Egret in a Tree

Egret in a Tree / oil on canvas / 4x12 / $88, including shipping

 

sold! 

I WONDER, EVERY YEAR, about the purpose of fruit flies. Every fall, they show up, bothersome and difficult to control. They seem to come out of nowhere. They seem to have no reason for being. I can't imagine that they make anything better. 

I have the identical thoughts, every election time, about political TV ads. 

***

Dog of the Day

I hope this plays. I will also load it on YouTube, so click HERE if you can't play it right from the blog. Every morning on the walk, we take the dogs to the ball park, which is also sort of a dog park. Lulu, amazing, beautiful Lulu, races around the perimeter, just flying! Sometimes Doc goes with her, but lately, he's been staying in the infield and playing with Koko. 

***

Coda

"Color is my daylong obsession, joy and torment." 

- Claude Monet

Eastern Mockingbird

 Eastern Mockingbird / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68

sold! 

YESTERDAY AFTERNOON, I cheered on the sidelines of a neighborhood bocce game, on Wachapreague's new bocce court, over by the firehouse. 

I have no interest in bocce, but it was Jeannie's birthday, and I like Jeannie, and also most of the Wachapreague women (Wachawomen) who participate in these bocce things. And it was a beautiful October day, with golden sunshine and that particular sweet warmth that seems to come only on the heels of a crisp morning. 

And I knew that my friend Liesl - Our Favorite Austrian - would be there. I had a pleasant time, chatting with Liesl and the girls, and as I walked home, I thought about how instrumental she has been in my healing after Peter's death. 

She was one of the first to come by, in those early, awful days. She came with another neighbor, Anne, and they didn't insist on coming in, just stood on the doorstep and told me how sorry they were, gave me a pretty bag, and went away. In the bag was a sympathy card, a bag of chocolates and a bag of dog treats that instantly became my gang's favorite. 

In time, Liesl began to visit, walking into the house, completely unafraid, even though at that point, the dogs were still wild and undisciplined, and Doc responded to his fear of everything by snarling and snapping at people. 

She offered to help with them, and to my amazement, and out of necessity, I agreed to let her help. 

Early in the winter - and it was this that I remembered yesterday - she invited me and a few others to her house for dinner. 

To back up a little, a thing that happened after Peter's death was that I really couldn't see people. For weeks after he died, I didn't let anybody in the house. I drove to Maryland to do my grocery shopping, so that I wouldn't run into anyone I knew. I avoided the post office for so long that the postmistress, a truly kind person, called and asked if I would like her to bring me my mail. I said no, and she volunteered to stay late one day so I could come over after the post office closed, and get my mail, cutting down on the chance of running into anyone. 

I don't understand the mechanisms of my need to see no one. I just knew that I couldn't, and that especially, I couldn't run into people unprepared. 

Little by little, I came out of it, and so, in the winter, I agreed to go to supper at Liesl's. But as the day approached, I realized I couldn't. I could not sit at a table and make conversation with several people I knew only slightly - and, crying, I called her and told her. 

She was as kind as could be, and insisted that I still come - but she would uninvite the others, who all were neighbors, and would understand. And so she did, and so I did. 

I had known Liesl mostly from seeing her walking. She walked pretty much every day, as far as I could tell, sometimes with people, sometimes with people's dogs, sometimes alone - but her walking was a constant. I would admire her, straight and slim, striding - always with very good posture - through town. 

When she asked if I would like to walk with her and the dogs, I said yes, and that, as much as anything, has changed my life, and helped speed and strengthen my recovery. 

We have walked nearly every morning. The dogs have learned some manners, and have started to be socialized. The walks have brought me daily exercise, and fresh air, and have helped me start to be socialized again. They give me a way to start every day. A plan, a task, something regular and manageable. 

They have brought me a friendship, too, which is perhaps the most valuable. Liesl is a good listener, an interesting person, and she makes me laugh. She is an inspiration, too, being helpful to people and animals and asking nothing in return. And she is 80! Often on our walks, I am out of breath and hurrying to catch up, and Our Favorite Austrian is just there, striding along, looking at this or that, laughing at the dogs, enjoying the morning. 

Here is Liesl in the springtime, with Lulu and Koko. We walk three dogs most days, 

and Liesl always takes two. 

