For The Birds

Finally, we've had a couple of partial days of sunshine which were appreciated greatly. Wednesday while sitting in my art class, I looked out the window to see the first robin of the season.

Today I made a delivery to my shop in Castroville, and have to drive most of the 50 mile distance on rural roads. I thought maybe I would see more robins on the trip, but I didn't. However I did see some kind of a bird of prey...it was really pretty...not a hawk or a Mexican Eagle, but a raptor of some kind. Also, the meadowlarks were out, and I saw an emu loose on the side of the road coming home.

I had lunch with the shop owner at Castroville and a friend who also sells to the shop, and does quite a few of the same shows as I do. We had a very nice time visiting and the food was good, too. I've taken the rest of the day off, but must get back to the grindstone tomorrow. I have a small inventory built ahead now, but it won't take it long to deplete once show season starts up in earnest.

Edited to add....I found out what my unknown bird was. It's a Crested Caracara...very pretty.

Sunshine On My Shoulder

This morning brought a bright sunshine to burn the fog away. Although we were only supposed to have a chance of sunshine this afternoon, I'm glad the weatherman was wrong today. I ran out to Wal Mart the first thing to get my shopping out of the way so I could come home to enjoy the rest of the day. After lunch I took the dogs for a walk which was long overdue for them as well as for myself. The sun was so bright I think I may have gotten a touch of sunburn on the back of my neck, the sun sure felt hot there. Then I spent some time digging up a small plot for some mesclun and turnip greens and planted the seeds. Our sunshine isn't supposed to last long, as cold, cloudy and rainy weather is due to return tonight, but it was enjoyed while it was here. We really have needed the rain because we've been in a drought for several years now. I just wish it weren't several weeks at a time before we had a sunny day! For now, they are saying we may have some sunshine later in this coming week. That would be nice.

Weather Woes

I'm really tired of the cold,cloudy and wet weather that we've been having for the past couple of weeks. I'd love to have an afternoon of sunshine even if it was cold. My past two shows have been rained out which makes paying my mounting bills hard to do. Last weekend I was on the Riverwalk and there were about 12,000 people in town for conventions just a block or 2 away and they should have given us lots of business except that the rain and cold temps kept them and all the other tourists holed up in their motel rooms, restaurants and/or bars. (3,500 of them were Meteorologists) Business was so bad that most of the vendors (myself included) packed up and left on Sunday morning, not wanting to endure another day of slow torture by the weather gods.

Earlier this week we had frozen precipitation which was really pretty, but pretty well closed down a good chunk of this part of the state. It cancelled my art club meeting Tues. evening as well as my class on Wed. I'm by no means ready for our blazing summer but would love to see the sunshine again for a bit! It does make for nice soup weather, and hot tea weather. The animals are all enjoying lying in front of the gas stove or the woodburner. I can only get away with doing that for a day or 2 before I have to get back out in the studio to work and look at the drippy weather as I do so.

Houston, I have landed and flopped.

Yesterday I did a market in Houston. The first time I had been to the show, I thought it would be nice to try a new venue, but should have stayed home. I did have a good time while there, except for the not making any money part, and the drive home. I left on Friday afternoon to stay with a friend who was doing the show also, and lives about 45 minutes from the location. We had a nice time chatting and "wining" that evening and I truly appreciated her and her husband's hospitality. The weather was really not the best weather to entice customers to come out and shop. The clouds were very low and it looked as if it would rain at just any time, and it was chilly but not too terribly cold. Thankfully, the rain held off just until we were getting the last couple of items in our vehicles at the end of the day. I did have to drive most of the way home in rain, several times in downpours. I stopped about 75 miles out of Houston to get gas, pulled up to a pump before noticing the whole pump area was under several inches of water, so I pulled across the street to another with a dryer "landing pad". So now, it's back to the drawing board, I have to get jewelry made for a show this Fri.-Sun. , and my inventory for it is very low, so I have to really bust my backside this week.