. And their voices cover quite a range, from Matilda’s cute little raspy bark to Blue’s long, deep bay and Sophie’s drama queen squeal, and everything in between. Good thing we live out in the country.

So. Here we go.

The morning games usually start with everyone standing around after breakfast, kind of scoping each other out.

Then somebody will get the ball rolling.

More often than not, that somebody is Andy.

Things begin to get a little revved up in the arena as everyone joins in.

A little trash talk is bandied about.

Andy teases everyone with a little false start ...

and ...

THEY’RE OFF!

A surprise move from Blue as he lunges for the tail ...

and the crowd goes wild!

Hey, wait a second ... where did everybody go?

SQUIRREL!

What? How can barking at squirrells

POSSIBLY be more fun than chasing ME?

C’mon!

And ... THEY’RE OFF ... again!

WATER BREAK!

Did you see me running with the big dogs?

So, are we gonna go again, or what?

OK! One more time ... out to the tree and back!

Last one back’s a rotten egg!

Hey, you didn’t touch the tree ... no fair!

*Whew!* I’m tuckered out!

LATER THAT MORNING ...

zzzzzz ...

zzzzzz ..

.

double zzzzzz ...

zzzzzz ...

Hmm ... I know there’s a squirrell up there somewhere ...

A Hymn of Thanksgiving

The leaves of this crepe myrtle right outside our back door were glorious with yesterday’s late afternoon sun shining through.

I’ve been busy with painting rooms again, trying to spruce everything up for the holidays! And yesterday I painted a coffee table, which was a curbside find I’ve been using in the parlor.

We were planning a trip to Florida to join family for Thanksgiving, but Paul has an infection from an abrasion on the bottom of his foot, and is on crutches for a few weeks, so we decided not to make the trip this year. Instead, we’re going to some friends’ house in town for our holiday dinner. I’m bringing snickerdoodles and blackberry cobbler. Yum.

Just wanted to pop in and wish you all and Happy Thanksgiving, and share one of my absolute favorite hymns, For the Beauty of the Earth, words by Folliott S. Pierpoint:

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which
from our birth
Over and around us lies.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn
of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale,
and tree and flower,
Sun and moon,
and stars of light.

For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind’s delight,
For the mystic harmony
Linking sense to sound and sight.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth
and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts
and mild.

For each perfect gift of Thine,
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of Heaven.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn
of grateful praise.


Happy Thanksgiving, all!

The finished painting and a beautiful sunset

Here’s the final version of the oak tree painting:


In the Morning II © 2010 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
30 x 30 inches • oil on 2" cradled Gessobord
SOLD • private collection, Shreveport, Louisiana

After my last post, Denise asked if the painting she bought from me was the first In the Morning, but no, Denise, your painting is Oak Tree on a September Morning, pictured on the left. But you were right - it is the same tree as in this latest painting.


The first In the Morning, pictured on the right, was an acrylic I did back when we were still living in town. It’s one of the first ones I did after we moved back to Shreveport, and still is one of my favorites. Unless it’s moved since then, it lives in Greenville, Mississippi now.

Sometimes I miss living in town, but only sometimes. This afternoon, when I walked out to the road right around 5:20, this is the sight that greeted me:


How blessed am I, to be surrounded by such beauty every day!

Shorter days ... more painting-in-progress

In the Morning II WORK IN PROGRESS
30x30 • oil on Gessobord


Here’s my progress on the big oak tree ... boy, I’m really feeling the crunch of the fewer daylight hours already, and it’s not even November yet! I’m going to have to start pushing morning chores back to evening so I can get more painting time in, I think.

Paul and I are going to see a friend of ours appearing in a play tonight over at Eastbank Theatre. I have to run and get ready to go!

Later, taters!

Louisiana landscape oak tree paintingwork in progress ...

In the Morning II WORK IN PROGRESS
30x30 • oil on Gessobord


Here’s the oak tree painting so far ... I’m now at the point where I’m letting the spirit move me, referring to the actual subject matter only occasionally. Fun, fun, fun!

Oh, by the way, the kitchen floor? I don’t have any photos of my adventure yet, but underneath a layer of vinyl flooring from the ’80’s and a layer of lineoleum from about the ’30’s ... tongue-in- groove heart-of-pine wood floor!

It’s going to take some doing to get the tar-like adhesive off the wood. I’ve been doing some online research and have found out that it’s extremely difficult, but NOT impossible. It will probably take until Christmas. I think it’s going to be totally worth it, though.

Gotta go cook supper now ... cheerio!

Beginning of an oak tree painting ...

In the Morning II WORK IN PROGRESS
30 x 30 oil on cradled Gessobord


I’ve started a large painting of one of the live oaks in our front yard ... I got the underpainting finished today.

Now it’s getting too dim to paint, so I’m off to rip up the old linoleum off the kitchen floor.

Hmmm, I wonder what I’ll find under there ...
I can hardly wait to find out!