PATRICIA THE PIGEON

Yesss--it's finally getting cooler! Now the mallards are coming back to the park. And the ducklings born last year aren't afraid of people so come right up to you.

The bird I sketched wasn't the mallard tho', since I've drawn them so many times. Even the crow, I noticed I've done a surprising number of times. Rather, I saw a single cooing bird drop in among the foraging fowl on the grass so decided to draw her.

She flew away just a tad too quick tho'. I wonder if she heard the adage instead of people wishing you'd hurry up and leave, it's better to have them wish you could've stayed longer.

JUST THE BEST...OR BENDABLE?

I guess I was interested, but at the same time, I wasn't interested. I was interested in drawing pretty flowers, but I wanted to draw flowers smiling in the sun, swaying in the breeze. I wasn't interested in just pretty flowers.

Even in this sketch of the pigeon, the field flowers are drawn bent at 45-degree angles, and the petals aren't distinct at all.

Am I doing my utmost to be the best soul I can possibly be? Maybe it would be better to be willing to let God bend me however He wants. After all, He may not be interested in mere pretty souls.

Disappointed? They'll be Happy!

The neck was too thick, the tail much too long, the iridescence wasn't showing...the pigeons are actually beautiful--what was wrong with me...why couldn't I get it right...why was it looking like this?!...I wanted to throw away my drawing.

"Just finish it. I can talk to them," the Lord whispered to me. "I'm sure they'll be perfectly pleased to know there's an artist who cries not to be able to portray them as beautiful as they deserve, June."

I added the little yellow butterfly I'd seen flying around the pigeon and showed her the drawing the next time I went to the park, hoping she wasn't too disappointed with it. Actually, I'm hope it was the same bird.

JUST PARK ANIMALS

Call me crazy. But I tell you, SOMEONE who reads blogs is telling the critters at the park about the posts!

Because I wrote about the animals in Okinawa coming out where it was warmer, and not to be outdone, when I went back to the park up here in Iwatsuki, altho' it's still Feb., in one day I was met with spot-billed mallards, greenhead mallards, egrets, great blue herons, kawasemi, turtles, carp, pigeon, wagtail, thrush, and the usual crow and sparrow.

Then I wrote about the Cormorant, and from the neighboring river, not only did the cormorant come to the park, and not only did he bring a companion, but as I wrote in my post, he brought 2!

Yesterday, I posted a drawing made 2 years ago, made from imagination. I found another one made of the birds at the park, but it included the Starling. Altho' I thought about posting it, I said to myself I haven't seen Starlings here for months now (it is an autumn bird), so maybe I shouldn't post it...but when I walked into the park this afternoon, guess what bird first met my eye? The Starling!

"Starlings don't wink, do they?" I e-mailed my sister. It felt like this one did!

Today, for reasons I won't go into, I didn't take my memo or drawing pens with me. But it seems the birds were all smiling and trying to keep me guessing. Egrets, kawasemis, herons, crows, wagtails, thrushes were all out, joined by turtles and carp.

"What? You think we can understand human words or something?" they seemed to say; "We're just park animals!"