All Caught Up

A couple of more masks from the Met on the left.

We were winding up our time in Maplewood on Sunday. Abby wanted a drawing of herself with her cute pigtails. Nate left the room before I could finish drawing him.

We spent Monday slogging ourselves and our luggage through two train stations, two trains, and a bus as we made our way north to New Hampshire. Some trip highlights: shoes of people watching the big train schedule board in Penn Station;  the view out the giant front window of the bus we were off-loaded onto at Springfield because the tracks had been flooded.  On the far right , bangers and mash that I ordered in Lebanon purely for the name. Delicious!

On the left are two pub guys that I drew while awaiting my bangers and mash. On the right are some of the xmas decorations that are always up, summer and winter, in the little cottage that we stay in, next to M and A's house.

I especially like the Father Xmas cast iron door stop in the upstairs bathroom. He has been on duty for the past six years or so at least.  M's hens are still laying a bit, and the eggs were so beautiful in an aluminum   bowl. Smoky, one of the two cats, grooming and staring.

Another great move of Smoky's,  and on the right, Barnaby plays one of his own piano compositions.

Luca drew this intriguing picture within a picture within a picture.  On the right are two drawings of a crochet hook that I whittled out of a twig so that I could finish Maya's scarf for her.

Tallis playing the piano, and below , a much better drawing of this handsome guy.

Another guest blogger, seven -year old Barnaby, drew this "ugly" cupid complete with a bow and sort of arrow with a face.

Saturday afternoon we all, including A's parents , in town from Plymouth, MA, went to hear Tallis play percussion with the Dartmouth Youth Ensemble. It was a great concert and such fun to sketch moving people in the semi-dark!

T was in the far back, but he had to stand (as well as run between various drums and other percussion things) the whole time , so he was easy to see.

A's mom is s champion knitter, and she knits period clothing for docents at Plimoth Plantation.  I loved this pair of mittens that she made. The pattern was based on a fragment of a child's mitten that was found in Scotland dating from the same time period as the settlement.

No sketchbook of mine is complete without its series of chickens. M's chickens were outside in the very cold weather all fluffed up and strutting, and they made me think of Mardi Gras Indians.

On our last day in NH, M, T, and I went out to a little frozen lake nearby and built two large cairns on the rocky shore of the boat and ice fishing hut launch.

The balancing of these relatively large and heavy rocks took lots of concentration. They stand on the shore like lighthouses. We hope they'll still bethere this  summer, rocky islands by that time.