***

Grace Note

I Didn't Go to Church Today

I didn't go to church today

I trust the Lord to understand

The surf was swirling blue and white

The children swirling on the sand.

He knows, He knows how brief my stay,

How brief this stay of summer weather,

He knows when I am said and done

We'll have plenty of time together.

- Ogden Nash

Crow in a Tree

 

Crow in a Tree /oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68, including shipping

this crow has flown! 

I'VE HAD TROUBLE READING since Peter died. Well, even before "trouble reading," I've had trouble picking up, starting or staying with normal-sized books. 

After Peter died, I gave away his mammoth World War II tomes, his collection of books about the Vikings, his huge library of giant books on poker. Sometimes I teased him that he bought books by weight - the bigger and heavier they were, the more he wanted them. 

He died and I couldn't even open books. Eventually, I began to be able to open slim volumes. A friend lent me her Winnie-the-Pooh books and they started me reading again. 

Poetry pulled at me, and I could handle poems, and books of poetry, in much the same way that I could handle bird paintings. These things were small and manageable. I could see the end from the beginning, and that felt important. That felt like a lifeline.

This weekend, I borrowed a small book - "Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart " by Gordon Livingston. Its subtitle is "Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now." Yes, pop psychology/philosophy, I know. It is small, and fascinating. 

Here is a thought I encountered that got me thinking this morning, and which I wanted to share: "The three components of happiness are something to do, someone to love and something to look forward to." 

And I guess that encapsulates my "A Last Thought," too. 

***

Dog of the Day

Last week, Doc decided that I was sad and needed a toy. 

Hummer by Orange Flowers

 Hummer by Orange Flowers / oil on black canvas / 5x7, unframed / $68 including shipping

This bird has flown!

HERE ARE SOME FUN FACTS about hummingbirds, from Kaytee.com 

• They are the smallest migrating bird, but don't migrate in flocks. Typically, a hummer will travel alone for up to 500 miles at a stretch.  
• The name comes from the humming noise their wings make.
• They're the only birds that can fly backwards.
• Hummingbirds have no sense of smell, but have great color vision. Different varieties prefer different colored flowers. The ruby-throated hummer likes orange or red flowers best - but red dye should not be used in nectar as it could harm the birds. Instead, plant naturally red or orange flowers or use feeders that have red coloring in their structure.
• Your average hummingbird weighs less than a nickel. 
• They use their legs only for perching and moving sideways on a perch. They can't walk or hop. 
• A hummer drinks from a feeder by moving its tongue in and out - about 13 times a second. That hummer can drink double its body weight in a day. 
• The female typically lays two eggs only. They're about the size of jellybeans, and have been found in nests smaller than a half-dollar. Some varieties, like the black-chinned hummingbird, make nests with plant down, spider silk or other materials that can expand as their babies grow. 
• A group of hummers can be referred to as a flock, a bouquet, a glittering, a hover, a shimmer or a tune.
• There are more than 330 species of hummingbirds in North and South America! 

For more, see https://www.kaytee.com/learn-care/wild-bird/hummingbird-facts.

***

A Last Thought 

"If you have talent, use it in every which way possible. Do not hoard it. Do not dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke." 

- Brenda Francis

Great Blue Heron

 

Great Blue Heron / Oil on black canvas / 4x12 / $88 including shipping

sold! 

BENEATH THE FLOOR of my house, the beams and joists are crumbling. 

I found out a few months ago that this was happening, and I thought that the work I had had done had fixed it. But part of the living room floor started sagging when I stepped on it, and it turns out that the issue is far worse than I'd thought. 

The major load-bearing beams of the house need to be replaced, as do most of the rest of the joists and possibly even the sills. Ugh. 

For about a year and a half before Peter died, I had made a practice of being grateful. "In every thing, give thanks," is what I had aimed - and still aim - to do. At the beginning, it felt impossible, but I found ways. Saw glimmers of a new way to live. I lost the thread for a while after Peter died, but I have become grateful for many, many things about his death, including that it was as fast as it was. For me, perhaps, that was worse - but maybe not? Certainly for him, it was better than any lingering, awful demise. 

