Epic Tree in The Ramble

After work today I really had a bad painting bug, and there is an epic tree in The Ramble I really want to paint... probably several times.

So that's where I went.

Tis the season to paint barefoot in Central Park!

I did load up on bug spray. 

It is my intention to stink.

There is so much green... always a challenge for landscape.

My spare knife isn't nearly as nice as my Holbein, but it got the job done.

8x10 oil, 2 hours 

I was really in a time race against sunset!

Things You Never Expect to Learn from Being a Parent

I got new kitchen towels within the past month.

This is something that was sorely past due.

My new towels are nice.

Daya uses nutritional yeast and wiped her yeasty hands directly on the towel.

I saw this and asked her to rinse first, the towel is not a napkin, and I put the towel in the wash.

It came out stained.

I actually was surprised, I didn't think nutritional yeast would stain anything.

I spoke with her about it, but calmly and nicely.

While I'm not exactly angry... that's not the right word,,,  about my brand new towel being stained, I have that frustration...? disappointment...?? deflated...??? weariness...?? what is that word??? of someone else coming along and messing up my brand new stuff. 

The cats are worse than the kid, now that Daya is older.

Anyhow I learned that nutritional yeast stains, so be careful out there!!

TSA Inconsistencies & The Difficult Flight

I booked the flight home for first thing Tuesday morning because it was literally half the price.

We stayed with my Aunt Carole, and I had a really, really nice evening with her.

The flight was at 7am so we had to be there at 5:30.... but I woke up at 2am and could not go back to sleep.

*******

TSA is extremely inconsistent in their security protocol.

At JFK you still have to take off your shoes, which is the dumbest thing in the whole entire universe.

They make you take out your ipads laptops etc from bags.

I have to check my suitcase because solvent and "artist pigments in vegetable oil", but I will NOT check my box.  TSA security historically thinks my pochade box is suspicious because it contains magnets.  So at JFK I took that out to avoid getting searched.

There is a body scanner at JFK (but not at Charleston).

Neither Daya nor I took out our ipads and they re-directed our bags, removed the ipads, and ran our bags thru the scanner again.

In Charleston they make you walk near a dog and you don't have to take off your shoes.

Or your ipads.

Or anything, for that matter- you aren't allowed to open your bags at all.

I love consistency.

************

We got on the plane and they had a problem and rebooted the plane.

Then apparently there was a ton of paperwork to do after that, so we took off 40 minutes late.

We were in a small commuter plane.

The people directly next to me and  on the whole row in front of me was a couple traveling with three very small boys. I was braced for a super crappy flight....especially on no caffeine but the parents were so obviously trying to reduce any annoyance their kids caused to others it was impossible to be annoyed.

The mom was pretty stressed out.

I can empathize.

The dad got up every 5 mins or so to fix whatever issue the boys in front of him had.

I was exhausted on their behalf.

Also, I love window seats because of the clouds!

Clouds look like snow or alien landscape.

Since the plane was one of those small commuter plans, my box wouldn't fit inside my pack in the overhead bin, so it rode with me.

We landed a half hour late and then waited for another half hour because no one was there to help park the plane at JFK. It was completely ridiculous.

We were still sitting on the plane at 10am and Daya had to be in school at 12 for class and tech rehearsal. And we had to go home first.

We finally made it home around 11:30.

If everything had been on time we would have gotten home right after 10am.

TSA did not search my suitcase on either flight.

***************

I was so, so happy to be home!

In the afternoon I took a short nap and woke up from a terrible nightmare... I was home but it was a small house with yard... and i was going outside to make food and a really weird looking man was ambling around, trespassing. I told him to leave and he wouldn't, he became belligerent.

I was afraid of him and went inside and called 911.  As I was on the phone with the 911 operator he came inside my home looking for me- but I was hiding.

I woke up in such a fright, it took me several hours to shake the feeling.

Something about that man was really scary.

**********

Jackie texted because we were supposed to do Taco Tuesday but we both forgot... she was in the neighborhood so I went to see her and say hi. That was really nice and helped make that bad feeling go away.

*********

And then it was time to order my replacement knife.

This required going back to the Source Tek order I made 13 years ago, which I found...!!! because I wanted to see the measurements for my broken knife.

The reason for this is my particular knife was discontinued in 2010 and I got one of the last ones.

Holbein did release an updated line and my new knife should be almost exactly like my old one, hopefully.  Blick had a slightly better price than Jerry's.

So sad, goodbye knife!!

Folly Beach, Goodbye Holbein Knife, & The Silent Squeaky Chair

Furball must miss me and has decided to join me in spirit........

Folly Beach is beautiful and the sunrise was very nice.
Since we were there so early it wasn't crowded yet.

