The Tribal visit

 
Last week I had some blogging friends come and visit me.  It was the first time most of us had met, during this trip they took.  From left is me, Uta from Australia (yes!  Australia!!) Glenn from Seattle, Elena from Chicago or thereabouts and Robin also from thereabouts. (click on their names to go to their blogs)  Oh, and the red dog Sadie! These photos are all taken at my place, this above one in front of my studio.

The Tribe, feeding my llamas

Down by the river

We got in a little studio workshop!

We Skyped one of the missing tribal members so she could bear witness to our attempt to cut Glenn's hair.

 Even Chainsaw man got in on the act!

Uta did a pretty good job on Glenn's hair and beard.  He does look a bit stunned though.  His daughter is getting married next month so he is getting cleaned up for the special occasion.

They only stayed two nights and the time flew by.  We had such a good time, with no awkward moments.  Uta had flown in from Oz, stayed with Elena and other friends in the Chicago area, meeting them all in person for the first time.  Then she, Robin and Elena took a train to Seattle, stayed with Glenn who showed them the Seattle sights.  You should take a look at Uta's blog,  And Then She Said... 
to see the further adventures of the group. Robin and Elena are back in their homes now while Uta is staying at Glenn's.  We were blessed with perfect weather, barely into the 80's.  It was such a good time!  Bloggers are the best!

I haven't posted much since my Rocky boy passed away.  I had a bout with Shingles and believe me that was no fun.  Lucky those things happened before my visitors were due to arrive.  Well, lucky isn't quite the right word for it but I'm glad I was feeling better by then.  Frankly I was terribly depressed for awhile but seem to be getting back to normal now. Sorry I haven't been visiting your blogs much lately, I'll try to get back in the swing of things here soon.
The weather here in Oregon has been mostly cool with a few days of sun here and there.  I feel badly for those of you suffering in the hellish heat zones elsewhere.  Hopefully your weather will moderate and enable you to enjoy the rest of the summer.  Or your winter, as the case may be.  Until next time,
Be well.

Not much

I have been busy but don't have much to share with my loyal readers.  Do I have any loyal readers left after my long dry period?  We shall see.  I had a visitor for about 10 days.  One of my internet friends that I had not met before in real life came to visit.  His name is Jurgen and he is a German man who was living in Australia when we first met through the Greg Brown fan club, a yahoo list group.  We have corresponded through the years as he has traveled the world, taking English teaching jobs in far flung reaches.  He finally made it to the USA and rode his bike out to my little neck of the woods.   The Gray Jays found him acceptable as a feeder, as you can see in the above photo.

Jurgen and I traded lots of music over the years and he had fun going through my collection while he was here.  The above photo was taken about 5am the morning I was driving him to the airport where he caught a jet to London, where his next teaching job awaits him.  He gave me his bike.

Inside Out wild flower.
That really is its name, Inside out flower.  It reminds me of an umbrella blown inside out. 

Other than that, not much going on here.  Our weather has remained mostly cool and cloudy.  My roses have finally begun to bloom, maybe I will do a post about them later.  I have been spending a lot of time struggling to get the garden growing.  Daily we go out on a slug hunt and pick up lots of these fellas:

and a few more of these guys:

We just pitch them across the road.  We don't like killing things.  Bad karma, don't you know.  I don't like slugs eating my vegetables but otherwise I find them rather fascinating.  Not many people do.

Sorry for the boring post.  I'll try to have some art to show next time.  I haven't had much opportunity to be working in the studio.  Oh yeah, we have also been scraping and painting part of the outside of the house.  Things like this tend to keep me out of the studio.

Be well.