I am grateful that the house hasn't fallen down, and that I haven't fallen through the floor. I am grateful that I have the money to fix it, though it was money I was counting on having to live on. But I have some Social Security, and some savings even after I pay for all of this, and I am selling paintings. I have great faith that I will be OK. And I am grateful for that. 

After all, this heron doesn't know what the future brings, and he doesn't let it worry him. He just gets out there and goes to work. And that's what I shall do, too. 

***

A Last Thought

"Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. The the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle."

- Philiphs Brooks

Puddle Gulls

Puddle Gulls / oil on black canvas / 8x10 / $88 includes shipping

sold! 

WELL, I GUESS I took a week off last week. It wasn't planned, and there really wasn't anything wrong - I simply lost my momentum. 

And how much of life is really about that? I think a fair bit - at least of my life. 

While I do love starting things - projects, days, exercise regimens - I find sustaining them far more difficult. And finishing things? I am a Grade-F finisher. 

The Bird A Day project is one of my more well-sustained ventures, probably because it makes me so happy. I still love making the bird paintings, and I love it when you all buy them. The whole thing is very positive - and is a giant help to finding my way in life, post-Peter. 

So here's to the unscheduled week off, the chance to catch a breath in the hot August Confinement days. I recommend it. 

***

For Today

I'VE BEEN ENJOYING making limericks this week, for reasons I can't understand or explain. But it's fun! Why not try one, or 100? (It's a little addictive). 

Your standard limerick is five lines, with the rhyme scheme AA/BB/A. The rhythm is anapestic, which means two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed one. 

The first and second line each has three anapests - da dum, da da dum, da da dum.

The middle two lines have two anapests each - da da da da dum, da da da da dum

And the final line goes back to three anapests - da dum. da da dum, da da dum

Of course, there are minor variations, squishing, squashing, etc. Limericks are supposed to be fun! 

Here's one that I made up to go with the painting above. Please add yours in the comments below, or email them to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

There once was a gull with a thirst

Who looked for a fountain, but first

He found a small puddle

His joy wasn't subtle!

And in no time, his thirst was reversed.

Kingfisher Looking Up

Kingfisher Looking Up / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68 including shipping

sold! 

THE HEAT SWALLOWS ME in one gulp, and in the next, sucks down the world around me. We churn in the stomach of this thing, digested by the torpor, by air so humid, it's like breathing water. Like breathing espresso. Like breathing the inside of my body. 

How can I drink coffee when it's this hot? I don't know, but I can - and I enjoy the tasty thought that my insides are now as warm as my outsides. 

***
For Today

"It's never too late to be who you might have been."

- George Elliott

Hummer at Red Flower

Hummer at Red Flower / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68 includes shipping

sold!

TODAY AND YESTERDAY, in the amazing, heavy, mind-blurring heat, I've decided to take it easy. I've stayed inside, in the air-conditioning, napping and reading and watching "Silent Witness," a British crime drama that goes on for season after season after season. 

It's never hot in British shows, have you noticed? It rains, sure, and sometimes there's snow, or weather identifiable as "winter," but I've never seen a character wearing shorts (except for tennis) or sweating, or even looking like she is out on a hot summer day. Or am I just thinking narrowly? 

In the heat here, the ants seem to have found magically instant paths to invade the hummingbird feeders, and of course, the hummers won't go near them with the ants - would you? So I've taken the feeders down for the time being. I miss them! Miss the buzz and blur of the birds, their nasty battles for dominance and ownership, their beautiful colors flashing in the sun. In a day or so, I will try again. There are plenty of flowers available here on the shore, so I think the hummers will be OK until my feeders go back up. 

***

For Today

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." 

- Neale Donald Walsch

Red-Winged Crow

Red-Winged Crow / oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68 including shipping

sold! 

WELL, I HAD A LAUGH that started yesterday and continued well into today. Thought I would share it, since I do share all my woes and tribulations, and it's good that you all know that my life is not an endless series of gray and depressing days.

Since The Great Confinement began, I've been giving a series of free painting workshops on Saturdays, (at 1 p.m. Eastern, on my Carrie Jacobson, Artist Facebook page). 

Usually, 20-25 people tune in. Many paint, some just watch, and some watch during the live workshop and paint afterwards, watching the videos (they are archived on my Carrie Jacobson Workshop Videos Facebook page). 

