We spent our first day just vegging.  Did a little grocery shopping -- too expensive to eat out every night.  Temperature is perfect.  The wind was a little cool to try out the pool, but very good for sitting on our lanai.  Today we were a little more energetic.  There is a Hawaian Handcraft Fair just down the road, so we went down to take a look.

                              

Lots of colorful fabrics and pretty jewellery.  Just looking -- no buying.  Got to see what else there is first.

Such beautiful colors!

Then we took a drive to one of our favorite places, up near some waterfalls and a river that runs over the road.  We passed two fields of goats.  They weren't there last year. I guess goat's milk and goat's cheese must be popular.  I do like goat's cheese.  The goats were a little timid but I did manage to get a couple of shots.

                              

Everything was so green and lush and many trees and bushes were in bloom.  I somehow think my posts from here will be of many flowers and trees.  This was just one of the many we passed today.  But that is why this island is called the Garden Island.

                                 

                                                 

 ********

A special thank you to my sister for her tip about how to load my photos on to the lap top.  Very simple really, but we seem to have no way to resize the photos so they take FOREVER to load on the blog.

                          

Old Photo

We have had this photo on this laptop for several years -- actually the only photo of our own that is on this laptop.  We are quite limited with what we can actually do because we don't have Ms Word Office on it yet.  But I did manage to resize it so that I can post it on my blog.  It will serve as a representative of all the photos I hope to be taking soon and once I check on my sister's suggestion on the previous post, may be I will be able to post new photos soon.  We have hardly used this laptop until now.  We got it for MOTH so that he could send e-mails while overseas -- thus no extra programs and inexperienced users.  But we're learning!

I'm Watching You!!

Well, I have managed to enter the world of blogdom!  The hours I spent the other evening figuring out how and if I could visit my blogs from here have produced great results!  The only problem is that my lap top has no photographs from which to draw to post on my blog and I can't get any from my camera to the laptop because we dont have the necessary 'stuff' to do it.

So I shall have to content myself with an occasional piece of prose -- which is not very interesting.  But I CAN comment on all your blogs.  So photos will have to wait until we get home.

Well Google seems to have made a change in the formatting of a blog.  At least the first picture goes in first, now.  That's an improvement, but I would have liked this first picture to appear a little larger even though it is an ATC.  It is a Gulf Fritilliary butterfly and the large white spots on the wings are actually shiny, metallic silver in real life.  This is an original painting (prisma colors and water colors) from one of my own original photographs, so I have to invoke copyright here, in case I start to sell on eBay.

 

Gulf Fritilliary Butterfly

Copyright ChrisJ.  

All rights reserved.

Heerman's Seagulls at Carlsbad Beach last week.  They come up to us from Mexico in the winter. They will be my next attempt for an ATC.

We leave this week and I will not be back on this blog until December 6th, unless I miraculously learn how to use Moth's lap top.  I am taking all my paints etc with me -- not to mention my camera -- and plan to do much painting in the evening, hopefully.  I will continue to leave (and accept!) comments until Thursday,  and I hope to be able to visit you all via lap top.  But if all you get is silence from me, be sure I have not forgotten  you. I WILL be back.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

New ATC's and Making a Decision

I have been thinking about what to do with all the ATC cards I have been making. I must have about a hundred of them. Last week I took a look at eBay at what they call ACEO's. They are art trading cards that instead of trading, they are sold. I never tried to trade any of mine because I have more than enough of my own paintings. So I am wondering....shall I try it or not??? At the moment they are mounted in two little note books, one to a page. I don't think my 'boys' (aged 41 and 43) will be interested in keeping them when I am gone, so I shall have to give it some serious thought.

These little cards are a very pleasant hobby for me. I can do them while watching the TV. I can use paint, colored pencils, pen and ink and ordinary pencil. I don't want to turn my pleasant, relaxing hobby into something stressful. I will continue to do them whether I sell them on eBay or not, just because I like doing them. If I do it, I will start in the new year and give myself a trial run of 6 months to see what happens and will probably do most of them in the style of the one below. The other two are just fun pieces, but not any that I think will appeal to others. One thing I won't do is use this blog as an advertisement or offers for sale. My blog is my blog and it's fun. But as MOTH has pointed out, at least if I sell any it will keep up with the cost of bird seed and cat food!!

The Red Barn

Flowers and ribbons

Crystal Colors.

WEDNESDAY'S WORDS
"Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law". Psalm 119:18

The Bible talks a lot about meditation and some religions make it of prime importance. Sometimes we as Christians feel stressed about the idea of meditating and wonder how to do it. I discovered that it is very simple. We just need to sit somewhere quietly and think about the Lord, our lives and what we have been hearing or reading about God. The Holy Spirit will guide our thinking without us having to do anything but just give God our full attention. If one of your children or your husband says "I want to talk to you about something, " you would find a spot to listen and talk back and forth. That's all we are doing when we are meditating.

What Good Hubbies Do...

... they pick up oddments they think their wife would like, such as these star fish which were used as decorations at a wedding he performed. He knew I would like them but didn't know what I would do with them -- neither do I actually, at the moment, but as he said, "Oh, you'll find something to do with them." And I will.

...grab the camera when he sees something he thinks I would like to post on my blog, as he did with this spider's web. I was still in bed!

...and then he saw the hawk on our water fountain. (I always keep a camera on the bookshelves by the patio window).

...took me out for dinner at Fidel's for Mexican food, where I saw these flowers in the restaurant, and he waited around without being embarrassed while I took a couple of shots. Yes they're artificial, but I'm always looking for something colorful to draw and paint. I'll get to this picture soon, but my painting "To do" list is getting longer.

And best of all, he puts up with my eccentric ways which includes staying up LATE (to do my blogs and comments) and getting up LATE -- and he brings me a cup of tea in bed every morning, as well! Actually, I think he is afraid I will never get up if he doesn't!

If I told you the other things he does for me you would think I was a very lazy wife -- no -- just spoiled!

******

I did promise I would post some photos of Bailey doing something interesting, but the truth is, he just hasn't done anything interesting yet! (For those of you who are new to my blog, Bailey is my cat, NOT my husband).

JOSE'S CAR - My Painting

This is the painting I promised to Jose. I usually pass this car parked on a nearby street once or twice a week. So one day I stopped and took a photo of it, so I could paint it for Jose. See joecoolsblog . He is getting quite a collection of paintings from his blogging friends. If you visit his blog you will see a beautiful one a friend did for him of his father. This car was hard to do because of the perspective on it. It's not quite as good as I would have liked, but then I'm never satisfied. I'm one of those painters who always has to do just a little bit more to finish it off.

********

WEDNESDAY'S WORDS
"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" Matt. 6:12. " Familiar words from the Lord's prayer. Actually that is a bit misleading, for this prayer was not prayed by Jesus, but given to the disciples for them to pray. After all, since Jesus had no sin, why would He pray to be forgiven? The Beatles sang "All you Need is Love" but today love has become almost synonymous with sexuality -- or it has become just commonplace, such as when we unthinkingly respond, "Luv you!" as we wave goodbye or as we hang up the phone. In the past year or so, the Lord has been teaching me that God's love is all bound up with forgiveness. If I want the Lord to forgive me, I must learn how to forgive others. I can't love someone I don't forgive. This means being willing to restore a relationship which has been broken even if the other person is not willing to be forgiven. We learn to love, because He first loved us and forgave us.