Sep 30, 2023
I don't really know what you look like!
Sep 29, 2023
I Sketched Him Six Times This Month!
Snorkel and Ruby didn't come tho', so today's picture is only of the birds. Also, I felt like much of the detail in the original sketch would be lost if I colored the whole thing, so after talking it over with Kinya, I decided to color only the birds.
At the tail end of my park visit this morning, I noticed the cameramen were engrossed with the six grown ducklings who showed up at one pond and were swimming together. I left the charming sight and came to a quiet corner. In a few minutes, I heard a familiar call--it was Peter the Kawasemi! I showed him the drawing, thanking him for posing this morning--and all month, for that matter!
Sep 27, 2023
THEY MOVED
I told them I'd drawn all of them before, but they told me they'd moved from Duck Pond to Step Creek.
Sep 23, 2023
IT'S ALL COLORED IN, M&M
Sep 22, 2023
ANYONE FOR FISH?
I turned away the Dragonfly, Turtle, and Mallards, since I'd drawn them with the Kawasemi before, but if you look really close, you can see a Carp in the water, swishing its tail.
Sep 21, 2023
DO WE BELONG TO HIM?
Beetles' inner wings are so fine--translucent--and hard to catch open, since they get retracted very quickly as soon as the insects land--but this one showed me not only its copper colored capes, but his golden striped waistcoat as well.
Sep 20, 2023
THIS IS MY FATHER'S WORLD
I almost seemed to hear, "Don't forget: this is still my universe."
Sep 19, 2023
I WONDER IF THEY MISSED ME
It's the 19th, the day to go back to Iwatsuki, but I thot I'd load a few more reference photos before going home.
Sep 18, 2023
EVEN CROWS KNOW THAT
Sep 16, 2023
ELIZABETH KNEW TOO
Sep 15, 2023
GOD'S TAKE-AWAY'S
Altho' it seems like I won't be able to go to the park, I'll be posting a picture from Step Creek while away. It was done yesterday morning in black and white.
Meanwhile--today's post is about something totally unrelated, from the last two photos taken of an apartment building going up nearby. One shows a worker forming the front steps; the last shows how the cement has hardened, and the plywood guides have been removed. This reminded me of a conversation I had with my Mom years ago.
Like those wooden planks were taken away when the cement was set?
Sep 13, 2023
MALLARD STUFF TODAY
This morning's picture was with the mallards. But the post, much too small, makes Peter's prize catch of the fish trailing from his beak look like his belly! Maybe I should've drawn its tail flicking to the right. Next time.
In fact, afterwards, I saw him at Step Creek with all 6 ducklings. This is M&M. Er, maybe he was with Nancy plus her 5 grown ducklings. Now that they're so big, I can't differentiate them from their mother anymore.
Sep 10, 2023
Just felt like it - RESIDENT ALIEN
I know I just posted some photos, so it isn't time for a photo story yet, but I just felt like posting it...
Sep 8, 2023
UM...TODAY IS SHOW AND TELL?
Here's the picture. It rained hard today, so I stayed home and worked on it! While sitting at my desk. I got an unexpected call from Yoshitaka Ishikawa, from Okinawa.
We'd cheered him on in a soap box derby when he was in junior high; he taught Sunday School then went onto Bible School, married, returned to pastor the village church. At my Dad's funeral, he said Daddy introduced him, not just to Christ, but also to lemonade (Sept. 8, 2016 post). He is the pastor who came to my stepmother's funeral and sat behind the person she led to the Lord 50 years ago.Wait--how did that happen? I was going to show you a picture but ended up telling you about Ishikawa Sensei!
Well...I hope you enjoyed the picture of the carp, damselfly (can you even see it on the rock???), and toad. I TOLD Moark to come out even a little, that I could hear him, but can't SEE his beautiful croaks. You'll have to imagine him under those leaves there on the right side, ok?
Sep 7, 2023
THIRSTY, PUPPY?
Isn't that the way God is gentle with us and gives us things in small increments we're able to handle, I said. I had to get a picture. I found myself snapping a photo, then rushing home.
Right now, it looks like this:
Sep 5, 2023
FIGURING OUT SOME THINGS
A more experienced photographer might've been able to do something like this on purpose, but not me. God had me stand at the right place where the light would shine into the lens at just the right angle--I couldn't tell you how it was done. But the picture seems to sing out how my heart was feeling to be able to get out and see my park friends again.
Yeah, some things I used to grumble about, I realize later on can actually be blessings. He just knows I take a while before I figure out some of these things.
Sep 3, 2023
HE WANTS TO BE WITH ME!
I guess Peter the Kawasemi (below) understood I really wanted to practice some more. He came around again today and posed in the same pond on a different boulder, but this time, instead of saying hello to a dragonfly, I caught him looking down at a turtle poking his snout out of the water. (That's ↓ supposed to be a turtle's head!)
It boggles my mind how God can take time with his individual creatures--with me--wow.
Sep 1, 2023
GETTING THE BASICS
It was cool this morning too--78.8 by 5--so I got out to the park, and as I went in the back "turnstile gate", I heard the Kawasemi bird's call from Duck Pond. it was resting on a perch one of the cameramen had set up there for it. Excited, I began sketching.
Getting the basics down is so necessary and worth it, isn't it? Having been away from the park for a month, I'll have to work at drawing from real life. Anyway.. . Here is today's sketch of Peter and a dragonfly.
After my park visit this morning, I wondered if my son didn't have to go to work today; he was still in bed. Then I remembered I'd tried to come home while it was still cool. It wasn't time to get up yet.