Regular participants include the Wachapreague postmaster, Alena, and her mother, Darlene. They both make art, Alena generally with pastels, and Darlene, with a variety of media. Alena is a good and enthusiastic painter; Darlene is very talented, very experienced, and back to painting after a long absence. You can see her work on her Facebook page, Paper Moon Studio. 

They joined in this past Saturday, as we painted a wading egret. When I was about 10 minutes into the painting, Darlene posted that she wanted to buy it. That totally cracked me up - not only was I not finished with the painting - but I was barely started! 

I laughed and said, sure, and that maybe I should just end the painting and the workshop right there, and call it a day. It really made me laugh. I've had people buy paintings before they were finished, but never when they were just barely started. Honestly, I thought she was kidding. 

But this afternoon, I got a text from Alena, wanting to know when she and Darlene could come and get the painting! Hahahaha!! She actually DID want it, and she KNEW it, right then and there, before it was even one-third done. Still has me laughing and shaking my head. 

What a lovely world this can be. 

***

For Today

"Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark." 

-Rabindranath Tagore

Kingfisher

Kingfisher / Oil on black canvas / 4x12 / $88 including shipping

sold! 

AT LONG LAST, RAIN is falling here in Wachapreague. It is just a passing shower, but even so, it's something. Water. Moisture. Something to soften the crisp, brown grass in my yard. Hold down the dust. Wet the shriveling leaves of my hollyhocks. Give the farmers even a thought of something other than desperate disaster.

And so, I rejoice. Even if it is only a little rain, it is respite. It is a break. It is a relief. It's something different! And the birds are loving it. They are already bathing in a little puddle in the road. 

***

For Today

"Great art picks up where nature ends."

- Marc Chagall

Cardinal Looking Around

Cardinal Looking Around / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68 includes shipping

THESE HOT, HUMID DAYS broil over, one into the other, thick and rich with southern summertime and scorching similarity. 

I look at my calendar a few times daily to help me sort it out. I ask Alexa, too, and hang my internal calendar on a couple events that are solidly scheduled every week - Wednesday is trash day and Thursday, I talk to my counselor. Both are things I never want to miss. 

Nearly every day, get up early, make coffee, write in my journal and then walk with Liesl and the dogs, and sometimes with Liesl's friend Lexie. Nearly every day, I paint. Nearly every day, I make three meals, cooking something good for dinner. Nearly every moment of every single day, I miss Peter, and think how much different this covid summer would be if he were here. 

***

Virtual Online Show and Sale

THE CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FESTIVAL of the Arts is one of the big, important, national shows that usually accepts me every year. I was accepted again this year, but the on-the-ground show was canceled. 

So they are making a virtual show, and it sounds like lots of fun! More than 150 artists, from 32 states, are participating. Many - like me! - will be offering discounts on art and shipping (free shipping for me, plus discounts on many paintings during the festival, July 9-12). 

I'm one of the artists doing live demos - I'll be conducting my regular painting workshop in my live festival time, Saturday, July 11, at 1 p.m. Eastern. Other artists are doing demos and workshops throughout the festival. 

There's much more! Please check the website - https://arts-festival.com/  - or any of the festival's social media feeds - Facebook/CentralPAFestivaloftheArts; Instagram: @cpartsfestival; Twitter: @CPArtsFestival - for more information. 

***

For Today

"It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education 

than to have education without common sense." 

- Robert Green Ingersoll

Crow Looking Back

Crow Looking Back / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 unframed / $68 - free shipping

sold!

TO ALL WHO MIGHT BE WONDERING, "Three Geese" has found its home. And, interestingly, it was bought by the person whom I thought of when I thought of that painting. So I believe it has gone to its rightful owner! 

***

Bucket List

I HAD ABSOLUTELY no idea that I coveted a black eye. All these years, all these decades, and I just didn't know, until I got one. 

It happened unromantically enough. I'd been watering the front garden, and my shoes were wet. I slipped on the threshold and fell full-length onto the living room floor. 

After several tries, I was able to get a call through to Liesl and Lexie, and they came back (we had just finished walking), cleaned the blood off of me and the floor and bandaged me up, pretty much good as new. 

I talked to my dad, who asked if I had lost consciousness (no), or if I had a headache (no), and he said I should be fine. No concussion. He used to be a brain surgeon, so he knows. He's the one who told me I'd have a black eye. 

