A beautiful sunny morning after too long without.

The heat wave finally broke! It's been weeks!

the songs of robins — been a long time coming

It's already April! March went by so fast!

Seeing robins on the first day of spring — always a good thing.

Not long after we moved to our new house, we discovered a special tree in our neighbourhood. In September it turned a bright, pure, complete and lovely yellow. I loved seeing it as I drove by.



It got to the point where I looked forward to every fall to go by The Yellow Tree® again.

Last fall, I went by in September and it was gone. It had been so thoroughly removed that the stump was dug up, the hole sodded over, and you would never suspect that there had ever been a tree there.

It makes me feel old when I outlive some of the things I love.

My ninth gouache is a chipmunk, done on watercolour paper 8 x 10. Once again, the painting was a gift for a friend [who loves chipmunks] so I had to wait til they received it before sharing it here.

I wanted the foliage to be cool as a contrast to the warmth of the chipmunk's coat, but I'm not sure I pulled that off all that well. Keep trying.

A perfect morning: the temperature and humidity are amazing, the breeze is light and fresh, the sun and sky are gorgeous, the trees are full and the birds are happy. I want to remember that we do get days like this here.

A dull, wet morning here is being brightened by robins, who are out there singing out regardless!

a punk robin** singing exuberantly in the tree in my front yard

** the top of its head is all like little tiny spikes