Plan B

Today was to be the April sketch crawl organized by Kate. We were to meet at Case Park in Kansas City, Missouri, near the merging of the Kansas River and the Missouri River. The forecast started terrible early in the week,  but yesterday made it look rosy, or at least dry. Wilma and I left Topeka in overcast and drizzle. As we drove by Lawrence it was raining. As we drove by Bonner Springs it was raining cats and dogs! Not the weather I like to drive in downtown KC, so we turned around.

We've always heard of the Moon Marble Company there, and my folks had gone years ago and gave it a thumbs up. We had our lunch packed for the planned picnic so all we needed was a picnic table with a cover and we're set. We found the Visitor's Center, a restored caboose, and they had a small gazebo with picnic table. Bingo! We picked up some local info and moved into the gazebo for our picnic lunch. It's raining in a fine mist now, so it's fine to eat out. I bought extra cookies to share with the sketch group, but they'll keep until we can eat them all.

We watched some local pre-teens play around the caboose. As I sketched the caboose, Wilma found an embroidery/quilting store. Then we walked around a little and checked out an antique store. Talked to the owner to get some local flavor. Then off to the Moon Marble company. The owner gives demonstrations of creating a marble, right in front of us seated in bleachers! We then grabbed some Dairy Queen, drove over the Kansas River to see how it looked, and headed home.

It may be Plan B, but it ended up a fun day. Missed the fellow sketchers, but there's always next time.

Good and the Bad

This is a random sketch.  I use my smart phone camera to capture images that I like but don't have time to sketch. Then, when I have more time, I stroll through the pictures and sketch them. It's now time to catch up.

I've sketched my pack rats before. They are a bother and can cause costly damage to any vehicle parked outside. When they show up I use a catch-alive trap to catch them, and relocate them down the road. We live in a rural area with few houses. It's easy to drive them to a large field with great habitat for them and set them free. In the big picture, these rodents proliferate well and I could just kill him and cause no damage to the ecosystem. However, he's so darn cute I can't do it. When they make it into the garage I do, but when they're outside, their crime doesn't warrant death.  However, a coworker had one eat a hose on her automatic transmission that she didn't notice until the transmission was totaled out. I may change my protocol if that were to happen to me.

As for the bread, we like to cook it fresh instead of buying it. We like the artisan no-knead breads as an occasional treat. They are photogenic, just like the rat. I'm baking some rolls for Easter as I'm putting this post together, too. Can't get enough fresh bread!