Sure enough, I do! I'm quite excited and proud. And I've made up a good story - Vincent Van Gogh and I were arguing about my ear. He was insisting that I cut it off, and I said No Way - I like my earrings too much to lose one ear! OK, he said, then it's a black eye for you. 

***

For Today

The Crow's Calling

A bird moved as if

a black hole shaped

like a crow was strutting

a path across bright playground

grass before rising, leisurely,

at an angle, to observe

from the perch

of a stark eucalyptus

to caw forth a sermon,

determined, inspired as a priest

on a foreign mission

irnoring the fact of our

language difference. 

- Peg Quinn

Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager / oil on black canvas / 4x4 unframed / $48 including shipping

sold!

I'M TAKING A BREAK next week from my bird-a-day project. I've painted and posted about 100 birds, or pretty much one a day (weekdays) since January. And thanks to you, I've sold most of them! 

My wonderful dog-sitter is available and willing to come to my house, so I am going to brave New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, and get to Rhode Island to visit my daughter for a few days. It will be a short trip, but long enough to give me a break, let me see some new sights. 

The birds will be back after my trip, though I might start mixing some other new pieces in with them. And I do wonder whether the birds have run their course? I've been thinking of a series of small florals - a Bouquet a Day. What do you think? 

Thank you for reading, for buying, for loving my paintings - and me. I know it, I feel it, I appreciate it. See you in a week or so! 

***

For Today

RECENTLY,  LIESL, LEXIE AND I have been letting Koko, Doc and Lulu run, in the fenced-in ballpark down the street from my house. Koko and Doc had run several times before, but Lulu has never been off leash anywhere but the back yard. Her joy (she is the one with the white legs) and her speed are remarkable. A quote in motion! 

Rufous-Sided Towhee

Rufous-sided Towhee / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 unframed / $68

sold! 

IT IS A HOT DAY, and humid. It feels like summer, and not like the start of summer - not like the start of anything. In many places in the yard, the grass crunches underfoot. The flowers are wilty. I am wilty. 

A few days ago, Norma Hickman, who was the oldest person in Wachpreague, died. I didn't know her, but my friend Liesl was her dear friend, and spoke of her daily. Norma had led a fascinating life, and was an expert on all things Eastern Shore, including Wachapreague, and the families of the Shore. As I got to know Liesl, I wanted to know Norma, but by that time, she was fading too quickly for new people. 

The night Norma died, a bright but far-off thunderstorm bloomed across the sky. I woke to see the lightning flashes, and Liesl, who was awake through it all, says she saw remarkable blue lights. 

These are called blue jets, and are a very rare event, according to the experts at the Weather Channel. (You can see photos and a video here). 

The night my mother died, there was a remarkable thunder and lightning storm - the lightning exploded all over the sky, again and again, in a night with heat much like today. And it went on and on and on, with distant thunder, and for an hour or more, no rain. Just the sky, lighting up, welcoming Mom. As the sky lighted up Sunday, welcoming Norma. 

To read her obituary, click here.  To read my mother's obituary, click here. And what the heck, while we are at it, to read Peter's obituary, click here. 

***

For Today

Sonnet 29

Pity me not because the light of day

At close of day no longer walks the sky;

Pity me not for beauties passed away

From field and thicket as the year goes by;

Pity me not the waning of the moon,

Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea,

Nor that a man's desire is hushed so soon,

And you no longer look with love on me. 

This have I known always: Love is no more

Than the wide blossom which the wind assails,

Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore,

Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales:

Pity me that the heart is slow to learn

What the swift mind beholds at every turn. 

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Owl

Owl / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 unframed / $68 including shipping 

MOST OF YOU KNOW, I think, that I am a recovering alcoholic, clean and sober since 1987. It's a vital part of my life - one that makes all the other parts work - and was a vital part of Peter's, as well. We always said that we would stay married forever - unless one of us started drinking, at which point, without discussion, the marriage would be over. 

These days, meetings are done largely on Zoom, and that means you can go to any meeting anywhere. So on Friday, I attended a meeting in Des Moines, where the father of a former Eastern Shore resident was speaking about his 53 years of sobriety. 

