Holidays 2017

I've had a quiet spell as far as sketching goes. I finally took the time to sketch a black walnut shell that I've been keeping since Thanksgiving. This will represent the holidays for me. I was the favorite uncle for this holiday visit and took my great niece and nephew to the park a few times to play and walk around. We collected some black walnuts we found and I showed them how to take the husk off and break them open and pick out the nut meat. They had now idea you could eat something you found on the ground. We spend time coloring, too. We don't get to see them more that once a year, so at their young age every meeting is a big new experience. That broken nut shell represents a lot of family time.

This sketch also represents the holiday because of our families traditions of having walnuts around with the nut cracker and picks. Wilma and I both had this in our youth and still have it around in our home during the Winter. I was raised with home-grown black walnuts that mom and dad would spend HOURS processing so that mom could add them to banana bread, cookies and cakes.

From an artistic standpoint that nut shell jumped out at me. There isn't one straight line in the whole structure. The shading expands quite a range of values and textures. It just had to be sketched. I've been keeping it around and finally took some time on New Year's Day to finally memorialize it. This was my first sketch with the upgraded fine nib in my Lamy Joy. Much better feel!

Wilma's Obsession

Ahh! The smell of a busy oven in the holidays. Food is such a part of it all. Watching Wilma cook up a series of confections gives me the idea for a sketch, so I get my gear out and sketch to the smells that only fresh baking can produce.

As the journal says, she has a love/hate relationship with the baking tradition. It's stressful and rewarding. She has trimmed down the quantity from a few years ago. Back then she did candies, too, like chocolate covered cherries. Very talented. Very addicted to creating confections. The whole extended family knows it, too, and has come to expect tasty treats when Christmas rolls around. They even put in a word for their favorites in the hopes she'll keep making them. We'll end up freezing some, too, so we can extend the good times.

Too Much Snow

We've been here for 13 years and this latest snow storm drifted the worst we've ever seen. The snow hit the day before Christmas. December snowfall for Topeka set a new local record. Most of the driveway was fine, but the start and ending of the driveway both had killer drifts that took quite a while to dig out. Makes me think about what to do when I'm all gray and not able to shovel. Some of the neighbors have nice REAL tractors with blade and/or front scoop, or little Bobcats to do the work. Seems overkill . . . until you have drifts like this. The workout felt good, though. I still ate too much but some of the guilt went away from this exercise.

Tornado Watch #955

I've lived in Kansas for most of my life, but the weather we've had over the past week has been very weird. It's at the top of the weird list, shared by only a very few other moments in history. And the first time we've had a Tornado Watch in December that I can remember, much less the day after Christmas. Just thinking about a tornado as Santa visits brings images to mind, so a journal entry is in order.

Holiday Wars

Every year it's the same for this season. Eating vs. Fitness. Merriment vs. discipline. More challenging as the metabolism slows down with age yet the eyes say eat . . eat . . eat! The pounds creep on but I know how to fix it. All I need is a strong dose of will-power. Why can't they pack that in a nice cinnamon roll?!

Which Bulb?!

After hanging all the strings of lights on our house front eves on a cold afternoon with little time, I turned them on and this string didn't work. After a day to cool down, I took them down to see where the problem was. Wife spent plenty of time and got half of them to light (we have an unwritten division of responsibilities, and she handles the bulbs, I handle the hanging). Never did get the other half to work. We happened to have a spare string so we were back on the road . . . except for portions of two other strings. Tonight, after the heavy winds of the last 24 hours, most are now working. Go figure.

Fav Ornament

Just a quick sketch of my oldest and favorite Christmas tree ornament. It's been put on a tree since I got it when I was about 4 years old. That's 48 consecutive years. Just can't seam to retire it.

Thanksgiving '08

We went out to Hays this year. It's the wife's bloodline. Always like visiting this area of Kansas. More open spaces. Smaller towns. Nice family. Luckily both kids are home from college. Had a nice time, though nothing you'd make a movie or reality TV show about.

Slash & Gut

It's that time of year. Even though we are empty nesters, I still feel the need to carve at least one Jack-o-lantern. Used to carve close to a dozen when we lived in the city and could display them on our porch. It was fun watching the reactions or Trick or Treaters and their parents. Oh well. I'm typing this in the dark, late at night, as the owl silently watches me. Never grow tired of watching them flicker. Cost me many hours of sleep. When we lived in a smaller town with an active city recreation commission I taught pumpkin carving. Me with a room of 25 youth armed with saws and knives! That should have been a nightmare but the kids absolutely loved it, and came back year after year. They'd tell me what they carve at home and what they carved last year. Their energy level and excitement were a boost that made the HUGE cleanup effort even seem worthwhile. And teachers would have me come in and give a quick demo and tell the history of this holiday. They kids would send me neat Thank You notes. But we're in a larger city with a rec commission that doesn't need my services (I asked) and our kids are grown and gone. So now it's a personal venture. The wife and I quietly enjoy the simple pleasures of a family tradition that I can't let die.