Watercolor Woman

 After a long time I'm joining Nicole's Friday Face Off again with this watercolor I did quite a while ago. I had mixed both colors until I liked them - the blue is actually more of a light blue-green, kind of teal color that my camera didn't capture. The stars are stencilled on with acrylic paint. I was really happy with this painting until I changed the background by adding swirls and stenciled shapes, and I didn't like it at all. To make things even worse I tried to cover it up with titanium buff which didn't work either. I guess I have to live with it. Lesson learned - if you're happy with a painting, don't fiddle with it anymore.

The Orioles are Back!

 

Every spring I'm waiting for the return of the Hooded Oriole (Icterus cucullatus), these beautiful bright orange-yellow birds who spend the summer in our neighborhood. But this spring I was taken by surprise. Last Friday morning I had stepped out into the garden as I do every morning. I walked around, looking at my plants when I heard some lively chatter. It actually took a couple moments until it registered and I thought "that's an oriole - but it's too early!". I turned around, searching at the hummingbird feeder in the pineapple guava - and sure enough, there he was, perching on the feeder and taking a few good sips of the sweet nectar. March 22 - this was the earliest I had ever seen him in my garden (I write it down every year). In a few days he will bring his female companion to the feeder as well. So I went and filled a little orange bowl with grape jelly (they love this) and hung it in the tree as well.

The nectar that the Hooded Oriole is drinking is my ticket to this week's T Tuesday, so graciously hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth. By the way, the feeder is not dirty, even tough it looks like it in the picture.

I continue to heal and walk much better by now, however, I'm still rather slow. I have started to do a few exercises for the knee and hope that the occasional pain will eventually disappear. I'm still not allowed to drive though since I drive a stick and working the clutch might still be a bit difficult (and painful).

Here he is digging into the grape jelly - sorry for the very pixelated photo.

Short Update

 

Hello everybody, this is just a short update to let you know that my knee surgery went well and I'm back home recovering. The first couple days were very painful and I was thankful that my doctor had prescribed "happy pills", but by now I need them much less and hope to discontinue them soon. I am able to hobble around and can even get up and down the stairs (it takes a while, though). My neighbor - the owner of the cat who has taken up residence in my garden - gave me her cadillac of a walker and that was a big help during the first two days. But now I can hobble without help, albeit rather clumsily. It will get better eventually. The hospital staff before and after surgery were wonderful, nice and kind, and I felt very well taken care of. Now my husband is taking care of me and he is simply wonderful - a true keeper!

My sweet daughter sent me the card at the top, it says "Get well" ("Gute Besserung") and I was supposed to find all the items along the edges of the card in the picture. As you can see, a teacup is included and that is my ticket to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday. Happy T day to all of you!

The 366 Project: February

This T Tuesday post will only be a short one. On Friday I'll have my knee surgery and there is still a lot to do before that - as long as I can still walk! I have no idea how long it will take afterwards until I will be fully able to walk again (I'm already dreaming of my first hike), but I guess I'll become a master in hopping (just in time for Easter!).

Anyway, another month went by and I continued my 366 project of taking (at least) one photo every day.

There is one photo I want to show you in a bigger size - our daughter sent us a "care package" with lots of delicious German sweets that we like - Aachener Printer (in the paper bag), coffee chocolate, Duplo, nougat, "Hungarian" chips and more. She knows exactly what we like - she is such a wonderful person (I say this completely unbiased of course).

For Bleubeard and Elizabeth I have Italian grapefruit soda from Trader Joe's. Both the Geek and I like grapefruit and this soda isn't too sweet, but in the end I just prefer water. It was a good try, though, and I like the label on the glass bottle.

Last but not least, here are the ATC and postcards that I received from Elizabeth. I had wanted to post this before, but somehow always forgot to do it. Finally - thank you so much, Elizabeth! I think you know that I especially like this sweet ATC.

I wish all of you a good week and a lovely T Tuesday.