His main message was that he began to find success in life and in sobriety when he turned his will and his life over to the care of his higher power. 

I realized, as I listened, that I've been holding on very tight since Peter died. I have structured my life around tasks - the bird project, training the dogs, walking every day, losing the final 19 pounds. Getting rid of things. Clearing the house out. Task upon task upon task. 

That's been fine. It's been necessary. It's been how I have been able to cope. But it has kept me from so much that I value - discovery, imagination, adventure, exploration.

I realized, listening, that I've been clenching my fists around my life, clenching my body around my tasks, holding tight, as tight as I can - and understandably, since so much that I held and held dear was suddenly just gone. 

So I have vowed to loosen up. To hand it all over to my higher power. To quit worrying, as much as I possibly can, and trust that the joy and peace and love and protection that I have always felt in my life will continue, and will hold me safe, and let me feel like living again. 

***

For Today

"The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, 

think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised." 

- Norman Vincent Peale

Bluebird on Post

Bluebird on Post / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 unframed / $68 includes shipping

sold!

I LOVE TIE-DYE. I always have, though up until a few years ago, I hadn't worn it in decades. But I had a couple pieces, and after I saw Peter wearing interesting combinations of prints and colors, I decided to start wearing my tie-dye pieces again.

Not only did I not worry if I had an interesting pattern on the top and a different interesting pattern on the bottom, I began seeking different interesting patterns - what a friend's mother used to call "fancies." One fancy was fine, she would tell him, but two fancies were a no-no. Whenever possible, I go for three fancies. Or more! 

A few years ago, I found a maker of wonderful tops - Cranky Girl Tie Dye (https://www.etsy.com/shop/CrankyGirlTieDye). I have bought Ts and sweatshirts from her for years. Peter was cremated in one of my Cranky Girl sweatshirts. He loved it when I wore that sweatshirt, and he coveted it, so it seemed right to send it with him. 

Late last year, I realized that I could get tie-dye pants, if I hunted for them. And I did have to hunt, but I found a marvelous maker! Her name is Carmen, and she is also on Etsy, at Ogeechee River Tie Dye (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ogeecheerivertiedye/) 

In the photo of Doc and me by the Dogfish sign, which I believe I posted recently, I am wearing Ogeechee River Tie Dye pants and a Cranky Girl tie-dye top. And my jacket makes a third fancy! 

The bluebird in the painting comes from a photo that Carmen took in her backyard! 

***

For Today

"The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; 

it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts." 

- Booker T. Washington

Ninja... or Maybe Ginger

 Ginger / Oil on black canvas / 4x4 / $38 including shipping

LAST WEEK, DIANA DAVIS and I met some other friends at a peony farm in Exeter, and we painted.

The peonies (and is it pronounced PEA-o-nee or pea-OH-nee? I learned the first, but people down here say it like the second. What about you?) were really done, the owners of the farm said, though they looked beautiful to me.

And no matter. It was a lovely day, it was great to See People - I've seen almost no one but Liesl since March - and there was plenty of room to paint, and to be social while also being distant.

An extra added bonus was a pair of brown and white turkeys - named Ninja and Ginger - which I believe are called Buff turkeys. According to Petslady.com, the Buff was listed as a heritage breed by the American Poultry Association (who knew?) in 1874. 

Very few birds were able to meet the APA's Standard of Perfection (isn't that always the case, with standards of perfection?) and so the breed was removed from the Standard and became extinct. But starting in the 19402, people worked to revive it, and the Buff, or Jersey Buff, as it is called now, has come back into being. It is a small- to medium-sized turkey, whose young toms weigh about 21 pounds. 

Ninja and Ginger were wandering around the peony farm when we arrived, and as we set up to paint, they came over, interested. They seemed to like me (the peony farmer said they can see bright colors) but they didn't seem to care for Diana. In the photo above, they are nibbling her.

Below, one of the paintings I made from our day at the farm. 

Peony Rows / Oil on black canvas / 4x12 / $78 including shipping

Sold! 

***

For Today

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." 

- John Wooden

White-Throated Sparrow

White-Throated Sparrow / oil on black canvas / 5x7 unframed / $68 includes shipping

Sold!

TURN YOUR HEAD toward me, little bird. What do you see? A human, maybe someone with food? Someone who could help - or hurt - in equal measure, and yet, you trust - but not so closely that I could reach out and catch you. Trust but be cautious. 