Daya joined us and walked on her own then did.... homework.  She has a paper due June 1 and this upcoming week is INSANE with tech rehearsals and 2 shows on 2 stages AT THE SAME TIME.

She's very stressed.

Anyhow the beach is gorgeous.

I am really happy with this painting.  8x10 oil 2 hours.

***********

MY HOLBEIN KNIFE BROKE.

It just suddenly....... broke... in the middle of the painting.

I'll have to re-order when I get home, I need another Holbein Knife, they are so perfect.

I break palette knives, I don't know why, that's why I have a Holbein.

They cost $50 (worth it) and are made of Japanese tempered steel.

I am very sad about it.

********
4 generations of people have been on this ancient and very ugly couch. (It's a pull-out bed.)

This horrific rocker is decades older than me, and it always made a VERY distinctive squeak.

It's a sound of my childhood.

It was squeaky in 2019 but now is....silent! I don't know why or how, but someone must have oiled it.....

although no one seems to know anything about it........

I'm a little freaked out that the squeaky chair is now silent.

Palmetto Painting & MTA Appreciation

Every morning, unless there is a truly exceptional circumstance, the first thing I do when I wake up is the Wordle with Furball.  Furball's job is to help me do the Wordle and she's good at it.

This morning, of course, Furball could not help me do the Wordle.

I got it anyhow but it was much harder without her.

The weather here is so crappy right now, but I am determined to paint.

We stayed up too late last night, and between that and the weather my aunt is in a lot of pain and needs to rest.

Daya is definitely not used to this environment or my aunt's personality so she wants to go to downtown Charleston and explore by herself and escape.  I think this is a great idea. I know it's hard for her to not have someone her age.... when I was younger my sister was that buffer and it truly made things a lot easier for both of us.

She found a bus that is a half hour walk, she purchased fare and looked at the schedule.

I told her be home by 5 or 6, have fun.

The bus never showed up............. so she waited an hour for the next one and finally got it.

This was when Daya decided she fiercely HATES the suburbs.  She said how can people live like this? It's TERRIBLE!

Daya did get to downtown Charleston and went exploring and did a bit of shopping.

While she was doing that, I went for a walk in the neighborhood and knocked out a painting.

Honestly, I needed to get away too.

A cardinal came to visit me while I was painting.

Maybe he is friends with my NYC Ramble cardinal...??

Here is the painting, 8x10 oil

Tomorrow morning we are leaving with my late Uncle Ernie's daughter (Margie's late husband) to go paint on Folly Beach.

Margaret is also a painter, but not really a plein air painter.  She takes her own photo reference and works in-studio.

I had leftover paint, so I reset the palette and packed, all ready to go at daybreak.

Daya had trouble with the bus again coming back..................

My kid is such a New Yorker.

I am too but since I wasn't raised in NYC I know what I'm in for outside the city.

(The uber back was 60, she got the bus at 5:15 and was fine.)

__PRESENT

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles & My Rain Lamp

I'm a pretty relaxed traveler in general.

My super stressy time is getting out the door and getting to the airport on-time.

Once we get past that, I'm fine.

We flew out of JFK.

I love the Air Train.

Daya and I always like to be on the end and look out the window over the tracks.

We also both like window seats.

So we didn't sit next to each other. 

This is ok.

We left NYC which was 72 and sunny.

Charleston was much colder and... RAINING.

What?? Just like when we went to LA! VERY unusual!!

I thought I would recognize my Aunt Carole, even though I haven't seen her for 16 years.

I did not recognize her and we had a good laugh about it.

We went out for sushi and I saw my cousin Michael, Carole's son.

I also have not seen him for 16 years.

His fiancée Brit joined, and they are both very cool.

2 aunts stayed in the car while Michael and Brit took us for a walk in the rain to a bridge park area, I forgot the name of the bridge but it is pretty cool.

I LEARNED A NEW THING......

Perhaps you have seen pineapples are popular.

There is a pineapple fountain in Charleston, and I guess they say it means hospitality.

But I learned the Pineapple is also a symbol for.... swingers!!!

Who knew!!

*****

Later that evening I stayed up talking with my Aunt Magie, we definitely stayed up too late- 1am- and felt it the next day.

She's 83 and is fine mentally but is quite fragile physically.

I got the rain lamp working- again.
The last time it was turned on was in 2019 when I got it working after over a decade of not being turned on.

This drawing hangs in my grandmother's old room.

It used to hang in the hall in her house in CT.

My sister did it in 1991.

I was always jealous because she had 2 artworks framed and hanging (my mother had the other, it was a cheetah), and no one ever framed and hung any of my stuff. Not even when I mentioned it. :(