Still, with time and familiarity, you come closer. Not to rest on my hand or my shoulders - I don't have the patience to build that sort of relationship with you (though Peter would have). But you flit nearby, lighting on the clothesline where the bird feeders hang, landing on the ground close to my feet, close to where I stand the bag of bird seed. 

Turn your head toward me, little bird, and take my measure. These days will fly more quickly than either of us could imagine. 

***

For Today

"All paintings are artwork but precious few become works of art, just as the fact that a pianist who can play all the correct notes doesn't assure an inspired performance."

- Peter Fiore

Mrs. Bluebird

 Mrs. Bluebird / oil on black canvas / 5x7 unframed / $68 including shipping

sold!

IN THE MORNINGS, my friend Liesl and I walk three of my four dogs. Sometimes, we take Woody, but he is 14, mostly blind and mostly deaf, and, while he wants to go on the walks, and is pretty much capable of them, he is a menace, weaving all over the place on his leash, and stopping again and again, to poop in the middle of the road, or just to stop. It is a small miracle that I haven't fallen over him and broken things, on one or both of us.

I think that Liesl (our favorite Austrian) has a well-ordered and calm life - outside of the chaos of Doc, Lulu and Koko. And so it is doubly great that she helps me walk them. 

For months, we have been letting Koko and Doc run around in a little park along the marsh. At first, it was just Koko, with her leash trailing behind. Then we let Doc run, again with his leash trailing. I call them to me, again and again, and reward them with treats, and they've been learning. And the leashes are off.

But yesterday was a beautiful, sunny, breezy day, and Doc decided it was a perfect day to romp off, scamper through yards and pretend that I was calling him in some foreign language, or maybe in a totally inaudible voice. 

Wachapreague is a place without many cars, though there are some, and at that time of the morning, in that part of town, there are usually no dogs out. So it ended up OK, with Doc cavorting back not to me but to Liesl, who had Koko and Lulu on their leashes. 

After the excitement, I said that I was mad at Doc, and exasperated. 

"Why would he run off like that?" I asked. "He knows better!" 

And Liesl told me to be happy that he had come back, and to not take it personally. "It was a beautiful day and he decided it was a good day for a run," she said. "It had nothing to do with you."

Of course, she is right. And so I will make every effort to remember this incident in the future - and not only when the situation is dog-related. 

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Would you please do me a favor?

SOMETIME THIS WEEK or next, when you read one of these blogs that you like, would you please send it to one or two friends and ask them to sign up to receive it by email? I would really appreciate it. 

The email sign up box is on the right hand side of the blog - http://carriejacobson.blogspot.com

It means a great deal to me when people read what I write, and also when they buy my paintings. The more people who see the blog, the better my chances of finding happy readers and happy buyers. 

Thank you! 

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For Today

"Every work of art which really moves us is in some degree a revelation - it changes us." 

- Lawren Harris

Australian Fairy Wren

Australian Fairy Wren / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68 includes shipping

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I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF an Australian Fairy Wren, but I swear, I did not make it up. I was looking for photos of wrens, and this spectacularly colored turquoise and azure and royal and sapphire blue creature showed up and blew me away. 

Usually, I only paint birds I know. I am comfortable doing that, and it makes me happy. I don't care if I paint 30 cardinals and 50 wrens, 100 chickadees and 500 robins - they are my backyard friends, and their songs, their nests, their flitting selves at my feeders help create the warp and the woof of my days. I could paint them forever, and I probably will. 

People send me bird photos all the time, and I do love looking at them. But most of the exotics that people send (and this is what they send) are beyond my skills, especially if I've never seen them in real life. 

What I like best about the bird paintings, I think, is the character and personality of the birds. Capturing those things, in the tilt of the head or the set of the beak - insouciance, or braggadocio, or jauntiness - or just a little chickadee innocence - this makes me happy. And those things are things I've learned from watching my backyard birds.

But there was something wrenny about the Australian Fairy Wren, and then, there were those colors. My brother once said to me that he thought that if blue didn't exist, I probably wouldn't be able to paint. And he might be right. 

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For Today

"The chief enemy of creativity is good sense."

- Pablo Picasso